tumors whatsoeuer Semblably that if S. Anthonies fire were annointed therewith being incorporat with hony vineger and nitre or if it were applied vnto the gouty parts there would ensue great easement Moreouer in case the nailes be grown crooked vneuen rugged it is said that it wil cause one to cast them without any vlcer and sore at all Some there be who prescribe an electuary made with the seed of Orach and hony to be giuen for the Iaundise also if the windpipes be hoarse with some fell or sharp rheume falling downe vpon them or if the Amygdales on either side of the throat be amisse it is very good to rub those parts therewith They affirme moreouer That a simple decoction of it alone moueth the body downward but with Mallows or Lentils prouoketh vpward and causeth vomit Finally to conclude with the wild Orach it is vsed much to colour the haire black and for the other aboue named purposes as well as that of the gardens CHAP. XXI ¶ Of the common Mallow Of the Mallow Malope Of the Marish Mallow or Altaea Of the common Docke the soure Docke or Sorrell of the water Docke of the tall Docke called Patience and lastly of that Docke with the long root called Bulapathum ORaches were not so much discommended but on the contrary side Mallows be as highly praised as wel that of the garden as the wild Two kinds there be of the garden mallows distinguished both by the largenesse of their leaues The greater of those that grow in gardens the Greekes call Malopum the other is supposed to be named Malachum for that it doth mollifie and soften the belly Of the wild sort that which carrieth a broad leafe and white roots is called Althaea and of some Aristalthaea for the excellent vertues that it hath in Physick This property haue Mallows To inrich and fatten any ground whersoeuer they be sown or set But this marish Mallow Althaea is more effectuall than the rest against all wounds by sharp pricks or thornes and principally against the sting of Scorpions Waspes and such like as also the biting of the Hardishrew mouse Nay whosoeuer be throughly rubbed or annointed before hand with any Mallow whatsoeuer stamped with oyle or do but carry it about them they shall not be stung or bitten at all As for the leafe of Mallowes if it be laid vpon a Scorpion it will be streightwaies benummed Moreouer good counterpoisons they be all a liniment made of them being raw together with nitre draweth forth all pricks or stings remaining within the flesh but if leafe and root be sodden together and so drunk it represseth the poison of the venomous fish called the sea-Hare but some say it must be cast vp and vomited againe or else it doth no good Certes strange and wonderfull things be spoken as touching the operation of Mallows ouer and aboue those already rehearsed But this passeth all the rest That if a man or woman sup off a smal draught though it were no more but half a cyath euery day of the juice of any mallow it skills not which he shall be free from all diseases and liue in perfect health True it is that if they be putrified and resolued in chamber-lie they will heale all the scurfe running scalls in the head but if they be tempered with hony a collution made thereof cureth the cankers of the mouth and a lauature represseth all tettars ringwormes any such wild fire running vpon the skin A decoction of the root clenseth the head of dandruffe if it be washed therwith setteth the teeth fast that were loose Take the root of that mallow which riseth vp with one only stem prick the gums therwith about the tooth pained do this I say till the ach be gone The same root reduced into a liniment with the fasting spittle of man or woman and applied accordingly resolues the Kings euil dispatcheth the swelling kernels behind the ears and discusseth biles and pushes without any breaking of the skin or making vlcer The seed of mallows if it be taken in thick wine deliuereth the patient from phlegmatick humors from the rheume and the heauing of the stomack making offer to cast and cannot The root wrapped fast and tied within a lock of blacke wooll preuenteth the euill accidents that may befall vnto womens brests The same sodden in milk taken after a sippling sort in manner of a supping for fiue daies together cureth the cough And yet Sextius Niger saith they be hurtfull to the stomack And Olympias of Thebes affirmeth That if women vse it with goose grease they shall not go their full time with childe Others do write That if women take an handfull of Mallow leaues in oyle and wine they shall be throughly purged in their due times This is known for a truth and resolued by all that write or make profession of Physicke That a woman in labour if she sit vpon Mallows strewed vnder her stoole shal be deliuered with greater speed and expedition but then must they be taken away presently after that she is laied for feare that the very matrice follow after the child An ordinary practice it is of sage and discreet midwiues to giue vnto women in trauell fasting a small pint of the juice of Mallows sodden in wine yet those that cannot contain but shed their naturall seed are inioined to take mallow seed brused and so to bind it to their arme Moreouer so good and fauorable naturally be mallows to the game of loue as if they grew for nothing els insomuch as Xenocrates doth affirme That if the seed of that Mallow which runneth vp in one stalk be reduced into pouder and strewed vpon that part of a woman which Nature hath hidden she will be so wood after the company of a man as she will neuer be satisfied nor contented with embracing The like effect saith he there wil ensue if three roots thereof be bound neere to the place of Nature Also that a decoction of Mallows ministred by way of clyster is a singular injection to cure the bloudy flixe or exulceration of the guts as also the extraordinary and bootlesse desire to the seege In like manner a fomentation thereof is very good for other accidents befalling to the seat or tuil The juice of Mallows is giuen warm the quantity of three cyaths to melancholick persons that be troubled in mind and of foure to those that be stark mad indeed and besides themselues A whole hemina of the juice drawne and pressed from mallows boyled is giuen at one time to those that be subject to the falling sicknesse The same being reduced into a liniment is to good purpose applied warm vnto those who are troubled with the stone and grauell with winde cholique and ventosities with the cramp also or crick that doth draw their necks backward The leaues being sodden in oyle are layd with good successe in manner of a cataplasme vpon the hot fretting
yeelds a safe commodious hauen Also that the riuer Tuberum is nauigable along the bankes whereof the Parites inhabit And after them the Ichthyophagi who tooke vp so long a tract that they were 20 daies sailing by their coasts They make relation likewise of the Isle of the Sun named also the couch or bed of the nimphs This Island is red all ouer and no liuing creature will liue therin but is consumed perishes no man knoweth how or vpon what cause They speake besides of the nation of the Orians as also of Hytanis a riuer in Carmania which affordeth many baies and harbours yea and plentie of gold in the grauell and sand therof And here was the first place wherin they obserued that they had a sight of the North-pole star As for the starre Arcturus they affirmed that they saw it not euery night nor at any time all night long Furthermore that the country of the Achaemenides in Persea reached thus farre Ouer and besides that as they trauelled ordinarily they found good store of mines wherein was digged for brasse yron Arsenicke or Sardaracha and Vermilion And then they came to the cape of Carmania from which to the coast ouer-against them of the Marae a people in Arabia the cut ouer sea is 50 miles Vpon these coasts they discouered 3 Islands whereof Organa onely is inhabited by reason of fresh water within it and from the continent it lieth about 25 miles And foure Islands more they fell vpon euen in the Persian gulf ouer-against Persia. And about these Islands they might se sea-adders Serpents so monstruous great that as they came swimming toward them they put the very fleet in great fright for there were among them some 20 cubits long Beyond it they met with the Island Acrotadus likewise the Gaurates Isles wherein the nation the Chiani doe inhabit About the middle of this gulfe or arme of the sea the riuer Hiperus hath his course able to beare great hulkes and ships of burden Also the riuer Sitiogagus vpon which a man may passe in 7 daies to Pasargadia Also a riuer that is nauigable called Phirstimus and an Island within it but it is namelesse As for the riuer Granius which runs through Susiane it carries but small vessels Along the coast on the right hand of this riuer dwell the Deximontanes who dresse and prepare Bitumen Then the come to the riuer Oroatus with a dangerous hauen or mouth where it falls into the sea vnlesse a man be guided by skilfull pilots full against this riuer there are discouered 2 little Islands Past which the sea is very low and shallow full of shelues and sands more like a meere and marish water than a sea Howbeit there be certaine trenches or channels in it that draw deepe water wherein they may without danger saile Then met they with the mouth of the riuer Euphrates Also the lake which the two riuers Eulaeus and Tigris doe make neere vnto Characum And so from thence they arriued vpon the riuer Tigris at Susa. And there an end of the nauigation performed by Onesicritus and Nearchus For after they had beene three months embarked and in their voiage vpon the sea they found Alexander at Susa wherehe feasted and made solemne bankets and that was 7 monthes after he parted from them at Patalae And thus much concerning the voiage of Alexander his fleet Now afterwards from Syagrus a Promontory in Arabia it was counted vnto Patale 1332 miles held it was for certain then that the West wind with the people of that country call Hypalus was thought most proper for to make saile to the same place Howbeit the age ensuing discouered a shorter and safer cut namely if from the said promontorie or cape Syagrus they set their course directly to the mouth of the riuer Zizerus which maketh an harborough in India And in truth this passage held a long time vntill such time that in the end the merchants found out a more compendious and shorter course and gained by their voiage to India for euery yeere now they saile thither and for feare of pirats and rouers that were wont very much to infest and annoy them they vsed to embarke in their ships certaine companies of Archers And seeing that all these seas are now discouered and neuer before so certainly I will not thinke much of my pains to declare and shew the whole course of our Indian voiages from out of Aegypt And first and formost this is a thing worthy to be noted and obserued of euery man that there is not a yeere goeth ouer our heads but it costs our State to furnish a voiage into India 500 hundred thousand Sesterces i. fifty millions of Sesterces For which the Indians sendeth backe againe commodities and merchandise of their owne which being at Rome are sold for an hundred times as much as they cost or yeeld in the price an hundred fold gain But to returne againe to our voiage from Alexandria in Aegypt it is two miles to Iuliopolis from whence vpon the riuer of Nilus they saile 303 miles to Coptus which may be done in 12 daies space hauing the Etesian winds at the poupe From Coptus they trauell forwards vpon Cammels backs and for great default of water in those parts there be certain set places for bait lodging and watering The first is called Hydreuma 32 miles from Coptus The second one days journey from thence in a certaine mountaine The third watering place at another Hydreuma 95 miles from Coptus The fourth againe in a second mountaine The fifth is at a third Hydreuma of Apollo from Coptus 184 miles Beyond which the resting place is vpon another hill And then to Hydreuma the new from Coptus 234 miles Another water towne there is called Hydreuma the old named also Trogloditicum where two miles out of the port way lieth a garrison keeping watch and ward both day night and foure miles distant it is from new Hydreuma From whence they trauell to the towne Berenice an hauen towne standing vpon the red sea 258 miles from Coptus But for as much as the journey all this way is for the most part performed in the night season by reason of the excessiue heat the trauellers are forced to rest all the day long therefore twelue daies are set down for the whole voiage between Coptus and Berenice The time then that they vsually begin to set saile is about Midsummer before the dog daies or presently vpon the rising of the dog starre And about the 30 daies end they arriue to Ocelis in Arabia or els at Cama within Saba the countrey of incense A third port there is besides called Muza vnto which there is no resort of merchants out of India neither is it in request but with merchants that aduenture only for incense drugs spices of Arabia Howbeit peopled this country is within-forth and hath diuers great townes Of which Saphar is the principall and the kings
infected and to change the colour thereupon Furthermore doubtlesse it is that children breed their fore teeth in the seuenth moneth after they are borne and first those in the vpper chaw for the most part likewise that they shed the same teeth about the seuenth yere of their age others come vp new in the place Certaine it is also that some children are borne into the world with teeth as M. Curius who thereupon was surnamed Dentatus and Cn. Papyrius Carbo both of them very great men and right honourable personages In women the same was counted but an vnlucky thing presaged some misfortune especially in the daies of the KK regiment in Rome for when Valeria was borne toothed the wizards and Soothsayers being consulted thereabout answered out of their learning by way of Prophesie That look into what citie she was caried to nource she should be the cause of the ruine and subuersion thereof whereupon had away shee was and conueied to Suessa Pometia a city at that time most flourishing in wealth and riches and it proued most true in the end for that city was vtterly destroied Cornelia the mother of the Gracchi is sufficient to proue by her own example that women are neuer borne for good whose genitall parts for procreation are growne together and yeeld no entrance Some children are borne with an entire whole bone that taketh vp all the gum instead of a row of distinct teeth as a son of Prusias king of the Bythinians who had such a bone in his vpper chaw This is to be obserued about teeth that they onely check the fire and burn not to ashes with other parts of the body and yet as inuincible as they are and able to resist the violence of the flame they rot and become hollow with a little catarrhe or waterish rheume that droppeth and distilleth vpon them white they may be made with certaine mixtures and medicines called Dentifices Some weare their teeth to the very stumps onely with vse of chawing others againe loose them first out of their head they serue not onely to grind our meat for our daily food and nourishment but necessary also they be for the framing of our speech The fore-teeth stand in good stead to rule and moderate the voice by a certaine consent and tuneable accord answering as it were to the stroke of the tongue and according to that row and ranke of theirs wherein they are set as they are broader or narrower greater or smaller they yeeld a distinction and varietie in our words cutting and hewing them thicke and short framing them pleasant plaine and ready drawing them out at length or smuddering and drowning them in the end but when they bee once falne out of the head man is bereaued of all means of good vtterance and explanation of his words Moreouer there are some presages of good or bad fortune gathered by the teeth men ordinarily haue giuen them by nature 32 in all except the nation of the Turduli They that haue aboue this number may make account as it is thought to liue the longer As for women they haue not so many they that haue on the right side in the vpper iaw two eie-teeth which the Latines call Dogs-teeth may promise themselues the flattering fauors of Fortune as it is well seene in Agrippina the mother of Domitius Nero but contrariwise the same teeth double in the left side aboue is a signe of euill lucke It is not the custome in any countrey to burne in a funerall fire the dead corps of any infant before his teeth be come vp but hereof will we write more at large in the Anatomie of man when wee shall discourse purposely of euerie member and part of the body Zoroastres was the onely man that euer wee could heare of who laughed the same day that he was borne his brain did so euidently pant and beat that it would beare vp their hands that laid them vpon his head a most certain presage fore-token of that great learning that afterward he attained vnto This also is held for certain and resolued vpon that a man at three yeares of age is come to one moitie of his growth and height As also this is obserued for an vndoubted truth that generally all men come short of the ful stature in time past and decrease stil euery day more than other and seldome shall you see the son taller than his father for the ardent heat of the elementarie fire whereunto the world enclineth already now toward the later end as somtimes it stood much vpon the waterie element deuoureth and consumeth that plentifull humor and moisture of naturall seed that engendreth all things and this appeareth more euidently by these examples following In Crete it chanced that an hill claue asunder in an earth-quake and in the chink thereof was found a body standing 46 cubits high some say it was the body of Orion others of Otus We find in chronicles records of good credit that the body of Orestes being taken vp by direction from the Oracles was seuen cubits long And verily that great and famous poet Homer who liued almost 1000 yeres ago complained and gaue not ouer That mens bodies were lesse of stature euen then than in old time The Annales set not downe the stature and bignesse of Naevius Pollio but that he was a mighty gyant appeareth by this that is written of him namely that it was taken for a wonderfull strange thing that in a great rout presse of people that came running together vpon him he had like to haue bin killed The tallest man that hath bin seen in our age was one named Gabbara who in the daies of prince Claudius late Emperor was brought out of Arabia nine foot high was hee and as many inches There were in the time of Augustus Caesar 2 others named Pusio and Secundilla higher than Gabbara by halfe a foot whose bodies were preserued and kept for a wonder in a charnell house or sepulchre within the gardens of the Salustians Whiles the same Augustus sate as president his niece Iulia had a little dwarfish fellow not aboue 2 foot and a hand bredth high called Conopas whom she set great store by and made much of as also another she dwarfe named Andromeda who somtime had been the slaue of Iulia the princesse and by her made free M. Varro reporteth that Manius Maximus and M. Tullius were but two cubits high yet they gentlemen and knights of Rome and in truth we our selues haue seen their bodies how they lie embalmed and chested which testifieth no lesse It is well knowne that there be some that naturally are neuer but a foot and a halfe high others again somwhat longer and to this heigth they came in three yeres which is the full course of their age and then they die Wee reade moreouer in the Chronicles that in Salamis one Euthimenes had a son who in three yeres grew to be three cubits high but
