so strange which for the true proofe and vnderstanding whereof were necessary to be seene with our eyes for confirmation whereof though there be many most sufficient reasons and proofes yet I haue not reade heerein any Author which auoucheth his own knowledge and sight whereas me thinkes if these Regions were so short as by this computation of degrees the Authors seeme to make them there should not haue wanted curious men to discouer the particularities of them howe great so euer the difficulty or danger had beene in doing the same which if they had done they should perchaunce haue found many things farre otherwise then they deemed at least touching some particularities of which some later Writers vaunt to haue in part experience of which seeing we our selues are able to giue no assured testimony of sight I thinke it best that we leaue them to those whose curious industry wil omit no paine to attaine vnto the perfect searching out of things so worthy to be known and seeing the Auncients which went sifting out these matters confesse that from the same Land came Virgins to bring their first fruits to the temple of Apollo in Delos belike there was then some known way the passage betweene nothing so difficill as it nowe seemeth vnto vs which beeing to vs vnknowne and the manner howe to trauaile and passe through those cold Regions beset with deepe Snow thicke Ice wide Riuers painefull high Hils fearefull low Valleyes vnaccessible Desarts and all kinds of cruell wild Beasts we leaue them vnuoyaged not seeking any way whereby we may penetrate into them and attaine the cognition of their particulers in a manner concealed and hidden from vs of which though some fewe of the hether parts thereof were knowne by relation of some painefull and industrious men who affirmed that they had seene them yet the greatest part was by coniectures considerations and probable argumentes though the curiosity of our times hath passed a little farther because as I haue sayde they are eye-witnesses of part of that which wee haue discouered of as I will tell you straight but all shall be little to giue vs such perfect and particuler knowledge of this part of the worlde that we may discourse thereof as of the others which we know Some Authors will haue this Land to be in Asia others in Europe but in whether it be the matter is not great alwayes if it be in Europe then is Europe not so little a part of the earth as they make it of vvhich if they will set the limits there as the Auncients say it finished then must these Regions before time vndiscouered be another nevve part of the world and so they should make foure parts therof or fiue with that which is newly discouered thereof in the West Indies BER I vvonder not much if men haue not so good notice of those partes of which wee haue discoursed neere the one and neere the other Pole and of that vvhich runneth out by the Coast of the North towardes the West because besides the great sharpnes and rigour of the cold we haue no cōuersation at all with the enhabitants of those parts nor they with vs neither is there any cause to mooue eyther them or vs thereunto vnlesse it be the curiositie of some that thirst after the vniuersal knowledge of all things in the world as did Marcus Paulus Venetus who for this cause only trauailed so great a part of the worlde as any man that euer I heard of till this day Truth it is that some Kings and Princes through couetous desire of enlarging their dominions as you shall hereafter vnderstand haue entered so far as they could conquering into these parts which they found neyther ouer all enhabited neyther yet so desert but that it was in manie places and the greater part therof peopled and not so far one from another but that they had knowledge conuersation traffique together And as in these Countries and Prouinces of ours we finde one soyle plaine temperate and pleasant and another quite contrary sharpe barren and vnfruitfull subiect to boystrous winds harsh ayres and continuall snow wherewith some mountaines are all the yeere long couered so that no man will frame in them his habitation So likewise in these extreame Regions of the North no doubt but there are some parts of them vninhabited as those which Pliny Soline and the before remembred Authors terme condemned of Nature yet there want not wayes and compasses in cyrcling about them to discouer that which is enhabited on the other side and though with difficultie yet in fine Nature would not leaue to prouide an open way to the end that this Land should not remaine perpetually hidden and vnknown LV. I remember I haue seene in Paulus Iouius in a chapter which hee made of Cosmography abbreuiated in the beginning of his History these words speaking of the Kingdomes of Denmarke and Norway and the Landes beyond them Of the Nature saith he of these Lands of the peoples that liue beyond them called Pigmaei Ictiophagi which are those that liue by fishes now newly discouered in whose Country by a certaine order of the Heauen of that constellation the dayes and nights are equall which I will make mention in their place AN. Mee thinkes there are many that touch this matter promising to write largely thereof without doing it and if they doe it it is euen as they list themselues because there is no man to controle them and as for Paulus Iouius himselfe all that he wrote of this Country was by the relation of a Muscouian Embassadour in Rome In one place hee saith that the Muscouites border vpon the Tartaryans and that towards the North they are accounted the vtmost dwellers of the worlde and that towardes the West they confine with the Danske Sea And in another place the Muscouites sayth he who are seated betweene Polonia and Tartaria confine with the Ryphaean mountaines enhabite towards the Septentryon in the vtmost bounds of Europe and Asia extending themselues ouer the Lakes of the Riuer Tanays euē to the Hyperborean mountaines and that part of the Ocean which they call the Frozen Sea These are his wordes in which truly he hath little reason for the vtmost Land that the Muscouites possesse is where the day and night continue 3. months long a peece so that they cannot be called the last enhabitants of the earth for those whose day and night is of sixe months are farder North and neerer the Pole then they so that in fine as I sayd before touching these matters which cannot be seene without such difficultie those that entreat of them goe by gesse coniecturing thereat by the probabilitie of reasons considerations LU. As I imagine this countrey must be very great where the daies are so long in encreasing and decreasing and more if there be on the other side of the North before you come at the Sea so much other land of force it
lighteth amongst shallows sands where being not able to swim for want of water he is slaine of the fishers of whom great numbers comming in small boats strike him with hookes giuing him alwayes the lyne at will till they perceaue that hee is dead and then they pull him a Land and make great commodity of the oyle other things which they take out of his body Many doe affirme a thing which in my opinion seemeth hard to beleeue which is that the great Whales when the weather is any thing tempestucus plunge themselues with such violence from out the bottom of the Sea that their back appeareth aboue water like an Iland of sand or grauell insomuch that some sayling by Sea imagining the same many times to be an Iland in deede haue gone out of their ships made fire vpon it through the heat of which the Whale plunging himselfe into the water leaueth the men deceaued and in extreame great perril of death vnlesse they could saue thēselues by swimming to their ships This is written by many Authors of great estimation though to mee it seemeth a thing incredible and against all reason LV. It may be that such a wonder as this hath beene seene at some one time and as the manner of men especially trauailers is to ouer-reach they say it happeneth vsually and often BER For my part I will wonder at nothing neyther leaue to beleeue any thing that is possible which is written of these great fishes Sea-monsters seeing it is most approouedly knowne and verified and nowe lately also written and published by sundry mē of credit that in the yere 1537. there was taken in a Riuer of Germanie a Fish of a huge monstrous greatnes the fashion of whose head was like vnto that of a wilde Boare with two great tuscles shooting aboue foure spans out of his mouth he had foure great feete like to those with which you see Dragons vsually painted and besides the two eyes in his head hee had two others in his sides and one neere his nauill and on the ridge of his necke certaine long brisles as strong and hard as though they had beene of yron or steele This Sea-monster was carried for a wonder to Anwerp and there liue as yet many which will witnesse to haue seen the same But in such like things as these no man giueth vs more ample notice of things that are strange rare and merueilous then Olaus Magnus AN. There are also in these Seas many other strange and hurtfull fishes of which there is one called Monoceros of extreame greatnesse hauing in his forehead a mightie stiffe and sharpe horne with which hee giueth the shippes so forcible and violent a stroake that hee breaketh them and driueth them vnder water as though it were with a Canon shot but this is when the ships are becalmed which sildome happeneth vpon those Seas for it there blow but the least gale of winde that may be he is so lumpish and slow that they auoyde him easilie There is another fish called Serra because of a ranke of pricks which hee hath on his head so sharpe and hard as the poynts of Dyamants with which lurking vnder the shyppes hee saweth in sunder theyr keele which if it be not foreseene and remedied in time they perrish presently There is another fish called Xifia which is in a manner like vnto the Whale whose mouth beeing open is so wide and deepe that it astonisheth the beholders his eyes likewise of a most terrible aspect his backe sharpe as a sword with which lying vnderneath the shippes hee practiseth to cut or to ouerturne them to the end he may eate and deuoure the men that are within them There are also in this Sea fishes called Rayas of exceeding greatnes whose loue towards men is passing strange and admirable for if any man chance to fall into the sea neere where any of them is hee vnderproppeth him presently bearing him aboue the water and if any other fishes com to anoy or hurt him he defendeth him as much as he may euen to the death There is also another called Rosmarus whose propertie is very rare and strange he is about the bignes of an Elephant he is headed in maner like an Oxe his skin is of darke obscure colour full of stubbie haires as great as wheaten strawes he commeth often a shore where chauncing to see a man any thing neere he runneth at him with open mouth and if he catch him hee dismembreth him presently Hee is meruailous swift delighteth much to eate grasse and sedge that groweth in freshe water for which cause hee haunteth often to little riuers plashes that are on maine land wherewith when he is well satisfied and filled he climeth vp the Rocks by the help of his teeth which are passing sharp strong where he layeth him downe to sleepe so deeply profoundly that it is not possible with any rumour how great soeuer it be to awake him at which time the marriners peasants thereabouts boldly without feare binde great ropes to each part of his body the other ends of which they fasten vnto trees if there be any neere if not as well as they can to some place of the Rock and when as they thinke they haue entangled him sure enough they shoote at him a far of with bowes Crosbowes Harguebuzes chiefely at his head His strength is so great that awaking somtimes perceauing himselfe to be wounded he starteth vp with such violence that he breaketh all the cordes with which he is fastened but commonly he hath first his deaths wound so that after a little strugling hee turneth of the Cliffe downe into the Sea and dieth incontinent out of which they draw him with hookes and yrons dispoyling him cheefely of his bones and teeth which the Muscouites Tartarians Russians esteeme to be so good and true Iuorie as the Indians doe that of theyr Elephants Of all this Paulus Iouius maketh relation in an Epistle which he wrote to Pope Clement the seauenth being amply thereof enformed by one Demetrius a noble man and Lieuetenant generall vnder the Emperour or Duke of Russia But to our first purpose there are also founde in this Seas sundry kindes of fishes or rather beastes which liue both by water and land comming often a shoare to feede in the pastures thereby bearing the likenesse of Horses Oxen Hares Wolues Rats and of sundry other sorts which after they haue well fedde on the Land turne backe vnto the Sea againe the one being in a maner as naturall vnto them as the other But leauing to speake any farther thereof wee now will come to the Dolphins whose loue to musicke and children is a thing manifest notorious to all men and seeing it serueth to the purpose I will tell you a strange and true tale of one of them that beeing taken by fishermen when hee was very young
that the Hiperborians shold be those who dwell on those Mountaines which are on the end of Asia towards the North and me thinkes that Plinie and those Auncients beeing ignorant in the rest concerning them call those also Hyperboreans which dwell on the other side though there be a great quantity of Land betweene seeing hee calleth also by that name those which are vnder the Pole Artick or on the other side thereof AN. It is so for if they were there abouts we could not haue so litle knowledge of them as wee haue and in truth as I vnderstand there must needes be a great quantitie of Lande betweene those mountaines and the people whom he termeth by that name Solinus also entreateth of this matter in the verie selfe same manner which though it be somewhat prolixe I will let you vnderstand what he saith First talking of the Land which is on the other side of the Rephaean mountaines and of the Arymasps he vseth these words Vpon these mountaines the height of Ryphaeus there is a Region couered with continuall clowdes and Ise and in some places of exceeding height it is a part of the world condemned of Nature and seated in a perpetuall obscure myst in the very entrance of the Aquylon whereby it is most rigorously cold This onelie amongst all other Lands knoweth not all the courses of time of the heauens neither tasteth it any other thing then cruell Winter and sempiternall cold And farther speaking in another chapter of the Hyperborean mountaines he saith that there was a fable of the Hyperboreans a rumor of which to belieue any thing was accounted temerity but seeing saith he so many approued Authors men of great sufficiency cōfirme them let no man doubt of thē or hold thē for fabulous being approued with such authorities cōming therfore to speak of them they are on the other side of Pterophoros which we haue heard say is on the other side of Aquilo it is a blessed nation Some will situat the same rather in Asia thē Europe others in the midst betwixt the one th' other sun there as it setteth with Antipodes riseth with vs the which is contrary to reason there being so great a sea which runneth between the 2. rotundities They are therfore in Europe neer them as it is thought are the bars of the world and the last compassing or circuit of the stars they haue one only day in the yere There want not some who say that the sunne is not there as we haue him here but that he riseth in the Equinoctiall of the winter and setteth in the Autumne so that the day continueth sixe monthes together and the night as much The heauens are fauourable the ayre sweet the winds breathe gently comfortably there is amongst them nothing noysome or hurtful The woods are their houses in the day the trees yeelde them victuals they know not what discord is they are not troubled with infirmities they liue innocently theyr will is equall and opinions agreeing in olde age death is welcome vnto them which if it be tardife in cōming they preuent it in bereauing themselues of life for being wearie of liuing after hauing banqueted with theyr friendes they let themselues fall from the top of a high Rocke into the depth of the Sea and this is among them the most esteemed Sepulchre It is said that they were wont to sende by vnspotted virgins theyr first fruites to Apollo in Delos who beeing once by the wickednes of their hostes that harboured them defiled they since that time haue euer vsed to offer them vp within the bounds of theyr ovvne Countrie c. And Pomponius Mela ending to entreate of Sarmanica and beginning with Scithia from thence saith he follow the confines of Asia and vnlesse it be where the Winter is perpetuall and the cold not to be suffred doe enhabite the peoples of Scithia who in a manner all do call themselues Sagae and on the edge of Asia the first are the Hyperboreans vpon the Aquylon and the Ryphaean mountaines vnder the vtmost cyrcling of the starres where the Sunne not euery day as he doth with vs but rysing in the Equynoctiall of the Winter setteth in Autumne so that theyr day and night successiuely continueth sixe monthes long apeece LU. Me thinkes these three Authors say in a manner one thing and in like words differing onely a little about the habitation of this people the one placing them by the Ryphaean mountaines and the other by the Hyperboreans betweene the which as I take it there is a great distance but afore you passe any farder I pray you declare vnto vs the meaning of these two words lately by you mentioned Pterophoras Hyperbore AN. Pterophoras in Greeke is as much to say as a Region of feathers because the furie of the windes is there so violent that they seeme to flie with winges and the snovve which continually falleth resembleth great feathers Hiperboreans is as much to say as those that dwell vnder the wind Boreas which is the same that wee heere call Circius the which as it seemeth engendereth it selfe and riseth of the cold of those mountaines and this is the opinion of Diodorus Siculus though Festus Pompeius say that they are so called because they passe the common maner of men in their liuing and yeeres and Macrobius in his comment De somno Sciptonis interpreteth it saying that they are people which entring within the Land passed on the other side of the wind Boreas but whether it be as the one or the other sayes the matter makes not much BER Let vs passe forward and seeing these Authors seeme heerein to confesse that there are Lands and Prouinces vnder the Zones of the Poles which are enhabited I pray you tell vs what the Modernes doe thinke thereof who haue seene and discouered more then those of times past AN. The Modernes entreate very differently heereof though they be few for Countries so sharpe and so farre out of the way haue beene viewed or passed into by few whereby their particularities might be discouered though wee may say that heerein is fulfilled the saying of our Sauiour Christ that there is nothing so secrete but commeth to be reuealed and so there haue not wanted curious and industrious persons which haue verified the same discouering this secrete but afore we come to entreate of the particularities of this Country heare what Iacobus Ziglerus an Almaigne Author sayth The Auncients sayth hee perswaded by a naked imagination spake of those places by estimation of the heauens deeming thē not to be sufferable or enhabitable without great difficulty for those men which were borne or conuersant in Aegipt or Greece tooke an argument thereby to speake of the whole enhabitable world to affirme those parts vnder the North-pole not to be enhabited But to declare that the Lands how cold so euer they be are not therefore vninhabitable
