Suffetia a Votary or Vestall Nun should haue her image made of brasse and this speciall prerogatiue besides that she might set it vp in what place she would her self which addition or branch of the decree implieth no lesse honor than the grant it selfe of a Statue to a woman What her desert might be in consideration whereof she was thus honoured I will set downe word for word as I finde it written in the Chronicles namely For that she had conferred frankely vpon the people of Rome a piece of medow ground lying vnder the Riuer Tybre which was her owne Free-land I finde moreouer vpon record That the Statues of Pythagoras and Alcibiades were set vp in the cornered nouke of the Comitium at Rome that by direction from the Oracle of Apollo Pythius vnto which the Senate sent of purpose to know the issue of the Samnites warre which was then in hand from whence they had this answere that if they looked to speed well in their affaires they should take order to erect two statues of brasse in the most frequented place of the city of Rome the one in the honour of the most valiant man and the other in the honour of the wisest person of all the Greekish Nation which Images remained there vntill such time as Sylla the Dictatour built his stately hall or pallace in the same place But I maruell very much that those sage fathers the Senatours of Rome at that time being preferred either for wisedome Pythagoras before Socrates considering that the said Socrates by the very same Oracle of Apollo was judged the wisest man not of Greeks onely but of all others in the world or in regard of valour Alcibiades before so many hardie Captaines in Greece but most of all I muse that in both respects as well of wisedome as vertue they set any one before Themistocles Now if a man be desirous to know the reason of these Columnes and Pillars which supported those Statues aforesaid it was to signifie That such persons were now aduanced and lifted vp aboue all other mortall men which also is meant by the triumphant Arches a new inuention and deuised but of late daies yet both it and all other such honourable testimonies began first with the Greekes But amongst many and sundry statues which they granted and allowed vnto such as they affected and liked of I suppose there was neuer man had more than Phalerius Demetrius at Athens for the Athenians honoured him with three hundred and threescore and yet soone after they brake them all to peeces euen before one ful yeare went ouer their heads that is to say a few daies more than there were Images Moreouer all the tribes or wards of Rome set vp a statue in euery street of the city as I haue said before in the honor of Marius Gratidianus and those they ouerthrew euery one against the comming in of Scylla As touching statues and Images on foot I doubt not but they haue beene for a long time greatly esteemed at Rome Howbeit those on horse-backe were very antient and that which more is this honour they did communicat also vnto women as well as men as may appeare yet at this day by the statue of Claelia sitting on horse-backe as if shee could not haue beene honored sufficiently by making her statue in the habit of a Damosell or Ladie of Rome in a side gowne And yet neither the Chaste dame Lucretia nor the valiant Brutus who chased the kings and all their race out of Rome and for whose sake and in whose quarrell the said Cloelia was deliuered as an Hostage among others neuer attayned vnto that honour And I doe verily beleeue that this Statue of hers and that of Horatius Cocles were the first that publique authoritie ordayned for before time King Tarquinius Priscus caused both his owne Statue and also Sibyllats to be made like as the other kings before him and after as may be presumed by all likelihood and probabilitie And yet Piso saith that the other damosels and young gentlewomen her fellow hostages after they were set free and sent home safe againe by king Porsena for the honour that he meant vnto Cloelia in consideration onely of her rare and singular vertue caused the said statue or image of hers to be cast in brasse and erected But Annius Faecialis another antiquarie or heralt at armes of Rome reporteth this storie otherwise for he writeth That the statue of a woman sitting on horsebacke which standeth ouer-against the temple of Iupiter Stator and hard at the gate or entry of king Tarquinius the Proud his Pallace was of ladie Valeria daughter vnto Valerius the Consull surnamed Publicola who saith moreouer that shee it was alone who escaped from her fellowes and swam ouer the riuer Tiberis whereas the rest of the virgins which had been sent as pledges vnto king Porsena were murdred all by the secret traines and indirect meanes of Tarquin the Proud L. Piso moreouer hath left in writing that in the yeare when M. Aemilius and C. Popilius the second time were Consuls the Censors for the time being P. Cornelius Scipio and M. Popilias caused all the images and statues of those who had been head magistrates that stood about the Forum of Rome to be taken downe permitting those onely to stand which had beene erected and set vp either by grant from the people or warrant and decree of the Senat. As for that statue which Sp. Cassius him I meane who ambitiously sought to be a king caused to be erected for his owne selfe before the church of the goddesse Tellus the Censors not only pulled it down but also took order that it should be melted And this no doubt did those wise and prouident fathers to cut off all means euen in such things as these that might feed the ambitious spirit of men There be yet extant certaine declamations of Cato who being Censor cried out against the vain-glorie and pride of certaine Romane Ladies who suffered their own images to be set vp in the prouinces abroad yet with all his exclamations he could not represse their ambition but that their statues must be erected euen in Rome also as for example Cornelia the daughter of the former Scipio Africanus and mother to the two Gracchi whose statue was made sitting and this singularitie it had besides from all others That her shooes were pourtraied open and loose without any strings or latchets at all This image of hers was set vp in the great gallery or publick walking-place of Metellus but now it is to be seen among the stately workes and buildings of Octavia Moreouer by allowance and permission of the state there haue been statues set vp in Rome in publicke place by strangers as namely for C. Aelius a Tribune or Prouost of the commons for that he published and enacted a law That Stennius Statillius a Lucan who twice had invaded and ouer-run in hostile manner the Territory of Thurium should be reputed
Spythamaei are reported to be called they are so for that they are but a cubit or three shaftments or spannes high that is to say three times nine inches The clime wherein they dwel is very wholsome the aire healthy and euer like to the temperature of the Spring by reason that the mountains are on the North side of them beare off all cold blasts And these prety people Homer also hath reported to be much troubled anoied by cranes The speech goeth that in the Spring time they set out all of them in battell aray mounted vpon the backe of rammes and goats armed with bowes and arrowes and so downe to the sea side they march where they make foule worke among the egges yong cranelings newly hatched which they destroy without all pitty Thus for three months this their journy and expedition continueth and then they make an end of their valiant seruice for otherwise if they should continue any longer they were neuer able to withstand the new flights of this foule grown to some strength and bignesse As for their houses and cottages made they are of clay or mud fouls feathers and birds egge shels Howbeit Aristotle writes That these Pygmaeans liue in hollow caues holes vnder the ground For all other matters he reports the same that all the rest Isogonus saith that certain Indians named Cyrni liue a hundred and fortie yeares The like he thinketh of the Aethyopian Macrobij and the Seres as also of them that dwell on the mount A thos and of these last rehearsed the reason verily is rendred to be thus because they feed of vipers flesh therefore is it that neither lice breed in their heads nor other vermine in their cloths for to hurt annoy their bodies Onesicritus affirmeth That in those parts of India where there are no shadowes to be seene the men are fiue cubits of stature and two hand breadths ouer that they liue 130 yeares and neuerage for all that and seem old but die then as if they were in their middle and settled age Crates of Pergamus nameth those Indians who liue aboue an hundred yeare Gymnetes but others there be and those not a few that call them Macrobij Ctesias saith there is a race or kinred of the Indians named Pandore inhabiting certaine vallies who liue two hundred years in their youthfull time the haire of their head is white but as they grow to age waxeth black Contrariwise others there be neer neighbours to the Macrobij who exceed not fortie years and their women beare but once in their life time And this also is auouched by Agatharcides who affirmeth moreouer that all their feeding is vpon locusts and that they are very quicke and swift of foot Clitarchus and Megasthenes both name them Mandri and thinke they haue 300 villages in their countrey Moreouer that the women bring forth children at seuen yeares of age and wax old at forty Artemidorus affirmes that in the Island Taprobana the people liue exceeding long without any malady or infirmitie of the body Duris maketh report That certaine Indians ingender with beasts of which generation are bred certaine monstrous mungrels halfe beasts and halfe men Also that the Calingian women of India conceiue with childe at fiue yeares of age and liue not aboue eight In another tract of that countrey there be certaine men with long shagged tailes most swift and light of foot and some againe that with their eares couer their whole body The Orites are neighbours to the Indians diuided onely from them by the riuer Arbis who are acquainted with no other meate but fish which they split and slice into pieces with their nailes and rost them against the Sun and then make bread thereof as Clitarchus reporteth Crates of Pergamus saith likewise that the Troglodites aboue Ethyopia be swifter than horses and that some Aethiopians are aboue eight cubites high and these are a kinde of Ethiopian Nomades called Syrbotae as he saith dwelling along the riuer Astapus toward the North pole As for the nation called Menismini they dwel from the Ocean sea twenty dayes iourney who liue of the milke of certain beasts that we cal Cynocephales hauing heads and snouts like dogs And whole heards and flocks of the females they keepe and feed killing the male of them all saue onely to serue for maintenance of the breed In the desarts of Africke ye shall meet oftentimes with Fairies appearing in the shape of men and women but they vanish soone away like fantasticall delusions See how Nature is disposed for the nones to deuise full wittily in this and such like pastimes to play with mankinde thereby not only to make her self merry but to set vs a wondring at such strange miracles And I assure you thus dayly and hourely in a manner playeth she her part that to recount euery one of her sports by themselues no man is able with all his wit and memory Let it suffice therfore to testifie and declare her power that we haue set downe those prodigious and strange workes of hers shewed in whole nations and then go forward to discourse of some particulars approued and knowne in man CHAP. III. ¶ Of prodigious and monstrous births THat women may bring forth three at one birth appeares euidently by the example of the three twins Horatij and Curiatij But to go aboue that number is reputed and commonly spoken to be monstrous and to portend some mishap but only in Egypt where women are more than ordinary fruitfull by drinking of Nilus water which is supposed to help generation Of late yeres and no longer since than in the later end of the reigne of Aug. Caesar at Ostia there was a woman a Commoners wife deliuered at one birth of two boies as many girles but this was a most prodigious token and portended no doubt the famine that ensued soone after In Peloponnesus there is sound one woman that brought forth at foure births 20 Children and the greater part of them all did well and liued Tregus saith that in Egypt it is an ordinarie thing for a woman to haue seuen at a birth It falleth out moreouer that there come into the world children of both sexes whom wee call Hermophrodites In old time they were knowne by the name of Androgyni and reputed then for prodigious wonders how soeuer now men take delight and pleasure in them Pompey the great in his Theatre which hee adorned and beautified with singular ornaments and rare deuices of antique worke as wel for the admirable subiect and argument thereof as the most curious and exquisit hand of cunning and skilfull artificers among other images and pourtracts there set vp represented one Eutiche a Woman of Tralleis who after she had in her life time borne thirty births her corps was caried out by twenty of her children to the funerall fire to be burnt according to the maner of that countrey As for Alcippe she was deliuered of an Elephant
not make twenty and many such things of like sort Whereby no doubt is euidently proued the power of Nature and how it is she and nothing els which we call God I thought it not impertinent thus to diuert and digresse to these points so commonly divulged by reason of the vsuall and ordinarie questions as touching the Essence of God CHAP. VIII ¶ Of the Nature of Planets and their circuit LEt vs returne now to the rest of Natures workes The stars which we said were fixed in heauen are not as the common sort thinketh assigned to euery one of vs and appointed to men respectiuely namely the bright faire for the rich the lesse for the poore the dim for the weak the aged and feeble neither shine they out more or lesse according to the lot and fortune of euery one nor arise they each one together with that person vnto whom they are appropriate and die likewise with the same ne yet as they set and fall do they signifie that any bodie is dead There is not ywis so great societie betweene heauen and vs as that together with the fatall necessitie of our death the shining light of the starres should in token of sorrow go out and become mortall As for them the truth is this when they are thought to fall they doe but shoot from them a deale of fire euen of that aboundance and ouermuch nutriment which they haue gotten by the attraction os humiditie and moisture vnto them like as we also obserue daily in the wikes and matches of lampes or candles burning with the liquour of oile Moreouer the coelestiall bodies which make and frame the world and in that frame are compact and knit together haue an immortall nature and their power and influence extendeth much to the earth which by their effects and operations by their light and greatnesse might be knowne notwithstanding they are so high and subtill withall as we shal in due place make demonstration The manner likewise of the heauenly Circles and Zones shall be shewed more fitly in our Geographicall treatise of the earth forasmuch as the consideration thereof appertaineth wholly thereunto onely we will not put off but presently declare the deuisers of the Zodiake wherin the signes are The obliquitie and crookednesse thereof Anaximander the Milesian is reported to haue obserued first and thereby opened the gate and passage to Astronomie and the knowledge of all things and this happened in the 58 Olympias Afterwards Clâ—…ostratus marked the signes therin and namely those first of Aries and Sagitarius As for the sphere it selfe Atlas deuised long before Now for this time we will leaue the very bodie of the starry heauen and treat of all the rest betweene it and the earth Certaine it is that the Planet which they call Saturne is the highest and therefore seemeth least also that he keepeth his course and performeth his reuolution in the greatest circle of all and in thirtie yeares space at the soonest returneth againe to the point of his first place Moreouer that the mouing of all the Planets and withall of Sun and Moone go a contrarie course vnto the starrie heauen namely to the left hand i. Eastward whereas the said heauen alwaies hasteneth to the right i. Westward And albeit in that continuall turning with exceeding celerity those planets be lifted vp alost and carried by it forcible into the West and there set yet by a contrarie motion of their owne they passe euery one through their seuerall waies Eastward and all for this that the aire rolling euer one way and to the same part by the continuall turning of the heauen should not stand still grow dul as it were congealed whiles the globe thereof resteth idle but dissolue and cleaue parted thus diuided by the reuerberation of the contrarie beams and violent crosse influence of the said planets Now the Planet Saturne is of a cold and frozen nature but the circle of Iupiter is much lower than it and therfore his reuolution is performed with a more speedy motion namely in twelue yeres The third of Mars which some call the Sphere of Hercules is firy and ardent by reason of the Suns vicinity and wel-neere in two yeares runneth his race And hereupon it is that by the exceeding heate of Mars and the vehement cold of Saturne Iupiter who is placed betwixt is well tempered of them both and so becommeth good and comfortable Next to them is the race of the Sun consisting verily of 360 parts or degrees but to the end that the obseruation of the shadowes which he casteth may return againe iust to the former marks fiue daies be added to euery yeare with the fourth part of a day ouer and aboue Whereupon euery fifth yeere leapeth and one odde day is set to the rest to the end that the reckoning of the times and seasons might agree vnto the course of the Sun Beneath the Sun a goodly faire star there is called Venus which goeth her compasse wandering this way and that by turnes and by the very names that it hath testifieth her emulation of Sun and Moone For all the while that she preuenteth the morning and riseth Orientall before she taketh the name of Lucifer or Day-star as a second Sun hastning the day Contrariwise when she shineth from the West Occidentall drawing out the day light at length and supplying the place of the Moone she is named Vesper This nature of hers Pythagoras of Samos first found out about the 42 olympias which fel out to be the 142 yere after the foundation of Rome Now this planet in greatnesse goeth beyond all the other fiue and so cleare and shining withall that the beames of this one star cast shadowes vpon the earth And hereupon commeth so great diuersitie and ambiguitie of the names thereof whiles some haue called it Iuno other Isis and othersome the Mother of the gods By the naturall efficacie of this star all things are engendred on earth for whether she rise East or West she sprinckleth all the earth with dew of generation and not onely filleth the same with seed causing it to conceiue but stirreth vp also the nature of all liuing creatures to engender This planet goeth through the circle of the Zodiake in 348 daies departing from the Sun neuer aboue 46 degrees as Timaeus was of opinion Next vnto it but nothing of that bignesse and powerful efficacie is the star Mercurie of some cleped Apollo in an inferiour circle he goeth after the like manner a swifter course by nine daies shining sometimes before the Sun-rising otherwhiles after his setting neuer farther distant from him than 23 degrees as both the same Timaeus and Sosigenes doe shew And therefore these two planets haue a peculiar consideration from others and not common with the rest aboue named For those are seene from the Sun a fourth yea and third part of the heauen oftentimes also in opposition ful against the Sun And all of
hollow leuell flore of earth whereupon also it is called Planaria resembling an euen plain And in very truth this vally containeth in circuit 300 miles wherein are trees to be seen that grow vp in height to 144 foot As for the Islands named Fortunatae Iuba learned thus much by diligent inquisition that they lie from the South neere to the West 625 miles from the Islands Purpurariae where they die purple so as to come thither a man must saile 250 miles aboue the West and then for 75 miles more bend his cours Eastward he saith also that the first of these Islands is called Ombrion wherein ate to be seen no token or shew at all of houses Also that among the mountains it hath a lake or meere and trees resembling the plant Ferula out of which they presse water that which issueth out of the black trees of that kinde is bitter but out of the whiter sort sweet and potable As for a second he writeth that it is named Iunonia wherein there is one little house or chappell made of stone beyond it but neere by there is a third of the same name but lesse than the other and then you come to a fourth called Capraria full of great Lizards Within a kenning from these lyeth the Island Niuaria which tooke this name of the snow that lieth there continually and besides it is full of mists and fogs The next to it and the last of all is Canaria so called by reason of a number of dogs of mighty bignesse of which K. Iuba brought away two in this Island there are some marks remaining of buildings which giue testimonie that somtime it was inhabited and peopled And as all these Islands generally do abound plentifully in fruitfull trees flying fouls of all sorts so this aboue the rest named Canaria is replenished with rowes of date trees that beare abundance of dates and likewise with pine trees that yeeld store of Pine nuts Furthermore he affirmeth that there is great plenty of hony in it that the riuers therein are well stored with fish and the Sturgeon especially in which there groweth the red Papyrus as ordinarily as in Nilus Howbeit in conclusion he saith that these Isles are much annoied with great whales and such monsters of the sea that daily are cast vpon the shore which lie aboue ground putrifie like carrion Thus hauing at large gone through the description of the globe of the earth as well without as within it remaineth now to knit vp briefely with the measure and compasse of the seas CHAP. XXXIII ¶ A summarie of the earth digested according to the dimensions thereof POlybius saith that from the streights of Gibralter vnto the very mouth and firth of Moeotis it is found by a direct and straight course to be 3437 miles and an halfe Begin there again and hold on a right course Eastward to Sicily it is 1260 miles and an halfe From thence forward to the Island Creta 375 miles forward to Rhodes 146 miles and an halfe to the Chelidoniâ—…e Isles as much and so to Cyprus 325 miles from whence to Seleucia Pieria in Syria 115 miles Which particulars being laid together make by computation the grosse sum of 2340 miles Howbeit Agrippa counteth 3440 miles for all this distance aboue-said beginning at the straits of Gibraltar aboue-said and carrying the length straight forward to the gulf of Issa In which reckoning of his I wot not whether ther be an error in the number forasmuch as the same writer hath set down from the streit of Messine in Sicilie to Alexandria in Egypt 1250 miles As for the whole circuit that may be comprehending therein all the gulfes and creekes before-named from the same point where we first began as far as to the lake Moeotis is 15600 miles Artemidorus addeth thereto 756 miles And the same Geographer writeth that take the lake Moeotis to the rest all commeth to 17390 miles Loe what the measure is of the seas taken by Philosophers and learned men without armor and weapon in hand of men I say who haue not feared to hazard themselues boldly and prouoke Fortune in trauersing the seas so farre off Now are we to compare respectiuely the greatnesse of each part of the world in seuerall notwithstanding that I shall finde much ado and difficulty enough therein considering the disagreement of authors in that behalf But most plainly shal this appeare which we seek for by ioining longitude latitude together acording to which prescript rule to begin with Europe it may wel contain in largenes 8148 miles Africk taking the middle and mean computation between them all that haue set it down containeth in length 3748 miles As for the bredth of so much as is known and inhabited in no place where it is widest exceedeth it 250 miles True it is that Agrippa would haue it to contain 910 miles in breadth beginning at the bounds of Cyrene and so comprehending in this measure the desarts thereof as far as to the Garamants so far as is knowne and discouered and then the whole measure collected into one generall sum amounteth to 4608 miles As for Asia confessed it is and resolued vpon by all Geographers that in length it carrieth 63750 miles and verily in bredth if you account from the Aethiopian sea to Alexandria scituate vpon Nilus so as your measure run through Meroe and Syrene it taketh 1875 miles wherby it appeareth euidently that Europe is little wanting of halfe as big again as Asia and the same Europa is twise as much again as all Africa a sixt part ouer Reduce now all these sums together it wil be found cleare that Europ is a third part of the whole earth an eight portion ouer and somwhat more Asia a fourth part with an ouer-deale of 14 and Africk a fifth part with an ouer-plus of a sixtieth portion To this calculation we wil set to as it were to boot one subtill deuise inuention more of the Greeks which sheweth their singular wit to the end we should omit nothing that may serue our turn in this Geographie of ours and that is this after that the positure and site of euery region is knowne and set downe how a man may likewise come to the knowledge what societie and agreement there is between the one the other either by length of daies and nights by the shadow at noon day or by equality of climats of the world To bring this about effectually I must part and digest the whole earth into certain sections or euen portions answerable to those in heauen whereof there be very many which our Astronomers and Mathematicians cal Circles but the Greeks Parallels CHAP. XXXIV ¶ The diuision of the earth into Climates or lines Parallele and equall shadowes FOr to make an equall partition of the world begin we wil at the Meridionall Indians go directly as far as Arabia and the inhabitants of the red sea Vnder this climat are compreprised the Gedrosians
she hath giuen sufficient to clad them euery one according to their kinde as namely shells cods hard hides prickes shag bristles haire downe feathers quills skales and fleeces of wooll The very trunkes and stems of trees and plants she hath defended with barke and rinde yea and the same sometimes double against the iniuries of heate and cold Man alone poore wretch she hath layed all naked vpon the bare earth euen on his birth day to cry and wraule presently from the very first houre that hee is borne in such sort as among so many liuing creatures there is none subiect to shed teares and weepe like him And verily to no babe or infant is it giuen once to laugh before he be forty daies old and that is counted very early and with the soonest Moreouer so soone as he is entred in this manner to enioy the light of the Sunne see how he is immediatly tyed and bound fast and hath no member at libertie a thing that is not practised vpon the yong whelpes of any beast among vs be he neuer so wilde The childe of man thus vntowardly borne and who another day is to rule and command all other loe how he lieth bound hand and foot weeping and crying and beginning his life in miserie as if he were to make amends and satisfaction by his punishment vnto Nature for this onely fault and trespasse that he is borne aliue O folly of all follies euer to thinke considering this simple beginning of ours that we were sent into this world to liue in pride and cary our heads aloft The first hope that we conceiue of our strength the first gift that Time affourdeth vs maketh vs no better yet than foure footed beasts How long is it ere we can go alone how long before we can prattle and speake feed our selues and chew our meat strongly what a while continueth the mould and crowne of our heads to beate and pant before our braine is well settled the vndoubted marke and token that bewraieth our exceeding great weakenesse aboue all other creatures What should I say of the infirmities and sicknesses that do soone seise vpon our feeble bodies what need I speake of so many medicines and remedies deuised against these maladies besides the new diseases that come euery day able to checke and frustrate all our prouision of physicke whatsoeuer As for all other liuing creatures there is not one but by a secret instinct of nature knoweth his own good and wherto he is made able some make vse of their swift feet others of their flight wings some are strong of limne others are apt to swim and practise the same man only knoweth nothing vnlesse he be taught hee can neither speake nor goe nor eate otherwise than he is trained to it and to be short apt and good at nothing he is naturally but to pule and cry And hereupon it is that some haue beene of this opinion That better it had been and simply best for a man neuer to haue been borne or else speedily to die None but we doe sorrow and waile none but we are giuen to excesse and superfluitie infinitely in euery thing and shew the same in euery member that we haue Who but we againe are ambitious and vain-glorious who but we are couetous and greedie of gathering good we and none but we desire to liue long and neuer to die are superstitious carefull of our sepulture and buriall yea and what shall betide vs when we are gone Mans life is most fraile of all others and in least securitie he liueth no creature lusteth more after euery thing than he none feareth like vnto him and is more troubled and amazed in his fright and if he beseâ—… once vpon anger none more raging and wood than he To conclud all other liuing creatures liue orderly and well after their owne kinde we see them flocke and gather together and ready to make head and stand against all others of a contrary kinde the lyons as fell and sauage as they be fight not one with another serpents sting not serpents nor bite one another with their venomous teeth nay the very monsters and huge fishes of the sea war not among themselues in their owne kinde but beleeue me Man at mans hand receiueth most harme and mischiefe CHAP. I. ¶ The strange and wondrous shapes of sundry nations IN our Cosmographie and reports of nations and countries wee haue spoken in generall of all mankinde spred ouer the face of the whole earth neither is it our purpose at this present to decipher particularly all their customes and manners of life which were a difficult enterprise considering how infinit they be and as many in manner as there be societies and assemblies of men Howbeit I thinke it good not to ouer-passe all but to make relation of some things concerning those people especially who liue farthest remote from our seas among whom I doubt not but I shall find such matter as to most men will seeme both prodigious and incredible And verily whoeuer beleeued that the Aethiopians had bin so blacke before he saw them with his eies nay what is it I pray you that seemeth not a wonder at the first sight How many things are judged impossible before they are seene done and effected And certes to speake a truth The power and majestie of Nature in euery particular action of hers small things seemeth incredible if a man consider the same seuerally and enter not into a generall conceit of her wholly as she is For to say nothing of the painted peacocks feathers of the sundry spots of tygres luzernes and panthers of the variable colours and markes of so many creatures besides let vs come to one only point which to speake of seemes but small but being deepely weighed and considered is a matter of exceeding great regard and that is The varietie of mens speech so many tongues and diuers languages are amongst them in the world that one stranger to another seemeth well-neere to be no man at all But come to view and marke the variety that appeares in our face and visage albeit there be not past ten parts or little more therin see how among so many thousands as we are you shall not find any two persons who are not distinct in countenance and different one from another a thing that no artificer nor painter be he neuer so cunning and his craftsmaster euery way can performe but in a few pictures and take what heed he can with all his curious affectation And yet thus much must I aduertise the readers of this mine history by the way that I will not pawne my credit for many things that herein I shall deliuer nor bind them to beleeue all I write as touching sâ—…range and forrein nations refer them rather I will to mine authors whom in all points more doubtfull than the rest I will cite and alledge whom they may beleeue if they list onely let them not thinke much to follow