reckoned the Summer for one yeare and the Winter for another There were againe that reckoned euery quarter for a yeare as the Arcadians whose yeare was but three moneths Ye shall haue some and namely the Egyptians that count euery change or new Moon for a yeare and therefore no maruell if some of them are said to liue 1000 yeares But to passe from these vncertainties to things confessed and doubtlesse Held it is in maner for a certain truth that Arganthinus King of Calis reigned full 80 yeares and it is thought he was 40 yeares old when he came vnto the crowne And as vndoubted true it is that Masanissa ware the crown 60 yeares As also that Gorgias the Sicilian liued vntill he was 108 yeares old As for Q. Fabius Maximus a Roman hee continued Augure 63 yeares M. Perpenna and of late daies L. Volusius Saturninus out liued all those Senators which sate in councell with them when they were Consuls and whose opinions they were wont to aske As for Perpenna when hee died hee left but 7 of those Senators aliue whom he had either chosen or re-elected in his Censorship and he liued himselfe 98 yeares Where by the way one thing commeth into my mind worth the noting That one Lustrum or 5 yeares space there was and neuer but one in which there died not a Roman Senator and that was from the time that Flaccus and Albinus the Censors finished their suruey solemnly purged the city after the order to the comming in of the next new Censors being from the foundation of Rome 579 yeres M. Valerius Corvinus liued 100 yeares complete between his first and sixt Consulate were 46 yeares he tooke his seat vpon the yuorie chaire of estate and was created a magistrate Curule 21 times and no man else so often Metellus the Pontifie or soueraigne priest liued full as long as he To come now to women Liuia the wife of Rutilius liued 97 yeares with the better Statilia a noble lady of Rome in the time of Claudius the Emperor was knowne to be 99 yeares of age Ciceroes wife Terentia out-liued her husband vntill she was 103 yeres old Clodia wife to Ofilius went beyond her and saw 115 yeres yet she had in her youth 15 children Luceia a common vice in a play followed the stage and acted thereupon 100 yeares Such another vice that plaid the foole made sport between whiles in interludes named Galaria Copiola was brought again roact her feats vpon the stage when Cn. Pompeius and Q. Sulpitius were Consuls at the solemne plaies vowed for the health of Aug. Caesar the Emperor in the 104 yere of her age the first time that euer she entred the stage to shew proofe of her skil in that profession was 91 yeres before and then she was brought thither by M. Pomponius an Aedile of the Commons in the yere that C. Marius and Cn. Carbo were Consuls And once again Pompeius the Great at the solemne dedication of his stately Theatre trained the old woman to the stage for to make a shew to the wonder of the world Moreouer Asconius Paedianus is mine Author that one Samula liued 110 yeares and therefore I maruell the lesse that one Stephanio who was the first of the long robe that brought dancing and footing vpon the stage plaid his part danced in both the Secular plaies as well those that were set out by Augustus late Emperor as which Claudius exhibited in his 4 Consulate considering that between the one and the other there were but 63 yeares and yet liued Stephanio many a day after Mutianus witnesseth that in Tempsis for so is the crest or pitch of the mountain Tmolus called folke liued ordinarily 150 yeares At that age T. Fullonius of Bononia entred his name into the Subsidie book at the time that Cl. Caesar held the generall tax and that he was so old indeed appeared truly as wel vpon record in the registers office by conferring and laying together seueral paiments by him made from time to time as also by certain things he had seen and known done in his life time for the Emperor had a speciall care and regard that way to find out the truth CHAP. XLIX Of diuers Horoscopes or Natiuities of men THis point would require the conference and aduice of Astrologers for Epigenes saith it is not possible for a man to liue 122 yeres and Berosus is of opinion that one cannot passe 117. The proportion and reckoning holdeth still for good which Petosiris and Nesepsos calculated and grounded vpon their Quadrant which they call Tetartemorion that is to say the compasse in the Zodiaque of three signes Orientall which determine of the life or death of men according to which account it is euident that in the tract or clymat of Italy men may reach to 126 yeares The aboue-named Astrologers affirmed that a man could not possibly passe the space of 90 degrees from the Ascendent or erection of his natiuitie which they call Anaphoras and that euen this course through the degrees of three signes is many times interrupted and cut short either by the opposition and encounter of some wicked planets or by the maligne aspects of them or the Sun On the other side Asclepiades and his sect affirme that the length of our life proceedeth from the influence of the fixed stars but as touching the vtmost terme thereof they set downe nothing definitiuely mary thus much they say That the fewer sort of men liue any long time for that the greatest number by far haue their natiuitie incident and liable to the dangerous houres and time either of the moones occurrence as in her Quadrature Opposition and Sextile aspect or of daies according to the number of seuen or nine which are daily and nightly marked and obserued whereupon ensueth the rule of the dangerous graduall yeares called Clymactericke and such as are in that wise borne lightly liue not aboue 54 yeares And here we may see by the doubtfulnesse and incertitude of this science of Astrologie how vncertain this whole matter is which we haue in hand Moreouer wee found the contrarie by experience and many examples and namely in the last taxation numbring and review of the prouinces subiect to Rome within Italy that was taken vnder the Caesars Vespasians the father and the sonne both Emperors and Censors And here we need not to search euery corner and to ransacke euery place very narrowly we will onely giue instance and set downe the examples of the one moity thereof namely that tract which lieth betweene Apennine and the Po. At Parma three men were found that liued sixe score yeares at Brixels one that liued 125 yeares at Plaisance one elder by a yeare at Faventia there was one woman 132 yeares old at Bononie L. Terentius the sonne of Marcus and at Ariminum M. Aponius reckoned each of them 150 yeares Tertulla was knowne to be 137 yeares old About Plaisance there is a towne scituate vpon the hills
to enter the squadrons and battalions of the enemies and for the most part all the seruice in the wars of the East is performed by them and they especially determine the quarrell these be they that breake the ranks beare down armed men that are in the way and stampe them vnder foot These terrible beasts as outragious otherwise as they seem are frighted with the least grunting that is of a swine be they wounded at any time or put into a fright backeward alwaies they go and do as much mischiefe to their own side that way as to their enemies The African Elephants are afraid of the Indian and dare not look vpon them for in truth the Indian Elephants be far bigger CHAP. X. ¶ How they breed and bring forth their young and of their nature otherwise THe common sort of men thinke that they go with young ten yeres but Aristotle saith that they go but two yeares and that they breed but once and no more in their life and bring not aboue one at a time also that they liue commonly by course of nature 200 yeres and some of them 300. Their youthful time and strength of age beginneth when they be 60 yeres old they loue riuers aboue all things and lightly ye shall haue them euermore wandring about waters and yet by reason otherwise of their big and vnwealdie bodies swim they cannot Of all things they can worst away with cold and that is it they are most subiect vnto and feele greatest inconuenience by troubled they be also with the collick and ventosities as also with the flux of the belly other maladies they feele not I find it written in histories that if they drinke oile the arrows and darts which stick in their bodies wil come forth and fall off but the more that they sweat the sooner wil they take hold and abide in stil the faster The eatin of earth breedes the consumption in them vnlesse they feed and chew often therof they deuoure stones also As for the trunks and bodies of trees it is the best meat they haue therin take they most delight If the date trees be too high that they cannot â—…each the fruit they will ouerturn them with their forehead and when they lie along eat the dates They chew and eat their meat with their mouth but they breath drink and smell with their trunke which not improperly is called their hand Of all other liuing creatures they cannot abide a mouse or a rat and if they perceiue that their prouander lying in the manger tast and sent neuer so little of them they refuse it and wil not touch it They are mightily tormented with paine if they chance in their drinking to swallow down an horsleech which worm I obserue they begin now to cal a bloud-sucker for so soon as the horsleech hath setled fast in his wind-pipe he putteth him to intollerable pains Their hide or skin of their back is most tough hard but in the belly soft tender couered their skin is neither with haire nor bristle no not so much as in their taile which might serue them in good stead to driue away the busie troublesome flie for as vast huge a beast as he is the flie hanteth stingeth him but ful their skin is of crosse wrinkles lattisewise besides that the smell thereof is able to draw and allure such vermin to it therefore when they are laid stretched along and perceiue the flies by whole swarms setled on their skin suddenly they draw those cranies and creuises together close and so crush them all to death This serues them in stead of taile main and long haire Their teeth beare a very high price and they yeeld the matter of greatest request and most commendable for to make the statues and images of the gods but such is the superfluity and excesse of men that they haue deuised another thing in them to commend for they find forsooth a special dainty tast in the hard callous substance of that which they cal their hand for no other reason I beleeue but because they haue a conceit that they eat yvorie when they chew this gristle of their trunk In temples are to be seen Elephants teeth of the greatest size how beit in the marches of Africke where it confineth vpon Aethiopia they make of yuory the very principals and corner posts of their houses also with the Elephants tooth they make mounds pales both to inclose their grounds and also to keep in their beasts within park if it be true that Polybius reporteth from the testimony of king Gulussa CHAP. XI ¶ Where the Elephants are bred how the Dragons and they disagree ELephants breed in that part of Africke which lieth beyond the desarts and wildernesse of the Syrtes also in Mauritania they are found also amongst the Aethyopians and Troglodites as hath beene said but India bringeth forth the biggest as also the dragons that are continually at variance with them euermore fighting and those of such greatnesse that they can easily clasp and wind round about the Elephants and withall tye them fast with a knot In this conflict they die both the one and the other the Elephant he fals downe dead as conquered and with his heauy weight crusheth and squeaseth the dragon that is wound and wreathed about him CHAP. XII ¶ The wittinesse and policie in these creatures WOnderfull is the wit and subtilty that dumbe creatures haue and how they shift for themselues and annoy their enemies which is the only difficulty that they haue to arise grow to so great an heigth and excessiue bignes The dragon therfore espying the Elephant when he goeth to reliefe assaileth him from an high tree and launceth himselfe vpon him but the Elephant knowing well enough he is not able to withstand his windings knittings about him seeketh to come close to some trees or hard rocks and so for to crush and squise the dragon between him and them the dragons ware hereof entangle and snarle his feet legs first with their taile the Elephants on the other side vndo those knots with their trunk as with a hand but to preuent that againe the Dragons put in their heads into their snout and so stop their wind and withall fret and gnaw the tenderest parts they find there Now in case these two mortall enemies chance to re-incounter on the way they bristle bridle one against another and addresse themselues to fight but the chiefe thing the dragons make at is the eie whereby it comes to passe that many times the Elephants are found blinde pined for hunger and worne away and after much languishing for very anguish and sorrow die of their venome What reason should a man alledge of this so mortall warre betweene them if it be not a very sport of Nature and pleasure that she takes in matching these two so great enemies together and so euen and equall in each respect But some report this mutuall
the Lionesse hath done a fault that way she either goeth to a riuer and washeth away the strong and ranke sauor of the Pard or else keepeth aloofe and followeth the Lion afar off that he may not catch the said smell I see it is commonly held that the Lionesse brings forth yong but once in her life for that her whelps in her kinling teare her belly with their nailes and make themselues roome that way Aristotle writeth otherwise a man whom I cannot name but with great honour and reuerence and whom in the historie and report of these matters I meane for the most part to follow And in very truth King Alexander the Great of an ardent desire that he had to know the natures of all liuing creatures gaue this charge to Aristotle a man singularly accomplished with all kinds of science and learning to search into this matter and to set down the same in writing and to this effect commanded certaine thousands of men one or other throughout all the tract as well of Asia as Greece to giue their attendance and obey him to wit all Hunters Falconers Fowlers and Fishers that liued by those professions Item all Forresters Park-keepers and Wariners all such as had the keeping of heards and flockes of cattell of bee-hiues fish-pooles stewes and ponds as also those that kept vp fowle tame or wild in mew those that fed poultry in barton or coup to the end that he should be ignorant of nothing in this behalfe but be aduertised by them according to his Commission of all things in the world By his conference with them he collected so much as thereof hee compiled those excellent bookes de Animalibus i. of Liuing creatures to the number almost of 50. Which being couched by me in a narrow roome and briefe summary with addition also of some things which he neuer knew I beseech the Readers to take in good worth and for the discouerie and knowledge of all Natures works which that most noble and famous King that euer was desired so much to know to make a short start abroad with me and in a briefe discourse by mine own pains and diligence digested to see all To return now vnto our former matter That great philosopher Aristotle therefore reporteth That the Lionesse at her first litter bringeth forth fiue whelps and euery yeare after fewer by one and when she commeth to bring but one alone she giueth ouer and is barren Her whelps at the first are without shape like small gobbets of flesh no bigger than weesels When they are six moneths old they can hardly go and for the two first they stir not at all Lions there be also in Europe only between the riuers Achelous and Nestus and these verily be far stronger than those of Africke or Syria Moreouer there are two kinds of Lions the one short wel trussed and compact with more crisp and curled mains but these are timerous and cowards to them that haue long and plain haire for those passe not for any wounds whatsoeuer The Lions lift vp a leg when they pisse as dogs do and moreouer they haue a strong and stinking breath their very body also smelleth rank Seldom they drink and eate but each other day and if at any time they feed til they be full they wil abstain from meat three daies after In their feeding whatsoeuer they can swallow without chewing downe it goes whole and if they finde their gorge and stomacke too full and not able indeed to receiue according to their greedy appetite they thrust their pawes down their throats and with their crooked clees fetch out some of it again to the end they should not be heauy and slow vpon their fulnesse if haply they be put to find their feet and fly Mine Author Aristotle saith moreouer That they liue very long and hee proueth it by this argument That many of them are found toothlesse for very age Polybius who accompanied Scipio Aemylianus in his voiage of Africke reporteth of them That when they be growne aged they will prey vpon a man the reason is because their strength will not hold out to pursue in chase any other wild beasts then they come about the cities and good towns of Africke lying in wait for their prey if any folk come abroad and for that cause he saith that while hee was with Scipio hee saw some of them crucified and hanged vp to the end that vpon the sight of them other Lions should take example and be skarred from doing the like mischiefe The Lion alone of all wilde beasts is gentle to those that humble themselues vnto him and will not touch any such vpon their submission but spareth what creature soeuer lieth prostrate before him As fell and furious as he is otherwhiles yet he dischargeth his rage vpon men before he sets vpon women and neuer preyeth on babes vnlesse it be for extreme hunger They are verily persuaded in Lybia that they haue a certain vnderstanding when any man doth pray or intreat them for any thing I haue heard it reported for a truth by a captiue woman of Getulia which being fled was brought home again to her master that she had pacified the violent fury of many Lions within the woods and forrests by faire language and gentle speech and namely that for to escape their rage shee hath been so hardy as to say she was a silly woman a banished fugitiue a sickly feeble weak creature an humble suiter and lowly suppliant to him the noblest of all other liuing creatures the Soueraigne and commander of all the rest and that she was too base and vnworthy for his glorious Maiestie to prey vpon her Many and diuers opinions are currant according to the sundry occurrences that haue hapned or the inuentions that mens wits haue deuised as touching this matter namely that sauage beasts are dulced and appeased by good words and faire speech as also that fell serpents may be trained and fetched out of their holes by charmes yea and by certaine coniurations and menaces restrained and kept vnder for a punishment but whether it be true or no I see it is not yet by any man set downe or determined To come againe to our Lions the signe of their intent and disposition is their taile like as in horses their eares for these two marks and tokens certainly hath Nature giuen to the most couragious beasts of all others to know their affections by for when the Lion stirs not his taile he is in a good mood gentle mild pleasantly disposed and as if he were willing to be plaied withall but in that fit he is seldome seen for lightly he is alwaies angry At the first when he entreth into his choler he beateth the ground with his taile when he groweth into greater heats he flappeth and jerketh his flanks and sides withall as it were to quicken himselfe and stir vp his angry humour His maine strength lieth in his brest hee maketh not a
haifer approach neere vnto them they will stand gazing at 〈◊〉 and neuer regard the hunters neere by or if they happen to spie him they will looke at his very bow and sheiâ—…e of arrows as at strange and wondrous things They passe the seas swimming by flocks and whole heards in a long row each one resting his head vpon the buttockes of his fellow next before him and this they do in course so as the foremost retireth behinde to the hindmost by turnes one after another and this is ordinarily obserued by those saylers that passe from Cilicia to Cypres And yet in their swimming they descry no land by the eye but only by their smelling haue an aime thereat The males of this kind are horned and they aboue all other liuing creatures cast them euery yeare once at a certaine time of the Spring and to that purpose a little before the very day of their mewing they seek the most secret corners and most out of the way in the whole forrest When they are pollards they keep close hidden as if they were disarmed and all this they do as if they enuied that men should haue good of any thing that they had And in very truth the right horn they say can neuer be found as if it had some rare and singular vertue in Physicke A strange and maruellous thing considering that in the parks they change them euery yere insomuch as it is thought verily that they hide them within the earth But burne whether of them ye will the left as well as the right this is certain That the smell and perfume thereof driueth serpents away and discouereth them that are subiect to the fits of the falling disease A man may also know their age by their heads for euery yeare they haue one knag or branch more in their horns than before vntill they come to six after which time they come new euer alike so as their age cannot be discerned any more by the head but the marke is taken by their mouth and teeth for as they grow in age they haue few or no teeth at all ne yet grow the branches out at the root whereas all the while they were yonger they vsed to haue them breake forth and standing out at the very forehead After they be guelded once neither cast they their hornes which they had before neither grow there any if they had none when they were libbed At the first when they breake out againe like they be to the glandules or kernels of dry skin that new put forth then grow they with tender stalks into certain round and long knobs of the reed mace couered all ouer with a certaine soft plume downe like veluet So long as they be destitute of their hornes and perceiue their heads naked they go forth to reliefe by night and as they grow bigger and bigger they harden them in the hot sun estsoons making proofe of them against trees and when they perceiue once that they be tough and strong enough then they go abroad boldly And certainly some of them haue been taken with green Iuie sticking fast and growing in their hornes remaining there since the time that they ran them when they were but tender against some trees for triall whether they were good or no and so chanced to race the Iuie from the wood of the tree You shall haue them somtime white of colour and such an one was the hind that Q. Sertorius had about which he persuaded the people of Spaine to be his Sooth-sayer to tel him of things to come This kind of Deere maintaine fight with serpents and are their mortall enemies they will follow them to their very holes and there by the strength of drawing and snuffing vp their wind at the nostrils force them out whether they wil or no and therfore there is not so good a thing again to chase away serpents as is the smoke and smel of an Harts horn burnt But against their sting or biting there is a singular remedy with the runnet in the maw of a fawne or Hind-calfe killed in the dams belly It is generally held and confessed that the Stag or hind liues long for an hundred yeres after Alexander the great some were taken with golden collars about their necks ouergrowne now with haire and growne within the skin which collars the said king had done vpon them This creature of all diseases is not subiect to the feuer but he is good to cure it I haue known great ladies and dames of state vse euery morning to eat the venison of red Deere and thereby to haue liued a great age and neuer had the ague but it is thought this is a certain remedy and neuer faileth in case the stag be strucken starke dead at once with one wound and no more CHAP. XXXIII ¶ Of the shag-haired and bearded Stagge like to a Goat as also of the Chameleon OF the same kind is the Goat hart and differing only in the beard and long shag about the shoulders which they call Tragelaphis and this breedeth no where but about the riuer Phasis Africke in a manner is the onely countrey that breedeth no stags and hinds but contrariwise it bringeth Chamaeleons although India hath them ordinarily in greater number In shape and quantitie it is made like a Lisard but that it standeth higher and streighter than the Lisards do vpon his legs The sides flank and belly meet together as in fishes it hath likewise sharp prickles bearing out vpon the back as they haue snouted it is for the bignesse not vnlike to a swine with a very long taile thin and pointed at the end winding round and entangled like to vipers hooked clawes it hath and goeth slow as doth the Tortoise his body and skin is rough and scaly as the crocodiles his eies standing hollow within his head those be exceeding great one neere vnto the other with a very small portion betweene of the same colour that the rest of the body is he is alwaies open eied and neuer closeth them he looketh about him not by mouing the ball of his eie but by turning the whole body thereof he gapes euermore aloft into the aire and is the onely creature aliue that feedeth neither of meat nor drinke but hath his nourishment of aire onely about wilde fig-trees he is fell and dangerous otherwise harmlesse But his colour naturally is very strange and wonderful for euer and anon he changeth it as well in his eie as taile and whole body besides and looke what colour he toucheth next the same alwaies he resembleth vnlesse it be red and white When he is dead hee looketh pale and wan very little flesh he hath in head and chawes and about the ioint where his taile is graffed to his rump but in all the body besides none at all All his bloud is in his heart and about his eies among other his bowels he is without a spleen Hidden hee lieth all winter long as Lisards do CHAP.