he bringeth for example the aboundance of mettals minerals of siluer which grow in Swethland and Norway being Countries exceedingly colde whence hee maketh an argument that the heauens are not so vntemperate in those parts or any others how cold so euer but that they may be enhabited yea and in such sort that men liue there very long in great health and strength as by experience of those Countries we finde it to be true which could not be vnlesse the heauen were temperate and fauourable in correcting that domage which by the cold might be caused Afterwards handling this matter a little more at large he turneth to say I write not this to the end you should thinke that those who goe thither out of Aethiopia or Aegipt should agree so well with that climate as those which are naturall of the same for vndoubtedly they would hardly endure the cold and be in great danger of their liues vvhich may be considered by those of the Land of Babilon for those of them which went towards the North did not by and by penetrate into the vtmost bounds of the earth in those parts but seated them selues in the middle thereof and as they enured themselues to suffer the colds so by little little they pearced farther in cōming in time to be so accustomed to the cold that they endured the Snow and Ice as well as the hote Countries doe the continuall heat parching of the Sunne and if there be perchaunce in those parts any thing ouersharp rigorous Nature hath amended the same with other helps for on the Sea shore she hath ordained Caues that runne vnder the mountains where the fiercer that the cold is the greater is the heate warmenes that gathereth it selfe therein and Landward shee hath made Valleyes contrary to the North wherein they might harbor shroud themselues against the cold as for their Cattell and wild Beastes she hath cloathed them with such thicke skins that the nipping of the cold can no whit at al anoy them therfore those furres of those parts are more precious then those of warmer Countries BER We haue well vnderstoode all these authorities and opinions but we vnderstand not what you will inferre by them AN. It is easily vnderstood if you looke vnto that which we at the beginning discoursed as touching the opinion of all auncient Authors Geographers who thought that the two vtmost Zones of the Poles were not enhabitable through their extreame cold whereas by that which I haue said and wil heereafter say the contrary appeareth And so we will goe on verifying that our Europe is not so little or the least part of the earth as many will haue it to be seeing we know not the ends thereof of one side extending it selfe following the whole Coast of the Sea seeming to guide it towards the Occident then giuing a turne to the Septentrion by another way passing and trauersing the Riphaean mountaines following the same Land which reacheth euen to the Septentrion it selfe or vnder the North-pole LV. That Coast which you say goeth towards the Occident as I haue heard say is not nauigable because of the frozen Sea which hindereth the passage of the ships AN. There is a great Coast of the Sea which for the same reason you giue according to many of the Cosmographers is not nauigable and of this the Auncients yeeld not so good reason neither haue they so good experience thereof as the Moderns haue though Gemma Frigius a very graue Author be very short in handling this matter for comming to speake of the Prouinces of Curlandia and Liuonia hee sayth that they are the last of Sarmatia and that Liuonia stretcheth towards the Septentrion cōmeth to ioyne it selfe with the Hiperboreans whose peoples are Parigitae and Carcotae which goe following that part of the Septentrion that passeth on the other side of Circulus Articus that they are great and wide Regions most extremely cold and that the men which enhabit them are of a strong constitution of body very faire of cōplexion but somwhat grosse of vnderstanding and that there are places of ice so hard frosen that great troups of horsmen may therevpon make their fights encounters whereto they vse the winter more then the somer that like vnto these Countries are those of Escarmia Dacia and a little farther speaking of the Prouince of Swethland which he calleth Gotia Occidentalis because there is another called Meridionalis of Norway which stretcheth it self by the Coast of the Occident towardes the Iland of Thule and ioyneth it selfe with Groneland he saith that without the circle Artick are the prouinces of Pilapia Vilapiae the coldest countries of the world because they reach vnto the very North-pole in which their day cōtinueth the space of a whole month that those parts are not till this day throughly discouered because the enhabitants of them are most wicked cruell and persecute Christians within their limits and that euill Spirits doe there present themselues many times before the eyes of men in bodies formed of ayre with a fearefull and terrible aspect and afterwards he saith that in those Countries towards the Occident it is said though their place and seate be vncertaine that the Pigmees doe enhabite men of a cubite high the trueth whereof is vncertaine but only that a ship of leather through the violence of the winds being driuen on the shore was taken with many of these Pigmees in it All this you must vnderstand he saith in speaking of that Coast which as I sayde goeth out Westward for from thence all that which turneth compassing about the Land towards the East passing the vtmost Zone euen till it come to meete with ours is vnknown neither hath any ship made that voyage neither is there any Nation that can giue vs notice thereof the reason is because of the frozen Sea of which you spake through which that Coast is by no meanes nauigable whereof Gemma Frigius maketh no mention in this place neither afterwards also whē he commeth to speake of the Scithians where hee saith that in the farthest Scithia which extendeth it selfe farre beyond the Hiperboreans there are many Nations whom he nameth by their names without comming in one part or other to the Sea-coast in sort that heereby may be inferred that hee left much Land in those parts for vndiscouered and vnknowne and in his Map which cannot be denied to be one of the best and surest that hath beene hetherto made by any man comming to the Country of Swethland he setteth the same simply with an Epitaph saying That of those Septentrial Lands he will there-after more particulerly entreate and so sayeth Iohn Andraeas Valuasor in his LU. It seemeth vnto me that in this matter they cannot so agree one with another but that they must differ and discord in many points because the most of them or in a
Sea of the North though being frozen the greatest part of the yeare yet that the same at such time as the Sunne mounteth high and their day of such length should through the heate of the Sunne thaw and become nauigable and so in that season the Indians might be driuen through the same with a tempest all which though it be so yet the people assuredly knowing that the same Sea freezeth in such sort euery yeere will not dare or aduenture to saile therein or to make any voyage on that side so that we come not to the knowledge of such thinges as are in that Sea and Land vnlesse wee will beleeue the fictions that Sylenus told to King Mydas LV. Of all friendship tell vs them I pray you for in so diffuse a matter any man may lye by authority without controlement BER That which I will tell you is out of Theopompus alleaged by Aelianus in his book De varia Historia This Sylenus saith he was the Sonne of a Nimph and accounted as inferiour to the Gods but as superiour vnto men who in one communication among many others that hee had with King Mydas discoursed vnto him that out of this Land or world in which wee liue called commonly Asia Affrique and Europe whom he termeth Ilands enuironed rounde about with the Ocean there is another Land so great that it is infinite and without measure in the same are bred Beastes and Fowles of admirable hugenes and the men which dwell therein are twise so great as we are and their life twice as long They haue many and goodly Citties in which they liue by reason hauing lawes quite contrary vnto ours among their Citties there are two that exceede the rest in greatnes in customes no whit at all resembling for the one is called Machino which signifieth warlike and the other Euaesus which signifieth pittifull the enhabitants of which are alwayes in continuall peace and plentifully abounding in great quantity of riches in whose Prouince the fruites of the earth are gathered without being sowed or planted They are alwayes free from infirmities spending their whole time in mirth pleasure and solace they maintaine iustice so inuiolably that many times the immortall Gods disdaine not to vse their friendship and company but on the contrary the enhabitants of Machino are altogether warlike continually in Armes and Warre seeking to subdue the bordering Nations This people doth dominate and commaund ouer many other proud Citties and mighty Prouinces The Cittizens of this Towne are at least 200000. in number they sildome die of infirmity but in the Warres wounded with stones and great staues Iron nor steele hurtes them not for they haue none Siluer gold they possesse in such quantity that they esteeme lesse therof then we doe of Copper Once as he said they determined to come conquer these Ilands of ours and hauing past the Ocean with many thousandes of men and comming to the Hiperborean mountaines hearing there vnderstanding that our people were so ill obseruers of Religion and of so wicked manners they disdained to passe any farther accounting it an vnwoorthy thing to meddle with so corrupt a people and so they returned backe againe He added heere-vnto many other meruailous things as that there were in other Prouinces thereof certaine people called Meropes who enhabited many and great Citties within the bounds of whose Country there was a place called Anostum which worde signifieth a place whence there is no returne this Country saith he is not cleare and light neither yet altogether darke but betweene both through the same runne two Riuers the one of delight the other of greefe vppon the shore both of the one and the other are planted trees about the bignes of Poplar-trees those that are on the banks of the Riuer of griefe bring forth a fruite of the same nature quality causing him that eateth thereof to spend the whole time of his life in sad and melancholly dumps bitter teares perpetuall weeping The fruite of those that grow on the banks of the other Riuer haue a contrary effect and vertue yeelding to the eater thereof a blessed course of life abounding in all ioy recreation and pleasure without any one moment of sadnes When they are in yeeres by little and little they waxe young againe recouering their former vigour and force and thence they turne still backward euen to their first infancie becomming little babes againe then they die LV. These things were very strange if they were true but be howe they will they carry some smell of that of which we entreated concerning the Land which is on the other side of the Riphaean and Hiperborean mountaines seeing he saith that determining to conquer this our world which he calleth Ilands they returned backe after they came to those mountaines and so it is to be vnderstoode that they came from the other part of the North-pole as for that Land which he saith to be so tenebrous obscure it may be the same which as we sayd hath continuall obscurity and is a condemned part of the world I doe not wonder at all if amongst the other works of Nature she made this part of the earth with so strange properties I meane not that which Silenus spake but the other by vs entreated of before the ayre of which by reason of som constellation or other thing we comprehend not is so troubled that it is not onely vninhabitable but also not to be passed through wherby the secreets therein contained remaine concealed though perchance on the other side therof the time temperature may be such and so contrary that it may excell these very Countries wherein we now liue AN. You haue reason for without doubt the Land which is in those parts vndiscouered must be very great and containe in it many things of admiration vtterly vnknowne to vs But comming now to particularize somewhat more of that which is now in these our times known discouered I wil tell you what some very new moderne Authors doe say thereof and principallie Iohn Zygler whom I alleadged before who in person visited viewed some part of these Septentrionall Countries though hee passed neither the Hiperborean neyther the Riphaean mountains who meruaileth greatly at that which sundry Authors haue left written of these parts for he found many things so different and contrary that theirs conformed in no one poynt with the truth as well touching the situation of mountaynes and heads of Riuers as the sundry properties and qualities of the Regions and Prouinces for hee sayeth that he was in that part where they all affirme the mountaines Ryphaeus to be and hee found there no mountaynes at all neyther in a great space of Lande round about it but all a plaine and leuell Country the selfe same is affirmed by Sigismund Herberstain in his voyage so that if they erre in the seate of a thing so common and
