joyneth and seasoneth the same so is Rennet to Cheese and therefore both of them have the same qualities of dissolving and binding Galen affirmeth that he cured one of Gowty tumours and swellings by applying thereunto old and strong putrified Cheese beaten in a morter and mixed with the salted fat or leg of a Swine If a Man sick of the Bloudy flux drink thereof in a reer Egge two scruples for two dayes together fasting it will procure him remedy For pacifying the Colick drink the Rennet of a Hare the same mingled with Goose grease stayeth the incontinencie of Urine it also retaineth womens flowers If it be drunk with Vinegar it helpeth the seconds and being applyed with Saffron and the juyce of Leeks driveth a dead childe ouâ— of the womb If it be drunk three or four dayes together after childe-birth it causeth barrenness There are saith Pliny a kind of Wormes which being bound to Women before the Sun rising in a Harts skin cause them that they cannot conceive this power is called Asocion Masarius saith that if a Woman drink this Rennet to her meat before she conceive with childe she should be delivered of a Male child and such is the foolish opinion of them which affirm at this day that if men eat parsly or white buds of black ivie it maketh them unable to carnall copulation The Rennet of a Hare easeth and disperseth all tumors and swellings in Womens brests the Lights of a Hare powdred with salt with Frankincense and white wine helpeth him that is vexed with the Falling sickness if he receive it thirty dayes together Sextus ascribeth the same remedy to the Hart and Pliny commendeth the Lights to heal the pain in the eyes Being drunk in powder it cureth the secrets If the heels be troubled with Kibes they are healed with the fat of Bears but if they be wrâ—ng with a cold they are healed with the dust of a Hares hair or the powder of the Lights Likewise when the foot is hurt with stâ—ait shooes it hath the same operation The ancient Magâ— took the skin of an Oxe in powder with the Urine of Boyes and sprinkled it on the 〈◊〉 of their feet binding the heart of a Hare to the hands of him that hath a Quartan Ague and some cure it by hanging the heart of a young Hare or Leveret to the neck or arme in the beginning of the fit of him that is so visited The heart of a Hare dried mixed with Frankineense or Manna 〈…〉 white wine drunk thirty dayes together cureth the Falling sickness For the pain in the belly take the same medicine and drunk with warm water mingled with Samia cureth the fluxes of women also if a man that hath the flux eat the Liver of a Hare dipped in sharp Vinegar it helpeth him if he be Liver sick or if one have the Falling sickness eat the quantity of an ounce thereof and it helpeth him The Gall of a Hare the Heart Lungs Lights and Liver of a Weasel mixed together three drams one dram of Castoreum four drams of Myrrha a dram of Vinegar and Hony beat together cureth him that hath a swimming or dizziness in his brain The gall newly taken forth mingled with a like portion of hony and warm in the skin of an onion and so put into the ear giveth remedy to him that can hear nothing If he that is sick in the milt that is if it be over hard swallow down the milt of a Hare not touching it with his teeth or seeing it with his eyes it cureth him The belly of a Hare with the intrails tosted and burned in a frying-pan mixed with Oil and anointed upon the head restoreth decayed hairs The reins of a Hare inveterated and drunk in Wine expelleth the stone and being sod cut and dryed in the Sun helpeth the pain in the reins if it be swallowed down and not touched with the teeth The reins of a Hare and of a Moor-hen cureth them that are poisoned by Spiders the stones of a Hare roasted and drunk in Wine stayeth the incontinency of Urine In the pain of the loins and of the hip bones they have the same operation The secrets and stones of Hares are given to Men and Women to make them apâ—er to copulation and conception but this opinion hath no other ground beside the foecundity of the beast that beareth them They which carry about with them the ankle bone of a Hare shall never be pained in the belly as Pliny saith So likewise Sextus and Marcellus Take the ankle bone out of a live Hare and hairs from her belly therewithal make a threed and bind the said bone to him that hath the Colick and it shall ease him The said bone also beaten to powder is reckoned among the chief remedies against the stone When Women have hard travel put it into Cretick-wine with the liquor of Penyroyal and it procureth speedy delivery being bound to the benummed joynts of a mans leg bringeth great ease so also do the feet being bruised and drunk in warm Wine relieve the arteries and shortness of breath and some belive that by the foot of a Hare cut off alive the Gout is eased The fime of a Hare cureth scorched members and whereas it was no small honour to Virgins in ancient time to have their brests continually stand out every one was prescribed to drink in Wine or such other things nine grains of Hares dung the same drunk in Wine in the evening stayeth Coughing in the night in a potion of warm wine it is given to them that have the Bloudy flux likewise if a man be sick of the Colick and drink three pieles thereof in sweet Wine it procureth him much ease being decocted with hony and eaten every day the quantity of a Bean in desperate cases mendeth Ruptures in the bowels Asclepiades in his medicine whereby he procured fruitfulness to Noble Women he gave them four drams of Myrrha two drams of Flower-deluce two of Hares dung confected with Collyrial water so put up into their bellies after ceasing of the flowers before they lay with their Husbands Albertus and Raphael prescribe this medicine to help a woman that wanteth milk in her brests Crystal white Mustard-seed and Hares dung put into broath made with Fennel Of the HEDGE-HOG FOrasmuch as there be two sorts of Hedge-hogs one of the Sea and another of the Land our purpose in this place is only to discourse of the Land Hedge-hog the Hebrews call him Kipod which in the 14. of Isa and Zepha 2. is so translated by the Septuagints although that some of the Hebrews would have it to signifie a ravening bird but seeing that I find the word Kapaz in most Hebrew dictionaries to signifie Claudere and Contrahere and that is most proper to shut up and draw together I do rather believe that the proper meaning thereof is a Hedge-hog because this beast so draweth it self together when it
or wrung together through the pinching of their shoos to help themselves withall and for those which are lame and those which are troubled with those grievous sores called Fistulaes If any man shall take either in meat or drink the marrow of a Mule to the weight or quantity of three golden crowns he shall presently become blockish and altogether unexpert of wisdom and understanding and shall be void of all good nutriment and manners The ear-laps or ear-lages of a Mule and the stones of a Mulet being born and carried by any woman are of such great force and efficacy that they will make her not to conceive The heart of a Mule being dryed and mingled with Wine and so given to a woman to drink after that she is purged or cleansed thirty times hath the same force and power that the aforesaid medicine hath for the making of a woman barren The same effect against conception hath the bark of a white poplar tree being beaten together with the reins of a Mule then mingled in Wine and afterwards drunk up If the herb called Harts-tongue be tied upon any part of a woman with the spleen of a Mule but as some have affirmed by it self only and that in the day which hath a dark night or without any Moonshine at all it will make her altogether barren and not able to conceive If the two stones of a Mule be bound in a piece of the skin of the same Beast and hanged upon any woman they will make that she shall not conceive so long as they shall be bound unto her The left stone of a Weesil being bound in the skin or hide of a Mule and steeped or soked for a certain space or time in Wine or in any other drink and the drink in which they are so steeped given to a woman to drink doth surely make that she shall not conceive The stones of a Mulet being burned upon a barren and unfruitful tree and put out or quenched with the stale or urine of either Man or Beast which is gelded being bound and tyed in the skin of a Mule and hanged upon the arm of any woman after her menstrual fluxes will altogether resist and hinder her conception The right stone of a Mule being burned and fastned unto the arm of a woman which is in great pain and travail will make that she shall never be delivered until the same be loosened and taken away but if it shall happen that a Maid or young Virgin shall take this in drink after her first purgation or menses she shall never be able to conceive but shall be always barren and unfruitful The matrix or womb of a female Mule taken and boiled with the flesh of an Ass or any other flesh whatsoever and so eaten by a woman which doth not know what it is will cause her never to conceive after the same The worm which is called a Gloworm or a Globird being taken out of the womb or matrice of a female Mule and bound unto any part of a womans body will make that she shall never be to able conceive The dust or powder which proceedeth from the hoofs of a male or female Mule being mixed or mingled with Oyl which cometh from Myrtleberries doth very much help those which are troubled with the Gout in their legs or feet The dust of the hoofs of a Mule being scorched or burned and the Oyl of Myrtle-berries being mingled with Vinegar and moist or liquid Pitch and wrought or tempered in the form or fashion of a plaister and opposed or put unto the head of any one whose hairs are too fluent and abundant doth very speedily and effectually expel the same The liver of a Mule being burned or dryed unto dust and mixed with the same Oyl of Myrtle-berries and so anointed or spread upon the head is an excellent and profitable remedy for the curing of the aforesaid enormity The dust or powder of the hoofs of a female Mule is very wholesome and medicinable for the healing and curing of all griefs and pains which do happen or come unto a mans yard being sprinkled thereupon The hoof of a Mule being born by a woman which is with childe doth hinder her conception The filth or uncleanness which is in the ears of a Mule being bound in the skin or hide of a little or young Hart and bound or hanged upon the arm of a woman after her purgation doth cause that she may not conceive The same being in like manner mingled or mixed with Oyl which is made of Beavers-stones doth make any woman to whom it is given to drink altogether barren The dirt or dung of a Mule being mixed with a syrup made of Hony Vinegar and Water and given to any one to drink that is troubled with the heart swelling will very speedily and effectually cure the pain thereof The dung of a Mule being burned or dryed and beaten small and afterwards sifted or seirced and washed or steeped in Wine and given to any woman to drink whose menstrual fluxes come forth before their time will in very short space cause the same to stay The stale or urine of a male or female Mule being mingled with their dirt or dung is very good and medicinable for those to use which are troubled with corns and hard bunches of flesh which grow in their feet Assa foetida being mingled with the urine of a Mule to the quantity of a bean and drunk will altogether be an impediment and hinderance to the conception of any woman The stale or urine of a Mule being taken to the quantity of eight pounds with two pounds of the scum or refuge of silver and a pound of old and most clear Oyl all these being beaten or pounded together until they come to the thickness of the fat or sweat which falleth from mens bodies and boiled until they come unto so liquid and thin a juyce that they will speedily and effectually cure and help those which are troubled with the Gout or swelling in the joynts If a woman shall take the sweat which proceedeth from a Horse and anoint it upon a Woollen cloth and so apply it as a plaister or suppository unto her secret parts it will make her altogether barren There is an excellent remedy for those which are pursie or short winded which cometh also by the Mule which is this To take or gather the froath or some of a Mule and to put it into a cup or goblet and give it in warm water for a certain space or time to be drunk either to the man or woman which is troubled with this enormity and the party which do so use it shall in short space have remedy but the Mule will without any lingring of time or consuming of time in pain and sorrow die The milt of a male or female Mule being drunk in a potion or juyce
wherein they say is the picture of a Toad with her legs spread before and behinde And it is further affirmed that if both these stones be held in ones hand in the presence of poyson it will burn him The probation of this stone is by laying of it to a live Toad and if she lift up her head against it it is good but if she run away from it it is a counterfeit Geor. Agricola calleth the greater kinde of these stones Brontia and the lesser and smoother sort of stones Ceraunie although some contrary this opinion saying that these stones Brantia and Ceraunia are bred on the earth by thundering and lightning Whereas it is said before that the generation of this stone in the Toad proceedeth of cold that is utterly unpossible for it is described to be so solid and firm as nothing can be more hard and therefore I cannot assent unto that opinion for unto hard and solid things is required abundance of heat and again it is unlikely that whatsoever this Toad-stone be that there should be any store of them in the world as are every where visible if they were to be taken out of the Toads alive and therefore I rather agree with Salveldensis a Spaniard who thinketh that it is begotten by a certain viscous spume breathed out upon the head of some Toad by her fellows in the Spring time This stone is that which in ancient time was called Batrachites and they attribute unto it a vertue besides the former namely for the breaking of the stone in the Bladder and against the Falling-sicknesse And they further write that it is a discoverer of present poyson for in the presence of poyson it will change the colour And this is the substance of that which is written about this stone Now for my part I dare not conclude either with it or against it for Hermolaus Massarius Albertus Sylvaticus and others are directly for this stone ingendered in the brain or head of the Toad on the other side Cardan and Cesner confesse such a stone by name and nature but they make doubt of the generation of it as others have delivered and therefore they being in sundry opinions the hearing whereof might confound the Reader I will refer him for his satisfaction unto a Toad which he may easily every day kill For although when the Toad is dead the vertue thereof be lost which consisted in the eye or blew spot in the middle yet the substance remaineth and if the stone be found there in substance then is the question at an end but if it be not then must the generation of it be sought for in some other place Thus leaving the stone of the Toad we must proceed to the other parts of the story and first of all their place of habitation which for them of the water is neer the water-side and for them of the earth in bushes hedges rocks and holes of the earth never coming abroad while the Sun shineth for they hate the Sun-shine and their nature cannot endure it for which cause they keep close in their holes in the day time and in the night they come abroad Yet sometimes in rainy weather and in solitary places they come abroad in the day time All the Winter time they live under the earth feeding upon earth herbs and worms and it is said they eat earth by measure for they eat so much every day as they can gripe in their fore-foot as it were sizing themselves lest the whole earth should not serve them till the Spring Resembling herein great rich covetous men who ever spare to spend for fear they shall want before they die And for this cause in ancient time the wise Painters of Germany did picture a woman sitting upon a Toad to signifie covetousnesse They also love to eat Sage and yet the root of Sage is to them deadly poyson They destroy Bees without all danger to themselves for they will creep to the holes of their Hives and there blow in upon the Bees by which breath they draw them out of the Hive and so destroy them as they come out for this cause also at the Water-side they lie in wait to catch them When they come to drink in the day time they see little or nothing but in the night time they see perfectly and therefore they come then abroad About their generation there are many worthy observations in nature sometimes they are bred out of the putrefaction and corruption of the earth it hath also been seen that out of the ashes of a Toad burnt not only one but many Toads have been regenerated the year following In the New-world there is a Province called Dariene the air whereof is wonderful unwholesome because all the Countrey standeth upon rotten marishes It is there observed that when the slaves or servants water the pavements of the dores from the drops of water which fall on the right hand are instantly many Toads ingendered as in other places such drops of water are turned into Gnats It hath also been seen that women conceiving with childe have likewise conceived at the same time a Frog or a Toad or a Lizard and therefore Platearius saith that those things which are medicines to provoke the menstruous course of women do also bring forth the Secondines And some have called Bufonem fratrem Salernitanorum lacertam fratrem Lombardorum that is a Toad the Brother of the Salernitâ—ns and the Lizard the Brother of the Lombards for it hath been seen that a woman of Salernum hath at one time brought forth a Boy and a Toad and therefore he calleth the Toad his Brother so likewise a woman of Lombardy a Lizard and therefove he calleth the Lizard the Lombards Brother And for this cause the women of those Countries at such time as their childe beginneth to quicken in their womb do drink the juyce of Parsley and Leeks to kill such conceptions if any be There was a woman newly marryed and when in the opinion of all she was with childe in stead of a childe she brought forth four little living creatures like Frogs yet she remained in good health but a little while after she felt some pain about the rim of her belly which afterward was eased by applying a few remedies Also there was another woman which together with a Man-childe in her Secondines did bring forth such another Beast and after that a Merchants wife did the like in Aneonitum But what should be the reason of these so strange and unnatural conceptions I will not take upon me to decide in nature lest the Omnipotent hand of God should be wronged and his most secret and just counsel presumptuously judged and called into question This we know that it was prophesied in the Revelation that Frogs and Locusts should come out of the Whore of Babylon and the bottomlesse pit and therefore seeing the seat of the Whore of Babylon is in Italy it may be that God would have manifested
and the gall is profitable for many things but especially being turned into a glew it helpeth the falling evill The genitals of a Beaver are called by the Physitians Castoreum and therefore we will in this discourse use that word for expressing the nature qualities remedies and miraculous operation thereof wherefore they must be very warily and skilfully taken forth for there is in a little skin compassing them about a certain sweet humor called Humor Melleus and with that they must be cut out the utter skin being cut asunder to make the more easie entrance and the Apothecaries use to take all the fat about them which they put into the oil of the Castoreum and sell it unto fisher-men to make bait for fishes The females have stones or Castoreum as well as the males but very small ones Now you must take great heed to the choise of your Beaver and then to the stones which must grow from one root conjoyned otherwise they are not precious and the beast must neither be a young one nor one very old but in the mean betwixt both being in vigor and perfection of strength The Beavers of Spain yeeld not such virtuous Castoreum as they of Pontus and therefore if it be possible take a Pontique Beaver next one of Gallatia and lastly of Africk Some do corrupt them putting into their skin Gum and Ammoniack with blood other take the reins of the beast and so make the Castoreum very big which in it self is but small This beast hath two bladders which I remember not are in any other living creature and you must beware that none of these be joyned to the Castoreum You may know if it be mingled with Ammoniack by the tast for although the colour be like yet is the savour different Platearius sheweth that some adulterate Castoreum by taking off his skin or some cod newly taken forth of another beast filling it with bloud sinews and the powder of Castoreum that so it may not want his strong smell or favour other fill it with earth and bloud other with bloud rosen gum sinews and pepper to make it tast sharp but this is a falsification discernible and of this sort is the Castoreum which is sold in Venice as Brasovala affirmeth and the most of them sold at this day are bigger then the true Castoreum for the just weight of the right stones is not above twelve ounces and a half one of them being bigger then the other being six fingers breadth long and four in breadth Now the substance contained in the bag is yellowish solid like wax and sticking like glew not sharp and cracking betwixt the teeth as the counterfeit is These stones are of a strong and stinking savour such as is not in any other but not rotten and sharp as Grammarians affirm yer I have smelled of it dryed which was not unpleasant and things once seasoned with the savour thereof will ever tast of it although they have not touched it but lie covered with it in the same box or pot and therefore the Castoreum of Persia is counterfeit which hath no such smell for if a man smell to the right Castoreum it will draw bloud out of his nose After it is taken forth from the beast it must be hung up in some place to be dryed in the shadow and when it is dry it is soft and white it will continue it strength six years and some say seven the Persians affirm that their Castoreum will hold his virtue ten years which is as false as the matter they speak of is counterfeit Archigenes wrote a whole book of the virtue of this Castoreum whereunto they may resort that require an exact and full declaration of all his medicinal operations it shall only be our purpose to touch some general heads and not to enter into a particular discovery thereof Being so dryed as is declared it must be warily used for it falleth out herein as in other medicinal subjects that ignorance turneth a curing herb or substance into a venemous and destructive quality therefore we will first of all set down the dangers to be avoided and afterward some particular cures that come by the right use of it Therefore it must be understood that there is poyson in it not naturally but by accident as may be in any other good and wholesome matter and that especially in the smell or savour thereof whereunto if a woman with childe do smell it will kill the childe unborn and cause abortment for a womans womb is like a creature nourished with good favours and destroyed with evill therefore burning of feathers shoo-soles woollen clothes pitch Galbanum gum onions and garlick is noysom to them It may be corrupted not only as is before declared but also if it be shut up close without vent into pure aire when it is hanged up to be dryed or if the bag be kept moist so that it cannot dry and it is true as Avicen saith that if it be used being so corrupted it killeth within a dayes space driving one into madness making the sick person continually to hold forth his tongue and infecting him with a Fever by inflaming the body loosing the continuity of the parts through sharp vapors arising from the stomach and for a proof that it will inflame if you take a little of it mingled with oil and rub upon any part of the body or upon your nail you shall feel it But there is also a remedy for it being corrupted namely Asses milk mingled with some sharp syrup of Citron or if need require drink a dram of Philons Antidote at the most or take butter and sweet water which will cause vomit and vomit therewith so long as you feel the savour of the stone and afterward take syrup of Limmons or Citrons and some affirm upon experience that two penny weight of Coriander-seed scorched in the fire is a present remedy for this evill And it is most strange that seeing it is in greatest strength when the favour is hottest which is very displeasing to a mans nature in outward appearance yet doth it never harm a man taken inwardly being pure and rightly compounded if the person be without a Fever for in that case only it doth hurt inwardly otherwise apply it to a moist body lacking refrigeration or to a cold body wanting excalfaction or to a cold and moist body you shall perceive an evident commodity thereby if there be no Fever and yet it hath profited many where the Fever hath not been over hot as in Extasies and Lethargies ministred with white Pepper and Melicrate and with Rose cakes laid to the neck or head The same virtues it hath being outwardly applyed and mingled with oil if the bodies be in any heat and purely without oil if the body be cold for in heating it holdeth the third degree and in drying the second The manner how it is to be administred is in drink for the most part the sweet liquor
Ptisick or short breath made into pils with Honey The powder of a Cowes horn mixed with Vinegar helpeth the morphew being washed or anointed therewith The same infused into the Nostrils stayeth the bleeding likewise mingled with warm water and Vinegar given to a Splenitick man for three daies together it wonderfully worketh upon that passion powder of the hoof of an Ox with water put upon the Kings evill helpeth it and with Water and Honey it helpeth the apostemes and swelling of the body and the same burned and put into drink and given to a Woman that lacketh Milk it encreafeth milk and strengtheneth her very much Other take the tongue of a Cow which they dry so long till it may be beaten into powder and so give it to a woman in white wine or broath The dust of the heel of an Ox or ancle bone taken in wine and put to the gums or teeth do fasten them and remove the ach away The ribs of Oxen beaten to powder do stay the flux of bloud and restrain the aboundance of monthly courses in women The ancle of a white Cow laid forty daies and nights into wine and rubbed on the face with white Linet taketh spots and maketh the skin look very clear Where a man biteth any other living creature seethe the flesh of an Ox or a Calf and after five daies lay it to the sore and it shall work the ease thereof The flesh being warm layed to the swellings of the body easeth them so also do the warm bloud and gall of the same beast The broath of beef healeth the loosness of the belly coming by reason of choler and the broath of Cowes flesh or the marrow of a Cow healeth the ulcers and chinks of the mouth The skin of a Ox especially the leather thereof warm in a shooe burned and applyed to pimples in the body or face cureth them The skin of the feet and nose of an Ox or Sheep sod over a soft and gentle fire untill there arise a certain scum like to glew from it and afterward dried in the cold windie air and drunk helpeth or at least easeth burstness very much The marrow of an Ox or the sewet helpeth the strains of sinews if they be anointed therewith If one make a small candle of Paper and Cowes marrow setting the same on fire under his browes or eye-lids which are bald without hair and often anointing the place he shall have very decent and comely hair grow thereupon Likewise the sewet of Oxen helpeth against all outward poison so in all Leprosies Botches and Scurviness of the skin the same mingled with Goose grease and poured into the eares helpeth the deafness of them It is also good against the inflamation of the ears the stupidity and dulness of the teeth the running of the eyes the ulcers and rimes of the mouth and stifness of the neck If ones bloud be liquid and apt to run forth of the body it may be well thickned and retained by drinking Ox bloud mingled with Vinegar and the bloud of a Cow poured into a wound that bleedeth stayeth the bloud Likewise the bloud of Oxen cureth the scabs in Dogs Concerning their Milk volumes may be written of the several and manifold virtues thereof for the Arcadians refused all medicine only in the Spring time when their beasts did eat grasse they drank Cowes milk being perswaded that the virtue and vigour of all good herbs and fruits were received and digested into that liquor for they gave it medicinally to them which were sick of the Ptisick of Consumption of an old Cough of the Consumption of the reins of the hardness of the belly and of all manner of poisons which burn inwardly which is also the opinion of all the Greek Physitians and the shell of a Walnut sod in Cow-milk and said to the place where a Serpent hath bitteh it cureth it and stayeth the poison The same being new and warm Gargarized into the throat helpeth the soreness of the kernels and all pain in the Arteries and swelling in the throat and stomach and if any man be in danger of a short breath let him take dayly soft pitch with the hearb Mummie and Harts suet clarified in a Cup of new Milk and ithath been proved very profitable Where the pains of the stomach come by sadness Melancholy or desperation drink Cow-milk Womans milk or Asses milk wherein a flint stone hath been sodden When one is troubled with a desire of going often to the stool and can egest nothing let him drink Cow-milk and Asses-milk sod together the same also heated with gads of Iron or steel and mingled with one fourth part of water helpeth the Bloudy flux mingled with a little Hony and a Buls gall with Cummin and gourds layed to the Navel and some affirm that Cow-milk doth help conception if a woman be troubled with the whiteflux so that her womb be indangered let her drink a purgation for her upper parts and afterward Asses milk last of all let her drink Cow-milk and new wine for forty daies together if need be so mingled that the wine appear not in the milk and it shall stay the flux But in the use of milk the rule of Hippocrates must be continually observed that it be not used with any sharp or tartd liquor for then it curdleth in the stomach and turneth into corruption The whay of Cow-milk mingled with Hony and Salt as much as the tast will permit and drunk looseneth the hardness of the belly The marrow of a Cow mingled with a little meal and with new cheese wonderfully stayeth the Bloudyflux It is affirmed that there is in the head of an Ox a certain little stone which only in the fear of death he casteth out at his mouth if this stone be taken from them suddenly by cutting the head it doth make children to breed teeth easily being soon tyed about them If a man or woman drink of the same water whereof an Ox drunk a little before it will ease the headach and in the second venter of a Cow there is a round black Tophus found being of no weight which is accounted very profible to Women in hard travails of child-birth The Liver of an Ox or Cow dryed and drunk in powder cureth the flux of boud The gall of a Cow is more forcible in operation then all other beasts gals whatsoever The gall of an Ox mixed with Hony draweth out any thorn or point of a needle or other Iron thing out of the flesh where it sticketh Likewise it being mingled with Alome and Myrrhe as thick as hony it cureth those evils which creep and annoy the privie parts laying upon it afterward Beets sod in wine It will not suffer the Kings evill to grow or spread it self if it be laid upon it at the beginning The hands washed in an Oxes gall and water are made white how black soever they were before time and if purblind eyes be anointed with