three joynts As for some sea-fishes we haue said before that they haue eight legs namely Many feet Pourcuttles Cuttles Calamaries and Crabfishes and those moue their fore-clees like armes a contrary way but their feet either they turne round or else fetch them crooked atone side and a man shall not see any liuing creature againe al round but they As for others they haue two feet to guide them and lead the way but Crabs onely haue foure There be Insects besides vpon the land that exceed this number of feet and then they haue no fewer than twelue as the most sort of wormes yea and some of them reach to an hundred No creature whatsoeuer hath an odde foot As touching the legs of those which bee whole houfed they be all full as long when they first come into the world as euer they will be well may they shoot out bigger and burnish afterward but to speake truly and properly they grow no more in length And therefore when they be yong sucking foles a man shall see them scratch the haire with the hinder feet which as they wax elder and bigger they are not able to do because their legges thriue only in outward compasse and not in length Which also is the cause that when they be new foled they cannot feed themselues but kneeling vntill such time as their neckes be come to their full growth and just proportion CHAP. XLIX ¶ Os Dwarfes and genitall parts THere are no liuing creatures in the world euen the very fowles of the aire not excepted but in each kind there be dwarfs to be found As for those males which haue their instruments of generation behind we haue sufficiently spoken In Wolues Foxes Weesils and Ferrits those genitall members be of a bonie substance and of them there be soueraigne medicines made for to cure the stone and grauell in mans bodie engendred The Beares pisle also becommeth as hard as an horn men say so soone as his breath is out of his bodie As for Camels pisles they vse in the East countries to make their best bow strings therof which they account to be the surest of all others Moreouer and besides the genitall parts put a difference between nation and nation also between one religion and another for the priests of Cybele the great mother of the gods vse to cut off their owne members and to gueld themselues without danger of death On the contrarie side some few women there be monstrous that way and in that part resemble men like as we see there are Hermaphrodites furnished with the members of both sexe In the daies of Nero the Emperor the like accident was seen and neuer before in some foure-footed beasts For he in very truth exhibited a shew of certaine mares that were of the nature of those Hermaphrodites found in the territorie of Treuiers in France and they drew together in his owne coach And verily a strange and wondrous sight this was To see the great monarch of the world sit in a charriot drawne by such monstrous beasts As touching the stones of Rams Buckes and greater beasts they hang dangling downe between their legs but in Bores they be thrust together knit vp short close to the bellie Dolphines haue these parts very long and the same lying hidden within the bottom of their bellies In Elephants likewise they be close and hidden In as many creatures as doe lay egges the stones sticke hard to their loines within the bodie and such be euer most quicke of dispatch in the act of generation and soone haue done the feat Fishes and Serpents haue none at all but in stead therof there be two strings or veines reach from their kidnies to their genitall member The * Buzzard a kind or Hawke is prouided of three stones A man hath his cods sometime bruised and broken either by some extraordinarie accident or naturally and such as be thus burst are counted but halfe men and of a middle nature betweene Hermaphrodites and guelded persons To conclude in all liuing creatures whatsoeuer the males be stronger than the females setting aside the race of Panthers and Beares CHAP. L. ¶ Of Tailes THere is not a liuing creature excepting men and Apes take as well those that bring forth their yong aliue as others that lay egges only but is furnished with a taile for the necessarie vse of their bodies Such as be otherwise rough-haired and bristly yet haue naked tailes as Swine those that be long shagged and rugged haue very little and short skuts as Beares but as many as haue long side haires be likewise long tailed as Horses If Lizards or Serpents haue their tailes cut off from their bodies they will grow againe In fishes they serue in good stead as rudders and helmes to direct them in their swimming yeathey fit their turnes as well as oares to set them forward as they stirre them to this or that hand There be Lizards found with double tailes Kine and Oxen haue the longest rumpe for their tailes of any other beasts yea and the same at the end hath the greatest tuft and bush of haire Asses haue the said docke or rumpe longer than horses and yet all such beasts either for saddle or packe haue it set forth with long haires Lions tailes are fashioned in the very tip thereof like vnto Kine or Oxen and Rats but Panthers are not after the same manner tailed Foxes and Wolues haue shag tailes like sheep but that they be longer Swine carie their tailes turned and twined round And Dogs that be of curres kind and good for nothing carrie their tailes close vnderneath their bellies CHAP. LI. ¶ Of Voices Aristotle of opinion That no liuing creature hath any voice but such only as are furnished with lungs and wind-pipes that is to say which breath and draw their wind and therefore he holdeth that the noise which we heare come from Insects is no voice at all but a very sound occasioned by the aire that gets within them and so being enclosed yeelds a certaine noise and resoundeth againe And thus it is quoth he that some keep a humming or buzzing as Bees others make a cricking with a certain long traine as the Grashoppers for euident it is and wel known that the aire entring into those pipes if I may so term them vnder their breast and meeting with a certaine pellicle or thin skin beates vpon it within and so sets it a stirring by which attrition that shril sound commeth Again it is as apparent that in others and namely Flies and Bees the buzzing which we heare begins and ends euer with their flying For no doubt that sound commeth not of any wind that these little creatures either draw or deliuer but of the aire which they hold inclosed within and the beating of their wings together As for Locusts it is generally beleeued receiued that they make that sound with clapping of their feathers and wings and thighs together In like manner among fishes in
the term whereby is signified the alteration of new Must into wine To hinder therfore that it work not as naturally it will they haue no sooner tunned or filled it out of the Vat but immediatly they dousse the vessels full of new Must in the water and let them there continue till mid-December be past and that the weather be setled to frost and cold and likewise the time expired of the working within the said vessells Moreouer there is another kind of wine naturally sweet which in Prouance and Languedoc is called Dulce i. sweet namely in the territorie of the Vocontians For this purpose they let the grapes hang a long while vpon the Vine but first they wryth the steele that the bunch hangs to Some make incision into the very Vine branch as far as to the pith and marrow within to diuert the moisture that feeds the grape others lay the clusters a drying vpon tile-houses and all this is done with the grapes of the Vine Heluenaca There be that range in a ranke of these sweet wines that which they cal Diacyton For which effect they drie the grapes against the Sun howbeit in a place well enclosed for 7 daies together vpon hardles 7 foot likewise from the ground in the night season they saue them from all dewes and so on the eight day they tread them in the wine presse and thus they draw forth a wine of an excellent sauor and tast both A kind of these sweet wines is that which they name Melitites in manner of a Braget Meade or Metheglin Howbeit different it is from the mead or honied wine which the Latines call Mulsum made of old wine that is hard and a little honie whereas the foresaid Melitites consists of 5 gallons of new tart wine still in the verdure whereto is added one gallon of honie and a cyath of salt and so boiled all together But I must not forget to place among these sundry kinds of drinke the liquor Protropum for so some call new wine running it self from the grapes before they be troden and pressed But to haue this good and so to serue the turne so soon as it is put vp into proper vessells for the purpose it must be suffered to work and afterwards to reboile and work againe for fortie daies space the Summer following euen from the very beginning of the dog daies and so forwards CHAP. X. ¶ Of weake and second Wines three kinds THe second wines which the Greeks call Deuteriae Cato and we Romans name Lora cannot properly and truly be called Wines being made of the skins and seeds of grapes steeped in water howbeit reckoned they are among course houshold wines for the hines and meinie to drinke And three kinds there be of them For somtime to the tenth part of the new wine that hath beene pressed out they put the like quantity of water and suffer the foresaid refuse of the grapes to soke therin a day and a night which done they presse it forth againe A second sort there is which the Greeks were wont to make in this manner They take a third part of water in proportion of the wine that was pressed forth and after a second pressing they seeth it to the wasting of the third part The third is that which is pressed out of the wine lees and this Cato cals Phoecatum i Wine of lees But none of these wines or drinks will endure aboue one yeare CHAP. XI ¶ What neat wines began of late to be in request in Italie IN this treatise of wines I cannot omit this obseruation That whereas all the good wines properly so called and known in the whole world may be reduced in fourscore kinds or therabouts two parts of three in this number may well be counted wines of Italie which in this regard farre surpasseth all other nations And hereupon ariseth another thing more deepely to be noted That these good wines were not so rife nor in such credit from the beginning as now they be CHAP. XII ¶ Obseruations touching wine TO say a truth Wines began to grow in reputation at Rome about sixe hundred yeares after the foundation thereof and not before For king Romulus vsed milk when he sacrificed to the gods and not wine as may appeare by the cerimonial constitutions by him ordained as touching religion which euen at this day be in force and are obserued And king Numa his successor made this law Posthumia in his later daies Let no man besprinckle the funer all fire with wine Which edict no man doubteth but he published and enacted in regard of the great want and scarsitie of wine in those daies Also by the same Act he expressely did prohibite to offer in sacrifice to the gods any wine comming of a Vine plant that had not beene cut and pruned intending by this deuise and pretence of religion to enforce men to prune their Vines who otherwise would set their minds on husbandrie only and plowing ground for corne and be slow enough in hazarding themselues for to climbe trees whereunto Vines were planted M. Varro writeth That Mezentius the king of Tuscane aided the Rutilians of Ardea in their warres against the Latines for no other hire and wage but the wine and the vines which then were in the territorie of Latium CHAP. XIII ¶ Of the ancient vsage of wine and the wines in old time IN ancient time women at Rome were not permitted to drink any wine We read moreouer in the Chronicles That Egnatius Mecennius killed his owne wife with a cudgell for that hee tooke her drinking wine out of a tun and yet he was cleared by Romulus and acquit of the murder Fabius Pictor in his Annales reports That a certaine Romane dame a woman of good worship was by her owne kinsfolke famished and pined to death for opening a cupbord wherin the keis of the wine-sellar lay And Cato doth record that hereupon arose the manner and custome That kisfolk should kisse women when they met them to know by their breath whether they smelled of Temetum for so they vsed in those daies to tearme Wine and thereof drunkennesse was called in Latine Temulentia Cn. Domitius a judge in Rome in the like case pronounced sentence judicially against a woman defendant in this forme That it seemed she had drunke more wine without her husbands knowledge than was needfull for the preseruation of her health and therefore afterward definitiuely That she should lose the benefit of her dowrie Certes the Romanes for a long time made great spare of wine L. Papyrius lord Generall of the Romane armie when he was at the point to joyne battell with the Samnites made no other vow but this That he would offer vnto Iupiter a little cup or goblet of wine in case he atchieued the victorie and woon the field Ouer and besides we find in histories that among donatiues and presents certaine sextars or quarts of milke haue beene many times giuen but neuer any
called Stachys hath a resemblance also to Porret but that the leaues be longer and more in number it yeeldeth a pleasant smell and the leaues be of a pale colour inclining somwhat to yellow The nature of this plant is to moue the monethly purgation of women As for Clinopodium called otherwise Cleonicion Zopyron Ocymoeides like it is to running wilde Thyme and full of branches growing vp a span or handfull high at the least It groweth in stony places with a spoky tuft of floures shewing in a round compasse and for all the world resembleth the feet or pillers that beare vp a table or bed This herb taken in drinke is good for convulsions ruptures stranguries and serpents stings So is the syrrup or juleb that is made thereof by way of decoction Thus much of those herbs which in name carry a shew and resemblance of trees It remaineth now to write of some other herbs which I must needs say are of no great name and reckoning howbeit such as be indued with wonderfull vertues As for the famous and notable herbs indeed I will reserue the treatise of them for the books following And first I meet with that which we in Italy call Centunculus but the Greekes Clematis with leaues pointed like the beak of a bird or resembling the cape of a cloke growing close to the ground in toiled corn fields This herbe is most effectuall and singular aboue all other for to stay a laske if it be drunk in some red or green hard wine The same beaten into pouder and taken to the weight of one denier Roman in fiue cyaths of Oxymell or hot water stancheth bleeding and yet in that sort it is of great effect to fetch away the after-birth of women lately deliuered But there be other herbes among the Greeke writers going vnder the name of Clematides and namely one which some cal Echites others Lagines and there are besides who name it Pety Scammonie and in very truth branches it hath a foot long full of leaues and not vnlike vnto those of Scammonie but that the leaues be more black or duskish and smaller This herbe is found as well in vineyards as corne lands People vse to eat this herb with oile and salt as they do Beets Coles and other such pot-herbs and so eaten it maketh the body soluble And yet neuerthelesse those who be troubled with the bloudy flix are wont to take it in some astringent wine with Lineseed and find it to work with good successe The leaues applied to the eies with parched Barly groats do restraine the waterish humors which fall thither so there be a fine linnen cloth wet between The same applied in a pultesse to the wens called the kings euil bring them first to suppuration and afterwards hauing hogs grease put thereto heale them throughly Incorporat with green oile Oliue they ease the hemorrhoids and with honey helpe those that be in a Phthisicke or Consumption If nources eat them with their meat they shall haue good store of milke in their breasts And if they annoint therewith the heads of their young infants the haire will come the thicker A collution made with them and vineger assuageth the tooth-ache if the mouth be washed therewith To conclude it stirreth vp to fleshly lust There is besides another kind of Clematis known by the name of the Aegyptian Clematis howsoeuer some call it Daphnoeides others Polygonoeides Leaued it is like the Lawrel saue that the leaues be long and thin But against all serpents and especially the Aspides it is a soueraigne counterpoison if it be drunk in vineger Aegypt bringeth forth this herb in great abundance CHAP. XVI ¶ Of Aron Dracunculus or Dracontium Of Aris. Of Millefoile Of another hearbe of that name Of Pseudobunium Of Myrrhis and Onobrichis with their medicinable vertues THere is a great difference betweene * Aron of which herbe I haue written amongst those with bulbous roots and * Dracontium although writers be at some variance about this point for some haue affirmed that they be both one Howbeit Glaucias hath distinguished them in that the one groweth wild and the other is planted and hee pronounceth and calleth Dragon the sauage Aron others are of opinion that there is no other difference between them but that the onion root is called Aron and the stem of the same herb Dracontium whereas indeed there is no likenesse at all between the one and the other if so be that Dracontium of the Greeks be the same that we call Dracunculus in Latine For Aros hath a black root growing broad flat and round yea and far greater insomuch as it is a good handful but the root of Dracunculus is somwhat red and the same wrythed and folded round in manner of a Dragon wherupon it took that name Nay the very Greeks themselues haue made an exceeding great difference between Dragon and Wake-Robin for they affirme That the seed of Dragon is hot and biting and besides of such a virulent and stinking smell that the very sent thereof is enough to driue a woman great with childe to trauell before her time and to slip an vntimely birth Contrariwise they haue wonderfully commended Aron for first and foremost they preferre the female of this kind as a principall meat before the male which is harder to be chewed and longer ere it be concocted and digested moreouer they affirm That as well the one as the other doth expectorat the fleam gathered in the chest and whether it be dried and brought into pouder and so the drink spiced withall or otherwise taken in form of a lohoch or electuary it prouoketh both vrine and also womens monthly termes Drunke with oxymell it mundifieth and comforteth the stomacke and Physitians haue giuen it in Ewes milke for the exulceration of the guts rosted vnder the embers they haue prescribed it to be taken with oil for the cough Some haue sodden it in milke and giuen the decoction thereof to be drunke in that case They haue appointed it also to be boiled and then applied accordingly to watery eies for to represse the violence of rheum likewise vnto places black and blew with stripes as also for the inflammation of the amygdales also they haue giuen direction to inject the same with oile by way of clystre as an excellent remedy for the Hemorrhoids and to applie it in a liniment with hony for to take away the pimples and freckles of the skin Cleophantus hath giuen it the praise of an excellent antidote or counterpoison prescribing also the vse thereof for the pleurisie and inflammation of the lungs in the same manner as in case of the cough he appointed likewise to beat the seed into pouder being mixed either with common oile or oile rosat to drop it into the eares for to assuage the pain Dieuches ordained to take and temper it with meale and so to worke it into a paste to giue
