Selected quad for the lemma: woman_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
woman_n	child_n	conception_n	womb_n	1,398	5	9.5747	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13821	The historie of serpents. Or, The second booke of liuing creatures wherein is contained their diuine, naturall, and morall descriptions, with their liuely figures, names, conditions, kindes and natures of all venemous beasts: with their seuerall poysons and antidotes; their deepe hatred to mankind, and the wonderfull worke of God in their creation, and destruction. Necessary and profitable to all sorts of men: collected out of diuine scriptures, fathers, phylosophers, physitians, and poets: amplified with sundry accidentall histories, hierogliphicks, epigrams, emblems, and ænigmaticall obseruations. By Edvvard Topsell.	Topsell, Edward, 1572-1625?	1608 (1608)	STC 24124; ESTC S122051	444,728	331

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 leauing the stone of the Toade we must proceede to the other parts of the story and first of all their place of habitation which for them of the water is neere the vvater-side and for them of the earth in bushes hedges Rockes and holes of the earth neuer comming abroade while the Sunne shineth for they hate the sunne-shine and theyr nature cannot indure it for which cause they keepe 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 abroade in the day-time All the Winter-time they liue vnder the earth feeding vppon earth herbes and wormes and it is said they eate earth by measure for they eate so much euery day as they can grype in theyr fore-foote as it were sizing themselues least the whole earth should not serue them till the Spring Resembling heerein great rich couetous men who euer spare to spend for feare they shall want before they die And for 〈◊〉 in auncient time the wise Painters of Germany did picture a woman sitting vpon a ●oade to signifie couetousnes They also loue to eate Sage and yet the roote of 〈◊〉 is to them deadly poyson They destroy Bees without all danger to themselues for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reepe to the holes of their Hiues and there blow in vppon the Bees by which ●…y draw them out of the Hiue and so destroy them as they come out for this 〈…〉 at the water-side they lye in waite to catch them When they come to drink in ●…me they see little or nothing but in the night time they see perfectly and there●…ey come then abroade About their generation there are many worthy obseruations in nature somtimes they are bredde out of the putrefaction and corruption of the earth it hath also been seene that out of the ashes of a Toade burnt not onely one but many Toades haue been regenerated the yeere folowing In the New world there is a Prouince called Dariene the ayre whereof is wonderful vnwholsome because all the country standeth vpon rotten Marishes It is there obserued that when the slaues or seruants water the pauements of the dores from the drops of water which fall on the right hand are instantly many Toades ingendered as in other places such drops of water are turned into gnats It hath also beene seene that women conceiuing with child haue likewise conceiued at the same time a frog or a toade or a Lizard and therefore Platearius saith that those thinges which are medicines to prouoke the menstruous course of women doe also bring foorth the Secondiues And some haue called Bufonē fratrem Salernitanorum et lacertum fratrē Lombardorū that is a toade the brother of the Salernitans the Lizard the brother of the Lombards for it hath been seene that a woman of Salernum hath at one time brought forth a boy and a toade and therfore hee calleth the toade his brother so likewise a woman of Lombardy a Lizard therefore he calleth the Lizard the Lombards brother And for this cause the women of those countries at such time as their child beginneth to quicken in their wombe do drink the iuyce of Parsly Leekes to kill such conceptions if any be There was a woman newly married and when in the opinion of all she was with child in steed of a child she brought forth foure little liuing creatures like frogs and yet shee remained in good health but a little while after shee felt some paine about the rymne of her belly which afterward was eased by applying a fewe remedies Also there was another woman which together with a man-child in her secondines did also bring forth such another beast and after that a Marchants wife did the like in Anconitum But what should be the reason of these so strange vnnaturall conceptions I wil not take vpon me to discide in nature least the omnipotent hand of God should be wronged and his most secrete iust coūsell presumptuously iudged called into question This we know that it was prophesied in the Reuelation that Frogs Locusts should come out of the whore of Babylon and the bottomlesse pit and therfore seeing the seate of the Whore of Babylon is in Italy it may be that God would haue manifested