be cold a little so likewise in the morning let them be milked so soon as day appeareth and the little Lambs be turned out unto them which were shut from them But if there appear upon the grass Spiders webs or Cob-webs which bear up little drops of water then they must not be suffered to feed in those places for fear of poysoning and in times of heat and rain drive them to the highest hills â—or pastures which do most of all lie open to the windes for there shall the cattle feed most temperately They must avoid all sandy places and in the month of April May June and July they must not be suffered to feed overmuch but in October September and November let them have their full that so they may grow the stronger against the Winter time The Romans had a special regard to chuse some places for the Summering of their Sheep and some place for their Wintering for if they summered them in Apulia they wintered them in Samnis and therefore Varro saith the flocks of Apulia betimes in the morning in the Summer season are led forth to feeding because the dewy grass of the morning is much better then that which is dry in the middle of the day and about noon when the season groweth hot they lead them to shadowy trees and rocks until the cool air of the evening begin to return at which time they drive them to their pasture again and cause them to feed towards the Sun-rising for this is a general rule among the shepheards Quod mane ad solis occasum vesper◠〈◊〉 sous â—â—tum pascantur oves That is that in the morning they feed their Sheep towards the Sun-setting and in the evening towards the Sun-rising and the reason of it is Quia infirmissimum pecori caput averso sole pasci cogendum Because the head of Sheep is most weak therefore it ought to be fed turned from the Sun In the hot Countries a little before the Sun-setting they water their Sheep and then lead them to their pasture again for at that time the sweetness seemeth to be renewed in the grass and this they do after the Autumnal aequinoctium It is good to feed them in corn fields after harvest and that for two causes First because they are exceedingly filled with such hearbs as they finde after the plough and also they tread down the stubble and dung the land whereby it becometh more fruitful against the next year There is nothing that maketh a Sheep grow more fat then drink and therefore we read in holy Scripture how Jacob watred the Sheep and the Daughters of Jethro their Sheep at what time Moses came unto them therefore it is best oftentimes to mingle their water with Salt according to these verses At cui lactis amer cytisum lotosque frequentes Ipse manu salsaâ— ferat praesepibus herbas Hinc amant fluvios magis magis ubera tendant Et salis occultum referunt in lacte saporem There be many that trouble themselves about this question namely for what cause the Sheep of England do never thirst except they see the water and then also seldom drink and yet have no more Sheep in England then are in any other Countrey of the world insomuch that we think it a prodigious thing that Sheep should drink but the true cause why our English Sheep drink not is for there is so much dew on the grass that they need no other water and therefore Aristotle was deceived who thinketh that the Northern Sheep had more need of water then the Southern In Spain those Sheep bear the best fleeces of wooll that drink least In the Island of Cephalene as we have shewed in the story of the Goat all their Cattle for want of water do draw in the cold air but in the hotter Countries every day once at the least about nine or ten a clock in the morning they water their Sheep and so great is the operation of drink in Sheep that divers Authors do report wonders thereof as Valerius Maximus and Theophâ—asius who affirm that in Macedonia when they will have their Sheep bring forth white Lambs they lead them to the River Alia 〈…〉 on and when they will have them to bring forth black Lambs to the River Axius as we have shewed already It is also reported that the River Scamander doth make all the Sheep to be yellow that drink thereof Likewise there are two Rivers in Aâ—tandria which turn Sheep from black to white and white to black and the like I might add of the River Thrases of the two Rivers of Beotia all which things do not come to pass by miracle but also by the power of nature as may appear by the History of Jacob when he served his father in law Laban For after that he had covenanted with Laban to receive for his stipend all the spotted Sheep the Scripture saith in this manner Then Jacob took rods of green Poplar and of Hasel and of the Ches-nut tree and pilled white strakes in them and made the white appear in the rods Then he put the rods which he had pilled into the gutters and watering troughs when the Sheep came to drink before the Sheep and the Sheep were in heat before the rods and afterwards brought forth young of party colour and with small and great spots And Jacob parted these Lambs and turned the faces â—f the flick towards these party-coloured Lambs and all manner of black among the Sheâ—p of Laban so he put his own flocks by themselves and put them not with Labans flock And in every Ramming time of the stronger Sheep Jacob layed the rods before the eyes of the Sheep in the gutters that they might conceive before the rods but when the Sheep were feeble he put them not in and so the feebler were Labans and the stronger were Jacobs Upon this action of the Patriarch Jacob it is clear by testimony of holy Scripture that divers colours â—aid before Sheep at the time of their carnal copulation do cause them to bring forth such colours as they see with their eyes for such is the force of a natural impression as we read in stories that fair women by the sight of Blackamores have conceived and brought forth black children and on the contrary black and deformed women have conceived fair and beautiful children whereof there could be no other reason given in nature but their only cogitation of and upon fair beautiful men or black and deformed Moores at the time of their carnal copulation So that I would not have it seem incredible to the wise and discreet Reader to hear that the power of water should change the colour of Sheep for it being once granted that nature can bring forth divers coloured Lambs being holpen by artificial means I see no cause but diversity of waters may wholly alter the colour of the elder as well as whited sticks ingender a colour in the younger And thus much
voluntary benevolence for per 〈…〉 l pains receiving no more but a laborious wages and but for you that had also been taken from me Therefore I conclude with the words of St. Gregory to Leontius Et nos bona quae de vobis multipliciter praedicantur addiscentes assidue pro gloria vestrae incolumitate omnipotentem valeamus Dominum deprecari Your Chaplain in the Church of St. Botolph Aldersgate Edward Topsel An Alphabetical Table of all the Creatures described in this First Volum A. ANtalope pag. 1 Ape 2 Munkey 5 More kinds of Apes ibid. Asses of divers kinds 16 c. Alborach and Axis 26 B. BAdger 26 Bear 28 Beover 34 Bâ—son 39 Bonasus 42 Buff 44 Bugle 45 Bull 47 Buselaphus 51 Ox 52 Cow 55 Calf 69 C. CAcus 71 Camel 72 Camel Dromedary 76 Camelopardal 78 Allocamelus 79 Camp 80 Cat ibid. Wilde Cat 84 Colus 85 Cony 86 Indian Pig 88 D. DEer fallow 89 Roe buck 90 â—ragelaphus 93 Haâ—t and Hind 95 Dictyes 108 Dogs ibid. Their kinds ibid. E. EAl of Ethiopia 149 Elephant ibid. Elk 66 F. FErret 170 Fitch or Poulcar 172 Fox 173 Crucigeran Fox 174 G. GEnnet cat 179 Goats and their kinds 181 Gulon 205 Gorgon 206 H. HAre 207 Hedge-hog Horses and their kinds diseases and remedies 230 c. Riding 240. 250 Horsnes and chivalry 246 Furniture for horses 251 Hippelaphus 255 Sea horse 256 Horse flesh and Mares milk 259 Morals and devices concerning horses 260 Hyaena and its kinds 339 I. IBex 347 Ichneumon 349 L. LAmia 352 Lion 355 Lynx 380 M. MArder Martel or Martin 386 Mole 388 Mice and Rats and their kinds 392 c. Musk-cat 427 Mules 431 N. NAides 440 O. OVnce 440 Oryx 442 Otter 444 P. PAnthar Leopard or Libbard 447 Poephagus 455 Porcupine 456 R. REyner or Ranger 458 Rhinoceros 460 S. SErpents 591 c. Sheep and their kinds diseases and cures 464 c. Squirrel 509 Su 511 Subus ibid. Swine and their kinds diseases and cures 512 c. T. TAtâ—s 546 Tiger 547 U. UVicorn 551 Vreox 559 W. WIlde Oxen 561 Weaâ—el 562 Wolf 568 Sea Wolf 580 Z. ZEbel or Sabel 584 Zibet or Sivet-cat 585 THE HISTORY OF Four-Footed Beasts The ANTALOPE THE Antalope called in Latin Calopus and of the Grecians Analopos or Aptolos of this beast there is no mention made among the Ancient Writers except Suidas and the Epistle of Alexander to Aristotle interpreted by Cornelius Nepotius They are bred in India and Syria neer the River Euphrates and delight much to drink of the cold water thereof Their body is like the body of a Roe and they have horns growing forth of the crown of their head which are very long and sharp so that Alexander affirmed they pierced through the shields of his Souldiers and fought with them very irefully at which time his company slew as he travelled to India eight thousand five hundred and fifty which great slaughter may be the occasion why they are so rare and seldom seen to this day because thereby the breeders and means of their continuance which consisted in their multitude were weakned and destroyed Their horns are great and made like a saw and they with them can cut asunder the branches of Osier or small trees whereby it cometh to passe that many times their necks are taken in the twists of the falling boughs whereat the Beast with repining cry bewrayeth himself to the Hunters and so is taken The virtues of this Beast is unknown and therefore Suidas saith an Antalope is but good in part Of the APE AN Ape called in Latin Simia and sometimes Simius and Simiolus of the Greek word Simos viz. signifying the flatnesse of the Nostrils for so are an Apes and called of the Hebrews Koph and plurally â—ophim as it is by S. Jerom translated 1 King 10. 22. From whence it may be probably conjectured came the Latin words Cepi and Cephi for Apes that have tails Sometimes they are called of the Hebrews Bogiah and of the Chaldees Kokin The Italians Saniada Majonio and Bertuccia and a Munkey Gatto Maimone The ancient Grecians Pithecos and the later Mimon and Ark â—â—zanes by reason of his imitation The Moors Bugia the Spaniards Mona or Ximto the French Singe the Germanes Aff the Flemish Simme or Schimmekell the Illyrians Opieze and generally they are held for a subtill ironicall ridiculous and unprofitable Beast whose flesh is not good for meat as a sheep neither his back for burden as an Asses nor yet commodious to keep a house like a Dog but of the Grecians termed Gelotopoios made for laughter Anachaâ—sis the Philosopher being at a banquet wherein divers Jesters were brought in to make them merry yet never laughed among the residue at length was brought in an Ape at the sight whereof he laughed heartily and being demanded the cause why he laughed not before answered that men do but faign merriments whereas Apes are naturally made for that purpose Moreover Apes are much given to imitation and derision and they are called Cercopes because of their wicked wasts deceits impostures and flatteries wherefore of the Poets it is faigned that there were two brethren most wicked fellows that were turned into Apes and from their seat or habitation came the the Pithecusan Islands which Virgil calleth Inarime for Arime was an old Hetrurian word for an Ape and those Islands being the seats of the Giants who being by God overthrown for their wickedness in derision of them Apes were planted in their rooms Apes have been taught to leap sing drive Wagons reigning and whipping the horses very artificially and are very capable of all humane actions having an excellent memory either to shew love to his friends or hateful revenge to them that have harmed him but the saying is good that the threatning of a flatterer and the anger of an Ape are both alike regarded It delighteth much in the company of Dogs and young Children yet it will strangle young Children if they be not well looked unto A certain Ape seeing a Woman washing her Child in a bason of warm water observed her diligently and getting into the house when the Nurse was gone took the Child out of the cradle and setting water on the fire when it was hot stripped the Child naked and washed the Child therewith untill it killed it The Countreys where Apes are found are Lybia and all that desert Woods betwixt Egypt Aethiopia and Lybia and that part of Oaucasus which reacheth to the red Sea In India they are most abundant both red black green dust-colour and white ones which they use to bring into Cities except red ones who are so venereous that they will ravish their Women and present to their Kings which grow so tame that they go up and down the streets so boldly and civilly as if they were Children frequenting the Market places without any offence whereof so many shewed themselves to Alexander standing
the hips that they slip not collar They have a round head a face like a man but black and bald on the crown his nose in a reasonable distance from his mouth like a mans and not continued like an Apes his stones greenish blew like a Turkey stone They are caught after the manner of Apes and being tamed and taught they conceive and work very admirable feats and their skins pulled off them being dead are dressed for garments The foolish Arabians dedicated Memnonius cercopitheous unto heaven and in all afflictions implored his aid There is one other kind of Munkeys whose tail is only hairy at the tip called Cercolipis The CEPUS or Martine Munkey THe Martin called Cepus of the Greek word Kepos which Aristotle writeth Kebos and some translate Caebus some Cephus or Cepphus or more barbarously Celphus the Latines sometimes Ortus for indeed this kind of Ape in his best estate is like * a garden set with divers flowers and therefore the best kind of them is discerned and known by the sweetest favour such being alwayes the most ingenious imitators of men It is very probable that this name Cepus is derived of the Hebrew Koph and Kophin signifying Apes in general as is before said but yet this kind is distinguished from other by Strabo Aelianus and Pliny although Aristotle doth make no difference betwixt this and another ordinary Munkey The games of great Pompey first of all brought these Martines to the sight of the Romans and afterward Rome saw no more they are the same which are brought out of Aethiopia and the farthest Arabia their feet and knees being like a mans and their fore-feet like hands their inward parts like a mans so that some have doubted what kind of creature this should be which is in part a man and yet a Four-footed beast it having a face like a Lion and some part of the body like a Panther being as big as a wilde Goat or Roe-buck or as one of the Dogs of Erithrea and a long tail the which such of them as have tasted flesh wil eat from their own bodies Concerning their colour howsoever they are not all alike for some are black with white spots having a greater voice then others some yellow some Lion-tauny some golden-yellow and some cole-black yet for the most part the head and back parts to the tail are of a fiery colour with some golden hair aspersed among the residue a white snowt and certain golden strakes like a collar going about the neck the inferiour parts of the neck down to the breast and the forefeet are white their two dugs as big as a mans hand can gripe are of a blewish colour and their belly white their hinder legs black and the shape of their snout like a Cynochephale which may be the difference betwixt Aelianus and Strabo their Cepus and Aristotles Cebus for nature many times bringeth forth like beasts which are not of the same kind In England there was a Martine that had his back and sides of a green colour having here and there white hair the belly chin and beard which was round white the face and shins black and the nose white being of the lesser kind for in bigness it exceeded not a Coney Some of them in Aethiopia have a face like a Satyre and other members in part resembling a Bear and in part a Dog so are the Prasian Apes This Martine did the Babylonians inhabiting neer Memphis for the stangeness the colour and shape thereof worship for a God They are of evill disposition like Apes and therefore we will spare both their pictures and further description finding very little of them in Histories worth commemoration The Ape CALITRICH THe Calitrich so called by reason of his beard and may be termed in English a bearded Ape will live no other where then in Ethiopia and India which are easie to take but very hard to bring away alive into these Countrys They differ in appearance from all other Apes having a long beard and a large tail hairy at the end being in India all white which the Indians hunt with darts and being tamed they are so apt to play that a man would think they were created for no other purpose whereupon the Grecians use in proverbe an Ape having a beard for a ridiculous and foolish jesting man Of the Prasyan Apes MEgasthenes saith Aelianus and Strabo writeth of Apes in Prasia a Region in India which are no lesse then great Dogs and five cubits high having hair like a Man coming forth of their forehead and beards being altogether white except their tails which are two cubits and a half long very like a Lions and unto a simple man it might seem that their tufts of hair were artificially trimmed thought it grow naturally Their beard is much like a Satyres and although their body be white yet is their head and tip of their tail yellow so that the Martins before mentioned seem to be affianced to these These Prasyan Apes live in Mountains and Woods and yet are they not wilde but so tame that oftentimes in great multitudes they come down to the Gates and Suburbs of Latagis where the King commandeth them dayly sodden Rice for their food which they eat and being filled return again to their home and usuall places of harbour in great moderation doing no harme to any thing While he was in the ship bound with chains other of the company having been on land to forrage brought out of the Marishes a Bore which Bore was shewed to the Munkey at the first sight either of other set up their bristles the raging Munkey leapeth upon the Bore and windeth his tail round about the Bore and with the one arme which he had left caught him and held him so fast by the throat that he stifled him There is another kind of Munkey for stature bignesse and shape like a Man for by his knees secret parts and face you would judge him a wilde man such as inhabit Numidia and the Lapones for he is altogether overgrown with hair no creature except a man can stand so long as he he loveth women and children dearly like other of his own kind and is so venereous that he will attempt to ravish women whose Image is here described as it was taken forth of the book of the description of the holy Land Of the CYNOCEPALE or BABOUN CYnocephales are a kind of Apes whose heads are like Dogs and their other parts like a mans wherefore Gaza translateth them Canicipites to wit dog-heads In the French German and Illyrian tongues they are called of some Babion and Babuino in Italian is a small kind of Ape but Aristotle saith that a Cynocephale is bigger then an Ape In English they are called Babouns There are many kinds of Baboons whereof some are much given to fishing so that they will tarry
a whole day in the deep hunting for fish and at length come forth with a great multitude Again there are some which abhor fishes as Orus saith which kind the Egyptians Emblematically use to paint when they will decipher a sacrifice Some there are which are able to write and naturally to discern letters which kind the old Egyptian Priests bring into their Temples and at their first entrance the Priest bringeth him a writing Table a pencil and inke that so by seeing him write he may make tryall whether he be of the right kind and the beast quickly sheweth his skill wherefore in ancient time they were dedicated to Mercury the fained god of learning The reason why the Egyptians do nourish them among their hallowed things is that by them they may know the time of the conjunction betwixt the Sun and Moon because the nature of this beast is to have a kind of feeling of that 〈◊〉 〈…〉 on for after that these two signs meet the male Baboun neither will look up n 〈…〉 s to the ground as it were lamenting the ravishment of the Moon with disda 〈…〉 manner the female who moreover at that time sendeth forth bloud out 〈…〉 of conception whereupon the Egyptians signifie by a Baboun the Moon the rising of the Mo 〈…〉 his standing up right holding his hands up toward heaven and wearing a crown on his 〈…〉 with such gestures doth that Beast congratulate her first appearance Another cause why they bring them into their Temples is because of the holyness of circumcision for it is most true though strange that they are brought forth circumcised at the least wise in some appearance whereunto the Priests give great heed to accomplish and finish the work begun The Egyptians also paint 〈…〉 to signifie the Equinoctium for in every Equinoctium they bark or howl twelve times in one day and so many times make water wherefore the Egyptians also upon their 〈…〉 grave a Baboun out of whose yard or privy part issued forth water and they also say that this beast so nourished among their holy things dyeth not at once like other beasts but every day one part by the space of 72 days the other parts remaining in perfection of nature which the Priests take and put in the earth day by day till all perish and be consumed The West region of Lybia and Aethiâ—pia have great store of Cynocephals Babouns and Acephals beasts without a head whose eyes and mouth are in their breasts In like sort in Arabia from Dira Southward in a 〈…〉 ry there are many 〈◊〉 and in the Continent called Dachinabades beyond Barygaza and the Eastern Mountains of the Mediterranean region and those which Apollonius saw betwixt the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Hyphasis seem to be of this sort in that he describeth them to be black haird Dog 〈◊〉 and like little men wherewithall Aelianus seemeth to be deceived in saying that there are men 〈…〉 rosopoi Dog-faced whereas it is the error of vulgar people to think that Babouns are men differing only in the face or visage Concerning their members or parts in several they are black and hairy rough skinned red and bright eyes a long Dogs face and teeth stronger and longer then Dogs the face of a Lion must not be attributed to this beast nor yet a Satyres though it be more like It hath a grim and fearful face and the female hath naturally her womb cast out of her body and so she beareth it about all her life long their voice is a shrill whizing for they cannot speak and yet they understand the Indian language under their beard they have a chin growing like a Serpents and bearding about the lips like a Dragon their hands are armed with most strong nails and sharp they are very swift of foot and hard to be taken wherefore they will run to the waters when they are hunted being not ignorant that among waters they are most hardly taken they are very fierce and active in leaping biting deep and eagerly where they lay hold neither do they ever grow so tame but that they remain furious also They love and nourish sheep and Goats and drink their milk they know how to take the kernels out of Almonds Walnuts and Nuts as well as men finding the meat within though the shell be unprofitable they will also drink wine and eat flesh sod rosted or deliciously dressed and they will eat Venison which they by reason of their swiftness take easily and having taken it tear it in pieces and rost it in the Sun they can swim safely over any waters and therefore among the Egyptians they signifie swimming They are evill mannered and natured wherefore also they are pictured to signifie wrath they are so unappeasable The Latins use them adjectively to signifie any angry stubborn froward or ravening man They will imitate all humane actions loving wonderfully to wear garments and of their own accord they clothe themselves in the skins of wilde beasts they have killed they are as lustful and venereous as Goats attempting to defile all sorts of women and yet they love little children and their females will suffer them to suck their breasts if they be held to them and some say they will suck womens breasts like little children There was such a beast brought to the French King his head being like a Dogs and his other parts like a mans having legs hands and armes naked like a mans and a white neck he did eat sod flesh so mannerly and modestly taking his meat in his hands and putting it to his mouth that any man would think he had understood humane conditions he stood upright like a man and sat down like a man He discerned men and women asunder and above all loved the company of women and young maidens his genital member was greater then might match the quantity of his other parts he being moved to wrath would rage and set upon men but being pacified behaved himself as meekly and gently as a man and was overcome with fair words shewing himself well pleased with those that sported with him The Nomades people of Aethiopia and the Nations of Menitimori live upon the milk of Cynocephales keeping great herds of them and killing all the males except some few preserved for procreation A TARTARINE THere was at Paris another beast called a Tartarine and in some places a Magot much like a Baboun as appeareth by his natural circumcision being as great as a Gray-hound and walketh for the most part upon two legs being cloathed with a Souldiers coat and a sword girded to his side so that the most part thought him to be some Monster-little-man for being commanded to his kennel he would go and tarry there all night and in the day time walk abroad to be seen of every man it was doubtful whether he were of the Munkey kind or the Baboun his voice was like the
being taken from it and the little skins appearing therein cleansed away and so it hath among many other these operations following Drunk with Vinegar it is good against all venom of Serpents and against the Chameleon but with this difference against the Scorpion with wine against Spiders with sweet water against the Lizzards with Myrtite against Dipsas and Cerastes with Oponax or wine made of Rew and against other-Serpents with wine simply Take of every one two drams for a cold take it a scruple and a half in four cups of wine used with Ladanum it cureth the Fistulaes and Ulcers provoking sneezing by smelling to it procureth sleep they being anointed with it Maiden-weed and Conserve of Roses and being drunk in water helpeth Phrensie and with the Roses and Maiden-weed aforesaid easeth head-ach being laid to the head like a plaister it cureth all cold and windy affections therein or if one draw in the smoak of it perfumed though the pain be from the mothers womb and given in three cups of sweet Vinegar fasting it helpeth the Falling sickness but if the person have often fits the same given in a Glyster giveth great ease Then must the quantity be two drams of Castoreum one sextary of honey and oil and the like quantity of water but in the fit it helpeth with Vinegar by smelling to it It helpeth the Palsie taken in Rew or wine sod in Rew so also all heart trembling ach in the stomach and quaking of the sinews It being infused into them that lie in Lethargies with Vinegar and Conserve of Roses doth presently awake them for it strengthneth the brain and moveth sternutation It helpeth oblivion coming by reason of sickness the party being first purged with Hiera Ruffi Castoreum with oil bound to the hinder part of the head and afterward a dram drunk with M 〈…〉 rate also taken with oil cureth all Convulsion proceeding of cold humors if the Convulsion be full and perfect and not temporal or in some particular member which may come to passe in any sickness The same mixed with hony helpeth the clearness of the eyes and their inflamations likewise used with the juice of Popy and infused to the ears or mixed with hony helpeth all pains in them With the seed of Hemlocks beaten in Vinegar it sharneth the sense of hearing if the cause be cold and it cureth toothach infused into that ear with oil on which side the pain resteth for Hippocrates sent unto the wife of Aspasius complaining of the pain in her cheek and teeth a little Castoreum with Pepper advising her to hold it in her mouth betwixt her teeth A perfume of it drawn up into the head and stomach easeth the pains of the lights and intrails and given to them that sigh much with sweet Vinegar fasting it recovereth them It easeth the Cough and distillations of rhume from the head to the stomach taken with the juyce of black Popy It is preservative against inflamations and pains in the guts or belly although the belly be swoln with cold windy humors being drunk with Vinegar or Oyxycrate it easeth the Colick being given with Annis beaten small and two spoonfuls of sweet water and it is found by experiment that when a horse cannot make water let him be covered over with his cloth and then put underneath him a fire of coals wherein make a perfume with that Castoreum till the Horses belly and cods smell thereof then taking away the coals walk the horse up and down covered and he will presently stale To soften the belly they use Castoreum with sweet water two drams and if it be not forcible enough they take the root of a set Cucumber one dram and the some of Salt Peter two drams It is also used with the juice of Withy and decoction of Vinegar applyed to the reins and genital parts like a plaister against the Gonorrhaean passion It will stir up a womans monethly courses and cause an easie travail two drams being drunk in water with Penny-royal And if a Woman with childe go over a Beaver she will suffer abortment and Hippocrates affirmeth that a perfume made with Castoreum Asses dung and Swines grease openeth a closed womb There is an Antidote called Diacostu made of this Castoreum good against the Megrim Falling sickness Apoplexies Palsies and weakness of lims as may be seen in Myrepsus against the impotency of the tongue trembling of the members and other such infirmities These vertues of a Beaver thus described I will conclude this discourse with a History of a strange beast like unto this related by Dunranus Campus-bellus a noble Knight who affirmed that there are in Arcadia seaven great lakes some 30 miles compass and some lesse whereof one is called Garloil out of which in Anno 1510 about the midst of Summer in a morning came a beast about the bigness of a water Dog having feet like a Goose who with his tail easily threw down small trees and presently with a swift pace he made after some men that he saw and with three strokes he likewise overthrew three of them the residue climbing up into trees escaped and the beast without any long tarrying returned back again into the water which beast hath at other times been seen and it is observed that this appearance of the Monster did give warning of some strange evils upon the Land which story is recorded by Hector Boethius Of the BISON. This Bison is called Taurus Paeonicus the Paeonian Bull whereof I finde two kinds one of greater and another of lesser size called the Scotian or Calydonian Bison whereof you shall see the picture and qualities at the foot of this History The greater is as big as any Bull or Oxe being maned about the neck and back like a Lion and hath hair hanging down under his chin or neather lip like a large beard and a rising or little ridge down along his face beginning at the height of his head and continuing to his nose very hairy his horns great and very sharp yet turning up towards his back and at the points hooked like the wilde Goats of the Alpes but much greater they are black of colour and with them through the admirable strength of his neck can he tosse into the air a horse and horseman both together They are as big as the Dextarii which are the greatest Stallions of Italy Their face looketh downward and they have a strange strength in their tongue for by licking they grate like a file any indifferent hard substance but especially they can therewith draw unto them any man or beast of inferior condition whom by licking they wound to death Their hair is red yellow or black their eyes very great and terrible they smell like a Moschus or Musk-cat and their mane reacheth over their shoulders shaking it irefully when he brayeth their face or forehead very broad especially betwixt their horns for Sigismond King of Polonia having kild one