him but also by good proofe and euident arguments to haue bin of all other before his time a prince most addicted to the publick benefit of all mankind for the only man he was who deuised to drinke poison euery day hauing taken his preseruatiues before to the end that by the ordinary vse and continuall custome thereof it might be familiar vnto his nature and harmlesse The first he was also who deuised sundry kinds of antidotes or counterpoisons wherof one retaineth his name to this day he it was also and none but he as men think who first mingled in the said antidotes and preseruatiues the bloud of Ducks bred in his own realme of Pontus for that they fed and liued there of poisons and venoâ—…ous hearbs Vnto him that famous and renowned professor in Physicke Asclepiades dedicated his books now extant for this Physitian being solicited to repaire vnto him from Rome sent the rules of Physick digested into order and set downe in writing instead of comming himselfe And Mithridates it was as it is for certaine knowne wâ—…o alone of all men that euer were could speake two and twentie languages perfectly so as for the space of six and fiftie yeares for so long he reigned of all those Nations which were vnder his dominion there neuer came one man to his court but he communed and parled with him in his own tongue without any truchman or interpreter for the matter This noble Prince amongst many other singular gifts that he had testifying his magnanimitie and incompatable wit addicted himselfe particularly to the earnest studie of Physicke and because he would be exquisite and singular therein he had intelligencers from all parts of his dominions and those took vp no small part of the whole world who vpon their knowledge exhibited vnto him the particular natures and properties of euery simple by which means he had a cabinet full of an infinit number of receits and secrets set down together with their operations effectâ—… which he kept in his said closet and left behind him with other rich treasure of his But Pompey the Great hauing vnder his hands the whole spoile of this mighty Prince meeting in that saccage with those notes abouesaid gaue commandement vnto his vassall or infranchised seruant the abouenamed Lenaeus an excellent linguist most learned grammarian to translate the same into the Latine tongue for which act of Pompey the whole world was no lesse beholden vnto him than the common-wealth of Rome for the foresaid victorie Ouer besides these what Greeke authors haue trauelled in Physicke I haue declared heretofore in conuenient place And among the rest Euax a King of the Arabians wrote a booke as touching the vertues and operations of Simples which he sent vnto the Emperour Nero Crateuas likewise Dionysius also and Metrodorus wrote of the same Argument after a most pleasant and plausible manner I must needs say yet so as a man could picke nothing almost out of all their writings but an infinit difficultie of the thing for they painted euery herb in their colors and vnder their pourtraicts they couched and subscribed their seueral natures effects But what certainty could there be therin pictures you know are deceitfull also in representing such a number of colours and especially expressing the liuely hew of Hearbs according to their nature as they grow no maruell if they that limned and drew them out did fail and degenerat from the first pattern and originall Besides they came far short of the mark setting out hearbs as they did at one only season to wit either in their floure or in seed time for they change and alter their form and shape euerie quarter of the yeare Hereof it came that all the rest labored to describe their forms colours by words only Some without any description at all of their figure or colour contented themselues for the most part with setting downe their bare names and thought it sufficient to demonstrat and shew their power and vertue afterwards to whosoeuer were desirous to seeke after the same and verily the knowledge thereof is no hard matter to attain vnto For mine own part it hath bin my good hap to see growing in the plant all these medicinable herbs excepting very few by the meanes of Antonius Castor a right learned and most renowned Physitian in our daies who had a pretty garden of his own well stored with simples of sundry sorts which hee maintained and cherished for his owne pleasure and his friends who vsed to come and see his plot as indeed it was worthy the sight this Physitian was then aboue a hundred yeres old in all his life neuer found what sicknesse meant neither for all this age of his was his wit decaied or memory any whit impaired but continued as fresh still as if he had bin a yong man But to proceed forward with our discourse Certes we shall not find a thing againe which our Ancestors so much admired and were more rauished withall than the knowledge of simples True it is I confesse that the inuention of the Ephemerides to fore-know thereby not onely the day night with the â—…clypses of Sun Moon but also the very hours is antient howbeit the most part of the common people haue bin and are of this opinion receiued by tradition from their forefathers That all the same is done by inchantments thatby the means of some sorceries and herbs together both Sun and Moone may be charmed and inforced both to lose and recouer their light to doe which feat women are thought to be more skilfull and meet than men And to say a truth what a number of fabulous miracles are reported to haue beene wrought by Medea queen of Colchis and other women and especially by Circe our famous witch here in Italy who for her singular skil that way was canonized a goddesse And from hence it came I suppose that Aeschylus a most antient Poet made report of Italy to be furnished with herbes of mighty operation and many others haue spoken much of the mountaine Circeios bearing her name wherein the said Lady somtime dwelt kept her residence And for a notable proof of her singular skil in that kind the same knowledge in some measure continueth vnto this day in the Marsians a nation descended from a son of hers who are well knowne to haue a naturall power by themselues to tame and conquer all serpents and not to be subiect to any danger from them As for Homer verily the father and prince of all learning learned men and the best author that we haue of antiquities howsoeuer otherwise he was addicted to extoll and magnifie dame Circe yet he attributeth vnto Egypt the glory and name for good herbs yea though in his time there was not that base Egypt watered as now it is with Nilus for afterwards it grew by the mud left there by the inundation of the said riuer Truly this Poet
maketh mention of many singular herbs in Aegypt which the Kings wife of that country gaue to that lady of his Helena of whom he writeth so much and namely the noble Nepenthes which had this singular vertue and operation To work obliuion of melancholy heauinesse yea and to procure easement and remission of all sorrowes which I say the queene bestowed vpon Helena to this end That she should communicate and impart it to the whole world for to be drunke in those cases abouesaid But the first man knowne by all records to haue written any thing exactly and curiously of simples was Orpheus As for Musaeus and Hesiodus after him in what admiration they held and how highly they esteemed the herb Polion aboue the rest I haue shewed already Certes Orpheus and Hesiodus both haue highly commended vnto vs perfumes and suffumigations And Homer likewise writeth expressely of certain herbs by name of singular vertue which I wil put downe in their due places After him came Pythagoras a famous Philosopher who was the first that composed a booke and made a treatise purposely of sundry herbs with their diuers effects ascribing wholly the inuention and originall of them to the immortall gods and namely to Apollo and Aesculapius Democritus compiled a volume of the same argument But both hee and Pythagoras had trauelled before al ouer Persis Arabia Aethyopia and Aegypt and there conferred with the Sages and learned Phylosophers of that country called Magi. In summe so far were men in old time rauished with the admiration of herbs and their vertues that they bashed not to auouch euen incredible things of them Xanthus an antient Chronicler writeth in the first booke of his histories of a Dragon which finding one of her little serpents killed raised it to life again by a certain herbe which he nameth Balis and with the said herb a man also named Thylo whom the Dragon had slaine was reuiued and restored to health againe Also King Iuba doth report That there was a man in Arabia who being once dead became aliue againe by the vertue of a certain herbe Democritus said and Theophr astus gaue credit to his words That there is an herb with which a kind of foule wherof I haue made mention before is able to make the wedge or stopple to flie out of the hole of her neast into which the sheepheards had driuen it fast in case she bring the same herbe and but once touch the foresaid wedge therewith These be strange reports and incredible howbeit they draw men into a wonderfull opinion of the thing and fil their heads with a deep conceit forcing them to confesse That there is some great matter in hearbs and much true indeed which is reported so wonderfully of them And from hence it is that most are of this opinion and hold certainly That there is nothing impossible but may be performed by the power of herbs if a man could reach vnto their vertues mary few there be who haue attained to that felicity and the operation of most simples is vnknowne In the number of these Herophilus the renowned Physitian may be reckoned who was of this mind and gaue it out in his ordinary speech That some hearbs there were which were effectuall and did much good if a man or woman chanced but to tread vpon them vnder their feet And verily this hath bin knowne and found true by experience that some diseases would be more exasperat and angry yea and wounds grow to fretting and inflammation if folk went but ouer certain herbs in the way as they passed on foot Lo what the Physick in old time was and how the same lay wholly couched in the Greek language and not elswhere to be found But what might be the reason that there were no more simples knowne Surely it proceeds from this That for the most part they be rusticall peasants and altogether vnlettered who haue the experience and triall of herbs as those who alone liue and conuerse among them where they grow Another thing there is Men are carelesse and negligent and loue not to take any paines in seeking for them Againe euery place swarmeth so with Leeches and Physitians and men are so ready to run vnto them for to receiue some compound medicine at their hands that little or no regard there is made of herbs and good Simples Furthermore many of them which haue bin found out and knowne haue no name at all as for example that herb which I spake of in my Treatise concerning the cure and remedies of corne growing vpon the lands and which we all know if it be enterred or buried in the foure corners of the field will skar away all the foules of the aire that they shal not settle vpon the corne nor once come into the ground But the most dishonest and shamefull cause why so few simples in comparison be knowne is the naughtie nature and peeuish disposition of those persons who will not teach others their skill as if themselues should lose for euer that which they imparted vnto their neighbor Ouer and besides there is no certain meanes or way to direct vs to the inuention and knowledge of hearbes and their vertues for if we looke vnto these hearbs which are found already we are for some of them beholden to meere chance fortune and for others to say a truth to the immediat reuelation from God For proofe hereof mark but this one instance which I will relate to you For many a yeare vntill now of late daies the biting of a mad dog was counted incureable and looke who were so bitten they fell into a certain dread feare of water neither could they abide to drink or to heare talk therof and then were they thought to be in a desperat case it fortuned of late that a souldier one of the gard about the Pretorium was bitten with a mad dog and his mother saw a vision in her sleep giuing as it were direction vnto her for to send the root vnto her sonne for to drink of an Eglantine or wild rose called Cymorrhodon which the day before she had espied growing in an hortyard where she took pleasure to behold it This occurrent fel out in Lacetania the nearest part vnto vs of Spain Now as God would when the souldier before said vpon his hurt receiued by the dog was ready to fall into that symptome of Hydrophobie and began to feare water there came a letter from his mother aduertising him to obey the wil of God and to do according to that which was reuealed vnto her by the vision Whereupon he dranke the root of the said sweet brier or Eglantine and not only recouered himselfe beyond all mens expectation but also afterwards as many as in that case tooke the like receit found the same remedy Before this time the writers in Physick knew of no medicinable vertue in the Eglantine but only of the sponge or little ball growing amid the
lease it resembleth water Mints but that the branches be greater Moreouer this setled and deep persuasion men haue of Candy that what Simples soeuer grow there they be infi nitly better than all others of the same kind whatsoeuer Next vnto which Island there goeth a great name and opinion of the mountain Pernassus for excellent herbes howsoeuer otherwise mount Pelius in Thessaly the hil Telechrius in Euboea and generally al Arcadia the country of Laconica throughout be renowned much for plenty of good simples And yet the Arcadians verily vse no other Physicke but milke onely and that about the spring at what time all herbs there be in their best verdure and fullest of sap so as the vdders of beasts be their Physi tians yeelding them medicines out of their pastures But aboue all they vse to drink cow milk for that those kind of cattell feed indifferently in manner of all kind of herbs Certes of what power and efficacy herbs are and namely what effects they may work euen by the milk of four-footed beasts grasing and pasturing thereupon appeareth manifestly by two notable examples which I will report vnto you About Abdera and along the street or high way called Diomedes causey there lie certain pastures wherein all the horses that feed become inraged stark wood thereby Semblably the herbage belonging to Potniae a towne in Magnesia driueth Asses to a kind of madnesse Leauing now those herbts which took their appellations of beasts let vs proceed to others Among which Aristolochia deserueth to be ranged with the best and principal an herb which seemeth to haue had that name giuen it by great bellied women for that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Countreymen of Italy call this herbe in Latine Malum terrae which is as much to say as the Apple of the earth and they do make foure kinds thereof The first hath a round root swelling and bunching out leaues resembling the Mallow and partly those of Iuy but that they be of a more browne and duskish colour and withall softer in the hand The second Aristolochia or Birthwort is taken to be the male and hath a root as thicke as a good Baston or staffe growing longwise to the length of foure fingers The third which by some is called Clematis by others Aristolochis of Candy hath a root exceeding long and slender like to that of a young Vine and this is reputed of all others for the best and most effectuall The roots of them all be of a Box colour the stalks small and the floures purple They beare little prety berries much like to capers But it is the root alone which is medicinable A fourth kinde there is also which they call Pistolochia smaller and slenderer than the last before named Clematis A root it hath diuided into many fibers or strings growing thick one by another to the thicknesse of big and well growne rushes whereupon some haue giuen it the name of Polyrrhizon All the sort of these Aristolochies yeeld an aromaticall odour but the long and smaller root is that which is most pleasant to smell vnto for it hath a fleshie rind and is one of the principall ingredients which enter into those odoriferous perfumes and ointments which stand most vpon Nard these Birth-woorts delight all of them to grow vpon plaines and battle grounds The right season to digge or draw them out of the earth as in haruest time and then after they be rid and scaled as it were from the earth or mould sticking vnto them they vse to lay them vp safe Howbeit the best simply are those which come out of Pontus And take this for a generall rule That in euery kind the weightiest is alwaies most medicinable The round rooted Aristolochie hath a speciall property against the poison of serpents Yet there goeth the greatest name of the long for this excellent qualitie if it be true that is reported thereof namely that if a woman newly conceiued with childe applie the root thereof to her naturall parts within a morcell of raw boeufe it will cause her to breed and forme in her wombe a man childe Our Fishers heere by in Campaine doe tearme the round root The poyson of the earth In very truth I haue seene them with mine owne eyes to stampe the said root and incorporat it with lime into a paste and so to cast it into the sea in small pellets or gobbets for to catch fishes and I assure you they will skud amaine and make haste to this bait and be very eager of bit but no sooner haue they tasted thereof but they will turne vp their bellies and lie floating aloft vpon the water starke dead As for that Aristolochie which for the manifold rootes that it hath is called Polyrrhizos it is thought to be soueraigne for convulsions or crampes contusions or bruises for such also as haue fallen from some steepe and high place if the root be drunke in water Likewise the seed of this kinde is supposed singular good for the pleurisie and to corroborate strengthen and heat weake and distempered sinewes The same likewise may be reckoned for a Satyrion It remaineth now to knit vp this discourse with a rehearsall of all the operations and effects of the plants before named To begin then with the most dangerous accident of al other to wit the sting of serpents these hearbes following are very medicinable and effectuall in that case namely Brittannica and the roots of all the kinds of Panaces taken in wine The floure seed besides of Chironium especially if it be drunk or otherwise applied as a liniment with wine and oile Also the wild Origan or Marjeram called Cunila Bubula hath a singular property by it self that way like as Polomonia otherwise called Philetoeria if one take 4 drams weight of the root in wine Semblably Teucrion Sideritis Scordotis giuen in wine But more particularly against snakes aders the like the said herbs be right soueraign either inwardly taken or outwardly applied vpon the wound be it in juice substance of leafe or decoction it skilleth not whether for which purpose a dram weight of the root of great Centaurie drunk in three cyaths of white wine is excellent as for Gentian it serueth properly against snakes if it be taken to the poise of two drams with Pepper and Rue in 6 cyaths of wine green or dry it makes no matter Touch herbe Willow or Lysimachia serpents cannot abide the very smell thereof but flie from it If any body chance to be stung alreadie by them there is not a better medicine than to giue Celendine in drinke But of Betonie aboue all the rest there is made a most soueraigne salue to be laied vnto the place that is stung And such a contrarietie in nature of Antipathie there is by folks report between them and this herb that if the leaues thereof be strewed in a circle round about them the serpents within wil neuer
Finally to wash the mouth with wine before one goeth to bed for a sweet breath likewise so soon as he is vp betimes with cold water against the tooth-ach so as he do it three or fiue times together or at least-wise obseruing such an odde number as also to bath the eies in a morning with Oxycrat i with vineger and water mingled together to preserue them for being bleared are singular and approoued experiments CHAP. V. ¶ Obseruations as touching Diet and the manner of our feeding for the regiment of Health LIke to the former rules is this also as touching our Diet That it be not too precise but so as we may feed indifferently of all viands and acquaint our bodies with variety of meats which is obserued to be the best way to maintain our health and in very truth Hippocrates saith That to eat but one meale a day i to forbeare dinners is a diet that will drie vp a mans body within and bring them soon to age and decay But this aphorism of his he pronounced as a Physitian to reclaim vs from that hungry and sparing diet and not as a patron and maintainer of full feeding and gourmandise for I assure you a temperat and moderate vse of our meats is the wholsomest thing that is for our bodily health But L. Lucullus was so strict herein that hee suffered himselfe to be ordered and ouer-ruled by his owne seruant who would not let him eat but as he thought good in such sort that it was no small disgrace vnto him in his later daies thus to make his man his master and to be gouerned by him rather than by his own selfe for was it not think you an approbrious and shamefull sight to see a slaue and no better to put his lords hands from a dish of meat beeing an aged gentleman as he was and who in times past had rode in triumph to gage him thus I say and keep him short though hee were set amongst great states at a roiall feast within the capitoll of Rome CHAP. VI. ¶ Of Sneezing the vse of Venerie and other means which concerne mans health SNeezing dischargeth the heauinesse of the head and easeth the pose or rheum that stuffeth the nose and it is commonly said That if one lay his mouth to the nosthrils of a mouse or rat and touch the same it wil do as much To sneeze also is a ready way to be rid of the yex or hicquet And Varro giueth counsell to scrape a branch of a Date tree with one hand after another by turnes for to stay the said hicquet But most Physitians giue direction in this case to shift a ring from the left hand to the longest finger of the right or to plunge both hands into very hot water Theophrastus saith that old men doe sneeze with more paine and difficulty than others As touching carnall knowledge of man and woman Democritus vtterly condemned it and why so Because quoth he in that act one man goeth out of another And to say a truth the lesse one vseth it the better it is for body and mind both and yet onr professed wrestlers runners and such gamsters at feats of actiuity when they feele themselues heauy or dul reuiue and recouer their liuely spirits again by keeping company with women Also this exercise clenseth the brest and helpeth the voice which being sometime before cleare and neat was now become hoarse and rusty Moreouer the temperat sports of Venus easeth the pain of the reins and loins mundifie and quicken the eiesight and be singular good for such as be troubled in mind and giuen ouermuch to melancholy Moreouer it is held for witchcraft to sit by women in trauell or neare vnto a Patient who hath a medicine either giuen inwardly or applied vnto him with hand in hand crosse-fingered one between another the experience whereof was well seene by report when lady Alcmena was in labour to be deliuered of Hercules And the worse is this peece of sorcery in case the party hold the hands thus joined a-crosse one finger within another about one or both knees Also to sit crosse-legged with the ham of one leg riding aloft vpon the knee of the other and that by turns shifting from knee to knee And in very truth our ancestors time out of mind haue expresly forbidden in all councels of State held by princes potentats and Generals of the field to sit hand in hand or crosse-legged for an opinion they haue That this manner of gesture hindereth the proceeding and issue of any act in hand or consulted vpon They gaue out likewise a strait prohibition That no person present at any solemnity of sacrifices or vows making should sit or stand crosse-legged or hand in hand in manner aforesaid As for veiling bonnet before great rulers and magistrats or within their sight Varro saith it was a fashion at first not commanded for any reuerence or honour thereby to be done vnto gouernors but for healths sake and namely that mens heads might be more firm hardy by that ordinary vse and custome of being bare When a mote or any thing els is falne into one eie it is good to shut the other hard If there be water gotten into the right eare the maner is to jump and hop with the left leg bending and inclining the head toward the right shoulder semblably if the like happen to the left eare to do the contrary If one be falne into a fit of coughing the way to stay it is to let the next fellow spit vpon his forehead If the uvula be falne it will vp again if the Patient suffer another to bite the haire in the crown of his head and so to pull him vp plumb from the ground Hath the neck a crick or a pain lying behind what better remedy than to rub the hams Be the hams pained do the like by the nape of the neck say the cramp take either feet or legs plucking stretching the sinewes when one is in bed the next way to be vsed is to set the feet vpon the floore or the ground where the bed standeth or put case the crampe take the left side then be sure with the right hand to catch hold of the great toe of the left foot and contrariwise if the cramp come to the right leg do the like by the right foot If the body fall a shaking and quiuering for cold or if one bleed excessiuely at the nosthrils it is passing good to bind strait and hard the extreame parts to wit hands and legs yea and to plucke the eares also It falleth out oftentimes that one cannot lie dry nor hold his water but it commeth from him euer and anone what is then to be done mary tie the foreskin of his yard with a linnen thred or a papyr rush withall binde his thighs about in the middle If the mouth of the stomacke be ready to turne and will neither receiue nor
