hogs very cunningly One told me saith Albertus that a Woulf was seen to take a great piece of wood in his mouth of 30 or 40 pound weight in a Forrest and did use with that to run over a great stock of a Tree then when he thought he was skilfull enough in that exercise he hid himself and a wild hog coming thither by reason of Oates that were sowed there and many hogs young and old with him he brake forth and catched the hog that was about the bignesse of the block he lept behind the stock of the Tree and there devoured him They will not eat Oxen if you hang his tail at the Cratch Albert. Horses will tire under the rider if they follow on the Wolves footing if they tread on his heel they will stand still Gillius The skins of sheep slayn by Wolves will breed lice but their flesh is the sweeter Aristot. Plutarch ascribes this to his breath His words are The flesh of a sheep that is bitten by a Wolf is made the sweeter because the biting of the Wolf makes it soft and tender for the breath of the Wolf is so fiery that he will melt and consume the hardest bone in his stomack Examples shew that when he is shut in he will do no harm For in Italy one going into a Country-mans house the Country man ran away but the Wolf did his Children no hurt and falling into the same Cave with a Fox and a Woman he hurt neither Gesner CHAP. XXV Of the Lizzard VOlatteranus writes That there was a Lizzard 8. cubits long brought to Rome from Aethiopia by the command of a Cardinal of Lisbone and the mouth of it was so wide that a Child might be put into it Lerius c. 10. hist. saw one in Brasil 7. foot long as thick as a mans arm If you strike it on the soal and cut it in two pieces with a twig neither part will dye but it parts and first goes then joyns together Aelian The green ones are friends to man that they will gaze upon him obliquely and follow him when he goes they will lick up his spittle and Childrens urine Erasmus in colloq de amicitia Putt alive into a new earthen vessell and boyl'd with 3. Sextaryes of wine to one Cyathus it is excellent good for one sick of the Pâ—hisick if he drink of it in the morning fasting Marcell Seven of them suffocated in half a measure of oyl and set in the Sun for 3. dayes will so alter it that by anointing therewith it will cure the Rose Gesn. A water Lizzard if he be angry and as it were puffed up will stand upright on his feet and look terribly with open mouth on him that hurt him and will by degrees send forth a venomous white swear till he become all white Agricola When he is old and cannot see he lies by a hole in the wall against the East and looking toward the Sun rising he regains his sight Isidor To conclude 't is a wonder that Aelian speaks in his history There was saith he a man that catcht a great Lizzard and with a brazen point he put out the eyes thereof then he put it into an Earthen pot full of holes that it might have breath yet not come forth he put in also deâ—y earth and an herb whose name he mentions not then with an Iron ring wherein the stone Sogates was set in which was cut the picture of a Lizzard he made 9 seals and every day he blotted out one Lastly when he took off the 9 th seal and opened the pâ—t I saw the Lizzard and his sight was restored CHAP. XXVI Of the Lynx and Lutra or Otter THe Lynx is said to see so clearly that he will pierce through solid bodies yet too great light offends him Some say they onely suck the blood of their prey and never meddle with the flesh Erasmus saith he assaults greater four-footed beasts leaping upon them from Trees and catching them by the crown with his â—aloâ—s he will tear their heads and eat their brains not touching the other parts but he will eat lesser creatures every bit In Summer they are weak in Autumn strong They hide their pisse in heaps of sand as Theophrastus saith and it growes as hard as a pretious stone It is like Amber in colour and drawes things to it it cures pains of the Kidneys and the Kings-Evill We saw one at Lyons in the repositary of Cl. Dominus Baudartius Men say that in Carpathus they burn their claws and their skins for to be drunk effectually by men in powder against all obscenenesse and against too great lust in women Plin. The flesh eaten with the broth cures quartan Agues and the bones burnt cure Ulcers Collinus In the Tower of London there was once a living Creature that Gesner refers to a Lynx It was alwaies moving and would never stand still as John Gaius an Englishman writes but it would stand still at the voice of a Hickeway Lutra hath a Dogs head the Beavers ears a Foxes legs but these are somewhat thicker they are more prevalent in Water than on Land The hinder parts are plain with a membrane to fence them His Cottage is near the waters it is made of boughes that it cannot be weâ— Sometimes it is so full of Fish that they stink It is so quick-sented that he will smell fish by water that comes forth of a â—ivuleâ— at some miles distance and will go to the Fish-ponds and destroy them In Scandinavia he is so tame that he will bring fish out of the water to the Cooks in the Kitchins but because he is greedy of his prey and kills too many he is seldom used CHAP. XXVII Of the Mouse AMongst the Allobroges the Mice are white and the Inhabitants think they live by Snow Scaliger In the Island of Cyprus they will gnaw Iron and in another Island Gold therefore they are cut in pieces for mettal Aristot. in mirab Their generation is wonderfull If they do but lick salt some think they will conceive without copulation Aristot. A shee Mouse great with young staying some time in a vessel of Millet seed when the vessel came to be opened there were found 120 Mice Plin. In a part of Persia she-Mice were opened that had she-mice with young ones in their bellies They first perceive when a House will fall Helice is an Example of it for five dayes before it happened the Mice and Serpents were seen to go away in Troops Aelian â—n variis When they fall into a vessell of water and can hardly come forth they lay hold one by the tail of another and so clamber forth Elephants cannot endure the smell of them for they will not feed on any thing that Mice have touched They will â—lye away if one be gelded or let run away with the skin of his head pull'd off Avicenna when they cry they foreshew tempests they cry either because they perceive the Ayre cold or because