taken wich Hony into the mouth helpeth the clifts and sores therein and taken with the Water of new Coloquintida and given to a woman in travel causeth an easie childe-birth Galen was wont to give of a Bulls gall the quantity of an Almond with two spoonfuls of Wine called Vinum Lymphatum to a woman that hath her childe dead within her body which would presently cause the dead Embryon to come forth The genital of a red Bull dryed to powder and drunk of a woman to the quantity of a golden Noble it maketh her to loath all manner of copulation but in men as the later Physitians affirm it causeth that desire of lust to increase The dung of a Bull laid to warm helpeth all hardness and burnt to powder helpeth the member that is burnt The urine or stale of Buls with a little Nitre taketh away Scabs and Leprosie Of another Beast called BUSELAPHUS THere was saith D. Cay a cloven-footed beast brought out of the Deserts of Mauritania into England of the bigness of a Hinde in form and countenance betwixt a Hinde and a Cow and therefore for the resemblance it beareth of both I will call it Buselaphus or Bovicervus or Moschelaphus or a Cow-Hart having a long and thin head and ear a lean and slender leg and shin so that it may seem to be made for chase and celerity His tail not much longer then a foot but the form thereof very like a Cows and the length like a Harts as if nature seemed to doubt whether it should encline to a Cow or a Hart his upper parts were yellowish and smooth his neither parts black and rough the hair of his body betwixt yellow and red falling close to the skin but in his fore-head standing up like a Star and so also about the horns which were black and at the top smooth but downward rough with wrinkles meeting on the contrary part and on the neerer side spreading from one another twice or thrice their quantity These horns are in length one foot and a hand-breadth but three hands-breadth thick at the root and their distance at the root was not above one fingers breadth so arising to their middle and a little beyond where they differ or grow asunder three hands breadth and a half then yeeld they together again a little and so with another crook depart asunder the second time yet so as the tops of the horns do not stand afunder above two hands-breadth three fingers and a half From the crown of the head to the nostrils there goeth a black strake which is one foot two palms and one finger long in breadth above the eyes where it is broadest it is seven fingers in thickness one foot and three palms it hath eight teeth and wanteth the uppermost like a Cow and yet cheweth the Cud it hath two udders under the belly like a Heifer that never had a Calf it is a gentle and pleasant beast apt to play and sport being not only swift to run but light and active to leap It will eat any thing either bread broth salted or powdred beef grafs or herbs and the use hereof being alive is for hunting and being dead the flesh is sweet and pleasant for meat Of the OXE and COW WE are now to describe those beasts which are less forein and strange and more commonly known to all Nations then any other four-footed beast for howsoever Bugils Buffes Lyons Bears Tigers Beavers Porcupines and such other are not alway found in every Nation yet for the most part are Oxen Kine Buls and Horses by the Providence of Almighty God disseminated in all the habitable places of the world and to speak the truth Oxen and Horses were the first riches and such things wherein our Elders gat the first property long before houses and lands with them they rewarded men of highest desert as Melampus who opened an Oracle to Neleus that sought out the lost Oxen of Iphiclus And Erix King of Sicily so much loved Oxen that Hercules recovered from Geryon that when he was to contend with Hercules about these he rather yeelded to depart from his Kingdom then from his Cattel and Iulius Pollux affirmeth that there was an ancient coin of mony which was stamped with the figure of an Oxe and therefore the Cryet in every publick spectacle made proclamation that he which deserved well should be rewarded with an Oxe meaning a piece of mony having that impress upon it which was a piece of Gold compared in value to an English Rose-noble and in my opinion the first name of mony among the Latines is derived from Cattel for I cannot invent any more probable etymologie of Pecunia then from Pecus signifying all manner of Cattel howsoever it is related by some Writers that on the one side of their coin was the Kings face and on the other an Oxes picture and that Servius was the first that ever figured money with Sheep or Oxen. Miron the great painter of Eleutheris and disciple of Agelos made an Heifer or Cow of Brass which all Poets of Greece have celebrated in sundry Epigrams because a Calf came unto it to suck it being deceived with the proportion and Ausonius also added this following unto the said Calf and Cow saying Vbera quid pulsas frigentia matris abenae O vitula succumlactis ab are petis Whereunto the brazen Cow in caused to make this answer following Hunc quoque praestarem si me pro parte parasset Exteriore Miron interiore Deus Whereby he derideth their vain labours which endeavour to satisfie themselves upon mens devises which are cold and comfortless without the blessing of Almighty God To begin therefore with these beasts it must be first of all remembred that the name Bos or an Oxe as we say in English is the most vulgar and ordinary name for Bugils Bulls Cows Buffes and all great cloven-footed horned beasts although in proper speech it signifieth a beast gelded or libbed of his stones and Boas signifieth a huge great Serpent whereof there were one found in Italy that had swallowed a childe whole without breaking one of his bones observing also in Oxen the distinction of years or age which giveth them several names for in their young age they are called Calves in their second age Steeres in their third Oxen and the Latines adde also a fourth which they call Vetuli old Oxen. These are also distinguished in sex the Male Calf is Vitulus the Female Vitula likewise Iuvencus a Steer and Iuvenca an Heifer Bos an Oxe and Vacca a Cow Taurus a Bull Taura a barren Cow and Horda a bearing and fruitful Cow of whom the Romans observed certain festival days called Hordicalia wherein they sacrificed those Cattel The Latines have also Vaccula and Bucula for a little Cow Vaccula non nunquam secreta cubilia captans Virg. And again Aut Bucula Coelum And Bucalus or Bos novellus for a little Oxe Schor in the Hebrew
reporteth another story to the building of this City namely that it was called Carthage of one of the daughters of Hercules and that when Elisa and the other companions of Dido came thither for the foundation of the City they found an Oxes head whereupon they were discouraged to build there any more supposing that Omen betokened evill unto them and a perpetual slavery in labour and misery such as Oxen live in but afterward they tryed in another corner of that ground wherein they found a Horses head which they accepted as a good signification of riches honour magnanimity and pleasure because Horses have all food and maintenance provided for them Among the Egyptians they paint a Lion for strength an Ox for labor and a Horse for magnanimity and courage and the Image of Mithra which among the Persians signifieth the Sun is pictured in the face of a Lyon holding the horns of a striving Ox in both hands whereby they signifie that the Moon doth receive light from the Sun when she beginneth to be separated from her beams There is in the Coasts of Babylon a Gem or precious stone like the heart of an Ox and there is another called Sarcites which representeth the flesh of an Ox. The ancients had likewise so great regard of this beast that they would neither sacrifice nor eat of a labouring Oxe wherefore Hercules was condemned when he had desired meat of Theodomantis in Dyâ—pia for his hungry companion the Son of Hyla because by violence he took from him one of his Oxen and slew him A crowned Oxe was also among the Romans a sign of peace for the Souldiers which kept the Castle of Anathon neer the river Euphrates against Julianus and his Army when they yeelded themselves to mercy they descended from the Castle driving before them a crowned Oxe from this manifold necessity and dignity of this beast came the Idolatrous custom of the Heathens and especially the Egyptians for they worshipped him instead of God calling him Apis and Epaphus whose choyce was on this sort He had on his right side an exceeding splendent white spot and his horns crooking together like the new Moon having a great bunch on his tongue which they call Cantharus neither do they suffer him to exceed a certain number of years or grow very big for these causes they give him not of the water of Nilus to drink but of another consecrated well which hindereth his growth and also when he is come to his full age they kill him by drowning him in another consecrated well of the Priests which being done they seek with mourning another having shaved their heads to substitute in his place wherein they are never very long but they finde one and then in a holy Ship sacred for that purpose they transport and convey him to Memphis And the Egyptians did account him a blessed and happy man out of whose fold the Priest had taken that Oxe-God He hath two Temples erected for him which they call his Chambers where he giveth forth his Augurisms answering none but children and youths playing before his Temples and refusing aged persons especially women and if any not sacred happen to enter into one of his Temples he dyeth for it and if into the other it fore-sheweth some monstrous cursed event as they fondly imagine The manner of his answers is privately to them that give him meat taking it at their hands and they observe with great religion that when Germanicus the Emperour came to ask counsel of him he turned from him and would not take meat at his hand for presently after he was slain Once in a year they shew him a Cow with such marks as he hath and alway they put him to death upon the same day of the week that he was found and in Nilus neer Memphis there was a place called Phiala where were preserved a Golden and a Silver-dish which upon the birth or Calving days of Apis they threw down into the river and those days were seaven wherein they affirm that never man was hurt by Crocodiles The Egyptians do also consecrate an Oxe to the Moon and a Cow to Vrania It is reported that Mycerinus King of Egypt fell in love with his own Daughter and by violence did ravish her she not able to endure the conscience of such a fact hanged herself whereupon the King her impure father did bury her in a wooden Oxe and so placed her in a secret place or chamber to whom daily they offer many odours but the mother of the maiden did cut off the hands of those Virgins or Women that attended on her Daughter and would not rescue her from so vile a contempt There were also many other pictures of Oxen as in Corcyra and Eretria and most famous was that of Perillus which he made and presented to Phalaris the Tyrant of Agrigent shewing him that if he would torment a man he should put him into that Oxe set over a fire and his voyce of crying should be like the loughing of a Heifer which thing being heard of the Tyrant to shew his detestation of more strange invented torments then he had formerly used he caused Perillus that presented it unto him to be put into it alive and so setting it over a fire made experiment of the work upon the workman who bellowed like a Cow and was so tormented to death for that damnable and dangerous invention which caused Ovid to write thus Et Phalaris tauro violentus membra Perilli Torruit infoelix imbuit author opus When an Oxe or Cow in ancient time did dye of themselves Viz. if it were an Oxe they buried him under the walls of some City leaving his horn sticking visibly out of the earth to signifie the place of his burial for when his flesh was consumed they took it up again and buryed the bones in the Temples of Venus in other places but the body of a dead Cow they cast into some great River neer adjoyning The Poets have faigned a certain Monster called Minotaurus having in part the form of a man and in part the form of a Bull and they say that Pasiphae the Daughter of the Sun and wife of Minos King of Crete fell in love with a Bull and by the help of Dedalus she was included in a wooden Heifer covered with a Cows hide and so had copulation with the Bull and so came that monster Minos included in a labyrinth and constrained the Athenians who had slain his son Androgeus to send every year seven young men and seven maids to be given to that Monsters to feed upon for he would eat mans flesh At last Theseus son of Aegeus King of Athens came into that labyrinth and slew that Minotaure and by the help of Ariadne escaped out of the labyrinth Other relate the story in this manner that when the Cretenstans would have expelled Minos from his Kingdom he vowed that whatsoever likeness first
and Mice But we conclude the story of this beast with the medicinal observations and tarry no longer in the breath of such a creature compounded of good and evill It is reported that the flesh of Cats salted and sweetned hath power in it to draw wens from the body and being warmed to cure the Hemorrhoids and pains in the reins and back according to the Verse of Vrsinus Et lumbus lumbis praestat adesus opem Aylsius prescribeth a fat Cat sod for the Gowt first taking the fat and anointing therewith the sick part and then wetting Wool or Tow in the same and binding it to the offended place For the pain and blindness in the eye by reason of any skins webs or nails this is an approved medicine Take the head of a black Cat which hath not a spot of another colour in it and burn it to powder in an earthen pot leaded or glazed within then take this powder and through a quill blow it thrice a day into thy eye and if in the night time any heat do thereby annoy thee take two leaves of an Oke wet in cold water and bind them to the eye and so shall all pain flie away and blindness depart although it hath oppressed thee a whole year and this medicine is approved by many Physicians both elder and later The liver of a Cat dryed and beat to powder is good against the stone the dung of a female Cat with the claw of an Oul hanged about the neck of a man that hath had seven fits of a Quartain Ague cureth the same a neesing powder made of the gall of a black Cat and the weight of a groat thereof taken and mingled with four crowns weight of Zambach helpeth the convulsion and wryness of the mouth and if the gall of a Cat with the black dung of the same Cat be burned in perfume under a woman travelling with a dead childe it will cause it presently to come forth and Pliny saith that if a pin or thorn or fish bone stick in ones mouth let him rub the outside against it with a little Cats dung and it will easily come forth Given to a woman suffering the flux with a little Rozen and Oil of Roses it stayeth the humour and for a Web in the eye of an horse evening and morningblow in the powder of Cats dung and it shall be cured Of the Wilde CAT. ALl Cats at the beginning were wilde and therefore some do interpret Iim Isa 34. for wilde Cats and the Germans call it Bonumruter that is a tree-rider because she hunteth Birds and fowles from tree to tree The Spantard calleth it Gato-montes and in some places of France it is called Chatcarets There are great store of them in Helvetia especially in the Woods and sometime neer the waters also being in colour like tame Cats but blacker such as in England is called a Poolcat I saw one of them which was taken in September and observed that it was in length from the fore-head to the top of the tail four full spans and a black line or strake all along the back and likewise some black upon the legs betwixt the breast and the neck there was a large white spot and the colour of her other parts was dusky red and yellow especially about the buttocks the heels of her feet were black her tail longer then an ordinary house Cats having two or three black circles about it but toward the top all black They abound in Scandivania where the Linxes devour them otherwise they are 〈…〉 nted with Dogs or shot with Guns and many times the Countrey men seeing one in a tree doth compasse it about with multitude and when she leapeth down kill her with their cubs according to the verse of Neversianus Felemque minacem Arboris in trunco longis perfigere telis In the province of Malabar these Cats live upon trees because they are not swift to run but leap with such a gility that some have thought they did flie and verily they do flie for they have a certain skin which when they lie in quiet cleaveth or shrinketh up to their bellies but being stirred the same spreadeth from their forefeet to their hinder like the wing of a Bat by vertue whereof they stay up themselves in the air passing from tree to tree like a fowl as also doth the Pontique Mouse as shall be declared afterward The skins of wilde Cats are used for garments for there is no skin warmer as by experience appeareth in Scythia and Moscovia where their women are clothed with the fur of Cats but especially for buskins and sleeves with their hair turned inward not only against cold but for medicine against contracted sinews or the Gowt The fat of this beast is reserved by some for heating softening and displaying tumours in the flesh and whatsoever Rasis or any other said of the house Cat before in the medicinal parts that also appertaineth to this except as in all other so it falleth forth herein that the virtues of the wilde kind is more effectual then the tame There are some among the Rhoetians and Germans which eat the flesh hereof accounting it delicate having first cut off the head and tail they cannot abide the sume of Rew or of bitten Almonds there is nothing memorable in the nature of this beast that I can learn except that which is related by Aetius that when men are bitten by Crocodils this beast by a natural instinct hating a Crocodil will come about the wounded persons otherwise fearing the presence of man We may hereunto add the beast which is bred in America called Heyratt spoken of by Theuetus which name signifieth a beast of Hony and the reason is because it desireth Hony above measure for it will climb the trees and coming to the caves of Bees it will with such dexterity take out the Hony with their nails that it neither hurteth the Bees or receiveth harm by them It is about the bigness of a Cat and of a Chesse-nut colour Of the COLVS THere is among the Scythians and Sarmatians a four-footed wilde beast called Colus and some Sulac in Latin of the Polonians Soâ—hac of the Moscovites Seigak of the Tartarians Akkitk and Snak of the Turkes Acomi being in quantity and stature betwixt a Ram and a Hart and duskie white coloured but the young ones yellow of a singular swiftness and celerity in course Her manner is to drink by the holes in her Nostrils whereby she snuffeth up aboundance of Water and carryeth it in her head so that she will live in dry pastures remote from all moisture a great season quenching her thirst by that Cistern in her head They are most plentiful to be found in Tartaria in Pontus where are so many plains that a man can see nothing but heaven and earth likewise they are found in Moscovia in Podocia and about the River Nepâ—us and Borysthenes they can never be
a Womans neck it maketh that her womb shall suffer no abortments but these things are trivial and not to be believed but at pleasure I know that the tail of a Dragon tyed to the Nerves of a Hart in a Roes skin the suet of a Roe with Goose-grease the marrow of a Hart and an Onyon with Rozen and running Lime do wonderfully help the falling Evill if it be made into a plaister Sextus saith that if one give the brain of a Roe drawn or pressed through a ring to an Infant it will preserve him for ever from the Falling sickness and apparitions The liver of a Roe sod in salt water and the eyes of a purblinde man held over the fume or reek thereof are cured of their blindeness and some seethe it in a little cup and anoint the eyes with the scum or froth coming from it The same liver being burned to powder and the dust cast on a man bleeding stayeth the issue or flux The gall of this beast mixed with Wine and the Meal of Lupines the weight of a groat and Hony take away the spots of the face and the same gall mixed with water helpeth a Sun-burned-face and freck les The same with Hony Attick taketh away the dimness from the eyes and with the juyce of a gourd anointed upon the eye-brows causeth that where the hair hath been pulled off that it never shall grow again and this gall is alway the better for the age thereof and as Hippocrates did prescribe it must be kept in a silver pipe or box For the tingling of the ears take with this gal the Oyl of Roses with the juyce of an Onyon beaten together and instilled warm into the ears for a present remedy so also with the Oyl of Roses only it helpeth the pain in the teeth and with the Hony Attick all swellings or pains in the jaws or chaps putting thereto Myrrhe Saffron and Pepper The same gall with a little Hogs-bread and the powder of burnt Allum with Anise-seed made into a Suppository procureth looseness if the party have not the Hemerrhoides Also the gall taken with Hony and the juyce of Eglantine cureth the exulceration of the virile member by anointing it The Spleen being drunk helpeth windiness and the milt is commended against the Colick and biting of Serpents Against the Jaundise they take the dung of a Roe dryed and sifted and drink it in Wine the same also so drunk cureth the Ague and because the Roe-buck doth wonderfully love his female there be some that affirm that if a woman eat the bladder of a Roe it will likewise make her husband to love her exceedingly Of the first kinde of TRAGELAPHVS which may be called a DEER-GOAT THere is another kinde so like a Deer although conceived of a Buck-Goat and a female Hart that I cannot but express the figure and brief narration thereof as is in the foregoing page It is like a Deer except the beard and bristles growing about the shoulders and Pliny affirmeth that they are found about the river Phasis in Arabia and Arachotae which is a City of India so called of Arachoâ—us a river issuing from Caucasus which the Graecians call Tragelaphos and the Germans Ein Brandhirse and some think this beast to be mentioned by the name of Ako in Deut. 14. This doubtless is the same beast which Aristotle calleth Hippelaphus because he attributeth the self same things to it that Pliny ascribeth to this both for the beard the bristles and deep hair about the shoulders which hangeth down like the mane of a Horse The similitude both in proportion and quantity holdeth with a Hart in the feet which are cloven and that the female thereof doth want horns The horns of the male are like the horns of a Roe Therefore howsoever some have imagined that there is no such beast to be found in the world they are rather to be pitied then confuted for it is not to be doubted that neither the Ancients nor other ever have seen all the divers and marvailous shapes of Beasts which are to be found in many remote and far distant places of the world especially in Arabia and India where are many Deserts and therefore the reason why they affirm this is because they never saw any such and so it is to be understood for the rare pictures of these beasts called in ancient time Canathra whereupon children were carried in Pageants and shews gave them occasion to think that these were but mens devises and that God never ordained such creatures Georgius Fabritius which sent me this picture doth among other things write unto me very probably that this kinde is only distinguished from other in form name and strength and not in kinde and this being more strange and less known among men was called by the Graecians Tragelaphus being greater then the vulgar Deer deeper haired and blacker in colour and this saith he is taken in the Ridings or Forrests of Misena bordering upon Bohemia and the common sort of hunters hold opinion that by reason it loveth to lie where Coals are made and in their dust feeding upon such grass as groweth in those places that therefore the Germans call it Brandhirze and so the Foxes which resemble them in colour are called Brandfusche It is for certain that these are greater and stronger then Harts their upper part of the back being black and the neather neer the belly not white as in a Hart but rather blackish but about his genitals very black I have seen the horns to have seven spires or branches growing out of one of them being palmed at the top These are like to those which are called Achaeines in Greek by reason of their pain and sorrow and Kummerer in German because they live in continual sorrow for their young ones while they are not able to run out of their dens belike fearing by some instinct of nature lest their tender and weak age should betray them to the Hunters before they be able to run away The Figure of another TRAGELAPHUS or DEER-GOAT expressed by Bellonius I do rather approve the relation of another of this kinde which was sent unto me by that most learned English Physician Iohn Cay which as he writeth unto me was brought in the year 1561. out of the Countrey of Mauritania which was cloven-footed and liveth for the most part in the Mountain parts of that Countrey being in quantity betwixt a fallow-Deer and a Hart the body more like a Hart and the side branded and hanging down a shorter and thick neck the colour in the Winter black and red set one with another the beard like a Goat but more divided and turned backward his hair very long even to his knees a mane full of bristles stretched out in length through his whole neck but especially about the top of his shoulder-blades where it standeth like bunches being in colour darker then in other parts of
Amulets which are used to be bound to the arms necks and breasts as the Canine-tooth bound up in a leaf and tyed to the arm a Worm bred in the dung of Dogs hanged about the neck the root of Gentian in an Hyaenaes skin or young Wolfs skin and such like whereof I know no reason beside the opinion of men The inward compound potions or remedies against the bitings of Dogs may be such as these Take Sea-crabs and burn them with twigs of white Vines and save their ashes then put to them the powder of Gentian root well cleansed and small beaten and as oft as need requireth take two spoonfuls of the first and one of the second and put them into a cup of pure and unmixed Wine and so drink it for four days together being well beaten and stirred so as the Wine be as thick as a Cawdle and there is nothing more forcible then Sea-crabs Hiera Diascincum powder of Walnuts in warm rain Water Triacle Castoreum Pills Spurge-seed and a decoction of Indian thorn with Vervine given in water These may serve for several compound inward remedies against these poysons and now sollow the simple First eating of Garlike in our meat drinking of Wormwood Rams flesh burned and put into Wine so drunk There is an Herb called Alysson by reason of the power it hath against this evill which being bruised and drunk cureth it The liver of a Boar dryed and drunk in Wine hath the same operation Jews lime drunk in water Leeks and Onyons in meat Dogs bloud the head the vein under the tongue commonly supposed to be a worm and the liver of the Dog which hath done the hurt are also prescribed for a remedy of this evill but especially the liver or rennet of a young Puppey the rinde of a wilde Fig-tree a dram of Castoreum with Oyl of Roses Centaury or Chamaeleon the root of a wilde Rose called Cynorrhodon and Cynosbaton Ellebor the brain of a Hen drunk in some liquor Sorrel Honey Mints and Plantaine but Pimpinella Germanica is given to all Cattel which are bitten by a mad Dog Besides many other such like which for brevity sake I omit concluding against all superstitious curing by Inchantments or supposed Miracles such as is in a certain Church of S. Lambert in a City of Picardy where the Mass Priests when a man is brought unto them having this evill they cut a cross in his forehead and lay upon the wound a piece of S. Lamberts stole burning which they say though falsly is reserved to this day without diminution then do they sow up the wound again and say another plaister upon it prescribing him a dyet which is to drink water and to eat hard Egs but if the party amend not within forty days they binde him hand and foot in his bed and saying another bed upon him there strangle him as they think without all sin and for preventing of much harm that may come by his life if he should bite another This story is related by Alysius and it is worth the noting how murther accompanieth superstitious humane inventions and the vain presumptuous confidence of Cross-worshippers and thus much of the madness of Dogs and the cure thereof in men and beasts In the next place the conclusion of this tedious discourse followeth which is the natural medicines arising out of the bodies of Dogs and so we will tye them up for this time Whereas the inward parts of men are troubled with many evils it is delivered for truth that if little Melitaean Dogs or young sucking Puppies be laid to the breast of a childe or man that hath infectious passions or pains in his entrails the pain will depart from the man into the beast for which cause they burned them when they were dead Serenus doth express this very elegantly saying Quin etiam catulum lactentem apponere membris Convenit omne malum transcurrere fertur in illum Cui tamen extincto munus debetur humandi Humanos quia contactus mala tanta sequuntur Et junctum vitium ducit de conjuge conjux If a Whelp be cut asunder alive and laid upon the head of a mad melancholike woman it shall cure her and it hath the same power against the Spleen If a woman grow barren after she hath born children let her eat young Whelp-flesh and Polypus fish sod in Wine and drink the broath and she shall have ease of all infirmities in her stomach and womb Water distilled out of Whelps causeth that pieled or shaven places shall never have more hair grow upon them With the fat of whelps bowelled and sod till the flesh come from the bones and then taken and put into another Vessel and the weak resolute or paralytike members being therewith anointed they are much eased if not recovered Alysius saith he made experience of Puppies sod alive in Oyl whereby he cured his Gowty legd Horses and therefore it cannot chuse but be much more profitable for a man The skin of a Dog held with the five fingers stayeth Distillations it hath the same operation in gloves and stockins and it will also ease both Ach in the belly head and feet and therefore it is used to be worn in the shoes against the Gowt The flesh of mad Dogs is salted and given in meat to them which are bitten by mad Dogs for a singular remedy The bloud is commended against all intoxicating poysons and pains in the small guts and it cureth scabs The fat is used against deafness of the ears the Gowt Nits in the head and incontinency of urine given with Alum A plaister made of the Marrow of a Dog and old Wine is good against the falling of the fundament The hair of a black Dog easeth the Falling sickness the Brains of a Dog in Lint and Wool laid to a mans broken bones for fourteen days together doth consolidate and joyn them together again which thing caused Serenus to make these excellent verses Infandum dictu cunctis procul absit amicis Sed fortuna potens omen convertat in hostes Vis indigna novo si parserit ossa fragore Conveniet cerebrum blandi Canis addere fractis Lintea deinde super que inductu nectere lanas Saepius succos conspergere pinguis olivi Bis septem credunt revale scere cuncta diebus The brain-pan or skull of a Dog clove asunder is applyed to heal the pain in the eyes that is if the right eye be grieved thereunto apply the right side of the skull if the left eye the left side The vertues of a Dogs head made into powder are both many and unspeakable by it is the biting of mad Dogs cured it cureth spots and bunches in the head and a plaister thereof made with Oyl of Roses healeth the running in the head it cureth also all tumors in privy parts and in the fear the chippings in the fingers and many other diseases The powder of the teeth of Dogs
good for the pricking of the eyes the grief of the head and feet it is also good for the dropping of the eyes with a little warm water applyed unto it and if it be a swelling of the eyes then out of Honey either of which griefs is to be kept warm with whay For the grief of a mans Yard seethe Goats Cheese and Honey of a like quantity in a Poultess made in a new earthen pot and so laid thereunto twice a day but first wash the place with old Wine that is to be cured It is good for Carbuncles and if a woman be sick of her womb and troubled with a Fever let her take half a Chaenix of Pettispurge and so much Nettle-seed and half a Chaenix of Goats Cheese scraped being tempered with old Wine and afterward being sodden let her sup it up and if she have the Flix let her drink the black wilde Grape and the rinde of a Pomgranate and a Net-kernel and the rennet of a Bull these being washed in black Wine Goats Cheese and Wheat-flower put them together The fime or dung of such Females as live in the Mountains drunk in Wine cureth the Falling evill and in Galens time they gave the trindles of Goats in Wine against the Jaundise and with the fime they anoint them that have the Flux and made into a Poultess is very helpful against the Colick but Marcellus prepareth it on this manner first it must be steeped in water and strained with sixty grains of Pepper and three porringers of Sweet water and so divide it into three equal potions to be drunk in three several days but the body of the patient must be first washed or anointed with Acopus so as all perfrictions by sweat may be avoided Aetius against the hardness of the Spleen prescribeth a plaister made of Goats dung Barley meal and the dung alone against all tumors or swellings of the milt Against water lying betwixt the skin and the skin and the flesh this is prepared many ways and first against the Dropsie they seethe it the in urine of a Boy which hath tasted of poyson or in the Goats urine till it be as thick that it will stick and cleave and it will purge all by the belly and also the shavings of hides which Coriers make sod in Vinegar with Goats dung is accounted in England a singular medicine to repress all hydropick swelling in the legs and belly The fime of Female-goats drunk in sweet water expelleth the Stone out of the Bladder Against the pain in the hips the Arabians prescribe it in this manner which they call adustion betwixt the thumb and the hand there is a hollow place wherein they put Wool dipped in Oyl afterward they set on fire little piles of Goats dung in the same Wooll and there let it burn till the fume and vapour thereof be sensibly felt in the hip-bone some use to apply this to the fat but in our time it is all out of use and seeing yet the pains of the hip do rather fall into the thighs shins and legs then ascend up into the Arms and shoulders Aetius and Cornarius say that this adustion for the hips was used in the ancient time divers ways and some on this manner holding the burning dung in a pair of tongs unto the leg of that side where the pain lyeth untill the adustion be felt in the hip and this course used Dioscorides Quintillius used another way which was this he first of all heat the Goats dung and therewithall burned the soft and fleshy part of the great toe neer unto the nail untill it pierced to the sick place after such ustions they lay beaten leaves of Leeks with Salt to the place but in the hard bodies of Country men inured to labour they apply the Dung of Goats with Barley meal and Vinegar The same with Saffron and Goats sewet applyed to the Gowt healeth it or else Mustard-seed stalks of Ivy Bettony or the flower of Wilde-cowcumber the same drunk with Spikenard or other Spice stirreth up a Womans flowres and causeth easie deliverance but being beaten into Meal and Vinegar and laid to a Womans belly with Wooll and Frankincense stayeth all Fluxes and Issues also little bals of the same with hairs and the fat of a Sea-calf wrought al together and perfumed under a woman hath the same effect or else the liver of a Sea-calf and the shavings of Cedar-wood Pliny affirmeth that the Mid-wives of his time stayd the greatest Flux of the belly by drinking the urine of a Goat and afterwards anointing it with the dung of a Horse that hath bruised his hoof Goats bloud with Vinegar cureth the same and if an Aple-tree have worms in it the dung of a Goat and the urine of a man laid to the root drive them away The urine of Goats bloud drunk with Vinegar resisteth the stinging of Serpents and also being laid to bunches and swellings in the flesh in what part soever they be it disperseth and expelleth them Against the stifness of the neck which they call Opisthotones take urine of a Goat and the heads of Scallions bruised to juyce and infuse them into the ears and the same mingled with the Oyl of Roses and a little Nitre cureth the pain in the ears by infusion or by the smoke perfumed in a Goats horn twenty days together Against natural deafness take the horn of a Goat newly slain and fill it with urine and hang it up nine days in the smoke and afterwards use it The urine of a Goat made warm and instilled into the ears and the fime anointed with fat is good for the veins of the throat For the Dropsie drink one spoonful mingled with Carduus and warm it at the fire also mingled with Wine or Water it expelleth the Stone in the Bladder according to the saying of Serenus Nec non obscoenus caprae potabitur humor Obruit hic morbum tabefactaque saxa remittis The same Physitian prescribeth Goats trindles to be dâ—â—nk in Wine against the Jaundise and to stay the fluxes of women the same dung tyed in a cloth about unquiet children especially women-kinde maketh them more still being mingled with Wine cureth the bitings of Vipers and the dung taken out of the Goats belly and anointed upon the sore cureth it with all speed the same vertue it hath to heal men wounded by Scorpions being decocted in Vinegar it cureth also the biting of a mad Dog mixed with Honey and Wine Being laid upon a Wound it keepeth it from swelling it hath the same vertue mingled with Barley-meal but healeth the Kings evill It is used also to ripen sores and ruptures being applyed to the suppurations it keepeth down the swellings of womens brests being first dryed and then steeped in new Wine and so laid to the sore for it digesteth inflamation When the eye-lids be thick hard red and bald take Goats dung and Mouse dung of either a like quantity