this that they could mount vp and clime against a rope but more wonderfull that they should slide downe again with their heads downward Mutianus a man who had in his time bin thrice Consull reporteth thus much of one of them that he had learned to make the Greeke characters and was wont to write in that language thus much Thus haue I written and made an offering of the Celticke spoiles Likewise hee saith that himselfe saw at Puteoli a certain ship discharged of Elephants embarked therein and when they should be set ashore and forced to go forth of the vessel to which purpose there was a bridge made for them to passe ouer they were affrighted at the length thereof bearing out so far from the land into the water and therefore to deceiue themselues that the way might not seeme so long went backward with their tails to the banke and their heads toward the sea They are ware know full well that their only riches for loue of which men lay wait for them lieth in their armes and weapons that Nature hath giuen them king Iuba calleth them their hornes but Herodotus who wrote long before him and the custome of speech hath tearmed them much better teeth And therefore when they are shed and fallen off either for age or by some casualtie the Elephants themselues hide them with in the ground And this in truth is the only yuory for all the rest yea and these teeth also so far as lay couered within the flesh is of no price and taken for no better than bone And yet of late daies for great scarcitie want of the right teeth men haue bin glad to cut and saw their bones into plates and make yvorie therof For hardly can we now come by teeth of any bignes vnlesse we haue them out of India For all the rest that might be gotten in this part of the world between vs and them hath bin imploied in superfluities only and serued for wanton toies You may know yong Elephants by the whitenes of these teeth and a speciall care and regard haue these beasts of them aboue all They looke to one of them alwaies that the point be sharp and therefore they forbeare to occupie it least it should bee blunt against they come to fight the other they vse ordinarily either to get vp roots out of the earth or to cast down any banks or mures that stand in their way When they chance to be enuironed and compassed round about with hunters they set formost in the rank to be seen those â—…f the heard that haue the least teeth to the end that their price might not be thought worth the hazard and venture in chase for them But afterwards when they see the hunters eager and themselues ouermatched and weary they breake them with running against the hard trees and leauing them behind escape by this ransome as it were out of their hands CHAP. IIII. ¶ The elemencie of Elephants their foresight and knowledge of their owne dangers also the fell fiercenesse of the Tygre A Wonder it is in many of these creatures that they should thus know wherefore they are hunted and withall take heed beware of all their dangers It is said that if an elephant chance to meet with a man wandering simply out of his way in the wildernesse hee will mildly and gently set him in the right way again But if he perceiue a mans fresh footing before he espie the man he will quake and tremble for feare of being forelaid surprised he wil stay from farther following the sent look about him euery way snuffe and puffe for very anger Neither will he tread vpon the tract of a mans foot but dig it out of the earth and giue it the next Elephant vnto him and he againe to him that followeth and so from one to another passeth this intelligence and message as it were to the vtmost rank behind Then the whole heard makes a stand and cast round about to returne backward and withall put themselues in battel array so long continueth that strong virulent smel of mens feet and runneth through them all notwithstanding for the most part they be not bare but shod Semblably the Tigresse also how fierce and cruell she be to other wilde beasts careth not a whit for a very Elephant if shee happen to haue a sight of a mans footing presently by report carieth away her young whelpes and is gon But how commeth she to this knowledge of a man where saw she him euer before whom thus she feareth for surely such wild woods forests are not much trauelled frequented by men Set case that they may wel wonder at the strange sight and nouelty of their tracts which are so seldome seen how know they that they are to be feared Nay what should be the reason that they dread to see a man indeed being as they are far bigger much stronger and swifter by many degrees than a man Certes herein is to be seen the wonderfull worke of Nature and her mightie power that the greatest the most fell anâ—… sauage beasts that be hauing neuer seen that which they ought to feare should incontinently haue the sence and conceit why the same is to be feared CHAP. V. ¶ The vnderstanding and memorie of Elephants THe Elephants march alwaies in troups The eldest of them leadeth the vaward like a captaine and the next to him in age commeth behind with the conduct of the arrereguard When they are to passe ouer any riuer they put for most the least of al their company for feare that if the bigger should enter first they would as they trod in the channell make the water to swell and rise and so cause the fourd to be more deepe Antipater writeth that K. Antiochus had two Elephants which he vsed in his wars aboue all the rest and famous they were for their surnames which they knew well enough and wist when any man called them thereby and verily Cato reciting in his Annals the names of the principall captaine Elephants hath left in writing That the Elephant which fought most lustily in the point of the Punick war had to name Surus by the same token that the one of his teeth was gone When Antiochus on a time would haue sounded the fourd of a certaine riuer by putting the Elephants before Ajax refused to take the water who otherwise at all times was wont to lead the way Wherupon the king pronounced with a loud voice That look which Elephant passed to the other side he should be the captain and chiefe Then Patroclus gaue the venture for his labor had a rich harnish and caparison giuen him was all trapped in siluer a thing wherin they take most delight and made besides the soueraigne of all the rest But the other that was disgraced thus and had lost his place would neuer eat any meat after but died for very shame of such a reprochfull ignominy For among other qualities
maruellous bashfull they are for if one of them be ouermatched vanquished in fight he wil neuer after abide the voice braying of the conqueror but in token of submission giueth him a turfe of earth with veruaine or grasse vpon it Vpon a kind of shamefaced modesty they neuer are seen to ingender together but perform that act in some couert secret corner They go to rut the male at 5 yeres of age the femal not before she is 10 yeres old And this they do euery third yere and they continue therein fiue daies in the yeare as they say and not aboue for vpon the sixt day they all to wash themselues ouer in the running riuer before they be thus purified return not to the heard After they haue taken one to another once they neuer change neither fall they out and fight about their femalls as other creatures do most deadly and mortally And this is not for want of loue and hot affection that way for reported it is of one Elephant that he cast a fancy and was enamoured vpon a wench in Aegypt that sold nosegaies garlands of floures And lest any man should thinke that hee had no reason thereto it was no ordinary maiden but so amiable as that Aristophanes the excellent Grammarian was wonderfully in loue with her Another there was so kind and full of loue that he fansied a youth in the army of Ptolomaeus that scarce had neuer an haire vpon his face and so entirely he loued him that what day soeuer he saw him not he would forbeare his meat and eat nothing K. Iuba likewise reporteth also of an Elephant that made court to another woman who made and sold sweet ointments and perfumes All these testified their loue and kindnes by these tokens joy they would at the sight of them and looke pleasantly vpon them make toward them they would after their rude and homely manner by all means of flatterie and especially in this that they would saue whatsoeuer people cast to them for to eat and lay the same ful kindly in their laps and bosomes But no maruel it is that they should loue who are so good of memorie For the same Iuba saith That an Elephant tooke knowledge and acquaintance of one man in his old age and after many a yere who in his youth had bin his ruler and gouernor He affirmeth also that they haue by a secret diuine instinct a certain sence of justice and righteous dealing For when K. Bacchus meant to be reuenged of 30 Elephants that he had caused to be bound vnto stakes and set other 30 to run vpon them appointing also certain men among to pricke and prouoke them thereto yet for all that could not one of them be brought for to execute this butcherie nor be ministers of anothers crueltie CHAP. VI. ¶ When Elephants were first seen in Italy THe first time that Elephants were seen in Italy was during the war of K. Pyrrhus they called them by the name of Lucae boues i. Lucane oxen because they had the first sight of them in the Lucans countrie and it was in the 472 yere after the cities foundation But in Rome it was seuen yeres after ere they were seen and then they were shewed in a triumph But in the yere 502 a number of them were seen at Rome by occasion of the victorie of L. Metellus Pâ—…ntifex ouer the Carthaginians which Elephants were taken in Sicilie For 142 of them were conueied ouer vpon planks and flat bottomes which were laied vpon ranks of great tuns and pipes set thicke one by another Verrius saith that they were caused to fight in the great cirque or shew place and were killed there with shot of darts and iauelins for want of better counsel and because they knew not well what to do with them for neither were they willing to haue them kept and nourished ne yet to be bestowed vpon any kings L. Piso saith they were brought out only into the shew place or cirque aforesaid and for to make them more contemptible were chased round about it by certaine fellowes hired thereto hauing for that purpose certain staues and perches not pointed with iron but headed with bals like foiles But what became of them afterward those Authours make no mention who were of opinion that they were not killed CHAP. VII ¶ Their fights and combats MVch renowned is the fight of one Roman with an Elephant at what time as Annibal forced those captiues whom he had taken of our men to skirmish one against another to the vtterance For the only Roman that remained vnslaine at that vn naturall conflict he would needs match with an Elephant and see the combate himseife assuring him vpon his word that if he could kil the beast he should be dismissed and sent home with life liberty So this prisoner entred into single fight with the Elephant to the great hearts griefe of the Carthaginians slew him out-right Anniball then sent him away indeed according to promise and couenant but considering better the consequence of this matter and namely that if this combat were once by him bruted abroad the beasts would be lesse regarded and their seruice in the wars not esteemed made after him certaine light horsemen to ouertake him vpon the way to cut his throat so making him sure for telling tales Their long snout or trunke which the Latins call Proboscis may be easily cut off as it appeared by experience in the wars against K. Pyrrhus Fenestella writeth That the first fight of them in Rome was exhibited in the grand Cirque during the time that Claudius Pulcher was Aedile Curule when M. Antonius and A. Posthumius were Consuls in the 650 yere after the citie of Rome was built In like maner 20 yeres after when the Luculli were Aediles Curule there was represented a combat between bulls and Elephants Also in the second Consulship of C. Pompeius at the dedication of the temple to Venus Victoresse 20 of them or as some write 17 fought in the great Cirque In which solemnitie the Gaetulians were set to launce darts and jauelins against them But among all the rest one Elephant did wonders for when his legs and feet were shot and stucke full of darts he crept vpon his knees and neuer staied til he was gotten among the companies of the said Gaetulians where he caught from them their targets and bucklers perforce flung them aloft into the aire which as they fell turned round as if they had bin trundled by art not hurled thrown with violence by the beasts in their furious anger and this made a goodly sight and did great pleasure to the beholders And as strange a thing as that was seen in another of them whose fortune was to be killed out of hand with one shot for the dart was so driuen that it entered vnder the eie and pierced as far as to the vitall parts of the head euen the ventricles of the
and the Alps also of Vrchins and Hedge-hogs THe Rats of Pontus which be onely white come not abroad all winter they haue a most fine and exquisit taste in their feeding but I wonder how the authours that haue written this should come to the knowledge of so much Those of the Alpes likewise i. Marmottanes which are as bigge as Brocks or Badgers keepe in during winter but they are prouided of victuals before hand which they gather together and carry into their holes And some say when the male or female is loden with grasse and herbs as much as it can comprehend within all the foure legges it lieth vpon the backe with the said prouision vpon their bellies and then commeth the other and taketh hold by the taile with the mouth and draweth the fellow into the earth thus doe they one by the other in turnes and hereupon it is that all that time their backes are bare and the haire worne off Such like Marmotaines there be in Aegypt and in the same manner thay sit ordinarily vpon their buttocks and vpon their two hinder feet they goe vsing their fore-feet in stead of hands Hedgehogs also make their prouision before-hand of meat for winter in this wise They wallow and roll themselues vpon apples and such fruit lying vnder foot and so catch them vp with their prickles one more besides they take in their mouth so carry them into hollow trees By stopping one or other of their holes men know when the wind turneth and is changed from North to South When they perceiue one hunting of them they draw their mouth and feet close together with all their belly part where the skin hath a thin downe and no pricks at all to do harme and so roll themselues as round as a foot-ball that neither dog not man can come by any thing but their sharpe-pointed prickles So soon as they see themselues past all hope to escape they let their water go pisse vpon themselues Now this vrine of theirs hath a poisonous qualitie to rot their skin and prickles for which they know well enough that they be chased and taken And therefore it is a secret and speciall policie not to hunt them before they haue let their vrine go and then their skin is very good for which chiefly they are hunted otherwise it is nought euer after and so rotten that it will not hang together but fall in pieces al the pricks shed off as being putrified yea although they should escape away from the dogs and liue still and this is the cause that they neuer bepisse and drench themselues with this pestilent excrement but in extremitie vtter despaire for they cannot abide themselues their owne vrine of so venomous a qualitie it is so hurtfull to their own body and do what they can to spare themselues attending the vtmost time of extremitie insomuch as they are ready to be taken before they do it When the Vrchen is caught aliue the deuise to make him open again in length is to be sprinkle him with hot water and then by hanging at one of their hin-feet without meat they die with famine otherwise it it not possible to kill them and saue their case or skin There be writers who bash not to say That this kinde of beast where not those pricks is good for nothing and may well be missed of men and that the soft fleece of wooll that sheepe bear but for these prickes were superfluous to no purpose bestowed vpon mankind for which the rough skin of these Vrchins are brushes rubbers made to brush make cleane our garments And in very truth many haue gotten great gain profit by this commoditie merchandise and namely with their crafty deuise of monopolies that all might passe through their hands only notwithstanding there hath not bin any one disorder more repressed and reformation sought by sundry edicts and acts of the Senate in that behalfe euery prince hath been continually troubled hereabout with grieuous complaints out of all prouinces CHAP. XXXVIII ¶ Of the Leontophone the Once Badgers and Squirrils TWo other kinds there be of beasts whose vrine worketh strange and wonderfull effects The one is called Leontophonos and he breedes in no country but where there be lions a little creature it is but so venomous that the lion king of beasts before whom al others tremble for all his might and puissance dieth presently if he taste neuer so little thereof And therfore they that chase the lion get all the Leontophones that they can come by burne their bodies and with the powder of them bestrew season as it were the pieces of other flesh that they lay for a bait in the forrest and thus with the very ashes I say of his enemie kill him and deadly and pernicious is it to the lion No marueile therefore if the lion abhor hate him for so soon as he espieth him he crushes him with his pawes and so killeth him without setting tooth to his body The Leontophone for his part againe is as ready to bedrench him with his vrine knowing right well that his pisse is a very poison to the Lion In those countries were the Onces breed their urine after it is made congealeth into a certain yâ—…ie substance waxes drie so it comes to be a certain pretious stone like a carbuncle glittering and shining as red as fire and called it is Lyncurium And vpon this occasion many haue written that Amber is ingendred after the same maner The Onces knowing thus much for very spight and enuie couer their vrine with mold or earth and this maketh it so much the sooner to harden and congeale The Grayes Polcats or Brocks haue a cast by themselues when they be affraid of hunters for they will draw in their breath so hard that their skin being stretched and puffed vp withall they will auoid the biting of the hounds tooth and checke the wounding of the hunter so as neither the one nor the other can take hold of them The Squirrils also foresee a tempest comming and where the wind will blow for looke in what corner the wind is like to stand on that side they stop vp the mouth of their holes and make an ouerture on the other side against it Moreouer a goodly broad bush taile they haue wherewith they couer their whole body Thus you see how some creatures prouide victuals against winter others battle and feed with sleepe onely CHAP. XXXIX ¶ Of the Viper Land-winkles or Snailes and Lizards OF all other serpents it is said that the Viper alone lies hidden in the ground during winter whereas the rest keepe within cranies and câ—…ifts of trees or else in the hollow chinkes of stones and otherwise they are able to endure hunger a whole yeere so they be kept from extreame cold All the while during their retreat and lying close within they sleepe as if they were dead and depriued of their power
kinds and not accompany together vnlesse they tasted the milk and sucked the damme when they were yong of that kinde which they would couer And for this purpose they vse to steale away either the yong Asse foles and set them in the dark to the teats of the Mare or els the yong colts to suck of the she Asse For there is a kind of Mule also that comes of a stone horse and a female Asse but of all others they be vntoward and vnruly and so slow withall that it is vnpossible to bring them to any good seruice and much more as all things else if they be far in age when they ingender If when a she Asse hath taken the horse and be sped there come an Asse and couer her againe she will cast her fruit vntimely and lose all but it is not so if an horse couer her after an Asse It is noted found by experience that seuen daies after an Asse hath foled is the best time to put the male vnto her and then soonest will she be sped as also that the he Asses being wearie with trauel wil better couer the femals than otherwise being resty That Asse is held for barren which is not couered nor conceiueth before she haue cast her sucking or foles teeth whereby the age is known as also she that standeth not to the first couering but loseth it In old time they vsed to call those Hinuli which were begotten betweene a horse and an Asse and contrariwise Mules such as were ingendred of an Asse and a Mare Moreouer this is obserued that if two beasts of diuers kindes ingender they bring forth one of a third sort and resembling none of the parents also that such begotten in this maner what kind of creatures soeuer they be are themselues barren and fruitles vnable either to beare or beget yong And this is the cause that she mules neuer breed We finde verily in our Chronicles that oft times Mules brought forth yong foles but it was alwaies taken for a monstrous and prodigious signe And yet Theophrastus saith that in Cappadocia ordinarily they do beare and bring forth foles but they are a kind by themselues Mules are broken of their flinging and wincing if they vse often to drinke wine It is found written in many Greeke authors that if an he Mule couer a Mare there is ingendred that which the Latins call Hinnus that is to say a little Mule Between Mares and wild Asses made tame there is ingendred a kind of Mules very swift in running and exceeding hard hoofed lanke and slender of bodie but fierce and couragious and vnneth or hardly to be broken But the Mule that comes of a wild Asse and a female tame Asse passeth all the rest As for wild asses the very best floure of them be in Phrygia and Lycaonia In Africke the flesh of their foles is held for excellent good meat and such they cal Lalisiones It appeares in the Chronicles of Athens That a mule liued 80 yeares And reported thus much there is of it That when they built the temple within the citadel thereof this old Mule being for age able to do nothing els would yet accompanie other Mules that laboured and caried stones thither and if any were ready to fall vnder their lode would seeme to relieue and hold them vp and as it were incourage them to his power insomuch as the people tooke so great delight and pleasure therein that they made a decree and took order that no corn-masters that bought and sold graine should beat this mule from their ranging siues when they clensed or winnowed their corne but that he might eat vnder them CHAP. XLV ¶ Of Buls Kine and Oxen. THe Boeufs of India are as high by report as Camels and foure foot broad they are betwixt the horns In our part of the world those that come out of Epirus are most commended and beare the greatest price aboue all others and namely those which they say are of the race breed of king Pyrrhus who that way was very curious For this prince because he would haue a principall good breed would not suffer the Buls to come vnto the kine and season them before they were both foure yeares old Mighty big they were therefore and so they continue of that kind vnto this day How beit now when they be but heifers of one yeare or two yeres at the most which is more tolerable they are let go to the fellow and breed Buls may wel ingender and serue kine when they be 4 yeares old and one of them is able all the yeare long to goe with ten kine and serue their turne They say moreouer that a Bull after he hath leapt a Cow and done his kind if he go his way toward the right hand he hath gotten an oxe calfe but contrariwise a cow calfe if he take the left hand Kine commonly take at their first seasoning but if it chance that they misse and stand not to it the 20 day after they seeke the fellow and goe a bulling againe In the tenth moneth they calue and whatsoeuer falleth before that terme never proueth nor commeth to good Some write That they calue iust vpon the last day of the tenth moneth complete Seldome bring they forth two calues at a time Their seasoning time commonly continueth 30 daies namely from the rising of the Dolphin starre vnto the day before the Nones of Ianuarie howbeit some there be that go to fellow in Autumne Certes in those countries where the people liue altogether of milke they order the matter so that their kine calue at all times so as they are not without their food of fresh milke all the yeare long Bulls willingly leape not aboue two kine at most in one day Boeufes alone of all liuing Creatures can grase going backeward and verily among the Gamarants they neuer feed otherwise Kine liue not aboue 15 yeares at the vtmost bulls and oxen come to 20 they be at their â—…ll strength when they are 5 yeres old It is said that they will grow fat if they be bathed with lot water or if a man slit their hide and with a reed or pipe blow wind betweene the flesh and the skin euen into their intrals Kine Buls and Oxen are not to be despised as vnkindely although they look but ilfauoredly and be not so faire to the eie for in the Alpes the least of bodie are the best milch kine and the best laboring oxen are they which are yoked by the head and not the neck In Syria they haue no dewlaps at all hanging vnder the necke but bunches standing vp on their backs in stead thereof They of Caria also a country of Asia are ilfauored to sight hauing betweene their neckes and shoulders a tumor or swelling hanging ouer besides their horns are loose and as it were out of joint and yet by report they are passing good of deed and labor most stoutly Furthermore it is generally held for
also within the chappell of Fortune the very roiall robe or mantle of Estate made with her owne hands after the manner of water-chamlot in waue worke which Seruius Tullus vsed to weare And from hence came the fashion custome at Rome that when maidens were to be wedded their attended vpon them a distaffe drest and trimmed with kembed wool as also a spindle and yearn vpon it The said Tanaquil was the first that made the coat or cassock wouen right out all thorough such as new beginners namely young souldiers barristers fresh brides put on vnder their white plaine gownes without any guard of purple The waued water Chamelot was from the beginning esteemed the richest and brauest wearing And from thence came the branched damaske in broad workes Fenestella writeth That in the latter time of Augustus Caesar they began at Rome to vse their gownes of cloth shorne as also with a curled nap As for those robes which are called Crebrae and Papaueratae wrought thick with floure-worke resembling poppies or pressed euen and smooth they be of greater anti quitie for euen in the time of Lucilius the Poet Torquatus was noted and reprooued for wearing them The long robes embrodered before called Praetextae were deuised first by the Tuscanes The Trabeae ware roiall robes and I find that kings princes only ware them In Homers time also they vsed garments embrodered with imagerie and floure worke from thence came the triumphant robes As for embroderie it selfe and needle-work it was the Phrygians inuention and hereupon embroderers be called in Latine Phrygiones And in the same Asia king Attalus was the first that deuised cloth of gold and thence come such clothes to be called Attalica In Babylon they vsed much to weaue their cloth of diuers colours and this was a great wearing among them clothes so wrought were called Babylonica To weaue cloth of tissue with twisted threeds both in woofe and warp and the same of sundry colours was the inuention of Alexandria and such clothes and garments were named Polymita But France deuised the scutchion square or lozenge damask-worke Metellus Scipio among other challenges and imputations laid against Capito reptoched and accused him for this That his hangings and furniture of his dining chamber being Babylonian worke or cloth of Arras were sold for 800000 sesterces and such like of late daies stood prince Nero in 400 hundred thousand sesterces i. 40 millions The embrodered long robes of Seruius Tullus wherewith he couered and arraied all ouer the Image of Fortune by him dedicated remained whole and sound vnto the end of Seianus And a wonder it was that they neither fell from the image nor were moth-eaten in 560 yeares I haue my selfe seen the sheeps fleeces vpon their backs while they be aliue died with purple with scarlet in grain and the violet liquor of the fish Murex by the means of certaine barks of a foot and a halfe long dipped in these colors and so imprinted and set vpon their fleeces as if riotous wantonnes and superfluitie should force Natures work and make wooll to grow of that colour As for the sheep it selfe she is knowne to be kindly enough by these marks If she be short legged and wel woolled vnder the bellie for such as were naked there and pilled they condemned and held for naught and those they called Apicae In Syria sheep haue tailes a cubit long and they beare most wooll there To lib lambs before they be fiue moneths old it is thought to be with the soonest and daungerous CHAP. XLIX ¶ Of a beast called Musmon THere is in Spaine but especially in the Isle Corsica a kind of Musmones not altogether vnlike to sheep hauing a shag more like the haire of goats than a fleece with sheepes wooll That kind which is engendred between them and sheepe they called in old time Vmbri This beast hath a most tender head and therefore in his pasture he is forced to feed with his taile to the sunne Of all liuing creatures those that bare wooll are most foolish for take but one of them by the horne and lead him any whither all the rest will follow though otherwise they were afraid to go that way The longest that they liue in those parts is 9 yeares howsoeuer in Aethiopia they come to 13. In which country goats also liue 11 yeres whereas in other countries of the world for the most part they passe not eight And both sorts as well the one as the other be sped within foure leapings CHAP. L. ¶ Of Goats and their breeding GOats bring forth foure kids otherwhiles but that is very seldome They goe with young fiue months as ewes do Shee goats waxe barren with fatnesse When they be come once to be three yeares old they are not so good to breed ne yet when they be elder and namely being past foure yeares of age They begin at the seuenth month euen whiles they sucke their dammes And as well the bucke as the Doe are held the better for breed if they be nott and haue no hornes The first time that the shee goats are leaped they stand not to it the second leaping speedeth better and so forward They chuse willingly to take the buck in the month of Nouember that they might bring kids in March following when all shrubs put forth and begin to sprout and bud for them to brouze And this is sometime when they be a yeare old but they neuer faile to two yeares yea and when they be full three they are not vtterly decayed and done but are good still for they beare 8 yeares Subject they be in cold weather to cast their young and yeane vntimely The Doe when she perceiueth her eies dimme and ouer-cast either with pin and web or catarract pricketh them with the sharp point of some bulrush and so letteth them blood but the bucke goeth to the brier and doth the like Mutianus reporteth that he had occasion vpon a time to mark the wit of this creature It happened that vpon a narrow thinne plank that lay for a bridge that one goat met another comming both from diuers parts now by reason that the place was so narrow that they could not passe by nor turne about ne yet retire backwards blindly considering how long the planke was so slender withall moreouer the water that ran vnderneath ran with a swift streame and threatned present death if they failed and went besides Mutianus I say affirmeth that he saw one of them to lie flat down and the other to goe ouer his backe As for the male goats they are held for the best which are most camoise or snout nosed haue long eares and the same slit in with great store of shag haire about their shoulders But the mark to know the kindest female is this they haue two lappets locks or plaits as it were of haire hanging downe along their bodie on either side from their neck They haue not al of