but a plaine and true narration according to my first desseine and intention For well I wot that I might haue inserted here and there the rare receits which are reported to be of the ashes of the bird Phoenix and her nest but that I know all to be meere fabulous howsoeuer they â—…ie a pretence of truth Besides I count it a very mockerie and no better to deliuer vnto the world those medicins which are not to be but once in the reuolution of a thousand yeres CHAP. II. ¶ The vertues and properties of Wooll THe ancient Romans attributed vnto Wool great authoritie had therein a certain religious and reuerent opinion of holines in so much as new wedded wiues by an old custom and ordinance at Rome were wont with great ceremonie to adorn and bedeck with wooll the side-posts of the dore or entrie into their husbands house on the mariage day Now besides the vse of wool for decent apparrel defence against cold weather that which is vnwashed and full of the sheeps swet serueth in Physick and is a soueraign remedy for sundry accidents being applied with oile wine or vinegre according as need requireth either in mitigation of pain or mordicasion and coriosion and according as our purpose is to bind or to enlarge and open any part and namely it is imploied in dislocations of members and griefe of sinues if it be laid to the affected place well sprinkled wet eftsoons with the said liquors that it might be alwaies moist But more particularly for disjointed members some put thereto a little salt others take rue when they haue stamped it incorporat the same with some conuenient grease so apply it in maner of a cataplasme vpon sweatie wooll after which maner it is good for contusions or bruses swellings Also it is said that if the teeth gumbs be well rubbed with such wool and hony mingled together it will cause the breath to be the sweeter a suffumigation or perfume therof is singular for the frensie applied with the oile of roses it stanches bleeding at the nose or otherwise if the ears be well stopped therwith and a little garlick conueied withal therinto Moreouer it is laid to inueterat sores with good successe so that hony be put thereto Soake wooll in wine vinegre or cold water and oile and then wring and presse the same forth it heales any wound The wool of a ram well washed in cold water afterwards steeped in oile is singular for womens infirmities and particularly allaies the inflammation of the matrice but in case it be faln downward and readie to slip out of the bodie a perfume therof receiued beneath staieth the same and keepes it vp The fattie wooll of a sheep being either applied or put vp in maner of a pessarie drawes down the dead infantâ—… out of the mothers belly and yet the same otherwise represseth the immoderat flux of womens fleurs If it be couched hard close within the wound occasioned by the biting of a mad dog it serueth to great purpose but with this charge That it be kept bound therto not remoued vntill the seuenth day be past applied vnto whitflaws and impostimations about the naile-roots with cold water it cureth them the same if it be dipped soked in a medly made of salnitre brimstone oile vinegre and tar all dissolued together and ready to boile and so laid as a cataplasm to the loins as hot as the patient can abide it changing it twice a day appeaseth the paine of those parts Take the greasie wooll of a ram bind therwith very hard the joints of the extream parts as namely the fingers and toes you shal see how it will stanch bleeding Howbeit note this that the wooll growing vpon the sheeps neck is euer best and most medicinable and if we regard the country from whence it coms that of Galatia Tarentum Attica and Miletum is alwaies reputed better than any other Furthermore the greasie or sweatie wooll of a sheepe is proper to be applied to any raw places where the skin is fretted off to contusions bruses looking black and blew strokes crushes rushes rubs and gals as also from them who are tumbled down from some high place for the head-ach and other pains and lastly for the inflammation or heat of the stomack being decently applied with vinegre and oile rosat Reduced into ashes and vsed as a liniment it is singular for them that be crushes or squeesed wounded burnt and scalded This ashes entreth also into colyries and eie-salues it serueth for hollow vlcers fistuloes like as for the ears when they run filthie matter For these purposes aboue specified some sheare it from the sheeps back others chuse rather to plucke it and when they haue clipped off the vpmost parts or forced it lay the same forth to dry they toze card it also and then bestow it in an earthen pot not fully baked which they besmeer all ouer with hony and so burn calcine it to ashes others put vnder smal chips or slices of torchwood and lay certain beds or courses thereof between the locks of wooll and after they haue besprinkled the same with oile set all one fire which done the ashes that come therof they put into little pans or vessels poure water theron and after they haue well stirred the said ashes with their hands they suffer it to settle downe to the bottom which they do oftentimes alwaies changing the water till such time as a man may perceiue the ashes at the tongues end to be somwhat astringent but not biting and they lay vp their ashes for their vse A great scourer and cleanser this is and therefore most effectuall to mundifie the eye-lids Moreouer the very filthy excrements of sheep the sweat sticking to the wool of their flanks between their legs the concauities thereabout which they cal Oesypum is thought to haue infinit number of medicinable ptoperties but the best Oesypum simply is that which coms from the sheep bred about Athens This swet or filthy excrement cal it what you wil is prepared and ordered many waies but the principall is that which is gathered from the wooll newly taken from between the legs shoulders of the sheep and presently tozed ready for to be carded others are content to teke the sweatie filth of any wooll so it be fresh plucked or clipped from the sheep and whether it be the one sort or the other they let it dissolue ouer a soft fire in a pan of brasse which done they set it a cooling and take off the fat that swims aloft gather it into an earthen vessell As for the rest which remained behind of the first stuffe they set iton the fire again that the fatnes may boile forth of it after this the fat that floted aboue as wel the former as the later they wash in cold water let it drie in a linnen cloth expose it to the
corne vpon the ground The like also fell as often in Egypt for the rain that fel caused all the washes arising from the riuer Nilus which watred the grounds to be bitter whereupon insued a great plague and pestilence to the whole region It chanceth many times that presently vpon the cutting and stocking vp of Woods there arise and spring certaine fountaines which beforetime appeared not but were spent in the nourishment of the tree roots as it fell out in the mountain Haemus when as Cassander held the Gallogreeks besieged for when the woods thereupon were cut down to make a palaisad for a rampier presently there issued forth springs of water in their place Moreouer it hath bin oft times known that by occasion of spoiling some hils of the wood growing therupon the springs haue met altogether in one streame and done much hurt in sudden ouerflowing the vaile beneath whereas the trees before-time had wont to drink vp digest and consume all the moisture wet that fell and fed the said waters And verily it auaileth much for the maintenance of water to stirre with the plough and to till a ground thereby to break vp and loose the vppermost callositie and hide as it were of the earth that kept it clunged and bound Certes it is recorded for a truth that vpon the rasing and destroying of Arcadia a towne so called in Creet wherby the place was dispeopled all the fountaines waxed dry and the riuers in that tract which were many came to nothing but six yeares after when the said town was re-edified euen as the inhabitants fell to earing and ploughing any grounds within their territorie the foresaid fountains appeared again and the riuers returned to their former course CHAP. V. ¶ Divers historicall obseruations touching this point MOreouer Earthquakes as they discouer sometimes new springs and sources of water so otherwhiles they swallow them vp that they are no more seene like as it hapned as it is well knowne 5 times about the riuer Pheneus in Arcadia And in manner abouesayd there issued forth a riuer out of the mountaine Corycus so soone as the peisants of the country began to break it vp for tillage But to return again to the change and alteration of waters wonderfull they must needs be no doubt when there is no euident cause thereof to be knowne as namely in Magnesia where al the hot waters of the bains suddenly became cold without any other change besides of the tast also in Caria where standeth the temple of Neptune the riuer which was knowne before to be fresh and potable all on a sudden turned into salt water Ouer and besides is not this a strange miracle that the fountain Arethusa in Syracuse should haue a sent or smell of dung during the solemne games and exercises at Olympia But there is some probable reason to be rendred hereof Because the riuer Alpheus passeth from Olympus vnder the very bottom of the sea into that Island of Sicily where Syracuse standeth and so commeth to the foresaid fountain The Rhodians haue a fountain within their Chersonese which euery ninth yere purgeth it self sends out an infinit deale of ordure and filthines And as the tast smell of waters do alter so their colours also do change as for example there is a lake in the country of Babylon which euery summer for the space of 11 daies looketh red and Borysthenes also in the summer time runneth with a blewish colour like violets or the sky and yet a most pure and subtill water it is of all other which is the reason that it swims aloft and floteth naturally vpon Hypanis the riuer In which two riuers there is another maruell reported That all the while a Southern wind bloweth the riuer Hypanis is discerned aboue it But there is one argument more besides that proueth the water of Borysthenes to be passing light thin for that there arise no mists out of it nay it is not perceiued to yeeld any exhalation or breath at al from it To conclude they that would seem to be curious and skilfull in these matters do obserue and affirme That generally all waters grow to be heauier after that mid-winter is once past CHAP. VI. ¶ The maner of water-conduits How and when those waters which naturally are medicinable ought to be vsed Also for what diseases it is good to saite and take the aire of the Sea The vertues and properties of sea waters as touching Physicke IF a man would convey water from any head of a spring the best way is to vse pipes of earth made by potters art and the same ought to be 2 fingers thick and one jointed within another so as the end of the vpper pipes enter into the nether as a tenon into a mortaise or as a box into the lid the same ought to be vnited and laid euen with quicklime quenched and dissolued in oile The least leuell for to carry and command water vp hill from the receit is one hundred foot but if it be conueyed but by one canel and no more it may be forced to mount the space of two Actus i. 240 foot As touching the pipes by means whereof the water is to rise aloft they ought to be of lead Furthermore this is to be obserued That the water ascend alwaies of it self at the deliuerie to the heigth of the head from whence it gaue receit if it bee fetched a long way the worke must rise and fall often in the carriage thereof that the leuell may bee maintained still As for the pipes ten foot long apiece they would bee if you do well Now if the said pipes of lead be but fiue fingers in compasse ordinarily they should weigh sixty pound if they be of eight fingers size they must carry the weight of one hundred pound but in case they bear a round of 10 fingers their poise would be at the least 120 pound and so the rest more or lesse according to this proportion Those pipes be called properly in Latine Denariae the web or sheet whereof beareth ten fingers in breadth before it be turned in and brought to the compasse of a pipe like as Quinariae when the same is halfe so broad Moreouer this is to be obserued That in euery turning and twining of an hill the pipe ought of necessity to be fiue fingers round and no more for to represse and breake the violence of the water in the current Likewise the vaulted heads which receiue and contain water from all the sources meeting together musâ—… be of that capacity as need requireth And since I am falne into the treatise and discourse of fountains I wonder much at Homer that he hath made no mention at all of hot springs and yet otherwise throughout his whole poëme hee bringeth in oftentimes those who bathed and washed in hot baines But it may verie wel be that the reason therof is because in those times there was
whatsoeuer as well those of the sea as riuers beeing dissolued in oile and tempered in honey is soueraigne for to cleare the eyes and of the like effect is Castoreum applied with hony The gal of the fish Callionymus healeth the cicatrices or scars that ouergrow the skin about them and the same eateth consumeth the excrescence of superfluous flesh in the corners of the eies And verily there is not a fish that hath more gall than it as testifieth Menander the Poet in his comedies the same fish is otherwise called Vranoscopus by reason of the eies which he hath in the vppermost part of his head Semblably the gall of the black fish Coracinus quickneth the eie-sight Also the gall of the reddish seascorpions mixt with old wine or the best hony of Athens serueth to discusse the filmes of the eies like to breed a cataract and thrice must the eies be annointed therewith letting a day goe euer betweene The same cure serueth likewise to take away the pearle in the eie As for Barbels it is commonly said that if one do feed ordinarily vpon them hee shall sensibly feele his eies to decay and wax dim thereby The sea-hare it selfe verily is venomous but the ashes keep the disorderly and hurtfull haires of the eie-lids from growing any more if they be once pluckt vp by the roots and for this purpose the least of this kind are the best In like manner the little Scallops kept in salt and stampt together with the rosine or oile of cedar the small frogs likewise which vsually they call Diopetes and Calamitae haue the like effect to hinder the comming vp of hairs in the eielids after they be once pulled vp in case their bloud be tempered with the gum of the vine-tree and therewith the edges of the said eie-lids be annointed The swelling and rednesse of the eies is by nothing better delaied and discussed than by a liniment made of a cuttle bone puluerized and mixt with womans milk And in very truth the said cuttle bone simply by it selfe cureth the asperity and roughnesse of the said eie-lids But to worke this cure the chirurgion vseth to turne vp the said eie-lids and to apply therto the medicine which he suffereth not to stay there long but taketh it away within a while he annointeth the place also with oile rosat and ouer night laieth thereto white-bread crums with brest milke for to assuage the paine The self-same shell or couer of the cuttle-fish beaten to pouder and brought into a liniment with vineger cureth those who can see neuer a whit towards night The ashes of the sayd cuttle-bone draw forth the scales or films which grow in the eies the same incorporat with hony heale the skars of the eies but tempered with salt or brasse-ore of each one dram they rid away the pin and web growing in the eie the same help horses of the haw that offendeth their eies Some say moreouer that the little bones within the cuttle if they bee stamped to powder heale the eie-lids of any sore or accident befalling vnto them The sea-vrchins flesh applied with vineger taketh away the accidents of the eies called Epinyctides The Magitians giue direction to burne the same with vipers skins and frogs and to spice the drink with the ashes that come thereof assuring those who vse to drink the same that they shall haue a very cleare sight â—…A fish there is named Ichthyocolla which hath a glewish skin and the very glue that is made thereof is likewise called Ichthyocolla The same glue taketh away the night-foes commonly named in Greek Epinyctides Some affirm That the said glue Ichthyocolla is made of the belly and not of the skin of the said fish like as Buls glue This fish glue is thought to be best that is brought out of Pontus the same also is white without any veines strings or scales and verie quickly melteth and resolueth Now the same ought first to be cut or shred small and then to lie infused or in steep a whole day and a night in water or vineger which done to be punned and beaten with the pebbles found about the sea-shore that the same may the sooner melt and dissolue This glue thus ordered is held to be soueraigne for the head ach and a good thing to enter into those medicines or compositions which are deuised to smooth the skin rid away the wrinkles Take the right eie of a frog lap it within a piece of selfe russet cloth such as is made of black wooll as it came in the fleece from the sheep and hang it about the neck it cureth the right eie if it be inflamed or bleared And if the left eie be so affected do the like by the contrary eie of the said frog c. Now if it were possible to pluck out these eies as the frog is ingendering it would heale also the white cicatrices or scars in the eie if it were hung about the necke of the patient in like sort within an egge-shel The rest of the frogs flesh applied to the eie sucketh out and consumeth the bloud that is congealed vnder the tunicles of the eie and lies there black and blew They affirme moreouer That the eies of a crab or craifish being hanged about the neck are a soueraigne remedy for bleared eies A little frog there is delighting to liue most among grasse in reed plots mute the same is and neuer croaketh green also of colour if kine or oxen chance to swallow one of them down with their grasse it causeth them to swell in the belly as if they were dew blown And yet they say that if the slime or moisture wherewith their bodies be charged outwardly be scraped off with the edge of some penknife it cleareth the sight if the eies be annointed therewith As for the flesh it selfe they lay it vpon the eies for to mitigat their pain Furthermore some there are who take 15 frogs pricke them with a rish draw the same through them that they may hang thereto which done they put them in a new earthen pot and the humour or moisture that passeth from them in this manner they temper with the juice or liquor which in manner of a gum issueth out of the white wine Brionie wherewith they keep the eielids from hauing any haires growing vpon them But first they pluck vp those disorderly haires which grew there to offend and hurt the eies with a fine needle point drop the foresaid liquor into the very places where the haires were fetched out by the roots Meges the Chyrurgian deuised another depilatory for to hinder the growing of hairs made of frogs which he killed in vineger and permitted them therin to putrfiie and resolue into moisture and for this purpose his manner was to take many fresh frogs euen as they were ingendred in any rain that fel during the Autumne The same depilatory effect the ashes of Horse-leeches are supposed to haue if