the other was the remedy for them Anauros of Thessaly and Boristhenes send out no vapour nor exhalation many refer the cause of it to its mixture others seek it other-where Agricola l. 2. de effl ex terr c. 17. saith In what part of the Rivers the Channels in the Fords have no veins and fibres by that they can breath forth no exhalations In the snows of Mount Caucasus hollow Clods freez and contain good water in a membrane there are Beasts there that drink this water which is very good and runs forth when the membranes are broken Strab. in Geograph Nilus makes women so fruitfull that they will have 4 and 6 at one venter Pliny in Histor. There is a Well of water that makes the inhabitants of the Alps to have swollen throats Lang. l. 5. Epist. 43. But in field Rupert neer to Argentina there is a water said to be that makes the drinkers of it troubled with Bronchocele they seem to be infected with quicksilver for this is an enemy to the brain and nervs for it not only sends back flegme to the glandulous parts of the head and neck but that which is heaped up in the head it throws down upon the parts under it Sebizius de acidul s. 1. dict 6. Corol. 1. thes 12. Diana a River of Sicily that runs to Camerina unlesse a chast woman draw its water it will not mingle with Wine Solinus C. 10. Styx in Arcadia drank of kills presently it penetrates and breaks all yet it may be contained in the horns of one kind of Asse Seneca l. 3. natur c. 25. Two Rivers runs into Niger a River in Africa one is reddish the other whitish Barrens Histor. dec 1. l. 3. c. 8. If any man drink of both he will be forced to Vomit both up but if any man drink but of one he shall Vomit leasurely but when they are both run into Niger and a man drink them mingled he shall have no desire to Vomit Narvia is a River of Lithuania so soon as Serpents tast of the water they give a hiss and get away Cromer descript Polon l. 1. A Fountain of Sardinia in the Mediterranean keeps the length and shortnesse of dayes and runs accordingly In the Island of Ferrum one of the Canaries there is no water the Ayr is fiery the ground dry and man and beast are sad for want of water But there is a Tree the kind is unknown the leaves are long narrow and allways green A Clowd allwaies surrounds it whereby the leaves are so moystned that most pure liquour runs continually from it which the inhabitants fetch setting vessells round the Tree to take it in Bertius in descript Canariar Sea-waters if they be lukewarm they portend tempests before two days be over and violent Winds Lemnius de occult l. 2. c. 49. In England nere New-Castle there is a lake called Myrtous part whereof is frozen in Summer Thuan. in Histor. But I have done with these Authours have more if any man desire it especially Claudius Vendilinus whom I name for honour sake if he seek for the wonders of Nilus Artic. 7. Of some Floods or Waters and of the Universall Deluge THe Floods were signs of Gods anger and so much the more as that was greater and mens sins more grievous The greatest was that we call the generall Deluge which began about the end of the year of the World 1656. All the bars of the Channels were broken and for 40 dayes a vaste quantity of water was poured down Also the Fountains of the great Deep were cut asunder so that the Waters increased continually for 150 dayes and passed above the highest Mountains 15 Cubits At length they abated by degrees for after 70 dayes the tops began to appear The Inhabitants of the New World say they had it from their Ancestours Those of Peru say that all those Lands lay under waters and that men were drowned except a few who got into woodden Vessels like Ships and having provision sufficient they continued there till the waters were gone Which they knew by their dogs which they sent forth of doors and when the dogs came in wet they knew they were put to swim but when they returned dry that the waters were gone August Carat But they of Mexico say that five Suns did then shine and that the first of them perished in the waters and men with it and whatsoever was in the earth These things they have described in Pictures and Characters from their Ancestors giving credit to Plato's Flood which was said to have hapned in the Island Atlantis Lupus Gomara But Lydiat ascribes the cause of that universal Deluge to a subterraneal fire in a hotter degree increasing the magnitude by rarefaction so long as it could not gâ—t out of its hollow places Genesis seems to demonstrate it For the Fountains of the great Deep are said to be broken open and that a wind was sent forth after 40 dayes and the waters were quieted We must understand a wind from a dry Exhalation which a subterraneous fire much increased had most abundantly raised out of the deep of the Sea which was then thrust forth of them and did increase the motion of the ayr that it laid hold of together with the revolution of the Heavens and the vehemency of the Firmament But there were other miraculous Deluges besides this CHAP. IV. Of the Originall of Fountains Sea by passages under the Earth The Sea alone is sufficient to supply all Springs and when we see that it no wayes increaseth by the Rivers that run into it it is apparent that they run to their Fountains by secret channels But the question is of the manner how they ascend Socrates ascribes it to the Tossing of them Pliny to the wind l. 21. c. 65. Bodin l. 2. Theatr. to the weight of the Earth driving forth the water Scaliger to the Bulk of the Sea others to vapours redoubled into themselves It is a hard matter to define all things nor is it our purpose But because Thom Lydiat an English Man hath written most acutely of this Subject we will set down his opinion here contracted into a few Propositions I. The Rolling of the Water is not the cause of its ascending to the superficies of the Earth For there is no cause for its tossing and wherefore then should it not at length stand levell II. To be driven with the wind is not the cause 1. For it seems not to be raised in the Sea by a fixed Law of Nature but by way of Tempest 2. The Channels are winding and should carry it rather to the sides than to the superficies 3. If a contrary wind cannot do so much in any water what then can the wind do here Also if there were any receptacles for the waters forced upwards Miners those that dig in mines would have found them out as Vallesius saith III. The weight of the Earth squeesing out the water is not the Cause For the Earth
he should have marched away as Demosthenes and Eurymedon perswaded him When he did march the Moon was Eclipsed Many took that for an ill Omen this so moved Niceas that he said he would decree nothing to remove his Tents untill three times 9 days were over that the Wizards had foreshewed Plin l. 2. C. 12. He did it and so wasted the forces of the Athenians To this may be referred the ridiculous opinion of some who think that an Asse drank up the Moon for when the Asse drank the Moon was seen in the water when the Asse went away she was covered with a Cloud and could not be seen Wherefore they cast the miserable Asse Silenus rod on into Prison and cut up his belly that they might have the Moon again and they most cruelly took out his bowells Delrius disquisit Magic l. 2. quest 11. In the year 1499 about setting the moon was first changed into black then she was divided into two parts and the one part leapt upon the other backwards both parts were sprinkled with red They united afterwards and set as one Moon Many confederacies followed and the Nobles who in 1496 were confederate opposed themselves against the King of the Romans Linturius cited by Wolsius in Memorabil Artic. 