against it upon the same foot lay also two or three Bean flowers and let it lie a day and a night and so it shall be cured and the same draweth a poisoned Arrow out of a Horse Andreas reporteth to Gesner that he hath often heard that the sewet of a Hare layed to the crown of a Womans head expelleth her secunds and a dead childe out of the womb The powder made of this wool or Hair stancheth bleeding if the hairs be pulled off from a live Hare and stopped into the nose The powder of the wool of a Hare burned mingled with the Oil of Myrtles the gall of a Bull and Allum warmed at the fire and anoint it upon the head fasteneth the hair from falling off also the same powder decocted with hony helpeth the pain in the bowels although they be broken being taken in a round ball the quantity of a Bean together but these medicines must be used every day Arnoldus preseribeth the hair to be cut short and so to be taken into the body against burstness A perfume made of the dung and hairs of a Hare and the fat of a Sea calfe draweth forth Womens flowers The seed of a wilde Cowcumber and an Oyster shell burned and put into Wine mingled with the hair of a Hare and wool of a Sheep with the flower of Roles cureth inflamations of Womens secrets after their child-birth Also Hippocrates prescribeth the shell of a Cuttle-fish to be beaten into Wine and layed in Sheeps wool and Hares hair helpeth the falling down of the womb of a Woman with childe If a mans feet be scorched with cold the powder of a Hares wool is a remedy for it The head of a Hare burned and mingled with fat of Bears and Vinegar caureth hair to come where it is fallen off and Galen saith that some have used the whole body of a Hare so burned and mingled for the foresaid cure being layed in manner of a plaister By eating of a Hares head the trembling of the Nerves and the losse of motion and sense in the members receiveth singular remedy There things also preserve teeth from aking the powder of a Hares head burned with salt mingled to gether rubbed upon the teeth or if you will put thereunto the whitest Fennel and the dryed beans of a Cutle fish The Indians burn together the Hares head and Mice for this purpose When ones mouth smelleth strong this powder with Spick 〈…〉 rd asswageth the smell The brain is good against poison The heart of a Hair hath in it a theriacal virtue also The brain is proved to have power in it for comforting and repaining the memory The same sod and eaten helpeth trembling which happen in the accessions of sickness such an one as is in the cold shaking fit of an Ague It is to be noted that all trembling hath its original cause from the infirmity or weakness of the Nerves as is apparent in old age although the immediate causes may be some cold constitution as abundance of cold humors drinking of cold drink and such like all which tremblings are cured by eating the brain of a Hare roasted saith Dioscorides and E 〈…〉 a. It also helpeth children to breed teeth easily if the gums be rubbed therewith for it hath the same power against inflamation that hony and better hath being drunk in Wine and the stones thereof rosted and eaten it is good for him that hath any pain in his bladder and if the Urine exceed ordinary for staying thereof take the brain hereof to be drunk in wine The tooth of a Hare layed to that part where the teeth ake easeth them Take the Maw with the dung in it and wash it in old wine so as the dung may mingle there with and then give it to one sick of the Bloudy-flux and it shall eare him The Rennet hath the same virtue that is in a Calves or Kids and whereas Nicander praiseth it in the first place for the virtue it hath in it against poison Nicoon an ancient Physitian giveth it the second place for it is full of sharp digesting power and therefore hath a drying quality It dissolveth the congealed and coag 〈…〉 ted milk in the belly and also clotted bloud within in the stomach more effectually then the Reâ—net of any other beast being alway the better for the age Being mingled with Vinegar it is drunk against poison and also if a Man or Beast be anointed with it no Serpent Scorpion Spider or wilde Mouse whose teeth are venomous will venture to sting the body so anointed or else inwardly take thereof three spoonfuls with Wine against the said bâ—tings or of any Sea-fish or Hemlock after the wound received and with Vinegar it is soveraign against all poison of Chamaeleons or the bloud of Buls The same being drunk in Vinegar or applyed outwardly to womens breasts disperseth the coagulated milk in them also being mingled with Snails or any other shelfish which feed upon green herbs or leaves it draweth forth Thornes Darts Arrowes or Reeds out of the belly or mingled with gum of Frankincense Oil bird lime and Bees-glew of each an equall quantity with Vinegar it stancheth bloud and all issues of bloud flowing out of the belly and it also ripeneth an old sore according to the saying of Serenus Si inducas leporis aspersa coagula vino Being layed to the Kings evill in Lint with Vinegar it disperseth and cureth it also it healeth Cankers it cureth a Quartan Ague also mixed with Wine and drunk with Vinegar against the Falling evill and the stone in the bladder If it be mixed with Sagapanum and Wine Amyny and infused into the ears giveth help as also the pain of the teeth It dissolveth bloud in the lights and easeth the pain of bloud congealed in your stomach when one spitteth bloud if he drink Samia and Myrtle with the Rennet of a Hare it shall give him very present ease The latter learned Physitians take a drink made of Vinegar and Water and give it warm to eject and expell bloud out of the Lights and if any drop thereof cleave in the bowels then do they three or four times together iterate this potion and after apply and minister all binding astringent medicines and emplasters and for the Bloudy flux it is good to be used It is held also profitable by Dioscorides and other the ancients that if the pap or brest of a Woman be anointed therewith it stayeth the sucking Infants looseness in the belly or else given to the childe with Wine or if it have an Ague with Water There is saith Aristotle in the Rennet a fiery quality but not in the highest degree for as fire dissolveth and discerneth so doth this in milk distinguish the airy part from the watery and the watery from the earthy Wherefore when one tasteth an old Rennet he shall think he tasteth an old putrified Cheese but as leaven is to bread which hardneth
of the party so grieved The dust of a Horse hoof anointed with Oyl and Water doth drive away impollumes and little bunches which rise in the flesh in what part of the body soever they beâ— and the dust of the hoof of an Asse anointed with Oyl Water and hot urine doth utterly expell all Wens and kernels which do rise in the neck arme-holes or any other part of the body of either man or woman The genital of a gelded Horse dryed in an Oven beaten to powder and given twice or thrice in a little hot broth to drink unto the party grieved is by Pliny accounted an excellent and approved remedy for the seconds of a woman The soam of a Horse or the dust of a Horse hoof dryed is very good to drive away shamefastness being anointed with a certain titulation The scrapings of the Horses hoofs being put in wine and poured into the Horses nostris do greatly provoke his urine The ashes also of an Horses hoof being mingled with wine and water doth greatly ease and help the disease called the Colick or Stone as also by a perfume which may be made by the hoofs of Horses being dryed a childe which is still born is cast out The milk of Mares is of such an excellent virtue that it doth quite expell the poison of the Sâ—ahare and all other poison whatsoever drink also mingled with Mares milk doth make the body loose and laxable It is also counted an excellent remedy against the falling sickness 〈◊〉 drink the stones of a Boar out of a Mares milk or water If there be any filth or m 〈…〉 ying in the matrice of a woman let her take Mares milk boiled and througly strained and presently the 〈◊〉 and excrements will void clean away If so he that a Woman be barren and cannot conceive leb her then take Mares milk not knowing what it is and let her presently accompany with a man and she will conceive The milk of a Mare being drunk doth asswage the labor of the matrice and doth cause a still childe to be cast forth If the seed of Henbane be beaten small and mingled with Mares milk and bound with a Harts skin so that it may not touch the ground and fastened or bound to a woman they will hinder her conception The thinnest or latest part of the milk of a Mare doth very easily gently and without any daâ—ger purge the belly Mares milk being dayly anointed with a little Hony doth without any pain or punishment take away the wounds of the eyes being new made Cheese made of Mares milk doth represse and take away all wringings or aches in the belly whatsoever If you â—â—dint a co 〈…〉 wâ—th the foam of a Horse wherewith 〈◊〉 young man or youth doth use to comb his head it is of 〈…〉 as it will cause the hair of his head heither to encrease or any whit to appear The 〈…〉 a Horse is also very much commended for them which have either pain or difficulty of hearing in their ears or else the dust of Horse dung being new made and dryed and mingled with Oyl of Roses The grief or soreness of a mans mouth or throat being washed or anointed with the foam of a Horse which hath been sed with Oates or Barly doth presently expell the pain of the foreness if so be that it be two or three times washed over with the juyce of young or green Sea-crabs beaten small together but if you cannot get the Sea-crabs which are green sprinkle upon the grief the small powder which doth come from dryed Crabs which are baked in an Oven made of Brasse and afterward wash the mouth where the pain is and you shall finde present remedy The foam of a Horse being three or four times taken in drink doth quite expell and drive away the Cough But Marcellus doth affirm that whosoever is troubled with the Cough or consumption of the lungs and doth drink the foam of a Horse by it self alone without any drink shall finde present help and remedy but as Sextus saith the Horse will presently die after it The same also being mingled with hot water and given to one who is troubled with the â—ame diseases being in manner past all cure doth presently procure health but the death of the Horse doth instantly ensue The sweat of a Horse being mingled with Wine and so drunk doth cause a woman which it very big and in great labor to cast a still childe The sweat of any Beast but as Albertus saith only of a Horse doth breed wind in a man or womans face being put thereupon and besides that doth bring the Squince or Squincy as also a filthy stinking sweat If Swords Knives or the points of Spears when they are red fire hot be anointed with the sweat of a Horse they will be so venemous and full of poyson that if a man or woman be smitten or pricked therewith they will never cease from bleeding as long as life doth last If a Horse be wounded with an Arrow and have the sweat of another Horse and bread which hath been brent being mingled in mans urine given him to drink and afterwards some of the same being mingled with Horse grease put into the wound it will in short time procure him ease and help There are some which will assure us that if a man be troubled with the belly worms or have a Serpent crept into his belly if he take but the sweat of a Horse being mingled with his urine and drink it it will presently cause the Worms or the Serpent to issue forth The dung of a Horse or Asse which is fed with grasse being dryed and afterward dipped in wine and so drunk is a very good remedy against the bitings and blowes of Scorpions The same medicines they do also use being mingled with the genital of a Hare in Vinegar both against the Scorpion and against the Shrew-mouse The force is so great in the poyson of a mad Dog or Bitch that his pargeted Urine doth much hurt especially unto them that have a â—ore boil upon them the chiefest remedy therefore against the same is the dung of a Horse mingled with Vinegar and being warmed put into the scab or sore The dung as well of Asses as of Horses either raw cold or burned is excellent good against the breaking forth or issues of the bloud The dung of Horses or Asses being new made or warm and so clapped and put to a green wound doth very easily and speedily stanch the bleeding If the vein of a Horse be cut and the bloud do issue out in too much aboundance apply the dung of the same Horse unto the place where the vein is cut and the bleeding will presently cease wherefore the Poet doth very well express it iâ— these Verses following Sive fimus manni cum testis uritur ovi Et reprimit fluâ—dos miro 〈…〉 The same
doth also very well drive away the corruption in mens body which doth cause the bloud to stinke if it be well and justly applyed unto the corrupt place The same also being mingled with Oyl of Roses and new made and so applyed unto the ears doth not only drive away the pain but also doth very much help for hearing There is another remedy also for the hearing which is this to take the dung of a Horse which is new made and to make it hot in a furnace and then to 〈◊〉 it on the middle of the head against the Vvâ—â—a and afterward to 〈◊〉 the aforesaid dung 〈…〉 woollen cloth unto the top of the head in the night time The dung of a young Asse when he is first foaled given in Wine to the quantity or magnitude of a Bean is a present remedy for either man or woman who is troubled with the Jaundice or the over-flowing of the gall and the same property hath the dung of a young Horse or Cost when he is new foaled But the dung of an old Horse being boiled in fair w 〈…〉 and afterward strained and so given to the party to drink who is troubled with Water in his belly or stomach doth presently make vent for the â—ame There is also an excellent remedy against the Colick and Stone which is this to â—ake a handfull of the dung of a Horse which hath been fed with 〈◊〉 and Barly and not with grasse and mingle very well it with half a pinte of Wine all which I do 〈◊〉 will amount unto the weight of eight 〈…〉 ounces and then boyl them all together untill half of them be boyled or consumed away and then drink the same by little and little until it be all drunk up but it will be much better for the party that is troubled to drink it up all together if he be able There is moreover a very good and easie way by Horse dung to cure the Ague or 〈…〉 which is thus to burn the foresaid dung and to mingle the very 〈◊〉 it self thereof in old wine and then beat it unto small powder and so give it 〈◊〉 the party who is 〈…〉 bled therewith to drink or suck without any water in it and this will very speedily procure ease and help â—f that a woman supposeth her childe which is in her womb to be dead let her drink the milt or spleen of a Horse in some sweet water not to the smell but to the taste and she will presently cast the childe The same virtue are in the persume which is made of a Horses hoof as also in the dry dung of a Horse There is some which do use this means against the falling sickness or the sickness called Saint Johns evill that is to mingle the water or urine which a Horse doth make with the water which cometh from the Smiths trough and so to give it the party in a potion There is a very good help for Cattel which do avoid bloud through their Nostrils or secret parts which is this to make a paste of Wheat flowre and beat it and mingle it together with â—utter and Egges in the urine of a Horse which hath lately drunk and afterward to give that paste or 〈…〉 tess baked even to ashes to the beast so grieved To provoke urine when a mans yard is stopt there is nothing so excellent as the dung or filth which proceedeth from the urine which a Horse hath made being mingled with wine and then strained and afterwards poured into the Nostrils of the party so vexed There are certain Tetters or Ring-wormes in the knees of Horses and a little above the hoofs in the bending of these parts there are indurate and hardned thick skins which being beaten into small powder and mingled with Vinegar and so drunk are an exceeding good preservative against the Falling-sickness the samé is also a very good remedy for them which are bitten with any wilde Beast whatsoever By the Tetter or Ring-worm which groweth in a Horses knees or above the hoofs beaten and mingled with Oyle and so poured in the ears the teeth of either man or woman which were weak and loose will be made very strong and fast The aforesaid Tetter without any mingling with Oyl doth also heal and cure the head-ache and Falling-sickness in either man or woman The same also being drunk out of Clarret Wine or Muscadel for forty dayes together doth quite expell and drive away the Colick and Stone If that any man do get and put up the shooe of a Horse being struck from his hoof as he travelleth in his pace which doth many times happen it will be an excellent remedy for him against the sobbing in the stomach called the Hicket Of the HYAENA and the divers kinds thereof WE are now to discourse of a Beast whereof it is doubtful whether the names or the kinds thereof be more in number and therefore to begin with the names it seemeth to me in general that it is the same Beast which is spoken of in Holy Scripture and called Zeeb-ereb and Araboth Zephan 3. Principes urbis Hierosolymae velut Leones Iâ—gientes judices ejus similes sunt lupis Vesper 〈…〉 is qui ossa non relinquunt ad diluculum Their Princes are roaring Lions and their Judges are like to night-wolves which leave not the bones till the morning as it is vulgarly translated In like sort Jer. 5. calleth them Zeeb-Araboath Wolves of the wilderness and the Prophet Habakkuk Cap. 1. useth the word Zeeb-ereb Wolves of the evening By which it is made easie to consider and discusse what kinde of Beasts this Hyaena may be deemed for the Hyaena as I shall shew afterward is a Greek word And first of all I utterly seclude all their opinions which translate this word Arabian Wolves for the Hebrew notes cannot admit such a version or exposition But seeing we read in Oppianus and Tzetzes that there are kinds of Wolves which are called Harpages more hungry then the residue living in Mountains very swift of foot and in the Winter time coming to the gates of Cities and devouring both flesh and bones of every living creature they can lay hold on especially Dogs and men and in the morning go away again from their prey I take them to be the same Beasts which the Grecians call Hyaenae which is also the name of a Fish much like in nature hereunto It is also called Glanos and by the Phrygians and Bythinians Ganos and from one of these came the Illyrian or Sclavonian word San and it seemeth that the Grecians have given it a name from Swine because of the gristles growing on the back for an Hyaena can have no better derivation then from Hus or Hyn. Julius Capitolinus calleth it Belbus in Latin in the same place where he recordeth that there were decem Belbi sub Gordiano ten Hyaenaes in the days of
disease called the Colick and Stone for the space of three days together in any kinde of drink will easily and speedily cure them of their pain The stones of an Ichneumon being either beaten in powder or taken raw either in Wine or any other drink is very medicinable and cureable for the easing of all such as are troubled or grieved with any ach pain or disease in their belly And thus much shall suffice concerning the cures and medicines of the Ichneumon Of the LAMIA THis word Lamia hath many significations being taken sometime for a Beast of Lybia some-times for a fish and sometimes for a Spectre or apparition of women called Phairies And from hence some have ignorantly affirmed that either there were no such Beasts at all or else that it was a compounded monster of a Beast and a Fish whose opinions I will briefly set down Aristophanes affirmeth that he heard one say that he saw a great wilde Beast having several parts resembling outwardly an Ox and inwardly a Mule and a beautiful Woman which he called afterwards Empusa When Apollonius and his companions travelled in a bright Moon-shine-night they saw a certain apparition of Phairies in Latine called Lamiae and in Greek Empusae changing themselves from one shape into another being also sometimes visible and presently vanishing out of sight again as soon as he perceived it he knew what it was and did rate it with very contumelious and despiteful words exhorting his fellows to do the like for that is the best remedie against the invasion of Phairies And when his companions did likewise rail at them presently the vision departed away The Poets say that Lamia was a beautiful woman the daughter of Bellus and Lybia which Jupiter loved bringing out of Lybia into Italy where he begot upon her many sons but 〈◊〉 jealous of her husband destroyed them as soon as they were born punishing Lamia also with a restless estate that she should never be able to sleep but live night and day in continual mourning for which occasion she also stealeth away and killeth the children of others where-upon came the fable of changing of children Jupiter having pity upon her gave her exemptile eyes that might be taken in and out at her own pleasure and likewise power to be transformed into what shape she would And from hence also came the faigned name of Acho and Al 〈…〉 wherewithal women were wont to make their children afraid according to these verses of 〈◊〉 Terrioblas Lamias Fuuni quas Pompiltique Institueâ—e Nuâ—ae tremithas c. Of these Angelus Politianus relateth this old wives story in his preface upon Aristotles first book of Analyticks that his Grand-mother told him when he was a childe there were certain Lamiae in the Wilderness which like Bug bears would eat up erying boys and that there was a little Well near to Fesulanum being very bright yet in continual shadow never seeing Sun where those Phairy women have their habitation which are to be seen of them which come thither for water Plutarch also affirmeth that they have exemptile eyes as aforesaid and that as often as they go from home they put in their eyes wandring abroad by habitations streets and cross ways entring into the assemblies of men and prying so perfectly into every thing that nothing can escape them be it never so well covered you will think saith he that they have the eyes of Kites for there is no small mote but they espy it nor any hole so secret but they finde it out and when they come home again at the very entrance of their house they pull out their eyes and cast them aside so being blinde at home but seeing abroad If you ask me saith he what they do at home they fit singing and making of wool and then turning his speech to the Florentins speaketh in this manner Vidistisne â—â—secro Lamias istas viri Florentini quae se sua nesciunt alios aliena specu antur Negatis atqui tamen sunt in urbibus friquentes verum personatae incedient homines credas Lamiae sunt that is to say O ye Floremines did you ever see such Phairies which were busie in prying into the affairs of other men but yet ignorant of their own Do you deny it yet do there commonly walk up and down the City Phairies in the shapes of men There were two women called Macho and Lamo which were both foolish and mad and from the strange behaviours of them I came the first opinion of the Phairies there was also an ancient Lybian woman called Lamia and the opinion was that if these Phairies had not whatsoever they demanded presently they would take away live children according to these verses of Horace Nec quodcunque â—olet poscat sibi fabula credi Neu pransae Lamiae vivum puerum extrabat alvo It is reported of Mâ—nippus the Lycian that he fell in love with a strange woman who at that time seemed both beautiful tender and rich but in truth there was no such thing and all was but a fantastical ostentation she was said to insinuate herself into his famillarity after this manner as he went upon a day alone from Corinth to Conchrea he met with a certain phantasm or spectre like a beautiful woman who took him by the hand and told him that she was a Phoenician woman and of long time had loved him dearly having sought many occasions to manifest the same but could never finde opportunity until that day wherefore she entreated him to take knowledge of her house which was in the Suburbs of Corinth therewithal pointing unto it with her finger and so desired his presence The young man seeing himself thus wooâ—d by a beautiful woman was easily overcome by her allurements and did oftentimes frequent her company 〈…〉 pus in this manner O formose a formosis expetite mulieribus ophin thalpeis cai su ophis that to say O fair Menippus beloved of beautiful women art thou a Serpent and dost nourish a Serpent by which words he gave him his first admonition or inkling of a mischief but not prevailing Menippus purposed to marry with this Spectre her house to the outward shew being richly furnished with all manner of houshold goods then said the wise man again unto Menippus th 〈…〉 gold silver and ornaments of house are like to Tantalus Apples who are said by Homer to make a fair shew but to contain in them no substance at all even so whatsoever you conceive of this riche 〈…〉 there is no matter or substance in the things which you see for they are only inchanted Images and shadows which that you may believe this your neat Bride is one of the Empusae called Lamiae of Mormolyciae wonderful desirous of copulation with men and loving their flesh above measure but those whom they do entice with their venereal marts afterward they devoure without love or pity feeding upon their flesh at which words
lead abroad the young ones but it is not likely that the Lion which refuseth to accompany his female in hunting will so much abase his noble spirit as to undergoe the Lionesses duty in leading abroad the young ones In Pangius a mountain of Thracia there was a Lioness which had whelps in her den the which den was observed by a Bear the which Bear on a day finding the den unfortified both by the absence of the Lion and the Lioness entred into the same and slew the Lions whelps afterward went away and fearing a revenge for her better security against the Lions rage climed up into a tree and there sat as in a sure castle of defence at length the Lion and the Lioness returned both home and finding their little ones dead in their own bloud according to natural affection fell both exceeding sorrowful to see them so slaughtered whom they both loved but smelling out by the foot the murderer followed with rage up and down untill they came to the tree whereinto the Bear was ascended and seeing her looked both of them gastly upon her oftentimes assaying to get into the tree but all in vain for nature which adorned them with singular strength and nimbleness yet had not endued them with power of climbing so that the tree hindring them from revenge gave unto them further occasion of mourning and unto the Bear to rejoyce at her own cruelty and deride their sorrow Then the male forsook the female leaving her to watch the tree and he like a mournful father for the losse of his children wandred up and down the mountain making great moan and sorrow till at the last he saw a Carpenter hewing wood who seing the Lion coming towards him let fall his Axe for fear but the Lion came very lovingly towards him fawning gently upon his breast with his forefeet and licking his face with his tongue which gentleness of the Lion the man perceiving he was much astonished and being more and more embraced and fawned on by the Lion he followed him leaving his Axe behind him which he had let fall which the Lion perceiving went back and made signes with his foot to the Carpenter that he should take it up but the Lion perceiving that the man did not understand his signes he brought it himself in his mouth and delivered it unto him and so led him into his cave where the young whelps lay all embrewed in their own bloud and then led him where the Lionesse did watch the Bear she therefore seeing them both coming as one that knew her husbands purpose did signifie unto the man that he should consider of the miserable slaughter of her young whelpes and shewing him by signes that he should look up into the tree where the Bear was which when the man saw he conjectured that the Bear had done some grievous injury unto them he therefore took his Ax and hewed down the tree by the roots which being so cut the Bear tumbled down headlong which the two furious Beasts seeing they toar her all to pieces And afterwards the Lion conducted the man unto the place and work where he first met him and there left him without doing the least violence or harm unto him Neither do the old Lions love their young ones in vain and without thanks or recompence for in their old age they requite it again then do the young ones both defend them from the annoyances of enemies and also maintain and feed them by their own labor for they take them forth to hunting and when as their decrepit and withered estate is not able to follow the game the younger pursueth and taketh it for him having obtained it roareth mightily like the voice of some warning piece to signifie unto his elder that he should come on to dinner and if he delay he goeth to seek him where he left him or else carryeth the prey unto him at the sight whereof in gratulation of natural kindness and also for joy of good success the old one first licketh and kisseth the younger and afterward enjoy the booty in common betwixt them Admirable is the disposition of Lions both in their courage society and love for they love their nourishers and other men with whom they are conversant they are neither fraudulent nor suspicious they never look awry or squint and by their good wils they would never be looked upon Their clemency in that fierce and angry nature is also worthy commendation and to be wondered at in such Beasts for if one prostrate himself unto them as it were in petition for his life they often spare except in extremity of famine and likewise they seldom destroy women or children and if they see women children and men together they take the men which are strongest and refuse the other as weaklings and unworthy their honor and if they fortune to be harmed by a Dart or stone by any man according to the quality of the hurt they frame their revenge for if it wound not they only terrifie the hunter but if it pinch them further and draw bloud they increase their punishment There is an excellent story of a Souldier in Arabia who among other his colleagues rode abroad on geldings to see some wilde Lions now geldings are so fearful by nature that where they conceive any fear no wit or force of man is able by spur and rod to make him to come near the thing it feareth but those which are not gelded are more bold and couragious and are not at all afraid of Lions but will fight and combate with them As they road they saw three Lions together one of the Souldiers seeing one of them stray and run away from his fellowes cast a Dart at him which fell on the ground neer the Lions head whereat the Beast stood still a little and paused and afterward went forward to his fellowes At last the Souldier road betwixt him and his fellowes which were gone before and run at his head with a spear but missed it and fell from his Horse to the earth then the Lion came unto him and took his head in his mouth which was armed with a Helmet and pressing it a little did wound him taking of him no more revenge then might requite the wrong received but not the wrong intended for generally they hurt no more then they are harmed There is an obscure Author that attributeth such mercy and clemency to a Beast which he calleth Melosus for he persecuteth with violence and open mouth stout men and all whom he is able to resist but yet is afraid of the crying of children It is probable that he mistaketh it for the Lion for besides him I have not read of any Beast that spareth young children Solinus affirmeth that many Captives having been set at liberty have met with Lions as they returned home weak ragged sick and disarmed safely without receiving any harm or violence And in Lybia the people