the dunghill are as proud and high minded ye shal see them to march stately carying their neck bolt vpright with a combe on their head like the crest of a soldiers helmet And there is not a bird besides himself that so oft looketh aloft to the Sun and sky and then vp goeth the taile and all which he beares on high turning backward again on the top like a hook And hereupon it is that marching thus proudly as they do the very Lions which of all wilde beasts be most couragious stand in feare and awe of them and will not abide the sight of them Now of these Cocks some of them are made for nothing els but war and fighting and neuer are they well but in quarrels brawles and fraies and these be cocks of kind and the countries from whence they come are grown into name being much renowned for their breed as namely Rhodus and Tenagra in the first and highest degree In a second ranke and place be those of Melos and Chalcis Vnto these birds for their worth dignity the purple robe at Rome and all magistrats of state disdain not to giue honor These be they that by their tripudium solistimum i. hearty feeding obserued by the pullitiers shew good successe These rule our great rulers euery day and there is not a mighty L. or state of Rome that dare open or shut the dore of his house before he knowes the good pleasure of these fowles and that which more is the soueraigne magistrate in his majestie of the Roman empire with the regall ensignes of rods and axes caried before him neither sets forward nor reculeth backe without direction from these birds they giue order to whole armies to aduance forth to battel again command them to stay and keep within the camp These were they that gaue the signall and foretold the issue of all those famous foughten fields whereby we haue atchieued all our victories throughout the whole world and in one word these birds command those great Commanders of all nations vpon the earth as acceptable to the gods in sacrifice with their smal fibres filaments of their inwards as the greatest and fattest oxen that are killed for sacrifice Moreouer their crowing out of order too soon before their houre or too late and namely in the euening portendeth also and presageth somwhat by it selfe For well known it is that by their crowing at one time all night long they fore-signified to the Boeotians that noble victorie of theirs atchieued ouer the Lacedaemonians For this interpretation and coniecture was giuen thereupon of a fortunat day because that bird neuer croweth if he be beaten or ouercome If they be once carued and made capons they crow no more And this feat is practised vpon them two manner of waye namely either by burning their loines toward their kidnies with a red hot yron or else by cauterising their legs beneath and their spurs and then presently applying a plaister vnto the exulcerate and blistered place made of potters white clay or chalky earth and being thus serued they will sooner feed and be fat At Pergamus euery yeare there is a solemne shew exhibited openly to the people of Cocke-fighting as if sword-fencers were brought within the lists to fight at outterance We finde in record among our Annales that within the territorie of Ariminum in that yeare when Marcus Lepidus and Quintus Catulus were Consuls there was a dunghill cocke did speake and it was about a ferme-house in the countrey belonging to one Galerius But this hapned neuer but once for ought that I could euer heare or learne CHAP. XXII ¶ Of Geese and who first eat the Goose liuer Also of the leafe of a Goose of Comagena THe Goose likewise is very vigilant and watchfull witnesse the Capitoll of Rome which by the meanes of Geese was defended and saued whereas at the same time through the default of dogs which should haue giuen warning all had like to haue bin lost Wherefore the first thing that the Censors do by vertue of their office is to take order for the Geese of the Capitol and to appoint some one man of purpose to see vnto them that they haue meat enough Moreouer they are said to be giuen much to loue for at Argos there was a Goose that was wonderously inamoured of a faire boy named Olenus as also of a damosel whose name was Glauce who vsed to play on the lute before king Ptolomaeus and by report at the same time a Ram made court vnto the said wench and was in loue with her It may be credibly thought also that this creature hath some sparks as it were of reason vnderstanding and learning for Lacydes the Philosopher had one of them about him which would neuer leaue him night nor day neither in the open street abroad nor in priuat house at home but would follow him euen to his close and secret baines where he vsed to bathe But our countrimen and citisens of Rome beleeue me are wiser now adaies who know forsooth how to make a dainty dish of their Liuer For in those Geese that are kept vp and cram'd fat in coup the liuer grows to be exceeding great and when it is taken forth of the belly it waxeth bigger still if it be steeped in milk and sweet mede together Good cause therefore it is that there be some question and controuersie about the first inuentor of this great good and singular commoditie to mankind whether it were Scipio Metellus a man who lately was called to be Consulior M. Sestius who in those daies was by his birth a gentleman of Rome But to leaue that stil vndecided this is certainly known that Messalinus Cotta son to that Messala the Orator found out the secret to broile fry the flat broad feet of Geese and together with cocks combs to 〈◊〉 a sauory dish of meat thereof between two platters For surely I for my part will giue euery man his due and right and will not defraud them of their singular praise and honour who haue bin benefactors to the kitchen and proceeded masters in cookerie A maruellous thing of these birds that a flock of them should come all the way bare foot from * Terwin and Torney in France as far as to Rome Their order was who had the conduct of them in this large voyage to bring those forward that were weary and lagged behind into the vaward forefront and so the rest by a certain thick vnited squadron which naturally they make going together driue the others before them A second commoditie that Geese yeeld especially those that be white is their plume and downe For in some places their soft feathers are pluckt twice a yeare and yet they cary feathers again and be as well couered with plume as before and euermore the neerer to the skin and flesh the softer is the downe But of all other the finest and best is that which is brought out of
truth it is hard to judge whether of them twaine plaied the beast more the father or the sonne But that it seemeth lesse pride and prodigalitie to swallow down the throat the greatest riches of Nature than to chew and eat at a supper mens tongues that is to say those birds that could pronounce our language CHAP. LII ¶ The engendring of birds and what foure-footed beasts lay egges as well as they THe generation of birds seemes alwaies to be after one the same manner And yet therein is to be found some strange extraordinarie worke Like as there be four footed beasts known also to haue eggs namely the Chamaeleons Lizards and such as we named among Serpents Of foules those that haue hooked clawes and tallons are but barren that way and lay few eggs Only the Kestrell laieth foure at a time And verily Nature hath well prouided in all the kind of foules That the mightier should be lesse fruitfull than the weaker and those that flie from the other The Ostriches Hens Partridges and Linnets are great laiers As touching the manner of their engendring it is performed two waies for either the female couche th downe as doe our hens or else stand vpon their feet as doe the cranes Of eggs some be white as those of Doues and Partridges others be pale and yellowish as those of water-foule some be spotted as those of the Turkie-hens others againe red and such egs Feasants lay and Kestrils All birds egges within the shell are of two colours In water-foules the yolke is more than the white and the same is more wan and duskish than in others The egges of fishes are of one colour and therein is no white at all Birds eggs are brittle shelled by reason of their heat Serpents eggs are more tough because of cold but they of fishes are more soft and tender for that they be so liquid Those of fishes and such creatures as liue in water haue round eggs ordinarily others be long and pointed at one end in the top Birds lay their egges with the rounder end comming forward their shell is soft whiles they be warm and a laying but presently they harden by piecemeale as they come forth Horatius Flaccus is of opinion that the longer the egge is the better tast it hath The rounder egge prooues to be the hen commonly the rest will be â—…ockes There is found in the top or sharper end of an egge within the shell a certaine round knot resembling a drop or a nauil rising aboue the rest which they call a Kinning CHAP. LIII ¶ The engendring of egges the sitting of birds and their manner of generation SOme birds there be that tread all times of the yeare and lay egs but only two moneths in mid winter and of those pullets lay more than old hens but they be lesse especially the first and last of one laiter So fruitfull they be that some of them wil lay threescore egs ere they giue ouer some euerie day others twice in one day and some will ouer-lay vntill they be so weâ—…ry and feeble withall that they will neuer lay more but die withall The little short legged grig hens called Hadrianae that came from Hadria are counted best Doues lay conuey ten times in the yeare some of them eleuen and in Aegypt there are found that giue not ouer in the twelue months euen at mid-winter in December Swallowes Ousels Quoists or Ringdoues and Turtles lay and sit twice in the yeare other birds ordinarily but once Thrushes and Blackbirds build their nests of mud and clay in trees and bushes one by another so neere as if they were linked together and lightly they eâ—…gender in some corner out of the way After the hen is troden within ten daies the egs commonly knit within her bellie are come to perfection readie to be laid Howbeit if hens haue some wrong done vnto them or if a man chance to pluck a feather or quill from a pigeon at that time or do them some such jniurie it will be longer ere they lay All egs haue within them in the mids of the yolk a certaine drop as it were of bloud which some thinke to be the heart of the chicken imagining that to be the first that in euerie bodie is formed and made and certainly a man shall see it within the verie egge to pant and leape As for the chick it taketh the corporall substance and the bodie of it is made of the white waterish liquor in the egge the yellow yolke serues for nourishment whiles the chick is vnhatched and within the egge the head is bigger than all the bodie besides and the eies that be compact and thrust together be more than the verie head As the chick within growes bigger the white turneth into the middest and is enclosed within the yolke By the 20 day if the eggs be stirred ye shall heare the chick to peepe within the â—…erie shell from that time forward it beginneth to plume and gather feathers and in this manner lies it within the shell the head resting on the right foot and the same head vnder the right wing and so the yolke by little and little decreaseth and faileth All birds are hatched with the feet forward contrarie to other creatures Some hens there be that lay all their egs with two yolkes and of them be hatched two chickens otherwhiles as Cornelius Celsâ—… writeth but the one of them is bigger than the other Howbeit others say it is impossible that one egge should come to two chickens Moreouer it is held for a rule that â—…here should not be put vnder a brood-hen aboue 25 egs at one time to sit vpon After the mid-winter hens begin to lay and sit The best brood is before the spring Aequinoctiall Those that be hatcâ—…ed after mid-summer neuer come to their full and kind bignesse and euermore the later the lesser CHAP. LIV. ¶ The infirmities and impediments incident to brood hens and the remedies THe best egs that can be put vnder hens when they sit are they that were laid ten daies before at the vtmost for neither old eggs nor yet very new laid are good for that purpose After that a hen hath sitten 4 daies take an eg from vnder her hold it in one hand by the narrow end and look between you and the light with the other ouer it if it be cleare through and of one colour it is supposed to be naught and will neuer proue a chicke and therefore put another in place thereof Another experiment there is by water the addle egg wil flote aboue as empty the sound and good will sinke to the bottom and such therefore being full are to be set vnder the hen We ye would try whether an egg be good or bad in this case our countrey wiues say you must not shake them in any hand for if the vital veins parts be broken blended together they will neuer proue Moreouer this is alwaies to be
i. wind-egs CHAP. LIX ¶ Of the Peacocke and Geese THe Pea-hen falls to lay and breed after she is 3 yeres old In the first yere she begins with one or two egs the yeare following she riseth to foure or fiue in the rest shee reacheth to twelue and no more When she layeth her manner is to rest two or three dayes betweene euery egge And thrice a yeare she keepeth this order namely if her egges be taken from her and put vnder hens to be fitten vpon for why the Peacocks wil break them if they can meet with them because they canot misse and spare the Peahens company while they are broody and sitting which is the cause they are wont to lay by night or in some secret 〈◊〉 out of the way and that from an high place where they perch and then vnlesse there be good heed taken that the eggs be latched in some soft bed vnderneath they are soone broken One Peacock is sufficient to go with fiue wiues for when there is but twain the villaine is so lecherous with ouermuch treading he hindereth their laying and marreth the knot of eggs ingendred within them The Peahen hatcheth in 28 daies or in thirty at the farthest Ganders and Geese ingender together in the very water Geese lay ordinarily in the spring or if they were troden about mid-winter then ye shall haue them lay after the Winter Sunne-stead some forty daies or very neere They haue vsually two laiters in the yeare namely if hens hatched their former egs The most that they hatch at one sitting is sixteene and the fewest seuen If a man steale their egs from them they lay still and neuer giue ouer till they be readie to burst with laying No birds egs but their own will they hatch The most profitable way is to set them vpon nine or eleuen The females only sit and that for the space of 30 daies vnlesse it be warme weather and then they will haue done by 25. If one of their Goslings be stung neuer so little with a nettle it will die of it Their owne greedy feeding also is their bane for one while they will eat vntill they burst again another whiles kill themselues with straining their own selues for if they chance to catch hold of a root with their bill they will bite and pul so hard for to haue it that many times they breake their owne neckes withall before they leaue their hold Against the stinging of nettles the remedie is that so soone as they be hathed there be some nettie roots laid vnder their nest of straw CHAP. LX. ¶ Of Herons and Bittours and the best way to keepe egâ—… long OF Herons be three sorts Leucon Asterias and Pellon these last ingender with much paine and difficultie as for the males verily they cry againe for anguish and the bloud starts out of their eies in the act of treading And with as much ado and trouble do the females lay after they be knit with eg The Egle and the most part of the greater fouls sit 30 daies whereas the lesse continue but 20 as the Kite and the Hawk The Kite vsually hatcheth but one at a time and neuer aboue three but that kind called Aegolios somtimes foure The Rauen also now and then fiue and those cooue as many daies While the female crow sits the male feeds her The Piot ordinarily brings forth nine Piannets the fig-pecker Melancoryphus aboue 20 but euermore an od one and there is not a bird that goeth therein aboue her Lo how Nature is willing to multiply the race of little birds The yong Swallowes are at the first blind and so are all such as are hatched many in number Wind-egs which we call Hypenemia come either by the mutuall treading of hens one another by an imaginarie conceit of the male or else by dust And such egs not only Doues doe bring but house Hens also Partridges Peahens Geese and Brants or the female Barganders Now these egs are barren as it were and neuer proue birds lesse than others not so pleasant in taste and besides more moist Some are of opinion that the wind will ingender them for which cause also they are called Zephyria i. West-wind egs And verily such egs are seen only in the spring when that wind blows Addle egs which some called Cynosura are they that chill vpon the rest when the hen is gone and giueth ouer sitting Egs steeped in strong vineger will come to be so soft that they will passe and be drawn through the ring of a mans finger The best way to keep egges is in beane meale or floure and during winter in chaffe but for summer time in bran It is thought if they lie in salt their substance will waste and consume to nothing within the shell CHAP. LXI ¶ What Bird alone bringeth forth a liuing creature and feedeth it with milke THe Rere-mouse or Bat alone of all creatures that fly bringeth forth yong aliue and none but she of that kind hath wings made of panniclcs or thin skins She is the only bird that suckleth her little ones with her paps and giues them milk and those she wil carry about her two at once embracing them as she flieth It is said also that she hath no more but one ioynt of the hanch without any in the knee or feet and that they take greatest delight to feed vpon gnats CHAP. LXII ¶ Of Vipers their manner of generation and bringing forth yong and what land beasts do lay egges MOreouer among creatures of the land serpents lay egs whereof as yet we haue not written As they ingender together they clip and embrace and so intangled they be and inwrapped one about the other that a man who saw them would think they were one serpent with two heads In the very act of generation the male Viper thrusteth his head into the mouth of the female which she for the pleasure and delectation that she hath gnaweth and biteth off No land creature els but she hath egs within her belly of one colour and soft like as fishes haue Now after three daies they be quicke and then come forth as they be hatched but no more than one at once euery day and 20 commonly she hath When she is deliuered of the first the rest impatient of so long delay eat through their dams sides and kil her As for other serpents they lay their egs linked and chained together and so sit vpon them on the land but they hatch them not vntill the yeare following Crocodiles sit by turnes the male as well as the female But I thinke it good to treat also of the generation of other land creatures CHAP. LXIII ¶ The generation of liuing creatures vpon the land OF all liuing creatures two footed a woman onely bringeth forth her yong quicke Men and women both and none but they repent at first the losse of their maidenhead A very presage no doubt of a life to ensue full of
touching the generation of Bees and how they multiply and increase much dispute there hath bin among the learned and a nice question this is For first and foremost bees were neuer seen to ingender one with another and therfore most men haue bin of opinion that yong bees must needs be made of floures fitly and hand somely laid together and composed according to Natures lore Others say that one master Bee which is the king in euery swarme doth beget them all and that he forsooth is the only male bigger also than the rest and more strong because he should not faint and faile in the action for without such an one we see there is no breed and him all the other bees attend vpon not as their leader and captain but as the female follow the male Certes this were a good coniectural opinion and sounding to a truth but that the breed of these Drone-bees aforesaid doth checke and ouerthrow it cleare for what reason is there that one and the same maner of procreation should bring forth some perfect others vnperfect The former opinion yet might seeme more probable but for another difficulty and inconuenience that crosseth it too for otherwhiles in the vtmost edges and sides of the combs there are seen to breed the bigger kind of bees which chase and driue the others away and this vermin is called Oestrus i. the gad-bee or horse flie Now if those little wormes or grubs from whence the bees come were made of floures which they themselues formed and brought into fashion how commeth this gad-bee and whereof is he made This is certaine that bees couvy and sit as hens do and that which is after a sort by them hatched seemeth at the first to be a little white grub or magot lying crosse ouerthwart the hony and so fast sticking thereto as if it seemed to feed thereupon The king that shall be at the very first is yellow and of the colour of hony as if he were made of the most choice and excellent floure of all the rest nothing like to a grub as the other but presently hath wings The rest of the multitude when they begin to take some shape are called Nymphae like as the Drones at the beginning be termed Sirenes or Cephenes If a man take their heads from either sort before they be winged it is a most pleasant and excellent meat for the old dams In processe of time as they grow bigger the old bees distill and drop meat into their mouths as they sit vpon them then they keep most humming as some thinke for to set combs into an heat which is requisit and necessarie for the hatching of them and thus they continue till the little pellicles or membranes be broken within which euery one lieth by it selfe as egs and then they break forth all together and shew themselues accomplished bees The manner and experiment hereof was seene vpon a time in a ferme neere vnto Rome belonging to a nobleman of Rome who somtime had bin Consul for he caused his hiues to be made of lanterne horns that a man might see through into them These yong worms be 45 daies before they come to their perfection There is found in some combs a certain bitter thing and hard like to wax which the Latines call Clerus This is as it were the abortiue and vntimely fruit of the bees to wit when either by maladie or idlenesse or rather vpon some barrennesse and vnfruitfull disposition by nature bees are not able to bring the same to perfection As for the yong bees they are not so soon abroad but they begin to labor with their mothers and are trained by them to learn how to gather hony This yong people haue a yong king also vnto whom they make court and whom they follow And many such kings are bred at first for feare lest they should want but when the bees are grown big they all agree with one accord and voice to kill those that be most vntoward among them for feare they should make diuisions factions and siding to parts These kings be of two sorts those that are red all ouer be better than the black or partie-coloured All the race of them be very faire and goodly to see to and twice as big as the rest their wings shorter their legs streight in their port and manner of march more stately carryin in their front a white star like a diadem or coronet far brighter also and more neat they bâ—… than the common sort CHAP. XVII ¶ The regiment of Bees and their gouernment WHat shall a man now dispute about Hercules whether there was but one of that name or many Likewise as touching the Sepulchre of Prince Bacchus where and which it is As also trouble his head in many other such like antiquities buried by long continuance of time For behold in one small matter that is daily seene in our countrey houses in a thing annexed to our fermes and whereof there is such store all Authors who haue written of Agricultâ—…e are not yet resolued namely Whether the king of Bees alone hath no sting and is armed only with majestie or whether Nature hath bestowed a sting vpon him and denied him only the vse thereof For certaine it is that this great commander ouer the rest doth nothing with his sting yet a wonder it is to see how they all are readie to obey him When hee marches abroad the whole armie goes forth likewise then they assemble together and enuiron him round about they are of his guard so close they keep vnited together that they wil not suffer him once to be seen At other times when all his people are busie in labor himselfe as a right good captaine ouerseeth their workes goes about from one to another encouraging them in wel doing and exhorting them to plie their businesse himselfe only exempt from all other trauell pains taking About his person he hath a certaine guard euer attendant he hath his Lictors officers alwaies in readinesse in token of majestie and princely port He neuer sets forward but when the whole swarme is prest likewise to goe forth and in truth long time before a man may perceiue that they be about a voiage and expedition for many daies together there is an extraordinarie humming and noise within whiles they prepare to dislodge trussing vp as it were their bag and baggage and expecting only a faire day of remoue And suppose that the king haue in some battaile lost one of his wings yet will not his hoast forsake him and flie When they be in march each one desires and striues to be next the prince as taking a joy and pride to be seene of him how lustily they performe their deuoir If he begin to be wearie they support him with their shoulders if he be tired indeed and faint outright they cary him full and whole If any one of their owne companie chance to faile for very wearinesse and doe
waspes hunt after the greater flies and when they haue whipt off their heads carry away the rest of their bodies for their prouision The wild Hornets vse to keep in hollow trees all winter time like other Insects they lie hid and liue not aboue two yeres If a man be stung with them hardly he escapes without an ague and some haue written that 27 pricks of theirs will kill a man The other Hornets which seeme to be the gentler be of two sorts the lesse of body do worke and trauell for their liuing and they die when winter is come but the greater sort of them continue two yeares and those also are nothing dangerous but mild and tractable These make their nests in the spring and the same for the most part hauing foure dores or entries vnto them wherein the lesser labouring hornets abouesaid are ingendred When those are quick brought to perfection gotten abroad they build longer nests in which they bring forth those that shall be mothers and breeders by which time those yong hornets that worke be ready to do their businesse and feed these other Now these mothers appeare broader than the rest and doubtfull it is whether they haue any sting or no because they are neuer seen to thrust them forth These likewise haue their drones among them as wel as Bees Some think that toward winter these all do lose their stings Neither Hornets nor Waspes haue kings or swarmes after the maner of Bees but yet they repaire their kind and maintaine their race by a new breed and generation CHAP. XXII ¶ Of Silk-wormes the Bombylius and Necydalus And who first inuented silke cloath AFourth kind of flie there is breeding in Assyria greater than those aboue named called Bombyx i. the Silke-worme They build their nests of earth or clay close sticking to some stone or rock in manner of salt and withall so hard that scarcely a man may enter them with the point of a spear In which they make also wax but in more plenty than bees and after that bring forth a greater worme than all the â—…est before rehearsed These flies ingender also after another sort namely of a greater worme or grub putting forth two hornes after that kind and these be certain canker-wormes Then these grow afterwards to be Bombylij and so forward to Necydali of which in six moneths after come the silke-wormes Bombyces Silk-worms spin weaue webs like to those of the spiders and all to please our dainty dames who thereof make their fine silks and veluets forme their costly garments and superfluous apparell which are called Bombycina The first that deuised to vnweaue these webs of the silke-worme and to weaue the same againe was a woman in Coos named Pamphila daughter of Latous and surely she is not to be defrauded of her due honor and praise fot the inuention of that fine silke Tiffanie Sarcenet and Cypres which in stead of apparell to couer and hide shew women naked thorough them CHAP. XXIII ¶ Of the Silkeworme in Cos. IT is commonly said that in the Isle Cos there be certaine Silkwormes engendred of floures which by the meanes of rain-showers are beaten downe and fall from the Cypres tree Terebinth Oke and Ash and they soone after doe quicken and take life by the vapor arising out of the earth And men say that in the beginning they are like vnto little Butterflies naked but after a while being impatient of the cold are ouergrowne with haire and against the winter arme themselues with good thick-clothes for being rough-footed as they are they gather all the cotton and downe of the leaues which they can come by for to make their fleece After this they fal to beat to felt thicken it close with their feet then to card it with their nailes which done they draw it out at length and hang it betweene branches of trees and so kembe it in the end to make it thin and subtill When al is brought to this passe they enwrap enfold themselues as it were in a round bal and clew of thread and so nestle within it Then are they taken vp by men put in earthen pots kept there warme and nourished with bran vntill such time as they haue wings acording to their kind and being thus well clad and appointed they be let go to do other businesse Now as touching the wooll or fleece which they haue begun men suffer it to relent in some moisture and so anon it is spun into a small thread with 〈◊〉 spindle made of some light Kex or Reed This is the making of that fine Say wherof silk cloth is made which men also are not abashed to put on and vse because in summer they would go light and thin And so far do men draw back now a daies from carying a good corslet armor on their backs that they think their ordinarie apparell doth ouer-lode them Howbeit hitherto haue they not medled with the Assyrian Silkworme but left it for the fine wiues and dames of the city CHAP. XXIV ¶ Of Spiders and their generation IT were not amisse to joine hereunto a discourse of Spiders for their admirable nature which deserues a speciall consideration Wherin this is first to be noted that of them there be many kinds and those so well known vnto euery man that needles is to be particularize stand much vpon this point As for those which be called Phalangia their stinging and biting is venomous their bodie small of diuers colors and sharpe pointed forward and as they go they seeme to hop and skip A second sort be black and their feet are exceeding long All of them haue in their legs three joints The least of this kind called Lupi spin not at all nor make any webs The greater stretch forth their webs before the small entries into their holes within the ground But the third kind of Spiders be they which are so wonderfull for their fine spinning and skilful workmanship these weaue the great and large cobwebs that we see yet their very womb yeeldes all the matter and stuffe wherof theybe made Whether it be that at some certain season naturally their belly is so corrupt as Democritus saith or that within it there is a certain bed as it were which engenders the substance of silke But surely whatsoeuer it is so sure and steadie nailes the Spider hath so fine so round and euen a thread she spinnes hanging thereunto herselfe and vsing the weight of her owne bodie in stead of a wherue that a wonder it is to see the manner thereof She begins to weaue at the very mids of the web and when she hath laid the warpe brings ouer the woofe in compasse round The mashes and marks she dispenses equallâ—… by euen spaces yet so as euery course growes wider than other and albeit they do increase still from narrow to be broader yet are they held and tied fast by knots that canot be vndone Mark I pray
keepe in medowes yea and Creckets that haunt the earth and stocke of chimnies where they make many holes and lie cricking aloud in the night The Glo-wormes are named by the Greeks Lampyrides because they shine in the night like a sparke of fire and it is no more but the brightnes of their sides and taile for one while as they hold open their wings they glitter another while when they keep them close together they be shadowed and make no shew These Glowbards neuer appeare before hay is ripe vpon the ground ne yet after it is cut downe Contrariwise the flies called Blattae liue and be nourished in darknesse light is an enemie vnto them and from it they flie They breed commonly in baines and stouves of the moist vapors that be there Of the same kind there be other great Beetles red in color which work themselues holes in the drie earth where they frame certaine receptacles like vnto Bees combs little and small ful of pipes resembling hollow spunges and all for a kind of bastard honey whereof yet there is some vse in Physicke In Thrace neare to Olynthus there is a little territorie or plot of ground where this one creature among all other cannot liue whereupon the place is called Cantharolethus The wings generally of all Insects be whole without any slit and none of them hath a taile but the Scorpion Hee alone hath not only armes but also a sting in the taile As for the rest some of them haue a sharp pricked weapon in their muzzle as namely the Breese or great Horse-flie called in Latine Asilus or Tabanus whether you will Likewise Gnats also and some kind of flies And these prickes serue them in good stead both for mouth and tongue Some of these are but blunt not good for to pricke but only handsome to sucke withall as flies which haue all of them a tongue beeing euidently fistulous and like a pipe And none of all these haue any teeth There bee Insects with little hornes proaking out before their eyes but weake and tender they bee and good for nothing as the Butterflies And there be againe that are not winged and such be the Scolopendres All Insects that haue legges and feet goe not directly but bias and crooked Of which some haue the hinder legges longer than the former and such bend hooked outward as the Locusts CHAP. XXIX ¶ Of Locusts THe Locusts lay egges in Autumne by thrusting downe into the ground the fistule or end of their chine and those come forth in great abundance These eggs lie all winter long in the earth and at the end of the spring the yere following they put out little Locusts black of coloâ—…r without legs and creeping vpon their wings Hereupon it commeth that if it be a wet spring and rainie those egs perish and come to no good but in a drie season there will be greater increase and store of Locusts the Summer ensuing Some writers hold opinion that they lay and breed twice a yeare likewise that they perish and die as often For they say that when the star Vergiliae doth arise they breed and those afterwards about the beginning of the Dogdaies die and others come in their place Others say that they engender and breed againe their second litter at the full or setting of Arcturus True it is indeed that the mothers die so soone as they haue brought forth their little ones by reason of a small worme that presently breedes about their throat which chokes them And at the same time the males likewise miscarrie See what a little matter to speake of bringes them to their death and yet a wonder it is to consider how one of them when it list will kill a serpent for it will take him fast by the chaws and neuer lin biting till she hath dispatched him These little beasts breed no where but in plain and champion countries namely such as be full of chinks and creuises in the ground It is reported that there be of them in India three foot long where the people of the country vse their legs and thighes for sawes when they be thoroughly dried These Locusts come by their death another way besides that aboue-named for when the wind takes them vp by whole troupes together they fall down either into the sea or some great standing pooles And this many a time happens by meer chance and fortune and not as many haue supposed in old time because their wings are wet with the night dew For euen the same Authors haue written that they flie not in the night for cold But little know they that it is ordinarie with them to passe ouer wide and broad seas and to continue their flight many daies together without rest And the greater wonder is this that they know also when a famine is toward in regard wherof they seek for food into far countries in such sort as their comming is euer held for a plague of the gods procâ—…eding from their heauie wrath and displeasure For then commonly they are bigger to be seen than at other times and in their flight they keepe such a noise with their wings that men take them for some strange fowles They shade and darken the very Sunne as they flie like vnto a great cloud insomuch as the people of euery country behold them with much feare least they should light in their territorie and ouer-spread the whole countrey And verily their strength is such that they hold out still in their flight and as if they had not enough of it to haue flowne ouer seas they giue not ouer to trauerse mightie great countries in the continent And lookâ—… in what place soeuer they settle they couer whole fields of corne with a fearefull and terrible cloud much they burne with their very blast and no part is free but they eat and gnaw euen the very dores of mens dwelling housâ—… Many a time they haue been known to take their flight out of Affrick and with whole armies to infest Italie many a time haue the people of Rome fearing a great famine and scarsitie toward been forced to haue recourse vnto Sybils books for remedie and to auert the ire of the gods In the Cyrenaicke region within Barbarie ordained it is by law euery three yeares to wage war against them and so to conquer them that is to say first to seeke out their neasts and to squash their eggs secondly to kill all their yong and last of all to proceed euen to the greater ones and vtterly to destroy them yea and a greeuous punishment lieth vpon him that is negligent in this behalfe as if he were a traitor to his prince and countrey Moreouer within the Island Lemnos there is a certaine proportion and measure set down how many and what quantitie euery man shall kill and they are to exhibit vnto the magistrate a just and true account thereof and namely to shew that measure full of dead Locusts And for this