the deprauation of Christian religion beginning among the Italians and there continued in the conioyned birth of men serpents for surely none but deuils incarnate or men conceiued of Serpents brood would so stifly stand in Romish error as the Italians do therefore they seeme to be more addicted to the errors of their Fathers which they say is the religion wherin they were borne then vnto the truth of Iesus Christ which doth vnanswerably detect the pride vanity of the Romish faith But to leaue speaking of the conception of toades in women we wil proceed further vnto their generation in the stomacks bellies of men wherof there may more easily a reason be giuen then of the former Now although that in the earth toades are generated of putrified earth waters yet such a generation cannot be in the body of man for although there be much putrifaction in vs yet not so much as to ingender bones other orgynes such as are in toades as for wormes they are all flesh may more easily be conceiued of the putrifaction in our stomacks But then you wil say how comes it to passe that in mens stomacks there are sound frogs toades I answer that this euill hapneth vnto such men as drinke water for by drinking of water a toades egge may easily slip into the stomack there being of a viscous nature cleaueth fast to the rough parts of the ventricle and it being of a contrary nature to man can neuer be disgested or auoyded and for that cause the venome that is in it neuer goeth out of 〈…〉 stance to poyson the other partes of 〈…〉 med into a Toade without doing 〈…〉 are bredde in the bodies of men 〈…〉 the midst of Trees and Rocks and 〈…〉 are bredde in For the venome is so 〈…〉 ripenesse euen as wee see it is almost an vsu●… shall not be perceiued till many dayes weekes 〈…〉 For the casting out of such a Toade bredde in th●… They take a Serpent and bowell him then they cut of●… of the body they likewise part into small peeces which 〈…〉 fatte which swymmeth at the toppe which the sicke person 〈…〉 he auoyde all the Toades in his stomacke afterwards he must 〈…〉 ticall medicines And thus much may suffice for the ordinary and 〈…〉 tion of Toades These Toades doe not leape as Frogges doe but because of their 〈…〉 short legges theyr pace is a soft creeping-pace yet some-times in anger they lift vp 〈◊〉 selues endeuouring to doe harme for great is theyr watch obstinacie and desire to be 〈…〉 uenged

morall such are crafty and polliticke Princes and people yet Moses shoulde take them as he did his Serpent by the tayle and cause them to bende vnto him like as it were a wand or else some other little walking staffe and also that his power should be vnresistable because his Serpent deuoured others The Magitians or Sorcerers as Iannes Iambres resisted him and also turned their rods into Serpents But Moses did it by true pietie they by diabolicall delusions as false Christians many times worke miracles by outward signes of true pietie and therefore Moses rodde ouer-came the Sorcerers Serpents because the end of fraude and falshood is to be ouercome by truth pietie From this changing of rods into Serpents came the seuerall metamorphosing of sundry other things into Serpents also as that tale of Orpheus head after he was torne in pecces by the Thrasian women and the same throwne into a Riuer was taken vp in Lemnos The Poet describeth it thus Hic ferus exposito peregrinis anguis arenis Os petit spar sos stillanti rore capillos Lambit hymniferos inhiat diuellere vultus Tandem Phoebus adest morsusque inferre parantem Arcet in Lapidem rictus Serpentis apertos Congelat patulos vt erant indurat hiatus In English thus No sooner on the forraine coast now cast a-land they were But that cruell natur'd Snake did straight vpon them fly And licking on his ruffled haire the which was dropping dry Did gape to tyre vpon those lippes that had beene wont to sing The heauenly hymnes But Phoebus straight preuenting that same thing Dispoints the Serpent of his baite and turnes him into stone With gaping chaps c. So Isacius Tzetzes writeth that when Tiresia found Serpents in carnall copulation in Cithaeron he slew a femall who presently after death was turned into a Woman then also he slew a male who likewise beeing dead was in the same place and manner turned into a man When Cadmus was sent by his Father to seeke out his sister Europa that vvas rauished by Iupiter with straight charge not to returne backe againe except he could finde her hauing spent much time in seeking her to no purpose because he could not find her and not daring to goe backe againe to his father hee was warned by the Oracle that hee should goe into Baeotia to build a Cittie Comming thether he sent his companions to the Fountaine of Mars that was in the Countrey to fetch water where a great Serpent came and killed them at the last Cadmus not finding their returne went likewise to the same Fountaine where he found all his men slaine and the Serpent approching to assaile him but he quickly