aches and infirmities then ours LV. You haue sufficiently answered me therfore goe on I pray you with that you were about to say of those Prouinces when I interrupted you AN. There remaineth little to be said but that betvveene Byarmia and Fynland in declyning towards the South there is another prouince which they call Escrifinia of which the Authors giue no ample and perticuler notice onely they say that the people of this Land is more nimble and expert in going ouer the Snow and Ise then anie other Nation in which they vse certaine artificiall staues with which they swing to fro without any danger so that there is no valley howe deepe so euer fild with Snowe nor mountaine so high and difficill but they runne ouer the same euen at such time as the snow is deepest and highest and this they doe in the pursute of wilde beasts whom they chase ouer the mountaines and sometimes for victories sake in striuing among themselues and laying wagers who can doe best and runne with greatest nymblenes and celeritie It is of no great moment to know the manner of these staues which they vse both because it is difficile to vnderstand and the knowledge thereof would stand vs in small steed hauing heere no vse of them BER If any man be able to discouer those peoples of the superior Byarmia me thinks these should be they seeing they are so nimble expert in passing the snowes wherby they might ouercome the difficultie of the mountaines so enter into that Countrey which is generally esteemed so happy and where the people liue so long without any necessitie to trauaile for theyr liuing hauing all things so abundantlie prouided them by Nature In truth I should receaue great pleasure to vnderstande assuredly the particularities of thys Lande and also howe farre it is distant from the Sea and if it be on all sides enuironed with those high mountaines cold Countries it being in the midst of them contayning so many prouinces Regions of excellent temprature vnder a climat constellation making so great a difference betweene them and the others as touching this world to make thē so blessed and happy as the ancients affirme and the moderns denie not AN. This land hath many more prouinces then these whose names I nowe remember not of which there are some though seated in the region of the cold yet enioying through some particuler influences an especiall puritie of ayre temperature of wether But seeing till this day wee haue not attayned to the knowledge of any more content your selues with that which is alreadie sayde LU. I stande considering with my selfe the great and lothsome tediousnesse that mee thinks those Countrymen should sustaine through the wearisom length of their nights which in my opinion were alone sufficient to make them wearie of their liues AN. Did you neuer heare the olde Prouerbe that Custome is another nature euen so the length of the nights is a thing so vsuall vnto those of this Country that they passe them ouer without any griefe or tediousnes at all While theyr day endureth they sowe and gather in their fruites of which the most part the earth plentifullie affordeth them without labour A great part of that season they spende in chasing of wilde Beastes whose fleshe they powder with salt and preserue as wee doe and their fish in like sort or else they dry the same in the ayre as I said before neither are their nights such or so darke but that they may hunt and fish in them Against cold they haue as I said deepe Caues great store of wood and warme furres in great plentie when light fayleth them they haue Oyle of Fishes and fatte of Beastes of which they make Lampes and Candles and withall they haue a kinde of wood contayning in it a sort of Rozen which beeing cleft in splinters they doe vse in steed of Candles and besides this as I haue sayd before the nights are during the time of theyr continuance so light that they may see to doe their busines affayres in them for the Moone and perticuler starres shine in those Regions and the Sunne leaueth alwayes behind him a glimmering or kind of light in so much that Encisus speaking of these Landes in his Cosmographie sayeth that there is in them a Mountaine or Clyffe so high that hovve lowe soeuer the Sunne discende vvhen hee goeth from them to the Pole Antartick the toppe thereof alwayes retayneth a light and brightnesse with vvhich through the exceeding height thereof it participateth LVD This hill must be higher then either that of Atlas Athos or Olympus so they say also that in the I le of Zeylan there is another called Adams hill whose height communicateth with heauen the opinion of the inhabitants is that Adam liued there after he was cast out of Paradise AN. All may be possible but let vs returne thether whence we came I say therfore that seeing Nature hath endued this people with the vse of reason assure your selfe that they want not manner and meanes to seeke out such things as are necessarie for the sustentation and maintenaunce of their liues yea perchance with greater subtiltie and industry then we thinke for neither want they discretion to deuide their times to eate drinke and sleepe at an howre to minister iustice and to maintaine their Lawes and to make their alliances confederations for seeing they haue warres and dissentions one with another it is to be thought that either partie will seeke to founde theyr cause vpon reason procure to haue Chiefes and Leaders to whō they obey and if that which the Auncients say be false that they shoulde be Gentiles and that theyr cheefest God whom they adore should be Apollo then it is likely that they lyue by the Law of Nature for in this time of ours there is not any knowne part in the world out of which this adoration of auncient Gods is not banished at least that manner of adoring them which the old Gentiles obserued I am sorrie that Olaus Magnus declared not this matter more particulerlie seeing he could not chuse but haue knowledge thereof confessing in one Chapter which he made of the colde of those Regions that he himselfe had entred so farre within thē that he founde him-selfe within 86. degrees of the very North-pole LVD I know not howe this may be seeing you say that he speaketh not of the Prouinces of Byarmia of his own knowledge of sight which according to the reckoning you sayde the Cosmographers make of the degrees in reaching within 80. degrees of the Pole are there where the vvhole yeere containeth but one onely day and one onelie night AN. You haue reason to doubt for I cannot throughlie conceaue it my selfe but that which seemeth vnto me is that either he reckoneth the degrees after another sort or else that there is error in the Letter But howsoeuer it be it coulde not
otherwise we should attribute vnto them some vse of reason which can be neither in them nor in Beasts what shewe so euer they make thereof BER Let vs leaue this least otherwise wee interrupt Signior Anthonio in the prosecution of his promised discourse touching the Septentrionall Countries which is a matter not to be let slip AN. I would that I were therein so instructed that I could entreate so particulerly and plainly thereof as it were requisite I should but though the fault be mine in that I vnderstande little yet I want not an excuse where-with to wipe away some part of the blame For the great confusion of the Authors both Auncient Moderne that write thereof as yesterday you vnderstoode is such that it maketh me also confuse and wauering in whether of theyr opinions I should follow Trust me it is a world to see theyr disagreements and he had neede of a very Diuine iudgment that should conforme himselfe to the vnderstanding of Ptolomaeus Solinus Stephanus Dyonisius Rufus Festus Auienius Herodotus Plinius Anselmus Strabo Mela and diuers other of the Auncients some of the which in reckoning vp of Nations and Prouinces name onely one saying forth others aboue this and others aboue that beyond of the one side and of the other some declare the names particulerly of each one but in such sort that comparing them with these by which we now know thē they are not to be discerned which are which for with great difficulty can we know who are the right Getes Massagetes Numades Scythians and Sarmates but onely that we goe gessing according to the names which they now haue for there are Authors that giue to the Land of the Scithians onely 75. leagues of widenes and others will needs haue the most part of all those great Countries Northward to be contained vnder them so that Pliny not without cause speaking of these Septentrionall parts termeth them to be so vast and of so farre a reach that they may be accounted an other new part of the world yet he then knew nothing of the interiour part thereof towards the Pole which is now discouered But leauing this there is no lesse difficulty and difference in the description of those parts which we now know and vnderstand yea euen those which are neere vs and with whom we haue traffique as Norway Denmarke Gothland Sweueland and the Prouinces which we call Russia Prussia of which they write so intricatly especially in some points that they hardly giue resolution to those that reade them notwithstanding which difficulties seeing there is no part of the world in which there are not some thinges though to them common yet rare and strange to those that haue not seene them but newly heare them spoken of I will tell you some particularities recorded by the Authors that make mention of these Regions with which we may passe in good conuersation this euening as we haue done the rest And first to begin with their men they say that they are of great stature their lims members wel proportioned and their faces beautiful Amongst which there are many Gyants of incredible greatnes which as you enter farther into the Lande so shall you finde them greater Of these make mention Saxo Grammaticus and Olaus Magnus chiefely of one called Hartenus another Starchater and two others Angrame and Aruedor who were endued with so extraordinary a force puissance that to carry an Oxe or a Horse vpon their shoulders though the way were very long they accounted nothing There are also women nothing inferiour to them in strength some of which haue beene seene with one hand take a Horse with a man Armed vpon his back and to lift him vp and throw him downe to the ground and of these and others sundry Authors write many notable thinges worthy of memory which seruing nothing to our purpose it were in vaine heere to rehearse Leauing them therefore I say that the continuance of the Snow in all these Septentrionall Lands is such that the high eminent places and toppes of mountaines are couered there-with all the yeere long and many times the valleyes and low places also notwithstanding all which extreamity of cold they haue very good pastures both for Beasts wild and tame for theyr fodder and grasse is of such quality that the very cold nourisheth and augmenteth the force verdure therof The greatest discōmodity they haue is through the wind Circius which the greater part of the yere blustreth in those Prouinces and that with such raging fury violence that it renteth vp the trees by the rootes and whirleth whole heapes of stones from vp the earth into the ayre wherby those that trauaile are often in great danger of their liues the remedy they haue is to hide shroud themselues in caues hollow vauts vnder the mountains for somtimes the tempests are so incredibly raging terrible that there haue ben ships in the Bothnyk Sea which though it be neere the frozen Sea yet notwithstanding is nauigable hoised vp into the ayre thrown down violently against the maine Land a matter scarsly credible but that it is verified by so many so graue Authors at other times you shall see waues of the Sea resembling mighty mountains raised in height then with their fal drowne and ouerwhelme such ships as are neere somtimes the tiles yea the whole roofs of the house taken away blown far off which is more the roofs of their churches couered with Lead other mettals haue ben torn vp caried away as smoothly as though they had been but feathers neither haue men Armed and a Horseback more force to resist the violence of this wind then hath a light reed for either it ouerthroweth them or else perforce driueth thē against some hillock or Rock so that in diuers places of Norway which lie subiest to this wind there grow encrease no trees at all for they are straight turned vp by the roots For want of wood they make fire of the bones of certaine fishes which they take in great quantity the bleetenes of this wind for sildome in those parts bloweth any other is cause that the most part of the yere the Riuers ponds Lakes are all frozen yea the very waters of the Springs doe no sooner com out of them but they are presently congeled into Ice when the heat of the Sun thaweth or melteth any Snow the same presently turneth into so hard an Ice ouer that which is vnderneath that they can scarcely pearce it with Pickaxes so that euery yeere their yong men in plaine fields make thick wals of snow like vnto those of a Fortresse in som such place that they may receaue the heat of the Sun melting through which they conuert into a hard Christaline Rock of Ice and sometimes of purpose after they haue framed this edifice of snow they cast water vppon the same to make
Tartaria with so little mouthes that they cannot eate but maintaine their liues with sucking in onely the substance and iuice of flesh and fruites There is another kind of men with dogs faces and Oxe feete which containe all their speech vnder two wordes onely with the which the one vnderstandeth the other There are others whom they call Phanaces whose eares are so great that they couer therewith their vvhole bodies they are so strong that vvith one pull they teare whole trees vp by the roots vsing them in their fight with exceeding agillity There are others with one eye only and that in their forehead their eares like dogs and their haire standing stiffe vp an end Others they describe with diuers and monstrous formes which if I should rehearse all I should neuer make an end yet by the way I will tell you what I haue reade in one of Ptolomes tables of Tartaria maior There is in it sayth he a Country now called Georgia fast by the kingdome of Ergonil in the which there are fiue sorts of people some blacke as Ethiopians some white like vs some hauing tailes like Peacocks some of very little and low stature with two heads and others whose face and teeth are in maner of horse iawes And if this be true it is a wonderfull thing that there should be in one Land such diuersities of men BER Doe these Authors set all these monsters together in one part of the earth or in diuers parts AN. In this point they differ farre the one from the other Pliny and Strabo agree with the story written by the Philosopher Onosecritus which was in India with Alexander the great and writeth all these monsters to be there Solinus sayeth that the Arimaspes being a people with one eie are in Scithia fast by the Riphaean mountaines Others hold that the most part of these monsters are in the solitary deserts of Affrica and the rest are in the mountaines of Atlas others sayde that the Cyclops Gyants of exceeding hugenes with one onely eye and that in the midst of their forehead were to be seene in Sicillia LU. Yet it may be that they are as well in one place as in another yet Strabo entreating of them in conclusion accounteth them but fables and fained matters and Sinforianus Campegius a man singulerly learned in a Chapter which hee writeth of monsters proueth by naturall reasons that there can be none such and if there be any that they are no men but brute beasts like vnto men Pomponius Mela is of the same opinion saying that the Satyres haue nothing else of man then the likenesse AN. I will neyther beleeue all nor condemne all which is written but as touching the Satyres me thinkes Pomponius Mela hath small reason for wee must rather beleeue Saint Hierome who in the life of Saint Paule the first Hermite which worke is allowed by our Church witnesseth that they are men and creatures reasonable Their shape is according to the description of diuers Authors like vnto men differing onely in some points as in hauing hornes on their heads their noses and forepart of their mouthes like to dogges snowts and their feete like to those of Goates Many affirme that they haue seene them in the deserts of Aegipt The Gentiles in diuers places adored them for Gods and Pan the God of Sheepheards was alwayes painted in the likenes of a Satyre Many haue written of these Satyres and it is held for a matter certaine and vndoubted AN. Sabellicus in his Aeneads sayeth that there are of them in the mountaine Atlas which runne on foure feet and some on two feet like men either sort passing swiftly Pliny affirmeth that there are of them in India in certaine mountaines called Subsolani whom not accounting men hee termeth to be most dangerous and harmfull beasts Ouid in his Metamorphosis sayeth that the Satyre is a beast like vnto a man onely that hee hath hornes on his head and feete like a Goate But if it be so that they are men capable of reason I wonder that we haue no greater knowledge of them AN. Heerein is no great cause of wonder because the deformity of their figure maketh them so vvild that it taketh from them the greatest part of the vse of reason so that they flie the conuersation of men euen as other bruite beastes doe but amongst them selues they conuerse and vnderstand one another well enough for all those which vvrite of the mountaine Atlas say that there are in the tops therof many nights heard great noyses and soundes as it were of Tabers and Flutes and other winde instruments vvhich they hold for a certaine to be doone by the Satyres in their meetings for as soone as the day comes you heare no more yet some will say that the Satyres are not the cause thereof but another secrete of Nature of the vvhich we will hereafter in his more conuenient and proper place discourse LU. Before we passe any farther let vs first vnderstand what difference there is between Satyres Faunes Egipanes for Virgill in the beginning of his Georgiques inuoketh as well the one as the other and sundry other Authors vsing these seuerall names doe seeme to put a difference betweene them AN. I will ansvvere you herein with Calepin which saith that Faunes were held amongst the Greeks for the selfe same which Satyrs among the Latines that they both are one thing Probus and Seruius saith that they are called Fauni à fando because they prophesied as Pan did amongst the Sheepheards And Seruius vvriteth that Egipans Satyrs and Faunes are all one Nicolaus Leonicus in his second booke de vana historia vvriteth of another sort of Satyrs much differing in shape from these before rehearsed he alledgeth an Author called Pausanias vvhose authority he followeth in his whole worke who sayeth that he heard Eufemius a man of great estimation and credite affirme that sayling towardes Spaine the ship in which they went through a great tempest and storme beeing driuen with a violent vvesterne wind to runne along the Ocean Seas brought them at last vpon the coast of certain Ilands which seemed to be vninhabited wher they had no sooner landed to take in fresh vvater but there appeared certaine vvild men of a fierce cruel resemblance all couered vvith haire somwhat reddish resembling in each other part men but onely that they had long tailes full of brisled haires like vnto horses These monsters discouering the Marriners ioyned them selues in a great troupe squadron together making an ilfauoured noyse like the barking or rather howling of doggs and at last of a sodaine set vpon them with such a fury and vehemence that they draue them backe to their ship forcing them to leaue behind them one of their vvomen which was also landed vpon whom they savv from their ship those brutish men or rather barbarous monsters vse all sort of fleshly abhomination and filthy lust