the world man only is born without them and at the 7 moneth they commonly breed In all other creatures they continue still and stick fast except Men Lions Horses Mules Asses Dogs and such as chew cud for these change their teeth but Lions and dogs cast only the eie-teeth called Canini in Latine The eie-tooth of a Wolfe so it grow on the right side of the head is thought to doe strange matters The great grinders which stand beyond the Eye-teeth in no creature whatsoeuer doe fall out of themselues As for the farthest cheek-teeth in a mans head which be called Genuini 〈◊〉 the Wit-teeth they come about the time that he is 20 yeares old and in many at 80 yeares of age Sure it is that those teeth fall from women in their old age and soone after come againe such women I meane as had no children in their youth And Mutianus hath reported That hee saw one Zancles a citizen of Samothrace who had new teeth comming vp after he was an 104 yeares old Moreouer males ordinarily haue more teeth than the females as we may see in mankind Sheep goats and Swine Timarchus the son of Nicocles the Paphian had a double course of teeth in either jaw He had a brother also who neuer cast his foreteeth and therefore hee wore them before to the verâ—… stumps We reade in Chronicles of one man that had a tooth growing out of the very pallat of his mouth As for the eye-teeth if they be lost by any mischance there neuer grow again any other for them In horses only of all other creatures teeth wax whiter by age for in the rest they turne to be browne and reddish The age of Horses Asses and Mules is knowne by a marke in the teeth a horse hath in all 40. At the end of 30 moneths hee loseth his fore teeth of either chaw as well aboue as beneath the yere following as many euen those that be next namely at what time as they put out those which be called the cheeke teeth At the beginning of the fifth yere he loseth other two but there come vp new in the place in the sixth yere By the seuenth yere he hath all as well those that should come in others place as those which are firme and neuer change A guelding neuer casts his teeth no not his sucking teeth in case he were guelded before Asses in like manner begin to shed their teeth at the 30 moneth of their age and so forward from 6 moneths to 6 moneths and if they fole not before they haue shed their last teeth they are for certaine to be holden barren Kine and Oxen when they be two yeres old do change their teeth Hogs or Swine neuer haue any teeth to fall Now when as these marks are gon out which shew the Age of Horses Asses and such like yee must to know their age go by the ouergrowth standing out of the teeth the greinesse of the haire ouer their brows and the hollow pits thereabout for then are they supposed to be 16 yeares of age As touching men some are thought to haue venome and poison in their teeth insomuch as they be shewed bare and naked against a cleare mirror or looking glasse they wil dimme the beauty thereof yea and kill yong pigeons whiles they be calow and vnplumed But forasmuch as we haue spoken sufficiently of teeth in our treatise as touching the generation of Man wee will passe ouer the rest and proceed vnto other parts saue onely that this is to be obserued and noted How children be sicke when they be about breeding of their teeth And to conclude of all other creatures those are most dangerous with their Teeth which haue them framed like sawes and closing one betweene another Now as concerning Tongues we obserue much diuersitie in them for all creatures are not tongued alike First and formost Serpents haue very thin tongues and the same three-forked blacke of colour â—…ing and ready to pierce and if a man take them forth very long Lizards haue tongues two-forked and full of haires so haue the Seales or Sea calues a double tongue but the tongues of these beforenamed are as small as haires as for the rest their tongues serue them to licke their muffles and lips all about Fishes haue their tongues for the greater part therof cleauing fast to their pallat and in Crocodiles they are so clean throughout But as wel fishes as other creatures of the water haue a fleshy palat which serues them in stead of a tongue to tast withall Lions Libards and all of that sort yea and Cats haue their tongues rough and vneuen made like a file with many small edges lapping one ouer another in such sort as that with licking it wil weare the skin of a man so thin that their spittle and moisture when it commeth neare vnto the bloud and the quick will driue oftentimes into rage and madnesse those whom they so licke yea although otherwise they be made tame and gentle to come to hand As touching the tongues of Purple fishes we haue written already Frogs haue their tongues in the forepart fast to the mouth the hinder part within toward their throat is free and at liberty whereby they keep that croking which we heare at one season of the yeare namely when the males cal to the femals for to ingender then they be called Olalygones for at that time they let down their nether lip somwhat vnder the water that they gargle with their tongue leuell to the water which they receiued into their throat and so while their tongue quauereth withall they make that croking noise abouesaid he that would looke then aduisedly vpon them should see their specks so swoln and stretched out full that they will shine againe he should perceiue their eies ardent and fierie with paines that they take thus with the water Those creatures that haue pricks and stings in their hin-parts are furnished also with tongue and teeth As for Bees their tongue is very long and the Grashoppers put it forth a good way They that haue a fistulous sting or pricke in their mouth are prouided neither of teeth nor tongue In some Insects as namely Pismires the tongue lieth close within Elephants aboue all other beasts haue a large and broad tongue All creatures haue their tongue loose and at libertie at all times each one in their kind man only is oftentimes so tongue tied that needful it is to cut certain strings and veines for to ease it Metellus the high priest and chiefe sacrificer at Rome had such a stutting and stammering tongue by report that against he should dedicate the temple of the goddesse Opifera he labored so with his tongue for vtterance for certaine moneths together took such pains as if he had bin vpon the racke All children by that time that they be seuen yeares old at the farthest speake readily so as they be not by some vnnaturall cause impeached
CHerry-trees Peach-trees and generally all that either haue Greek names or any other but Latine are held for aliens in Italy Howbeit some of them now are infranchised and taken for free denizens among vs so familiar they be made vnto vs and they like the ground so well But of them we will speake in the ranke of those trees that beare fruit For this present we are to treat of those that be meere forrainers and for good lucke sake begin we will with that which of all others is most holesome to wit the Citron tree called the Assyrian tree and by some the Median Apple-tree the fruit whereof is a counterpoison and singular Antidote against all venome The tree it selfe bears the leafe like vnto an Arbut tree mary it hath certain pricks among The Pomecitron is not so good to be chewed and eaten of it selfe howbeit very odoriferous it is as be the leaues also therof which are vsed to be laid in wardrobes among apparel for the smel thereof wil passe into the cloths and preserue them from the moth spider and such like vermin This tree beares fruit at all times of the yere for when some fall for ripenesse others wax mellow and some again begin then but to shew their blossome Many forrainers haue assaied to transplant them and set them in their own countries in regard of their excellent vertue to resist poisons And for this purpose they haue caried yong quick sets or plants of them in earthen pots made for the purpose and inclosed them well with earth howbeit the roots had liberty giuen them to breath as it were at certain holes for the nones because they should not be clunged and pent in prison Which I rather note because I would haue it known once for all and well remembred That all plants which are to be remoued and carried far off must be set very close and vsed in the same order most precisely But for all the care and paines taken about it for to make it grow in other countries yet would it not forget Media and Persia nor like in any other soile but soon die This is that fruit the kernels wherof as I said before the lords and great men of Parthia vse to seeth with their meat for to correct their soure and stinking breaths And verily there is not a tree in all Media of better respect than is the Citron tree As for those trees in the region of the Seres which beare the silk wool or cotton we haue spoken thereof in our Cosmographie when we made mention of that Nation CHAP. IV. ¶ Of Indian Trees and when the Ebene was first knowne at Rome IN like manner discoursed we haue of the talnesse and greatnesse of Indian trees Of all those trees which be appropriate to India Virgil hath highly commended the Ebene aboue all the rest and he affirmeth That it will not grow elswhere But Herodotus assigneth it rather to Aethyopia and saith That euery three yeares the Aethyopians were wont to pay by way of tribute vnto the kings of Persia 100 billets of the timber of that tree together with gold and yuory Moreouer I must not forget since that mine author hath so expressely set it downe that the Ethyopians in the same regard were bound to pay in like manner twentie great and massie Elephants teeth In such estimation was yuorie then namely in the 310 yeare after the foundation of Rome at what time as Herodotus put forth that historie at Thurij in Italy The more maruell it is that we giue so much credit to that writer saying as he doth How that in his time before there was no man knowne in Asia or Greece nor yet to himselfe who had not so much as seen the riuer Po. The Card or Map of Ethiopia which lately was presented and shewed to the Emperor Nero as wc haue before said doth sufficiently testifie That from Syene which confines and bounds the lands of our Empire and dominion as far as to the Island Meroe for the space of 996 miles there is little Ebene found and that in all those parts betweene there be few other trees to be found but Date trees Which peraduenture may be a cause That Ebene was counted a rich tribute and deserued the third place after Gold Iuory Certes Pompey the Great in that solemnitie of triumph for the victorie and conquest of Mithridates shewed one Ebene tree Fabianus is of opinion that it wil not burne howbeit experience sheweth the contrary for take fire it will yea and cast a pleasant and sweet perfume Two kindes there be of Ebene the one which as it is the better so likewise it is rare and geason it carrieth a trunke like another tree without knot the wood thereof is blacke and shining and at the very first sight faire and pleasant to the eie without any art or polishing at all The other is more like a shrub and putteth forth twigs as the Tretrifolie A plant this is commonly to be seene in all parts of India CHAP. V. ¶ Of certaine Thornes and Fig-trees of India THere groweth also among the Indians a Thorne resembling the later kind of Ebene and found to serue for the vse of candles for no sooner commeth it neere vnto the fire but it catcheth a flame the fire leaps presently vnto it Now it remains to speak of those trees which set Alexander the Great into a wonder at what time as vpon his victory he made a voiage for to discouer that part of the world First and formost there is a fig tree there which beareth very small and slender Figs. The property of this tree is to plant and set it selfe without mans help For it spreadeth out with mighty armes and the lowest water-boughes vnderneath doe bend so downward to the very earth that they touch it againe and lie vpon it whereby within one yeares space they will take fast root in the ground and put forth a new Spring round about the Mother-tree so as these branches thus growing seeme like a traile or border of arbors most curiously and artificially made Within these bowers the Sheepherds vse to repose and take vp their harbor in Summer time for shady and coole it is and besides well fenced all about with a set of young trees in manner of a pallaisado A most pleasant and delectable sight whether a man either come neere and looke into it or stand a farre off so faire and pleasant an arbour it is all greene and framed arch-wise in just compasse Now the vpper boughes thereof stand vp on high and beare a goodly tuft and head aloft like a little thicke wood or forrest And the body or trunke of the Mother is so great that many of them take vp in compasse threescore paces and as for the foresaid shadow it couereth in ground a quarter of a mile The leaues of this Tree are verie broad made in forme of an Amazonian or Turkish Targuet which is the reason that the
relish of the salt water naturally of it selfe Neither is the wine that comes from the hil Tmolus in any regard as a wine to be drunke alone but it serues as a sweetcuit to mingle wiith other wines that be hard for thereby their greene verdure wil seeme more mild and pleasant yea and withall to haue their ripeage for no sooner is it tempered therwith but they tast presently elder than they be Next to these in goodnes follow in their course the wines of Sycione Cypres Telmessus Tripolis Berytus Tyrus and Sebennys As for this wine last rehearsed it is made in Aegypt a countrey much renowned for three kinds of grapes there to wit Thasia Aethalos and Peuce Next in price account be these following the Hippodomantian the Mystick Cantharite the Gnidian wine of the first running and vnpressed also that of Catacecaumene a region so called for that it seemeth all burnt of Petra and Mycone As for the wine Mesogâ—…es it is knowne to make head-ach neither is the wine of Ephesus holesome and healthfull because it is sophisticated with a kind of cuit halâ—… sodden called Defrutum and sea-water As for the wine of Apamea by report it comes very neare to a kind of Mede and will very well agree withall like as Praetutium in Italy For otherwise this is the property in generall of al sweet wines that they will not well sort together be good still Touching the wine Protagium it is now grown out of remembrance and yet the Physicians of Asclepiades his sect and schoole gaue praise vnto it next the Italian wines The learned Physician Apollodorus in his treatise that he compiled of good wines which he recommended vnto King Ptolomaeus for to drinke as meet for the health of his person for default of Italian wines then vnknown highly praised the wines in Pontus principally that which is called Naspercenties next to it the Oroeotik the Oeneates that of Leucadia of Ambracia and which he preferreth aboue all the rest the wine of Peparethus and yet he said that there went the lesse name and opinion of it because after sixe yeares it loseth the strength and pleasant tast that it had CHAP. VIII ¶ Seuen kinds of salt wine THus far forth haue we discoursed of the very floure of good wines according to the regions where naturally they come of the grape Now are we to treat of wines compounded And first among such wines is that which they call Biaeon an inuention of the Greeks which aboue all others is most esteemed and great reason for deuised it was for the cure of many maladies as we shall shew hereafter in our treatise of Physick The making wherof is in this manner Take grapes gathered somwhat before they be ripe let them lie to drie and parch in the hot Sunne for three daies and be turned duly thrice a day vpon the fourth day presse them forth for wine put the liquor vp in barrels and so let it worke in the Sun How beit hereto they put a good quantity of salt sea-water But this deuise was learn'd first of a false theeuish knaue who hauing robbed his maister and drunk vp a good deale of his wine filled vp the vessel again and made just measure with sea-water White wine if it be ordered in this sort is called Leucochrum by the Greekes but in other nations the like wine so made is named Tethalassomenon As for Thalassites it is a kind of wine so called for that the vessels when the wine is new tunned be cast into the sea and there let to remaine for a time by which means the wine will soon seeme old and readie to be drunke Furthermore Cato also here among vs hath shewed the way how to make the Greekish Wine Coum of our owne Italian Wine but aboue all he hath set down an expresse rule to let it first take the maturitie and perfection 4 yeres in the Sun As for the wine of Rhodes it is much like to that of Coos But the Phorinean wine is more salt than the wine of the Isle Coos Finally all transmarine or beyond-sea wines are thought in seuen or six yeares at the least to come vnto their middle age CHAP. IX ¶ Fourteene sorts of sweet wines ALwaies the sweeter that they be in tast the lesse fragrant odoriferous they be the thinner and smaller that they be the more euer they smell to the nose Of wines there be four principall colours white yellow red and blacke As for Psythium and Melampsythium they be certaine kinds of cuit hauing a seuerall tast apart by themselues not resembling wine indeed And for Cicibelites made in Galatia it tasts alwaies like new wine so doth Halyntium in Sicily For as touching Syraeum which some call Hepsema we in Latine Sapa i. Cuit it is a meer artificiall thing the deuise of mans wit and no worke of Nature namely when new wine is sodden away a third part for when it boiles to the halfe we then call it Defrutum And in very deed all these be inuentions to sophisticate and counterfeit honie But those before named retaine the naturall tast of the grape and the soile whereof they doe consist Next to these cuit-wines of Candie those of Cilicia Affrick Italy and the prouinces confronting therupon are held for the best Certain it is That they be made of one grape which the Greekes call Stica and we Apiana i. the Muscadell and of another named Scirpula the which haue been suffered a long time to hang in the Sunne vpon the Vine vntill they be scorched and parched or else ouer the vapor of scalding oile Some there be that make them of any sweet grapes whatsoeuer so that they be let to concoct before in the Sun vntil they be white and drie so farre forth as little lesse than half of their weight be consumed which done they stamp them and so gently presse them Then looke how much liquor they haue pressed foorth so much pit water they put to the cake that is pressed that thereof they may haue a cuit of a second running But they that be more curious take vpon them to make a daintier cuit dry the grapes in maner aforesaid but they take forth the stones and graines within they strip them also from the steeles and railes that they hung by and so after they be well drenched and infused in some excellent wine vntill they be swelled and plumpe they presse them And certainly this fashion is simply the best of all others Put to the cake thereof water as before and after the same manner yee shall haue a cuit of a second sort Now there is a kind of wine which the Greeks call Aigleuces that is to say always sweet like new wine of a middle nature between the common simple wine and the sweet and this commeth not vnto it by kind but by heed taken in the boiling for it is not suffered to seeth and work and this is
Daucus or yellow Carot Sauge Panace Acorus or Galangal Conyza or Cunilago Thyme Mandragoras and Squinanth More such wines there were yet which the Greeks called Scyzinum Itaeomelis and Lectispagites but as they be growne now out of vse so the manner of making is vnknown As touching wines made of trees shrubs their maner was to seeth the berries of the green wood of both the Cedars the Cypres the Bay Iuniper Terebinth Pine Calamus and Lentisk in new wine In like maner the very substance of Chamelaea Chamaepithys and Germander Last of all the floures also of the said plants serue to make wines namely by putting into a gallon of new wine in the vat the weight of ten deniers or drams of the floures CHAP. XVII ¶ Of Hydromel and Oxymel i. Honied water and Honied vineger THere is a wine called Hydromel made of water and hony onely but to haue it the better some do prescribe rain water and the same kept fiue yeares for that purpose Others who are more wise and skilfull herein do take raine water newly fallen and presently seethe it vntill a third part be boiled away then they put therto a third part also of old hony in proportion to it and so let them stand together in the Sun for forty daies together from the rising of the Dog-star Others after they haue remained thus mingled and incorporate together ten daies put it vp reserue it close stopped for their vse and this is called Hydromel which being come to some age hath the very tast of wine no place affords better than Phrygia Moreouer Vineger was wont to be tempered with hony See how curious men haue bin to try conclusions in euery thing which they called Oxymel and that in this manner Recipe of hony ten pounds or pints of old vineger fiue pints of sea salt one pound of rain water fiue Sextares i. a gallon within one quart boile them al together at a soft fire vntil they haue had ten plawes or walmes which done poure them out of one vessell into another and so let the liquor stand and settle a long time vntil it be stale All these wines compositions thus brued Themison an Author highly renowned hath condemned and forbidden expressey to be vsed And to say a very truth it seems that the vse of them was neuer but in case of necessity vnlesse a man would beleeue and say that Ipocras spiced wines those that be compounded of ointments are Natures work or that she brought forth plants and trees to no other end but that men should drink them down the throat Howbeit the knowledge surely of such experiments be pleasant and delectable vnto men of great wit and high conceit whose noble spirits cannot be at rest but euer inuentiue and searching into all secrets Now to conclude this point certain it is and past all question that none of all these compositions vnles it be those which come to their perfection by age and long time will last one yeare full out nay most of them will not keep good one moneth to an end CHAP. XVIII ¶ Certaine strange and wonderfull sorts of wine WIne also hath prodigious and miraculous effects for by report in Arabia there is a wine made which being drunk will cause barren women to beare children and contrariwise driue men into madnes But in Achaia principally about Carynia the wine makes women fall into vntimely trauell nay if a woman great with childe do eat but the verie grapes they will slip the fruit of their wombe before their time and yet both grape and wine differ not in tast from others They that drinke the wine comming from the cape Troezen ate thought vnable for generation It is reported that the Thasiens do make two kinds of wine of contrarie operations the one procures sleep the other causeth watching Among them there is a vine called Theriace the grape whereof as also the wine cureth the stings and biting of serpents as it were a most especiall Treacle As for the vine Libanios it carrieth the odour and smell of Frankincense and therefore is vsed in sacrifices to the gods But contrariwise another named Aspendios is vtterly condemned for that purpose and no wine thereof is imployed at the altar they say also that no fowle will touch the grapes thereof There is a kind of grape in Egypt which they call Thasia exceeding sweet it is and looseth the belly But contrariwise there be in Lycia that binde as much and cause costiuenesse The grapes Ecbolides in Egypt if they be eaten cause women with child to be deliuered before their time Some wines there be that as they lie in the very cellar will turn and proue soure about the rising of the Dog-star but afterward wil recouer their verdure and become quick and fresh again In like maner there be wines which vpon the sea will change howbeit the agitation thereof causeth those Wines which endure it to the end to seem twice as old as they be indeed CHAP. XIX ¶ What Wines they be that may not be vsed in sacrifices and what waies there are to sophisticate new wines FOrasmuch as our life stands much vpon religion and diuine seruice wee are to vnderstand That it is held vnlawfull to offer vnto the gods before sacrifice the Wine of any vine that hath not bin cut and pruned or that hath bin smitten or blasted with lightening or standing neere to a jebbit or tree whereon a man hath hanged dead or the grapes whereof haue bin troden by men whose legs or feet haue been wounded neither is that wine allowable for this purpose which hath bin pressed and run from the refuse of grape stones and skins once bruised and crushed in the presse or last of all if the grapes haue bin filed by any ordure or dung fallen from aboue thereupon Moreouer Greeke Wines are reiected from this holy vse because they haue water in them Furthermore the vine it self is holden good to be eaten namely when the burgens and tendrils be first sodden and afterwards preserued and kept in vineger brine or pickle Ouer and besides it were very meet and conuenient to speake also concerning the manner of preparing and ordering of wine seeing that the Greeks haue trauailed in that point seuerally and reduced the rules belonging therto into the form of an Art and namely Euphronius Aristomachus Coniades Hicesias are therein great professors The Africans vse to mitigate and allay the tartnesse of their wines with plastre yea and in some parts of their country with lime The Greeks contrariwise do fortifie and quicken them with clay with pouder of marble with salt or sea water and in some places of Italy they vse to the same effect the shauings and scrapings of stone-pitch Also it is an ordinary thing in Italy and the prouinces thereto confining for to condite their new wines to season them with rosin yea and in some places they mingle therewith the lees of other
or earthen vessels and so they will continue good till new come As for all other plums as they be soon ripe so they are as soone gone It is not long since that in the realm of Granado and Andalusia they began to graffe plums vpon apple-tree stocks and those brought forth plums named Apple-plums as also others called Almond-plums graffed vpon Almond-stocks these haue within their stone a kernel like an Almond and verily there is not a fruit again wherein is seene a wittier deuise to conioine and represent in one and the same subiect two diuers sorts As for the Damascene-plums taking name of Damasco in Syria we haue sufficiently spoken thereof in our treatise of strange trees and yet long since they haue bin knowne to grow in Italy which although they haue a large stone and little carnosity about them yet they neuer wither into wrinkles and riuels when they be dry for that they want the ful strength of the kind Sun which they had in Syria We should do wel to write together with them of the fruit Sebesten which also come from the same Syria albeit now of late they begin to grow at Rome being graffed vpon Soruices As touching peaches in generall the very name in Latine whereby they are called Persica doth euidently shew that they were brought out of Persis first and that it is a fruit not ordinary either in Greece or Natolia but a meere stranger there Contrariwise wilde plums as it is well knowne grow euery where I maruell therefore so much the more that Cato made no mention thereof considering that of purpose he shewed the maner how to preserue and keep diuers wild fruits till new came for long it was first ere Peach trees came into these parts and much adoe there was before they could be brought for to prosper with vs seeing that in the Island Rhodes which was their place of habitation next to Aegypt they beare not at all but are altogether barren And whereas it is said That Peaches be venomous in Persia do cause great torments in them who do eat therof as also that the KK of Persia in old time caused them to be transported ouer into Aegypt by way of reuenge to plague that country and notwithstanding their poisonous nature yet through the goodnes of that soile they became good and holesom all this is nothing but a meere fable a loud lie True it is indeed that the best writers who haue been painful aboue others to search out the truth haue reported so much concerning the tree Persea which is far different from the Peach tree Persica beareth fruit like to Sebesten of color red and willingly would not grow in any country without the East parts and yet the wiser more learned Clerkes do hold That it was not the tree Persea which was brought out of Persis into Egypt for to annoy and plague the country but that it was planted first by K. Perseus at Memphis Whereupon it came that Alexander the Great ordained That all victors who had won the prize at any game there should be crowned with a chaplet of that tree to honor the memoriall of his great grandsires father But how euer it be certaine it is that this tree continueth greene all the yere long and beareth euermore fruit one vnder another new and old together And to returne again to our Plum-trees euident it is that in Cato's time they were not knowne in Italy but all the Plum-trees which we now haue are come since he died CHAP. XIIII ¶ Of nine and twenty kinds of Fruits contained vnder the names of Apples OF Apples that is to say of fruits that haue tender skins to be pared off there bee many sorts For as touching Pome-citrons together with their tree we haue already written The Greekes call them Medica according to the name of the country from whence they first came in old time As for Iujubes as also the fruit Tuberes they bee likewise strangers as well as the rest and long it is not since they arriued first in Italy the one sort out of Africk the other namely Iujubes out of Syria Sextus Papinius whom my self in my time saw Consul of Rome was the first man that brought them both into these parts namely in the later end of Augustus Caesar the Emperor and planted them about the rampiers of his campe for to beautifie the same Howbeit to say a truth their fruit resembled rather berries than apples yet they make a goodly shew vpon the rampiers and no maruell since that now adayes whole groues of trees begin to ouertop and surmount the houses of priuat persons Concerning the fruit Tuberes there be two sorts thereof to wit the white and the reddish called also Sericum of the colour of silke The Apples named Lanata are held in manner for strangers in Italy and are knowne to grow but in one place thereof and namely within the territory of Verona Couered they be all ouer with a kind of down or fine cotton which albeit both quince and peach be clad and ouergrown with in great plenty yet these alone cary the name thereof for otherwise no special propertie are they known by to commend them A number of apples there are besides that haue immortalised their first founders and inventers who brought them into name caused them to be known abroad in the world as if therin they had performed some worthy deed beneficiall to all mankinde In which regard why should I think much to rehearse reckon them vp particularly by name for if I be not much deceiued thereby will appeare the singular wit that some men imployed in graffing trees and how there is not so small a matter so it be wel and cunningly done but is able to get honor to the first author yea and to eternise his name for euer From hence it comes that our best apples take their denominations of Matius Cestius Manlius Claudius As for the quince-apples that come of a quince graffed vpon an apple stock they are called Appiana of one Appius who was of the Claudian house and first deuised and practised that feat These apples cary the smel with them of quinces they beare in quantitie the bignesse of the Claudian apples and are in color red Now lest any man should think that this fruit came into credit by reason only of partiall fauor for that the first inuentor was a man descended from so antient noble a family let him but think of the apples Sceptiana which are in as great request as they for their passing roundnesse and they beare the name of one Sceptius their first inuentor who was no better than the son of a slaue lately infranchised Cato maketh mention of apples called Quiriana as also of Scantiana which he saith the maner is to put vp in vessels and so keep them But of all others the last that were adopted and tooke name of their patrons and inuentors be Petisia