killed it Afterward he was admonished by Pallas to strew the teeth of the same Serpent vppon the ground which he performed and then out of those teeth saith Ouid arose a multitude of Armed-men who instantly fell to fight one with the other in such cruell and bloodie manner that at the last there were but fiue of them all left aliue which fiue by the will of Pallas were preserued to be the Fathers of the people of Thebes And so Apollonius faineth that with the helpe of men bred of Serpents teeth came Iason to obtaine the Golden-Flecce They faine also that Achelous when hee stroue with Hercules about Deianira turned himselfe into diuers shapes and last of all into a Serpent or as some say into a Riuer So likewise Cadmus afore-said beeing ouer-come with the sight and sence of his owne miseries and the great calamities that befell to his Daughters Nephewes forsooke Thebes and came into Illyrium where it is said that hee earnestly desired of the Gods to be turned into a Serpent because a Serpent was the first originall of all his extremities Antipater faineth Iupiter to be turned into a Serpent and Medusa refusing the loue of Neptune is also fained by Ouid to be turned into a Serpent when he writeth Hanc pelagi rector templo vitiasse Minerua Dicitur aversus est castos Aegide vultus Nata Iouis texit neue hoc impune fuisset Gorgoneum crinem turpes mutauit in Hydros Nunc quoque vt attonitos formidine terreat hostes Pectore in aduerso quos fecit sustinet angues In English thus It is reported how she should abusde by Neptune be In Pallas Church from which fowle fact Ioues daughter turnd her eie And least it should vnpunisht be she turnd her seemely haire To loathsome Snakes the which the more to put her foes in feare Before hir breast continually she in her hand doth beare Pierius writeth that the myrtle rod was not lawfull to be brought into the Temple of Necates and that a Vine braunch was extended ouer the head of her signe and whereas it was not lawfull to name wine they brought it into her Temple vnder the name of milke and that therein continually liued harmelesse Serpents The reason of al this was because that her owne father Faunus fell in loue with her whom she resisted with al modesty although she were beaten with a myrtle rodde and made to drinke Wine but at last the beastly father was transformed into a serpent and then hee oppressing her with the spyres of his winding body rauished her against her minde These and such like stories and Fables are extant about the beginninges of serpents all which the Reader may consider to stirre vp 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 roddes great serpents Then thus hauing expressed the originall of serpentes in their creation it followeth now to adde the residue of this Chapter about their generacion It is a generall rule that all beasts wanting feet and haue long bodies performe their worke of carnall copulation by a mutuall embracing one of the other as Lampreys and serpentes And it is certaine that two serpents in this action seeme to be one body and two heads for they are so indiuisibly vnited and conioyned together and the frame of their body is altogither vnapt for any other manner of copulation When they are in this action they send forth a ranke sauour offensiue to the sence of them that doe perceiue it And although like vnto many Fishes they want stones yet haue they two open passages wherin lyeth their generatiue seed and which being filled procureth them to their veneriall lust the seede it selfe being like a milky humour and when the female is vnder the male she hath also her passages to receiue the seed as it were into the celles of hir wombe and there it is framed into an egge which she hideth in the earth an hundred in a cluster about the quantity of a Birdes egge or a great bead such as are vsed sometime by women And this is generall for all serpents except Vipers who lay no egges but hatch in their wombes their young ones as

which sometimes there falleth as it were three blackish egges the true and proper mothers and breeders of Flyes and Cantharides When the Butterflyes doe ioyne together very late or after the time it ought to be they doe lay or cast theyr egges which will continue vitall and that may liue till the next Spring if a diligent care be had of them as well as is often seene in Silke-wormes whose egges the Spanyards sell and that very vsually by vvhole ounces and pounds I haue now according to my cunning discoursed of the transmutations and variable changes of Catterpillers it followeth next that I write of the qualities and vse of Catterpillers together with those preseruatiues which experienced Phisitians haue warranted for true and infallible All Catterpillers haue a burning qualitie and such as will readily fetch of the skinne and flea it quickly and rayse blisters If any one drinke the Catterpiller that liueth in the Pytch-trees there will forth-with follow a great paine about his mouth and iawes