they vse with a paire of sizzers to clip them at the very mouth as they be sucking and then shall you see the bloud spring out as it were at the cocke of a conduit and so by little and little as they die they will gather in their heads and the same will fall off and not tarrie behind to do hurt These horsleeches naturally are enemies to Punaises in so much as their perfume killeth them Furthermore the ashes of Beuers skins burnt and calcined together with tar stancheth bloud gushing out of the nose if the same be tempered mingled wel with the juice of porret The shels of cuttles applied to the body with water draw forth arrow heads pricks or spils that sticke deepe within the flesh so doth any saltfish if the fleshie side be laid therto yea and fresh-water creifishes haue the same effect likewise the flesh of the fresh water Silurus for this fish breedeth in other riuers besides Nilus applied to the place either fresh or salted it makes no matter worke with the same successe The ashes of the same fish and the fat be of the same operation and very attractiue As for the ashes of their ridge-bone and prickie finnes they are taken to bee as good as Spodium and are vsed in stead thereof As touching those vlcers which be corrosiue as also the excrescence of proud flesh growing in such sores there is not a better thing to represse and keepe them downe than the ashes of Cackerels or the fish Silurus aforesaid The heads of salted Perches be singular good for cancerous vlcers and the more effectually they will work in case there be salt mingled with their ashes and together with knopped Majoram or Sauorie and oile be incorporat into a liniment The ashes of the Sea-crab burnt and calcined with lead represse cancerous sores and for this purpose sufficient it were to take the ashes only of the riuer creifish medled with hony and lint but some chuse rather to mingle alume and hony with the said ashes As for the eating sores called in Greeke Phagedaenae they may be healed well with the fish Silurus kept vntill it be dried and so together with red orpiment reduced into a pouder Likewise morimals and other consuming cankers and those sores which be filthy and growing to putrefaction are commonly healed with the old squares of the Tunie fish Now if there chance to be wormes and vermine breed in the said vlcers the only means to cleanse them is with the gall of frogs But the hollow sores commonly knowne by the name of Fistuloes are enlarged kept open yea and brought to drines with tents made of saltfish conueied into them within fine linnen rags and within a day or two at most they will rid away all the callositie together with the dead and putrified flesh within the sores yea and represse the eating and corrosiue humor in them if they be wrought into the forme of a salue or emplaster and so applied To mundifie vlcers there is not a fitter thing than stockfish made into a tent with fine lint of rags and so put into the sore Of the same effect are the ashes of the sea-vrchins skin The pieces of the fish Coracinus salted discusse and resolue the hotapostems named carbuncles if they be applied so doe the ashes of the Barble salted and calcined Some vse the ashes of the head of the said fish onely with hony or els the very flesh of Coracinus The ashes of murrets tempered with oile delay take down any swelling The gall likewise of the Sea-scorpion taketh off the roufe of sores and bringeth skars that ouergrow the flesh vnto the leuell of the other skin The liuer of the fish Glanus causeth werts to fall off if they be rubbed withall Also the ashes of Cackerell heads do the like if they be tempered with garlick but for the thyme werts particularly they vse them raw the gall likewise of the reddish sea scorpion and the small sea fish Smarides punned and brought into a liniment do the like The grosse pickle sauce called Alex if it be made through hot cures the raggednesse of nails the ashes also which come of Cackerell heads do extenuat and make them fine The fish Glauciscus eaten in the own broth causeth women to haue store of milke so doe the small fishes called Smarides taken with ptisan or barley gruell or els boiled with fennell and in case they haue sore brests the ashes of Burrets or Purple shells incorporat with honey doe heale effectually A liniment made of Sea crabs or fresh-water Creifishes takes away the offensiue haires that grow about womens nipples or breast heads the fleshie substance also of the Burrets applied to them work the same effect A liniment made of the fish called a Skate will not suffer womens paps to grow big A candle-weike or match made of lint and greased al ouer with the oile or fat of a dolphin and so set a burning yeeldeth a smoake which will raise women againe lying as it were in a trance and dead vpon a fit of the mother the same do Macquerels putrified in vinegre The ashes either of Pearch or Cackerel heads tempered and incorporat with salt sauerie and oile serue for all the accidents of the matrice and more particularly in a perfume bring down the after-birth Semblably the fat of a Seale or Sea-calfe conueighed by meanes of fire in a perfume vp into the nosthrils of a woman lying halfe dead vpon the rising and suffocation of the matrice bringeth her to her selfe againe so doth it also if with the rennet of the same Seale it be put vp in wooll after the manner of a pessarie into the priuie parts The ashes of the Sea-fish called Pulmo applied conueniently to the region of the matrice and kept fast thereto purgeth women passing well of their monethly fleurs of the same operation are Sea-vrchins stamped aliue and drunk in some sweet wine but the riuer Creifishes likewise punned and taken in wine do contrariwise stay the immoderat flux thereof Likewise it is said that a sussumigation of the fish Silurus especially that which breedeth in Africa causeth women to haue more speedie and easie deliuerance in childbirth as also that Crabfishes drinke in water doe stop the excessiue ouerflowing of their monethly terms whereas with hyssop they set them a going and purge them away Say that the infant sticke in the birth and by reason of painfull labour be in danger of suffocation let the mother drinke the same in like manner there will present help ensue Women with child vse also either to eat them fresh or drink them dried that they may go out their full time and not slip an abortiue fruit Hippocrates vseth the same and prescribeth vnto women for the bringing down of their sicknesse and likewise to thrust out the infant dead in their wombs to drinke them in honied wine with fiue dock roots stamped together with â—…e and soot and in very truth sodden
precious stones Our cups otherwise chased engraued and embossed in gold must be set out with hemeraulds besides to maintaine drunkennesse to make a quarrell to carouse and quaffe we must hold in our hand and set to our mouth the riches of India So as to conclude our golden plate comes behind pretious stones and pearles and we count it but an accessarie and dependant which may be spared CHAP. I. ¶ When mines of gold grew first into request The beginning of gold rings The quantitie of gold in treasure among our ancestors in old time Of the Cavallerie and Gentrie of the Romanes The priuiledge of wearing golden Rings OH that the vse of gold were cleane gone Would God it could possibly be quite abolished among men setting them as it doth into such a cursed and excessâ—…iue thirst after it if I may vse the words of most renowmed writers a thing that the best men haue alwaies reproched and railed at and the onely meanes found out for the ruine and ouerthrow of mankinde What a blessed world was that and much more happier than this wherein wee liue at what time as in all the dealings betweene men there was no coine handled but their whole trafficke stood vpon bartering and exchanging ware for ware and one commoditie for another according as the practise was in the time of the Trojane war as Homer a writer of good credit doth testifie And in that manner as I take it began first the commerce of negotiation among men for the maintenance of their society and liuing together for so he reporteth That some bought that which they stood in need of for Boeufes hides others for yron or such commodities as they had gotten in bootie from their enemies And yet I must needs say that euen Homer himself esteemed gold of great price as may appeare by the aestimat that he made thereof in comparison of brasse when he saith That Glaucus exchanged his golden armour worth 100 oxen for the brasen harne is of Diomedes which was valued but at nine Boeufs according to which manner practised in those daies euen at Rome also as may appeare by the old records there were no other penalties and fines imposed vpon those that transgressed the lawes but such as consisted in Boeufes and Muttons and vnder that name passed all the amercements that were leuied Well a bad example and president gaue he vnto the world who first deuised to weare rings vpon the fingers but who he was that did this harm vnto mankind it appeareth not for certaine vpon any record For as touching the reports that go of Prometheus I hold them all but fabulous tales and yet in all the antient pictures and portraitures of him he is to be seen by a generall consent of antiquity with a ring of yron howbeit I suppose that they represented thereby his bonds and his imprisonment rather than any custome that he had to weare a ring as an ornament vpon his finger And verily concerning the ring of K. Midas which if the collet were turned about toward the palm of the hand caused them to go inuisible that so wore it is there any man thinke you that judgeth it not more fabulous than the other of Prometheus But to come more particularly vnto gold the greatest credit and authority that it got was by wearing it in rings vpon the fingers and those only and altogether vpon the left hand And yet this was no fashion at first among the Romans whose manner was to vse no other but of yron to shew that they were good souldiers skilfull and expert in feats of arms Whether the antient kings of Rome were wont to haue gold rings vpon their fingers I am not able to say for certaine Sure it is that the statue of king Romulus in the Capitoll hath none Neither is there any to be seen in the other statues of the Roman kings saue only of Numa and Servius Tullius no nor in that of Lucius Brutus Whereat I maruel much and especially at the two Tarquines kings of Rome considering that they were descended of the Greeks from whence came vp the first vsage of these gold rings howsoeuer yet at this day in Lacedaemon there be none worne but of yron Howbeit this is recorded and known for a truth That Tarquinius Priscus the first of all the Tarquins honoured a sonne of his with a brooch or tablet of gold pendant at his neck for that whiles he was vnder 16 yeares of age and as yet in his Praetexta hee had killed an enemy in plain fight And thereupon was taken vp the manner first which also continued afterward to hang that ornament about the necks of those gentlemens sonnes who were men at armes and serued in the wars on horse-backe in token of knighthood and cheualrie whereas other mens sonnes ware a riband onely And therefore great maruell I haue at the statue of the said prince king Tarquine surnamed Priscus that it should be without a ring on his finger And yet besides all this I reade that there hath been some variance and difference in old time about the naming of rings The Greekes imposed a name deriued from the finger and called it Dactylios The Latines here with vs in old time named it Vngulus but afterwards as well we as the Greeks termed it Symbolum Certes long it was first as appeareth evidently by the Chronicles ere the very Senators of Rome had rings of gold For plaine it is that the State allowed and gaue rings only to certain especial lieutenants when they were to go in embassage to forrein nations and in mine opinion it was for their credit and countenance for that the most honorable personages in strange countries were distinguisht from others by that ornament And verily no person of what degree soeuer was wont to weare rings but such as had receiued them first from the common-wealth vpon that occasion so it serued them ordinarily in triumph as a token and testimoniall of their vertue and valour For otherwise he that triumphed in Rome although there was a Tuscan coronet al decked with spangles of gold born vp behind and held ouer his head had no better than a ring of yron vpon his finger no more than the slaue at his back who haply carried the said Tuscan chaplet For certainly in that maner triumphed C. Marius ouer K. Iugurtha and as the Cronicles do shew receiued not a golden ring nor tooke vpon him to weare it before his third Consulship And euen those also who from the State had golden rings giuen them in regard of embassage aforesaid neuer vsed them but when they came abroad into open place for within dores they might ware none but of yron which is the reason that euen at this day the wedding ring which the bridegroom sendeth as a token of espousals to his bride is of yron simply without any stone set in it Neither so farre as I can finde by reading were there
any golden rings in vse and request about the time of the Trojane war for sure I am that the Poet Homer maketh no mention of them at all who otherwise speaketh of the brauery and rich attire of those times And when he talketh of writing tablets sent ordinarily in stead of letters missiue when he writeth of cloths and apparels bestowed in chists and coffers when he telleth vs of vessels as well gold as siluer plate he saith they were all bound and trussed fast with some sure knot and not sealed vp with any mark of a ring as the order is in these daies Moreouer when he reporteth of any challenge made by the enemy to single fight and sheweth how the captains fel to cast their seuerall lots for the choise of them which should performe the combat this was neuer done by the signet of rings but by some other especiall marks that euery one made Also when he taketh occasion to speak of the workmanship of the gods he rehearseth buckles clasps and buttons of gold other jewels and ornaments also belonging to the attire of women as eare-rings and such like of their making which at the beginning were commonly made but he speaketh not one word of golden rings And verily in my conceit whosoeuer began first to weare these rings did it couertly by little and little putting them vpon the fingers of the left hand the better to hide them as if they were ashamed to haue them openly seene whereas if they might haue auowed the honouring of their fingers by that ornament they should haue shewed them at the first vpon the right hand Now if any man object and say that the wearing them on the right hand might be some impeachment to a soldier for vsing his offensiue weapon which he beareth in that hand I alledge again that the hinderance was more in the left hand which serueth to hold and manage the targuet or buckler defensiue I reade in the same Poet Homer aforesaid that men vsed to plait bind vp the tresses of their haire with gold and therefore I wot not well whether men or women first began the manner of such braiding the locks of the haire As touching gold laid vp for treasure little was there of it at Rome for a long time for surely when the city was taken sacked by the Gauls and that the Romans were to buy redeem their peace for a sum of mony there could not be made in all Rome aboue one thousand pound weight of gold Neither am I ignorant that in the third Consulship of Cn. Pompeius there was embezeled and stolne 2000 pound weight of gold out of the throne or shrine of Iupiter within the Capitoll which had bin there bestowed and laid vp by Camillus whereupon many men haue thought that there was 2000 pound weight of gold gathered for the ransome of the city But surely looke what ouerplus and surcrease there was aboue the foresaid weight of one thousand pound it was of the very booty and pillage of the French and taken out of the temples and chappels in that part of the city whereof they were masters Moreouer that the Gaules themselues were wont to goe to the wars brauely set out and inriched with gold it appeareth by this one example of Torquatus who slew a Gaule in combat and tooke from him a massie collar of gold Apparant it is therefore that all the gold as well that of the Gaules as that which came from the temples abouesaid amounted to the said sum and no higher to the light and knowledge whereof we come by meanes of reuelation from Augurie which gaue vs to vnderstand that Iupiter Capitolinus had rendered againe the foresaid sum in duple proportions And here by the way there commeth to my remembrance another thing not impertinent to this place considering I am to treat againe of rings when the sexton or keeper of this cell was apprehended and the question demanded What was become of the treasure aforesaid of 2000 pound which Iupiter had in custody and which now was out of the way and gone Hee tooke the stone that was in the collar of his ring which he ware crackt it between his teeth and presently dyed therupon wherby the truth was not bewraied and reuealed as touching the theefe that robbed the said treasure Wel reckon the most that can be surely there was not aboue 2000 pound weight of gold to be had in Rome when the city was lost which was in the 364 yere after the first foundation therof at what time as appeareth by the rols of the Subsidie booke there were in Rome to the number of 152580 free citizens And what was 2000 pound in proportion to such a multitude of people Three hundred and seuen yeres after when the temple of the Capitoll was on fire all the gold to be found therein as also in al the other chappels and shrines arose to thirteen thousand pound weight which C. Marius the yonger seized vpon and conueied away to the city Praeneste And all the same was recouered againe and brought backe againe by Sylla his enemy who vnder that title carried it in triumph besides seuen thousand pound weight of siluer which he raised out of the spoile of Marius And yet neuerthelesse the day before hee had caused to be carried in a pompe of triumph fifteene thousand pound weight of gold and one hundred and fifteene thousand pound of siluer which came of the rest of the pillage gotten by that victorie of his But to returne againe vnto our discourse of gold rings I doe not read that they were ordinarily vsed before the daies of Cn. Flavius the sonne of Annius This Flavius beeing otherwise a man of mean and base parentage as whose grandsire by the fathers side had bin no better than a slaue infranchised howbeit hauing a pregnant wit of his own brought vp daily vnder a good schoolmaster Appius Claudius sirnamed the Blind whom he serued as his Scribe Clerke or Secretarie he grew into inward credit and fauor with his master that for his better aduancement he opened vnto him the whole course of dayes pleadable and not pleadable exhorting and persuading him withal to publish that secret and mysterie to the view knowledge of the whole city which the said Flavius after much conference and consultation had with Appius did and effected accordingly wherupon he became so gratious with the whole body of the people who were alwaies before wont to hang euery day vpon the lips of some few of the chief principal Senators for to haue the information and knowledge of the said daies that in the end a bil promulged by him passed by generall assent of them all for to be created Aedile Curule together Q. Annicius of Praeneste who not many years before had bin a professed enemy and born armes against the Romanes without any regard had in this election either of C. Petilius or Domitius who were nobly born had