one in Scithia a Prouince of Asia and the other in Lybia a Prouince of Affrica vvherein is confirmed that which you say touching theyr diuersitie of Regions though their manner of life were all one And if you desire to know the sum of their history the opinion of diuers authors concerning thē reade Pedro Mexias in his Forrest of Collections who therin handleth it at large truly if they were so mighty as they are vvritten to be some great and notable matter must needes haue succeeded before their fall who in time of theyr prosperity had achiued such vvoorthy enterprises BER Leauing this let vs resolue our selues in the matter of Pigmees proposed by Signior Ludouico the discourse of which vvill yeeld as much matter vvhereon to speake as this of the Amazones ANT. Of these the most parte of Cosmographers make mention describing them to be men of three spans in length Plinie holdeth that they exceede not in length three hand-bredths the thombe being strect out Iuuenall speaking of them sayth that theyr vvhole stature passeth not the height of a foot Both the one the other may be true for as amongst vs there be some men greater then other so may there be betweene them difference of statures though the highest cannot exceede three spans or very little more Theyr habitation is in the vtter parts of India towards the East neere the rising of the Riuer Ganges in certaine Mountaines where at such times as it is in other places Winter the Cranes come to lay theyr egges and to bring vp theyr young ones about the Riuer sides vvhose comming so soone as the Pigmees perceiue because they are so little that the Cranes regard them not but doe them much hurt as well in theyr persons as in eating vp theyr victuals spoyling their fruites they ioyne themselues as Homer writeth in great number to breake theyr egges to prepare themselues to this terrible fight they mount vpon Goates Rams and in very goodly equipage goe forvvarde to destroy this multiplication of Cranes as to a most dangerous and bloody enterprise BER This is a fierce people of great courage as it seemeth but as I haue heard they liue not long for theyr women at 3. yeares of age beare chyldren at 6. yeares are barren and reputed old and the greatest age they may reach vnto is ix or x. yeares Ouid in his 6. booke of Metamorp sayth that they are two foote long double the reckoning of Iuuenall and that theyr vvomen beare children at fiue yeares and at eyght yeares are old and die soone after AN. The common fame that goeth of them is so the like saith Aristotle by these words The Cranes come out of the plaines of Scithia to the lakes aboue Aegipt which is where the Riuer Nilus runneth and it is said that they fight in this place with the Pigmees and this is no fable but an assured truth that there are meruailous little men and very little horses also the men are about two feet and a handbreadth high the vvomen breed children at fiue yeres at eight are barraine and liue not much longer Solinus also entreating of the selfe same matter saith that the Pigmees enhabite certaine hils of India and that the longest terme of their life is eight yeeres LV. These authors are well wide one from another seeing the one placeth them in Affrica and the other in the vttermost bounds of Asia beeing so many thousand miles difference betweene them Pomponius Mela will haue their habitation to be in the farthest parts of all Affrica some others will haue it to be in Europe For Gemafrisius in his Cosmography sayeth that there was a ship made of leather driuen through a vehement tempest vpon the coast of the kingdom of Norway in the which were no other people then Pigmees of whose habitation there could no knowledge be had because no man could vnderstand their language but according to the course of their voyage it could not be but in some part betweene the West and the North which we will farther proue when we come to discourse thereof It must be in some other newe part of the world or else it must be in some Country contained vnder Europe Pigafeta a Knight of Malta which accompanied Magellan in his voyage to the Indies when he discouered the straight and returned back in the ship called Victoria which they say went round about the vvorlde in relation that hee made to the Pope of his strange aduentures by the way said that being in the Archpelago which is in the Sea of Sur and on the other side of the Straight there were found Pigmees in a certaine Iland of different fashion from these for their eares were as great as their whole body they laid themselues downe on the one and couered themselues with the other and were in their running exceeding swift which though he himselfe did not see because he could not apart himselfe from the voyage which the ship held yet it was in the Ilands there about a thing notoriously knowne and manifest and the most part of the Marriners testified the same AN. Pigafeta had neede for the credite of his report to bring such witnesses as had seene them in person but the matter is not great for euery man may beleeue herein what he list without committing deadly sinne Anthony Gubert seeing these diuersities tooke occasion in a Treatise of his to say that this matter of Pigmees is but a fable which hee endeuoureth to proue by diuers effectuall reasons the one of which is that the world beeing neuer so much voyaged neyther euer so great a part thereof discouered and knowne as now yet is there not any particuler part thereof certainly knowne or found out that is enhabited of Pigmees But omitting the sundry opinions of others which haue written of this matter it should be a great rashnes not to giue credite to so graue Authors as were Aristotle Soline and Pliny which affirme them to be and it may be that in times past this race of men were in those sundry parts which they say all of one forme and likenes according to that which wee sayde of the Amazones but let vs leaue this to be concluded by men of greater curiosity then wee are onely by the way I will tell you this that there are diuers of opinion that these Pigmees are not reasonable men but beastes bearing the figure and likenesse of men vvith some little more vse of reason then the other beastes haue BER They are in the wrong vvhich maintayne that opinion for it is most certaine that there are Pigmees and that they are men indued with reason the which you may see in Ezechiell vvhere hee reckoneth vp the Pigmees amongst other Nations that had affaires and dealings in the Citty of Tyre saying The Pigmees also which stand in thy Towres hanged vp theyr shieldes round about
if they were then no greater then they now are the greatnes of his stature was not so out of proportion and wonderfull and if the bodies of Antheus Oryon had thē been measured they would not haue been so many of their cubits as they were of theirs that measured them I beleeue that they would nowe be more the cause hereof is that as the world waxeth old so al things draw to be lesser for euen as earth that hath not ben laboured yeeldeth greater fruite at the beginning and in more aboundance then after when it becōmeth weary and tired with continuall trauaile bringing forth euen so the vvorld through wearines and long course of generation ceaseth to breed men of so large and puissant statures as it wonted AN. Although in part of this your argument you seeme to haue some reason yet you are deceaued if you hold this for a generall rule without exception for this age of ours is not without Gyants and those very great truth it is that in times past there were of thē in many parts and now in very few those for the most part in Lands nere to the North South pole for it seemeth that Nature enclineth to create this greater men in cold Countries But seeing this is a matter which cannot be handled without falling into discourse of those Countries towards the Septentrion matter of no lesse admiration let vs leaue it till we meete another time to the ende wee may haue where-with to entertaine good conuersation LU. There are also people of great stature which liue in hote Countries towards the Aequinoctiall for as Crates Pergamenus writeth there is a people among the Aethiopians called Sirboti whose common stature is eight cubites and more in height and what thinke you May not these men well be called Gyants AN. This onely Author maketh relation thereof and though we haue notice of all the Nations of Aethiopians we haue neuer seene nor heard of any such great people amongst them but wee notoriously knowe that there are of them in the colde Regions and such as are commonly helde to bee vninhabitable which at farther leasure I will cause you thoroughly to vnderstand LV. If you thinke that I will forgette this your promise you are deceaued for I holde well in memory all such matters as we doo nowe leaue in suspence but nowe seeing you will haue it so let vs passe on and giue mee to vnderstand vvhether liue longest these great or little men for it agreeth with reason that the one greatnes should be conformable to the other AN. The long life of man consisteth neyther in littlenes nor greatnes but in being wel complexioned hauing good humors not apt to receaue corruption besides a mild reposed life good victuals sobriety in eating drinking many other particuler things which Phisitions prescribe doe help much there-vnto but the chiefest of all is the good quality condition of the country as wel for some particuler constellation as for the temperature purenes of the ayre breeding the victuals in perfection without rawe and flimy humors this I take to be the cause why some Nations liue so long Aelianicus sayth that in the Prouince of Aetolia the men liue 200. some 300. yeres and Pliny sayth that there is a people in India called Cimi who liue ordinarily 140 yeeres Onosecritus also writeth that in a certaine part of India where at noone dayes there is no shadow at all the men are of height 5. cubits and two hand breadths that they liue 130. yeres without waxing old but die euen as it were in their middle age There is another Nation of people of a Prouince called Pandora whose life endureth v. or 300. yeres in their youth their haire is hoary and gray in their elder age turning to be blacke Though these liues be long yet we may giue credite there-vnto for the causes which I haue said chiefely for the purenes of the aire which cōserueth health as wel in humane bodies thēselues as in the fruits victuals which grow there with lesse coruption more perfection vertue thē in other parts 〈◊〉 glueth testimony heereof speaking of the Iland Lemnos and the Citty Mirina the which hath in opposite the mountaine Atos in Macedonia which is so high that being thence in distance 6000. paces it couereth this Citty with his shadow on the top wherof moueth no aire at al but pure in so much that the ashes which there remaine moues not frō one yere to another on the height of this hil was builded a City called Acroton the enhabitants of which liued twice so long as those that dwelt beneath BE. If this Citty were so wholsom the people of so long life wherfore cam it to be dispeopled for saken by reason me thinks it should be as full of people as it were able to hold AN. One cōmodity alone suffiseth not to the life of man for what auaileth long life if men liue continually in penury and want of thinges necessary For in so great a height Spring they could haue none neither could they gather water into Cesternes because it was higher then the Region where the clouds are congealed which could by no means moue themselues wanting wind as they must needs want there for howe can there be any where the ashes lye without mouing so that this other commodities for their sustenance were to be prouided with such paine difficulty and vnease that forsaking this place they chose rather with more ease though shorter life to commodate themselues elsewhere for this selfe same cause is the mountaine of Olympus vninhabited in whose top also it is affirmed the ayre to be so pure that there bloweth no wind at all The like also I beleeue to be of the mountaine Pariardes which is in Armenia where after the flood the Arke of Noe remained But all this is to no other ende then that you should vnderstand the reason how mans life is to be conserned more in some places then in others and euen so I thinke it to be in the Prouinces which we haue rehearsed that also which the selfe Solinus sayeth of the Aethiopians whom they call Macrobians who are on the other side of the Iland Meroe and liue ordinarily 150. yeeres and many reach to 200. And Gaudencius Merula writeth that he hath found Authors which affirme that in the selfe same Iland Meroe the people neuer die of any sicknes liuing so long till very age consume them But leauing this generality of liues let vs come to entreate of some particulers without alleadging the liues of those holy Fathers out of the old Testament before and after the flood of 800. and 900. yeeres a peece which we firmely beleeue through faith and because the holy Church affirmeth it so that wee know it to be true and indubitable neither is that a small argument
furiously sallied dooing great hurt and damage in the Country killing and wounding the passengers and destroying the fruits laboured grounds Ixion seeing that the people hereby endamaged exclaimed vpoÌ„ him resoluing to take some order for the destruction of these Bulls made it be proclaimed that he would giue rich rewards great recompences to who so euer should kil any of them There were at that time in a Citty called Nephele certaine young men of great courage which were taught instructed by those of the same towne to breake tame horses to mount vpon their backs sometimes assailing and sometimes flying as neede required These vndertooke this enterpise to destroy these Bulls and through the aduantage of their horses the vertue of theyr own courage slew tooke daily so many of them that at last they cleared deliuered the Country of this anoyance Ixion accomplished his promise so that these young men remained not only rich but mighty formidable through the aduantage they had of other meÌ„ with this vse redines of their horses neuer till that time seen or known before They retained still the name of Centaures which signifieth wounders of Bulls They grew at last into such haughtines pride that they neither esteemed the King nor any man else doing what they list them selues so that beeing one day inuited to a certaine mariage in the towne of Larissa being wel tipled they determined to rauish the dames and Ladies there assembled which they barbarously accomplished rising of a sodaine and taking the Gentlewomen behind them on their horses riding away with theÌ„ for which cause the wars began betweene them the Lapiths for so were the men of that Country called The Centaures gathering theÌ„selues to the mountains by night came down to rob spoile stil sauing theÌ„selues throgh the swiftnes of their horses Those of the Countries there about which neuer til that time had seen any horsman thought that the maÌ„ the horse had ben all one because the town whence they issued to make their warres was called Nephele which is as much to say as a cloud the fable was inuented saying that the Centaures discended out of the clouds Ouid in his Meramorphosis entreateth hereof say that it was at the mariage of Perithous with Hypodameya daughter to Ixion he nameth also many of the Centaures by whoÌ„ this tumult was committed but the pure truth is that which Eginius writeth LV. It is no meruaile if the people in those dayes were so deceaued hauing neuer before seen horses broken tamed nor men sitting on their backs the strange nouelty whereof they could not otherwise vnderstand for proofe wherof we know that in the Ilands of the vvest-Indies the Indians when they first saw the Spaniards mounted vpon horses thought sure that the man and the horse had beene all one creature the feare conceaued through which amazement was cause that in many places they rendered themselues with more facillity then they would haue done if they had knowne the trueth thereof But withall you must vnderstand that the Auncients called old men also Centaures that were Tutors of noble mens Sonnes and so was Chiron called the maister of Achilles through which name diuers being deceaued painted him forth halfe like a man halfe like a horse BER I was much troubled with this matter of Centaures wherefore I am glad that you haue made me vnderstand so much therof but withall I would that Signior Anthonio would tell vs what his opinion is of Sea men for diuers affirme