3. Of the Moon 's Influence on these sublunary things INnumerable are the operations of the Moon on sublunary things If you would run over all the field of nature Plants Animals and mens bodyes are subject to the Moons Government Palladius reports Cardan de varietat l. 2. c. 13 If Garlick be set when the Moon is under the Earth and be pulled up again when the Moon is under the Earth it will lose its strong smel So they say that Basil bruised in the new Moon and put into a new Pot at the full Moon it will send forth flowers at one end and if it be set under the Earth twice as long time it ingenders Scorpions Vines in the day time are nourished by drawing moisture to them and in the night they increase and grow Lillies and Roses open their buttons only in the night Keckerman disp Phys 3. coroll 11. Of all that beare head only the Onion is augmented when the moon increaseth when it growes new it fades as if it hated the course of that Planet Lucilius Wherefore the Aegyptians at Pelusium hate to eate it Gellius Lib. 20. C. 7. As for living Creatures Savanarola writes that in the Leap-yeare living Creatures are barren Cardan l. c. It is observed that in the full Moon all Oysters Perwinkles and all shell fish increase and their bodies decrease with the Moon Also the more industrious have found out that the fibres of Rats answer to the dayes of the Moon and that the little Creature the Ant is sensible of this Planets force and alwaies rests in the Conjunction of the Moon Pliny Lib. 2. Cap. 41. The skins of the Sea-Calves and Sobles are stiffe and the haires stand upright when the Moon increaseth and they sink down when the Moon decreaseth and grow weak Keckerman l. c. As for Mankind if the Moon come to the Sun passing thorow Aries or Scorpio when any one is born it so afflicts the brain of him that is borne that when he comes to be a young man he shall be troubled with melancholly Things bred in the Conjunction of the Moon are frequently dry and are encumbred with a sharp heat and have all their limbs especially affected Peucerus de divinat They that sleep under the Moon-beams are troubled with heavinesse of their heads and defluxions Camerar Memorab Cap. 9. Art 85. For by the Moon beams the moisture of the braines of those that sleep is melted which being restrained in the head the internall heat being not active enough to expell it outward it breeds Catarrhs The Epileps is exasperated in the full Moon For the abundance of moysture hinders the sharpnesse of Vapours and the putrefaction that they cannot breath forth A smaller quantity doth more easily corrupt and the heat acting upon it makes sharper Vapours according to its proportion Libavius tom 3. Singul lib. 3. cap. 18. At the same time dropsie people are grievously tormented and therefore they all dye almost about the full Moon Truly in March 1629. when we writ this it took away that Reverend man D. Martin Gratianuâ— the superintendent of the Reformed Churches in the greater Poland who was the Chariot and Horsemen of Israel Let his memory be blessed When the Moon is opposite to the Sun mad-men rage most They that are troubled with a disease of the brain from too much plenty of brain are choked in the full Moon Hence it is that the Britans on the 14. day of the Moon whip mad folks Bodin l. 5. Theatr. Better therefore it is to give a medicament against the Epilepsie the day after than in the opposition of the Luminaries For in the hour of conjunction the Moon is calm nor are there propensions to either side of advantages the next time after it she begins to work in the humours and to augment them Libav Epist. 15. to Sâ—hnitzâ—r CHAP. VII Of New Stars WEe have spoken of those things that ordinarily are done by Nature in Heaven I will now adde some things which the right hand of God hath produced above nature I mean new Stars which have appeared and not being of long continuance have shortly disappear'd again and vanish'd from our sight The Star at our Saviours birth is the chief which Fulgentius saith had no place in the Firmament nor in the Ayr. It went forward with an uncertain motion sometimes it shewed it self and sometimes it was hid Damascenus l. 2. Orthodox fidei Chalcides the Platonist speaks thus of it upon Timaeus of Plato There is also a more holy and more venerable History that relates that by the rising of a Star that was unusual not Death and Diseases were foreshewed but the venerable descending of God for man's salvation and in favour of mortall things which men testifie to have been observed by the Chaldaeans who adored God with gifts who was newly born Whence they learned the knowledge of its apparition is shewed in the Books of Balaam the Southsayer wherein are many fabulous things The other is that which appeared in the year 1572. This is that year wherein that Bartholmy-slaughter was acted at Paris in which not excluding other places 30000 men were slain 100000 of honest Families were oppressed in three dayes Widows and Orphan Children innumerable being brought to the greatest beggery or want Prisbach in Responsâ— ad oration habitam apud Helvetios The summe was so great that the wiser sort that were no wayes addicted to the Protestant side when they were come to themselves and considered the sad condition of things at that time and disavowed the Act and sought out curiously the causes of it and excuses for it they judged that there was no such Example of cruelty to be found in all Antiquity should their Chroniâ—les
that fresh ayr may come if Snow and water be set about the bed if the walls be compassed about with Willow leaves or with linnen cloaths dipt in vinegar and Rose-water if the floor be sprinkled and fountains made to run in the chamber if beds saith Avicenna be made over a pit of water If beds be made of Camels hair or of linnen laying the skin under them If the Bed be strewed with herbs and lastly if fragrant fruits be placed near the bed Heurn lib 2. Medic. c. 18. CHAP. III. Of the Water Artic. 1. Of the quantity and colour of Waters SO much for Ayr Now followes the Element of Water And first we shall consider the quantity and the colour of it In the Country of the great Cham near the City Simqui there is the River Quian which is 10 miles broad and waters 200 Cities and it is so long that it cannot be sailed in 100 dayes Polus writes That he told in the Haven of it 50000 Ships Also in Moscovia the Duina is so great by the melting of the Snow that it cannot be passed over in a whole day with a well sayling Ship it is at least 50 miles broad Jovius a Lake of Genebar the Portingalâ—s call it January Thuan. histor l. 16. is so large under Capricorn that men write who have sailed thither That all the Ships in the World may well harbour there As for Colours they are different in many waters Danubius is white as milk and water which divides Noricum and Windelicia from Germany Agricol de Natur. effluent The Waters of the Mayn especially where it hath passed the Francks and is fallen into the Rheyn are yellowish The Fountain Telephus is muddy near Patâ—ra and mingled with blood In Ethiopia there are red Waters that make one mad that drinks them At Neusola in the Mountain Carpathâ—s waters runing out of an old passage under ground are green At Ilza that which comes forth of the Mountains of Bohemia and runs into Danubius is black Artic. 