vehement inflamation of the tongue strong griping and wringing of the stomacke belly and intestines with a sensible itching about the inward parts the whole body is as it were burned and scalded with heate hot vapours the stomack abhorreth all meate all which are to be remedied with the same meanes as those that haue taken Cantharides Yet properly as here-to-fore I haue touched oyle of Quinces giuen to cause vomiting is the best and safest And if we may credit Pliny new Wine boyled to the third part and Covves milk being drunk are very effectuall There is not any one sort of Catterpillers but they are maligne naught and venomous but yet they are least hurtfull who are smooth and without hayres and the most dangerous of all the rest is that which heeretofore I termed a Pityocampe whose poyson for the most part is deadly The daughter of Caelius Secundus liuing at Basill in Germany as Gesner saith when shee had vnwarily and greedily eaten some Colewort-leaues or Cabbage in a Garden and with them some Catterpillers after a strong vomit that was giuen her belly beganne to swell which swelling hauing continued these many yeeres could neuer as yet receiue any cure If you will haue your Gardens and Trees vntouched and preserued from their misch●euous qualitie you must first take cleane away in the winter-time their webbes or any part thereof though neuer so little that you can find cleauing to the bare boughes for if you let them alone till the Spring you shall sooner see them then find them remooued for in a short space of time they deuoure vp all that is greene both leaues flowers Some vse to annoynt their Trees with the gall of a greene Lizard and some with a Bulls gall which as some constantly report they can by no meanes away withall The Country-people choke them with the vapour of a little Brimstone with straw being fired vnder the Tree and so to smother them Some there be that make a fumigation with Galbanum Harts-horne the shauings of Iuory and Goates-hoofes and Oxe-dung Didymus in Georgicis saith that if you bare the rootes of your trees and be-smeare or soyle them with Doues-dung they shall neuer be hurt by any wormes I should willingly haue omitted and not renewed with any fresh discouery Columellaes remedy against Catterpillers or rather the immodest dece●t and deluding tricke of Democritus vnlesse experience which is Iterata eiusdem eventus obseruatio a repeated obseruation of the same euent had approoued the verity thereof especially in the Country of Stiria And Palladius in his first booke chap. 35. and Constantinus neere the end of his xj and xij Bookes whose wordes be these At sinulla valet medicina repellere pestem Dardaniae veniunt artes nudata que plantas Faemina quae just is tum demum operata juventae Legibus obscaeno manat pudibunda cruore Sed resoluto sinus resoluto maest a capillo Ter circum areolus et sepem ducitur horti Quae tum lustravit gradiens mirabile visu Non aliter decussapluit quam ex arbore nimbus Vel Teretis mali vel tectae cortice glandis Voluitur ad terram distorto corpore campe Which may be englished thus But when no medicine can that plague expell Then vse they Arts which once the Troyans found A woman which had virgin-lawes obserued well Her bare and naked bring they to the ground Flowing with Natures shamefull filthy blood Her bosome open and her hayre vntrimmed falling Like one ore'prest with griefe forgetting good Three times about the plots and hedges walking Which done a wonder t is for to be told As rayne drops from the trees type apples fall Wallnuts out of huskes so cast you may behold These wormes from trees all torne and cannot crall Theophrastus saith that Catterpillers 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 herbe Psora Aetius Whereby it is apparant saith Siluius that the herbe commonly termed Scabiose is not the true Psora Catterpillers that liue and feede on Coleworts if they be but touched with that kind of worme which is found in the Fullers Teasell they die Pliny All to besprinkle a Colewort whilst it hath but onely three leaues with Niter or with saltish and brinish earth and by meanes of the saltnesse the Catterpillers vvill be quite driuen away Geopon Palladius in this case preferreth the ashes of Figge-leaues The Sca-onion called Squilla beeing sowne or hanged vp in Gardens hindereth the breeding of Catterpillers 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 worme-wood or at least-wise hang them in bunches in diuers places of the same to expell this kind of noysome creature Some very aduisedly take dry leaues stalks of Garlicke with the same doe smoke and perfume their whole Garden so that by this way the smoke being conuayed into all places thereof the Catterpillers will fall downe dead as Palladius hath written in whose writings any man may read of plenty of such antydots and alexipharmicall medicines as may serue to destroy Catterpillers Now will I speake of their vse in Phisicke and in the Common-wealth The webbe of Catterpillers beeing taken inwardly stayeth womens fluxes as Matthiolus saith Beeing likewise burnt and put into the nostrells it stancheth bleeding at the nose The Catterpillers that are found amongst the herbes called Spurges of all sorts by the iudgement of Hippocrates are notable for putulent and mattrie wombes especially if they be first dryed in the Sunne with a double quantity of earth-wormes and a little Anny-seed finely powdered and so all of them to be relented and taken in some excellent White-wine But in case they feele any heauines or aking in the belly after the taking of this Medicine then it were good to drinke a little Mulse therevpon