beneath and as the one is an excrement cast vp from a matter whiles it is purging it selfe so the other is the refuse or grounds thereof after it is purged and setled Howbeit many there bee who make but two kindes of this fome or litharge the one * Steresitis as it were solid and massiue the other * Peumene as one would say puffed vp and full of wind As for the third named Molybdaena they reckon as a thing by it selfe to be treated of in the discourse or chapter of lead Now the litharge abouesaid ought for the vse that it is emploied about for to be prepared in this manner first the lumps aforesaid are to be broken into small pieces as big as Hasel nuts and set ouer the fire againe thus when it is once red hot by the blast of bellows to the end that the coles and cinders might be separated one from another there is wine or vineger cast vpon it both to wash also withall to quench the same Now if it be Argyritis to the end it may look the whiter they vse to break it to the bignes of beans and giue order to seeth it in water within an earthen pot putting thereto wheat and barly lapped within pieces of new linnen cloth and suffer them to boil therwith till they burst which done for six dayes together they put it in mortars washing it thrice euery day in cold water and in the end with hot and so at length put to euery pound of the said Litharge the weight of one Obolus of Sal-gem The last day of all they put it vp into a pot or vessel of lead Some there be who seeth it with blanched beans and husked barly and after that dry it in the sun others think it better to seeth it with beans and white wool vntill such time as it colour the wooll no more black then they put thereto Sal-gem changing eft soones the water and dry it for the space of forty daies together in the hottest season of the Summer There be again who think it best to seeth it in water within a swines belly and when they haue taken it forth rub it wel with sal-nitre and pun it in mortars as before with salt Ye shall haue them that neuer bestow seething of it but only beat it with salt and then put water thereto and wash it Well thus prepared as is beforesaid it serueth for collyries and eie-salues in a liniment also to take away the foule cicatrices or scars the pimples and specks likewise that mar the beauty of women yea our dames wash the haire of their head withall to make it clean and pure And in very truth Litharge is of power to dry mollifie coole and attemper to clense also to incarnat vlcers and to asswage or mitigate any tumors Being reduced into the vnguents or plaisters aforesaid and namely with an addition of rue myrtles and vineger it is singular for S. Anthonies fire Semblably being incorporat with oile of myrtles and wax into a cerot it healeth kibed heeles CHAP. VII ¶ Of Vermilion and of what estimation it was among the old Romans the first inuention thereof Of Cinnabaris the vse thereof in Pictures and in Physicke The sundry sorts of Minium or Vermilion and how it is to be ordered to serue painters THere is found also in siluer mines a mineral called Minium i. Vermilion which is a colour at this day of great price and estimation like as it was in old time for the antient Romans made exceeding great acount of it not only for pictures but also for diuers sacred holy vses And verily Verrius alledgeth and rehearseth many authors whose credit ought not to be disproued who affirm That the maner was in times past to paint the very face of Iupiters image on high and festiual daies with Vermilion as also that the valiant captains who rode in triumphant maner into Rome had in former times their bodies coloured all ouer therewith after which manner they say noble Camillus entred the city in triumph And euen to this day according to that antient and religious custom ordinary it is to colour all the vnguents that are vseâ—… in a festiuall supper at a solemne triumph with Vermilion And no one thing doe the Censors giue charge and order for to be done at their entrance into office before the painting of Iupiters visage with Minium The cause and motiue that should induce our ancestors to this ceremony I maruel much at and canot imagin what it should be True it is and well known that in these daies the Aethiopians in generall set much store by this colour and haue it in great request insomuch as not onely the Princes and great Lords of those countries haue their bodies stained throughout therewith but also the images of their gods are â—…ainted with no other colour in which regard I am moued to discourse more curiously and at large of all particulars that may concerne it Thcophrastus saith that 90 years before Praxibulus was established chiefe ruler of the Athenians which falls out iust vpon the 249 yere after the foundation of our city of Rome Callias the Athenian was the first that deuised the vse of Vermilion and brought the liâ—…ely colour thereof into name for finding a kinde of red earth or sandy grit in the mines of siluer and hoping that by circulation there might be gold extracted out of it he tried what he could do by fire and so by that means brought it vnto that fresh and pleasant â—…e that it hath which was the first original of Vermilion Hee saith moreouer That euen in those daies there was found Minium in Spain but the same was hard and full of gritty sand Likewise among the Colchi in a certaine â—…ock inaccessible by reason whereof the people of the country were constrained by shooting at it to shake and driue it down howbeit the same was but a bastard Minium But the best simply saith he was gotten in the territorie of the Cilbians somewhat higher in the country than Ephesus in sum That the said Minium or Vermilion is a certaine sandy earth of a deepe scarlet colour which was prepared in this order first they pun and beat it into pouder and then washed it being thus puluerised Afterwards that which setled in the bottom they washed a second time In which artificiall handling of Minium this difference there is that some make perfect Vermilion of it with the first washing others thinke the Vermilion of that making to be too pale and weake in colour and therefore hold that of the second washing to be best And verily I wonder not that this colour was so highly esteemed for euen beforetime during the state of Troy the red earth called Rubrica was in great request as appeareth by the testimony of Homer who being otherwise spary enough in speaking of pictures colours yet commends the ships painted therwith The Greeks call our Minium by
all those workmen that were gon before him hee shewed vnto him a multitude of people and said withall That he should do best to imitate Nature her self and no one artificer and that was it quoth he which I meant by the former demonstration of so many men And verily so excellent a workman he proued in the end that he left behind him the most pieces of any man as I haue said before and those of all sorts and fullest of art and good workmanship and among the rest the image of a man currying rubbing and scraping the sweat and filth off his own body which M. Agrippa caused to be set before his own bains and the Emperor Tiberius Caesar took so great pleasure in it that notwithstanding at his first comming to the crown he knew well enough how to command and temper his own affections yet he could not now rule himselfe but would needs haue the said image to be remoued from thence into his own bed chamber and another to be set in the place of it wherat the common people see their contumacie and frowardnesse were so much offended and displeased that they rested not with open mouth to exclaim vpon him in all their theartes when they met there together and cried to haue their Apoxyomenos set again in the own place insomuch as the Emperor was content so to do notwithstanding he loued it so well This Lysippus also won great credit and commendation by another image that he made representing a woman piping or playing vpon the flute and drunken withall also by a kennell of hounds together with the huntsman and all belonging to the game But aboue all he got the greatest name for making in brasse a chariot drawne with foure steeds together with the image of the Sun so much honored among the Rhodians The personage of King Alexander the Great hee likewise expressed in brasse and many images he made of him beginning at the very childhood of the said Prince and verily the Emperour Nero was so greatly enamoured vpon one image of Alexander that hee commanded it to be gilded all ouer but afterwards seeing that the more cost was bestowed vpon it by laying on gold the lesse was the art seen of the first workman so that it lost all the beauty and grace that it had by that means he caused the gold to be taken off againe and verily the said image thus vngilded as it was seemed far more pretious than it was whilest it stood so enriched with gold notwithstanding all the hacks cuts gashes and rases all ouer the body wherein the gold did sticke remained still which in some sort might disfigure it Of this mans making was the statue of Hephaestion a great fauorit and minion of Alexander the Great and yet some ascribed this piece of worke vnto Polycletus whereas in truth he liued almost an hundred yeres before the said Hephaestion He counterfeited also Alexander the Great how hee rode a hunting with his hounds and all things belonging to the chace and this Worke of his resembling hunting was thought worthy to be consecrated in the temple of Apollo at Delphi At Athens he made a troupe of Satyrs As for Alexander himselfe with all his principall courtiers and friends about him he resembled in brasse most liuely All these pieces of his workmanship before rehearsed were transported to Rome by Metellus after the subduing and conquest of Macedonie Finally Coaches drawne with foure horses he made of many sorts and fashions all in brasse And in a word the art of founderie and imagerie was brought to far greater perfection by this Artificer as it was thought for hee expressed the very haires of the head as fine and small as Nature made them The heads to the images of his making were nothing so big in proportion to the rest of the body as they were in old time his images shewed not so great and corpulent but more lank slender and lean as wel to expresse the knitting of joints the ribs veins and sinues the better as to cause them also to seem the taller The Symmetrie which aboue all things hee obserued most precisely in all his workes is a terme that cannot properly bee expressed by a Latine word A new deuice he had that neuer before him any practised and that was to make his images of a quarry and square stature as the Antients before his time did for an ordinary speech it was of his That in times past men were made plain such as they were but he made them as they would seem to be Finally it seemeth that this singular gift he had aboue all others in all his workes to shew finenesse and subtiltie which hee obserued most curiously in the smallest things that passed vnder his hand When he died he left behind him three sonnes which also were his apprentises of whom Lahippus and Bedas were passing good Workemen and very well regarded but Euthycrates his third sonne ouerwent his brethren Although I must needs say That bee loued rather to follow his father in such Workes as carried some constancie and maiesty with them than any dainty gesture or curious elegancie wherein his father excelled and hee chose rather to employ his wit in expressing sad austere and graue personages than to beat his braine about pleasant and beautiful works to please and content the eie And therefore the portrait of Hercules which is to be seen at Delphos within the temple of Apollo he expressed most excellently The statue also of K. Alexander the great was of his making and is thought to be a rare piece of work the hunter Thespis was of his making a work highly esteemed like as the nine Muses also known by the name of Thesptades Hee represented also in brasse a skirmish on horsebacke representing that Turnois which was performed at the Oracle of Iupiter Throphonius likewise the coches of Queen Medea drawne with foure horses of which kinde he made many as also an horse with panniers and hunters hounds as if there were a cry of them He brought vp vnder him one Tisicrates who also was a Sicyonian but hee rather seemed to imitate Lysippus than his master Euthycrates in somuch as many pieces of his making could bee hardly discerned from those in the same kind which came out of Lysippus his hand as for example the image of an old man resembling in habit a Theban the portrait of K. Demetrius and of one Peucestes who saued the life of Alexander the Great in which regard he deserued well to be immortalised by so good a hand Moreouer diuers artificers there be who haue written great volumes of singular workmen in Imagery and they commend wonderfully one Telephanes a Phocean whose name otherwise had bin vnknown for that in Thessaly where he dwelt his works lay hidden neuer came to light for in regard of his skill and sufficiency by all their voices equal he was to Polycletus Myron and Pythagoras And to come vnto particulars they write
but these braue painted floors were put downe when pauements made of stone and quarrels came in place the most famous workman in this kind was one Sosus who at Pergamus wrought that rich pauement in the common hall which they cal Asaroton oecon garnished with bricks or small tiles enealed with sundry colours and he deuised that the worke vpon this pauement should resemble the crums and scraps that fel from the table and such like stuffe as commonly is swept away as if they were left stil by negligence vpon the pauement Among the rest wonderfull was his handiworke there in pourtraying a Doue drinking which was so liuely expressed as if the shadow of her head had dimmed the brightnesse of the water there should a man haue seen other Pigeons sitting vpon the brim of the water tankard pruning themselues with their bils and disporting in the Sunshine The old paued floors which now also are much vsed especially vnder roofe and couvert howsoeuer they came from barbarous countries were in Italy first patted and beaten downe with heauie rammers as we may collect by the verie name it selfe Pauement which comes of Pavire i. to ram downe hard As for the manner of pauing with smal tiles or quarrels ingrauen the first that euerwas seen at Rome was made within the temple of Iupiter Capitolinum and not before the third Punicke war begun But ere the Cimbrian wars began such pauements were much taken vp in Rome and men tooke great delight and pleasure therein as may appeare sufficiently by that common verse out of Lucilius the Poët Ante Pavimenta aeta emblemata vermiculata c. Before the Pauements checker-wrought in painted Marquettry c. As touching open galleries and terraces they were deuised by the Greeks who were wont to couer their houses with such And in truth where the country is warme such deuises doe well howbeit they are dangerous and deceitfull where there is store of rain and frost But for to make a terrace so paued necessary it is first to lay two courses of boords or plankes vnderneath and those crosse and ouerthwart one the other the ends of which planks or boords ought to be nailed to the end they should not twine or cast atoside which done take of new rubbish two third parts and put thereto one third part of shards stamped to pouder then with other old rubbish mix two fiue parts of lime and herewith lay a couch of a foot thicknesse and be sure to ram it hard together Ouer which there must be laid a coator course of mortar six fingers bredth thick and vpon this middle couch broad square pauing tiles or quarrels and the same ought to enter at least two fingers deep into the said bed of mortar Now for that this floore or pauement must rise higher in the top this proportion is to be obserued that in euery ten foot it gain an inch and a halfe After which the pauement thus laid is to be plained and polished diligently with some hard stone and aboue al regard would be had that the planks or boorded floor were made of oke As for such as do cast or twine any way they be thought naught Moreouer it were better to lay a course of flint or chaffe between it and the lime to the end that the said lime might not haue so much force to hurt the bourd vnderneath Requisit also it were to put vnderneath round pebbles among After the like maner be the spiked pauements made of flat tiles shards And here I must not forget one kind of pauing more which is called Grecanicke the manner wherof is thus The Greeks after they haue well rammed a floore which they mean to paue lay therupon a pauement of rubbish or else broken tile shards and then vpon it a couch of charcoale well beaten and driuen close together with sand lime and small cindres well mixed together which done they do lay their pauing stuffe to the thicknesse of halfe a foot but so euen as the rule and souare will giue it and this is thought to be a true earthen paued floore of the best making But if the same be smoothed also with a hard slicke stone the whole pauement wil seem all black as for those pauements called Lithostrata which be made of diuers coloured squares couched in works the inuention began by Syllaes time who vsed thereto small quarrels or tiles at Preneste within the temple of Fortune which pauement remaines to be seen at this day But in processe of time pauements were driuen out of ground-floores and passed vp into chambers and those were seeled ouer head with glasse which also is but a new inuention of late deuised for Agrippa verily in those baines which he caused to be made at Rome annealed all the potterie worke that there was and enamelled the same with diuers colours whereas all others be adorned only with whiting no doubt he would neuer haue forgotten to haue arched them ouer with glasse if the inuention had bin practised before or if from the wals partitions of glasse which Scaurus made vpon his stage as I said before any one had proceeded also to roofe chambers therwith But since I am fallen vpon the mention of glasse it shall not be impertinent to discourse somewhat of the nature thereof CHAP. XXVI ¶ The first inuention of glasse and the manner of making it Of a kind of Glasse called Obsidianum Also of sundry kindes of Glasse and those of many formes THere is one part of Syria called Phoenice bordering vpon Iurie which at the foot of the mount Carmell hath a meere named Cendeuia out of which the riuer Belus is thought to spring and within fiue miles space falleth into the sea near vnto the colony Ptolemais This riuer runneth but slowly and seemeth a dead or dormant water vnwholesome for drinke howbeit vsed in many sacred ceremonies with great deuotion full of mud it is and the same very deepe ere a man shall meet with the firm ground and vnlesse it be at some spring tide when the sea floweth vp high into the riuer it neuer sheweth sand in the bottom but then by occasion of the surging waues which not only stir the water but also cast vp scoure away the grosse mud the sand is rolled too and fro and being cast vp sheweth very bright and cleare as if it were purified by the waues of the sea and in truth men hold opinion That by the mordacity and astringent quality of the salt water the sands become good which before serued to no purpose The coast along this riuer which sheweth this kind of sand is not aboue halfe a mile in all and yet for many a hundred yeare it hath furnished all places with matter sufficient to make glasse As touching which deuise the common voice and fame rnnneth that there arriued sometimes certain merchants in a ship laden with nitre in the mouth of this riuer being landed minded to seeth their victuals
by the meanes of the commerce we haue had with the vniuersall world by thâ—…â—…fick negotiation and societie I say that we haue entered into during the blessed time of peace whichwe haue inioyed considering that by such trade and entercourse all things heretofore vnknowne might haue come to light And yet for all this few or none beleeue me there are who haue attained to the knowledge of many matters which the old writers in times past haue taught and put in writing Whereby wee may easily see that our ancestours were either far more carefull and industrious or in their industrie more happie and fortunate Considering withall that aboue two hundred yeares past Hesiodus who liued in the very infancie of Learning and good letters began his worke of Agriculture and set downe rules and precepts for husbandmen to follow After whose good example many others hauing trauelled and taken like paines yet haue put vs now to greater labour For by this means we are not onely to search into the last inuentions of later writers but also to those of antient time which are forgotten and couered with obliuion through the supine negligence and generall idlenesse of all mankind And what reasons may a man alledge of this drowsinesse but that which hath lulled the world asleepe the cause in good faith of all is this and no other Wee are readie to forgoe all good customes of old and to embrace nouelties and change of fashions mens minds now a daies are amused and occupied about new fangles and their thoughts be rolling they wander and roue at randon their heads be euer running and no arts and professions are now set by and in request but such as bring pence into our purses Heretofore whilest Kings and Potentates contained themselues within the Dominion of their owne Nations and were not so ambitious as now they bee no maruell if their wits and spirits kept still at home and so for want of wealth and riches of Fortune were forced to employ and exercise the gifts of their minde in such sort as an infinite number of Princes were honoured and renowned for their singular knowledge and learning Yea they were more braue in port and carried a goodlier shew in the World for their skill in Liberall Sciences than others with all their pomp or riches beeing fully persuaded and assured that the way to attaine vnto immortalitie and euerlasting Fame was by literature and not by great possessions and large seignories And therefore as learning was much honoured and rewarded in those daies so arts sciences tending to the common good of this life daily increased But afterwards when the way was once made to inlarge their territories farther in the world when princes and states beg anne to make conquests and grow rich and mighty the posterity felt the smart and losse thereby Then began men to chuse a Senator for his wealth to make a judge for his riches and the election of a ciuill magistrate and martiall captain to haue an eie and regard only to goods and substance to land and liuing when rents and reuenues were the chiefe and onely ornaments that made men seeme wise iust politicke and valiant Since time that childlesse estate was a point looked into and aduanced men into high place of authoritie and power procuring them many fauorites in hope of succession since time I say that euery man aimed and reached at the readiest meanes of greatest lucre and gaine setting their whole mind and repâ—…sing their full content and ioy in laying land to land and heaping together possessions downe went the most precious things of this life and lost their reputation all those liberall arts which tooke their name of liberty and freedome the soueraigne good in this world which were meet for princes nobles gentlemen and persons of great state forwent that prerogatiue and fell a contrarie way yea and ran quite to wracke and ruine so as in stead thereof base slauerie and seruitude be the only waies to arise and thriue by whiles some practise it one way some another by flattering admiring courting crouching and adoring and all to gather good and get mony This is the onely marke they shoot at this is the end and accomplishment of all their vowes praiers and desires Insomuch as we may perceiue euery where how men of high spirit and great conceit are giuen rather to honor the vices and imperfections of others than to make the best of their owne vertues and commendable parts And therefore we may full truly say that life indeed is dead Voluptuousnesse and Pleasure alone is aliue yea and beginneth to beare all the sway Neuerthelesse for all these enormities and hinderances giue ouer will not I to search into those things that be perished and vtterly forgotten how small and base sceuer some of them be no more than I was affrighted in that regard from the treatise and discourse of liuing creatures Notwithstanding that I see Virgil a most excellent Poet for that cause only forbare to write of gardens and hortyards because he would not enter into such petty matters and of those so important things that he handled he gathered only the principall floures and put them downe in writing Who albeit that he hath made mention of no more than 15 sorts of grapes three kinds of Oliues and as many of Peares and setting aside the Citrons and Limons hath not said a word of any apples yet in this one thing happy and fortunate hee was For that his worke is highly esteemed and no imputation of negligence charged vpon him But where now shall we begin this treatise of ours What deserueth the chiefe and principall place but the vine in which respect Italy hath the name for the very soueraignty of Vine-yards insomuch that therein alone if there were nothing els it may well seeme to surpasse all other lands euen those that bring forth odoriferous spices and aroâ—…call drugs And yet to say a truth there is no smell so pleasant whatsoeuer that out-goeth Vines when they be in their fresh and flouring time CHAP. I. ¶ Of Vines their nature and manner of bearing VInes in old time were by good reason for their bignesse reckoned among trees For in Populonia a citie of Tuscan we see a statue of Iupiter made of the wood of one entire Vine and yet continued it hath a world of yeares vncorrupt and without worme Likewise at Massiles there is a great standing cup or boll to be seene of Vine-wood At Metapontum there stood a temple of Iuno bearing vpon pillars of Vine wood And euen at this day there is a ladder or paire of staires vp to the temple of Diana in Ephesus framed of one Vine-tree brought by report out of the Island Cypres for there indeed vines grow to an exceeding bignesse And to speake a truth there is no wood more dureable and lasting than is the vine Howbeit for my part I would thinke that these singular pieces of worke before-named were made of