2. Of the Taste of Water THere is no lesse variety of Waters in their tastes Some are sweet some taste like wine you shall find every where salt Allom tasted sharp bitter waters every where The Waters of Eleus Chocops Rivers are sweet The Kings of Persia drank of them and transported them to far Countries The water of Cardia in a field called Albus is sweeter then warm milk Pausanias So is Vinosa near Paphlagonia whence so many strangers come thither to drink of it In the bosome of the Adriatick Sea where it turns to Aquileia there are 7. Fountains and all of them except one are salt Polyb. in Hist. At Malta there is one that the waters running above are very sweet but the lower waters are brackish Aristobul Cassand The small River Exampeus is so bitter that it taints the great River Hypanis in Pontus In the Lake Ascanium and some Fountains about Chalcis the upper waters are sweet and the lower taste of nitre Plin. in Hist. The Fountains are sowr about Culma and because the water though it be cold boyls they seem to be mad Agricol lib. cit In the same place there is a Mineral water which they call Furious because it boyls and roars like thunder In Cepusium at Smolâ—icium it not onely eats iron but turns it into brasse But the water about Tempe in Thessaly of the River Styx can be contained in no vessel of silver brasse iron but it eats through them nothing but a hoof can hold it Artic. 3. Of the Smell of Water and of the first and second qualities THe hot Baths that are distant from Rhegium the Town of Lepidus Aemilius 26 miles smell of so gallant Bitumen that they seem to be mingled with Camphir There was a Pit in Peloponnesus near the Temple of Diana whose water mingled with Bitumen smelt as pleasant as the unguent Cyzicenum In Hildesham there are two Fountains the one flowes out of Marble that smells like stinck of rotten Eggs and taste sweet but if any man drinks of it fasting he will belch and smell like the Marble pownded The other is from Brimstone and smells like Gun-Powder The water of this brook covers with mud the stones that lie in the channel of it scrape it off and dry it and it is Brimstone Agric. lib. cit Arethusa a Fountain of Sicily is said to smoke at a certain time At Visebad there is a Spring in the Road-way the water whereof is so hot that you may not onely boyl Eggs in it but scall'd chicken and hoggs for it will fetch off feathers or hair if you dip them in or pour it upon them Ptolomy Comment lib. 7. affirms That at Corinth there is a Fountain of water which is colder than Snow Near the Sea-Banks at Cuba there is a River so continual that you may sayl in it yet it is so hot that you cannot touch it with your hands Martyr Sum. Ind. Near the Province Tapala it runneth so hot that one cannot passe over it Ramus tom 3. At Segesta in Sicily Halbesus suddenly growes hot in the middle of the River Pontus is a River that lyes between the Country of the Medes and the Scythians wherein hot burning stones are rolled yet the water it self is cold These if you move them up and down will presently cool and being sprinkled with water they shine the more bright Lastly near the City Ethama there is a River that is hot but it is good to cleanse the Lepers and such as are ulcerated Leonius Also some waters swim above others Arsanias swims above Tigris that is near unto it so often as they both swell and overflow their banks Peneres receiveth the River Eurôta yet it admits it not but carrieth it a top of it like oyl for a short space and then forsakes it Plin. hist. Natural Artic. 4. Of the Diverse running of the Water IT is said of Pyramus a River of Cappadocia which ariseth from Fountains that break forth in the very plain ground that it presently hides it self in a deep Cave and runs many miles under ground and afterwards riseth a Navigable River with so great violence that if any man put a sphear into the hole of the Earth where it breaks forth again the force of it will cast out the sphear Strabo l. 12. Not far from Pompeiopolis in the Town Coricos in the bottom of a Den of wonderfull depth a mighty River riseth with incredible force and when it hath ran with a great violence a short way it sinks into the Earth again Mela. l. 1. c. 6. The Water Marsia after it hath run along tract from the utmost Mountains of the Peligni passing through Marsius and the Lake Fucinus it disemboggs into a Cave then it opens it self again in Tiburtina and is brought 9 miles with Arches built up into Rome Plin. l. 31. c 3. The Sabbaticall River was wont to be empty every seventh day and was dry but all the six dayes it was
full of water But that ceased when the sacrifice ceased Joseph l. 7. c. 24. There is a certain River Bocatius speaks of every ten years it makes a mighty noyse by the stones striking together and this is suddenly in a moment and the stones ran downwards for 3. dayes and 3 or 4 times a day though it be fair weather and after three dayes all is quiet Strabo writes of the Rivers of Hircania l. 11. There are in the Sea high shores that are prominent and are cut forth of Rocks but when the Rivers run out of the Rocks into the Sea with great violence they passe over a great space as the fall betwixt the Sea and the Rocks that Armies may march under the fall of the waters as under Arches and receive no hurt Trochlotes in North Norway makes such a noyse when it runs that it is heard 20 miles Olaus l. 2. c. 28. Beca in Livonia runs forth of the Rocks with such a fall that it makes men deaf Ortel in Livon Tâ—nais by a very long passage from Scythia falling into the Lake Meotis it makes it so long and broad that those that are ignorant of it take it for a great Mountain Boccatius In Solomon's Temple there ran a Spring great in Summer small in Winter Euseb. praeparat Evangel l. 9. c. 4. If you ask the cause it is taken from the Time All things are wet in Winter then are the Channels full and for want of evaporation the waters are kept in But in Summer all things are dry and the Suns heat penetrates Hence it is that they are congregated in their Fountains and run out by the Ayr inforcing them Maeander is so full of windings and turnings that it is often thought to run back again c. He that seeks more concerning Nilus and other Waters let him read Geographerrs Artic. 