will be found to be much the worse Beeing mooued to anger it standeth vpon the hinder legges and looketh directlie in the face of him that hath stirred it and so continueth till all the body be white through a kind of white humour or poyson that it swelleth outward to harme if it were possible the person that did prouoke it And by this is their venomous nature obserued to be like the Salamander although theyr continuall abode in the water maketh their poyson the more weake Some say that if in Fraunce a hogge doe eate one of these hee dyeth thereof and yet doth more safely eate the Salamander But in England it is otherwise for I haue seene a hogge without all harme carry in his mouth a Newte afterward eate it There be some Apothecaries which doe vse this Newte in steed of Scinks or Crocodiles of the earth but they are deceiued in the vertues and operation and do also deceiue other for there is not in it any such wholesome properties and therefore not to be applyed without singuler danger And thus much may suffice to be said for this little Serpent or water-creeping creature OF THE PELIAS AEtius making mention of the Elaps and Pelias two kinds of Serpents dooth ioyntly speake of them in this sort saying that the signes of these 〈…〉 common and vulgarly knowne that 〈…〉 among the auncient writers But th● Pehas byting 〈…〉 about the wound or bytten place but yet not very dangerous and it bringeth obfuscation or dimnesse to the eyes by reason that as the poyson is v●●ersally distributed ouer all the body so it hath most power ouer the tenderest part namely the eyes It is cured by a Ptisane with oyle in drinke and a decoction of such Docks as grow in ditches and other simple medicines such as are applyed to the curing of the yellow-Iaundise The eyes must be washed with the vrine of a child or young man which neuer knew any woman ●…lly and this may be applyed eyther simply and alone or else by bryne and pickle so also must the head After that the body is purged annoynt it with Balsamum and Hony and take an eye-salue to sharpen againe and recouer the sight and for this cause it is very good to weepe for by euacuation of teares the venom also will be expelled But if the eyes grow to paine then let their eyes●lue be made more temperate and gentle to keepe the head and braine from stupefaction And thus much for the Pelias out of Aetius OF THE PORPHYRE THere is among the Indians a Serpent about the bignes of a spanne or more which in outward aspect is like to the most beautifull and well coloured purple the head hereof is exceeding white and it wanteth teeth This Serpent is sought for in the highest Mountaines for out of him they take the Sardius stone And although he cannot byte because hee wanteth teeth yet in his rage when he is persecuted he casteth foorth a certaine poyson by vomit which causeth putrefaction where euer it lighteth But if it be taken aliue and be hanged vp by the tayle it rendereth a double one whiles it is aliue the other when it is dead both of them blacke in colour but the first resembleth blacke Amber And if a man take but so much of the first blacke venome as is the quantitie of a Sesamyne seede it killeth him presently making his braines to fall out at his nostrills 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 yere But I find 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 gumme and the other which commeth from it when hee is dead is like to thin mattery water Vnto this Porphyre I may adde the Palmer-serpent which Strabo wryteth doth kill with an vnrecouerable poyson it is also of a Scarlet colour to the loynes or hinder parts OF THE PRESTER ALthough there be many Writers which confound together the Prester and the Dipsas and make of them but one kind or Serpent of diuers names yet seeing on the contrary there be as many or more which doe distinguish or deuide them and make them two in nature different one from another the Dipsas killing by thirst and the Prester by heate as theyr very names doe signifie therefore I will also trace the steppes of this latter opinion as of that which is more probable and consonant to truth The Graecians call it Praester of Prethein which signifieth to burne or inflame Tremellius and Iunius thinke that the Serpents called fiery Serpents which did sting the Israelites in the