but those which served the Leontick Altars meaning Nemeaea sacra instituted for the honour of Hercules were transformed diversly but of all these we have already expressed our opinion namely to believe and think so basely of mankinde created after Gods Image as once to conceive or entertain one thought of such passing of one from another were most lewd and Diabolical but to conceive them as allegories by which the mindes of the wise may be instructed in divine things and God his judgements as it is Poetical so is it not against any point of learning or good Religion As that which hath been already expressed most notably describeth the nature of the Lion which so that succeedeth hath the same use for the manifestation of the dignity and honour of Beast First of all therefore to begin with his understanding and to shew how neer he cometh to the nature of man It is reported by Aelianus that in Lybia they retain great friendship with men enjoying many things in common with them and drinking at the same Well or Fountain And if at any time he being deceived in his hunting and cannot get to satisfie hunger then goeth he to the houses of men and there if he finde the man at home he will enter in and destroy except by wit policy and strength he be resisted but if he finde no man but only women they by railing on him and rebukes drive him away which thing argueth his understanding of the Lybian tongue The sum and manner of those speeches and words which she useth to affright and turn them away from entering houses are these Art not thou ashamed being a Lion the King of Beasts to come to my poor cottage to beg meat at the hands of a woman and like a sick man distressed with the weakness of body to fall into the hands of a woman that by her mercy thou mayst attain those things which are requisite for thy own maintenance and sustentation yea rather thou shouldst keep in the Mountains and live in them by hunting the Hart and other Beasts provided in nature for the Lions food and not after the fashion of little base Dogs come and live in houses to take meat at the hands of men and women By such like words she enchanteth the minde of the Lion so that like a reasonable person overcome with strong arguments notwithstanding his own want hunger and extremity he casteth his eyes to the ground ashamed and afflicted and departeth away without any enterprise Neither ought any judicious or wise man think this thing to be incredible for we see that Horses and Dogs which live among men and hear their continual voyces do discern also their tearms of threatning chiding and rating and so stand in aw of them and therefore the Lions of Lybia whereof many are brought up like Dogs in houses with whom the little children play may well come to the knowledge and understanding of the Maurisian tongue It is also said they have understanding of the parts of men and women and discern sexes and are indued with a natural modesty declining the sight of womens privy parts And unto this may be added the notable story of a Lion in England declared by Crantzius which by evident token was able to distinguish betwixt the King Nobles and vulgar sort of people As the ears of Horses are a note of their generosity so is the tail of Lions when it standeth immoveable it sheweth that he is pleasant gentle meek unmoved and apt to endure any thing which falleth out very seldom for in the sight of men he is seldom found without rage In his anger he first of all beateth the earth with his tail afterwards his own sides and lastly leapeth upon his prey or adversary Some creatures use to wag their tails when they see suddenly those which are of their acquaintance as Dogs but Lions and Buls do it for anger and wrath The reason both of one and other is thus rendred by Aphrodiseus The back-bone of such Beasts is hollow and containeth in it marrow which reacheth to the tail and therefore there is in the tail a kinde of animal motion and power For which cause when the Beast seeth one of his acquaintance he waggeth his tail by way of salutation for the same reason that men shake hands for that part is the readiest and nimblest member of his body but Buls and Lions are constrained to the wagging of their tails for the same reason that angry men are light fingered and apt to strike for when they cannot have sufficient power to revenge they either speak if they be Men or else bark if they be Dogs or smite their sides with their tail if they be Lions by that means uttering the fury of their rage to the ease of nature which they cannot to the full desire of revenge But we have shewed before that the Lion striketh his sides with his tail for the stirring up of himself against dangerous perils for which cause Lucan compareth Caesar in his warlike expedition at Pharsalia against his own Countrey before his passage over Rubicon whilest he exhorted his souldiers to a Lion beating himself with his own tail in these verses Inde mora solvit belli tumidumque per amnom Signa tulit propere sicut squallentibus arvis Aestiferae Lybies viso Leo cominus hoste Subsedit dubius totam dum colligit iram Mox ubi se saevae stimulavit verbere caudae Erâ—xitque jubas vasto grave murmur hiatu Infremuit tum torta levis si lancea Mauri Haereat aut latum subeant venabula pectus Per ferrum tanti securus vulneris exit There are many Epigrams both Greek and Latine concerning the rage force friendship and society of Lions with other beasts whereof these are most memorable the first of a Hare which through sport crept through the mouth of a tame Lion whereof Martial writeth in this sort teaching her to flie to the Lions teeth against the rage of Dogs in these verses Rictibus his Tauros non eripuere magistri Per quos praeda fugax itque reditque lepus Quodque magis mirum velocior exit ab hoste Nec nihil à tanta nobilitate refert Tulior in sola non est cum currit arena Neo caveae tanta conditur ille fide Si vitare canum morsus lepus improbe quaeris Ad qnae confugias ora Leonis habes There is another of the same Poets about the society of a Ram and a Lion wherein he wondereth that so different natures should live together both because the Lion forgetteth his prey in the Woods and also the Ram the eating of green grass and through hunger both of them constrained to taste of the same dishes and yet this is no other then that which was foretold in holy Scripture the Lion and the Lamb should play together the Epigram is this Massyli Leo fama jugi pecorisque maritus Lanigeri mirum qua posuere
is an excellent remedy for those which are troubled with quakings in their joynts as also for Fevers and shaking Agues A Mouse being cut or parted in the conjunction of the Sun and the Moon and the liver pulled out and roasted or boiled and given to one which is troubled with the aforesaid disease to eat will very speedily and without any difficulty or pain cure and heal him of the same The gall of a Mouse being beaten very small and steeped or washed in Vinegar and so poured or distilled into the ears of any one who is deaf or thick of hearing or hath any ach or pain in the same is counted for the chiefest and most singular and chiefest remedy or cure which is used for the same The dung or dirt of a Mouse being new made is very profitable for those which are troubled with the disease called the Sciatica or Hip-gowt anointed or rubbed upon the same Mouse-dung being also mingled with Vinegar and Oyl of Roses and so anointed or spread upon the fore-head or temples of any one who is troubled with the head-ach will presently ease and help him of the same The gum called Benzoin being mixed with Wine and Safron and Pepper as also with the dirt or dung of Mice being new made and mixed with Vinegar and mingled all in one medicine and so strained and given to one to drink which is spare and lean in some short space or time it will make him grow very fat The dung or dirt of a Mouse being mingled with certain other medicines is very good and wholesome for those which are troubled with Tetters and dry scabs which over-run the whole Body The dung of Mice being mingled with the dust or powder of Frankincense with a little red Arsenick added thereunto is a very profitable and wholesome medicine for those to use which are troubled with little hard red bunches and swellings arising in divers and several parts of the body Seven pills being taken out of the dung of a Mouse and mingled with Vinegar and anointed upon the fore-head and temples of those which are grieved therein will very speedily help and cure him The inward parts of earth mixed with Mouse-dung white Pepper and Myrrhe beingof each of them half an ounce and afterwards mingled with Vinegar all together and so anointed upon the head of any one which is troubled with the Megrim will very effectually and speedily ease and rid him of the same The herb called Strumus beaten together with Mouse-dung and afterwards mixed with Vinegar is an excellent remedy against the swellings in the head or little bunches which arising therein become sores and are full of matter and filthy corruption The dung or dirt of Mice being melted dissolved and mingled with Vinegar and then rubbed upon the head of any one who is troubled with the scurf or sâ—aâ—les thereon in a bathe or stove will presently expell and drive them quite away The dung of Mice being mingled with Frankincense and so beaten or tempered together until they come unto the likeness or thickness of Hony and then anointed upon the legs or feet of any one that is troubled with the Gowt he shall finde present help and remedy The same disease also is very effectually cured by the dung of a Mouse and burned or scorched Barley mingled together of each being the same weight or quantity and afterwards mixed with Vinegar all together and so spread or anointed upon the diseased parts There is also another excellent remedy for curing of the aforesaid disease which is thus To take Cantharides and bruise them all to pieces and mingle them with soft or liquid Pitch and also with Nitre and so anoint or rub them upon the skin being prepared for the purpose but there must be great care had that the skin be not rubbed or lanced too far Afterwards unto the wound so made there must be taken the heads galls and dung of Mice being mixed with the herb Lingwort and Pepper and so beaten all together until they come unto a temperate salve or medicine and then anointed upon the said wounds and they will in very short space cure the same The hairs and dung of a Mouse parched or dryed by the fire and anointed upon the eye-lids of any one which are pield or bare will presently procure hair to grow thereon Mouse-dung being dryed in the shade is an excellent remedy against the voiding or spitting of bloud which floweth from some parts of the body but especially from the belly The same is also very good to stanch the bloud which issueth from wounds being new made White Sceny-seed and the dung of a Mouse or Hare being put into broth with the stem or stalk of Fennil and so boyled together and afterwards given unto a woman to drink who is destitute of milk in her breasts will presently and very speedily procure her milk in great abundance The dung of Mice being steeped or washed in rain water doth ease and refresh the swelling of womens dugs in their time of delivery The dung of a Mouse being given in any drink or liquor to one that is troubled with the disease called the Colick and stone to drink will in very short space or time cure him of the same Mouse-dung being also taken in drink doth loose the body of either man or woman how fast soever they be bound There is an excellent remedy arising from Mouse-dung against the Sciatica or Hip-gowt which is this To take nine grains of a Mouses dung mixed or mingled with half a pinte of Wine and given to the party grieved upon a bench or foot-stool to drink so that he drink it standing upon that foot only which paineth him even at the Sun rising and having so drunk it let him leap down and afterwards let him leap three times and let him do this but three days together and he shall have present help and remedy of his disease Mouse-dung mixed with Frankincense and sweet Wine and so drunk by any one which is troubled with the Colick and Stone will presently ease him of the same But the dung of Mice mingled with Frankincense Water and Hony and so boyled together and drunk doth not only drive away the pain of the aforesaid disease but also doth break and quite dissolve the Stone Mouse-dung also being taken in drink by it self alone doth dissolve and melt the Stone in the Bladder The same being also boyled in water is very good and profitable for those which cannot make water The same being new made and anointed upon the belly of any one who is troubled with the Colick or Stone shall finde present ease and remedy thereby There is yet moreover another excellent medicine proceeding from this dung whereby the fruit in a womans womb may be brought forth either dead or putrified without any hurt or prejudice unto the woman which is thus First
continual medicines in their members The same is also very profitable for those which are effeminate or defective and eclipsed in their minde or courage as also for those which are weak and feeble in their joynts not by any hurt or any other casuality being enfeebled but being always so even from their childhood A Musk-cat is an excellent remedy for those which are troubled with fear in their heart and also for those which do quiver or shake either for fear of any other thing throughout all the parts of their body The same is a very profitable and medicinable cure for those which are grieved with any ach or pain in their head or with any enormity or trouble in their liver and is also being given simply by it self without any thing mixed in it or compounded in Wine very good and wholesome for the healing and curing of those who have any pain or grief in their stomach which cometh by the occasion of any cold A Musk-cat being put unto the body of any man in the form or manner of a plaister doth confirm and make strong both his heart and all the rest of his bowels or interior parts it doth moreover encrease both strength and power in all his members yea and in the very bones the efficacy thereof is of such and power and vertue The same being laid or anointed upon the head is very effectual for the expelling or driving away of the rheume which falleth from the head into the nostrils and by that means procureth heaviness in the same and for the amending and curing of the swimming dizziness or giddiness in the head through the abundant humors which remain and stay therein and also for the bridling and restraining of lust and venery The same being used in the aforesaid manner doth temperate and confirm the brains of any man besides it easeth and helpeth those which have pain about their heart by the which they suppose their very heart to ake The smell of this Beast is both profitable and hurtful for unto those which are cold of constitution the scent is very pleasant in regard that it is hot of it self and is very delightful in their savours but unto those which are hot of nature it is very noisome in regard that the heat and strong scent thereof overcometh their senses and oftentimes causeth their heads to ake and be full of pain and doth also stir up in them that pestiferous disease called the Falling-sickness but unto women which are of a hot and fiery constitution it is more hurtful and noisome for it breedeth in them a very pestiferous disease which choaketh their Matrice or Womb and causeth them oftentimes to swound it is also called by some the Mother The sneezings of a Musk-cat is an excellent remedy against the resolution of the sinews or the Palsie A Musk-cat is very good and wholesome for the helping and curing of those which are troubled with any deafness or astonishment in any part of their bodies as also for the driving away of melancholick and sorrowful passions out of mens mindes and for the incitating delightful mirth and pleasure in them A Musk-cat being mingled with dry plaisters which are used for the healing of the eyes is an excellent remedy for the expelling and driving away of the white skin which doth usually cover the sight and for the drying up of moist rheumes and humors which in the night time do fall from the brains and the head and by that means doth much hurt and damage the sight of the eyes as also for the clarifying and healing up of any pain or disease therein A Musk-cat is an excellent remedy for those which have a desire to vomit and cannot it doth also renew an appetite or stomach in those unto their victuals which do loath and abstain from all sustenance and doth loosen and dissolve all thick puffings or windiness in the interior parts or members of any one A Musk-cat being mingled with a caustick medicine is very profitable and wholesome for the bringing forth of those Womens menses or fluxes which are stopped and also for moving conception in those women which are hindered in it by the occasion of some great cold A medicine or suppository being made of Ambergreese and mingled with a gum comming out of Syria called Styrax and then mixed both together with a Musk-cat and so beaten until they come unto a certain salve and laid unto the secret parts of a woman is very good for the aforesaid disease There is a certain juyce or moistness in a Musk-cat which being pressed forth or dissolved and mixed with the Oyl called Palma Christi and anointed upon the yard of any man doth stir him up to lust and venery If the least part of a Musk-cat be eaten by any one which is troubled with a stinking breath it will presently expel and take away the stink thereof And thus much shall suffice concerning the cures and medicines of the Musk-cat Of the MVLE. THe Mule is a Beast called by the Hebrews Pered from whence comes the feminine Pirdah 3. of King 1. and there be some that say that the reason of the Hebrew word is from the separation and sterility of this Beast for it is Pered quia non-pariat The Chaldy word is Cudana the Arabian Beal but Gen. 36. for the Hebrew word Jemin many translate Mules The Arabians Kegal but the Gracian Septuagints Hemionous The Graecians also call a Mule Astrabe from the strength of his body The Latines call a Mule Mulus and Semiasinus that is half an Ass because on the one side he is an Horse and on the other side an Ass and therefore in his conditions he more resembleth an Ass then an Horse whereupon lyeth this tale A certain Lydian Mule seeing his Image in the water grew to be afraid of the greatness thereof and thereupon took his heels and ran away as fast as he could neither could he be stayed by all the wit of his Keepers At length the Mule remembring that he was the son of an Ass he stayed his course and came back again neighing The Italians call a Mule Mulo and the female Mula like the Latines and the Spaniards The French Mulet and the female Mule from whence cometh the English word Mule The Germans Multhire or Mulesel The Illyrians Meseck and the Flemings Mul. But among the Indian Phyllians their Asses Mules Oxen and Horses are no bigger then Rams As the Mule is begotten betwixt an Ass and a Mare so the Burdon is begotten betwixt a Horse and a shee-ass wherefore the Italians call him Mulo Bastardo that is a Bastard Mule For as the Mule more resembleth the Ass then the Horse so the Burdon more resembleth the Horse then the Ass the reason is because all kindes follow the father The Mule hath some parts proper to the Ass as long ears a terrible voyce a cross upon the shoulders
upon the teeth or gums doth make the breath of any man more sweet and delightful then it hath been accustomed The same being used in the said manner doth procure a very great whiteness and clearness in the teeth Unwashed Wool being parched and bound in a linnen cloth a third part or portion of salt being afterwards added thereunto and all beaten together in small dust or powder and rubbed upon the teeth will keep them from any pain or grief therein Unwashed Wool being dipped in Nitre Brimstone Oyl Vinegar and liquid Pitch being all boyled together doth asswage all pains in the hanches or loins whatsoever being twice a day as hot as possibly may be suffered applyed thereunto Sheeps dung mingled with unwashed wool and certain other things is very much applyed against that troublesom and painful disease called the stone or gravel Unwashed wool in cold water doth cure diseases in the privy parts of any man or woman whatsoever The wool of black Sheep is commonly reported to be very commodious and helpful for those whose Cods or stones are much swelled The gall of an Ox being mixed with unwashed wool doth help the purgation or menstrual fluxes of women but Olympies the Thebane affirmeth that Hysop and Nitre ought to be mixed with this wool for the helping of the same Unwashed wool being applyed unto the secret parts of women doth cause a dead childe to come forth The same doth also stay the issues of women The pure or clear fleeces of Sheep either applyed by themselves or mingled with Brimstone do cure all hidden or secret griefs whatsoever and Pliny commendeth them above all other medicines whatsoever Fleeces of wool mingled with quicksilver are very profitable to be taken for the same diseases in certain perfumes The root of a Mallow being digged up before the rising of the Sun and wrapped in undyed wool doth cure the Wens or mattry impostumes of those Sheep which have lately brought forth young Sheeps wool being dyed in purple colour doth very much profit the ears but some do steep it in Vinegar and Nitre to make the operation more effectual The dust of wool being burnt doth bring forth the matter or corruption lying hid under scabs restrain the swellings in the flesh and bringeth all Ulcers to a scar Wool being burnt hath a sharp force and likewise hot together with the slenderness of the parts it doth therefore very speedily clense and purge the sores in the flesh which are moist and too much full of matter It is also put in drying medicines It is burned as if there were many other things in it filling a new pot which may be covered with a cover which is bored through with many holes like unto a sive The powder of unwashed Wool is anointed upon divers sores and is very curable for them as bruised new wounded and sores half burnt and it is used for the curing of the diseases in the eyes as also in the easing of the Fistulaes and corrupt mattery sores in the ears The power of the powder of unwashed wool is clensing and it doth very effectually purge the eye-lids or cheek-bals It doth also clense and cure for the most part all diseases as Serenus saith in these Verses Succida cum tepido nectetur tana Lyaeo Ambustaeve cinis complebit vulneris ora Aut tu succosae cinerem perducito lanae The hairs which grow about the secret hole of Sheep being burned beaten and drunk in sweet wine doth help the shortness of the breath and ease the pursiness of the stomach The wool of a little sheep being pulled from betwixt his thighes and burnt and afterwards dipped in Vinegar doth very speedily cure those which are troubled with the head ach being bound about the temples The dust of Sheeps fleeces is very medicinable for the curing of all diseases in the genital parts whatsoever The dust of Sheeps wool doth heal all passions in Cattle The Grecians Plaister called Enneapharmacum consisted of nine several things and amongst the rest of unwashed wool The filth which sticketh to the Sheeps wool and groweth thereunto from which the thing which the Grecians call Oesypon is made hath the force of digestion like unto Butter and also a like ability of concoction In a certain medicine of Andromachus for the curing of the disease of the secret parts unwashed wool is added to the rest but Lepas as Galen saith for unwashed wool doth add Goose grease in the same quantity Some do also for unwashed wool use the marrow of a young calf and apply it in the aforesaid manner but this unwashed wool is termed of the Grecians Ae 〈…〉 pus and therefore being by divers Authors set down diversly concerning the making and virtue thereof I have thought good to set down the truest and excellentest way to make the same as Dioscorides whom in this I suppose best to follow reporteth First to take new shorn wool which is very soft and not trimmed with sope-weed and wash it with hot water then to presse all the filth forth of the same and cast it into a Cauldron which hath a broad lip and afterwards to pour the water in and to stir it up and down with a certain instrument with such great force as it may foam again of with a wooden rod still greatly to turn and trouble it so that the filthy froath or spume may more largely be gathered together afterwards to sprinkle it over with Sea water and the fat remaining which did swim upon the top being gathered together in an earthen vessel to powr the water into the Cauldron then must the froath be powred again into the Sea water and lastly taken out again this is so often to be done that the fat being consumed there will not any froath be left remaining the Aesypus then being gathered together is to be mollifyed with mens hands and if there be any filth therein it must out of hand be taken away and all the water by little and little excluded and being fresh poured in let it be mingled with ones hands until the Aesypus being touched with the tongue of any one may lightly bind it but not savour either sharp or tartly and the fat may seem very white and then let it be hid in an earthen vessel but let there be great care had they be done in the hot sun But there are some which use another manner of way to make the same which is this to cleanse the fleeces and wash away all filth and presse it forth of the same and boyl them in water over a soft fire in a brazen vessel then to wash the fat which swimmeth on the top being gathered together with water and being strained in another platter which may have some hot water in it to hide or overcast it with a linnen cloth and lay it forth in the sun until it be very white and thick enough Some also do use another way as this to
teeth Also the bones next to the ribs of Bacon being burned are very good to fasten the teeth The bones that are taken from the hoofs of hogs and burned to powder are used to clense the teeth and it is very good also to fasten the teeth The ashes which are made of a Harts horne or of the hoof of a Hog are very good to clense or rub the teeth The bones which are taken from the hoof of a hog burned and beaten to powder and â—ifted and a little Spicknard added thereto doth make the teeth very white by often rubbing them therewith The ashes of the hoofs of a Boar or Sow put in drink doth stay the incontinency of Urine and also the Bloudy flux Take as much Mercurial sodden as ones hand can hold sod in two pintes of Water unto one pinte and drink the same with Hony and Salt and the powder of a Hogs hoof and it shall loose the belly The milk of a Sow drunk with sweet Wine helpeth women in travell and the same being drunk alone restoreth milk in Womens brests it is also good against the Bloudy flux and Tissick The stones of Swine beaten to powder and drunk in Swines milk are good against the Falling sickness The wise men were wont to prescribe the left foot or leg of a Camaelion to be bound unto the feet against the Gowt There are also many uses of the dung of Swine and first of all it being mixed with Vinegar is good against the bitings of venemous beasts and Aetius maketh an Emplaister thereof against the biting of a Crocodile It is to be applyed single against the stinging of Scorpions and also the biting of any other reptile creature If a Serpent bite an Oxe or a Horse oâ— any other Four-footed Beast take the stalk of Nigella and beat it into a pinte of old wine so as all the juyce may go out thereof then infuse it into the Nostrils of the Beast and lay Swines dung to the sore so also it may be applyed unto men whereunto some do add Hony Attick and the Urine of a man and so it is to be applyed warm it being also warmed in a shell and dryed to powder mixed with Oyl and layed to the body easeth outward pains Iâ— it likewise profitable against burnings itch scabs and blisters and trembling of the body according to these Verses of Serenus Stercoris ex porco cinerem confundito lymphis Sic pavidum corpus dextra pascente foveto This is also commended against hard bunches in the body hardness of the skin clifts and chinks in the flesh freckles lice and nits and also the breaking of the sinews Si cui forte lapis teneros violaverit artus Non pudeat luteae sterâ—us producere porcae It is also good to stay bleedings at the Nose if it be layed to the Nostrils warm and to stay the bleedings of Beasts if it be given them in Wine the same being mixed and covered with Hony is anointed upon Horses for the Qâ—insie or swellings of the throat If the breasts of a Woman do swell after her delivery of childe it is good to anoint them with water and the dung of Hogs also the powder thereof mixed with Oyl is profitable for the secrets of men and women If a man have received any hurt by bruises so as his bloud stayeth in his body or suffer Convulsion of the Nerves through Cramps those evils are cured by the dung of a Boar gathered in the Spring time dryed and sod in Vinegar and some of the later Physitians prescribe it to be drunk in Water and they say that Nero the Emperor was wont to use that medicine when he would try the strength of his body in a running Chariot also the powder of the same being drunk in Vinegar is profitable for the Rupture and inward bruises and warmed in Wine against all manner of fluxes and Tisicks For the pains of the Loins and all other things which need mollifying rub them first of all with Deers grease and then sprinkle them with old Wine mixed with the powder of Swines dung The Urine of a Swine is also good against all bunches and Apostemations being layed to in wool The urine of a Boar Pig dryed in the smoak and drunk with sweet Wine the quantity of a Bean is profitable against the Falling evill against the whiteness of the eyes and the stone in the reins and bladder And thus much of the Swine in general Of the Wilde BOAR. THis Beast is termed by no other name then the common Swine among the Hebrews namely Chasir as you may see in Psal 80. where the Prophet speaketh of Chasir de sylva that is the Boar out of the wood The Grecians call him Capros and Syagros and Clunis although some take Cluâ—is for a Boar of an exceeding great stature Aristophone saith that there are some of this kinde which are called Monit which word by St. Cyril upon the Prophet Hosea is interpreted a wilde Asse but I rather incline to their opinion which say that Chlunis Monios and Chauliodon are Poetical words for cruell Boars Aristotle is of opinion these Boars being gelt when they are young grow greater and more fierce whereunto Homer also yeeldeth as he is thus translated Nutriit exetum sylvis horrentibus aprum Instar non bruti sed dorsi montis opaci But this is to be understood of such Boars as by accident geld themselves by rubbing upon any tree The French call this Beast Sanglier and Porc Sanglier the Italiane Cinghiale and Cinghiare and Porco The Spaniards Puerco Sylvestre and Pueoco montes and Javali the Germans Wild Schwein the Illyrians Weprz and the Latins Aper for Porcus signifieth the tame Swine and Aper the wilde The reason of this Latin name Aper is derived from Asper because he liveth among the sharp thorns and woods but I rather think that Aper is derived from Capros the Greek word or else Aper a feritate from fierceness and wildeness by changing one letter into another The Epithets of this Beast are many both in Greek and Latin such as these are sharp wilde Arcadian Atalantean troubler bloudy toothered hard Erymanthean cruell outragious fierce strong gnashing lightning yellow raging Acorn-gatherer quick rough rough-haired horrible Maenalian Mysian Meleagrean threatning woodwanderer cruel Sabelican bristle-bearer foaming strict filthy Tegean Thuscan fearful wry-faced truculent devourer violent Vmbrian wound-maker impetuous mountain-liver armed on both sides and such like But of these Epithets there are only three Erymanthean Calydonian and Mysian which do offer unto us peculiar stories according as we finde them in the Poets which we will prefix by way of moral discourse before we enter into the natural story of this beast First of all Erymanthus was a hill of Arcadia wherein was a wilde Boar that continually did descend down and depopulate their Corn-fields Hercules coming that way and hearing of that mischief did kill the said Boar and carryed him upon his back