5. Of the change of quantity and of qualities in Waters THis great variety in Waters that I have set down is a token of the wisdome and power of God and it is no lesse wonder that the same waters should be so diversly changed It is certain that they are changed A Fountain in the Island Tenedos alwayes from 3. at night till 6. after the Summer Solstice overflowes There is another in â—odon that hath its Name from Jupiter it fails always at Noon-day And the River Po in Summer as if it took its rest growes dry saith Pliny In Italy Tophanus a Fountain of Anagnania is dry when the Lake Fucinus is frozen at other times of the year it runs with great quantity of water Agricol l. cit passim The Waters of the Lake of Babylon are red in Summer Boristhenes at some times of the year seems to be died with Verdigrease The water of the Fountain of the Tungri is boyling hot with fire subterraneal and is red The Waters of the River Caria by Neptunâ—s Temple were sweet and are now salt But in Thrace when Georgius Despota ruled a sweet Fountain grew to be bitter intolerably and whole rivers were changed at Citheron in Beotia as Theophrastus writes Men report that of the Mineral Waters which run by the Pangaeus a Mountain of Thrace an Athenian cotyle weighs in Summer 64 grains and in Winter 96. In the Province of Cyrene the Fountain of the Sun is hot at midnight afterwards it cooles by degrees and at Sun-rising it is cold and the higher the the Sun riseth the colder it is so that it is frozen at mid day then again by degrees it growes warm it is hot at Sun-set and the more the Sun proceeds the hotter it becomes The same Fountain every day as it growes cold at mid-day so it is sweet as it growes hot at midnight so it growes bitter Artic. 6. Of some other things admirable in Waters THey were wonders that are passed but greater follow In those it is easy to assign a cause mixture or some such like if you rightly consider it but here it is difficult for though you may in some yet commonly we must fly to hidden qualities I will briefly rehearse them Some drops of a Fountain of the Goths powred upon the Earth cease to move and are thickned by the ayr The waters of Cepusia in Pitchers turn into a Stone those of Rhaetid make people foolish they pull out the teeth in two years and dissolve the ligaments of the sinews which Pliny writes to be in Germany by the Sea-side Those of Islandia change things that are hollow into stones Tybur covers Wood with stone covers Zamenfes in Africa makes clear voyces Soractes when the Sun riseth runs over as though it boyled birds that then drink of it die He growes temperate who drinks of the Lake Clitorius and he forgets who drinks of a well nere the River Orchomenus sacred to the God Trophonius Philarch. He proves dull of wit that drinks of a Fountain in the Island Cea Agricola de reb 〈…〉 terra effluent gives a cause for it as for the former by reason of the bitumen For saith he the seeds of wild Parsnips wrapt in a linnen clout and put into Wine as also the powder of the flowers of Hermodactylus which the Turks use being drunk with it are the cause that it will make a man sooner and more drunk so some kind of Bitumen mixt with water is wont to make men drunk The horses drinking Sebaris are troubled with sneesing whatsoever is sprinkled with it is couloured black Clitumnus of Umbria drank of makes white Oxen and Cesiphus of Beotia white sheep but a River in Cappadocia makes the hair whiter softer and longer In Pontus Astaces waters the fields in which Mares are fed that feed the whole Countrey with black milk The waters in Gadaris make men bald and deprive Cattle of hair hooffs and horns Cicero writes that in the Marshes of Reate the hoofs of beasts are hardned The hot baths at the Fort of New-house colour the Silver Rings of such as wash in them with a Golden colour and make Gold Rings more beautifull Aniger that runs out of Lapithum a Mountain of Arcadia will nourish no fish in it till it receive Acidan and those that go then out of it into Aniger are not edible but they in Acidan are Pausanias Agrigentinum a Lake of Sicily will beare those things that do not swim in the waters In Aethiopia there is one so thin that it will not carry up leaves that fall from the next Trees In the lake Asphaltiâ—es a man bound hand and foot cannot sink The cause is held to be the great quantity of Salt Hieronymus Florentinus saw a Bankrupt bound and cast headlong from the Tower into it and it bore him up all the night Posidonius observed that bricks in Spain made of Earth with which their Silver plate is rub'd did swim in the waters Cleon and Goon were two Fountains in Phrygia either of their waters made men cry There were two in the fortunate Island they that tasted of one laught till they died
butter of Antimony Some impute it to the native heat of the earth or to a certain hot spirit so that these natural spirits of exhalations heating not violently but naturally in some places the secret channels of the Earth grow hot that this heat is communicated to the Walls of those concavities by reason whereof a sufficient and continuall heat may be communicated to the Baths even as in an Oven heated when all the flame is gone the bread is sufficiently baked Horstius de natur Thermar Others ascribe it to subterraneall fire but whether it be so may be known by what proceeded Bartholin de aquis Farther it may be shewed by an Example Mingle salt-water with Clay make of this clay or mud a ball and hollow it within then stop the orifice with the clay and put in a narrow pipe into it and put this ball to the fire the pipe being from the fire when the ball waxeth hot out of the ball by the pipe hot water will run Sennert l. 4. scient natural c. 10. Baths have a taste by the mixture of Earths and so have things in the Earth Hippocrates l. de natur human saith That there is in the Earth sweet sowr and bitter and in the bowels of it there are divers faculties and many humours l. 4. de Morbis Every thing drawes its nourishment from the Earth in which it is Hence in Ionia and Peloponnesus though the heat of the Sun be very sufficient yet Silphium growes not though it be sowed namely for want of such a humour as might nourish it Yet there are in that earth juices not onely for the vaporous but also for the moyst and solid substance Juices condensed are dissolved by waters the moyst are mingled Earths are dissolved and scrapings of mettals are found The goodnesse of them differs sometimes because those that in Summer are beray'd with the Suns heat and attenuated are the best In Autumn they are lesse beat upon by its beams because he is nearer to them so in the spring For the Earth is opened the waters are purified the healthfull light of the Sun approaches but in the Winter they are worst for they are heavier thicker and more defiled with earthly exhalations That they suffer changes we may learn by divers examples Fallop de Therm c. 11. Savanarola saith That the Bath waters in the Country of Pisa cause great diseases in those that drink them and the Inhabitants are warn'd of it For in March April and May when they see the waters look yellow and to be troubled they foresee they are dangerous Alcardus of Veroneus a Physitian who writ of the Calâ—erian Baths saith That the water of Apponus is sometimes deadly by the example of one Galeatius a Noble man who with his Son in Law drank of it and dyed The sharp waters of Alsatia are sometimes so sharp that they cause the dysentery and sometimes they are feeble and are deprived of their wonted vigour Sebizius de acidulis diss 50. s. 1. The causes are divers amongst the ordinary a rainy cloudy dark Southern constitution of the Ayr too violent flowing of the Sea inundations Earthquakes It is wonderfull that is written concerning some hot Baths in Germany that they grew dry when there was a tax set upon them Camerar horis subcis cent 2. c. 69. Something like this fell out in shell-fish at the Sluce for when a kind of tribute was laid upon the collecting of them they were no more found there they returned when the Tax was taken off Jacob Mayer in Annal. Flandriae CHAP. VI. Of the Sea Artic. 