wildernesse were Presters We find in Suidas Praester for the fire of heauen or for a cloude of fire carried about with a vehement strong wind and sometimes lightenings And it seemeth that this is indeede a fiery kind of Serpent for he himselfe alwayes goeth about with open mouth panting and breathing as the Poet writeth Oraque distendens auidus fumantia Praester Inficit vt laesus tumida membra gerat Which may be englished thus The greedy Presters wide-open foming mouth Infects and swelleth making the members by heate vncouth When this Serpent hath strooke or wounded there followeth an immeasurable swelling distration conuersion of the blood to matter and corrupt inflamation taking away freedome or easines of aspiration likewise dimming the sight or making the hayre to fall off from the head at last suffocation as it were by fire which is thus described by Mantuan vpon the person of one Narsidius saying as followeth Ecce subit facies leto diuersa fluenti Narsidium Marsi cultorem torridus agri Percussit prester illi rubor igneus ora Succendit tenditque cutem pereunte figura Miscens cuncta tumor toto iam corpore maior 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 Cor● Curuauere sinus tumid●s iam non capit artus Informis globus confuso pondere truncus Intactum volucrum rostris epulasque daturum Haud impunè feris non ausi tradere busto Nondum stante modo crescens fugere cadauer Which may be englished thus Loe suddenly a diuers fate the ioyfull current stayed Narsidius which Marsinus mirror did adore By burning sting of scorching Prester dead was taye● For fierie colour his face enflam'd not as before The first appearing visage fayld all was out-stretcht Swelling couer'd all and bodyes grossenes doubled Surpassing humane bounds and members all ore reacht Aspyring venom spreads matter blowne in carkasse troubled The man lyeth drownd within swolne bodies bankes No girdle can his monstrous growth contayne Not so are waters swolne

innuptae est Paladis eius Hic Draco qui domina constitie ante pedes Cur Diuae comes hoc animal custodia rerum Huic data sic lucos sacraque templa colit Innuptas opus est cura asseruare puellas Pervigili laqueos vndique tendit amor Which may be englished thus This Dragon great which Lady Pallas stands before Is the true picture of vnmarried maydes But why a consort to the Goddesse is this and more Then other beasts more meeke who neuer fades Because the safegard of all things belongs to this Wherefore his house in Groues and sacred Temples set Vnmarried maides of guardes must neuer misse Which watchfull are to voyde loues snares and nette For this cause the Egyptians did picture Serapis their God with three heads that is to 〈◊〉 of a Lyon in the middle on the right hand a meeke fauning dogge and on the left hand a rauening Wolfe all which formes are ioyned together by the winding bodie of a Dragon turning his head to the right hand of his God which three heads are interpreted to signifie three times that is to say by the Lyon the present time by the Wolfe the time past and by the fauning dogge the time to come all which are garded by the vigilancie of the Dragon For this cause also among the fixed starres of the North there is one called Draco a dragon all of them ending their course with the Sunne and Moone and they are in this Spheare called by Astronomers the Intersections of the Circles the superiour of these ascending is called the head of the Dragon and the inferiour descending is called the tayle of the Dragon And some thinke that GOD in the 38. of Io● by the word Gnaish meaneth this signe or Constellation To conclude the auncient Romans as Vegetius writeth carried in all their bands the Escutchion of a Dragon to signifie their fortitude and vigilancie which were borne vp by certaine men called for that purpose Draconarij And therefore when Constantius the Emperour entered into the City of Rome his Souldiers are said to beare vppe vppon the toppes of their speares dragons gaping with wide mouthes and made fast with golden chaines and pearle the wind whistling in their throates as if they had beene aliue threatning destruction and theyr tayles hanging loose in the ayre were likewise by the vvinde tossed to and fro as though they stroue to come off from the speares but when the wind was layd all theyr motion was ended where-vpon the Poet saith Mansuescunt varij vento cessante Dracones In English thus When whistling winde in ayer ceast The Dragons tamed then did rest The tale also of the Golden-fleece if it be worth any place in this storie deserueth to be inserted heere as it is reported by Diodorus Siculns When Actës raigned in Pontus he receiued an aunswere from the Oracle that hee should then dye when strangers should come thether with shippes and fetch away the Gol-den-fleece Vpon which occasion hee shewed himselfe to be of a cruell nature for he did not onely make Proclamation that he would sacrifice all strangers which came within his dominions but did