that there are such and that they want nothing but reason so like are they in all proportions to bee accounted perfect men as wee are AN. It is true indeede there are many graue sincere writers which affirme that there is in the Sea a kind of fish which they call Tritons bearing in each point the shape humane the female sort thereof they call Nereydes of which Pero Mexias in his Forrest writeth a particuler Chapter alleadging Pliny which sayeth that those of the Citty of Lisboa aduertised Tiberius Caesar how that they had found one of those men in a Caue neere to the Sea making musick with the shell of a fish but he forgot an other no lesse strange which the same Author telleth in these very wordes My witnesses are men renowned in the order of Knighthood that on the Ocean Sea neere to Calays they saw come into their shippe about night time a Sea man whose shape without any difference at all was humaine he was so great and wayed so heauy that the boate began to sinke on that side where hee stoode and if hee had stayed any thing longer it had been drowned Theodore Gaze also alleadged by Alexander of Alexandria writeth that in his time one of these Sea men or rather men fishes accustomed to hide him selfe in a Caue vnder a Spring by the Sea side in Epirus where young maydens vsed to fetch their water of which seeing any one comming alone rising vp hee caught her in his armes and carried her into the Sea so that hauing in this sort carried away diuers the enhabitants being aduertised thereof set such grins for him that at last they tooke him kept him some dayes They offered him meat but he refused to eate and so at length beeing in an element contrary to his nature died The same Alexander speaketh of another Sea-monster which Bonifacius Neapolitanê° a man of great authority certified him that he saw brought out of Mauritania into Spain whose face was like a man some-what aged his beard haire curled and glistring his complexion and colour in a manner blew in all his members proportioned like a man though his stature were somewhat greater the onely difference vvas that he had certaine finnes with the which as it seemed he diuided the water as he swamme LVD It seemeth by this which you haue sayd of these monsters that there should be in them a kinde of reason seeing the one entred by night into the Shyp with intention to doe it damage and the other vsed such craft in his embuscades to entrappe those women AN. They are some likelihoods though they conclude not for as we see that there are heere on earth some beastes vvith more vigorous instinct of nature then others and neerer approching to the counterfaiting gestures of men as for example Apes and such like so is there also in this point difference among the Fishes of the Sea as the Dolphins vvhich are more warie and cautelous then the others as well in doing damage as in auoyding danger for Nature hath giuen all things a naturall and generall inclination to ayde help theÌ„selues withall Olaus Magnus handleth very copiously thys matter of Tritons or Sea-men of which in the Northerne Seas he sayth there is great abundance and that it is true that they vse to come into little Shyps of which with their weight
may be gathered that put the case that Paradise stood towards any part of the East yet could not the same be far off frō the Citties of Ierusalem Tyre because he nameth iointly together Charam Heden being a thing most manifest that Charam is a Prouince in Chaldae or Mesopotamia which appeareth by the words of Genesis saying God took thē out of Vra Prouince of the Chaldaeans that they might go to Canaan they cam euen to Charam these are euident reasons to proue that Paradise stood in that Coūtry that if as yet it be it standeth there it maketh the better with this opinion because the two Riuers Tygris Euphrates bath and water that Prouince Besides we may suppose that the Arke of Noe during the 40. dayes of the flood while it floted vpō the water being so great huge built so monstrous as appeareth by the holy scripture to no other end then that it should not sink made no very long voyage which staying setling it selfe on the mountaines of Armenia is a token that Noes biding was not farre from thence of the other side it is certaine that his habitation was not far off from that part where Paradice was which by consequence could not be farre off from Armenia vpon which these prouinces before rehearsed doe border and that the Country where Paradice stood was enhabited appeareth by these words of S. Chrisostome Before the flood saith he men knew the place where Paradice stood the way to goe vnto the same But after the deluge they found thēselues out of the knowledge thereof neyther could Noe or any of his Successors remēber or find out the place where it had beene And seeing that Chrisostom saith that it was neuer afterwards knowne neither can we know if it still remained or if it were dissolued for standing in part where notice might haue been had thereof LV. Indeed if Paradice should be in a place so neere vnto vs how were it possible that no man should haue knowledge thereof or at the least of the place where it might stand AN. To this answereth Eugubinus that granting his former opiniō to be true or that Paradice was planted in a flat ground or at least not so high as other Doctors affirme then certainly it was destroyed by the waters of the flood God through our offences not permitting a thing so notable of so great perfection to remaine amongst vs in the world LV. It seemeth not vnto me that Eugubinus hath reason to gainsay the opinion of so many Doctors agreeing all in one Strabo being both a Historiographer and a Diuine writeth that the sword with which God placed the Seraphin at the gate of Paradice was called Versatilis which is as much to say as turning because it could turn back as it did when it gaue place of entry to Elias Enoch though the same be otherwise vnderstood of Nicolaus de Lyra who saith that Torrida Zona is the firy sword which the Seraphin held whose exceeding furious heate defended that passage frō all men liuing But this is out of date seeing the industry of this our age hath found the same to be passable BE. I dare not determinatly affirme whether Elias cam out of terestrial Paradice or any other place when he was speaking with Christ at his transfiguration for it is generally held as a thing most certain indubitable that Elias where so euer he be is in body and soule AN. Truly there are for the maintenance of each of these opinions so many reasons that it is best not to trouble our wits withall but to leaue the censure of thē to wiser men greater Doctors then we are only one thing remaineth the which truly if it were in my power I would not permit that so many fables shold be set forth divulged as there are as that which is written in the life of S. Amasus that hee stoode so many yeeres at the gates thereof and also in a treatise of S. Patricks Purgatory where it is written that a Gentleman entring in passed through the same into earthly Paradice for in such matters no man ought to be so hardy as to affirme any thing but that which is knowne to be true and approoued LV. In good sooth you haue great reason but now seeing you haue sayde as much as may be about the situation of Paradice goe forward with that of the Riuers which come from thence a matter vnlesse I be deceaued of no lesse difficulty then the before rehearsed AN. I assure you it is such that I should haue been glad if you had ouerslipped it doubting least I shall be vnable to satisfie your expectation for as Eugubinus sayeth there is so great and so intricate a difficulty heerein that he is hardly able to vnwinde him selfe there out whom of force in this matter I must follow for as for the other Authors which write heereof it seemeth that they stay at the halfe carere without reaching to the end of the course To begin therefore it is sayd in Genesis that there issued a Riuer out of Paradice deuiding it selfe into foure parts the which were Gion Fison Tygris and Euphrates But seeing the difficulty of the seate and place of paradice cannot clearely be determined much lesse can this be of the foure Riuers which issue thence especially knowing at this present that their Springs and risings are in diuers different parts of the world yet for all this sifting and bolting out the truth we will approach as neere it as we may This Riuer which deuided it selfe into foure first issued out of the place of delights which was according to Eugubinus the Prouince of Heden and from thence entered to inundate Paradice whence comming forth it made this deuision It is manifest that the first part therof called Gion is the same which we now call Ganges for this is it which watreth the land of Heuylath The second Riuer Fyson is without all doubt that which wee now call Nilus seeing there is no other which watereth and compasseth about the Land of Aethiopia as the text it selfe sayeth As for Tygris Euphrates they retaine yet their selfe same first names and runne along the Country of the Assirians and of these two last it may be sayde that they rise or at the least that the first Land which they water is the same which according to that before alleaged may be called the prouince of Heden BER These two Riuers are by all Cosmographers described to haue their risings in the Mountaine Taurus in Armenia and it is true that they vvater the prouince of the Assirians but theyr rysing and beginning is farre from thence as saith Strabo by these words Euphrates and Tygris rise in the Mountaine Taurus and compassing about Mesapotamia ioyne themselues together by Babylon and from thence goe to enter into the Persian Sea the spring of Euphrates is on the North side of
reason therfore but they neuer talke of that Land which runneth on in length by the sea coast on the left hand towards the West passing by the kingdome of Norway and many other Prouinces and Countries for they know not what Land it is neither whether it goeth nor where it endeth nor where it turneth to ioyne with those parts of which they haue notice LV. By this meanes then it may be that they are deceaued which say that Europe is the least part of the three olde diuided parts of the world yet some say that on the other side of the bounds of Asia also there is much vnknowne Lande AN. You haue reason for this Land of which I speak stretching out along the Occident commeth turning to the Septentrion euen till vnder the Northern Pole which is the same that we here see from which forward on the other side what Lande there is or howe it extendeth it selfe wee knowe not though perchaunce the same be very great and spacious But let vs leaue this matter till hereafter where I will declare it more particulerly let vs return to entreate of som grounds and principles which are necessary for the facility of vnderstanding that which wee will speake of for otherwise in alleaging euery particuler wee should bring in all the Astrologie and cosmography of the world and therfore ommitting to declare what thing the Sphaere is and in what sort it is vnderstood that the earth is the Center of the worlde and then how the Center of the Earth is to be vnderstood with infinit other the like I will onelie alleadge that which is necessarie for our discourse First therefore all Astronomers and Cosmographers deuide the heauen into fiue Zones which are fiue parts or fiue gyrdings about according to which also the Earth is deuided into other fiue parts The one hath in the midst thereof the Pole Artick or North-pole which is the same that wee see the other hath the South or Pole Antartick directly contrary on the other side of the Heauen These 2. Poles are as two Axeltrees vpon which the whole Heauen turneth about they still standing firme in one selfe place in the midst betweene them both is the same which we call Torrida Zona and of the other two Colaterall Zones the one is between Torrida Zona the North-pole beeing the same in which we inhabite cōtaining Asia Affrick Europe it hath not bin known or vnderstood til these our times that any other of the Zones or parts of the earth hath been enhabited and so saith Ouid in his Metamorphosis that as the heauen is deuided into fiue Zones two one the right hand and two on the left and that in the midst more fierie then any of the rest so hath the diuine Prouidence deuided the Earth into other fiue parts of which that in the midst is through the great heate vninhabitable and the two vtmost in respect of their exceeding cold The selfe same opinion holdeth Macrobius in his seconde booke of the Dreame of Scipio Virgill in his Georgiques and the most part of all the auncient Authors whose authorities it serueth to no purpose to rehearse because in these our tymes we haue seene and vnderstood by experience the contrary as touching Torrida Zona seeing it is as well to be enhabited as any of the others and euery day it is past vnder frō one part to another as wee the other day discoursed And trulie the ignoraunce of the Auncients must bee verie great seeing they know not that Arabia faelix Aethiopia the coast of Guyne Calecut Malaca Taprobana Elgatigara many other Countries then in notice were vnder Torrida zona beeing a thing so notorious manifest that I maruaile how they coulde so deceaue themselues and not onely they but diuers moderne Writers also which though one way they confesse it yet another way they seeme to stande in doubt as may be seene by the Cosmography of Petrus Appianus augmented by Gemmafrigius a man in that Science very famous whose wordes are these The fiue zones of the Heauen constitute so many parts in the Earth of which the two vtmost in respect of theyr extreame cold are vnenhabitable the middlemost through the continuall course of the Sunne and perpendiculer beames thereof is so singed that by reason it seemeth not at all or very hardly to be habitable The Greeke Commendador likewise a man of great fame estimation in Spayne deceaued himselfe in his glosse vvhich hee vvrote vpon Iohn De Meno wherein hee maintayneth thys auncient opinion by these vvordes The Mathematitians sayth hee deuide the Earth into fiue Zones of which the two vtmost next the Poles through theyr great extreamitie of colde are not enhabitable neyther that in the midst through extreame heate the other two of each side participating of the heate of the middle and the colde of the vtter Zones are temperate and inhabitable Of these two the one is enhabited by those Nations of which we haue notice and is deuided into three parts Affrica Asia and Europa the other is enhabited by those whom we call Antypodes of whom we neuer had nor neuer shall haue any knowledge at all by reason of the Torrida or burned Zone which is vninhabitable the fierie heate of which stoppeth the passage betweene them and vs so that neyther they can come at vs nor we at them c. Though heere the Comendador confesse that there are Antypodes with whom wee cannot conuerse nor traffique yet the Auncients accounting the Torrida Zona as vninhabitable doubted whether there could be of the other side therof any people seeming vnto them vnpossible for any man since the creation of Adam which was created in this second Zone of the Pole Articke to passe ouer the burning Zone and there to generate and spred mankind Of this opinion seemeth to be S. Austine when he saith Those which fabulously affirme that there are Antypodes which is to say men of the contrary part where the Sunne riseth when it setteth with vs and which goe on the ground with theyr feete right against ours are by no meanes to be beleeued and Lactantius Firmianus in his third booke of Diuine Institutions laugheth and iesteth at those which make the earth and the water to be a body sphaericall and round at which error of his being a man so wise and prudent I cannot choose but much meruaile in denying a principle so notoriously known as though the world being round those people which are opposite to vs vnderneath should fall downe backwards The grosnes of which ignorance being nowe so manifestly discouered I will spend no more time in rehearsing his wordes so that they deny that there are Antypodes and that the world is enhabitable at all the Zones the contrary whereof is manifest Pliny handleth this matter in the sixty fiue Chapter of his second booke but in the end he resolueth not whether