greedily nibble thereupon vntill they haue made way and pierced into them and by that means let in at first the breath of the warme Sun and that comfortable and vegetatiue aire besides that helpeth to ripen them Soon after they suck vp and spend the milky humor which they find there and which keeps the figs still as it were in their infancie and hindreth their speedy and timely maturitie True it is that the figs in time would ripen of themselues by the power and benefit of Nature only how beit skilfull and industrious husbandmen take order alwaies to set these wild fig trees neere to the place where other fig trees grow but with due regard of the winde side that when the foresaid gnats breake forth and are ready to fly out a blast of wind might carry them to the other And hereupon came the deuise and inuention to bring whole swarms casts of them as they hang one to another from other places that they might settle vpon the figs to consume the raw moisture within Now if the soile be lean and hungry and the fig trees growing therupon exposed to the North wind there is no such need of this help for the figs will dry sufficiently of themselues by reason as well of the scituation of the place as the clifts and rifts in them which will effect that which the gnats or flies aboue named might performe The like effect is to be seen also where much dust is namely if a fig tree grow neere vnto a high-way much frequented and trauelled by passengers For the nature of dust is to dry and soke vp the superfluous moisture of the milke within figs. And therefore when they are thus dried whether it be by the meanes of dust or of the said flies feeding which is called Caprification they fall not from the tree so easily by reason they are discharged of that liquid substance which maketh them both tender and also ponderous weighty and brittle withall All figs ordinarily are tender and soft in handling Those which be ripe haue small graines within them their succulent substance besides when they begin to ripen is white like milke but when they are perfectly ripe it is of the colour of hony They will hang vpon the tree vntil they be old and when they are aged they yeeld a certain liquor which distilleth from them in maner of a gum and then in the end become dry The better sort of figs haue this honor and priuiledge to be kept in boxes and cases for the purpose and chiefly those which come from the Isle Ebusus which of all others are the very best and largest yea and next to them those that grow in the Marrucines country But where they are in more plenty they put them vp in great vessels called Orcae as namely in Asia also in barrels pipes as at Ruspina a city in Barbary And in very truth the people of those countries make that vse of them when they be very dry that they serue both for bread and meat For Cato setting downe an order for dyet and victuals fit and sufficient for labourers ordained that they should be cut short of their other pittance when figs are ripe and make vp their ful meals with it And it is not long since the manner came vp to eat fresh new figs with salt and poudered meats in stead of cheese And for to be eaten in this sort the figs called Coctana whereof we haue written before and the dried figges Caricae are commended as also the Cauneae which when M. Crassus should imbarque in that expedition against the Parthians wherein he was slain presaged ill fortune and warned him not to go forward namely when at the very instant that he was ready to set foot a ship-bord there was a fellow heard to cry those figs for to be sold pronouncing aloud Cauneas Cauneas which word in short speaking was all one with Cave ne eas i. Beware of this voiage and go it not All these sorts of figges L. Vitellius brought out of Syria into his ferm or manor that he had neere Alba hauing L. Gouernor or Lieutenant generall in those parts namely in the later end of Tiberius Caesar the Emperor and the same Vitellius was afterward Censor at Rome CHAP. XX. ¶ Of Medlars three kinds of them MEdlars and Seruices may well and truely be ranged in the ranke of Apples and Peares Medlars be of three sorts namely Anthedon Setania and the third which they call Gallicum i. the French Medlar which is of a bastard nature yet it resembles the Anthedon rather than the other As for the Setanian Medlar the fruit is greater and whiter than the rest also the kernels or stones within are of a more soft substance and not altogether so wooddy and hard The rest are smaller than these Setania or common Medlars but they haue a better smell and more odoriferous and withall will last longer The tree it selfe that beareth Medlars is reckoned among the greatest sort the leaues before they fall wax red the roots be many in number and run downe right deep into the ground by which meanes vnneth or verie hardly they be quite rooted vp This tree was not known in Italy by Cato's dayes CHAP. XXI ¶ Of Services foure kinds OF Seruices there be foure sundry sorts differing one from another for some of them are round like apples others pointed at the end as Peares a third kinde are fashioned like egs as some long or tankard apples and these are apt to be soon soure For sweet sent and pleasant tast the round excell all others the rest haue a rellish of wine The best kinde of them are they that haue soft tender leaues about their steles whereby they hang. The fourth sort they call Torminale allowed onely for the remedie that they affoord to mitigate the torments and wringing of the colique This tree is neuer without fruit howbeit the smallest of all the rest and differeth from the other for it beareth leaues very like to the Plane There are none of them that beare fruit before they be three yeares old Lastly Cato would haue Seruises to be preserued and condite in Cuit CHAP. XXII ¶ Of the Wall-nut THe next place to these for bignes the Walnuts doe challenge which they cannot claime for their credit and authoritie and yet they are in some request among other licentious and wanton Fescennine ceremonies at weddings for lesse they be than Pine nuts if a man consider the grosnesse of the body outwardly but in proportion therto they haue a much bigger kernel within Moreouer Nature hath much graced and honoured these nuts with a peculiar gift she hath endued them with namely a double robe wherewith they are clad the first is a tender and soft husk the next a hard and wooddy shel which is the cause that at mariages they serue for religious ceremonies resembling the manifold tunicles and membranes wherin the infant is lapped and enfolded within the
good husbandry if so be a man haue the cast of it to eare breake them vp skilfully As for the plaines they are not all of them exposed to the Sun or subiect to the wind more than need requireth And to speake of frosts mists and fogs there be Vines as we haue said already which are nourished and fed with them And to conclude hereby we may see that in euery thing there is some one deep secret or other wherein it behoueth each man to employ his spirit and set his mind for to search them throughly and find them out what shall we say then to this That oftentimes those things which haue bin approoued by long experience and many obseruations become otherwise and change their vsuall manner In Thessalie about Larissa the whole region by reason of a lake that was let out and drained drie prooued much colder and the Oliues which there grew before left bearing and died all vpon it In like sort neer vnto Aenos the Vines were all scorched and burnt by occasion that the course of the riuer Ebrus was brought neere vnto them an accident that beforetime neuer befell vnto them Semblably about the citie Philippi the whole country being made drie by sluces and trenches artificiall altered withall the whole disposition of the aire and weather and changed the very habite of the heauen aboue their heads But in the territory of Syracusa the forraine Coloners that thither came to inhabit and practise husbandry by ridding the ground from all the stones marred all the corn in the country so mirie and durtie it was by that meanes vntil such time as they were driuen to lay the stones againe where they had them In Syria the husbandmen goe lightly ouer with their plough take no deep stitch in making their furrowes for feare of the stony rocke lying ebbe vnder the good ground which in Summer season will burne all their graine and seed sowne there Now there be certain parts of the world where a man shall see one and the same effect to proceed both of extreame heat and also of excessiue cold Thracia is exceeding cold and thereby plentifull in corne Africke and Aegypt be as hot and yet come not after it for fertilitie in that kind In Chalcia an Island belonging to the Rhodians there is one place aboue the rest so fruitful that the Barly which was sowed in the due time season of the yere they mow once and presently put it into the ground againe which will be ready to be cut downe the second time with other corne in haruest In the Venafrane tract within the realme of Naples the grauellie ground is thought meetest for Oliue trees therin they bear most plentifully contrariwise about Boetica in Spaine the fattest soile is best for that purpose The excellent grape that makes the good Punicke wine ripeneth soon vpon the very rockes but the Caecube Vines stand soaked drenched as it were in the marish low grounds of Pomptinum See what a difference and diuersitie there is in causes to make this variety in sundry plots of ground Caesar 〈◊〉 being conuented before the Censors and there pleading his cause affirmed openly that the plaines of Rosea were the very fat of Italy and resembled the kell or leafe of a fed and franked swine wherein quoth he if a man left forks or props to day they will bee ouergrowne and couered with grasse by to morrow But surely this ground is good for nothing but pasture Yet notwithstanding Nature would haue vs still to learne and grow skilfull euery day more than other and for that intent she hath laid open the defects and imperfections of the ground euen there whereas the commodities thereof be neither so certain nor so well knowne And therefore let vs in the first place speake of those faults for which the earth is blamed CHAP. V. ¶ Sundry sorts of earth IF a man would know which is a lean hungry bitter ground there is no better experiment and proofe thereof than by the blackish misliking and vnkind herbs growing thereupon like as when they come vp scortched and burnt they shew a cold soile also when they seem il fauored and vnpleasant to the eie the earth no doubt is soked and drowned in wet As for red sandy ground and clay you need go no farther than to your owne eie-sight And such soiles as these be is of all other hardest to be wrought and tilled they so clog and load both the harrow teeth and the plow-shares with huge and heauie clods Howbeit the ground that is thus churlish to be eared and husbanded is not alwaies bad and naught for increase But it fareth cleane contrary with the pale and wan ashie earth as also with the white sandy soile for the barren ground is soon found by a thicke and callous crust that it hath euen at the first dent of culter or stroke of mattocke Cato setteth down briefely as his maner is all the defects and faults of ground in these words Take heed quoth hâ—… of a rotten ground and see that you stir it neither with cart nor touch it with beast What should we think was his meaning by this term of his that he should feare rotten ground so much as to forbid in a manner to tread and goe thereupon Let vs call to mind the rottennesse that is in wood and thereby shall we find those faults that he abhorreth and detesteth so much in the earth In good faith by rotten earth hee vnderstandeth dry spungeous and full of holes rugged hoary eaten old and hollow So as in that one significant word Cariosa hee said more than could be expressed possibly by any multip icity of language whatsoeuer for if a man would rip vp to the quicke the imperfections that are in grounds he should find that some pieces there be of it that may be termed truly old and ouerworne not for any age for who can say properly that earth is subiect to old age but by reason of their naturall defects in regard wherof a ground may be weake feeble barren and no longer good for to bring forth any thing The same Cato iudgeth That ground to be principall which lieth at the foot of an hill and runneth forth in manner of a plaine into the South which is the very scituation of all Italy and by a blackish and swart earth which he calleth Pulla he meaneth a gentle tender and mellow soile And this we will determine to be the best simply both for worke or tillage and also for gaine and increase now let vs if ye please stand a little vpon this word Tenera i. Tender which he vseth in this sence you shall find a maruellous signification thereof and that he implieth thereby as much as your heart can wish to be in a ground That is it which is so temperat in fertility that is it which to be wrought is so gentle soft pliable and mellow neither wet nor yet dry and thirsty
Now doth this ground shine againe after the plough-share resembling that veine of earth which Homer the very fountaine and spring of all good wits reported to haue bin engrauen by a god in the armour of Achilles adding moreouer that the said earth looked black withall wherein hee obserued a wonderfull piece of workemanship notwithstanding it was wrought in gold This is that ground I say which beeing new broken and turned vp with the plough the shrewd and busie birds seeke after and goe vnder the plough-share for it this is it that the very Rauens follow the plough man hard at heeles for yea and are readie for greedinesse to pecke and job vnder his very feet And here in this place I cannot chuse but relate the opinion that is currant among our roiotous and delicate gallants which some other thing also making for our purpose in the discourse of this argument which wee haue in hand Certes Cicero a man reputed as he was no lesse indeed for a second light of all good learning and literature Better are esteemed quoth hee the sweet compositions and ointments which tast of earth than of saffron where note by the way that this great Clearke chose to vse the word of tast rather than of smell in such odoriferous perfumes and mixtures Well to speake at a word surely that ground is best of all other which hath an aromaticall smell and tast with it Now if we list moreouer to be better instructed what kind of sauour and odour that should be which we would so gladly find in the earth we may oftentimes meet with that sent euen when she is not stirred with the plough but lieth stil and quiet namely a little before the sun-setting especially where a rainbow seemeth to settle pitch her tips in the Horizon also when after some long and continuall drought it beginneth to rain for then being wet and drenched therwith the earth will send vp a vapor and exhalation conceiued from the Sun so heauenly and diuine as no perfume how pleasant soeuer it be is comparable vnto it This smell there must be in it when you ere it vp with the plough which if a man find once he may be assured it is a right good ground for this rule neuer faileth so as to say a truth it is the very smel and nothing els that will iudge best of the earth and such commonly are new broken grounds where old woods were lately stocked vp for all men by a generall consent do commend such for excellent Moreouer the same ground for bearing is held to be far better whensoeuer it hath rested between and either lien ley or fallow whereas for vineyards it is clean contrary and therefore the more care and diligence is to be emploied in chusing such ground least wee approoue and verifie their opinion who say That the soile of all Italie is alreadie out of heart and weary with bearing fruit This is certaine that both there and elsewhere the constitution of the aire and weather both giueth and taketh away the opportunitie of good husbandrie that a man cannot otherwhiles do what he would for some kind of grounds there is so fat and ready to resolue into mire and dirt that it is impossible to plough them and make good worke after a shower of raine Contrariwise in Byzacium a territory of Africke it is far otherwise for there is not a better and more fruitfull piece of ground lieth without dore than it is yeelding ordinarily 150 fold let the season be dry the strongest teeme of oxen that is cannot plough it fall there once a good ground shower one poore asse with the help of a silly old woman drawing the plough-share at another side will be able to go round away with it as I my selfe haue seen many a time and often And whereas some great husbands there be that teach vs to inrich and mend one ground with another to wit by spreading fat earth vpon a lean and hungry soile likewise by casting drie light and thirstie mould vpon that which is moist and ouer-fat it is a meere follie and wastfull expence both of time and trauaile for what fruit can he euer looke to reape from such a mingle mangle of ground CHAP. VI. ¶ Of the earth which Britaine and France loue so well THe Britaines and Frenchmen haue deuised another meanes to manure their ground by a kind of lime-stone or clay which they call Marga i. Marle And verily they haue a great opinion of the same that it mightily inricheth it maketh it more plentiful This marle is a certaine fat of the ground much like vnto the glandulous kernels growing in the bodies of beasts and it is thickned in manner of marrow or the kernell of fat about it CHAP. VII ¶ The discourse of these matters continued according to the Greekes THe Greekes also haue not ouerpassed this in silence for what is it that they haue not medled withall The white clay or earth wherewith they vse to marle their grounds in the territorie of Megara those onely I meane which are moist and cold they call Leucargillae These marles all the kind of them do greatly inrich France and Britaine both and therefore it would not be amisse to speak of them more exactly In old time there were two sorts therof and no more but of late daies as mens wits are inuentiue euery day of one thing or other they haue begun to find out more kindes and to vse the same for there are now diuers marles the white the red the Columbine the clay soile the stony and the sandy and all these are but two in nature to wit either hard and churlish or else gentle and fat The triall of both is knowne by the handling and a twofold vse they yeeld either to beare corne onely or els for grasse and pasture also The stonie or grauelly soile is good only for to nourish corne which if it be white withall and the pit thereof found among springs or fountains it wil cause the ground to be infinite fruitfull but it is rough in handling and if it be laid too thick vpon the lands or leyes it wil burn the very ground The next to it is the red marle called also Capnumargos which hath intermingled in it a certaine small stony grit full of sand This stony marle the manner is to break and bruise vpon the very lands and for the first yeares hardly can the straw be mowne or cut downe for the said stones Lighter is this marle than the rest by the one halfe and therefore the cariage thereof into the field is least chargeable It ought to be spred and laid thin some thinke that it standeth somewhat vpon salt But both the one and the other will serue well for fifty yeares and the ground inriched thereby will during that time yeeld plenty as well of corne as grasse CHAP. VIII ¶ Sundry sorts of Earth and Marle OF those marles which are found
ripeneth sooner or later For in Aegypt Barley is readie to be reaped in the sixt moneth after it was sowne and Wheat in seuen but in the region of Hellas in Greece the Barley tarieth seuen moneths and in Peloponnesus or Morea eight As for wheat and such like hard corne longer it is ere it be ripe and ready for the sycle All Corne that groweth aloft vpon a stalke or straw beareth the graines arranged spikewise and as if they were plaited and braided like a border of haire In Bean stalks and other such like pulse the cods grow in alternatiue course some on the right side others on the left in order Wheat and such like spiked corne withstand the winter cold better than Pulse but these yeeld a stronger food and fill the belly sooner Wheat Rie and such like grain are well wrapped within many tunicles Barley for the most part lieth bare and naked so doth Arinca i. a kind of Rice or Amel corn and Oats especially The straw of wheat and Rie is commonly taller than that of Barly But the eiles of Barley are more rough and prickie than those of the other Pol-wheat both red and white yea and Barley also is threshed and driuen out of the husk vpon a floore and being thus threshed clean and pure it is either ground or sowne againe without any parching or drying in a furnace Contrariwise the Beare corne of Bearded wheat Far Millet and Panick cannot possibly be made clean vnlesse they be first sendged and so dried These sorts of graine therefore vse to be sowed raw and rude with their very huls like as the Beare corn or bearded Far men are wont to keep still inclosed within the husk against seed time and neuer parch or dry it at the fire Of all the sorts of grain before rehearsed Barley is the lightest for a Modius or pecke thereof seldome weigheth aboue 15 pounds whereas the like measure of Beans poiseth 22. The bearded corne Far is yet more ponderous than it and Wheat more than all the rest In Aegypt they vse to make certain frumenty meat or naked grotes of a kind of Rice or white Amel-corn called Olyra which is among them holden for the third sort of Spike-corne In Gaule likewise they haue a kinde of frumentie corne or gurts by themselues named in their language Brance and with vs in Italy and about Rome Sandalum this grain is of all others most neat and faire and this singular propertie it hath besides different from the rest That ordinarily in euery measure called Modius it yeeldeth more bread by foure pound weight than any other corne husked and dressed in maner aforesaid Verrius reporteth That the people of Rome for 300 yeares together vsed no other meat than the grotes made of common Wheat And as touching Wheat there be many sorts therof distinguished by the names of the Regions and countries where they be found growing Howbeit for my part I thinke verily that there is no wheat in the world comparable to ours here in Italy for it surpasseth all others both in whitenesse and also in weight by which two marks especially as it is knowne from the rest so it is reputed for the very best And if you take the wheat growing in the mountain countries of Italy the best haply of forrein regions may match it and that is the wheat of Boeotia the principall of all others next to it is that which growes in Sicily and then that of Africk may be ranged in the last place in a third rank is to be reckoned the Thracian and Syrian Wheat and after them the Aegyptian in regard of the weight that it carieth Now these degrees of weight we gather by the proportion assigned to champions and wrestlers whose allowance was much like to the liurie giuen to laboring horses and as much in maner would their paunches both require and receiue for according as they could eare of the one sort more measures than of the other so arose these distinct degrees in the weight aboue said The Greeks make great account of the Wheat growing by Pontus and highly commend it but this neuer came into Italy neither know wee what it is The same Grecians preferred before all other grain these three sorts to wit Dracontias Strangias and Selinusium esteeming the goodnesse of the corn by the thicknesse and bignes of the straw and attributing these three kinds by that signe and argument to the goodnesse and riches of the soile and therefore they prescribed to sow this corn in a fat and battle ground But the lightest in weight and poorest in substance because it required much nutriment they appointed to be sowed in moist places Of this opinion and iudgment were the antient Greeks during the reign of Alexander the Great at what time as Greece was in the floure and height of her glory as hauing the monarchie and soueraigntie ouer the whole world Howbeit before his death 145 yeares or thereabout Sophocles the Poet in a Tragedie entituled Triptolemus praised the Italian wheat aboue all other for in effect thus he saith word forword Et fortunatam Italiam frumento canére candido And Italy a land I say so happy and so blest Where stand the fields all hoare and gray with white Wheat of the best And in very truth our Italian wheat at this day carieth the name alone in that regard I wonder therefore so much the more at the modern Greeks of late time who made no mention at all of this ourwheat Now at this present of all those kinds of outlandish wheat which are transported by sea into Italy the lightest is that which commeth out of France and Chersonesus i. the streits of Callipolis for a Modius or peck thereof containeth not aboue 20 pound weight weigh the very graine it selfe as it groweth vncleansed huske and all The Sardinian wheat is more weighty than it by halfe a pound in a Modius And that of Alexandria exceedeth the French halfe a pound and one third part in euery measure before named And this is the very poise also of the Sicilian wheat The Boeotian is yet a full pound heauier and that of Africk as much and three fourth parts of a pound more In Lombardy that tract of Italy beyond the riuer Po I know ful wel that a Modius of their wheat weighed 25 pounds and about Clusium 26. But be the corne whatsoeuer it will this is the ordinarie proportion by the course of Nature that being made into down-right houshold bread for soldiers and to serue the campe it ought to weigh as much as it did in corne and one third part ouer and aboue As also this is a rule That the best Wheat is that which to euerie Modius will take and drink vp a gallon of water ere it be made dough And yet some kindes of Wheat there be that will yeeld the full weight aforesaid in bread and neuer count the water going thereto namely that which commeth
are sufficient to refresh and nourish the corne Virgil is of opinion That fallowes would be made euery yeare and that our corn field should rest betweene whiles and beare but each other yere And surely I doe find this rule of his most true and doubtlesse right profitable in case a man haue land enough for to let his grounds play them and rest euery second yere But how if a man is streighted that way and hath no such reach and circuit lying to his liuing Let him help himselfe this way let him I say sow his good red wheat Far against the next yere vpon that ground from whence he gathered this yeare a crop of Lupines Vetches or Beans or some such grain as doth inrich and muck the ground For this also is principally to be noted that some corne is sowne for no other purpose but by the way as it were to aduance and help others to fructifie howbeit small fruit and increase to speak of ariseth thereby as I haue obserued once for all in the booke immediatly going before because I would not willingly reiterate and inculcate one thing often For herein regard especially ought to be had vnto the nature and property of euery soile CHAP. XXII ¶ Of certaine countries exceeding fertile and fruitfull Of a vine bearing grapes twise in one yeare Of the difference and diuersitie obserued in waters THere is in Africke or Barbary a city called Tacape scituate in the midst of the sands as men go to the Syrts and Leptis the great the territory lying about which city by reason that it is so well watered is maruellous fruitfull and indeed passeth a wonder and is incredible Within this tract there is a fountain which serueth abundantly for three miles well neer euery way the head therof verily is large enough otherwise howbeit the inhabitants about it are serued with water from thence by turns and dispensed it is among them at certain set hours and not otherwise There standeth there a mighty great date-tree hauing vnder it growing an oliue vnder which there is a fig-tree and that ouerspreadeth a Pomegranat tree vnder the shade whereof there is a Vine and vnder the compasse thereof first they sow Frument or eared corne after that Pulse and then worts and herbs for the pot all in one and the same yere Euery one of these rehearsed liue joy and thriue vnder the shade of others Euery foure cubits square of this soile taking the measure of a cubit from the elbow not to the fingers ends stretched out in length but clasped together into the fist is sold for 4 deniers Roman but this one surpasseth all the rest The vines in the said territory beare twice a yeare and yeeld their grapes ripe for a double Vintage So exceeding fruitfull is the soile that vnlesse the ranknesse thereof were abated and taken downe by bearing sundry fruits one vnder and after another so that it were imploied to one thing alone the inhabitants should neuer haue any good thereof for by reason of the ouer-ranknesse each seuerall fruit would perish and come to nought but now by meanes of plying and following it still with seed a man shall gather one fruit or other ripe all the yeare long And for certaine it is knowne that men cannot ouercharge the ground no nor feed the fertilitie of it sufficiently Moreouer all kinds of water are not of like nature nor of equall goodnesse for to drench and refresh the ground In the prouince of Narbon now Languedoc there is a famous wel or fountain named Orge within the very head wherof there grow certaine herbes so much desired and sought for by kine and oxen that to seeke and get a mouthfull of them they will thrust in their whole heads ouer their eares vntill they meet therewith but howsoeuer these herbs seeme to spring grow within the water certain it is that nourished they are not but by rain from aboue And therefore to conclude knit vp all in one word Let euery man be wel acquainted with the nature both of his own land which he hath and also of the water wherewith he is serued CHAP. XXIII ¶ Of the diuers qualities of the soile Also the manner of dunging or manuring grounds IF you meet with a ground of your owne which we called heretofore by the name of Tenera the floure indeed and principall of all others after you haue taken off a crop of Barley you may very wel sow Millet thereupon and when that is inned and laid vp in the barne proceed to Raddish Last of all after they be drawne there may be barly or common wheat sowed in the place like as they do in Campaine for surely such a piece of ground needs no other tillage but often sowing Another order there is besides this in sowing of such soile namely that where there grew the red wheat Adoreum or Far there the ground should rest all the four winter moneths and in the Spring be sowed again with Beans so that it alwaies be imploied and kept occupied vntill Winter without any intermission And say that the ground be not altogether so fat yet it may be ordered so that it be euer bearing by turns in this sort that after the Frumenty or Spike corne be taken off there be pulse sowne three times one after another But in case the ground be ouer poore and lean it must be suffered to rest and take repose two yeares in three Moreouer many husbandmen do hold that it is not good to sow white corne or Frument vpon any land but such as lay fallow and rested the yeare before Howeuer it be the principall thing in this part of Agriculture consisteth in dunging wherof I haue written already in the former book next to this This one point only is resolued vpon by all men that none of our grounds ought to be sowed vnlesse they be manured and mucked before And yet herein must we be directed by certain rules peculiar and proper thereunto as follow Millet Panick Rapes Turneps or Navews ought neuer to be sowed but in a ground that is dunged If there be no compost laid vpon a ground sow vpon it Frument or bread-corne rather than Barley Likewise in grounds that rest and lie fallow euery other yere albeit in all mens opinion they are thought good for to beare Beans yet notwithstanding beans loue better wheresoeuer they come to be sowed in a ground but newly mucked He that mindeth to sow at the fal of the leafe must in the month of September before spread his dung turn it in with the plough and so incorporat it with the soile presently after a shower of rain euen so also if a man purpose to sow in the spring let him in the winter time dispose of his mucke vpon the lands and spread it The ordinary proportion is to lay 18 tumbrels or loads therof vpon euery acre Throwne abroad it must be also before it be dried and ere you sow or els so