1. 〈…〉 Artic. 2. 〈…〉 and Hercules Pillars about Spain and France in his dayes But the North Sea for the greatest part was passed over by the happy successe of the famous Augustus We find in Velleius that Germany was surrounded by sailing so far as the Promontory of the Cimbri and from thence the vast Ocean was discovered or known by relation as far as Scythia and the parts that were frozen by the command of Tiberius The same Pliny tells us that Alexander the Great extended his Victories over the greatest part of the East and Southern Seas unto the Arabian shores whereby afterwards when C. Caesar the Son of Augustus managed the businesse the ensigns of ships were known to belong to the Spaniards that had suffered shipwrack there But when Carthage flourished 〈…〉 from the Gades to the furthermost parts of Arabia and 〈…〉 writing that Voyage and Hamilco at the same time was sent to discover the outward parts of Europe Moreover Cornelius Nepos is the Author of it in Pliny that one Eudoxus in his time when he fled from Lathyrus King of Aegypt came from the Arabian Coasts as far as Gades and Caelius Antipater long before him affirms the same that he saw him who sailed out of Spain into Aethiopia 〈…〉 Merchandize The same Author writes that the King of Sweden gave freely to Quint. Metellus Celer Pro Consul of France those Indians who sailed out of India for Traffiquâ— and were by Tempests carried into Germany That Voyage hath been attempted of late but with extream danger of life men being hindred continually by Ice and extream darknesse If these things be so then was all our World sailed about It is further questioned whether there be any passage through the North Sea to the Kingdom of Sina and to the Moluccos Jovius reportâ— that he heard it of Demetrius Moschus that Duidna with many Rivers entring into it ran into the North a wonderfull way and that the Sea was there open so that stearing the course toward the right hand shore unlesse the land be betwixt men might saile to Cathay Those of Cathay belong to the furthest parts of the East and the parallel of Thracia and are known to the Portingalls in India when they to buy spices sayled to the Golden Chersonesus through the Countries of Sina and Molucco and brought with them garments of Sabell skins Petruâ— Bertius a man that deserved well for his learning but ill for divinity reports in descrip noâ— Zembliae that he saw a Table described 〈…〉 the Russes wherein the shores of the Russes Samogetans and Tingâ—â—eri with the North Sea nere unto them and some Islands were â—â—â—ely set forth In that the Duina River was farthest West but others Rivers followed towards the East and in the first place Peisa Petchoâ—a Obiâ— Jeneseia and Peisida Therefore the passage must be open from the River Obii to Peisida The Histories of â—â—e Russes reportâ— that when the Moscovites and the Tingesi were curious to search out Countries farther toward the East they sent out discoveries over Land who passed beyond the River Obii and Jeneseia so far as Peisida ouâ— foot and there they fell amongst people that in their habit manners and speech were farr different from them There they heard the found of Bells from the East the noyse of Men the neighing of Hortes they saw say is foure square such as
North-west wind blowes the North wind makes them well again In Tercera it eats Iron and stones Bertius in Geograph Amongst the rest are the Etesia that are very moderate winds every year two dayes after the rising of the dog-star they are wont to blow 40 dayes They temper the heat with their blast and cool the Summer and defend us from the burthen of the hot moneths They rise at 3. of the clock of the day thence they are called sleepy winds and they cease at night It is likely they are bred by great heat melting the Snow that yet remains in the Northern parts It is credible that the Earth being freed from Snow and uncovered they will blow the freer The Ancients sacrificed to the winds to please them Herodotus saith That a Temple in Ilissum was built to Boreas They call'd them at Athens Boreasmi who kept the Feasts of Boreas We believe P. Victor that at Rome there was a Temple for Tempest Rhodigin l. 20. c. 25. CHAP. VII Of the Earth-quake Artic. 1. Of the rising of an Earthquake THe Ancients believed that the Earth moved by waters fluctuating in the Caves of the Earth Whence they called Neptune Earth-shaker and mover Gell. l. 2. c. 28. Others thought the wind in the surface of the Earth returning into the hollow caves of it did shake it Others again that the Sun kept the vapours within the ground and they seeking passage to come forth did wander where they could when they found none Reason and Experience are against it There is in the West part of Spain a Mountain of wonderfull height with many hollow Caves Scalig. Exerc. 38. waters fall down in them with so great noise that they are heard five miles yet there is no Earthquake there nor yet is the wind or Ayr that goes under very great it is dispersed in the largenesse of the Channels and the diverticles it finds going farther it is stopt Mineral operations shew this For they make mighty bellowes to draw the ayr lest they should be choked for want of it The contest of winds doth nothing for that rather tends to the sides or flyes upwards by its leightnesse and at the first hindrance they fly from the Earth like a whirlwind It is uncertain whether the Sea can stop the passages there are seldom any such great Caves by the Sea nor can that go in at once but it will be thrust back again The Sun cannot more easily exercise its force upon the Earth and beget an Exhalation than he can bring it forth being begotten for the Sun beams operate noâ— but by resistance Whilest they heat and dry they open the same because exhalations ascend more strongly to that place which is neer One in respect of continuity followes another but howsoever they enter in they easily come out of the Earth and more easily than they can shake it for in Mines where the powder finds but a chink when it is fired it is lost labour Wherefore Exhalation bred from fire under the Earth and shut up in the bowels of the Earth causeth an Earthquake And that is apparent by this For before an Earthquake Well-waters will not onely boyl but be more troubled and brimstony vapours come forth From whence The like vapours are tossed in the bowels of the Earth Pliny l. 2. Artic. 