Flower-deluces doth help and heal all sores or impostumes proceeding from the head to the ears being applyed thereunto A VVeasel being beaten to powder mingled with wax and in the manner of a sear-cloth applyed unto the shoulders doth expell all pains aches or griefs therein whatsoever it doth also purge or cleanse sores very effectually according to these Verses of Serenus following Obscoenos si pone locos nova vulnerae carpant Horrentum mansa curantur froride ruborum Et si jam veteri succedit fistula morbo Mustelae cinere immisso purgabitur ulcus Sanguine cum ricini quem bos gestaverit ante A VVeasel being burned in an earthen pot is very medicinable for the curing of the gout The powder thereof being mingled with Vinegar and in that manner thereunto applyed The dust of a living VVeasel burnt mingled with wax Rose-water and anoynted with a Feather upon gouty legs cureth the same disease The brain of a VVeasel being kept very long and throughly dried afterwards mingled with Vinegar and so drunk doth very effectually cure the falling sicknesse The brains of a Camel mingled with the brains of a VVeasel being both well dryed and drunk in Vinegar speedily helpeth those which are troubled with the disease called the Foul evill If a horse shall fall into a suddain disease being for the most part termed dangerous which our Countrey-men call Raech concerning which I have spoken in the Horse he is cured by some Horse-coursers by a small quantity of a VVeasels skin being about the bignesse of aforesaid golden Crown which is given to him inwardly whether in a potion by some horn or cut small and mingled with chaffe I know not Some do give to the Horses troubled with the aforesaid disease the tail of a white VVeasel being half black and half white cut exceeding small in their chaffe or provender If a Serpent or any other venemous creature shall sting or bite an Oxe let the wounded place be stroked or smoothed with the skin of a VVeasel and it shall in short time be perfectly cured The same they do in a manner command to be done to Horses which are so stung or bitten rubbing the wound with a Weasels skin untill it wax hot ministring in the mean time some certain Antidote within the Horses body There are some also which are of opinion that the skin being in the said manner applyed is of no efficacy but that the whole beast being cut and applyed while it is hot will rather profit which both in a Shrew as also in many other creatures is manifest The bloud of a Weasel being anoynted upon any impostume arising behinde the ear doth instantly cause the swelling to cease or being broken doth speedily heal the sore The same also being anoynted upon any impostumes in the head either whole or broken doth very effectually cure them The bloud of a Weasel being anoynted upon wens or bunches of flesh in any part of the body doth instantly expell them The same doth also help those which are troubled with the Falling sicknesse which disease is also cured by the whole body of a VVeasel either burnt or embowelled with salt The head and feet of a VVeasel being cast away and the body taken in any kinde of drink doth perfectly heal those which are troubled with that pestiferous disease called S. Johns evil The bloud of the same same beast is an excellent remedy for the expelling of the foul evil The bloud of a Weasel being anoynted upon broken or exulcerated bunches in the flesh doth not only mitigate the pain but also heal the wounds The bloud of a Weasel being anoynted upon the jawes doth heal all pains or sores therein whatsoever The powder and bloud of a Weasel being both mingled together and anoynted upon the body of any leprous man doth in short time drive away all scabs or scurfs thereon The bloud of a VVeasel being anointed with a Plantain upon the legs or feet of any one that is troubled with the gout doth very speedily mitigate or asswage the pain thereof The same being anoynted upon the nervs or sinewes which are shrunk together doth easily mollifie them again and loosen the grievous pain either in the joynts or articles The liver of a VVeasel mingled with his own brains being both well dryed and taken in any kinde of drink doth very much profit those which are troubled with the disease called S. Johns evil The liver of a VVeasel being throughly dryed and afterwards taken in water to drink doth heal the disease called the Foul evil taking hold of sense and minde together but there must great care be had that this medicine be ministred unto the sick party even when the disease is coming on him The gall of a Hare being mingled with the liver of a VVeasel to the quantity of three drams one dram of Oyl of Beavers stones four drams of Myrrhe with one dram of Vinegar and drunk in hony or bastard wine doth heal those which are troubled with a dizzinesse or certain swimming in the head The liver of a Weasel is reported to be very good and medicinable for the curing of the Lethargy or Dropsie evil The liver of a Weasel being bound to the left foot of a woman doth altogether hinder her from conception The gall of a Weasel is a very excellent and effectuall remedy against the venom or poyson of Asps being taken in any kinde of drink The yard of a Weasel Hart or Doe being dried and beaten to powder and taken in wine or any other drink is an excellent medicine for the curing of the bites or stings of Serpents The yard of a Weasel or Ferret is commended for a very excellent remedy against the strangury or disease called the Colick and stone The stones of a male Weasel or the secret parts of a female Weasel is reported by some to be very medicinable for the curing of the Falling sicknesse The stones of a Weasel being bound unto any part of a woman while she is in travail of childe birth doth altogether hinder her from her delivery By the left stone of a Weasel being bound in a piece of a Mules hide there is a certain medicine made which being drunk by any woman not being with childe causeth barrennesse as also by women being with childe hard and grievous pain in delivery The efficacy or force in them have the stones of a Weasel being cut off in the change of the Moon and he suffered to go away alive being tied upon any part of a woman in the hide of a Mule The heel of a living Weasel being taken away and bound unto a woman doth make her that she shall not conceive so long as she shall so bear it The powder of a Dogs head dried being put into any broken or exulcerated sores doth eat away all the corruption or dead flesh encreasing therein The same vertue hath the powder of Weasels dung being used
and yet the same Beast appear meek and gentle unto them there they should take their wives When they came into the land of the Cleonians they met with a Wolf carrying a Lamb in his mouth whereupon they conceived that the meaning of Apollo was that when they met with a Wolf in that Countrey they might very happily and successively take them wives and so they did for they married with the daughters of Thesander Cleonymus a very honest man of that Countrey It is reported of Milo Crotoniata that valiant strong man how upon a season rending a tree in sunder in the woods one of his arms was taken in the closing of the tree and he had not strength enough to loose it again but remained there inclosed in most horrible torments until a Wolf came and devoured him The like story unto this is that which Aelianus reporteth of Gelon the Syracusan a Scholar unto whom there came a Wolf as he sat in the School writing on his Tables and took the writing tables out of his hand The Schoolmaster being inraged herewith and knowing himself to be a valiant man took hold of the same tables in the Wolfs mouth and the Wolf drew the Master and Scholars in hope of recovery of the tables out of the School into a plain field where suddenly he destroyed the Schoolmaster and a hundred Scholars sparing none but Gelon whose tables were a bait for that prey for he was not only not slain but preserved by the Wolf to the singular admiration of all the world whereby it was collected that that accident did not happen naturally but by the over-ruling hand of God Now for these occasions as also because that the wooll and skin of beasts killed by Wolves are good for nothing although the flesh of Sheep is more sweeter are unprofitable and good for nothing Men have been forced to invent and finde out many devises for the destroying of Wolfs for necessity hath taught men much learning and it had been a shameful misery to indure the tyranny of such spoiling beasts without labouring for resistance and revenge for this cause they propounded also a reward to such as killed VVolfs for by the law of Draco he that killed a young VVolf received a talent and that killed an old VVolf received two talents Solon prescribed that he that brought a VVolf alive should receive five pieces of money and he that brought one dead should receive two Apollo himself was called Lycoctonos a VVolf-killer because he taught the people how to put away VVolfs Horner calleth Apollo Lycegenes for that it is said immediately after he was born of his mother Latona he was changed into the shape of a VVolf and so nourished and for this cause there was the Image of a VVolf set up at Delphos before him Others say that the reason of that Image was because that when the Temple of Delphos was robbed and the treasure thereof hid in the ground while diligent inquisition was made after the theeves there came a VVolf and brought them to the place where the golden vessels were covered in the earth which she pulled out with her feet And some say that a VVolf did kill the sacrileger as he lay asleep on the Mountain Parnassus having all the treasure about him and that every day she came down to the gates of Delphos howling until some of the Citizens followed her into the Mountain where she shewed them the theef and the treasure both together But I list not to follow or stand upon these fables The true cause why Apollo was called a VVolf-killer was for that he was feigned to be a Shepheard or Herdsman and therefore in love of his Cattle to whom VVolfs were enemies he did not only kill them while he was alive but also they were offered unto him in sacrifice for VVolfs were sacred to Apollo Jupiter and Mars and therefore we read of Apollo Lycius or Lyceus to whom there were many Temples builded and of Jupiter Lyceus the sacrifices instituted unto him called Lycaea and games by the same name There were other holy-days call'd Lupercalia wherein barren women did chastise themselves naked because they bare no children hoping thereby to gain the fruitfulness of the womb whereof Ovid speaketh thus Excipe foecundae patienter verbera dextrae Jam socer optatum nomen habebit avi Propertius and some other writers seem to be of the minde that those were first instituted by Fabius Lupercus as appeareth by these verses Verbera pellitus seto samovebat arator Vnde licens Fabius sacra Lupercus habet And Juvenal thus Nec prodest agili palmas praebere Luperco Now concerning the manner of taking of VVolfs the Ancients have invented many devises and gins and first of all an Iron toil which they still fasten in the earth with Iron pins upon which pins they feave a ring being in compass about the bigness of a VVolfs head in the midst whereof they lay a piece of flesh and cover the Toil so that nothing is seen but the flesh when the Wolf cometh and taketh hold of the flesh feeling it stick pulling hard he pulleth up the ring which bringeth the whole Toil on his neck and sharp pins This is the first manner that Crescentiensis repeateth of taking VVolfs and he saith there are other devises to ensnare their feet which the Reader cannot understand except he saw them with his eyes The Italians call the nets wherein VVolfs are taken Tagliola Harpago Lo Rampino and Lycino the French Hauspied and Blondus affirmeth that the shepheards of Italy make a certain gin with a net wherein that part of the VVolf is taken which is first put into it Now the manner of taking VVolfs in ditches and pits is divers first of all they dig a deep ditch so as the VVolf being taken may not go out of it upon this pit they lay a hurdle and within upon the pillar they set a live Goose or Lamb when the VVolf windeth his prey or booty he cometh upon the trench and seeing it at a little hole which is left open on purpose to cast the VVolf into the deep ditch and some use to lay upon it a weak hurdle such as will not bear up either a man or a beast that so when the VVolf cometh upon it it may break and he fall down but the best devise in my opinion that ever was invented in this kinde is that the perch and hurdle may be so made and the bait so set that when one VVolf is fallen down it may rise again of it owne accord and stand as it did before to entrap another and great care must be had that these kinde of ditches may be made in solid and strong earth or if the place afford not that opportunity then must the inside be lined with boards to the intent that the beast by scraping and digging with his feet make no evasion The Rhatians use to raise up to a Tree a certain
ones he bringeth meat unto her in the den and when that they are greatly constrained both to fly away they carry their young ones along with them Great is their malice toward them that hurt them as Niphus saith he tryed one day when he was a hunting near Rome for his Dog was fighting with a VVolf and he comming in with the multitude of Hunters alighted from his Horse and drew his sword and gave the VVolf a wound the VVolf feeling the stroke of the sword forsook the Dog and turned upon the man making all force at him he could to bite him but he professed he escaped with singular danger more by the help of his fellow hunters then by his own valour wherefore he concludeth that as VVolves are enemies to all so they take special revenge of them that harm them as we have said before of Lions Some say that when many of them have obtained a spoil they do equally divide it among them all I am sure the like is reported betwixt the old Lion and the young but whether it be true in VVolves I cannot tell but rather think the contrary because they are insatiable and never think they have enough And Albertus saith they do not communicate their prey like Lions but when they have fed sufficiently they hide the residue in the ground till they hunger again VVhen they set upon horned beasts they invade them behinde and on their backs when they set upon Sheep they choose a dark cloudy day or time that so they may escape more freely and to the intent that their treadings should not be heard they lick the bottom or soles of their feet for by that means they make no noise among the dry leaves and if going along they chance to break a stick and so against their minde make a noise then presently they bite their foot as if it were guilty of that offence For the most part they set upon such Cattle as have no Keepers and raven in secret If they come unto a flock of Sheep where there are Dogs they first of all consider whether they be able to make their party good for if they see they cannot match the Dogs they depart away although they have begun the spoil but if they perceive their forces to be equal or superior then they divide themselves into three ranks one company of them killeth Sheep a second company fighteth with the Dogs and the third setteth upon the men When they are in danger to be taken by the hunters they bite off the tip of their tails and therefore the Egyptians when they would describe a man delivered out of extremity and danger do picture a Wolf lacking that part of his tail To conclude when they are in peril they are extreamly fearful astonished and afraid especially when they are unavoidably included they seem harmless and this argueth the baseness of their minde which is subtil cowardly and treacherous daring do nothing but for the belly and not then neither but upon a singular advantage and for the manifesting hereof I will express these two stories following as they were related to Gesnes by Michael Herus and Iustinius Goblerus It happened saith the first that a certain Wolf constrained by famine came unto a village near Millan in Italy and there entred into a certain house wherein sat the good wife and her children the poor woman being terrified herewith and not knowing what she did ran out of the house pulling the dore to after her and so shutting the Wolf in among her children at last her husband returned home unto whom she related the accident and how she had shut up the Wolf the man being more afraid then was cause lest the Wolf had devoured some of his children entered hastily in a dores longing to save and deliver his poor Infants whom the fearful mother had left with the Wolf when he came in he found all well for the Wolf was in worse case astonished amazed daunted and standing like a stock without sense not able to run away but as it were offering himself to be destroyed And this is the first history The second is like unto this but more admirable for the great Uncle of Goblerus being marvellously addicted to the hunting of wilde beasts had in his land divers ditches and trenches cast up with other pits and caves wrought very artificially for the safe keeping of such beasts as should fall into them Now it hapned that upon one Sabbath day at night there fell into one of those pits three creatures of divers disposition and adverse inclination none of them being able to get out thereof the first was a neighbors wife of his a poor woman which going to the field to gather Beets and Rapes for her meat the day following it fortuned that she fell down by a mischance into the said pit wherein she was fain to lodge all night you must think with great anguish sorrow and perillous danger to her self beside that which her husband and family conceived at home but she had not tarryed long in the said pit ere a Fox was likewise taken and fell down upon her now began her grief to be encreased fearing lest the wilde best should bite and wound her having no means to escape from him nor no man to help and rescue her although she cryed as loud as ever she could wherewithal being wearyed necessity made her to be patient being a little comforted to see the Fox as much afraid of her as she was of him and yet she thought the night full long wishing for the break of the day when men stir abroad to their labours hoping that some or other would hear her moan and deliver her from the society of such a Chamber-fellow while thus she thought striving betwixt hope fear and grief so what befel her more wofully then before for suddenly a Wolf was taken and fell down upon her then she lost her hope and in lamentable manner thinking of husband and children how little they conceived of her extremity resolved to forsake the world and commended her soul to God making no other reckoning but that her distressed lean limbs should now be a supper and breakfast to the Wolf wishing that she might but see her husband and kiss her children before she lost her life by that savage execution but all her wishes could not prevail nor clear her heart from fear and expectation of an unavoidable death while thus she mused she saw the Wolf lie down she sitting in the one corner and the Fox resting in another and the Wolf appaled as much as either of both so the woman had no harm but an ill nights lodging with the fear whereof she was almost out of her wits Early in the morning came his great Uncle the Hunter to look upon his trenches and pits what was taken and coming unto that pit he found a treble prey a Woman a Wolf and a Fox whereat he was greatly amazed and stepped a little backward
was in the Countrey to fetch water where a great Serpent came and killed them at last Cadmus not finding their return went likewise to the same Fountain where he he found all his men slain and the Serpent approaching to assail him but he quickly killed it Afterward he was admonished by Pallas to strew the teeth of the same Serpent upon the ground which he performed and then out of those teeth saith Ovid arose a multitude of Armed men who instantly fell to fight one with the other in such cruel and bloudy manner that at the last there were but five of them all left alive which five by the will of Pallas were preserved to be the Fathers of the people of Thebes And so Apolio 〈…〉 us faigneth that with the help of men bred of Serpent teeth came Jason to obtain the Golden Fleece They faign also that Achelous when he strove with Hercules about Deianira turned himself into divers shapes and last of all into a Serpent or as some say into a River So likewise Cadmus afore-said being overcome with the sight and sense of his own miseries and the great calamities that befell to his Daughters and Nephews forsook Thebes and came into Illyrium where it is said that he earnestly desired of the Gods to be turned into a Serpent because a Serpent was the first original of all his extremities Antipater faigneth Jupiter to be turned into a Serpent and Medusa refusing the love of Neptune is also faigned by Ovid to be turned into a Serpent when he writeth Hanc pelagi rector templo vitiasse Minervae Dicitur aversa est castos Aegide vultus Nota Jovis texit neve hoc impune fuisset Gorgoneum crinem turpes mutavit in Hydros Nunc quoque ut attonitos formidine terreat hostes Pectore in adverso quos fecit sustinet angues In English thus It is reported how she should abus'd by Neptune be In Pallas Church from which foul fact Joves daughter turn'd her eye And left it should unpunisht be she turnd her seemly hair To loathsome Snakes the which the more to put her foes in fear Before her breast continually she in her hand doth bear Pterius writeth that the myrtle rod was not lawful to be brought into the Temple of Hecate and that a Vine branch was extended over the head of her sign and whereas it was not lawful to name Wine they brought it into her Temple under the name of milk and that therein continually lived harmless Serpents The reason of all this was because that her own Father Faunus fell in love with her whom she resisted with all modesty although she were beaten with a Myrtle rod and made to drink Wine but at last the beastly father was transformed into a Serpent and then he oppressing her with the spires of his winding body ravished her against her minde These and such like stories and Fables are extant about the beginnings of Serpents all which the Reader may consider to stir up his minde to the earnest and ardent meditation of that power that of stones can make men of Rocks water of water Wine and of small Rods great Serpents Then thus having expressed the Original of Serpents in their Creation it followeth now to add the residue of this Chapter about their generation It is a general rule that all Beasts wanting feet and have long bodies perform their work of carnal copulation by a mutual embracing one of the other as Lampreys and Serpents And it is certain that two Serpents in this action seem to be one body and two heads for they are so indivisibly united and conjoyned together and the frame of their body is altogether unapt for any other manner of copulation When they are in this action they send forth a rank savour offensive to the sense of them that do perceive it And although like unto many fishes they want stones yet have they two open passages wherein lyeth their generative seed and which being filled provoketh them to their venereal lust the seed it self being like a milky humor and when the female is under the male she hath also her passages to receive the seed as it were into the cells of her womb and there it is framed into an Egge which she hideâ—h in the earth an hundred in a cluster about the quantity of a Birds egg or a great bead such as are used some-time by women And this is general for all Serpents except Vipers who lay no Egges but hatch in their wombs their young ones as we shall shew at large in their particular history The Serpent having laid her Egge sitteth upon them to hatch them at several times and in a year they are perfected into young ones But concerning the supposed copulation of Serpents and Lampreys I will not meddle in this place reserving that discourse to the History of Fishes and now only it sufficeth in this place to name it as a feigned invention although Saint Ambrose and other ancient Writers have believed the same yet Aihenaeus and of late days P. Jovlus have learnedly and sufficiently declared by unanswerable arguments the clean contrary The Serpents love their Egges most tenderly and do every one of them know their own even among the confused heaps of the multitude and no less is their love to their young ones whom for their safeguard sometime they receive into their mouths and suffer them to run into their bellies And thus much for the generation of Serpents Of the Names of Serpents and their several parts of Anatomy BY Serpents we understand in this discourse all venomous Beasts whether creeping without legs as Adders and Snakes or with legs as Crocodiles and Lizards or more neerly compacted bodies as Toads Spiders and Bees following herein the warant of the best ancient Latinists as namely Cornelius Celsus Pliny and Apuleius do call Lice Serpents in that their relation of the death of Pherecydes the Syrian who was the Praeceptor of Pythagoras of whom it is said Serpentibus periisse to have perished by Serpents when on the contrary it is manifested he was killed by Lice Aristotle and Galen define a Serpent to be animal sanguineum pedibus orbatum oviparum that is a bloudy Beast without feet yet laying egges and so properly is a Serpent to be understood The Hebrews call a Serpent Nachasch Darcon and Cheveia by the Chaldees so also Thanintus and Schephiphon by the Hebrews as Rabbi Solomon Munster and Pagnine write The Grecians Ophidi and Ophis although this word do also signifie a Viper in particular even as the Latine Serpens or Serpula do sometime a Snake and sometime an Adder The Arabians Haie and Hadaie for all manner of Serpents And Testuh or Tenstu or Agestim for Serpents of the Wood likewise Apartias and Atussi The Germans Ein schlang which word seemeth to be derived from Anguis by an usual figure and after the German fashion preposing Sch. The French call it Vn serpent the
bring they to the ground Flowing with Natures shameful filthy bloud Her bosome open and her hair untrimmed falling Like one ore'prest with grief forgetting good Three times about the plots and hedges walking Which done a wonder t is for to be told As rain drops from the trees ripe Apples fall Walnuts out of husks so cast you may behold These Worms from trees all torn and cannot crall Theophrastus saith that Caterpillers will touch no plants which are moistened or besprinckled with Wine They will die if they take the fume or be any way smoaked with the herb Psora Aetius Whereby it is apparent saith Silvius that the herb commonly termed Scabious is not the true Psora Caterpillers that live and feed on Coleworts if they be but touched with that kinde of Worm which is found in the Fullers Teasel they die Pliny All to besprinkle a Colewort whilest it hath but only three leaves with Nitre or with saltish and brinish earth and by means of the saltnesse the Caterpillers will be quite driven away Geopon Palladius in this case preferreth the ashes of Fig-leaves The Sea-onion called Squilla being sown or hanged up in Gardens hindereth the breeding of Caterpillers Othersome in the most places of their Gardens and round about them sow and set Mints the pulse called Orobos which is somewhat like Vetches and some Wormwood or at least-wise hang them in bunches in divers places of the same to expell this kinde of noysome creature Some very advisedly take dry leaves and stalks of Garlick and with the same do smoke and perfume their whole Garden so that by this way the smoke being conveyed into all places thereof the Caterpillers will fall down dead as Palladius hath written in whose writings any man may read of plenty of such Antidotes and Alexipharmical medicines as may serve to destroy Caterpillers Now will I speak of their use in Physick and in the Common-wealth The web of Caterpillers being taken inwardly stayeth womens fluxes as Matthiolus saith Being likewise burnt and put into the nostrils it stancheth bleeding at the nose The Caterpillers that are found amongst the herbs called Spurges of all sorts by the judgement of Hippocrates are notable for purulent and mattery Wombs especially if they be first dryed in the Sun with a double quantity of Earth-worms and a little Aniseed finely powdered and so all of them to be relented and taken in some excellent White-wine But in case they feel any heavinesse or aking in the belly after the taking of this medicine then it were good to drink a little Mulse thereupon This saith Hippocrates in his Book De Superfoetat Dioscorides in his first Book and 90. chapter giveth in drink those common Caterpillers that live in companies together against the disease called the Squinsie But unlesse by some hid and secret property they do good in this grief being received inwardly it were needful in regard of their manifest venomous nature that they were utterly rejected and contemned Nicander useth them to provoke sleep for thus he writeth Ei de suge tripsas oligo en hammati kampen Kepeien drosoeastan epi chloreida noto c. Which Hieremias Martius hath thus translated Quod si rodentes olus frendentia vermes Lueva quibus virides depingunt terga colores In medio sacra de Palladis arbore succo Triveris hincque tuum colleveris undique corpus Tuta dabis dulci securus membra quieti Which may be Englished thus With herb-eating or green-leaf-gnawing Worms Whose backs imprinted are with colours lively green All bruised mixed with juyce from Pallas tree that runs Anointed body brought to sound sleep is often seen There are to be seen in divers thorny prickly sharp and rough herbs as for example in Nettle sundry hairy or lanuginous Caterpillers which being tyed or hanged about some part of the body do by and by as the report goeth heal those Infants which have any stopping of the meats passage when they cannot swallow A Caterpiller breeding in Pot-herbs being first bruised and then anointed upon any venomous bitings of Serpents is of great efficacy and if you rub a naughty or a rotten tooth with the Colewort-caterpillers and that often within a few days following the tooth will fall out of his own accord Avicenna Caterpillers mixt with Oyl do drive away Serpents Dioscorides If a man anoint his hands or any other part with Oyl it will cause that he shall receive no hurt by the stinging of Bees Wasps or Hornets as Aetius saith Pliny citeth many fond and superstitious fained matters and lying tales devised by those who in his time were called Magi Soothsayers or Diviners concerning the admirable vertues of Caterpillers All which because I see them hissed out of the School of Divinity and that in heart secretly I have condemned them I will at this time let them passe without any further mention They are also a very good meat to divers Birds and Fowls which are so needful for the use benefit and food of mankinde as to Starlings Peacocks Hens Thrushes Daws or Choughes and to sundry fishes likewise as to the Tench Pike or Pikerel and to a certain Sea-fish called a Scorpion also to the Trout and some others who are easily deceived with a Caterpillered hook Which kind of fishing fraud if you would better be instructed in I must refer you to Tarentinus in his Geoponicks and to a little Book dedicated to Robert Dudley late Earl of Leicester written by Master Samuel Vicar of Godmanobester in Huntingtonshire It is not to be passed over in silence how that not many years since there came infinite swarms of Caterpillers out of Thracia into Polonia Hungaria and beyond the limits of Germany which did not only devour the fruits of trees but whatsoever was green either in the medows and tilled fields besides the Vines which was taken for an evident prognostick and sign as many divined of some great Turkish Army to come swarming into those parts neither herein did this their ghessing and mistrust deceive them for the next year following was the siedge of Vienna in Austria the wasting spoyling and over-running of Hungaria and the deadly English-sweating could not contain it self in an Island but must spread it self among them of the Continent whereupon ensued the destruction of many thousands of people before any remedy could be found out In the year of grace 1573. there rushed infinite swarms of Caterpillers into Italy where they spoyled and made havock of all green buds and grasse growing upon the face of the earth so that with their unquenchable and insatiate voracity they left nothing but the bare roots of trees and plants and this hapned chiefly about Mantua and Brixia And upon the neck of this followed a terrible and fearful pestilence of which there dyed about 50. thousand persons Also in the year of our Lord GOD 1570. there were two great and sudden swarms of Caterpillers that came rushing into Italy in the space of one