manner all speake by heare-say and coniecture who though they bring apparant reasons yet are they not so sufficient that we are bound absolutly to beleeue them without thinking that in many of them we may be deceaued AN. It is true in part though they haue also many reasons which cannot be reprooued as those which the same Gemma Frigius giueth to make vs vnderstand that beyond these Landes farther Northwardes the dayes and nights encrease successiuely as I said before till they come to be sixe monthes long apeece which seeing the Batchiler Encisus rehearseth also in his Cosmography discoursing more plainlie and cleerely of them I will let you vnderstand what he wryteth Entreating howe that the dayes and nights are alvvayes equall and of one length to those that dwell vnder the Equinoctiall he passeth forward telling how they goe increasing and decreasing in length according to the degrees that they apart themselues from the Sunne so comming to say that those which dwell in 67. degrees haue their longest day of 24. houres so that one day is 24. houres and one night as much more which is day without night and night without day Those which dwell in 69. degrees haue a whole month together day without night and another whole month night without day Those which dwell in 71. degrees haue two months of day without any night and two months of night without anie day Those which dwell in 73. degrees haue three months of day and other three of night Those which dwell in 75. degrees haue four months of continuall day and other foure of continuall night And those which dwel in 79. and 80. degrees haue sixe months of day without night and other sixe months of night without day so that in the whole yeere they haue no more then one day one night BER By this computation it seemeth that they which are in 80. degrees and enioy the day and night sixe months long apeece should be vnder the very Pole AN. Nay rather they reach not so farre as to be vnder it as the same Encisus saith a little after by these words From thence forward to the Pole the difference is little whether it be day or night for the greatnes of the Sunne exceeding the roundnes of the world yeeldeth to those parts of the Poles a continuall brightnesse because the compasse of the earth beeing inferior to that of the Sunne is not able to make shaddowe or to hinder that the cleerenesse thereof shine not ouer those parts LU. This is maruailous strange that there shoulde be anie Lande where it is neuer night AN. You must not vnderstand but that it waxeth night which is when the Sunne setteth but yet the same in such sort that there neuer vvanteth sufficient light and brightnes to see any worke whatsoeuer is to be doone and if you will be attentife I will make you vnderstand it more plainlie With those that are vnder the Poles and haue there their habitation the Sunne neither riseth neyther setteth as it doth heere with vs but verie differently for with vs the Sunne riseth in the East and passing ouer our heads or missing little thereof goeth to hide it selfe and set in the West and giuing a compasse about vnder the earth turneth the next day to appeare in the same place making in this course very little difference in a yeere and our shaddowe vvhen the Sunne riseth falleth to the West and vvhen it setteth towards the East but to those who are at the Poles which according to the rising of the Sunne are the sides of the world it is not so and therefore consider that when the Sunne is in the midst betweene them both and from thence goeth declining to one side the more he declineth the more he lightneth that side and hideth himselfe from the other because in going and turning to the same place he deteyneth himselfe halfe a yeere he causeth that those which are vnder the Pole of that side haue the day halfe a yeere long and contrarie vvhen returning to the mydst of his iourney hee goeth declyning to the other side hee vvorketh the same effect vvith those of the other Pole and so they repart the yeere one with another the one hauing mid-daie vvhen the other hath mid-night and so by contrarie And if you desire to vnderstand this well and to see it by experience take any round thing that is somewhat great and causing it to be hanged vp in the ayre light a Candle when it is darke and lyfting it vp a little bring it rounde about by the midst and beginne thence to goe declining vvith it to one side and you shall see that the more you decline the more you shall lighten the poynt which is on that side and the more obscure will that be on the other side then comming to turne againe giuing a compasse by the midst and thence discending on the other part towards the other side the same will presenlie beginne to goe lightning and the other obscuring and if as I say it is a Candle it were a Torch the brightnesse vvould be greater and though declining to one side it obscure the other yet should it neuer be so much but that there woulde remaine some lyght of that which doth reuerberate from the flame and greatest brightnesse of the Torch and so fares it with those inhabitants vvhich are at the Poles or in the Land vnder them which as the Sunne is so much greater then the vvhole Earth so cannot he chuse but cast from one side some light vnto the other vvhich though it be not with his proper beames yet is it of the flashing and excellent brightnesse which dooth reuerberate from them as we haue heere with vs an example of the like when the Sunne is going downe Besides the cleerenesse of the Moone and Starres shyning there helpeth verie much that the obscuritie of the Night can neuer be there so great but that men may see one another doe theyr businesse and as Nature hath prouided a remedie for all thinges so hath shee heereby taken away that tediousnesse which otherwise the length of so long a night should haue caused BER I haue very well vnderstood all that which you haue sayde according to vvhich the Sunne riseth and setteth with them farre differently from that hee doth with all the world besides AN. I will tell you with vs as I saide before the Sunne passeth aboue ouer vs and maketh our shadowes on one side at his rising and on another at his setting but if you will vnderstand me well you must vse attention and first you must know that this word Orizon signified the Heauen which we see wheresoeuer we are in turning our eyes rounde about the earth so that euery Prouince and Country hath an Orizon which is that part of Heauen which they discouer in circling or compassing it about with theyr sight And as in our Orizon we discouer the Sunne by little and little
when he riseth to take his course through the heauen ouer vs and so at last to set himselfe in the contrary place so with those which are vnder the Poles in his rising afterwards his setting in a far different sort For the first day that he riseth there appeareth but a point of him which can scarcely be discouered and goeth so round about their Orizon in which going about hee sheweth himselfe alwaies in one sort without encreasing vnlesse it be a very little casting all alike brightnes forth At the second turne he goeth discouering himselfe a little more and so at the third and fourth and all the rest encreasing from degree in degree and giuing turnes round about the heauen vpwards in which he continueth three moneths and the shadow of all that vppon which his beames doe strike goeth round about and is when he beginneth to rise very great and the higher he mounteth the shorter it waxeth and afterward when he turneth to come downward in which he dureth other three moneths it is contrary euen till hee come to hide himselfe vnder the earth at which time as hee goeth hiding himselfe to those of the one pole so goeth hee shewing and discouering himselfe to those of the other LV. The vnderstanding of this mistery is not without some difficulty especially to vs which till this time haue not had thereof any notice yet I now begin by little and little to comprehend the same onely one doubt remaineth which somwhat troubleth mee which is if the whole Land from that place where the dayes are of 24. houres length which according as I vnderstand is from the I le of Thule and the other Prouinces that are on firme Land till you come to that which you say is vnder the Pole be enhabited of men or Desert without habitation AN. I make no doubt but that all this Land is enhabited in parts though not so populously in all places as this of ours in this the Authors doe not so plainly declare themselues that we may thereby receaue cleare and particuler vnderstanding thereof though some of them goe on setting vs in the right way to knowe the same For Encisus following the discouery of the Coast which goeth towards the Sunne-setting giuing a turne to the North he goeth discouering by the same many Prouinces amongst which I remember hee speaketh of two the one called Pyla Pylanter and the other which is somwhat farther Euge Velanter in which he saith the dayes encrease to two moneths and a halfe and the night as much which though it be a Land enhabited yet through the extreame and terrible cold thereof the Riuers and Waters are in such sort frozen that the enhabitants haue much adoe to get any vvater for their Ices are so thicke strong and hard that they cannot be broken without infinite paine trauaile They waite many times til the Ice be opened by certaine wild Beasts which they haue amongst them white of colour and proportioned much like vnto Beares whose nature is as well to liue by water as by land whose feete are armed with such terrible sharpe great and strong nailes that they breake therewith the Ice how thicke so euer it be vnder the which plunging themselues they swim along the water and pray vpon such fishes as they finde leauing the holes whereat they entred open at which the enhabitants come incontinently to draw water endeuouring with all dilligence to keepe them open least otherwise they freeze and close together againe as fast as they were before They hang in at them their baits and Angling hookes with the which also they take fish for their sustenance As for me I assuredly thinke that these Prouinces are those which Gemma Frigius calleth Pilapia and Vilapia though he say that the dayes in them encrease no farther then to a moneth the nights as much But let vs not wonder if in such things as these so farre distant seperated from vs we finde no witnesses of such conformity but that they differ in somwhat Olaus Magnus giueth vs though in briefe words some neerer notice of this matter for before he come to discourse more particulerly of the Prouinces vnder the same Pole he vseth these words Those of Laponia saith he of Bothnya Byarmya and the Ifladians haue their dayes and nights halfe a yeere long a peece Those of Elsingia Angermania and part of Swethland haue them fiue moneths long and those of Gothland Muscouia Russia and Liuonia haue them three moneths long Which Author being naturall of Gothland and Bishop of Vpsala it is to be thought that hee knew the truth thereof But these Countries being so neere vnto ours I meruaile that there is no greater notice of them and that there are not many more Authors that doe write of them Truth it is as I vnderstand that this encreasing of daies and nights should not bee generall throughout the vvhole Country but onely in part thereof which may be gathered out of that which he sayth of the Kingdome of Norway that in the entry and first parts of the same the dayes are as they are heere with vs But going on forth to the blacke Castell and from thence forwarde there is so great a change as you haue heard before the like may also be in other Countries By these before rehearsed authorities we may vnderstand the resolution of the doubt by you proposed that all the Lande betweene vs and the North is enhabited at least in parts therof heere and there so that it may be trauailed through ouer all BER My head is greatly troubled about this encreasing decreasing of the dayes and nights so much because the farther we goe from the Aequinoctial the longer we find them yet the common opinion of all Cosmographers is that in one degree are reckoned sixteene leagues and a halfe or somwhat more which being so it seemeth meruailous that in two degrees which are but 23. leagues or very little more the day and successiuely the night should encrease so much time as is a moneth according to your former computation and that when it were day in the one part it should be night in the other they being so neere together AN. You haue some reason to doubt but as these Lands goe alwaies downehill or slopewise in respect of the course of the Sun so in little space the same both hideth discouereth it selfe vnto them in great quantity this you may partly vnderstand by that which happeneth to trauailers who hauing the Sunne in their eye a little before the setting thereof in passing ouer a Plaine and champaine place lose presently the sight thereof in comming to the foote of a hill as though he were sodainly set yet if they make hast when they get vp to the top of the hill they finde him not fully downe recouering againe day though but a little yet somwhat longer But for all this I blame you not in wondring at a thing
before they heard any newes of his comming yet vniting themselues so well as time permitted them with the ayde of theyr neighbours arming themselues with bowes and arrowes and flying fighting and retiring with incredible swiftnes through the Snowes they disconfited the King and chased him away who in his dayes was accounted a puissant Prince and had triumphed of many warlike Nations Comming out of these Prouinces of Byarmya there is presently another which hee calleth Fynlande of which a great part was according to the Author before named in times past subiect to the King of Norway This Land though very colde yet is in some parts laboured and yeeldeth fruites of all sorts vnto the enhabitants who are in proportion of body mighty and strong and in fight agaynst theyr Enemies of great valour and courage Though the ayre be cold yet it is pure and well tempered in so much that their fishes cutte vp onely and laide in the ayre doe endure many dayes without corrupting In Sommer it rayneth with them very sildome or neuer theyr day is so long that it continueth from the Kalendes of Aprill till the sixth of the Ides of September which is more then fiue moneths and the night againe as much the darknes of which is neuer so great but that you may well see to reade a Letter in the same it is distant from the Aequinoctiall in threescore degrees There are no starres seene from the beginning of May till the beginning of August but onely the Moone which goeth wheeling round about a little aboue the earth resembling a great Oake burning and casting out beames of fire with a brightnesse somewhat dimme and troubled in such sort that it causeth great admiration and astonishment to those that neuer sawe it before and which is more hee sayeth that shee giueth them so light the most part of theyr night though it continue so long and as for that little time in vvhich shee hideth herselfe the brightnesse of the starres is so radyant that they haue lyttle misse of the Moone vvhich starre-light at such time as the Moone shyneth forsaketh them whose brightnesse is the cause that they appeare not though I cannot but beleeue that they appeare alwayes somewhat though not so cleerely at one time as at an other seeing in these our Countries we see them shine neere the Moone though she be at full yea and sometimes at mid-day we see starres very neere the Sunne LV. It is likely that it should be as you say in Byarmya and those other vnknown Countries which are vnder the Pole or neere there abouts and it may be inferred also that the dayes goe encreasing and decreasing till they come to the full length of a halfe yeere for being in this part of fiue moneths they are in some places more and some lesse and seeing it is enhabitable as you say where it endureth fiue moneths it cannot but be better where it is of foure and better then that of three and so consequently of two and one whereby there is no doubt to be made but that the whole Land is enhabitable AN. I told you before that generally the whole Land is enhabited vnlesse it be in some places through some particuler cause and secrete ordinance of Nature As touching the Moone and the manner in which she lightneth those Regions I haue not seene any Author that handleth the same but onely Olaus Magnus though by good reason it seemeth that where the Sunne turneth about the heauens in course and compasse so different from that which hee doth with vs the Moone should doe the like in such sort as wee haue sayde BER By all likelihoode there are many secrete and wonderfull thinges of the nature of this Land hidden from vs as the Eclipse of the Sunne and the Moone which must needes be otherwise then it is heere with vs and therefore the Astronomers should doe well to sift out the verity thereof and to make vs vnderstand the same and withall the reckoning of the moneths and yeeres the computation of which it is likely also that they vse in another sort AN. As for their yeeres the difficulty is small seeing one day and one night doe make a full yeere and as for the deuision of their seasons their day is Sommer and the night is their Winter the moneths perchaunce they deuide according to their own fashion and the effects of their heauen but heerein the Authors giue vs no notice neither maketh it much matter whether we know it or no. LU. That which I wonder most at is how this people can tolerate and endure the bitter and extreame colde of that Clymat the effect of which here with vs though it be not so vehement as that of theirs we see daily before our eyes bringeth many men to theyr end and therefore wee take heede of taking colde as of the most dangerous thing that may be AN. You say true it hapneth so heere indeede oftentimes but you must consider that the force of nature is great which where she createth those things that are most full of difficulty there also createth and ordaineth she remedies and defences against thē as you may before haue vnderstood by the words of Iohn Zyglere but I will giue you another reason then the which in my iudgement nothing can be more euident and plaine which is that to all things the same is proper and naturall in which they are bred and brought vp As for example a man who from his child-hood is accustomed to eate some things that are venomous afterwards though he eate them in great quantitie they hurt him not at all and of this I haue seene the experience my selfe in the like sort a man brought vp in the cold the greater he waxeth the lesse he feeleth the inconuenience thereof so that it commeth in time to be naturall vnto him euen as to the fish to liue in water the Salamander to nourish himselfe in the fire and the Camelion to maintaine himselfe onely by ayre And euen as a Moore of Guyney should hardly fashion his body to endure the colde of these Northeren Landes so likewise one of these men brought into a hote Country would finde as great difficultie in enduring the heat Besides this Nature hath framed the mē of these Regions more sturdie and strong and against the rigour of the weather ordained them warme Caues vnder the earth to harbour themselues in They haue wilde beastes in great quantitie whom they kill of whose skinnes they make them garments turning the hairie side inward Their woods and Forrests are many and great so that in euery place they haue store of fuell to make great fires in fine they vvant no defensiuenes against the cold which is so far from annoying them that they liue in better health many more yeeres then we doe for their ayres are delicate pure preserue them from diseases making theyr complexions more robust and strong lesse apt to griefes