also performe the same that by the fame and report of such crueltie he might terrifie all other Nations frō hauing accesse vnto that Temple Not contented heere-with hee raised a great strong vvall round about the Temple wherein the Fleece was kept and caused a sure watch or guarde to attend the same day night of whom the Graetians tell many strange fables For they say there were Bulls breathing out fire and a Dragon warding the Temple and defending the Fleece but the truth is that these watchmen because of their strength were called Bulls because of their cruelty were said to breathe out fire and because of their vigilancie crueltie strength and terrour to be dragons Some affirme againe that in the Gardens of Hesperides in Libia there were golden Apples which were kept by a terrible Dragon which dragon was afterward slaine by Hercules and the Apples taken away by him so brought to Euryshteus Others affirme that Hesperides had certaine flocks of sheepe the colour of whose woll was like gold and they were kept by a valiant Sheepheard called Draco but I rather agree with Solinus who giueth a more true reason of this fable Nefamae licentia vulneretur fides least as he saith fayth and truth should receiue a disgrace or wound by the lauish report of fame There was among the Hesperides a certaine winding Riuer comming 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 Rocke seemeth to be like the falling downe of Snakes to them that stand a farre off and from hence ariseth all the occasion of the fable afore-said Indeed there was a statue of Hercules in the left hand wherof were three Apples which he was said to haue obtained by the conquest of a dragon but that conquest of the dragon did morrally signifie his owne concupiscence whereby hee raigned ouer three passions that is to say ouer his wrath by patience ouer his cupiditie by temperance and ouer his pleasures by labour trauaile which were three vertues farre more precious then three golden Apples But I will stay my course from prosecuting these morrall discourses of the dragon and returne againe to his naturall history from which I haue somewhat too long digressed There are diuers sorts of Dragons distinguished partly by their Countries partlie by their quantitie and magnitude and partly by the different forme of their externall partes There be Serpents in Arabia called Sirenae which haue winges beeing as swift as horses running or flying at their owne pleasure and when they wound a man hee dyeth before he feeleth paine Of these it is thought the Prophet Esay speaketh chap. 13. ver 22. Serpens clamabit in Templis voluptarijs and for Serpents the old Translators read Syrenae so the English should be the Syrene dragons should cry in their Temples of pleasure and the auncient distinction was Anguis aquarum Serpentes terrarū Dracones Templorū that is to say Snakes are of the water Serpents of the earth Dragons of the Temples And I thinke it was a iust iudgement of God that the auncient Temples of the Heathen-Idolaters were annoyed with dragons that as the deuill was there worshipped so there might be appearance of his person in the vglie forme and nature of a dragon For God himselfe in holy Scripture doth compare the deuill vnto a dragon as Reue 12. ver 3. And there appeared another wonder in Heauen for behold a great Redde-dragon hauing 7. heads and tenne hornes and seauen crownes vpon his head verse 4. And his tayle drewe the third part of the starres of heauen and cast them to the earth and the dragon stoode before the Woman which was ready to be deliuered to deuoure her child when shee had brought

it forth Verse 5. So she brought forth a man-child which should rule all Nations with a rodde of yron And her Sonne was taken vp vnto God and to his throne Verse 6. And the Woman fledde into the Wildernes where she hath a place prepared of God that they should feede her there 1260. dayes Verse 7. And there was a battaile in heauen Michaell and his Angels fought against the Dragon and the Dragon fought and his Angels Verse 8. But they preuailed not neither was theyr place found any more in heauen Verse 9. And the great Dragon that old Serpent called the deuill and Satan was cast out which deceiueth all the world he was euen cast vnto the earth and his Angels were cast out with him Verse 13. And when the dragon saw that he was cast vnto the earth he persecuted the VVoman which had brought forth a man-child and so forth as it followeth in the Text. Where-vppon S. Augustine writeth Diabolus draco dicitur propter insidias quia occulte insidiatur that is the deuill is called a dragon because of his treachery for he doth treacherously set vpon men to destroy them It was wont to be said because dragons are the greatest Serpents that except a Serpent eate a serpent he shall neuer be a dragon for theyr opinion was that they grew so great by deuouring others of their kind and indeede in Ethiopia they grow to be thirtie yardes long neither haue they any