2. Of the place time and effects of an Earth-quake THose places are subject to Earth-quakes which can easily take in wind Solid places will not admit it sandy places mixed with lime do easily discuss it they want receptacles for winds Champion places have no Caves Yet the whole Earth is never shaken for the Vapours included have no proportion to the Globe of the Earth If it should happen it must be ascribed to divine power which nature would seem to challenge to her self If you consider the duration it differs as the resistance is few Vapours are sooner discussed many last longer and rage a greater time Senec. naturalâ— l. 6. c. 3. Campania trembled many dayes Livy writes that at that time when L. Cornelia and Q. Minucius neer Consuls the Earth-quakes were so frequent that men were weary not only of it but of all businesse The same Author sayes that an Earth-quake lasted 40 days others say one hath lasted two yeares and returned again and again Livy l. 44. l. 45. Aristot. l. 2. Meteor c. 8. Plin. l. 2. c. 82. Such is the condition of the effects of it that those that hear of it will be astonished at it and those that see it dye Oft times it doth not devour Houses Cities or whole famelies only but whole Nations and Countries somtimes the Earth falls upon them somtimes it takes them into its deep jaws and leaves not so much whereby it may appear that what is not now ever was Seneca L. 6. natur c. 1. The ground covers somtimes the most noble Cities without leaving any mark of their formeâ— being when as the great hollow Caves in the Earth are forced and shaken with winds and fall down oft times in the Sea a hollow pit opening drinks up the waters on the Land Rivers that both fish and shipping sink into it On the otherside the Earth lifted up into a high tumour hath caused Mountains on land and Islands at Sea somtimes the course of Rivers hath been changed that hilly ground having been removed on that side that they formerly ran Histories are full of these calamities The last yeare of Nero fields and Olive Trees that the high way passed between in the Country of the Mâ—rrucinum were transported to the other side L. Marcius and Sextus Julius being Consuls in the Country of the Mutinenses two Mountains fell together with a mighty noise Plin. l. 2. and l. 16. c. 40. Many Villages were then beaten down and Cattel killed In Parthia there is a place called Ragai from the clifts where many Towns and Villages 2000 were overwhelmed At Cajeta in Italy there is a Mountain toward the South a part whereof an Earthquake so divided that one would believe the division was made by the art of Man the Sea runs under it with a great noise Agricol in reb quae efflu ex terra The Houses of Helice and Bura two Towns in the Sinus of Corinth did appeare in the Sea In the Island Aenania a Town was so taken in that there was no appearance of it left Not far from Ptolemais the Waves of the Sea were carried into the deep and so lifted up themselves that they appeared like a great Mountain and afterwards they were carryed to the land and drownd the Army of Tryphon When Cneius Octavius and C. Scribonius were Consuls the River at Velia brake down the bridges and threw the banks of the River into the waters drove away the stones that were in the Market place in Town and Field it shook the Churches which a few days after fell down By an Earthquake the City of Lacedemon fell all down when the Mountain Taygetus was broken
a City being on the top of the Mountains of Dofrinium where it first was like a ball but at last like a mighty round Mountain Olaus l. 59. c. 15. and l. â— c. 13. The tops of Mount Caucasus have scarce any lesse for they cannot be come at in Winter especially in Cambisena the quantity is so great that whole Troops of men are overthrown by it Strabo l. 11. The Armenians are in the same condition for those that passe over the Mountains are suddenly covered with clots of Snow that they cannot be seen and that in the fierce Winter Rhodigin l. 18. c. 29. In Tartary it comes on also in Summer mighty cold vast Snowes all are removed by the wind Hispal p. 4. c. 23. In the same the Champion places of Pamer do sustain so great cold that it will put out the fire for it will give no light nor can any thing be boyled with it Polus l. 2. c. 28. In Moscovia where water runs out of a high hill it is congealed before it touch ground Surius ad Anno 1501. In Armenia they are red which proceeds from the places that abound with Minium and by the force of its exhalations they are coloured Nor is this against reason for plenty of bloods yields a blood-coloured dew Homer shews that at Troy when he speaks of bloody drops of dew that of it sprang hairy rough red Creatures Apollonius calls them Worms Theophanes Mountain worms There is a liquour in them which the people love to drink Eustath in Homer Aristot. 5. Anim. Hail is a kin to Snow whereof we have nothing to say except of its greatnesse for in the time of Valens it fell like stones of unusual greatnesse at Constantinople Socrates histor Eccles. l. 4. c. 10. When Alaricus took the City it was greater than stones that can be handled and was about 8. pounds in weight Maiolus in Caâ—â—cul In France when Paschal was Pope one piece fell down that was 12 foot long Bonsinius At Augustodanum one 16 foot long 7 broad and 2 foot high Segebertus And no lesse fell in the time of Bergoma for it was compared to an Ostrich Egg and was 12 inches about Bonsinius They say in the same year at Bommel in Gelderland there fell one stone was 3 pounds weight on the 12th of June sometimes the forms of it have been wonderful Anno 1395 it had the Images of men with beards of women with Kerchers and hair At Cremona Anno 1240 it had the sign of the crosse But we are often deceived and imagine what is not so Yet the Works of God are wonderfull CHAP. X. Of Dew Manna and Honey DEw comes from a thin vapour resolved into water by the cold of the night It is first found in the light and thick leaves and flowers of plants and sometimes it is scarce lift up above two Cubits high Some say it was the daughter of Jupiter and the Moon for as Plutarch saith The full Moon makes plenty of Dew And therefore dogs in the full Moons can sent out things by the foot worst because the cold dew takes away the sent that they cannot smell them wherefore it is hard to hunt well in the Spring time Plutarch saith that fat women were wont to gather dew with cloaths or soft skins which they used to make them lean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christophorus Vega writes That Manna is made by some little Bees like thick Gnats from whom sitting by swarms upon Trees sweat as it were drops from them Sennertus l. 4. c. 8. thinks that they are rather drawn thither by the sweetnesse of the Manna and that they make it not The Learned make a question whether the Jews Manna was the same with ours Many things agree but in this they differ that theirs ground in a mill or bruised in a mortar was fit to make wafers If it be not prevented it will melt with any Sun for an Easterly Sun will melt it We read that it is used for Sugar with water alone to drink and to quench ones thirst amongst those Shepherds that frequent the desarts of Targa Scalig. Exerc. 