be chosen but that he beeing naturall of Gothland had seene a great part of these Septentrionall Countries seeing hee is able to giue so good and perfect notice of them Onely this one thing now remaineth to tell you which is that you must vnderstand that the very same which we haue heere discoursed of of Lands and Prouinces vnder the North-pole is and in the very selfe same manner in those which are vnder the South-pole and that in as much as pertaineth to the Heauen they differ nothing at all and verie little in that of the earth neyther can they chuse but haue there some other winde like vnto * Circius seeing the Snowe Ise and cold is there in such extreamity as by experience they found which went the voyage with Magellane who according to those that write of him his voyage was within 75. degrees of the Pole before he came to finde and discouer the straight to passe into the Sea of Sur but he entreateth nothing of the encrease and decrease of the dayes and nights the cause why I vnderstande not it beeing a thing of so great admiration that I vvonder why the Chronaclers make no mention thereof seeing they could not chuse but haue notice thereof both by the relation of those that then accompanied him in his voyage and of others that haue since attempted to discouer those parts beeing prohibited to passe any farther through the extreamitie of the cold who foūd in those parts men of monstrous greatnes such as I saide were found neere to the Pole Artick But this by the way I will not omit to tell you that the snowe which was founde on the toppes of Mountaines there vvas not white as it is in the Septentrionall Lands but blewish and of a colour like the skie of which secrete there is no other reason to be giuen then onely that it pleaseth Nature to haue it so There are also many other strange things as birds beasts herbes plants so farre different from these which we haue that they mooue great admiration to the beholders of them And if those parts were well discouered perchance also after the passing ouer of these cold Regions so difficile to be enhabited through the rigor of the Snow and Ise there might be found other Countries as temperate as that of the superiour Byarmia of which we spake before But let this happen when it shall please God in the meane time let vs content our selues with the knowledge of that which in our age is discouered knowne BER We should be greatly beholding to you if it should please you to prosecute your begunne discourse for no doubt where the course of the Sunne Moone and Starres is so diuers there cannot chuse but bee many other things also rare strange and worthy to be knowne AN. It pleaseth me well to giue you this contentment so that you will referre it till to morrow for it is now late and draweth neere supper time LVD Let it be as you please for to say the truth it is now time to retire our selues The end of the fifth Discourse The sixth Discourse entreating of sundry thinges that are in the Septentrionall Landes worthy of admiration Interlocutores ANTHONIO LUDOVICO BERNARDO AN. YOV may see that there wanteth in me no desire to doe you seruice seeing I came first hether to renewe our yesterdayes conuersation and to accomplish my worde and promise LVD Your courtesies towardes vs are many and this not the least of all seeing we hope at thys present to vnderstand the particularities of that delightful discourse which yesterday you began with promise to end the same to day BER It vvere good that wee sate downe vnder the shadovve of these sweete Eglantines and Iassemynes wherby we shall not onely receaue the pleasant sauour which they yeelde but shall haue our eares also filled with delight in hearing the Nightingales recorde their sweete and delectable notes to which in my iudgement the curious forced melody of many Musitians is nothing to be compared LU. No doubt but of all Birdes their singing is most delightfull if it continued the whole yeere but as theyr amorous desire ceaseth so ceaseth also theyr harmonie whereas the songe of other Birdes endureth the whole yere thorough BER They perchaunce account it needelesse to rechaunt theyr melodious tunes and sweete harmonie but at such time as the the pryde and gaietie of the season entertaineth them in loue and iealousie cheerefully with mutuall sweetnesse reioycing one another and each mate vnderstanding others call LUD According to thys you will haue the Birdes to vnderstand one another BER There is no doubt but they doe for euen as the Beastes knowe the voyce one of another assembling themselues together by theyr bellowing and braying euen so doe they vnderstande the chyrping and peeping one of another calling themselues thereby together into showles and flocks ANT. Nay vvhich is more strange they doe not onely vnderstand one another among themselues but sometimes also they are vnderstoode as it is written of men of which number Apolonius Tyaneus was one LUD That certainlie seemeth vnto mee a thing vnpossible ANT. Well yet I will not sticke to let you vnderstande what I haue read concerning this matter and you shall find the same written in his life Apollonius disporting himselfe one day in the fieldes vnder the shadow of certaine trees as wee doe at this present there setled ouer his head a Sparrow chirping and chyttering to other Sparrowes that were vpon the same trees the which altogether beganne to make a great chyrping a noyse and to take theyr flight speedilie towards the Cittie whereupon Apollonius bursting into a great laughter and beeing by his companions earnestly intreated to declare the cause thereof vnto them he saide that the same Sparrow that came alone had brought newes to the rest that a Myller comming on the high way towardes the Towne with a burden of Corne charged vppon his Asses backe had by chaunce let one of his sackes fall the stringes whereof breaking the Corne fell out which the Myller coulde not so cleane scrape vp and gather together againe but that a great deale thereof remayned tumbled in the dust which was the cause of the great myrth that the other byrdes demeaned who in thanking him for his good newes flewe away with hym to eate theyr part of the same Corne. His companions hearing this smyled thereat thinking it to be but a iest till in returning to the Towne they found the place where the sack had been broken the Sparrowes scraping verie busilie about the same LV. Apolonius was a man of great wisdom knowledge but I rather think that he deuined this matter by some other meanes for it seemeth hard to beleeue that birds should haue any language wherwith they should so particulerly expresse their meaning vnlesse it be certain generall notes by which each kind knoweth and calleth theyr semblable for in thinking
God LV. Remember you not what Esay saith in his 14. Cha. speaking to Lucifer It was thou saith he that saidst in thy hart I wil mount vp into heauen put my chaire vpon the starrs and seate my selfe on the hill of the testament in the sides and corners of the wind Circius or Aquilon BE. These authorities haue many interpretations but howsoeuer it be sure it is that there is in these Northerne parts an infinite number of Sorcerers Witches Enchaunters and Negromancers AN. Those of the Prouinces of Biarmia Scrifinia Finland with many other bordering Regions doe as the cōmon fame goeth for the most part all exercise Negromancie chiefly those of Filandia and Laponia which they vaunt to haue learned of Zorastes To such as sailed to their country for traffiques sake and had the wind contrary at their departure they vsed to sell for mony or merchandize such so cōmodious wind as they themselues desired They vsed to knit in a cord three knots of which vndoing the one there followed presently a moderate wind out of what Coast so euer they desired vndoing the second the wind began to bluster somwhat more furiously but vpon the losing of the third there arose such raging stormes and tempests that the shippes miscaried oftentimes and were drowned And therfore such strangers as traffiqued thither procured to entertaine friendship with them imagining their happy and vnhappy successe the raging and calmenes of the Sea to be at their pleasure and disposition for in this the deuils were to them in great subiection and obedience Besides when any man desired to know news frō forraine parts there were amongst thē diuers that would vndertake to giue them true aduertisements of such things as they required to know being wel paid for their paines They enclosed thēselues into a chamber taking with them their wiues or som other person whō they especially trusted then smiting vpon a figure of mettall which they kept made in fashion of a Toade or Serpent after whispering some words making certaine signes they fell downe groueling on the ground in a traunce most straightly charging and enioyning him or her that stoode by to take great heed that no flye vermine or beast should touch them while they so continued Returning to themselues they aunswered to such thinges as they were enquired of so truly that they were neuer found to be false in any one point And this they publiquely vsed till they receaued the faith of our Sauior Christ since which if they vse the same it is with great secrecie and most seuerely punished if it be knowne There are as yet in certaine Prouinces that confine vpon them and are somewhat neerer vnto vs many notable Negromancers famous by the writing of many Authors Amongst the rest there was euen almost in our time Henry king of Swethland who had the deuils so ready and obedient at his commaundement that he caused presently the wind to turne and change into what part so euer hee pointed with his cap in so much that of the common people he was called by no other name then Windy Bonet He had a Sonne in lawe called Reyner King of Denmarke who conquered on the Sea coast many Countries by force of Armes neuer at any time hauing contrary wind when hee went to Seaward beeing therein by his Father in law alwayes assisted to whom hee succeeded afterwards also in the Kingdome of Swethland Many write of a woman called Agaberta daughter of a Gyant in those Septentrionall Lands whose name was Vagonostus that she was so skilfull in Negromancie that she sildome suffered her selfe to be seene in her proper figure somtimes she would resemble an old withered wrinkled Crone sometimes a most beautifull and goodly Mayden somtimes she would seeme so feeble and faint and yellow of colour as though shee had beene consumed with a long and languishing Ague another time she would be so high that her head should seeme to reach vnto the clouds changing when she listed with such facility her shape as did Vrgand the vnknown of which old fables make such mention the strange force of her enchauntments was such that she could darken the Sun Moone Starres leuell high Mountaines and make plaine champaine of sauage Deserts pull trees vp by the rootes and dry vp running Riuers with many the like as though shee had had all the deuills of hell ready at a beck to fulfill her commaundements The like is written of an other called Grace of Norway Yffrotus the mighty King of Gothland and Swethland walking for recreation along the Sea-shore was runne at by a Cow and hurt with her hornes in such sort that hee died presently vpon the same afterward it came to be knowne and proued that the same Cowe was a Witch disguised in that forme which for some griefe conceaued against the King had vsed that reuenge vpon him There was one called Hollerus so incredibly surpassing the rest in this detestable Science that the common people supposed him to be more then a mortall man honoured him as a God though at length they founde theyr error for notwithstanding his fained immortalitie his heade was cut off and his body torne in peeces by his enemies for commonly the deuill though hee helpe them for a while yet euer in the end he leaueth them in the myre Othinus which was held for one of the greatest Negromancers that euer was brought Hadignus king of Denmark to his kingdom out of farre Countries into which he was banished on horsebacke or rather on the deuils backe behind him through thicke and thinne yea and ouer the Sea it selfe bringing it by his Enchauntments so to passe that the King was receaued established in his gouernment afterwardes in a battaile against Haruinus King of Norway he caused such a clowdie showre of hayle to strike on the face of his enemies that not enduring the violence thereof and beeing on the other side furiously charged by the Danes they turned theyr backs were discomfited But it were time lost to entreate any farder of this people beeing the deuils disciples dwelling and dailie dealing so familiarly with them There are amongst them often seene visions and Spirits deluding those that trauaile appearing to them in likenes of some of theyr knowne friends and suddainly vanishing away so that the deuill seemeth to haue in those Septentrionall Countries greater dominion more libertie then in other parts LV. I remember that I haue read a certaine Author which among many strange and wonderfull thinges wryteth that there is in a certaine part of these Lands a mountaine enuironed round about with the Sea vnlesse it be of one side where it hath onely a very narrow and little entry so that it seemeth in manner to be an Iland the toppe thereof is couered with trees so thicke and high that a farre of they seeme to touch the Clowdes There is within the same
as this passage is vsed Besides both Horsemen foote-men trauaile with greater facilitie but especiallie the footemen which when they list goe as it were in post euen as fast as a horse can gallop LV. Shall we not vnderstand the manner howe this may be AN. Yes marry shall you if you please and in truth it is an inuention worth the knowing When they are to make a voyage vpon the Ise if they list to vse speede they sette both theyr feete vpon a peece of wood made as smoothe and slippery vnderneath as is possible binding onely theyr left foote to the same theyr right foote being loose vpon which they weare a strong shoe with an yron in the poynt thereof so cunningly made that how great a blow so euer you giue the rouling planke with the same yet the foote receaueth thereby no hurt at all because the force of the stroke falleth hollow They carry in theyr hands great staues like demy Launces with three sharpe pikes at one ende of them And so hauing made theyr prouision of all things necessarie for theyr iourney going on alone or many in company euery man vpon his engine they drawe the right foote backward and giue a spurne as harde as they can against the planke vpon which the left foote is bound which presentlie gyrdeth out slyding along the Ise with incredible swiftnesse welnie so farre as the reach of a Caliuer shot without stay and then seeing the force of theyr course beginning to relent they chop downe theyr staffe vppon the Ise fastning therein the three pykes of the same for otherwise they should fall downe and then turning anewe into theyr first posture they giue an other gyrde with theyr right foote so that they trauaile in one howre three or foure leagues When there are many of them together they contend and lay wagers one with another who should giue the greatest stroke with his foote and they make such a shouting and crying that the tediousnes of the way is nothing noysome to them at all Besides they haue certaine slide Wagons finely made in which two or three persons may sit in which with great ease and pleasure they are drawne along the Ice with Horses beeing much like vnto those slids which are heere vsed of Gentlemen for their recreation They are carried in them with incredible swiftnes because the Ice is altogether plaine smooth and slippery without any rub hillock or other impediment to stumble at BER Necessity inuenteth many thinges which to those that neuer sawe them seeme new and strange though ordinary and of no account to those that daily vse them but as for this inuention it is very easie and without any difficulty at all For in Frizeland Denmarke and other cold Countries also both men and women doe vse much to trauaile on the Ice though