other name for those dragons but Elephant-killers they liue very long Onesicritus writeth that one Aposisares an Indian did nourish two Serpents dragons whereof one was sixe and forty cubits long and the other fourescore 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 beeing afraid refused The Chroniclers of the affayres of Chius doe write that in a certaine valley neere to the foote of the mountaine Pellenaus was a valley full of straite tall Trees wherein was bred a dragon of wonderfull magnitude or greatnes whose onely voyce or hissing did terrifie all the Inhabitants of Chius and therefore there was no man that durst come nigh vnto him to consider or to take a perfect view of his quantitie suspecting onely his greatnesse by the loudenesse of his voyce vntill at length they knewe him better by a singuler accident worthy of eternall memory For it hapned on a time that such a violent wind did arise as did beate 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 suddainely compassing in the dragon whereby he had no meanes to escape aliue and so trees fell downe vpon him 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 diuers of his bones his head which were of such vnusuall greatnes as did sufficiently confirme them in their former opinion and thus by diuine miracle was this monster consumed who neuer any man durst behold beeing aliue and the inhabitants of the Country safely deliuered from their iust conceiued feare It is also reported that Alexander among many other beastes which hee saw in India did there finde in a certaine denne a dragon of seauentie cubites long which the Indians accounted a sacred beast and therefore intreated Alexander to doe it no harme When it vttered the voyce with full breath it terrified his whole Armie they could neuer see the proportion of his body but onely the head and by that they gessed the quantitie 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 dayes of Alexander there was likewise seene a dragon in India as long as fiue roodes of land are broade which is incredible For hee likewise saith that the Indians did feede him euery day with many seuerall Oxen and sheepe It may be that it was the same spoken of before which some ignorant men and such as were giuen to sette forth fables amplified beyond measure and credite Whereas dragons are bredde in India and Affrica the greatest of all are in India for in Ethiopia Nubia and Hesperia the dragons are confined within the length of fiue cubits twenty cubits for in the time of Euergetes there were three brought into Egypt one was nine cubits long which with great care was nourished in the Temple of Esculapius the other two were seauen cubits long About the place where once the Tower of Babell was builded are dragons of great quantitie and vnder the Equinoctiall as Nicephorus Callistus writeth there are Serpents as thicke as beames in testimony wherof their skinnes haue been brought to Rome And therefore it is no maruell although S. Austine writing vpon the 148. Psalme doth say Draconis magna quedam sunt animantia maiora non sunt super terram dragons are certaine great beasts and there are none greater vpon the earth Neither is it to be thought incredible that the souldiours of Attilius Regulus did kill a dragon which was a hundred and twenty foote long or that the dragons in the dennes of the Mountaine Atlas should grow so great that they can scarce moue the fore-parts of their bodie I am yet therefore to speake of the dragons in the Montaines Emodij or of Arigia or of Dachinabades or the Regions of the East or of that which Augustus shewed publiquely to the people of Rome beeing fiftie cubits long or of those which be in the Alpes which are found in certaine Caues of the South-sides of the hills so that this which hath beene said shall suffise for the quantitie and Countries of dragons Besides there are other kindes of dragons which I must speake of in order and first of all of the Epidaurian dragons which is bred no where but in that Country beeing tame and of yellow golden-colour wherefore they were dedicated to Aesculapius of whom Nicander writeth in this manner Nunc veridem et nigrem post dicta venena Drachonem Aspice quem patulafago Phoebia proles Ingelido peli nutriuit culmine iuxta Letae pelethuniae quondam decliuia vallis In English thus After these venoms now behold the dragon blacke and greene Nourished by Apollos sonne vnder a Beech full broade On top of the cold Pelus as often hath beene seene By fertill vale of Pelethun his slyding roade There are likewise other kindes of Tame-dragons in Macedonia vvhere they are so meeke that women feede them and suffer them to sucke their breasts like little children their Infants also play with them riding vppon them and pinching them as they would doe with dogges without any harme and sleeping with them in their beds But among all dragons there was none more famous then the dragon Python or Pithias as the Poets faine which was bred of the