vnskilfull in this part of Philosophie as touching the course and order of the Starres which beeing not onely discouered but also assoiled and cleared their minds with better contentment may goe from the contemplation of heauen to the rest of Natures workes and see those things by the effects which they could not possibly foresee by their causes CHAP. XXV ¶ The times and seasons of the rising and setting of Starres digested into order as well by day as night IN the first place there offereth it selfe vnto vs one difficultie aboue the rest so intricate as hardly is it possible to resolue vpon it namely as touching the very daies of the yere how many they be in number and the reuolution of the Sunne how and when he returneth againe to to the same point For wheras some do account the solare yere to be 365 daies just others adde thereunto certaine quadrants or foure parts of day and night together to wit six houres euery yeare which beeing put together make the fourth yeare Bissextile or Leape yeare so as it is in manner impossible to assigne the certaine daies and houres of the Starres apparition or occultation Ouer and besides how obscure how darke and confused all this matter is appeareth manifestly herin That the times and seasons of the yere prefixed by ancient writers fal not out accordingly and namely in the obseruation of the winter seasons tempests by them set down for one while you shall haue them to preuent and come sooner by many daies than ordinarie which the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another while to draw back and come later which they terme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yea and for the most part this happeneth by reason that the influence of the coelestiall starres reacheth sooner or later to the earth and therafter sheweth the effects so as the common people when they see the said foule weather past and all cleare and faire againe say then and not before That such a planet or Starre hath performed his course and is vpon the point of his Tropicke or return againe Moreouer considering that al these occurrents depend much vpon those stars which be set fixed in the firmament yet shall ye haue the Planets play their parts besides which by their motions and operations worke no small effects vpon the earth as we haue shewed before and namely causing betweene-whiles stormes of raine and haile out of course no maruell then If they trouble our heads and put vs out of our account interrupting that order of the fixed Stars vpon which we conceiued and built our hope of the faire season and our new spring And herin not we only that be men faile of our reckoning but other liuing creatures also be deceiued which naturally haue much more sense and vnderstanding of these workes of Nature than we in as much as their whole life standeth thereupon for the Summer-birds as great fore-sight as they haue of such seasons and tempests are ouer-taken and killed by Winter frosts and cold comming sooner than they looked for and before they be gone out of the countrey as also winter foules miscarrie by the hot weather of summer continuing longer than it was woont and holding on still after they be come Hereupon it is that Virgil expressely willeth vs to learne throughly the skill of the wandring Starres or Planets also and principally giueth vs warning to marke the course of that cold Planet Saturne But now to come more particularly to the signs which fore-token the Spring some there be that goe by the Butterflie and hold that their brood comming abroad is an assured token that the Spring is come for that these creatures so feeble are not able to abide any cold howbeit this was checked that very yere wherin I wrote this Book or History of Natures work for seen it was and marked very well that 3 flights of them one after another were killed with the cold weather that surprised them thrice for that they were stirring too early and came abroad ouersoon Yea and the very birds who are our guests in warm weather visited vs fiue or sixe daies before Februarie made a goodly shew of a timely Spring putting vs in good hope that al cold weather was gone howbeit there ensued a most bitter after winter streight vpon it that nipped and killed them in manner euerie one Hard and doubtfull therefore is the case that whereas first and principally we were to fetch our rule from the heauens to guide and direct vs then afterwards we should be driuen to goe by other signes and arguments meere conjecturall But aboue all the cause of this incertitude and difficultie is partly the conuexity of the cope of heauen and partly the diuerse climats obserued in the globe of the earth by meanes whereof one and the same star seemeth to rise at sundrie times in diuerse countres and appears sooner or later to some than to others and therefore the cause depending thereupon is not in all places of like validity nor sheweth the same effects alwaies at the same times And yet there is one difficultie more arising from those Authors who writing of one and the same thing haue deliuered diuers opinions according to the sundry climates wherein they were at what time as they obserued the figure and constitution of the heauens Now were there of these Astronomers three Sects to wit the Chaldaeans the Aegyptians and the Greekes To which there may be added a fourth which among vs Caesar the Dictatour first erected who obseruing the course of the Sun and taking with him also the aduise of Sosigenes a learned Mathematitian and skilfull Astronomer in his time reduced the yeare vnto the said reuolution Howbeit in this calculation of his there was found an error and short he came of the marke which he aimed at by reason that there was no Bissextile or leap yere by him inserted but after 12 yeres Now when it was obserued by this reckoning that the sun had performed his reuolution sooner than the yere turned about which before was wont to preuent the course of the Sun this error was reformed and after euery fourth yeare expired came about the Bissextile aforesaid and made al streight Sosigenes also himselfe albeit he was reputed a more curious and exquisite Mathematician than the rest yet in three seuerall treatises that he made retracting or correcting that in one booke that he had set down in another seemed euermore to write doubtfully and left the thing in as great ambiguitie vndertermined as he found it As for these writers whose names I haue alleadged prefixed in the front of this present volume now in hand they haue likewise deliuered their opinions as touching this point but hardly shal you find two of them in one the same mind Lesse maruell then if the rest haue varied one from another who may pretend for their excuse the diuers tracts and climates wherein they wrote As for those who liued in
way I cannot ouerpasse the foolish superstition of the Aegyptians who vse to sweare by Garlicke and Onions calling them to witnesse in taking their othes as if they were no lesse than some gods Of Onions the Greeks haue deuised sundry kinds to wit the Sardian Samothracian Alsiden Setanian Schista i. the clouen Onion and Ascalonia i. little onions or Scalions taking that name of Ascalon a city in Iury. They haue all of them this propertie besides to make ones eyes water and to fetch out teares being smelled to especially they of Cypros but the Gnidian onions least of all others cause one to weep In all kinds of them the body of the root consisteth of a certaine fatty pulp or cartilage For quantity the Setanian be least except the Tusculane howbeit such are sweet The clouen onions the scalions aforesaid are proper for to make sauce of As touching that kind of them called Schista gardners leaue them aâ—… winter in the ground with their leaues or head standing in the spring they pluck off the said leaues and then shal you see spring forth others vnderneath according to the same clifts and diuisions whereupon they tooke the name Schista After which example the like practise in all other kindes is prescribed namely to pull the leaues off that they should grow rather big in root than run vp to seed The Ascalonian onions haue a proper nature qualitie by themselues for they be barren as it were from the root and therefore the Greeks would haue them to be sowed of seed and not otherwise to be set of heads Besides that they should be translated replanted again late about the spring at what time as they put forth blade for by this vsage say they you shall haue them burnish and grow thicke yea and then make hast for amends of the former time foreslipt These must be gathered betimes for after they be once ripe quickly will they rot in the earth if you make not the better hast to pluck them vp If you set or plant their heads a stalke they wil put forth and seed vpon it but the onion it selfe will consume and come to nothing Moreouer there is a difference obserued in the colour of onions for they that grow in Samos and Sardis be most white those also of Candy be much esteemed and some there be who doubt whether they be the same that the Ascalonian or no for that if they be sowed of seed their heads or roots will grow big set them they will be all stem and seed and no head at all As for the rellish or taste that onions haue there is no great diuersitie but that some are sweeter than other Our onions here in Italy be all of two sorts principally the one which serue for sauce to season our meats which the Greeks call Gethyon Chibbols but our countrymen the Latines Pallacana these are sowne commonly in March April and May the other is the great headed onion and these be put into the ground either after the Aequinox in Autumne or els after mid-February when the West wind Favonius is aloft Moreouer onions are diuided into sundry sorts according to the degrees of their pleasant or vnpleasant and harsh tast to wit the African French Tusculan and Amiternium But euermore the best are the roundest Item the red onion is more keen and angry than the white the dry and that which hath lien is more eagre and sharp than the green newly drawn the raw also more than the sodden and finally the dry by it selfe more than that which is condite and preserued in some liquor for sauce The Amiternium onion is planted in cold moist grounds and this alone would be set of a head in maner of garlick cloues whereas the rest will come of seed Onions the next summer following after they be sowne put forth no seed but head only which groweth and the leafe or stem drieth and dieth But the next yere after by way of interchange it bringeth forth seed and then the head rotteth And therefore euery yeare they vse to sow onion seed apart in one bed by it selfe for to haue onions set onions for seed in other by themselues The best way to keep onions is in corn chaf and such like pugs As for the Chibbol it hath in maner no distinct head at all but only a long neck therfore it runs in maner all to a green blade the order is to cut and sheare it often in manner of porret or leeks which is the cause that they sow it also of seed and do not set it Ouer and besides before we sow onion seed the plot by mens saying ought to haue three diggings for to kil and rid out of the ground the roots of hurtful weeds and ten pound of seed ordinarily wil sow an acre Here and there amongst would be Saverie sowne for the better will the Onions like and prosper with the companie of that hearbe Also after the ground is sowne it requireth weeding sarcling or raking foure times at the least if not oftner Our neighbours in Italie sow the Ascalonian Onion in the moneth of Februarie whose manner is also to gather Onion seed when it beginneth once to wax black before it fall to wither Seeing now that I am entred thus far into a discourse of Onions I shal not do amisse to treat of Leeks also in regard of the neare affinitie betweene them and the rather for that it is not long since that the Porret kind which is often kept downe with clipping and cutting came into great name and credit by occasion of the Emperor Nero who vsed for certaine daies in euery moneth for to scoure his throat and cleare his voice and to take it with oile on which daies he did eat nothing els not so much as bread Wee vse to sow them of seed after the Aequinox in September and if we meane to make cut Leeks thereof the seed would be sowed the thicker These Leeks are kept downe with clipping and shearing still vntill the root faile without remouing them out of the same bed where they were sown and alwaies they must be plied with dung But before they be cut nourished they ought to be vntill they haue gotten a good head When they are wel grown they are to be translated into another bed or quarter there replanted hauing their vppermost leaues lightly shriged off without comming to the heart or marow which is their body next to their roots and their heads set deeper downward yea and their vtmost pellicles and skins sliued from them In old time they vsed to put vnder their root a broad flint-stone or els a tile which did dilate their heads within the ground and make them spread the better This they practised also in other bulbous plants as Onions c. thereby to haue the fairer heads But now in these daies the maner is lightly to barbe pluck off with a sarcling hook the beards or strings of
easily take them with his hand yea and if one stay a little he shall see them fall asleep therewith Finally there is another kind of sauage or wild Garlick called Vrsinum i. Beare Garlicke the head whereof is very small the blade or leaues great and large and the sauor or sent mild and gentle in comparison of the rest CHAP. VII ¶ In how many daies euery herbe that is sowed will come vp and appeare aboue ground The nature of seedes The manner of sowing any of them Which they be whereof there is but one single kind and which haue many sorts AMong all the herbes sowne in a garden these come vp soonest to wit Basill Beets Navews or Turneps and Rocket for by the third day the seed will breake and spurt Dill seed will chit within foure daies Lectuce in fiue Radish in sixe Cucumbers and gourds in a seuen-night but the Cucumber first Cresses and Mustard seed in fiue daies Beets in six by Summer time and by winter in ten Orach in eight daies Onions in 19 or 20 at the farthest Chibols in ten or twelue at the most Coriander seed is more stubborne and will not shew so soone Sauerie and Origan seed lieth thirty daies ere it come but of all others Parsley seed is latest ere it spring for when it commeth vp soonest it is forty daies first but for the most part it lieth fifty daies before it appeare Something there is also in the age of the seed for the newer that the seed is either of Leeks or Chibols Cucumbers gourds the more hast it maketh to be aboue ground contrariwise Parsely Beets garden Cresses Sauery Origan and Coriander grow sooner of old seed But the Beet seed hath a strange and wonderful quality aboue the rest for it wil not come vp all in one and the same yeare But some in the first others in the second and the rest in the third And therfore sow as much seed as you will yet shall you haue it grow but indifferently There be herbs which wil grow and beare but one yere and no more and there be other again which will continue many yeares together as for example Parsely Porret Chibbols For sow these but once in a garden they will beare from yere to yere from the same root or els sow themselues The most part of herbs do beare round seed in some the seeds are long in few broad and flat in manner of a leafe as in Orach You shall haue seed also narrow chamfered like a gutter tile as that of Cumin Moreouer there is a difference in colour for some seeds be white others black in hardnesse also and softnesse for some be harder or softer than others Some seeds at euery branch of the plant are contained within cods or bladders as we may see in Raddish Senuie and Turneps or Rapes The seeds of Parsely Coriander Dill Fenell Cumen grow naked bare But that of the Bleet the Beet Orach and Basil is inclosed in a huske or hull Lectuce seed lieth within a downe As touching Basill aforesaid nothing fructifieth more than it to the end that it may come vp in more plenty abundance they say it should be sowed with maledictions and ill words for the more that it is cursed the better it wil speed and prosper yea and when it is sowed the mould of the bed must be parted and rammed down in manner of a pauement And more particularly they that sow Cumin pray to God that it may neuer come vp Such seeds as lie within an husk hardly come to be dry and ripe therin but Basil seed especially and Gith or Nigella Romana But they must be all throughly dried before they be seedow and fruitfull This is generall in all herbs throughout that they wil thriue and grow the better if their seede bee sowed by heapes one vpon another than scattering And certainly both Leeks seed is sown Garlick cloues set in that wise namely bound vp tied together in some clouts or ragges wherein they be lapped As for Parsely seed against it should be sown there would be an hole made with a little wooden dibil or pin therin it must be put with some dung after it Furthermore all garden herbs come vp either of seed and cloues set or els of slips pulsed from the mother-plant Some grow of seeds and sprigs both as Rue Origan Basil for euen this herb also last named will abide cutting when it is come to be one handbreadth or a span high and those cuttings will grow if they be planted There be that are maintained by root and seed both as Onions garlick and those which haue bulbous roots likewise all such as when they haue born yerely leaue a root behind them stil in strength vertue Of such as grow of roots replanted their roots continue long branch much as we may see in the bulbs in Chibbols sea onions Others put out branches sufficient but not from the head or root as Parsely and Beets All herbs for the most part do spring shute again if their stalke be cut off vnlesse it be those that haue a smooth stem And this is most seen in Basil Raddish Lectuce the stems wherof are cut for many purposes And as for Lectuce men hold that the later spring thereof when the first is gon is the sweeter Certainly Raddishes eat the more pleasantly if their leaues be cropt off before the master stem or spire be growne big And this also we obserue in Rapes or Turneps for if you strip them also from their leaues couer them ouer head with earth yet will they grow all winter and continue till Summer following Touching Basill Sorrel red Porret or Bleets garden Cresses Rocket Orach Coriander they are all of one sort singular in their kind for sow them where you wil they be the same stil neither are they better in one place than in another It is a common receiued opinion that Rue wil grow the better if it be filched out of another mans garden and it is as ordinary a saying that stollen Bees wil thriue worst Some hearbes there be which come without sowing or setting as wild Mint Nep Endiue and Peniroial But howsoeuer there be but one single kind of those before rehearsed yet on the contrary side there be many sorts of others which wee haue already spoken of and will write more hereafter and principally of Ach or Parsely CHAP. VIII ¶ Of Garden herbes which serue for to season our meats their diuers natures their sundry kinds and seuer all histories related to the number of 36. FOr that kind of Ach which groweth of it selfe in moist grounds with one leafe and is not rough but smooth and plaine is called in Greeke Heleoselinon i. Smallach Again there is another sort with more leaues resembling Smallach aforesaid but that it commeth vp in drie places and this the Greeks named Hipposelinon i. Alisanders A third there is
vp with hony into a certain confection taken with meat for to helpe digestion and in that sort it purgeth the intrals Sodden in oile and tempered with rosin it heales the chaps and clifts in the feet The seed of Squilla implastered with honey vpon the reines of the back or the loins easeth the pains Pythagoras was of opinion and so reported that if the Squilla or Sea-onion were hanged vp in the entry of any dore it kept out all charms enchantments or sorceries And thus much of Squilla Moreouer the plants called Bulbs being applied in form of a liniment with brimstone and vineger do cure the wounds of the visage and stamped by themselues alone and so laid to they help the contraction or shrinking of sinues and if there be wine added thereto it clenseth the dandruffe in head beard and eye-browes but applied with honey it cureth the biting of mad dogs howbeit Eratosthenes taketh pitch in stead of hony for the said purpose who writeth besides That a cataplasme of them and hony together stancheth bloud in a green wound but others ioyne Coriander and corn-meale to the rest properly for bleeding at the nose Theodorus cureth wild tettars and ring-wormes therewith being applied with vinegre and with styptick harsh wine or an egg he vseth it for the breaking out in the head Moreouer a liniment made of Bulbs he applieth about the rheumatick humors that fall to the eies and by that means cureth those that be bleere eyed Semblably the red of this kinde especially reduced into a liniment and first incorporat with hony and nitre taketh away all the spots and blemishes that disfigure the face if they be anointed with it in the sun but with wine and Cucumber sodden they rid away also the red pimples They be wonderfull good of themselues alone for green wounds or with honied wine according to the practise of Damion so they be not remoued in fiue dayes and he was wont therewith to cure cracked eares also and the flatuous flegmatick tumours of the cods Others there be who apply them with meale mingled among to asswage the pain of the gout Sodden in wine and so applied as a liniment to the belly they mollifie the hardnesse in the precordial parts and midriffe and for the bloudy flixe a drinke made thereof together with raine water and wine is a singular remedy Being taken in pils as big as beanes with Silphium they are soueraigne for the contraction of nerues or inward crampes within the bodie Stamped into a liniment they restrain immoderat sweats that be diaphoreticall Comfortable they be to the nerues and therefore they are prescribed and giuen in case of the palsie Those with the red roots being made into a cataplasm with salt and hony doth speedily cure the dislocations of the feet that be out of ioynt The bulbs of Megara especially do prouoke lust As for those that be called Hortensij taken with Cuit wine or Bastard make speedy deliuerance of the child out of the mothers belly The wild bulbs brought into the form of pils with Laserpitium and so swallowed downe do heale inward wounds and other maladies of the intrals The seed of the garden Bulbes in wine is a good potion against the sting of the spiders called Phalangiae and the roots with vinegre serue for a liniment against the stings of other serpents The antient physitians in times past were wont to giue the seed in drink to them that were out of their wits The floure of these Bulbes being bruised into a Cataplasme taketh away the red dapled spots in their legs who haue sit neere the fire and burnt their shins But Diocles is of opinion that all these bulbous plants do dim the eie-sight who saith moreouer That they are not so good boiled as rosted and yet be they all saith he hard of digestion more or lesse according to the nature of each one that eateth them There is an herb which the Greekes call Bulbine with a red bulbous root and leaues resembling Porret of which there is a singular good salue made for to heale green wounds but none els To conclude as touching the bulb called Vomitorius of the effect that it hath to prouoke vomit it hath blackish leaues and those longer than the rest CHAP. X. ¶ Of Garden Sperages and the wilde Sperage Corruda of Lybicum and Hormenium OF all Garden herbs the Sperages are by report the best meat to be eaten and agree passing wel with the stomack and verily being taken with Cumin they dissolue the ventosities in the stomack and dispatch the wind cholick and withall they cleare the sight passing well Kindly do they mollifie the belly and keep it soluble If they be sodden in water and a little wine put thereto in the boiling and so giuen to drink they are very good for the pain of the brest the backbone for the diseases also within the guts If one take the weight of three Oboli of the seed and as much of Cumin and so drinke it in some conuenient liquor hee shall find a singular remedy for the pain of the reins hanch and loines Garden Sperages sollicit vnto the game of loue and procure good deliuerance of vrine for which they had no fellow but for feare that they will fret and exulcerate the bladder Most Physicians doe highly commend their roots brused and taken in white-wine for to expell the stone and grauell as also to allay the pains of the reins flanks and loins Some there be who giue to drinke in some sweet wine the said root for the grieuous pains of the matrice and the same being well and throughly boiled in vineger is a soueraigne remedy for the leprosie to as many as will vse to drink the said decoction If a man be annointed with Asparagus or garden-Sperage stamped together with oile and so made into a liniment there will not by report a Bee come neere for to sting him The wild Sperage some name it Corruda others Lybicum but the Athenians cal it Hormenium this herb is more effectuall in all those matters aboue rehearsed than the former the whiter that it is the greater force it hath The jaundise it doth dissipat and driue away When it is sodden in water the decoction thereof to the quantity of a wine pint or somwhat lesse is vsually prescribed to them that desire to performe the act of generation lustily For the same purpose also the seed thereof and Dill of each three oboli is counted very good beeing taken in drinke The juice therof boiled is giuen against the stinging of serpents The root of it and Fennell together is thought to be most singular and of greatest efficacy in that case for pissing bloud Chrysippus prescribeth to giue in two cyaths of wine for fiue daies together three oboli of the seed of Asparagus Parsley and Cumin but he saith withall That this medicine is nothing good for the dropsie notwithstanding that it is diuretical and prouoketh
felt alike This poisonsome honey may be knowne by these signs first it will neuer thicken but continue liquid stil secondly the colour is more deep and reddish than ordinary thirdly it carrieth a strange sent or smell with it and will cause one to sneese presently last of all it is more ponderous and heauy than the good and harmlesse hony The symptomes or accidents that insue vpon the eating of this honey are these They that haue tasted thereof cast themselues vpon the ground and there fall a tumbling they seek by all means they can to be cooled and no maruell for they run all to sweat that one drop ouertakes the other Howbeit there be many remedies for this poison which I will shew in place conuenient Mean while because a man would not be without some good thing ready at hand since the world is so ful of villany set vpon such secret mischiefe I must needs put down one good receit and that is this take honied wine that is old mingle and incorporat it with the best hony you can meet withal and Rue together vse this confection at your need Item Eat much of salt-fish although it come vp again and that your stomack do cast it Moreouer this hony is so pernicious that the very dogs if they chance to lick vp any excrements that passe from the partie so infected either by reaching spitting vomit or seege they are sure to be sped therewith and to feele the like torments Howbeit the honied wine that is made therewith if it may haue age enough and be stale is knowne for a certainty to do no creature harm And there is not a better medicine in the world either to fetch out spots in womens faces and make their skin faire and cleare if it be applied with Costus or to take out the black and blew marks remaining after stripes in eye or elswhere so it be tempered with Aloe Another kind of honey there is in the same region of Pontus and namely among the Sanni a people there inhabiting which because it driueth folke into a fit of rage and madnesse they call in Greeke Maenomenon Some attribute the occasion hereof to the floure of the Oleander whereof the woods and forrests there be full This nation selleth no hony at all because it is so venomous and deadly notwithstanding they do pay for tribute a huge masse of wax vnto the Romans euery yeare Moreouer in the kingdome of Persis and in Getulia which lieth within Mauritania Caesariensis a country confining and bordering vpon the Massaesuli there be venomous hony-combs yea you shall haue in one hiue some hony combs full of poisoned hony whereas others be sound and good a dangerous thing no doubt and than which there could be no greater deceit to poison a number of people but that they may be known from the rest by their leaden and wan hew that they haue What should we think was Natures meaning and intent by these secret sleights and hidden mischiefes That either the same Bees should not euery yeare gather venomous hony or not lay the same vp in all their combs differently Was it not enough that she had bestowed vpon vs a thing wherein poyson might be soonest giuen and least perceiued Was she not content thus to indanger our liues but she must proceed farther euen to incorporat poison her selfe in hony as it commeth from the Bee for to empoison so many liuing creatures Certes I am of this mind and beliefe verily That shee had no other purpose herein than to make men more warie what they eat and lesse greedy of sweet meats to content and please the tooth For the very honey indeed she had not generally infected with this hurtful quality like as she had armed all Bees with sharp pricks and stings yea and the same of a venomous nature and therfore against these creatures verily she hath not deferred and put off to furnish vs with a present remedy for the juice of Mallowes or of Yvie leaues serueth to annoint the stinged place and keep it from rankling yea and it is an excellent thing for them that be stung to take the very Bees in drink for it is an approued cure But this I maruell much at That the Bees themselues which feed of these venomous herbs that cary the poison in their mouths and are the makers of this mischievous honey do escape and die not thereof Whereof I can giue no reason at all vnlesse dame Nature that lady and mistresse of the world hath giuen vnto these poore Bees a certaine Antipathy and vertue contrary vnto poison like as among vs men to the Marsi and Psylli shee hath imprinted as it were a repugnancy in their bodies to resist the venome of all Serpents whatsoeuer CHAP. XIIII ¶ Of a certaine kind of honey which Flies will not touch Of Bee-hiues How to order the same and namely when Bees want meat and are in danger to be famished The manner also of making Wax THere is in Candy another strange and wonderful thing as touching hony gathered about the mountaine Carina which taketh nine miles in compasse within which space and circuit of ground there is not a Flie to be had and the honey there made Flies wil not touch in any place wheresoeuer By which experiment this honey is thought to be singular for medicines and therefore choise is made thereof before any other As touching Bee-hiues they ought to stand on the open side vpon the Aequinoctiall Sunne rising that is to say when the daies and nights be equall And in any wise regard would be had that they open not in the Northeast and much lesse the full West The best Bee-hiues be made of barks and rinds of trees the second in goodnesse be those of Ferula or Fenell-geant In the third placeare such as be wrought of oisier twigs Many haue made them of Talc which is a kind of transparent glasse stone because they would see through them how the Bees do worke and labor within Daubed they should be if they were well serued both without within with Oxe dung The couer and lidde thereof ought to be moueable and haue liberty to play vp and down behind that it may be let down far within-forth in case either the hiue be too large of greater receit in proportion than the Bees are in number for feare they should slack their work and giue ouer their trauell dispairing euer to fill the same seeing it so big and of so great capacity and being thus let downe to make their hiue seem the lesse it must be gently drawn vp again by little little that the Bees may be deceiued thereby not perceiue how their worke grows vpon them In Winter time Bee-hiues should be couered with straw oftentimes perfumed with beasts dung especially for this is agreeable to their nature Ouer and besides it killeth the wicked verm in that breed in them Spiders Butterflies and Wood-worms yea and this
wine in drinke Vpon which treatise or book of his an infinit number there were who haue written their Commentaries As for me according to that grauity which beseemeth Romanes and to shew affection and loue to all liberall Sciences I will not discourse thereof as a Physician but with great care and diligence write so distinctly as a deputed judge or arbiter delegat to determin of mans health and the preseruation thereof To dispute and reason of euery seuerall kind were a endles peece of work and so intricat as I wot not how a man should rid himselfe out of it if he were once entred so repugnant and contrarie are the Physicians one to another in that argument To begin first with the wine of Surrentum our ancients haue held it simply for the best aboue all others But our later and more moderne writers haue made greater account of the Albane and Falerne wines In summe euery one hath iudged of the goodnesse of wine according to his owne conceit and fantasie a most vnequall course of proceeding without all reason and congruitie to pronounce definitiuely vnto al others that for best that pleased and contented his owne tast most And yet set the case and say they were all agreed and of one opinion as touching the most excellent wines How is it possible that the whole world should enioy the benefit thereof since that great lords and princes themselues haue much adoe to meet with pure and perfect wines without one sophistication or other In good faith the world is grown to this abuse that wines be bought and sold now at an higher or lower price acording to the name and bruit that goeth onely of the cellars from whence they come whereas in truth the wines were marred and corrupted at the first in the very presse or vatt presently after the vintage and grape-gathering And therefore it is that now adaies a wonderfull thing to be spoken the smallest and basest wines are of all others least sophisticate and most harmelesse Well how soeuer it be and admit the noblest kinds of wine are most subject to those bruings and sophistication which make indeed the ods that is yet those wines beforenamed to wit the Falern Albane and Surrentine do still import and carrie away the victory and prise from all the rest by the generall voice constant sentence of al writers As touching the Falerne wine it is not wholesome for the body either very new or ouer old a middle age is best and that begins when it is fifteen yeres old and not before This wine is not hurtfull to a cold stomacke but I cannot say of a hot stomack If it be taken alone and pure of it selfe in a morning and drunke fasting it doth much good to them who haue bin troubled with a long cough or vexed with a quartan ague And verily there is not a wine that stirreth the bloud and filleth the veines so much as this It staieth the laske nourisheth the body How beit generally receiued and beleeued it is That this wine dimmeth the eye sight and doth no good to the bladder and neruous parts And indeed the Albane wines agree better with the sinews And yet the sweet wines that come from the vineyards of the same tract are not so whole some to the stomack but the harsh and hard austere wines of this kind be in that regard better than the Falerne wines aboue said And in one word these Albane wines help digestion but little and in some sort stuffe and fil the stomacke But the Surrentine wines charge not the stomacke any jot nor yet fume vp in the head nay they restrain and represse the rheumaticke fluxions both of stomacke and guts As for the wines of Caecubum they bee now past date and none of them are made any more But those of Setinum that remaine still and be in some request doe mightily aid concoction and cause the meat for to digest In a word Surrentine wines haue most strength the Albane drink harder and the Falerne be more mild and nothing so piercing as the rest The Statane wines come not far behinde these aboue named As for the Signine wine out of all question it is simply the best to bind the body stop a vehement flux thus much for wines and their properties in particular It remaineth now to speake of their vertues in generall First and foremost wine maintaineth and fortifieth the strength of man engendreth good bloud and causeth a fresh and liuely colour And herein verily consisteth the principall difference betweene our temperat climat within the heart as it were and middle part of the world from those intemperat Zones on either hand And looke how much the distemperature of the two Poles worketh in the inhabitants of those parts and hardneth them to endure and support all kind of trauell so much doth this sweet and pleasant liquor of the grape enable vs to abide and suffer the like labour And because we are entred into this theame note thus much moreoner That the drinking of milke nourisheth the bones of beere and ale and such like made with corne feedeth the sinewes and neruous parts but of water maintaineth the flesh and brawnie muscles onely Which is the cause that such nations as drinke either milke ale beere c. or sheere water are nothing so ruddie of colour nor so strong and firme to vndergoe painefull trauell as those whose ordinarie familiar drink is wine And in truth as the moderat vse of wine comforteth the sinews helpeth the eyesight so the ouer liberal taking thereof offendeth the one and enfeeb leth the other Wine recreateth refresheth the stomack wine stirreth vp the appetite to meat wine allaieth sorrow care and heauinesse wine prouoketh vrin and chaseth away all chilling cold out of the body Finally wine induceth sleep and quiet repose Moreouer this good property hath wine To stay the stomack represse vom its taken into the body and without-forth applied with wooll embrued and bathed therein to dissipat and resolue all swelling apostumes Asclepiades was so addicted to the praise of wine that he bashed not to make comparisons pronounce that the power and puissance of the gods was hardly able to match and counteruaile the might and force of wine Moreouer this is to be noted that old wine will beare a greater proportion of water than new and prouoketh vrine more although it withstand and allay thirst lesse Sweet wines do not so much inebriate and ouerturne the brain as others but they flote a loft in the stomacke whereas austere and hard wines be lighter of digestion and sooner concocted The lightest and smallest wine is that which soonest commeth to his age and sheweth it most quickely The wines which by age and long keeping lay downe their verdure and become sweet are lesse hurtful to the sinews than others The grosse fattie and blacke wines are not so good for the stomack howbeit they be most nutritive for the