wild and sauage Vines for that these our tame and gentle vines here planted among vs are by cutting and pruning euery yere kept downe so as all their whole strength is either drawne without-forth into branches or els downward into the root for to put out new shoots euer fresh out of the ground and regard is only had of the fruit and iuice that they do yeeld diuers waies according to the temperature of the aire climat or the nature of the soile wherin they be planted In the countrey of Campaine about Capua they be set at the roots of Poplars and as it were wedded vnto them and so being suffered to wind and claspe about them as their husbands yea with their wanton armes or tendrils to climbe aloft and with their ioints to run vp their boughes they reach vp to their head yea and ouertop them insomuch as the grape-gatherer in time of Vintage puts in a clause in the couenants of his bargaine when he is hired that in case his foot should faile him and he breake his neck his master who sets him a worke should giue order for his funerall fire and tombe at his owne proper cost and charges And in truth Vines will grow infinitly and vnpossible it is to part them or rather to pluck them from the trees which they be ioined and coupled vnto Valerianus Cornelius making mention of many properties and singularities of a vine thought this among the rest worthie of especiall note and remembrance that one onely stocke of a vine was sufficient to compasse and inuiron round about a good ferme-house or country messuage with the branches pliable shoots that it did put forth At Rome there is one vine growing within the cloistures of the Portches and galleries built by the Empresse Liuia which running and trailing vpon an open frame of railes couereth and shadoweth the ouvert allies made for to walke in and the same Vine yeeldeth one yeare with another a dozen Amphores of good new wine yearely An ordinarie thing it is that Vines will surmount any Elms wheresoeuer be they neuer so tall and lofty It is reported that Cyneas the embassador of K. Pyrrhus wondring at the vines of Aricia for that the grew and mounted so high would needs taste of the wine that came of their grapes finding it to be hard and tart merrily scoffed and said That by good right and justice they had done well to hang the mother that bare such vnpleasant wine vpon so high a gibbet Beyond the riuer Po in Italy there is a tree growing which the peasants there cal Rumbotinus by another name Opulus it puts forth great armes and boughs and those spread abroad and beare a round compasse howbeit the vines that be planted at the root of these trees do fill and couer the said boughes for yee shall haue the very old crooked branches of the Vine bare as they be and naked of leaues to wind about the armes and crawle in manner of a serpent or dragon along the broader and flatter base of the boughes and then the new shoots top-twigs and tendrils wil diuide themselues to the vtmost branches and shoots of the tree that they will lode and clog her withal These vines again grow somtime no taller than the ordinary height of a man of middle stature and beeing supported and vnder propped with stakes and forks cleaue and cling thick together and in this order fill whole vineyards Others also there be which with their excessiue creeping vpon frames with their ouergrowne branches and some artificiall help of the masters hand spred so far euery way that they take vp wide and large courts ouerspreading not only the sides but the very middest thereof See what sundry sorts of vines euen Italy alone is able to affoord But in some prouinces without Italy ye shall see a vine stand of it selfe without any prop or stay at all gathering and drawing in her boughs and branches together thus indeed she groweth but short howbeit so close couched and trussed round that the thicknesse makes amends for all And yet otherwhiles in some coasts the winds are so big and boisterous that they wil not suffer them thus to grow vpright as namely â—…n Affrick and Languedoc the prouince of Narbon Vines being thus debarred to run vp in height resting vpon their owne ioints and branches and euer like to those that be laid along whiles they are a trimming by deluing about their roots and pruning their superfluous branches traile and creepe too and fro along the ground as weeds and herbes and all the way as they spread suck the humor of the earth into their grapes by which meanes no maruell it is if in the inland parts of Africke there be found some of those grapes bigger than pretty babes And in no countrie are the grapes of a thicker skin than those of Africk wherupon it may well be that they tooke the name Duracina i. hauing hard skins For infinite sorts there be of grapes according to the difference obserued in their quantity and bignesse in their colour taste stones or kernels and yet more stil in regard of the diuers wines made of them In one place they are of a fresh and bright purple in another of a glittering incarnate and rosate colour and ye shall haue them of a faire and liuely greene As for the white and black grapes they be common euery where The grapes Bumasti haue their name for that they be so swelling and round like stâ—…utting paps or dugs The Date-grapes Dactyli are long both grape and kernel fashioned in manner of fingers Moreouer Nature seems to take her pleasure and make good sport in some kind of them where ye shal find among them some that be exceeding great others again that be as small howbeit pleasant they are and as sweet as the rest and such be called Leptorrhagâ—…s Some last al winter long being knit in bunches together so hanged aloft arch-wise in manner of a vault with others they make no more adoe but put them vp presently as they come from the Vine into earthen pots whiles they be fresh in their vigor and afterwards they are bestowed well lapped ouer with their leaues in other greater vessels ouer them and for to keep them better they be stopt close with kernels heaped and piled vpon sweating round about to condite and preserue them in their naturall heat Others they suffer to be dried in the smoke of smiths forges wherby they get the very tast of infumed wine so ordered in the smoke And in truth Tiberius Caesar the Emperor gaue especial credit name by his example to such grapes dried in the furnaces of Africk For before his time the Rhetian grapes those that came out of the territory of Verona were ordinarily serued vp to the table first for the very best As for the Raisins called Passae they took that name in Latine of their patience to indure their
side but amongst the rest this of Palaemons in that place was esteemed most cheap and lowest prised in this regard especially That he had purchased those lands which through the carelesnesse bad husbandry of the former owners lay neglected and fore-let were not of themselues thought to be of the best soile chosen and piked from among the worst But being entred once vpon those grounds as his owne liuelode and possession he set in hand to husband and manure them not so much of any good mind and affection that he had to improue and better any thing that he held but vpon a vaine glory of his own at the first whereunto he was wonderously giuen for he makes fallows of his vine-plots anew and delueth them all ouer again as he had seen Sthenelus to do with his before but what with digging stirring and medling therewith following the good example and husbandry of Sthenelus hee brought his vineyards to so good a passe within one eight yeares that the fruit of one yeares vintage was held at 400000 Sesterces and yeelded so much rent to the lord a wonderfull and miraculous thing that a ground should be so much improoued in so small a time And in very truth it was strange to see what numbers of people would run thither onely to see the huge and mighty heaps of grapes gathered in those vineyards of his and ill idle neighbors about him whose grounds yeelded no such increase attributed all to his deepe learning and that he went to it by his book had some hidden speculation aboue other men obiecting against him that he practised Art Magicke and the blacke Science But last of all Annaeas Seneca esteemed in those daies a singular clerke and a mighty great man whose ouermuch Learning and exceeding power cost him his ouerthrowing in the end one who had good skill and judgement in the world and vsed least of all others to esteeme toies and vanities brought this ferm into a greater name and credit for so far in loue was he of this possession that hee bought out Palaemon and was not ashamed to let him go away with the pricke and praise for good husbandry and to remoue him into other parts where he might shew the like cunning and in one word paid for these foresaid vineyards of his fourfold as much as they cost not aboue ten yeres before this good husbandry was bestowed vpon them Certes great pity it is that the like industry was not shewed and imploied in the territories about the hils Cecubus Setinus where no doubt it would haue well quit all the cost considering that many a time afterwards euery acre of vineyard there yeelded seuen Culei that is to say 140 Amphores of new wine one yere with another But lest any man should thinke that wee in these daies haue surpassed our ancestors in diligence as touching good husbandrie know he that the aboue named Cato hath left in writing How of an acre of vineyard there hath arisen ordinarily ten Culei of wine by the yeare Certainly these be effectuall examples and pregnant proofes that the hardy and aduenturous voiages by sea are not more aduantageous ne yet the commodities and merchandise and namely Pearls which be fet as far as the red sea and the Indian Ocean are more gainefull to the merchant than a good ferm and homestall in the countrey well tilled and carefully husbanded As touching the wines in old time Homer writes that the Maronean wine made of the grapes growing vpon the sea coasts of Africk was the best most excellent in his daies But my meaning is not to ground vpon fabulous tales variable reports as touching the excellency or antiquitie of wine True it is that Aristaeus was the first who in that very nation mingled honey with wine which must needs be a passing sweet and pleasant liquor made of two natures so singular as they be of themselues And yet to come againe to the foresaid Maronean wine the same Homer saith That to one part therof there would be but 20 parts of water and euen at this day that kind of wine continues in the said land of the same force and the strength thereof will not be conquered nor allaied For Mutianus who had bin thrice consul of Rome one of those that latest wrote of this matter found by experience being himselfe personally in that tract that euery sextar or quart of that wine would beare 8 of water who reports moreouer that the wine is of colour blacke of a fragrant sweet smell and by age comes to be fat and vnctious Moreouer the Pramnian wine which the same Homer hath so highly commended continueth yet in credit and holds the name still it comes from a vineyard in the countrey about Smyrna neere to the temple of Cybele the mother of the gods As for other wines no one kind apart excelled other One yere there was when all wines proued passing good to wit when L. Opimius was Consul at what time as C. Gracchus a Tribune of the Commons practising to sow sedition within the city among the common people was slaine for then such seasonable weather happened and so fauorable for ill fruit that they called it Coctura as a man would say the ripening time so beneficiall was the Sun to the earth and this fell out in the yere after the natiuity and foundation of the city of Rome 634. Moreouer there be some wines so durable that they haue beene knowne to last two hundred yeares and are come now by this time to the qualitie and consistence of a rough sharpe and austere kind of hony and this is the nature of all when they bee old neither are they potable alone by themselues vnlesse the water be predominant so tart they are of the lees and so musty withall that they are bitter againe Howbeit a certaine mixture there is of them in a very small quantity with other wines that giues a prety commendable tast vnto them Suppose now that according to the price of wine in those daies of Opimius euery Amphore were set but at an hundred Sesterces yet after the vsurie of six in the hundred yearly which is the ordinary proportion and a reasonable interest among citizens for the principall that lieth dead and dormant in stock by the hundred and sixtieth yere after the said Amphor was bought which fell out in the time that C. Caligula Caesar the son of Germanicus was Emperor no maruell if an ounce in measure of the same wine to wit the twelfth part of a Sextarius cost so many Sesterces for as we haue shewed by a notable example when we did set downe the life of Pomponius Secundus the Poet and the feast that he made to the sayd Prince Caligula there was not a Cyathus of that wine drawne but so much was paied for it Loe what a deale of mony lieth in these wine-cellars for keeping of wine And in very truth there is nothing
more gainfull nor groweth to a better reckoning than it for twenty yeres space after it is laid vp neither is there greater losse againe by any thing if ye passe that terme by reason that the price will not grow and arise accordingly for seldom hath it bin knowne to this day and neuer but at some excessiue riot and superfluous expence of wine that an Amphore hath beene sold for a thousand Sesterces True it is indeed that they of Vienna only haue made better reckoning of their wines and sold them deerer I meane those that giue a taste of pitch the seuerall kinds whereof wee haue deliuered before but they are thought so to do among themselues only and for the loue of their countrey that it might haue the names of wines so deere and costly To conclude this wine of Vienna is reputed colder than the rest when the question is of cold drinke and that the body is to be cooled CHAP. V. ¶ Of the Nature of Wine THe nature and property of wine is to heat the bowels within if it be drunke and to coole the exterior parts if it be applied outwardly And here it shall not be amisse to rehearse in this very place that which Androcydes the noble sage and wise Philosopher wrote vnto K. Alexander the Great for to correct and reforme his intemperate drinking of wine whereto he was very prone and ouermuch giuen My good Lord saith he remember when you take your wine that you drinke the very bloud of the earth Hemlock you know sir is poison to man euen so is wine to Hemlock Now if that Prince had bin so wise as to haue obeied these precepts of his certes he could neuer haue killed his best friends as he did in his fits of drunkennesse In sum this may be truely said of wine that being taken soberly and in measure nothing is moreprofitable to the strength of the body but contrariwise there is not a thing more dangerous and pernicious than the immoderate drinking thereof CHAP. VI. ¶ Of kindly Wines made of the best Grapes WHo doubteth that some Wines be made more pleasant and acceptable than others nay out of the very same vat ye shall haue wines not alike in goodnesse but that some go before their brethren pressed though they be at one time and from the same kinde of grape which may be long either of the vessell whereinto they be filled or of some accidentall occasion and therefore as touching the excellency of wine let euery man be his own taster and judge The Empresse Iulia Augusta would commonly say That she was beholden to the Pucine wine for liuing as she did 82 yeares for she neuer vsed to drink any other This wine came of the grape that grew along the Adriaticke sea or Venice gulfe vpon a stony and raggie hill not far from the source or spring of the riuer Timavus nourished with the vapors breathed from the sea and many Amphores there were not drawne thereof at a vintage and by the iudgement of all men there is not a wine more medicinable than it is I would thinke verily therefore that the wine Pyctanon which the Greekes so highly praise is the very same for it commeth from the coasts of the Adriaticke sea The Emperor Augustus Caesar preferred the Setine wine before all others and after him in manner all the Emperors his successors for the ordinary experience they found thereby That lightly the liquor of that wine would not hinder digestion nor breed raw humors in the stomack and this wine commeth of the grape about the towne Forum Appij Before that time the wine Caecubum was in best account and the vines which yeelded it grew to the Poplars in the marish grounds within the tract of Amyclae But now is that Wine cleane gone as well through the negligence of the peisants of that countrey as the streights of the place and so much the rather by reason of the ditch or trench which Nero caused to be made nauigable beginning at the lake or gulfe Baianus and reaching as far as to Ostia In the second degree of excellency are ranged the wines of the Falerne territorie and principally that which came from the vineyards Faustian and this excellency it grew vnto by passing good order and carefull husbandry How be it this wine also in these daies beginneth to grow out of name and request whiles men loue rather to haue plenty from their vines than otherwise lay for the goodnesse thereof Now these Falerne vineyards begin at the Campaine bridge on the left hand as men go to the city-colony erected by Sylla and lately laid to Capua vnder the iurisdiction therof But the Faustian vineyards lie about 4 miles from a village neere Cediae which village is from Sinuessa six miles distant And to say a truth this Faustian wine is inferiour to none in reputation so piercing and quicke it is that it will burne of a light flame a propertie that you shall not see in any other wine Three sorts there be of these Falerne wines the first be hard and harsh the second sweet and pleasant the third thin and small But some haue distinguished them in this wise those that come from the top of the hills be called Gaurane wines from the mids Faustian and last of all from the bottom and foot thereof the Falerne But by the way this would not be forgotten That the grapes whereof be made these wines so singular and excellent are nothing pleasant to the tast for to be eaten As touching the Albane wines from about Alba neere the city of Rome they reach to the third ranke in goodnesse for a certain varietie they haue in their tast sweetish they be and yet otherwhiles they haue an vnripe harsh rellish of the wood tast like the hedge-wine In like maner the wines of Surrentum namely those of grapes growing only in vineyards are excellent good for weak persons that be newly recouered of sicknesse so small they are and wholesome withal And in truth Tyberius Caesar was wont to say That the Physitians had laid their heads together and agreed to giue the Surrentine wine so great a name for otherwise it was no better than a very mild and pleasant vineger and C. Caligula his successor in the Empire vsed to say of it That for a wine that had lost the heart and was a going it was very good The Massike wines which come from the Gaurane hils looking toward Puteoli and Bajae come nothing behind the rest but striue to match them euery way For as touching the Statane vineyards that confine and border vpon the Falerne their wines doubtlesse are now come to be the principall and chiefe of all the rest whereby it is euidently seen that euery territory and vine-plot hath their times and seasons like as all other things in the world one while râ—…se and another while fall For in times past the Calene wines made of the grapes growing hard by