after a different sort for they weare in the soles of their shooes certaine plaine Irons with a point turning vp forward they call them Schouerdins and with these in short space slyding vppon the Ice they transport themselues very farre but it behooueth them to be skilfull in their Art or otherwise they fall very often Their women are heerein so practised that they will slide in such sort fiue or sixe leagues carrying a basket on their heads and that without once stumbling Also when the Snow is deepe they haue certaine little Wagons made in such sort of planks layd athwart one another that they cannot sink into the Snow in which they are drawne along by Horses with exceeding swiftnes LU. I thinke the Snow be neuer so deepe in these Landes of which wee speake but that they haue some deuise or other to passe ouer them for you sayde that in the lower Byarmya Fimnarchia Escrifinia Fylandia yea and in part of Norway and in some places vnder the Emperour of Russia the enhabitants doe trauaile ouer such places as a man would iudge to be vtterly impossible Where though the Snowes lye so deepe that they make low valleyes equall with high mountaines yet you say that the peoples industry findeth meanes to passe ouer them from one part to an other AN. It is most true and as I said before chiefely those of Fylandia haue fame to excell in agility and lightnes When they are to passe ouer the Snow they bind vnder their feete certaine bordes about the breadth of a spanne or little more from the points of which commeth a crooked staffe bowing vpward which they take in their hands the same being furrd and wrapt about with the skinnes of certaine Beasts called Rangifery and in this fashion they trauaile vppon the Snowes without sinking into them the manner of which is difficill to be conceaued vnto those which haue not seene the same They haue also an easier kinde of artifice to trauaile ouer the Snow much like vnto those slide-Wagons of which wee spake before to drawing of which in steede of Horses they vse Rangifers then the which there is no one thing among them of greater vtility and profit They are about the bignes of a Horse or little lesse in fashion making and proportion they are like vnto Stagges they haue on their heads three hornes two like vnto those of a Stag with many points branches and brow-antlers betweene them two one somwhat lesse hauing also many braunches some of the which are round and clouen their backe is somwhat hollow so that the saddle is very sure and fast vppon them for they are in steede of Horses to those peoples When they put them in Coaches Carts or Wagons besides the ordinary gyrths and peutrals comming ouer their breast and belly they tye one fast to the little horne in the midst which causeth them to drawe with greater force They are wonderfully light and swift insomuch that when neede requireth they trauaile twenty leagues in a day They tread so light that you can scarcely see any tracke of their feete so that when the Snowe is any thing frozen the enhabitants feare not to passe vppon their backes ouer any place howe deepe so euer it be They knowe by experience at what time they may aduenture this dangerous kinde of ryding with security by the stifnesse of the Snowe Commonly they are drawne by these Rangifers in such slide-Wagons as I spake of before and if they see themselues in any daunger presently they vnspanne them and leaping on theyr backes doe saue themselues with great facilitie They haue great aboundance of these Beastes both wild and tame which in respect of the great commodity they receaue by them they nourish with great industrie hauing whole Droues of them as we haue heere of Oxen and Kine in so much that some one man hath foure or fiue hundreth of them to his priuate vse The milke and cheese of the females is passing wholesome and a principall nouriture vnto them Theyr fleshe svveete and sauourie but especiallie that of the young-ones is passing delicate the same powdred
endureth very long They apply theyr skinnes to such vses as wee doe heere the hides of Oxen. They make also of them Couerlettes for theyr beds retayning alwayes in them as it were a kinde of naturall warmth Of their hornes and bones they make very strong Bowes neyther is that of their hoofes without great vertue hauing as it is wrttten in them a notable remedie against the falling sicknes BER I neuer hearde of a more profitable Beast and therefore I much meruaile why other Countries procure not to nourish them ANT. All possible dilligence hath beene vsed not onely to conuay them into other Prouinces and Regions but also to sende vvith them Keepers acquainted vvith theyr custome and nature But all sufficed not For it seemeth that Nature vvill haue them to bee onely in those Countries towardes the North the farther from which you carry them the greater difficultie is in keeping them for in comming vvhere they feele not the sharpnesse of the colde they die euen like fishes taken out of theyr naturall Element vvhich is water There is another Beast also in those partes called Onager in manner like vnto the Rangyferes but that hee hath onely two hornes like a Stagge vvhose lightnesse they say is such that hee runneth also ouer the Snovve vvithout scarcelie leauing any signe or trace of his feete They were woont to vse this Beast in dravving theyr Coaches and artificiall Tables vvith vvhich they trauayled ouer the Ice and frozen Snowe But they vvere forbidden by the publique edict of theyr Kinges and Princes not to nourish them any more tame and domesticall I omit the causes wherefore because the Authors write insufficiently thereof This Beast endureth so well hunger thirst that he will trauaile 50. or 60. leagues without eating or drinking The woods and mountaynes containe infinite numbers of thē they are at continuall warre with the Wolfes of which also there is great plenty whensoeuer any one of them happeneth to light vpon a Wolfe with his nailes howe little so euer the wound be hee dyeth thereof presently If the Wolfe pursue him his refuge is straight to the Ice where in respect of his sharpe pawes he hath a great aduantage standing stiffe and firme vpon them which the Wolfe cannot doe vpon his LU. Solinus writeth also that there are of these in Affrica whose words are thus There are saith hee in this Prouince Beastes called Onagri of which each male gouerneth a Heard of females of the same kinde they are exceeding iealous and cannot endure to haue companions in their lasciuiousnes whence it proceedeth that they looke very watchfully vnto the females going great to the end that if they bring forth males by giuing them a bite vppon the genitories they may thereby take from them all possibility euer after of engendring which the females fearing endeuour alwayes as secretly as they can to hide their young ones BER Perchaunce these and those of the Septentrionall Lands are not all of one sort seeing the one liueth not but in places extreamely colde and to the other nothing is more naturall then heate AN. This is no argument to proue that they are not all one sort of Beastes for as there are men in the Regions of extreamest cold likewise in those of most scorching heat euen so may these Beasts though of one sort yet liue vnder contrary Climates each of them conforming them to the nature of the soile Yet I will not say but that it may well be that they are two sundry kindes encountring both in one name For in truth we doe not finde that any of these properties of which Solinus speaketh are in the Northerne Onagres But seeing the matter is not great whether they be one or diuers let vs turne to our Wolfes againe of which there is so great a number in those Northerne Regions that the people haue much adoe to defend themselues and theyr Cattell from them insomuch that they dare not aduenture to trauaile in diuers places vnlesse they goe manie together and well armed There are of them three sorts the one like these which wee haue here others all white nothing so fierce and harmeful as the rest the thirde sort they call Troys hauing great bodies but short legges which though they be more cruell withall more swift then eyther of the other sorts yet are they not of the enhabitants so much feared because they liue and pray vpon wilde Beasts seldome dooing any violence to men But if at any time they vndertake to pursue a man they neuer leaue till they haue woried him As touching the auncient opinion that there should be in these parts a prouince of men called Neuri which at one time of the yeere are transformed into Wolues if there be therin at all any foundation of truth it is as all late Writers affirme that as there are in those partes many Witches and Enchaunters so haue they theyr limitted and determined times of meetings and making theyr assemblies which they doe in the shape of Wolues the cause wherof though they declare not yet is it to be thought that they are by their maister the deuill so enioyned at appointed times to doe him obedience in thys forme and figure as the Sorcerers and Hags doe at which time he instructeth them in such thinges as appertaine to theyr arte and science During the time of theyr transformation they commit such infinite outrages and cruelties that the very Wolues in deed are tame gentle in respect of them For proofe that they can and do so transfigurat themselues besides many other examples which I could alleadge I will content my selfe in telling you onelie one which is most true and certaine It is not long since that the Duke of Muscouia caused one to bee taken that was notoriously knowne to transforme himselfe in such sort as wee haue said of whom being brought bound with a chaine into his presence he demaunded if it were true that hee could so transforme and change himselfe into a Wolfe as it was bruted which he confessing the Duke commaunded him to do it presently whereupon crauing to be left alone awhile in a chamber hee came of a suddaine out in the shape of a verie Wolfe indeede being still fast bound in his chayne as he was before In the meane time the Duke had of purpose made come two fierce mastiues which taking him to be as he seemed flew presently vppon him and tare him in peeces the poore wretch hauing no force or abilitie to defende himselfe at all BER Hee was iustly punished according to his desert But it is not onely of late dayes that the deuill exerciseth thys Arte among those Nations for Solinus Plinie Pomponius Mela and many other learned Authours in theyr wrytings make mention thereof But leauing thys seeing it commeth so well to our purpose of VVoules I will tell you what a man of verie good credite tolde mee not long since affirming the
little was by them brought and put into a pond or standing water in the Iland of S. Domingo a little after the conquest thereof by the Spaniards Being in which fresh water in short space hee encreased to such greatnes that hee became bigger then any horse and withall so familiar that calling him by a name which they had giuen him he would come ashore and receaue at theyr handes such thinges as they brought him to eate as though he had beene some tame domesticall beast The boyes among other sportes and pastimes they vsed with him woulde sometimes gette vp vppon his bace and hee swimme all ouer the Lake with them without euer dooing harme or once dyuing vnder the water with any one of thē One day certaine Spanyards comming to see him one of them smote him with a pyke staffe which he had in his hand from which time forward hee knewe the Spanyards so vvell by theyr garments that if any one had beene therby when the other people called him hee woulde not come ashore otherwise still continuing with those of the Country his vvonted familiaritie Hauing thus remained in this Lake a long space the water vpon a tyme through an extreamitie of raine rose so high that the one side of the Lake ouerflowed and brake into the Sea from which time forward he was seen no more Thys is written by the Gouernour of the fortresse of that Iland in a Chronicle which he made Leauing them therefore now I will briefely speake of certaine notable Fish coasts from the West of Ireland forwards winding about towardes the North For it is a thing notorious that many Kingdoms Regions Prouinces haue their prouisions of Fish frō thence of which our Spaine can giue good testimonie the great commodity considered that it receaueth yeerely thereby To beginne therefore the farther forth this way that you goe the greater plenty you shall finde of fishe many of those Prouinces vsing no other trade forraine Merchants bringing into them other necessary thinges in exchange thereof The chiefest store whereof is founde on the Coast of Bothnia which deuideth it selfe into three Prouinces East West and North-Bothnia The last whereof is different farre from the other two for it is a plaine Champaine Land seated as it were in a Valley betweene great and high Mountaines The ayre thereof is so wholesome the Climat so fauourable that it may be well termed one of the most pleasant and delightfull places of the world for it is neither hote nor cold but of so iust a temperature that it seemeth a thing incredible the Countries lying about it beeing so rigorously cold couered with Snow congealed with a continuall Ise. The fields of themselues produce all pleasant varietie of hearbes and fruites The woods and trees are replenished with Birdes whose sweet charmes melodious tunes breedeth incredible delectation to the hearers but wherein the greatest excellencie and blessing of this Land consisteth is that amongst so great a quantitie of Beasts and Fowles of which the Hilles Woods Fieldes and Valleyes are full it breedeth not nourisheth or maintaineth not any one that is harmefull or venemous neyther doe such kindes of Fishes as are in the Sea hurtfull approach theyr shoares which otherwise abound with Fishes of all sorts so that it is in the fishers handes to take as many and as few as they list The cause of which plentie is as they say that diuers forts of Fishes flying the colde come flocking in multitudes into these temperate waters Neyther bapneth this onely on theyr Sea-shoare but in theyr Lakes Riuers within the Land also which swarme as thicke with fishes great and little of diuers kindes as they can hold The enhabitants liue very long neuer or sildome feeling any infirmity which surely may serue for an argument seeing it is so approouedly knowne to be true to confirme that which is written concerning the vpper Byarmya which though it be seated in the midst of vntemperate cold countries couered and frozen with continuall Snow and Ice yet is it selfe so temperate and vnder so fauourable a Climate and constellation that truly the Authors may well call it as they doe a happy and blessed soile whose people hauing within thēselues all things necessary for the sustentation of humaine life are so hidden sequestred from other parts of the world hauing of themselues euery thing so aboundantly that they haue no need to traffique or conuerse with forraine Regions And this I take to be the cause that we haue no better knowledge of some people that liue vppon the Hyperbores who though they liue not with such pollicy as we doe it is because the plenty of all thinges giueth them no occasion to sharpe their wits or to be carefull for any thing so that they leade a simple and rustique life without curiosity deuoyd of all kind of trouble care or trauaile whereas those who liue in Countries where for their substentation maintenance it behooueth them to seeke needefull prouisions in forraine Landes what with care of auoiding dangers well dispatching their affaires and daily practising with diuers dispositions of men they cannot but becom industrious pollitique and cautelous And hence came it that in the Kingdome of China there was a Law and statute prohibiting and defending those that went to seeke other Countries euermore to returne into the same accounting them vnworthy to liue in so pleasant and fertile a soile that willingly forsooke the same in searching an other But returning to our purpose in this North Bothnya which is beyond Norway is taken incredible store of fish which they carry some fresh some salted to a Citty called Torna situated in manner of an Iland betweene two great Riuers that discende out of the Septentrionall mountaines where they hold their Fayre and Staple many and diuers Nations resorting thither who in exchange of theyr fish accommodate them with such other prouisions as their Country wanteth so that they care not to labour or till their grounds which if at any time they doe the fertillity thereof is such that there is no Country in the worlde able to exceede the same The people is so iust that they know not howe to offende or offer iniurie to any man they obserue with such integrity the Christian fayth that they haue him in horrour and destentation that committeth a mortall sinne They are enemies of vice and louers and embracers of vertue and truth They correct and chasten with all seuerity and rigour those that are offendours insomuch that though a thing bee lost in the streete or field no man dareth take it vp till the owner come himselfe There are also other Prouinces maintayned in a manner wholely by fishing as that of Laponia in the vvhich are manie Lakes both great and little infinitelie replenished with all sorts of excellent fishes and that of Fylandia which is very neere or to say better vnder the Pole The