called Draco but I rather agree with Solinus who giveth a more true reason of this fable Ne famâ— licentis vulneretur fides lest as he saith faith and truth should receive a disgrace or wound by the lavish report of fame There was among the Hesperides a certain winding River coming from the Sea and including within it the compasse of that land which is called the Gardens of Hesperides at one place whereof the falling of the water broken by a Rock seemeth to be like the falling down of Snakes to them that stand a far off and from hence ariseth all the occasion of the fable aforesaid Indeed there was a statue of Hercules in the left hand whereof were three Apples which he was said to have obtained by the conquest of a Dragon but that conquest of the Dragon did morally signifie his own concupiscence whereby he raigned over three passions that is to say over his wrath by patience over his cupidity by temperance and over his pleasures by labour and travail which were three vertues far more pretious then three golden Apples But I will stay my course from prosecuting these moral discourses of the Dragon and return again to his natural History from which I have somewhat too long digressed There are divers sorts of Dragons distinguished partly by their Countries partly by their quantity and magnitude and partly by the different form of their external parts There be Serpents in Arabia called Sirenae which have wings being as swift as Horses running or flying at their own pleasure and when they wound a man he dyeth before he feeleth pain Of these it is thought the Prophet Esay speaketh chap. 13. vers 22. Serpens clamabit in Templis voluptariis and for Serpents the old Translators read Syrenae and so the English should be the Syrene Dragons should cry in their Temples of pleasure and the ancient distinction was Angues aquarum Serpentes terrarum Dracones Templorum that is to say Snakes are of the water Serpents of the earth and Dragons of the Temples And I think it was a just judgement of God that the ancient Temples of the Heathen Idolaters were annoyed with Dragons that as the Devil was there worshipped so there might be appearance of his person in the ugly form and nature of a Dragon For God himself in holy Scripture doth compare the Devil unto a Dragon as Rev. 12. vers 3. And there appeared another wonder in Heaven for behold a great red Dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his head Vers 4. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth and the Dragon stood before the Woman which was ready to be delivered to devour her childe when she had brought it forth Vers 5. So she brought forth a man childe which should rule all Nations with a rod of Iron And her Son was taken up unto God and to his throne Vers 6. And the Woman fled into the Wildernesse where she hath a place prepared of God that they should feed her there 1260 days Vers 7. And there was a battail in heaven Michael and his Angels fought against the Dragon and the Dragon fought and his Angels Vers 8. But they prevailed not neither was their place found any more in heaven Vers 9. And the great Dragon that old Serpent called the Devill and Satan was cast out which deceiveth all the world he was even cast unto the earth and his Angels were cast out with him Vers 13. And when the Dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth he persecuted the Woman which had brought forth a man childe and so forth as it followeth in the Text. Whereupon Saint Augustine writeth Diabolus Draco dicitur propter insidias quia occulte insidiatur that is the Devill is called a Dragon because of his treachery for he doth treacherously set upon men to destroy them It was wont to be said because Dragons are the greatest Serpents that except a Serpent eat a Serpent he shall never be a Dragon for their opinion was that they grew so great by devouring others of their kinde and indeed in Aethiopia they grow to be thirty yards long neither have they any other name for those Dragons but Elephant-killers and they live very long Onesicritus writeth that one Aposisares an Indian did nourish two Serpents Dragons whereof one was six and forty cubits long and the other fourscore and for the more famous verification of the fact he was a very earnest suter to Alexander the Great when he was in India to come and see them but the King being afraid refused The Chroniclers of the affairs of Chius do write that in a certain Valley neer to the foot of the Mountain Pellenaeus was a Valley full of straight tall trees wherein was bred a Dragon of wonderful magnitude or greatnesse whose only voyce or hissing did terrifie all the Inhabitants of Chius and therefore there was no man that durst come nigh unto him to consider or to take a perfect view of his quantity suspecting only his greatnesse by the loudnesse of his voyce until at length they knew him better by a singular accident worthy of eternal memory For it hapned on a time that such a violent winde did arise as did beat together all the Trees in the Wood by which violent collision the branches fell to be on fire and so all the Wood was burned suddenly compassing in the Dragon whereby he had no means to escape alive so the trees fel down upon him and burned him Afterward when the fire had made the place bare of wood the Inhabitants might see the quantity of the Dragon for they found divers of his bones and his head which were of such unusual greatnesse as did sufficiently confirm them in their former opninion and thus by divine miracle was this monster consumed whom never any man durst behold being alive the Inhabitants of the Countrey safely delivered from their just conceived fear It is also reported that Alexander among many other Beasts which he saw in India did there finde in a certain den a Dragon of seaventy cubits long which the Indians accounted a sacred Beast and therefore intreated Alexander to do it no harm When it uttered the voyce with full breath it terrified his whole Army they could never see the proportion of his body but only the head and by that they guessed the quantity of the whole body for one of his eyes in their appearance seemed as great as a Macedonian buckler Maximus Tyrius writeth that in the days of Alexander there was likewise seen a Dragon in India as long as five roods of lands are broad which is incredible For he likewise saith that the Indians did feed him every day with many several Oxen and Sheep It may be that it was the same spoken of before which some ignorant men and such as were given to set forth fables amplyfied beyond measure and
ditches and other simple medicines such as are applyed to the curing of the Yellow-jaundise The eyes must be washed with the urine of a childe or young man which never knew any woman carnally and this may be applyed either simply and alone or else by Brine and Pickle so also must the head After that the body is purged anoint it with Balsamum and Honey and take an Eye-salve to sharpen again and recover the sight and for this cause it is very good to weep for by evacuation of tears the venom also will be expelled But if the eyes grow to pain then let their Eye-salve be made more temperate and gentle to keep the head and brain from stupefaction And thus much for the Pelias out of Aetius Of the PORPHYRE THere is among the Indians a Serpent about the bignesse of a span or more which in outward aspect is like to the most beautiful and well coloured Purple the head hereof is exceeding white and it wanteth teeth This Serpent is fought for in the highest Mountains for out of him they take the Sardius stone And although he cannot bite because he wanteth teeth yet in his rage when he is persecuted he casteth forth a certain poyson by vomit which causeth putrefaction where ever it lighteth But if it be taken alive and be hanged up by the tail it rendereth a double one whiles it is alive the other when it is dead both of them black in colour but the first resembleth black Amber And if a man take but so much of the first black venom as is the quantity of a Sesamine seed it killeth him presently making his brains to fall out at his nostrils but the other worketh neither so speedily nor after the same manner for it casteth one into a Consumption and killeth within the compasse of a year But I finde Aelianus Volateran and Textor to differ from this relation of Ctesias for they say that the first poyson is like to the drops of Almond trees which are congealed into a gum and the other which cometh from it when he is dead is like to thin mattery water Unto this Porphyre I may add the Palmer Serpent which Strabo writeth doth kill with an unrecoverable poyson and it is also of a Scarlet colour to the loyns or hinder-parts Of the PRESTER ALthough there be many Writers which confound together the Prester the Dipsas and make of them but one kinde or Serpent of divers names yet seeing on the contrary there he as many or more which do distinguish or divide them and make them two in nature different one from another the Dipsas killing by thirst and the Prester by heat as their very names do signifie therefore I will also trace the steps of this latter opinion as of that which is more probable and consonant to truth The Grecians call it Prester of Prethein which signifieth to burn or inflame and Tremellius and Junius think that the Serpents called fiery Serpents which did sting the Israelitos in the Wildernesse were Presters We finde in Suidas Prester for the fire of Heaven or for a cloud of fire carryed about with a vehement strong winde and sometimes lightenings And it seemeth that this is indeed a fiery kinde of Serpent for he himself always goeth about with open mouth panting and breathing as the Poet writeth Oraque distendens avidus fumantia Prester Inficil ut laesus tumida membra gorat Which may be Englished thus The greedy Presters wide-open foming mouth Infects and swelleth making the members by unâ—outh When this Serpent hath struck or wounded there followeth an immeasurable swelling distraction conversion of the bloud to matter and corrupt inflamation taking away freedom or easinesse of aspiration likewise dimming the sight of making the hair to fall off from the head at last suffocation as it wereby fire which is thus described by Mantuan upon the person of one Narsidus saying as followeth Ecce subit facies leto diversa fluenti Narsidium Marsi cultorem torridus agri Percussit prester illi rubor igneus ora Succendii tenditque cutem pereunte figura Misoens ouncta tumor toto jam corpore major Humanumque egressa modum super omnia membra Efflatur Sanies latè tollente veneno Ipse late penitus congesto corpore mersus Nec lorica tenet distenti corporis auctum Spumeus accenso non sic exundat aheno Vndarum cumulus nec tanto carbasa Core Curvavere sinus tumides j am non capit artus Informis globus confuso pondere triâ—â—â— Intactum voluctum rostris epulasque duturum Haud impune feris non aufi tradere busto Nondum siante modo crescens fugere cadaver Which may be thus Englished Lo suddenly a divers fate the joyful current stayed Narsidius which Marsinus mirror did adere By burning sting of scorching Prester dead was layed For fiery colour his face enflam'd not as before The first appearing visage faild all was out-stretcht Swelling cover'd all and bodies grosnesse doubled Surpassing humane bounds and members all ore reacht Aspiring venom spreads matter blown in carkasse troubled The man lyeth drownd within swoln bodies banks No girdle can his monstrous growth contain Not so are waters swoln with rage of sandy flanks Nor sails bend down to blustering Corus wain Now can it not the swelling sinews keep in hold Deformed globe it is and trunk ore-come with waight Vntoucht of flying Fowls no beaks of young or old Do him dare eat or beasts full wilde upon the body bait But that they die No man to â—ury in earth or fire Durst once come nigh nor stand to look upon that haplesse cste For never ceased the heat of corps though dead to swell Therefore afraid they ran away with speedy pace The cure of the poyson of this Serpent is by the Physitians found out to be wilde Purslain also the flowers and stalk of the bush the Beavers stone called Castoreum drunk with Opoponax and Rew in Wine and the little Sprat-fish in diet And thus much of this fire-burning venomous Serpent Of the RED SERPENT THis kinde of Serpent being a Serpent of the Sea was first of all found out by Pelicerius Bishop of Montpelier as Rondoletus writeth and although some have taken the same for the Myrus or Berus of which we have spoken already yet is it manifest that they are deceived for it hath gills covered with a bony covering and also fins to swim withal much greater then those of the Myrus which we have shewed already to be the male Lamprey This Serpent therefore for the outward proportion thereof is like to the Serpents of the land but of a red or purplish colour being full of crooked or oblique lines descending from the back to the belly and dividing or breaking that long line of the back which beginneth at the head and so stretcheth forth to the tail The opening of his mouth is not very great his teeth are very sharp and like a saw his gils like scaly fishes
ibid. 695. 810. Rest procured 345. Rheume 165. 431. 567. 662. Ribs 204 Ring worms 75. 104. ibid. 202. 505. 533 661. 663 810. Robbers of Orchards to find out 663. Running bloud 501. Rupture 498. 504. 5 3. 534. 537. 545. 217. 220. 741. S. SAlamanders venom cured 750. Sand-blinde 347. Scabs 22. 51. 196. 200. 505. 532. 533. 616. 723. St. Pauls linage pretended 625. 805. Scars 22. 498. 499. 502. 505. 533. 742. Sealded 401. 410. Secondine 201. 215. 216. 337. 814. Sciatica 349. 402. 545. 165. 217. 662. 695. 814. Scurf 22. 71. 198. 535. Shoulders ach 567. 346. Serpents most spotted least venomous 617. Serpents 50. 196. 198 199. 337. 535. 544. 545 566. 220. Serpents prepared 616. Serpents bites cured 615. 670. 691. 699. 810. Serpents bloud better then balsam 616. Serpents crept into ones belly 338. Serpents to drive away 618. Serpents to take 626. Scorpians stinging 23. 199. 338. 391. Scorpions to drive away 755. 756. Scorpions antidote 694. 741. Scorpions kinds many 751. Shrewmouse bites 338. 391. 400. 418. 419. 420. 506. ibid. 566. Shâ—tfree 341. Skin softned 533. Skin made fair 378. Skin foul 64. Skin made white 22. Skin to soften 616. Skin thick 742. Shamefacedness 337. Sides pain 533. 545. Sinews pain 39. 64. 204. 215. 336. 345. ibid. 346. ibid. 695. 723. Sinews shrunk 536. 566. 567. 723. Sleep 22. 39. 65. 200. Sleep caused 504. 582. 220. 723. Senses to sharpen 810. Sight to preserve 25. Smelling 75. Snakes venomous only at some time of the Moon 615. Soft to make 27. 50. 51. 70. Slow-wormes venomous cured 764. Snakes remedy 768. Sneesing 39. Souls transmigration 342. Sores cured 247. 501. 506. Sores 149. 203. Sores inward 337. Spiders remedies 773. 774 775. 776. Spleen sick 25. 22. 64. 65. 75. ibid 73 104. 105. 149 179. 198. 203. 204. 337. 346. Spleen swoln 500. 504. 788. Splints to draw forth 751. Spitting matter 410. Spots 64 93. 165. 197. 198. 695. Stellions biting cured 792. Stiches 502. 583. Stinking breath 215. Stomach cold 65. Stomach raw 645. Stomach pained 39. 65. 104. 201 431. 536 583. Stomach weak 458 220. Stomach ulcerated 22. Stomach bleeding 27. Stone 165 178 179. 197 198 203. ibid. 214. 215. 216. 337. 500. 501. 5â—2 506. 536. 537. 545. 582 584. 217. ibid. 645. 810. 814. Stone of the bladder 25. 84. 349. 220. 727. 757. 768. Stone Colick 338. 339. 346. 403. Strains 201. 615. Strangullion in a horse 616. Strangury 21. 104. 198. 440. 546 566. 568. 385. 220 645. Strength restored 431. Stripes healed 204. 498. 499. Struma 615. Surbated 533. Suffâ—cation of the belly 615. Suppositary 498. Sweating 199. 338. Sweating sicknesse 671. Sun burning 93. 204. 215. Suffusions 695. Swellings 25. 34. ibid. 70. 64. 93 104. 178. 179. 197. 198. 200. 203. ibid. 392. 400. 455. 504. 532. 200. 661. T. TArantulaes venom cured 772. Tenasmus 65. Teeth 104. 200. 22. 22. 64. ibid. 104. 616. Teeth white 501. 502. 559. Teeth fastned 339. 391. 504. 536. ibid 582. 583. Teeth to make fall out 617. 721. 741. 789. Teeth breeding 215. Teeth-ach 22. ibid. 39. 51. 93. 149. 215. 216. 337. 345. 392. 400. 402. 403. 499. 501. 502. 531. 615. ibid. 616. 617. 670. 692. 741. 814. Tetters 491. 402. 504. 204. 661. 663. Temples 501. Tenasmus 617. Throat soar 22. 64. 65. 201. 203. 385. Throat swelling 534. Tongue sore 535. Thorns to pull out 65. 84. 204. 215. 216. 220. Toads and Spiders antipathy 729. Toads poison cured 629. 730. Trembling 204. 537. Toad-stone its original and virtues 727. Toads bred in men how cured 728. Toads three formerly the French Arms 729. Touching with virtue 391. Tortoise good meat or not 796. Tortoise bloud unites any thing cut asunder 799. Tumours 533. Tympany 346. Tyranny freed from 342. Tyria what disease it is 808. U. VEnery 202. Venery provoked 662. 695. Venomous bites 417. 418. 500. 506. 531. 535. 536. 545. 566. 620. 621. 622. 623. 624. 625. Venomous bites healed 352. 400. Venomous beasts driven away 345 378. 619. Venom cured 723. Vertigo 431. 568. Victory foreshewed 715. Vipers to take without danger 805. Vipers bite cured 808. Vlcers 34. 51. 65. 104. 423. 439. 500. 502. 506. 533. 545. 566. 582. 219. 809. 814. Virgins breasts great 217. Voice weak 810. Vomit 104. 431. 546. 619. Vinegar good against Asps 636. Vrine stopt 34. 71. 68. 220. ibid. 645. Vrines incontinency 346. 401. 217. Vrine to retain 458. 499. 536. 546. Vrine to provoke 339. 403. 536. 545. 546. Vvula 385. 582. W. WAter in the belly or stomach 338. Warts 149. 400. 410. 500. 505. 532. 220. 661. 789. Wasps stings cured 655. 656 657. 670. Wens 21. 83. 337. 392. 545. 566. ibid. 629. 692. 741. 792. Web in a horses eye 29. 84. Weakness 39. Weasils bites cured 568. Whites 65. 104. Whore of Babylon 728. Wise to make 617. Witches use Toads 730. Witchcraft 341. 342. Windiness dissolved 431 499. Wit to quicken 810. Womens courses 22. 23. 39 64. 104. ibid. 203. ibid. 294. 215. 216. ibid. 431. 455. 499. 501. 502. 504. 506 616. Womens courses to stop 439. 500 502. 504. 663. 570. 695. Woment paps swoln 500. 532. Womens diseases 532. Womens breasts 149. Womb foul 337. 315. 202. 670. Womens love to Husbands procured 342. Worms in Calves 69. 535. Worms 104. 200. 202. 338. 346. 408. 741. 810. 814. Worms in the eys 534. Wounds bleeding 65. Wounds 501. 502. 533. 219. 617. 691. 692. 789. 814. Y. YArd sore cured 439. Yard ulcerated 93. 202. Yard pains 498. 505. 506. 544. Youth preserved 616. FINIS THE THEATER OF INSECTS OR Lesser living Creatures AS BEES FLIES CATERPILLARS SPIDRS WORMS c. a most Elaborate Work By THO. MOVFFET Doctor in Physick LONDON Printed by E. C. 1658. To the Noble Knight and the Kings chief Physician Dr. WILLIAM PADDY Theodore Mayerne Knight Baron of St. Albons and Companion to the chief Physicians in the Court of Britain wisheth much health YOur Countryman Mouffet a notable ornament to the company of Physicians a man of the more polite and solid learning and well experienced in most Sciences had formerly entituled this work of Insects to the ever famous Elizabeth who was wise above her Sex valiant born to reign well and ruled so many years by the Votes of her Subjects and by her own undertakings and actions that were so successeful that they were envied at it was begun by others but augmented by him polished and as it now comes forth exactly perfected and he thought it no indignity to Dedicate to the greatest Princess the miracles of Nature which are most conspicuous in the smallest things which testifie the infinite power of the supreme Creator of all things and raise the mindes of Princes who are the children of the most Highest to the cause of all causes that they may in all places acknowledge the presence of the Deity and his bountiful hand in his singular direction in respect of them and his influence that acts by election and may adore him with an
Author of Naumachia in these verses The nurse childe of death Famine was present with her empty veins The poor with hunger starved their breath Was spent for neither broth nor bread remains Vpon their mouthes and guts hunger laid hold They move their chaps and bite their teeth not meat Through wrinkled skin their bowels might be told Nothing but skin and bone they 'd nought to eat In stead of belly stood an empty place the brest hung down and seemed for to stay On the back bones rough grate pale was the face Lips white eyes sunk teeth stark all was like clay Nor was France free from their teeth and devouring but in the years since the time the Virgin brought forth her son namely in the year 455 874 1337 1353 1374. was miserably waited and the Citizens consumed by famine and very many killed by a plague that followed it and sometimes it lost a third part of the inhabitants These Locusts had commonly six wings and were brought thither from the East But at length by force of winds they were carried into the British Sea and drowned there but by the flowing of the sea they were cast to the shore and infected the air and caused a plague no less cruel than the famine that went before Otho Frisingensis Also in the year 1476 they wasted almost all Polonia In 1536. innumerable troops of Locusts were brought by winds from the Sea Euxinum into that part of Sarmatia which is called Podolia they did change their camps in a military order and they eat up all that was in the fields where they pitched both by day and night these of an unusual greatness at first wanted wings then their wings growing forth they flew at pleasure and what shall I say they eat not only herbs and leaves and flowers but hardly left any bark on the trees Then they wandred through Germany and came as far as Millan and having devoured all there they returned to Polonia and Silesia At last in November for so long they lived when they were consumed by force of cold they raised such a stench that had they not been eaten up by hogs and wilde bores they would have caused as great a plague as they had done a famine in Germany and Italy In the year 1543 Locusts did a very great mischief to the Countreys of Misnia and Marchia at which time they were so frequent in Lucania that being in heaps they were above a cubit high Jacobus Ekcelius In the year 1553 it is commonly known what great dammage the mighty company of Locusts did at Arles whilest we were writing this we received news that the Spaniards were sorely afflicted with swarms of Locusts brought thither out of Africa For they flew like Armies through the skies and darkned the air And the people when they saw them rang all their bels shot off ordinance sounded with trumpets tinkled with brazen vessels cast up sand did all they could to drive them away but they could not obtain what they desired wherefore sparing their labour in vain they died every where of hunger and contagion as the Mariners and steer-men reported to us who escaped very hardly from that danger themselves Eutropius lib. 4. makes mention of very great Locusts which were seen not far from Rome to the wonder and amazement of the beholders the inhabitants were so afraid of them for their devouring nature that they were frighted at their sight Hence we may collect that those creatures are not the smallest amongst the Armies of the Lord of hosts when he pleaseth to punish the sins of men and to revenge himself on the despisers of his Lawes But as his Justice is admirable so in his greatest severity Mercy is not wanting for being that Locusts have brought sundry Nations to want and hunger and they have had no thing to eat these Locusts have died suddenly and became meat for the people they afflicted before the people of hot Countreys whom especially they spoil of their increase of fruits as the Aethiopians Tagetenses Parthians Arabians Lybians Mellenses Zemenses Darienenses Africans and those that live about Lepris the Azanaghi Senegenses people of Mauritania and others live chiefly upon Locusts and account their eggs to be dainties others prepare them thus First in a low large place they make a great smoak by which the Locusts in flying are hindred and forced to fall than when they have taken them they dry them with salt the Sun and smoke and cutting them in pieces they keep them for their yearly provision as we do fish not only those which have large legs but the Attelabi the Aselli Asiraci and almost all kindes of Locusts as we collect out of Dioscorides Strabo Pliny Solinus Agatharsis Plutarch Avicenna Posidonius Leo and Dionysius Africanus Aelian Diodorus Siculus Aloysius Cadmustus Agricola and the Centuries of Navigations whence they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Locust-eaters Yet though they accounted them amongst their choicest meats yet the Grecians esteemed them but for meaner fare if we beleeve Aristophanes and Plutarch in Sympos where he cals them the Sustainer of the Countreymans table S. Matthew in the 3. chapter saith that John the Baptist lived upon them and wilde honey and God appointed four sorts of them to be clean and suffered the people of Israel to feed upon them whosoever desireth more concerning Locusts for food let them read the most learned Annotations of Venerable Bede upon St. Matthew They have no venome in them yet they that feed on them are not long lived and seldome live to 40 years and frequently die young as Diodorus Siculus Agatharsis and Strabo have observed St. Ambrose saith that Locusts hurt neither men nor fruits by themselves but nourish them and feed not on fruits unless God command them But when God gives the word they kill men spoil the ground and execute the vengeance of God Mantis as I said shewes travellers their right way Ophiomachus kils Serpents all Locusts foreshew the Spring and what is more acceptable to us and if by so great multitudes they foretell of famine by that they sweetly invite us to prayers and repentance they live so lovingly together that they stand in need of neither King nor Emperor for they fly together as Solomon saith Prov. 30. without a King and live in concord whence is that saying of Ecclesiastes Thy keepers are as Locusts and thy children as the young Locusts that is not only numerous but unanimous and conspiring together What concerns their use in Physick the Locusts are serving to that end also for their smell cures the Strangury especially of women Dioscorid Bread eat with the flesh of Locusts is good for those who are troubled with the Stone fryed Locusts take away the roughness of the nails Locust legs bruised with Goats tallow cure the Leprosie Pliny Mantes cure hard scrofulous tumors Aselli dried and drank with wine are excellent good against the stinging of the Scorpion Attelabi cure
the powder of them to put into the body by way of Clyster Cardan saith they take away pains but what pains or what kinde of Blattae should do it he tels us not The Phrygians and Lycaonians anoint those with them that have a stoppage in the Matrix Pliny l. 30. c. ult Last of all they may serve in stead of Castoreâ—m for an Antiballomenon and Galen useth them in stead of the Buprestis Now if you would have a remedy against themselves cast but a handfull of Flea-bane the Greeks Mascula is the Latines Cunilago and all the Blats will gather together to it So called in Rome Blattaria or the Blat-herb Nature hath provided a remedy against them for the Swallowes they are wont commonly to spoyl the Swallowes eggs wherefore they use to fence their young with Parsly or Smallage whereby the Moths are forced away from their nests The which might be thought to be the figment of Aelian but that Zoroastes in his Geoponicks doth affirm the same The Vpupa or Houpe inclose their nests with earth flax against Moths The Chough useth the herb Vervin to the same purpose If they be anointed with the oyl of Spike it works the like effect as Joach Camer reports That they may be rid out of Gardens let us hear Diophanes his advice Get the Guts of a Ram fresh killed and full of dung bury it in the earth where many Moths use and cast the ground lightly upon it two daies after all the Blats will gather to it the which at your pleasure you may carry other where or bury them deep enough in the place that they shall not be able to rise again If you would preserve your Bees from them use sharp fumigations or set lights near to the Hives or else anoint the props whereon they stand that they may not get up CHAP. XIX Of the Buprestis or Burncowe and the Cantharides MAny of the Naturall Philosophers have made mention of the Buprestis but so little that they seem neither to have touched either their form or qualities no not so much as their true Name For Ardoynus cals it Buprestis Vigelius veter l. 3. c. 15. cals it Vulpester or Bulpester and in the 78. chap. Bustrepis most corruptly Silvaticus if any other chief at Barbarism cals it Bustasaris Bublistes Bubestis so corrupted was the Latine tongue in these blinde times that Barbarism had wrought a general confusion in all places Now the true name of it is in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia boves rumpit because it swels Oxen Nicander in Alex. derives it ab incendendis bobus from burning or enflaming the bowels of beasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. When cowes or calves are sick and bellies swell They 'ave eat Buprestis keepers know full well For first of all by their acrimony they enflame the belly of cattle upon which followes a tumor and a feaver and a kinde of a hot tympany by which in the end the bowels are burst By other as by Hesychius in like manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is more rightly ascribed to that kinde of red little Spider found in pasture grounds which doth use to bite them In English it is called a Blain-worm or Troings which being eaten by cattel doth produce the like symptomes the Latines retain the Greek name of Buprestis of the Germans it is called Geuch Gach Knoelster Gualster die Grunen Stinckhenden Wildenwentde Renkaefer of those of Heidelburg from its swift running ein Holtzbuck in Italian Bupresti in Spanish Arebenta busi if Mathiolus say true Bâ—t I for my part somewhat boldly though not improperly do adventure to call it by a new name in English Burncow or Burstcow Although these Insects are such as hath been said that they fret with their acrimony that freeting they enflame and with their poysonous inflamation cause extreme thirst and a horrible swelling insomuch that the very skin is burst yet hath Dame Nature made them notwithstanding very wholsome which Art afterwards hath prepared for medicine before they be put in use Plinius and Aegineta dispute whether they should not be prepared as the Cantharides Dioscorides dries them in a sieve over hot embers and so layeth them by Galen steeps them in vinegar Hippocrates commands to take off their wings and feet And because they fret exulcerate inflame and swell up and do strongly attract and heat the parts so fretted Diosc l. 2. c. 59. saith that being mixt advisedly with fitting ingredients they may be applyed to the Leprone Cancer and wilde Tetters My opinion is that they may be used in stead of the bigger sort of Cantharides rather than some kinde of Blattae by Pauius his leave if I may say so not only because they are somewhat like in shape and figure and in virtue also as Galen writeth Pliny saith that the Buprestis by way of corrosive doth take away Ringworms in the face Hippocrates doth much commend them in divers diseases of the womb For so he writeth in his Book of the Nature of Women and in his Book of the Diseases of Women and in his Book of Barrenness For the hardness of the womb to emollient juices and fat add a Buprestis and use it To drive out the Monethly Flowers and secondines prepare half the body of a Buprestis whether great or smal with twice as much pulp of a Fig and apply it for it purgeth the womb and inflateth it and is a special remedy to procure the Flowers when they are past hope Sometimes he applies only a Buprestis if it be a great one sometimes making a soft pessary he takes ten and adds to them a little sawcer of oyl and mingles with it Wine Aethiopian Cumin Seseli and Anniseed of each alike parts and whilest they are hot he makes a pessary of them and useth them to the Matrix In the strangling of the womb when the fit is over the body first purged Hippocrates makes a Medicament with a Buprestis and thrusts it into the Matrix Also for a Schirrous of the womb he useth a Buprestis but warily and with diligent consideration for he puts it in like a Suppository for one day and when it doth much vex the patient by corroding he bids to take it forth moreover he compounds a Buprestis Myrrhe and Elaterium and puts it in So he doth also to bring forth a Mola Gal. l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 1. out of Archigenes describes a Medicament of Buprestes with Vinegar Crowfoot and Wakerobin root against falling of the hair Leprosie Elephantiasis c. the cure whereof you may easily finde there Now as I have declared hitherto its profitable qualities so lest I should transgress the bounds of history I shall open the terrible effects that this poysonous creature causeth in man and beast if a man swallow a Buprestis 't is all one as if it had been a Cantharides the body swelleth as if it had a tympany much