maketh mention of many singular herbs in Aegypt which the Kings wife of that country gaue to that lady of his Helena of whom he writeth so much and namely the noble Nepenthes which had this singular vertue and operation To work obliuion of melancholy heauinesse yea and to procure easement and remission of all sorrowes which I say the queene bestowed vpon Helena to this end That she should communicate and impart it to the whole world for to be drunke in those cases abouesaid But the first man knowne by all records to haue written any thing exactly and curiously of simples was Orpheus As for Musaeus and Hesiodus after him in what admiration they held and how highly they esteemed the herb Polion aboue the rest I haue shewed already Certes Orpheus and Hesiodus both haue highly commended vnto vs perfumes and suffumigations And Homer likewise writeth expressely of certain herbs by name of singular vertue which I wil put downe in their due places After him came Pythagoras a famous Philosopher who was the first that composed a booke and made a treatise purposely of sundry herbs with their diuers effects ascribing wholly the inuention and originall of them to the immortall gods and namely to Apollo and Aesculapius Democritus compiled a volume of the same argument But both hee and Pythagoras had trauelled before al ouer Persis Arabia Aethyopia and Aegypt and there conferred with the Sages and learned Phylosophers of that country called Magi. In summe so far were men in old time rauished with the admiration of herbs and their vertues that they bashed not to auouch euen incredible things of them Xanthus an antient Chronicler writeth in the first booke of his histories of a Dragon which finding one of her little serpents killed raised it to life again by a certain herbe which he nameth Balis and with the said herb a man also named Thylo whom the Dragon had slaine was reuiued and restored to health againe Also King Iuba doth report That there was a man in Arabia who being once dead became aliue againe by the vertue of a certain herbe Democritus said and Theophr astus gaue credit to his words That there is an herb with which a kind of foule wherof I haue made mention before is able to make the wedge or stopple to flie out of the hole of her neast into which the sheepheards had driuen it fast in case she bring the same herbe and but once touch the foresaid wedge therewith These be strange reports and incredible howbeit they draw men into a wonderfull opinion of the thing and fil their heads with a deep conceit forcing them to confesse That there is some great matter in hearbs and much true indeed which is reported so wonderfully of them And from hence it is that most are of this opinion and hold certainly That there is nothing impossible but may be performed by the power of herbs if a man could reach vnto their vertues mary few there be who haue attained to that felicity and the operation of most simples is vnknowne In the number of these Herophilus the renowned Physitian may be reckoned who was of this mind and gaue it out in his ordinary speech That some hearbs there were which were effectuall and did much good if a man or woman chanced but to tread vpon them vnder their feet And verily this hath bin knowne and found true by experience that some diseases would be more exasperat and angry yea and wounds grow to fretting and inflammation if folk went but ouer certain herbs in the way as they passed on foot Lo what the Physick in old time was and how the same lay wholly couched in the Greek language and not elswhere to be found But what might be the reason that there were no more simples knowne Surely it proceeds from this That for the most part they be rusticall peasants and altogether vnlettered who haue the experience and triall of herbs as those who alone liue and conuerse among them where they grow Another thing there is Men are carelesse and negligent and loue not to take any paines in seeking for them Againe euery place swarmeth so with Leeches and Physitians and men are so ready to run vnto them for to receiue some compound medicine at their hands that little or no regard there is made of herbs and good Simples Furthermore many of them which haue bin found out and knowne haue no name at all as for example that herb which I spake of in my Treatise concerning the cure and remedies of corne growing vpon the lands and which we all know if it be enterred or buried in the foure corners of the field will skar away all the foules of the aire that they shal not settle vpon the corne nor once come into the ground But the most dishonest and shamefull cause why so few simples in comparison be knowne is the naughtie nature and peeuish disposition of those persons who will not teach others their skill as if themselues should lose for euer that which they imparted vnto their neighbor Ouer and besides there is no certain meanes or way to direct vs to the inuention and knowledge of hearbes and their vertues for if we looke vnto these hearbs which are found already we are for some of them beholden to meere chance fortune and for others to say a truth to the immediat reuelation from God For proofe hereof mark but this one instance which I will relate to you For many a yeare vntill now of late daies the biting of a mad dog was counted incureable and looke who were so bitten they fell into a certain dread feare of water neither could they abide to drink or to heare talk therof and then were they thought to be in a desperat case it fortuned of late that a souldier one of the gard about the Pretorium was bitten with a mad dog and his mother saw a vision in her sleep giuing as it were direction vnto her for to send the root vnto her sonne for to drink of an Eglantine or wild rose called Cymorrhodon which the day before she had espied growing in an hortyard where she took pleasure to behold it This occurrent fel out in Lacetania the nearest part vnto vs of Spain Now as God would when the souldier before said vpon his hurt receiued by the dog was ready to fall into that symptome of Hydrophobie and began to feare water there came a letter from his mother aduertising him to obey the wil of God and to do according to that which was reuealed vnto her by the vision Whereupon he dranke the root of the said sweet brier or Eglantine and not only recouered himselfe beyond all mens expectation but also afterwards as many as in that case tooke the like receit found the same remedy Before this time the writers in Physick knew of no medicinable vertue in the Eglantine but only of the sponge or little ball growing amid the
inflameth and setteth the beast into a great heat wherupon it swelleth vntill it burst againe So corrosiue it is as I haue said before that being incorporat with goats sewet and so reduced into a liniment it takes away the tettars called Lichenes that be in the face The bloud of a vuitur i. ageire tempered with the root of white Chamaeleon I mean the herb so called and the rosin of cedar heales the leprosie so that this liniment be couered with colewort leaues Of the same effect are the feet of locusts braied in a mortar and incorporat with goats tallow The greace of a cock capon or hen wel stamped wrought with an Onion is singular to scoure the spots and specks of the visage also the hony wherin a number of bees were stifled and killed is proper for the said purpose But aboue all the greace of a swan is commended both for to cleanse the skin of the face from all flecks and freckles and also take away wrinkles As for the markes remaining after the cauterie or hot yron there is no better means to take them out than a plastre of pigeons dung and vinegre If the rheume cause the mur the pose or heauinesse in head I find a pretie medicine to rid it away by kissing only the little hairie muzzle of a mouse As touching the uvula and paine of the throat they may be both of them eased and cured with lambs ordure which passeth from them before they haue bitten grasse dried in the shade The juice or slimie humor that shel-snails yeeld when they be pricked through with a pin or needle is singular good in a liniment for to be applied vnto the uvula prouided alwaies that those snailes do hang after in the smoke The ashes that come of swallows calcined burnt it likewise very soueraign being laid to the grieued place with hony and in that sort prepared it serueth also for the inflammation and swelling of the tonsils or amygdals of the throat For the said tonsils and other accidents of the throat a gargarisme of ewes milke is right soueraigne There is a certain creeper called a Cheeslip which if it be bruised or stamped is good for the said infirmities so is pigeons dung gargarised with wine cuit or applied outwardly with sal-nitre dried figs. If the throat be troubled with hoarsnesse occasioned by rheume or catarrhe the foresaid shel-snailes do greatly mitigat the same infirmitie being first sodden in milke all saue the earthy or muddy substance which they must be cleansed from and then giuen in wine cuit to the patient for to drink Some hold opinion that the snails found in the Isle Astypalaea are the best of all other for this purpose but principally the abstersiue substance that is sound in them The cricquet called Gryllus doth mitigat catarrhs all asperities offending the throat if the same be rubbed therewith also if a man doe but touch the amygdals or almonds of the throat with the hand wherwith he hath bruised or crushed the said cricquet it will appease the inflammations thereof To come now vnto the Squinancie a goose gall incorporat with the juice of the wild cucumber and hony together is a most speedie and present remedy for it also the brains of an owle and the ashes of a swallow drunk in water wel and hot is good for the said disease But for this medicine we are beholden to the Poët Ouid. Note that when I speak of any medicine for what maladie soeuer made of swallows the yong wild ones are alwaies the better and more effectuall in operation and those you may know easily by the fashion of their nests where they do build But if you would haue the best indeed the young ones of that kind which are called Ripariae passe al the rest for medicinable vses for so they are commonly named which build in the holes of banke sides Howbeit some there be who assure vs that we shal not need to feare that disease for a yeare together if we do but eat any young swallow it skills not of what kind soeuer it be Now the order of calcining them from their ashes is to strangle them first so to burn them in their bloud within an earthen vessell and the ashes thus made is vsually giuen either wrought in past for bread or else to be drunk and some there be who mingle withall the like quantity of the ashes which come of weazils And this kind of medicine thus prepared they giue in drink euery day against the kings euill and falling sicknesse Moreouer swallowes kept and condite in salt are passing good for the Squinancie taken in drinke to the weight of a dram at a time and it is said thet their very nest giuen in drinke cureth the said maladie It is a common opinion that a liniment made with the creepers called Sowes or Multipedes is most effectuall to cure the said Squinancie And some there be who aduise to take one and twenty of these worms stamped and to giue them in one hemine of mead or honied water for the said disease but they must be conceiued downe the throat by a pipe or tunnell for if this medicine touch the teeth once it will do no good It is said moreouer that if one drinke the decoction of mice sodden with veruaine it is a soueraign remedy for that disease as also that a leather thong made of a dogs skin put thrice about the necke will doe the deed And some there be who in this case vse pigeons dung mixed with oile and wine As touching the cricks of the nerues or sinewes that serue the nape of the necke as also for the cramps that draw the head backward they say that a twig or branch of a vine taken out of a puttocks nest and carried about one hanging to the necke or arme is a speciall remedie for the abouenamed accidents CHAP. V. ¶ Medicines for the Kings euill that is broken and doth run for the paines lying in the shoulders as also for the griefe of the bowels about the midriffe and precordiall parts THe bloud of a weazill is good for the wens called the king euill when they be exulcerat do run so is the weazill it selfe sodden in wine and applied prouided alwaies that they run not by occasion of any launcing or incision made by the Chirurgions hand And it is commonly said that to eat the flesh of a Weazill is effectuall for the cure So are the ashes of a Weazil calcined vpon a fire made of Vine-twigs if they be incorporat with Hogs grease Item Take a green Lizard and binde it to the sore but after thirty daies you must do so with another this will heale them Some make no more ado but in a little box of siluer keep the heart of a Weazil wear it about them If women or maids be troubled with the kings euil it were good to make choise of old shel-snailes and to stamp them
by the strange manner of charge laid vpon them that had the keeping and custodie thereof for no reall caution of mony was thought sufficient to be pledged and pawned for the warrantise or to counteruaile the worth thereof Order therefore was giuen by the state and the same obserued from time to time that the sextons or wardens of the said chappell should performe the safety and forth-comming of it vnder paine of death As touching the bold and venturous pieces of worke that haue been performed and finished by this art we haue an infinite number of such examples for we see what huge and gyant-like images they haue deuised to make in brasse resembling high towers more like that personages and such they called Colossi Of this kind is the image of Apollo within the Capitoll transported by M. Lucullus out of Apollonia a city within the kingdome of Pontus which in height was thirtie cubits and cost a hundred and fifty talents the making Such another is that of Iupiter within Mars field dedicated by Claudius Caesar the Emperour which because it standeth so neere vnto Pompeys theatre men commonly call Iupiter Pompeianus and full as big he is as Apollo abouenamed Like vnto these is the colosse or stately image of Hercules at Tarentum the handiwork of the said Lysippus but he is forty cubits high and miraculous is the deuise of this colosse if it be true which is commonly reported thereof namely that a man may mooue and stirre it easily with his hand so truly ballanced it stands and equally counterpoised by Geometry and yet no wind no storme or tempest is able to shake it Certes it is said that the workeman himselfe Lysippus prouided well for this danger in that a pretty way off he reared a columne or pillar or stone full opposit to the winds mouth for to breake the force and rage thereof from that side where it was like to blow and beat most vpon the colosse and verily so huge it was to weld and so hard to bee remoued that Fabius surnamed Verrucosus durst not meddle withall but was forced to let it alone leaue it behind him notwithstanding be brought with him from thence another Hercules which now standeth within the Capitoll But the Colosse of the Sun which stood at Rhodes and was wrought by Chares of Lyndus apprentice to the abouenamed Lysippus was aboue all others most admirable for it carried seuenty cubits in height well as mighty an image as it was it stood not on end aboue threescore yeares and six for in an earth quake that then happened it was ouerthrowne but lying as it doth along a wonderfull and prodigious thing it is to view and behold for first and foremost the thumbs of the hand and great toes of the foot are so big as few men are able to fadome one of them about the fingers and toes are bigger than the most part of other whole statues and images and looke where any of the members or lims were broken with the fall a man that saw them would say they were broad holes and huge caues in the ground for within these fractures and breaches you shall see monstrous big stones which the workemen at the first rearing and setting of it had couched artificially within for to strengthen the colosse that standing firme and vpright so ballaised it might checke the violence of wind and weather Twelue yeares they say Chares was in making of it before he could fully finish it the bare workemanship cost three hundred talents This mony was raised out of K. Demetrius his prouision which he had set by for that purpose paid from time to time by his officers for that he would not himselfe endure to stay so long for the workemanship thereof Other images there are besides of the nature of colosses in the same citie of Rhodes to the number of one hundred lesser indeed than the foresaid colosse of the Sun yet there is not one of them but for the bignesse were sufficient to giue a name to the place and ennoble it wheresoeuer it should stand Ouer and aboue there be in the said citie fiue other gyant-like images or colosses representing some gods and those of an huge bignesse which were of Bryaxes his making Thus much of workemen strangers And to come somewhat nearer home we Italians also haue practised to make such colosses forsurely we may see and go no further than to the librarie belonging to the temple of Augustus Caesar here in Rome a Tuscan colosse made for Apollo and the same is fiftie foot high from the great toe vpward but the bignesse thereof is not so much as the matter and workemanship for hard it is to say whether is more admirable the beautifull feature of the body or the exquisit temperature of the mettall Moreouer Sp. Carvilius long agoe made the great image of Iupiter which standeth in the Capitoll hill after the Samnites were vanquished in that dangerous war wherein they bound themselues by a sacred lay and oth to fight it out to the last man vnder paine of death to as many as seemed to turne backe or once recule to the making whereof he tooke the brasen cuiraces grieues and morions of the enemies that lay dead and slaine vpon the ground which is so exceeding bigg and large that hee may very plainely and euidently bee discouered and seene from the other Iupiter in Latium called therefore Latiarius The pouder dust which the filme made in the workmanship polishing of this colosse Carvilius himselfe cast again and thereof made his own image and pourtraiture and the same standeth as you may see at the foot of the other Within the said Capitoll there be two brasen heads worthy of admiration which P. Lentulus when he was Consull thought good to dedicat to that place The one was made by Chares the foresaid founder the other wrought by Decius but this of Decius his making compared with the other commeth so farre short that one would not take it to be the doing of an artificer that was his crafts-master but rather of some bungler prentice or learner But to speake indeed of a great image and that which surpasseth in bignes all the rest of that kinde looke but vpon the huge and prodigious colosse of Mercurie which Zenodorus in our age and within our remembrance made in France at Auvergne ten yeares he was about it and the workmanship came to foure hundred thousand sesterces Now when hee had made sufficient proofe of his Art there Nero the Emperour sent for him to come to Rome where he cast indeed and finished a colosse a hundred and ten foot long to the similitude and likenesse of the said Emperor according as it was first appointed and as he began it but the said prince being dead and his head laid dedicated is was to the honour and worship of the Sun in detestation of that most wicked monster whose vngratious acts the city condemned and abhorred
kindes the blacke and the white The richest of all and that which carrieth the greatest price is that which we in Latine name Plumbum candidum i. the white bright lead and the Greeks Cassiteron But I hold it a meere fable and vaine tale that all of it is fetched as farre as from the Islands of the Atlanticke sea and that the inhabitants of those parts doe conueigh it in little twiggen boats couered all ouer with feathers For the truth is that there is found of it in these daies within Portugall and Gallaecia growing ebbe vpon the vpmost face of the earth being among the sands of a black colour and by the weight only is knowne from the rest of the soile and here and there among a man shall meet with small stones of the same stuffe most of all within the brookes that be dry sometimes of the yere This sandie and grauelly substance the mine masters and mettall finers vse to wash and that which setleth downeward they burne melt in the furnace There is found likewise in the gold mines a kind of lead ore which they cal Elutia for that the water that they let into those mines as I said before washeth and carrieth down withall certain little blacke stones streaked and marked a little with a kind of white and as heauy they be in hand as the very ore of gold and therefore gathered they be with the same ore and laid in the paniers together therewith and afterward in the furnace when the fire hath made a separation between them and gold so soone as they are melted do resolue into the substance of the white lead or tinglasse aforesaid Moreouer this is is strange that throughout all Gallecia you shal not find a mine of common black lead yet in Biskay which confineth hard vpon it there is abundance of it no other neither out of the vein of this white lead shal you try any siluer wheras out of the black it is an ordinarie thing to extract siluer Again this is certain that two pieces of black lead canot possibly be sodered together without this tinglasse neither can this be vnited to the other but by means of oile nay it is vnpossible to conioyne a piece of tin-soder or white lead with another but with a soder of the black This white lead or tinglasse hath bin of long time in estimation euen since the war of Troy as witnesseth the poet Homer who calls it Cassiteron As for blacke lead ingendred it is two maner of waies for either it groweth in a vein of the owne without any other mettal with it or els it doth participat with siluer in the same mine and being intermixt in one piece or lump of ore it is separated from it at the melting and fining only for the first liquor that runs from it in the furnace is tin and the second siluer As for the third part of the vein which remaineth behind in the furnace it is Galaena that is to say the very mettal it selfe of lead which beeing once againe melted and tried in the fire after two parts thereof be deducted yeeldeth that black lead whereof we now do treat CHAP. XVII ¶ Of Tin of Argentine Lead and other points pertinent to these matters TIn hath a proper vse to enhuile vessels of brasse partly to take away the euil tast they haue and to make them sweeter and partly to preserue them from rust or to qualifie the malitious nature of brasse and yet wonderfull it is that such vessels thus tinned are neuer a jot the heauier by that means Also in times past there were as I haue already said excellent Mirroirs made of tin and the same were tempered wrought at Brundise but those of siluer haue put them down since that euery chamber-maid and such like seruing creature would be at their looking-glasses of siluer But tin is found much counterfeit in these daies by putting to White lead aboue said a third prrt of white brasse yea and there is another deuise to sophisticate tin to wit by mixing white and blacke lead one with another by euen weight and portion and this maslen some call at this day siluer lead or argentine As for that mixed matter wherein be two parts of black lead and one of the white they cal it Tertiarium this kind of tinne is sold after 30 the pound and it is that wherewith they vsed to soder conduit pipes but the lewder disposed pewterers haue a cast to put vnto this tin called Tertiarium an equal quantity of white lead and then they call it Argentarium which mettall they employ in vessells for the kitchen to seeth meat or what they list in them and this kind of pewter wanteth no price for they set it at 130 the pound whereas a pound of white lead or tinglasse pure and fine of itselfe is sould for thirty and the blacke for sixteen As touching the temperature and nature of the white lead it standeth more vpon a dry substance contrariwise that of blacke is wholly moist and liquid which is the reason that the said white lead or tinglasse will serue to no vse or purpose vnlesse it be mixed with some other mettal neither is it good to lead or soder siluer with for sooner will siluer melt in the fire than it There is a deuise to tin pots pans and other pieces of brasse so artificially with white lead or tinglasse an inuention which came out of France that hardly a man shall discerne them from vessell of siluer and such leaded vessels are commonly called Incoctilia After the same maner they haue taken vp of late another custome to siluer the trappings especially and caparisons of their horses of seruice yea and the harnesse of coach-horses and draught jades and namely in the town Alexia As for the former inuention those of Bourges haue the honour of it Neither rested they so but haue proceeded to adorn and garnish in that maner their chariots wagons and coaches But our vain and wastful wantons not herewith contented are come now to their wagon seats not of siluer only but also of gold and that which in times past was condemned as monstrous prodigalitie to be put into drinking vessels the same to tread vpon now with the feet and to waste and consume about waggons and charriots is commended for finenesse neatnesse and elegancie But to return againe vnto our white lead if you would know whether it be right and good or no the proof is to be made in paper for put it melted into a sheet of paper if it be not falsified it wil seem to break and rend the paper with the weight and not with the scalding heat thereof Moreouer it is worth the obseruation that the Indians haue no mines among them either of brasse or lead but are content to part with their pearles and pretious stones vnto merchants by way of counterchange for these mettals Black lead or common lead is much vsed with
those dangerous troubles Moreouer he made the picture of lady Cydippe and of * Tlepolemus he painted also Philiscus a writer of Tragoedies sitting close at his study meditating and musing Also there be of his making a wrestler or champion Antigonus the king and the mother of Aristotle the Philosopher who also was in hand with Protogenes persuading him to busie himselfe in painting all the noble acts victories and whole life of king Alexander the Great for euerlasting memoriall and perpetuitie but the vehement affection and inclination of his minde stood another way and a certaine itching desire to search into the secrets of the art tickled him and rather drew him to these kinds of curious workes whereof I haue already spoken Yet in the later end of his daies he painted K. Alexander himselfe and god Pan. Ouer and besides this flat painting he gaue himselfe greatly to the practise of founderie and to cast certaine images of brasse according as I haue already said At the very same time liued Asclepiodorus whom for his singular skill in obseruing symetries and just proportions Apelles himselfe was wont to admire This Painter pourtraied for Mnason the foresaid king of the Elateans the 12 principall gods and receiued for euery one of them 300 pound of siluer The said Mnason gaue vnto Theomnastus for painting certaine Princes or Worthies one hundred pounds apiece In this rank is to be ranged Nicomachus son and apprentice both to Aristodemus This Nichomachus pourtraied the rauishing of Proserpine by Dis or Pluto which picture standeth in a table within the Chappell of Minerua in the Capitoll aboue the little cell or shrine of Iuventus In the same Capitoll another table there is likewise of his making which Plancus Lord Generall of an army for the time being had there dedicated and set vp the same doth represent Victorie catching vp a triumphant chariot drawn with four horses aloft into heauen He was the first that pourtraied prince Vlixes in a picture with a cap vpon his head He painted also Apollo and Diana Cybele likewise the mother of the gods sitting vpon a Lyon of his workmanship is the table representing the religious priestresses of Bacchus in their habite together with the wanton Satyres creeping and making toward them Semblably the monstrous meermaid Scylla which at this day is to be seen at Rome within the temple of Peace A ready workeman he was you shall not heare of a painter that had a quicker hand than he at his worke for proofe wherof this voice goeth of him That hauing vndertaken for a certain sum of money to Aristratus the tyrant of Sicyone to paint a monument or tombe which he caused to bee made for Telestes the Poet and to finish it by such a day appointed and set downe in the couenants of the bargain he made no great hast to go about it but came some few daies before the expiation of the prescript term for to begin the same worke whereat the tyrant was wroth and menaced to punish him for example howbeit he quit himselfe so well and followed his worke with such wonderfull celeritie that in few daies space he brought it to an end and yet the art and workmanship therof was admirable Vnder him were brought vp as apprentices his brother Aristides his owne son Aristocles and Philoxenus the Eretrian This Philoxenus made one painted table for Cassander the king containing the battel between Alexander the Great and K. Darius which for exquisitart commeth not behind any other whatsoeuer One picture there is of his doing wherein he would seeme to depaint lascious wantonnesse which he pourtraied by 3 drunken Sylenes making merry and banquetting together He gaue himselfe also to the speedy workemanship of his master before him and for that purpose inuented other compendious means of greater breuitie to make riddance and quicke dispatch with his pencill With these may be sorted Nicophanes also a proper feat and fine workman whose manner was to take out all pictures and paint them new againe thereby as it were to immortalize the memory of things a running hand hee had of his owne and besides was by nature hasty and furious howbeit for skill and cunning there were but few comparable vnto him In all his workes hee aimed at loftinesse and grauity so that a man may attribute the stately port that is in this Art vnto him and no other As touching Perseus apprentice to Apelles who wrote a book to him of the very art he came far short both of his master also of Zeuxis As for Aristides the Theban who also liued in this age he brought vp vnder him his two sons Niceros and Aristippus This Aristippus pourtraied a Satyre crowned with a chaplet and carrying a goblet or drinking cup he taught Antonides and Euphranor his cunning of whom I will write anon for meet it is to annex vnto the rest such as haue bin famous with the pencill in smaller works and lesse pictures among whom I may reckon Pyreicus who for art and skill had not many that went before him and verily of this man I wot not well whether he debased himselfe and bare a low sale of purpose or no for surely his mind was wholly set vpon painting of simple and base things howbeit in that humble lowly carriage of himselfe hee attained to a name of glory in the highest degree his delight was to paint shops of barbers shoomakers coblers taylers and semsters hee had a good hand in pourtraying of poore asses with the victuals that they bring to market such homely stuffe whereby he got himselfe a by-name and was called Rhyparographus Howbeit such rude and simple toies as these were so artificially wrought that they pleased contented the beholders no thing so much Many chapmen he had for these trifling pieces and a greater price they yeelded vnto him than the fairest and largest tables of many others Whereas contrariwise Serapion vsed to make such great and goodly pictures that as M. Varro writeth they were able to take vp fill all the stals bulks and shops jutting forth into the street vnder the old market place Rostra this Serapion had an excellent grace in pourtraying tents booths stages and theaters but to paint a man or woman he knew not which way to begin On the other side Dionysius was good at nothing els and therefore he was commonly called Anthropographus Moreouer Callicles also occupied himselfe in smal works and Calaces set his mind especially vpon little tables and pictures which were to set out comoedies and interludes but Antiphilus practised both the one and the other for he pictured the noble ladie Hesione K. Alexander the Great and Philip the king his father with the goddesse Minerva which tables hang in the Philosophers schoole or walking-place within the stately galleries of Octauia where the learned clerks and gentlemen fauorers of learning were wont to meet and conuerse Within the galleries also of Philippus there