Palladius in this matter prefers the Fig-tree ashes If Crabs or river Crevish were hanged up and exposed to the Sun for ten daies they will drive Catterpillers from Pot herbs Cardan out of Palladius Others wet the seeds just before they set them in the bloud of a Catterpiller or the juice of Marjoram to free them from Catterpillers A sea Onion set or hung in a garden hinders the Catterpillers from breeding Some sow Mints others Vetches others Wormwood about their gardens to drive away Catterpillers Some not without cause have Coleworts and Garlick leaves in ther gardens by the fume whereof spread every way the Catterpillers fall down Palladius where any man may easily read of many remedies against them If a Horse devour them swellings arise the skin of him grows dry and hard his eyes hollow saith Herocles and he prescribes this remedy You must take the sharpest Vinegar and Nitre three quarters of a pint Vitriol a fourth part mingle them and anoint the Horses body be careful that it enter not into his eyes Now we shall speak of the use of them in Physick and in the Common-wealth The Catterpillers web and covering like to silk being drank stops a womans courses Math. If it be burnt and put into the nostrils it stops bleeding at the nose The Catterpiller feeding on Privet doth not only in a strange manner allure the Carp if it be put on the hook for a bait but also the dung of it put into the nostrils presently helps the falling sickness in women that proceeds from the Matrix as I was told by a Midwife that was very experienced and worthy to be believed The Catterpillers that are upon Spurges in the opinion of Hippocrates are very good for purulent wombs especially if they be dried in the Sun with the double weight of dunghil Worms and adding a little Anniseed bringing them into powder and infusing them in the best white Wine and so giving them to drink But heaviness following in the belly with numbness let the Patient drink a little water and honey after it Hippocrat lib. de superfoet prescribes those ordinary Catterpillers that are in troops to be given in drink against the Quinsey Dioscor lib. 1. cap. 90. But unless they do profit by their secret quality I think they are to be rejected for their open quality especially in that disease The Germans know that the hairy Catterpiller dried and powdered stops the flux of the belly Nicander also useth them to procure sleep for so he writes And Jeremy Martius thus translates him Stamp but with oyl those Worms that eat the leaves Whose backs are painted with a greenish hue Anoint your body with 't and whilest that cleaves You shall with gentle sleep bid cares adieu There are in prickly and hairy plants such as the Nettle is some downy and hairy Catterpillers by tradition are held to cure children when they cannot swallow their meat for straightness of their jaws A Catterpiller that lives on Pot-herbs being bruised and anointed where a Serpent hath stung is very good Avicen If you rub a rotten tooth often with a Cabbage Catterpiller it will soon fall out of it self saith the same Author Catterpillers mingled with Oyl drive away Serpents Dioscor If you anoint your hands or other parts with the same Oyl it will keep them from being hurt by Wasps or Hornets Aetius Pliny citeth many superstitious things from the opinion of Magicians concerning the vertue of Catterpillers which because I see they are cast forth of the Schools of Divines and I in my judgement do secretly disavow them I will not repeat them here They are meat also for divers Birds that we eat and are useful for us as namely Choughs Starlings Peacocks Hens Thrushes to say nothing of Trouts Robbinred-brests Tenches Carps Pikes which are easily deceived by a Catterpillar bait And if you desire to know the waies of deceiving them see Terentinus in Geopon who is there that I may not overpass the Physick of the soul given by Catterpillers that hath not sung of Gods mercies shewed to the wandring Israelites when all Egypt swarm'd and was even drowned with the deluge of them Also amongst the Romans there was twice in one Summer such a cloud of Catterpillers Anno 1570. that put them in great fear for they left no green thing in their fields but devoured all Though the fruitfulness of the next year did blot out the memory of this grievous punishment yet we may not doubt but it put many of them in minde to lead better lives God grant that we may escape by being corrected in the punishment of other men Let us think no creature of God to be contemptible for God can if he please make the smallest the greatest judgement CHAP. VI. Of the Whurlworm THE Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Gaza interprets by Verticillus Pliny changeth not the Greek word but cals it Sphondylam the Germans Eugerle as George Agricola teacheth Gesner writes it was called Twaer because it goeth diversly with sawed feet The Northern English call it Andever the Southern Whurlworm that is a Whirl or little hairy Worm with many feet Vincentius cals it Zuvarola because it hurts gourds Pliny was in an error that makes this a Serpent since the kinde of life and reason it self numbers it amongst Insects Should I here add the differences between Gaza Pliny Theophrastus Absyrtus Phavorinus and the Scholiast on Aristophanes and Erasmus concerning the nature and form of this Whurlworm I should indeed trifle and rather bring fire to quench this fire amongst wits than water But I rather collect out of their dissensions that there are two kindes of Whurlworms one about houses another in the fields For so Aristotle and Absyrtus write Staphulinus is like to the Whurlworms that are about houses For saith he your house Whurlworms copulate backward and that in our sight as Beetles do the male coming upon the female and they stick long in copulation Away then with these triflings of Pliny that would have these to be Serpents which never copulate backwards Hesychius and Favorinus that follows him describe them thus Men say that the Whurl is like to an Insect called Silphium making a stinking smell if any one touch it But Aristophanes and his Scholiast paint it out thus A Whurl is an Insect like to a Bloud-sucker Camersius out of Aristophanes saith a Whurl is a worm like a Leech smelling most stinkingly Whence I collect that there is a house Whurl like to Silphius and smels so scurvily which if you touch runs away and stinks for fear for so Aristophanes hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As the Whurl flying from you breaks wind stinkingly In which verse I cannot but wonder that Erasmus I know not by what Atticism cals the Whurl Telem Chil. Adag 3. cent 7. Pliny saith it is a very small body and blackish which if it be touched whilest it lives and after it is dead sends forth a most
Hildegardis Johan Vigo and others prescribe other remedies but most of them of these materials He that desires more remedies against the lowsie disease let him read Paulus Aegineta l. 3. c. 3. Galen l. 1. de comp med sec loc and Guiliel de Saliceto l. 1. c. 48. I knew one saith Pennius who when he was Governour of an Hospital he cured the lowsie disease thus He whipt the sick till the skin came off with Birchin rods and where the prints were the Lice would never breed again A new kinde of cure and most fit for idle Sea-men and slothful companions Amatus Lusitanus if I do not mistake tels of a poor man that had a hole in his back by reason of an Ulcer out of which daily abundance of Lice crept questionless they were bred between the skin and the flesh and afterwards by an unguent of wilde Staves-acre Quicksilver Pepper and Lard he was cured Raland prefers the Balsam of Sulphur to all remedies and not without cause Aetius writes that wilde Lice must first be picked out with great diligence then the place must be fomented with warm Sea-water yet very warily if they stick in the eye-browes that you hurt not your eyes then apply this remedy Take Alum Scissil ij drams Staves-acre j. obolus Pepper j. obolus burnt Brass j. dram Myrrhe ij oboli Scissil-stone ij oboli and half Misy torrefied j. dram bruise it and dry it and so use it Then let them bathe and heat their head with discutients and strengthners wash the whole body and rub it again Our Countreymen pick them out and then they anoint the places well with black Sope and if the body were too hot anoint the body with the pap of a sweet apple mingled with Quicksilver and it is a certain remedy Celsus saith they offend the eye-brows so much sometimes that the eyes being ulcerated they dim the sight then incorporate purified Quicksilver with tops of Wormwood and old Hogs grease for nothing doth more certainly cure one if it be done with caution Also take Aloes j. ounce Ceruse Frankincense each v. ounces Lard what may suffice make an unguent some mingle with this Quicksilver and Brimstone But here observe if Crab-lice do breed thick on the beard eye-brows the share and peritonaeum first all the hairs must be shaved off so soon as a general purgation hath been taken and then the forementioned Topicks must be applyed and all galls especially Buls gall Calfs gall Capons and Partridge with juyce of Centaury and Quicksilver are held very good A lye of the ashes of Tamarisk destroyes the Lice Rhasis and Albertus commend the marrow of a live Vulture taken forth Varignana useth the milk of the greater Bindweed wilde Mints and Sow-bread with a lotion of Honey But chiefly he extols this Medicament Take Staves-acre ij ounces Wine iv glasses Hogs bristles ij ounces purged Quicksilver j. ounce let them boyl and foment the body with the decoction Marinellus and many others make great reckoning of Wine-lees juyce of Broom a Lixivium of Sena Acorns Cassia Pellitory of Spain But Gilbert an Englishman burns Leeches and Styrax Calamita together and with these and Hogs bloud he preparss an excellent Unguent These filthy creatures and that are hated more than Dogs or Vipers by our daintiest dames are a joy to those that are sick and sometimes a cure For they that have lain long sick of a putrid disease when Lice breed in their heads they foreshew the recovery of the sick For it is a sign of the exhaling of it and flying forth from the centre to the circumference Also experience proves that the Jaundies are cured with twelve bruised Lice drank with Wine Pennius gave Lice and Butter to beggers and such as live on alms very often and so he recovered some that were almost desperate some for the Dysurie are wont to put into the yard living Lice the greatest they can to draw forth the urine by their tickling which Alexander Benedictus relates of Wig-lice when clammy humours have hurt the eyes some cleanse them with Lice put into them which creeping here and there like Oculus Christi collect the matter and wrapt up in that they will fall out Also what shall I say Apes Baboons will feed on them And Herodotus and Strabo in Pontus speaks of men that feed on Lice to whom Arianus in Periplo consents and the Spaniards speake the same of the Inhabitants of the Province of Cuenensis in the West-Indies And they hunt after them so greedily and desire them that the Spaniards can hardly keep their slaves from feeding on them And it is no wonder that they can feed on Lice that devour Horses Asses Cats Worms and more than that men that are raw But because it is an idle work the women have that task put upon them to catch Lice and they do that work almost and therefore Strabo cals them Pedilegas Serenus makes another use of them and writes thus Some hurtful things our bodies do produce By nature which do stand us in great use To keep us waking and to stop th' abuse Of sleeping over much See the Chapter of Nits amongst the Insects without feet Chap. 35. CHAP. XXIII Of the Lice of brute Beasts and Plants THis plague fell not only on Man for his first transgression but upon beasts also yet amongst mankinde children are more full of them than young people men than women sick people than sound nasty people than such as are cleanly and so it is with other creatures only the Asse is said to be free from this disease not because Christ rid upon him as some fools dream but because he goes so softly that he seldom sweats or else God hath bestowed upon him some peculiar antipathy The Lion is a couragious creature and king of beasts yet is he so tormented with Lice feeding on his eye-browes that when he cannot help himself with scratching with his clawes he will sometimes grow furious as Pliny reports Who hath not seen the Lice of a Horse that most generous four-footed creature and Nits with red heads that are apparent and the rest of their body is of a dark white The Lice of Oxen and Calves are black and those that are lean have very many like to Hog-lice almost but shorter and somewhat thicker Hog-lice have the same form but they are so great and hard that you can hardly kill them with your fingers these are called Vrii from burning as Albertus testifieth l. 4. c. 205. Dogs though more seldom yet are sometimes Lowsie but their Lice are small ones speckled and with a whitish head the rest of their body is of a blackish or wan colour from blew as I first observed by the Dogs at Malta Sheeps Lice are very small their heads are red their bodies white Goats Lice differ but little from these when the stag hath strove to cast his horns he is troubled with an exceeding itching of his eye-lids from Lice that breed
guts that was empty of these creatures did not move at all but sank down whence it comes to pass that I think a broad Worm is nothing else but snotty matter bred between the guts or snivelly flegm thickned by the coldness of the guts covering the inside of the guts like a coat which women that assist the sick call a bed of Worms Out of which snotty matter little living creatures like Gourd-seeds proceed as by way of a conception which is covered all over by the second membrane in the womb which is first made of the seed So saith Gabucinus Avicenna agrees in this opinion Fen. 16. tract 5. cap. 2. the Gourd and broad Worms are bred from the clammy matter that is fastned in the superficies of the guts which is comprehended by a flegmatick pannicle covering it as if they were bred from that and did putrefie within it Antonius Benevennius a Florentine saith the same and more clearly in com de mirand morb causis c. 87. who writes that in the mineral Baths at Avignâ—n that are in the Countrey of the Senones he saw a woman that for seven daies together drinking the water did void these Gourd-worms in abundance that stuck so fast together one being close to the other that they were in a rank that was above four cubits long yet you would judge them to be but one body and one Worm Johannes a Bookbinder at Basil whilest I studied Physick there in that Academy under Zuingerus and Platerus my Masters anno 1579 voided such a Worm ten ells in length without any pain and not many years before he had voided the like It consisted of many Gourd Worms without which it had had no motion nor feeling and might deservedly have been rejected from the number of living creatures Platerus had such a Worm dried that was eighteen ells long I saw it Pliny writes of a Worm a sick person voided was three hundred foot long wherefore whatsoever Mercurialis objects to the contrary lib. 3. de morb puer cap. 7. since experience proves the thing is without any firm ground He saith it cannot be that any living creature can produce so many young ones as there appear like unto Gourd-seeds then that the guts are not large enough to receive so many young ones Thirdly that this comes to pass by reason of the violent putting them forth that gives the form because the young one being broken by coming forth is divided into those many pieces like Gourd-seeds And hence we may conclude that those are trifles that the Arabians speak of Gourd-worms forasmuch as there are none such What is that I hear most learned Jerome that thou being gray headed and taught by long experience shouldst so applaud thy own imagination that thou shouldst dare to deny a thing obvious to sense and plain to our eyes and to Gabucinus Benevennius and the Arabians Go to No living creature can produce so many young ones like Gourd-seeds why not I pray when as one maid that took physick to kill Worms as Gabucinus affirms voided 177 round Worms To say nothing of that Benevenius reporteth c. 85. of the incredible multitude of them and he was a man to be believed And what thou speakest of the capaciousness of the place if that be an argument it is an errour to be laughed at For the guts will contain not only as many as are in a Gourd but the Gourd it self prepared By thy last objection thou dost but mock but canst not weaken the opinion of Avicennas and the Arobians for as much as in bodies diffected Gourd-worms have been seen wrapt up in a roll wherefore they took not their Gourd-form from the violent voiding them at the fundament or from the manner of putting them forth as thou either inventest maliciously or ignorantly believest I conclude therefore with Gabucinus that there are Gourd-worms and the broad worm called Tâ—nia is not properly a Worm nor yet a living creature but something about the entrails like white shavings as Hippocrates saith that is filled with these Gourd-worms put in fashion of a coat of Mâ—il Ascarides have their name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they bite and tickle very much and so exercise the patients that are troubled with them others derive them from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to move The Ancients called them Beasts-worms because they were seldom sound in men but often in Horses Dogs Hens and Oxen. And they were so seldom seen in men that Hippocrates and Celsus that followed him either knew them not or thought them not worth the mentioning and so they said nothing of them and yet they writ at large of other Worms They are like the round Worms but ten times shorter for they are seldom above an inch long and what length soever they be they are thicker at the end of the longanum and the sphincter of the anus they are found causing a vehement itching in those parts Galen writes in Lib. de Ling. Hippocratis that Gous an old man called Ascarides long Worms which difficulty Mercurialis easily opens for we should read it saith he not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 small Moreover though in consideration of their breadth and thickness they seem long yet compared with round Worms they may be called short These and round Worms are of divers colours as the matter they are bred of is or in respect of the heat that concocts them but Gourd-worms are alwaies the same whence I should conclude that Gourd-worms breed only from flegm but the rest from all humours and excrements Ascarides oft-times come forth in great numbers and before they be voided they prick much CHAP. XXXII Of the Original of Worms in the guts ARistotle lib. 5. Generat and Hippocrates before him 4. morb make the material cause of Worms to be dung Oribasius l. 3. Aph. 30. and Montanus that followed him being his Master thought that living creatures might breed in the guts from all kindes of humours and Mercurialis who thought they were deceived was blinde himself at noon-day But let us examine his Arguments It is found saith he that they will not breed from bloud because bloud never putrefies so much that living creatures may breed from it Also he affirms from the judgement of Alexander Trallianus that living creatures cannot breed in the veins But experience cuts off the nerves of his first argument and the Authority of Rhasts Loppius and Pliny overthrows the second Also they cannot breed of a melancholy humour because it is cold and dry nor of yellow choler because it is bitter and such creatures are not fed by bitter things but destroyed For which opinion though he urge Aristotle Hippocrates Galen 4. simpl med Aegineta lib. 4. c. 27. yet what is there more slender than the opinion of them For Butchers know that in the milts of Sheep which is the fountain of melancholy humour and in the gall of Oxen which is the receptacle
of bitter choler innumerable worms are oft-times found And I see no reason why Worms may not breed from yellow choler as well as in Wormwood from melancholy as well as in stones from bloud as well as in sugar But if they be not bred from them whence have they matter that they breed of The Physician of Padua will answer It remains therefore that they can breed only of raw flegm which either ariseth from too great quantity of the best meats for want of heat or quantity of bad meats corrupt by depravation which opinion though it well agree with Galen Aegineta Aetius Avenzoar Avicenna Coluâ—nella Celsus Alexander and chiefly with our Mercurialis yet in my judgement Hippocrates is in the right who thought that living creatures are bred in the little world as well as they are in the great Therefore as in the earth there are all kinde of humours heat and spirit that it may nourish living creatures that breed so hath man all kinde of moisture that mourisheth things that breed Moreover when as these living creatures do represent perfectly Earth-worms no man in his wits will deny but that they have both the same original What flegm is there in the earth yet it breeds round Worms and Gourd-fushioned and Ascarides and all sorts of Worms and the best and warmest earth abounds with them so far is it that they should breed only of raw and corrupt humours Do we not also daily see that Worms are voided by men that are in health For I knew a woman of Flanders that at Francfort on the Main which from her youth till she was forty years old did daily void some round Worms without any impairing of her health and she was never sick of them I conclude therefore that from every raw humour of the body Worms may breed and not only from crude or corrupted flegm The formal cause depends from internal heat which is weak gentle pleasing and fit to breed living creatures wherein that plastick force of Caleodick Nature to use the word of Avicennas doth make the colours by the degrees of secret heat and sporting her self doth make that broad form of Gourd-worms and some-times of Lizards Toads Grass-worms Catterpillers Snakes Eels as we read in Histories This doth give them taste feeling and motion this gives them that force of attracting whereby they forcibly draw forth with greediness the juices that slip into the guts If it were not so that heat that consumes all things might perhaps dispose the matter that is changed by putrefaction but it would never give the form and figure of a living creature For it is not because the guts are round that round Worms are bred in them as some men dream but the external form depends from the internal and the spirit drawn forth of the bosome of the soul it self doth frame the shapes without a Carver or Smith This spirit is the mediate efficient cause but God himself is the principal cause in this and other things in whom as well as we the Worms are move and have their being The final cause shewes their use which declares Gods omnipotency Natures majesty and the singular providence of both for mans good For there are collected in us some putrefied excremental superfluous parts which the more bountiful hand of Nature changeth into Worms and so cleanseth our bodies as we account it a good sign of health to be full of lice after a long disease also they consume much superfluous moisture in mans body and unless they grow too many for then they feed on our nutrimental juice they are a great help to the guts so far is it that they should be accounted by physitians amongst diseases or the beginnings of diseases Amongst the concomitant causes I reckon the place and the countrey For though they are more common to children than to those that are of years to women than men in a pestilential than a healthful time in Autumn than in the Spring to such as use an ill diet rather than to those that keep an exact diet yet they accompany all ages sexes conditions seasons diets for no man is priviledged from them yet some places or climates are free for according to the nature of them in some many in others no Worms will breed for all kinde of Worms will not breed in each part of the guts but round Worms only in â—he small guts Ascarides in the Longanum the Gourd-worms only are bred in all Also as Theophrastus and Pliny testifie there are no small differences amongst Nations and Countreys lib. hist pl. 9. c. 2. Lib. Nat. hist 27. cap. 13. For broad or Gourd-worms are common amongst the Egyptians Arabians Syrians and Cilicians again they of Thracia and Phrygia know them not And though the Boeotians and Athenians are under the same Confines they are frequently full of Worms and these are by a priviledge as it were freed from them He only will admire at this or think it a Fable who knowes not that the nature of Countreys vary according to the position of the stars the nature of the winds and the condition of the earth There is a River saith Aristotle lib. de nat anim c. 28. in Cephalenia that parts an Island and on one side of it there is great abundance of Grashoppers but none on the other In Prodoselena there is a way goeth between and on one side of it a Cat will breed but not on the other side In the Lake Orchomenius of Boeotia there are abundance of Moles but in Lebadius that is hard by there are none and brought from other parts they will not dig the earth In the Island Ithaca Hares cannot live nor in Sicily flying Ants nor in the Countrey of Cyrene vocal Frogs nor in Ireland as we know any kinde of venomous creature The reason of all this he can only tell who hath hanged the earth in the air without a foundation for it is not my eye that can see so far nor have I any minde to affect to know things above my understanding I leave that work to those that dare aspire To know Gods secrets let me them admire CHAP. XXXIII Of the signs and cure of Worms out of Gabucinus LEt us therefore shew the signs of Worms beginning from those that are called round Worms both because these do more frequently vex children and because they produce more cruel symptomes of which Paulus writes thus they that are troubled with round Worms are cruelly torn in their bellies and guts and they have a tickling cough that is troublesome and somewhat tedious some have a hickop others when they sleep leap up and rise without cause sometimes they cry out when they rise and then they fall asleep again their Arteries beat unequally and they are sick of disorderly Feavers which with coldness of the outward parts come thrice or four times in a day or a night without any reason for them Children will eat in their sleep and put forth their tongues
Eye-browes to make black 1080. Emerods 1073. 1104. 1049. Enterocele 1105. Epiplocele ibid Epilepsies 1088. 1098 Elephantiasis 1088. F. FAce ulcers 912. Feavers cured 911. 912. 913 914. 1079. Fulling sicknesse 1107. Fears remedy 1088. Felons 945. 1000. 1073. 1088. Fish-baits 1130. Fish to catch 975. Fistula in ano 1099. 1104. Flies remedies 947. Fleas remedy 1104. Fortunate to make 1012. Fundament swoln 1073. 1088. G. GLewing things 1104. Glow-worms dead shine not 976. Gnats use 955. 956. Gnats remedy 956. Gowt 915. 1004 1005. 1073. ibid. 1104. 1129. Glurd-worms 1109. Gravel 906. Groin sore 1017. H. HAir to take off 979. 980. 1080. 1098. 1100. Hairs hoary to hinder 1105. Hair to make white 9006. Hair to make black 1129. Hair falling 1004. Head-ache 915. 1012. 1017. 1049. 1105. Head diseases 1088. Hearing 906. Heart panting 1088. Hemeroids 1012. Hony poysoned remedies 906. Hip-gowt 1080. 1104. Hips pain 1049. Honey drinks 912. Hemicrania 1107. Honey good for all diseases 906. Honey to know the best 908. Honeys physical use 911. Honeys quintessence ibid. Horsleeches prepared 1â—â— Horsleeches use ibid. Honey better then Sugar 912. Horsleeches removed 1098. 1128. Hydromel 912. 91â— Horses cured 1017. 1044. 1045. Humours salt 1049. I. JAws pain 911. 996. Jaundies 915. 1093. 1100. 1104. 1053. Impostumes 906. 1098. 1104. Impostume in the breasts 1105. Infants gums 911. Inflamation hindred 1073. Joynts pain 915. 1104. 1105. 1129. Joints wounds 1073. Iron to make hard 1106. Itch 1080. K. KIbe heels 1104. Kings Evil 996. 1000. 1048. 1049. Kings-evil tried 1105. Krickets use 996. L. LAnfracks powder for the stone 1053. Leprosie 945. 987. 1000. 1003. 1025. 1049. Lethargy 1012. 1098. Letters to open secretly 916. Lice cured 1073. 1092. 1093. 1095. Light artificial in the night 980. Lice in a disease sign of health 1093. Life long to make 911. Lice in the eyes cured 1095. Limbs wasted 1105. Lips sore 906. Liver opened 1104. Locusts use 987. Loins pain 1049. Locusts remedies 988. Lowsie disease 1129. Lungs remedies 912. Lungs Worms 1108. M. MAgitians folly 1012. 1053. Melicrate 913. Manginesse 1025. Melancholy 91â— Matrix stopped 1000. Metheglin good for weak stomachs 912. Milk a remedy for Cantharides 1004. Milk curdled 912. 915. Milk to keep from curdling 1073. Morals 974. 975. Moths remedies 1000. 1101. Mouth sore 911. Melancholy people cured 1129. Monstrual bloud 1079. Mad people cured 11â—9 Melancholy 1088. Mâ—tre 〈…〉 1115. Matrix to heat 1088. Maggots bred in ulcers cured 1123. Moles of the matrix 1098. N. NAils rough cured 987. 1003. Nits remedies 1123. Neck swoln 1000. Nâ—â— sings cure â—râ—in Worms 1107. Nerves cut asunder 1104 1109. Nerves contracted 1104. Noli me tangere 1080. Nose bleeding 1098. Numbnesse 101â— O. OBstructions opened 911. 912. Old people 912. Oyl of Earth-worms to make 1106. Ozena 915. Opening remedies 1048. P. PAins cured 1100. Parotides 996. Phalangiums bites cured 1062. 1063. 1064. 1065. Pimples red in the face 906. Palsey 1105. Pin and Web 945. Plague cured 1053. Poysons remedy 945. 1072. 1053. Privities scabs 1098. Propolis 916. 917. Polypus in the nose 1108. Purge 914. Purple colour 1088. Pursivenesse 1049. Pismires drove the Cynamolgi an idle people out of their Countrey 1080. Q. QVinsey 912. 1049. Quartan ague 1053. Quotidian ibid. R. RHeums hindred 980 Reins 912. Reins Worms 1108. Ring-worms 917. Reins Impostume 1108. Rose 917. Round Worms bred only in the small guts 1111. Ruptures cured 1105. S. SCorpions stings 988. 1057. 1058. 1053 1054. 1055. 1056. Scolopenders bites cured 1046. Sight helpt 906. 911. Scrofulous tumours 988. 1006. 1105. Skin cleansed 911. 912. Sleep caused 996. 1088. Sores running 906. 912. 1006. Sores pestilent 1017. Stophilyâ—us swallowed by a horse cured 1044. 1045. Stone 906. 912. 980. 987. 996. 1012. 1098. 1104. 1048. 1053. 1105. 1106. Spiders eaten 1073. Stomach raw 906. 917. Stomach Worms 1108. Spleen 912. 1072. Stormâ— foreshewed 945. Squint eyes cure ibid. Strangury 987. 1026. 1098. Suffocation of the mother 1072. 1098. Suffusion of the eyes 911. Stones voided at the fundament 1107. Stones bred in most parts of the body ibid. Sweating helped 912. Sweating caused 1017. Swellings 912. 915. 945. Salamanders antidote 1004. Scabs 10â—0 1080. Scurf 1025. Secondine 1104. 1105. Shingles 1100. 1105. Softning things 1104. Short winde 1048. 1049. Scorpions stings prevented 1054. 1105. Scorpions cure their own stings 1053. St. Bernards Oyl powerfully provokes urine ibid. T. TArantula 945. Tendons remedy 915. Teeth to make fall out 1105. Teeth breeding 911. Teeth to preserve 1105. Testicles cold helpt 912. Thirst quenched 911. 912. Tooth-ache 915. 1072. 1073. 1088. ibid. 1104. 1049. 1105. Tonsils swoln 912. 996. Thorns to draw out 917. Tumours 1080. 1049. Tonsils diseases 1049. Tetters 1003. 1004. 1073. 1080. Terms provoked 1004. 1012. 1088. Terms to stop 1100. Tympany 1073. Tinkling in the ears 1049. Tertian ague 1053. V. VEnery provoked 988. 1004. 1080. Venery abated 980. 1080. 1100. Vlcers cured 911. 912. 915. 1000 1073. 1088. 1080. 1099. 1104. Vrine provoked 911. 912. 914 975. 1004. 1012. 1017. 1088. 1008. 1047. Vvula 912. Vipers bites cured 1053. W. WAll lice killed 1097. Wasps stings 925. 926. 927. Wax to make 915. Wax the best 915. 916. Wax paint the best 916. Womens diseases 1105. Wax vertues 915. 916. Weevils remedy 1089. Winde helped 912. Witch-craft 1012. Warts 1000. 1073. 1080. Water dissolved 1088. Wens 1000. 1049. Winde dissipated 1080. Wombs pain 1012. Whitloof cured 1049. Worms in hands 1017. 1095. 1096. Worms in trees and plants remedy 1089. Worms in ulcers cured 1049. Wounds cured 1017. 1073. 1104. Wounds hard cured 1049. Worms of three sorts in men 1107. Worms use 1106. Worms cause many diseases ibid. Worms breed in most parts of the body 1107. Worms sign of health 1111. Worms in Feavers best voided when 1113. Worms signs and cure 1111. 1112. 1113. 1114. 1115. 1116. 1117. 1118. 1119. 1120. 1121. 1122. Y. YArds tumours 911. Z. ZOmerysis what 1115. THE END Bish Juel Countrey of breed Cicera C 〈…〉 an Martial Horace Of the name The small use of Apes * * * Athenaeus Apes made for â—aughter Qualities of Apes * * * Varinus Docibility of Apes Hurts received by Apes â—n History Countreys breeding Apes Book of Voyages Labour of Apes Diversity of Apes Chymaera lib. 7. 1. de animal Pygmeys Onesicritus The anatomy of Apes The disposition of Apes An History Places of their abode Food of Apes The manner of taking Apes Procreation of Apes Secrets in their nature Their imitation Their love Their fear An antiquity The medicine of Apes Joh. Leo. African The Countrey of their abode and breed Hurt of Munkeys Their food Diversities of Munkeys Solinus Their anatomy and parts Vessalius Mammonets Festus Another kind The names Diodorus Siculus Pliny The first knowledge of Martines Their Countrey of breed Strabo Their anatomy Strabo Scaliger Their colour Aelianus Cay Their disposition The name Pliny Countrey of b 〈…〉 Their parts and colour Albertus Erasmus Their resembance Aelianus Place of their abode Their food The hatred of these