the Pyramides abouesaid a great name there is of a tower built by one of the kings of Egypt within the Island Pharos and it keepeth commands the hauen of Alexandria which tower they say cost 800 talents the building And here because I would omit nothing worth the writing I cannot but note the singular magnanimity of K. Ptolome who permitted Sostratus of Gnidos the master workeman and architect to graue his owne name in this building The vse of this watch-tower is to shew light as a lanthorne and giue direction in the night season to ships for to enter the hauen where they shall auoid bars and shelues like to which there be many beacons burning to the same purpose and namely at Puteoli and Rauenna This is the danger onely lest when many lights in this lanterne meet together they should be taken for a star in the skie for that a far off such lights appeare to sailers in manner of a star This enginer or master workman beforesaid was the first man that is reported to haue made the pendant gallery and walking place at Gnidos CHAP. XIII ¶ Of the Labyrinths in Aegypt Lemnos and Italy SInce wee haue finished our Obelisks and Pyramides let vs enter also into the Labyrinths which we may truly say are the most monstrous workes that euer were deuised by the head of man neither are they incredible fabulous as peraduenture it may be supposed for one of them remaineth to be seen at this day within the jurisdiction of Heracleopolis the first that euer was made to wit three thousand and six hundred yeares ago by a king named Petesuccas or as some thinke Tithoes and yet Herodotus saith it was the whole worke of many KK one after another and that Psammerichus was the last that put his hand to it and made an end thereof the reason that moued these princes to make this Labyrinth is not resolued by writers but diuerse causes are by them alledged Demoteles saith that this Labyrinth was the roiall pallace and seat of king Motherudes Lycias affirmeth it to be the sepulchre of K. Moeris the greater part are of opinion that it was an aedifice dedicated expressely and consecrated vnto the Sun which in my conceit commeth nearest to the truth Certes there is no doubt made that Daedalus tooke from hence the pattern and platforme of his Labyrinth which he made in Crete but surely he expressed not aboue the hundreth part thereof chusing onely that corner of the Labyrinth which containeth a number of waies and passages meeting and incountring one another winding and turning in and out euery way after so intricat manner and so inexplicable that when a man is once in he cannot possibly get out againe neither must wee thinke that these turnings and returnings were after the manner of mazes which are drawne vpon the pauement and plain floore of a field such as we commonly see serue to make sport and pastime among boies that is to say which within a little compasse and round border comprehend many miles but here were many dores contriued which might trouble and confound the memorie for seeing such variety of entries allies and waies some crossed encountred others flanked on either hand a man wandred still and knew not whether he went forward or backward nor in truth where he was And this Labyrinth in Crete is counted the second to that of Aegypt the third is in the Isle Lemnos the fourth in Italy made they were all of polished stone and besides vaulted ouer head with arches As for the Labyrinth in Aegypt the entrie thereof whereat I much maruell was made with columns of stone and all the rest stuffed so substantially and after such a wonderfull maner couched and laid by art of Masonrie that impossible it was they should in many hundred yeres be disjointed and dissolued notwithstanding that the inhabitants of Heracleopolis did what they could to the contrary who for a spight that they bare vnto the whole worke annoied and impeached it wonderfully To describe the site and plot therof to vnfold the architecture of the whole and to rehearse euery particular therof it is not possible for diuided the building is into sixteene regions or quarters according to the sixteene seuerall gouernments in Aegypt which they call Nomos and within the same are contained certain vast stately pallaces which bear the names of the said jurisdictions and be answerable to them besides within the same precinct are the temples of all the Aegiptian gods ouer and aboue fifteen little chappels or shrines euerie one enclosing a Nemesis to which goddesse they be all dedicated to say nothing of many Pyramides forty ells in height apiece and euery of them hauing six walls at the foot in such sort that before a man can come to the Labyrinth indeed which is so intricat inexplicable wherein as I said before he shall be sure ro lose himselfe he may make account to be weary tyred out for yet he is to passe ouer certain lofts galleries garrets all of them so high that he must clime staires of ninety steps apiece ere he can land at them within the which a number of columns and statues there be all of porphyrit or red marble a world of images and statues representing as well gods as men besides an infinit sort of other pieces pourtraied in monstrous and ougly â—…hapes and there erected What should I speake of other roums and lodgings which are framed and situat in such manner that no sooner are the dores and gates opened which lead vnto them but a man shall heare fearfull cracks of terrible thunder furthermore the passages from place to place are for the most part so conueighed that they be as dark as pitch so as there is no going through them without fire light and still be we short of the Labyrinth for without the main wall therof there be two other mighty vpright wals or wings such as in building they call Ptera when you are passed them you meet with more shrouds vnder the ground in manner of caues and countermines vaulted ouer head and as dark as dungeons Moreouer it is said that about 600 yeares before the time of K. Alexander the Great one Circamnos an eunuch or groome of K. Nectabis chamber made some small reparations here about this Labyrinth neuer any but hee would go about such a piece of work It is reported also that while the main arches and vaults were in rearing and those were made all of foure square ashler stone the place shone all about and gaue light with the beams and plancher made of the Aegyptian Acacia sodden in oile And thus much may serue sufficiently for the Labyrinths of Aegipt and Candy The Labyrinth in Lemnos was much like to them only in this respect more admirable for that it had a hundred and forty columns of marble more than the other all wrought round by turners craft but with such dexterity that a very
it a certain hard knurre which is brittle and apt to breake into small crumbs besides the corn or grain therein called Sal. Some pieces of crystall you shall haue which carry a certain red rust others be full of hairy strakes a man would imagin they were so man rifts but cunning artificers can hide this last imperfection when they cut and engraue the piece that hath it for in truth if a crystall be pure and cleare of it selfe much fairer it is plain than so wrought and engrauen and such crystals the Greeks call Acenteta but aboue all when they look not like the froth of clear water last of all this is to be considered that the heauier crystall is in proportion the better account there is made of it Moreouer I read of certaine Physitians who are of opinion that there is not a better and more wholesome cautery for any part of the body that requreth cauterising or burning than a ball or pomander of crystall held opposit between the member and the Sun beams But will you heare of another notorious example of folly and madnesse in these crystals as well as in Cassidoins There are not many yeres since a dame of Rome and shee none of the richest who bought one boll or drinking cup of crystall and paid 150000 sesterces for it As for Nero the Emperour of whom I spake erewhile when vnhappy news was brought vnto him of a great ouerthrow and a field lost to the danger of his owne state and the common-wealth in the height of his rage and a most furious fit of anger caught vp two crystall drinking cups and pasht them all to pieces his spight was belike at all the men liuing in that age better means he could not deuise to plague and punish them than to preuent that no man else should drinke out of those glasses and in very truth a crystall being once broken cannot by any deuise whatsoeuer be reunited and made whole againe as before We haue at this day cups and vessels of glasse that come passing neere vnto crystall but wonderfull it is that notwithstanding our glasses be so like yet they haue not abated and brought downe the price of crystal but rather caused it to be far dearer In the next degree to crystall wee are to place Amber a thing that hitherto I heare women only set daintie store by and adorne themselues withall strange it is that l'Amber Cassidoine and Crystall should thus be in equall request with fine pretious stones marie for Cassidoin and Crystall in some respects verily they may seeme to deserue a higher roume and namely in regard that both of them are so appropriat for to drink water or cold liquor out of such cups but as for Amber our delicates and wantons haue not yet deuised any probable reason why there should be such a reckoning made of it but surely it is the folly and vain curiosity of the Greeks that hath giuen accasion thereof and brought it into so great a name And here I must beseech the readers to beare with me in this my discourse as touching the first originall of Amber for I thinke it not impertinent to deliuer what marueiles and wonders the Greeks haue broached as touching this thing that the age and posterity ensuing may yet be acquainted with their fabulosities first and formost therefore many of their Poëts yea and as I suppose the chiefe and principall of them to wit Aeschylus Philoxenus Nicander Euripides and Satyrus tell vs a tale of the sisters of young price Phaëton who weeping piteously for the miserable death of their brother who was smitten with lightning were turned into Poplar trees which in stead of tears yeelded euery yere a certain liquor called Electrum id est Amber which issued from them where they grew along the riuer Eridanus which we call Padus id est the Po and the reason why the same was named Electrum is this Because the Sun in old time was vsually called Elector in Greeke But that this is one of their loud lies it appeares euidently by the testimony of all Italie But some of these Greek writers and such as would seem to be more speculatiue and better seene in the works of Nature than their fellowes haue told vs of certain Islands that should lie along the coast within the Venice gulfe called Electrides forsooth because that amber is there gathered by reason that the foresaid riuer Po fals into the sea among them howbeit wel known it is that there were neuer yet Islands so named within that tract no nor any Islands at all neere to that place into which the riuer Padus could possioly bring any thing at al down his streameâ—… As for Aeschylus the foresaid Poët who saith that the riuer Eridanus is in Iberia that is to say Spaine otherwise that it is called Rhodanus as also for Euripides and Apollonius who say that Rhosne Po both meet in one and discharge themselues together into the said Venice gulfe they shew their grosse ignorance in Cosmography and description of the world and therfore they would be rather pardoned if they knew not what Amber was Those that write more modestly than the rest and yet can lie as well as the best beare vs in hand that about the sides of the foresaid Venice gulfe or Adriatick sea vpon rockes otherwise inexcessible there grow trees which yerely at the rising of the Dogstar do yeeld forth this Amber in manner of a gum Theophrastus contrariwise affirmes that Amber is digged out of the ground As for Chares he saith that Phaëton died in Aethyopia neere vnto the temple of Iupiter Ammon which is the reason of a chappell there wherein hee is shrined as also of an oracle much ronowmed in which quarters quoth he amber is engendred Philemon would make vs beleeue that Amber is minerall and that within Scythia in two places it is gotten forth of the earth in the one it is found white of the colour of wax which they call Electrum in the other it is reddish or tawny and that is named Sualternicum Demostratus cals Amber Lyncurion for that it commeth of the vrine of the wild beast named Onces or Lynces the which is distinct in colour for that which proceedeth from the male is reddish and of a fiery colour the other which passeth from the female is more weake in colour and enclineth rather to whitish Some giue it the name Langurium and make report of certaine beasts in Italie named Languriae Zenothemis tearmeth the same beasts Langas and by his saying they liue about the Po. Sudines talketh of a tree in Liguria which should beare this Amber of whose opinion also was Metrodorus Sotacus was verily persuaded that it run downe from certaine trees in Brittaine and those he thereupon called Electrides Pytheas affirmeth that in Almaine there is the arme of the Ocean called Mentonomon along which there inhabit certaine people named Gutti for the space of six thousand
reporteth of Ilex and not of Buxus * For Arrowes and Darts * For writing pens * For Flutes and Pipes * Varia or Versicolor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thâ—…oph i. of diuers colourâ—… * Calamachâ—… Theophrastus writeth this of the Cornell tree * Sapino or Carpine * Or Iupitâ—…r * Valida ex Theophrast * Gratiâ—… Lucinâ—… dedit haec tibi nomina Lucus Ouid. * Some take this for Cassutha or Cuscuta i Doder * Millies Sester â—…ium An incredible price for a dwelling house and therefore as Budaeus thinketh this place must be corrected by conference with Val. Max. who for millieâ—… hath sexagiâ—…s which amounts little more than to the 20 part of the other 〈◊〉 * Virgil. i Pauie * Vulcan * Cymini Turneb reades Signini mea neth thereby shards of potters worke and such like rubbish * Herba Acten * The first of March * Nine foot distant euery way from another for trees were planted ordinarily with that space between as may appeare in the next chapter * The 13 day of Februarie * It seems that Cato meant of trenches to drain water out of low grounds and not as Pliny mistaketh * Scanfileâ—… reading it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ouâ—… 〈◊〉 i. more 〈◊〉 and fruitfull * Vergiliae Sarrâ—…ie * Nepotes * Decumanus Limes * Cardiâ—…es * Quinis rather Bâ—…nis i. twaine * quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. calaâ—…itatem aut 〈◊〉 inferens * Or as some read the head of Iupiter within the Capitol * Amphora or Quadranta was a measure Romane of liquor containing 16 Congij which is about 16 wine gallons * Vrna is halfe Amphora to wiâ—… 8 〈◊〉 or thereabout * Vine sreâ—…tar or the Diuels gold-ring * Tertiam to wit Tutelina â—…or preseruing of trees planted and corne sowne or as some reade Tertium meaning Terminus * Made with a red dog to pacifie the Dog-starre * Laudato ingentia rura Eâ—…iguum colitâ—… * Alicas * No maruell bring sowed before winter * i. Turkish Millet * i. Turkish corne * For whereas of the Athenian Wheat 〈◊〉 demy Sextars i. two quarts and a halfe were but sufficient three would serue and content them of the Bâ—…ian i. a quart half wherby it was collected how much weightier this was than that * i. 4 ounces * i. 9 ounces * Zythum â—…urmi * Yest or barm * 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 2 sh. 6 d. Some take it for a kinde of Buley or rather Oats * quinque sedeos * Ego hanc Artoptamex proximo vtendam puto * Vere fabis sâ—…tio Georg. lib. 1. Much like to the prouerbe here in England Marâ—… Otâ—… straw iâ—… better than Aprill Otes * Or rather Arachos * Sistebant Uarâ—…o saith 〈◊〉 which is clean contrarie * Fabali segete antiquam genaret * Aera 4. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but more truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of Theophrastus Thus Plinie mistaketh in many places and for example immediatly in the word Aâ—…eramnos which is appropriate to all Pulse that require much seething or be hard of digestion Thâ—… opâ—…rast c. 1â—… 14. l. 4. de plant * Foelicâ—…as soli * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch * Dentali * or as some think Pflugradt * Bene colâ—…re * Bene arare * Bene stercorare * In the spring * Versum peragi * Stigare * Acâ—… * Illa sâ—…ges demâ—…m voâ—…is respondet aâ—…ari Agrâ—…olae bis quae soli bis sriâ—…ra sensit * 1 Breaking 2 Stirring 3 Crushing 4 Setting vp 5 Castâ—…g downe * For so he inâ—…e â—…eteth it hâ—…self â—…n the â—…hap of this booke * 2. sh. 6. d. sterâ—… By which reckoning one acre would cost aboue 20 pound sterling so much in pro portion of the whole as this cubit is vnder our halfe yard or 18 inches * or rather after Columella 39 daies * He meaneth Zea or Spelt * i. Euening and morning Ortus oâ—…casus Heliacus ortus occasus Cosmicus * 15 of December * Called Interualla afterward in this chapter and contain much about sixe weekes * Called by our Husbandmen Gore-moone * Whereupon the said wind Fauonius is called Châ—…idonias and Ornethias * 13 of March for vpon that day was he murdered * i the seuenth of Februario * Sarrito * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer * Some call them Towers * For that so quickely it robbeth her of moisture * It seems that fine Holland cloth Cambricke was in request by Plinies time * Regione Aliaâ—…a Turâ—…eb * According to the daies of the yeare * Coton or Bombace * Linsy-wolsey or our Fustians rather * Hereupon cotton is called Bombac * 24 graines * i about three halâ—e-pence the grain and better * Hereof were mâ—de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof Galen writes 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with which lint hee cured Heraclides and stanched his bleedinâ—… * Called by Pacuvius Serilia as Festus noteth * Sic Spartum nunc restem nunc plantam â—…qua restes fiunt significant * Impilia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vdoâ—…es * or Mison * or Pezitae * Laser wort * or Mison rather according to Turneb * or Pezici * Some take it for Benioin or Asa dulcis * Which is equiuolent in weight to a dram i. 7. d. ob English * Thought to be Asafoetida * 500 miles * as Priapus Phalli and Ithyphalli * Etiam vno esse venali * Carduus * Artichokes which are no better than Cardui alâ—…iles i. Garden-Thistles * Much like to our Anchoues * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Some take it for Coniza 〈◊〉 Fleabane Mullet * Cucumis syluestris Colocynthis or Coloquintida * or rather â—…alie * Theophrastus writeth all this of Brassica 〈◊〉 Colewoort See how Pliny is ouerseene but that is no newes with him * Here he seemeth to come againe to the radish indeed * 11 Câ—…l Iuâ—… or as some think 13 Cal. Iun i. the 20 or 22 day of May. This feast was named also Lâ—…ria * Here 〈◊〉 forgetteth himselfe againe for this is verified of the Colewort and not of the Radish * Some call these Madâ—…ips * Some take it for Alâ—…oea or the marish Mallow * Siser * Inula * Cariotis some reade Caricis 〈◊〉 Figs. * rather Hemerocalles * Pâ—…rdicium * Gethyâ—…m * oâ—… Antiscorâ—…don * 11. Calend. Ianuar. * 14. Calend. Ianuar. i. Between the 18. 21 of December Or rather Anguinum * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so it should seem that Pliny read it in Theophrastus wheras indeed it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. with leaues growing thin * See Caelius â—…hodiginus 27 booke and last chap. antiq Lectionum let him tell you why women call this Lectuce Astylis * Olus which word 〈◊〉 vseth muâ—…h for Beets * For some resemblance of Parsley * Corrudâ—… This
of gum called Sanguis Draconis * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For Theriaci in the primitiue and naturall significatioÌ„ is more gâ—…nerall of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is any wild oâ—… venomous bâ—…st * HereupoÌ„ peraduenture it is that in collices Coks broths we vse to seeth peeces of gold with an opinioÌ„ to make them thereby more restoratiue * Which some take for the lesse wild Tazell * Yet Matthiolus vpon Dioscorides reckoneth Tarantula to be a kind of Phalangium whereof there is great store in Apulia * called Alocia * i. Hauing four clawes * And yet Mattâ—…lus vpon Diose saith it is the Terrantola which is common in Tuscan * Namely whether they are to be vsed inwardly at all whether with their wings head feet or without them * For that he killed himself at Vtica * Some reade thirty * For the maner of a dog is to bee angrie with the stone that is thrown at him without regard of the party that flung it wherupon grew the Prouerbe in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * In hysopo decoctuÌ„ aut mulso some reade cuÌ„ oesypo dâ—…ctum in mulso i. Boiled with tried grease of sheeps wool in honied wine * The Latines in oâ—…d time after the same analogie called the dung of swine Sucerda of kine and oxen Bucerda like as the ordure of men Homerda * This Idoll of the Panims I take to be called in the holy Scripture Beel-zebub * Creta cimolâ—… Tuckers earth * 〈◊〉 constrinarunt sanguine fistiâ—… Either when the baâ—…ber would step the or fice of a vaine after bloud letting or fice one that is newly wounded coÌ„meth fresh bleeding to be dressed or if his own rasor chance â—…o go awâ—…y shaue to the quicke whiles he hath a 〈◊〉 vnder his â—…and to trim * i. One whole scriptule or scruple * Sicet solatis prosunt This scorching roughnesse of the skin or face is called by Physitians Ephelis * As one would say made of a viper * Stomachi totiusque corporis temperiem serusque aetates ex Diosc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Haliartos i. the sea Aegle or Orfray * Hyssope vnlesse we reade Oesype which is the tried grease of vnwashed wool * Because they be found in the fish called Cinaedi * Pliuy confoundeth Oniscos which wee call a Sow or Wood-louse with the Cater piller or woolbead Millepeda * Indeed our Sows or woodlice called otherwise Porcelliones and Multipedae but not Millepedae which if one touch them draw themselues round are good for the pain of the ears but not the foresaid Wooll beads or Caterpillers Millâ—…pedae which in their creeping rise and fall c. * which Pliny taketh for a kind of Scarabaeus or Beetle * Orthopnoici Such as caÌ„not take their wind but sitting vpright * K. of the Bactrians which some take to be Abraham * It seems that in thi calculation of yeares Pliny mistakes the number for Plutarch saith hee liued 600 yeres before the Trojan war or els that hee means Lunares eanos * Vicies centuÌ„ millia versum i. two millions of verses * Diodorus Siculus saith that this was meerly a fiction arising herupon That Proteus being a king of Egypt according to the custome of the Egiptian kings for greater maiesty and state shewed himself abroad adorned with the ensigns representing a Bull Dragon Lion tree fire and such like altering eftsoones those ornaments which contained some hierogliphycall mysteries appropriat to the person of a King * Three daughters of Achelous Calliope whose names were Parthenope Ligia and Leucosia reputed witches able to doe great matters by charmes * For properly the Magi were the wise men of Persia and yet at Rome they vsually termed Magitians by the name of Thessalians * It should seeme that these were the Magicians of Pharao of whom S. Paul 2. Tim. 3. chap. maketh mention who would haue counterfeited the miracles wrought by Moses where note that Pliny ignorant in the holy Scriptures and void of true religion rangeth Moses the prophet and faithfull seruant of almighty God with such sorcerers and enchaunters For the Painims wanting the light of the gospell attributed all effects and operations aboue nature to Magick were not able to distinguish between miracles done by the finger of God or his ministers and the illusions practised by the diuell and his lims * Some interpret this to be meant of Christianity which was receiued with the first in Cypros by the preaching oâ—… the Gospell and aâ—… it is thought by S. Barnabas for that during the infanciâ—… of the primitiue Church many miracles were wrought by the Apostles and Disciples of our Sauiour Iesus Christ the heathen hold that Religion of Christians to be a kind of Magicke Other vnderstand this place of the Priest of Cyprian Venus called Cynarâ—…ans * As it appeareth by our old English Chronicles which write oâ—… K. Arthur the knights of the round table and Merlia the prophet or magitian * No doubt hee meaneth England Scotland Ireland which seemed to be seperat from the rest of the world where in old time Magicke bare a great sway and witches still swarm too much 1 Hydromantia 2 Spharomantia 3 Aeromantia 4 Astrologia 5 Pyromantia 6 Lecanomantia 7 Axinomantia * Lentiginosis * Suetonius iâ—… Nerâ—…ne corpora fuit maculoso foedo i. His skin was full of foule spots * Ad sciscitandum Homerum * Veneris Labâ—… * Si feruentia â—…s intus exusserint peraduen ture he meaneth the hot sores within the mouth called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Multipeda * For the martinets or swallowes called Apodes build not but lay and breed in chinks and cranies of old walls * Of which being raised more more come Maure-hils corruptly called Moule-hils for Ants were in old English called Maureâ—… and Moules neuer cast vp such * The bowels as heart liuer lights c. * Prscissoque vivo not prefusoque vino * Because they were brought from the Isle Melita lying within the Sclavonian sea * Haply so named because they haue little or no hornes quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * or Troxallis according to Aelianus * Vpupa * Or Affricke * Vlcer of the guts or bloudie flix * A continuall desire to the stoole without doing ought * Dolores coeliacorum Some read Colicorum i. of the Collicke * Which is the torture or inflammation of the vpper small guts * Repellit * Hydrocelicis * Alumiâ—… schistâ—… * Purâ—… vlcera * Muli mulaeue Some take mulus to be the muleingehdred by a male asse a mare but Mula to be that mule that commeth of an horse and female asse * Stellionatus criâ—…eÌ„ as much as cousenage or cony-catching * Haply because all these beetles be couÌ„ted of the male sex none of them female for in those
them haue other greater circuits of full reuolution which are to be spoken of in the discourse of the great yeare CHAP. IX ¶ Of the Moones nature BVt the Planet of the Moone being the last of all most familiar with the earrh and deuised by Nature for the remedie of darknesse out-goeth the admiration of all the rest She with her winding and turning in many and sundry shapes hath troubled much the wits of the beholders fretting and fuming that of this starre being the neerest of all they should be most ignorant growing as it doth or else waining euermore One while bended pointwise into tips of hornes another whiles diuided iust in the halfe and anon againe in compasse round spotted sometime and darke and soone after on a sudden exceeding bright one while big and full and another while all at once nothing to bee seene Sometime shining all night long and otherwhiles late it is ere she riseth shee also helpeth the Sunnes light some part of the day eclipsed and yet in that eclipse to be seene The same at the moneths end lieth hidden at what time it is supposed shee laboureth and trauelleth not At one time yee shall see her below and anon aloft and that not after one manner but one while reaching vp close to the highest heauen and another while ready to touch the mountains sometimes mounted on high into the North and sometime cast down below into the South Which seuerall constitutions and motions in her the first man that obserued was Endymeon and thereupon the voice went That he was enamoured vpon the Moone Certes thankfull we are not as we ought to be vnto those who by their trauell and carefull endeuour haue giuen vs light in this light But delighted rather we are wonderously such is the pestilent wit and wicked disposition of man to record in Chronicles bloud shed and murders that lewd acts and mischieuous deeds should be knowne of them who otherwise are ignorant of the world it selfe Well to proceed the Moon being next to the Centre and therfore of least compasse performes the same course and circuit in seuen and twentie daies and one third part of a day which Saturne the highest planet runnes as we said before in thirty yeres After this making stay in coniunction with the Sun two daies forth she goes and by the thirtieth day at the most returneth to the same point and ministery againe the mistresse if I may so say and the teacher of all things Astronomicall that may be known in heauen Now by her meanes are we taught that the yeere ought to be diuided into twelue moneths for as much as the Moone meeteth or ouertaketh the Sun so many times before he returneth to the same point where he began his course Likewise that shee loseth her light as the rest of the planets by the brightnes of the Sun when she approcheth neere For borrowing wholly of him her light shee doth shine much like to that which we see glittering and flying too and fro in the reflection and reuerberation of the Sun-beames from the water And hereupon it is that she by her more mild and vnperfect power dissolueth yea and increaseth so great moisture as she doth which the sun beames may consume Hence it comes also that her light is not euen and equall in sight because then only when she is opposite vnto the Sunne she appeareth full but all other daies she sheweth no more to vs here on earth than she conceiueth light of the Sunne In time verily of coniunction or change she is not seene at all for that whiles she is turned away all the draught of light she casteth thither backe againe from whence she receiued it Now that these planets are fed doubtles with earthly moisture it is euident by the Moone which so long as she appeareth by the halfe in sight neuer sheweth any spots because as yet shee hath not her full power of light sufficient to draw humour vnto her For these spots be nothing else but the dregs of the earth caught vp with other moisture among the vapors CHAP. X. ¶ Of the Sunne and Moones eclipse and of the Night MOreouer the eclipse of the Moone and Sunne a thing throughout the vniuersall contemplation of Nature most maruellous and like a strange and prodigious wonder doth shew the bignesse and shadow of these two planets For euident it is that the Sunne is hidden by the comming betweene of the Moone and the Moone againe by the opposition of the Earth also that the one doth quit the other in that the Moone by her interposition bereaueth the Earth of the Sunnes raies and the earth againe doth the semblable by the Moone Neither is the Night any thing else but the shade of the Earth Now the figure of this shadow resembleth a pyramis pointed foreward or a top turned vp side downe namely when as it falleth vpon it with the sharpe end thereof nor goeth beyond the heights of the Moone for that no other starre is in that manner darkened and such a figure as it alwaies endeth point-wise And verily that shadowes grow to nothing in great space of distance appeareth by the exceeding high flight of some foules So as the confines of these shadowes is the vtmost bound of the aire and the beginning of the fire Aboue the Moone all is pure and light some continually And we in the night doe see the starres as candles or any other lights from out of darkenesse For these causes also the Moone in the night season is eclipsed onely But the reason why the Sun and Moone are not both in the eclipse ta set times and monethly is the winding obliquitie of the Zodiake and the wandering turnings of the Moone one while farre South and another while as much North as hath been said and for that these planets do not alwaies in their motion meet just in the points of the eclipticke line to wit in the head or taile of the Dragon CHAP. XI ¶ Of the magnitude of Starres THe reason of this lifteth vp mens mindes into heauen and as if they beheld and looked downe from thence discouer vnto them the magnitude of the three greatest parts of the whole world For the Sunnes light could not wholly be taken away from the earth by the Moone comming betweene in case the earth were bigger than the Moone But the huge greatnesse of the Sunne is more certainely knowne both by the shadow of the Earth and the bodie of the Moone so as it is needlesse to search and inquire into the largenesse thereof either by proofe of eie-sight or by coniecture of the minde How vnmeasurable it is appeareth euidently by this That trees which are planted in limits from East to West casteth shadowes equall in proportion albeit they be neuer so many miles assunder in length as if the Sunne were in the middest of them all This appeareth also about the time of the equinoctiall in all regions meridionall when the Sunne shineth