164. Manna is of kin to to honey This comes out of the Ayr especially at the rising of the Stars it is made especially when the Dog-star shines nor doth it appear before the Pleiaâ—es shine in the morning Plin. l. 11. c. 12. Therefore then in the morning early the leaves of Trees are bedewed with honey and if any in the morning be in the open ayr they shall perceive their clothes anointed with the Liquour and their hair glewed together This dew is afterwards collected by Bees it is altered by them in little bladders It is put up in little Cells like pure liquor in which afterwards it grows hot and is concocted with natural heat The 20th day it growes thick then is it covered with a thin membrane which growes together by its frothing heat Pliny l. cit c. 13. Also that it is made by Wasps Pliny teacheth out of Aristotle The Spanish Navigations confirm that it is made of some Molucca flies in Trees which are lesse than Ants. Lithuania and Moscovia have great plenty The story is old concerning a Country-man that fell into a hollow Tree of honey and a Bear drew him forth We have heard that concerning honey that Aristotle speaks of grated wine for it growes so thick that it must be shaved off to drink it Amongst the Troglodites at Belgada honey is as white as Snow and hard as a stone Scaliger Exerc. 191. S. 1. It is so solid in Calicut that they carry it it in baskets Many things are preserved by honey and many things die by it for the milky humour in it is not weak wherefore that remaining uncorrupt corrupts others Wallnuts keep their nature in it for by their unctuous quality they resist their peculiar humidity but Figs Peaches Pears Apples corrupt in it Scaliger Exerc. 170. CHAP. XI Of the Rainbow THe Poets feigned the Rainbow to be Daughter of Thaumas The Ancients thought that she drew water by her two horns let down toward the Earth Hence Virgil Georgic ver 138. and the great Bowe Drank But Propertius L. 3. Why doth the Purple Bowe rain-Rain-water drink The colours are so exact that no Painter can equal them The blew colour is said to shew that the Flood is past but the fiery colour shews that which is yet to come Strabo citant Rhodigin Albertus thinks that 3 and somtimes more may be made in it When it is made at noon we cannot see it for no man ever saw a Rain-bow beyond 3 miles It is never made when the Cloud ascends but allwaies as it goes downward for so it causeth no dew but when it falls away Rhodigin l. 22. l. 12. c. 7. Celius denies that it can be made by the Moon beams Scaliger exerc 80. s. 12. approves it In the Island of St. Thomas saith he if a showr went before the Moon will make a Rain-bow the
out of the Skys Lydiat de fontib 6. c. 6. The latter is confirmed by the testimony of some Writers For the Gold of Corbachium in Westphalia every four year grows and springs again in heaps In Sclavonia a vein of Lead every 40. yeares is changed into Silver A dry scale of Brasse into Gold in one yeare Iron in Silesia at Saganum is digged a new every tenth yeare In Sweden red fâ—nny mud laid one yeare in the open Sun becomes good Iron The Mountain of Fessula in Hetruria hath lead-stones which if they be cut out will in a short time grow again Caesalpinus l. 2. de metal c. 6. relates of Iron that is dug up in Ilva an Island of the Tyrrhene Sea that all the Earth that wanted Mettal that is dug up with the Iron will the next time they dig be turned into good Iron Lastly in the Indies there is the Mountain Oromenus where salt is cut out as out of quarries and it grows again Caesalpin l. 1. de Metal c. 1. But that is wonderfull which Garzias ab horto writes of the Diamant Simpl Indiae l. 1. c. 47. The Adamaâ—ts saith he that lye deep in the bowells of the Earth and require many yeares to their perfection are bred almost on the surface of the ground and are ready in 2 or 3 yeares for dig this yeare but a cubit deep in the quarrie and you shall find Diamonds dig there after two yeares and you shall find Diamonds again But how that should be it is hard to say yet no man can speak with more care than Nature can work when especially she is prodigall and sports her self in the variety of things Pliny l. 21. praefat Yet it doth not seem unreasonable that the Vapour should congele with a fit matter and that which is not well concocted to put off to another time and so to perpetuate the generation Truly the Flux of Veins hath somthing proportionable to vegetable nature and the relation of a Physitian of Friberg that in the Lungs of such as use to dig in Mines their bodies being opened when they are dead you shall find the same Mettals grown hard wherein they laboured being alive Sennertus lib de consensu et diss Chymicorum et Galenicorum seems to intimate as much CHAP. II. Of Marle and Potters-Earth MArle is a thick fat Earth and yet is somtimes so fluxible and white that it seems like to marrow in the bones of living Creatures Of times it is hard and being drank it stops the Veins that bleed at the mouth and hath the same force that Terra Samia hath It is dug up in many places especially amongst the Saxons At Gossaria there are two sorts one is Ash-coloured and the other is whiter of which are made forms wherein your Image makers make their Pictures they cast Sharp cold will divide them both into very thin plates though the former before the cold have seazed upon it consists of thick crusts Potters Earth is thick soft it is hard to come by works are made of fat and thick matter that the force of fire will not quickly break Of the same are made Vessels that will neither drink up nor consume liquor wherein water that parts Gold from Silver is both made and kept Potters Vessells have ennobled many Countries as Asia by those were made at Pergamus those that were made at Tralleis Terra Coa and Samia are not unknown and Aretina is wonderfull Plin. l. 5. c. 13. Noriberga sends earthen Furnaces wherein Gare are and Mettals are boiled Of clay digged up at the Fort of Rottingberg are made purging Vessels wherein Alchymy is made These being cast out of the fire with the brasse do not break but are drawn and wound like burning Glasse Agricola de illis quae essodiuntur ex terra CHAP. III. Of Terra Lemnia Armenia and Silesâ—ack TErra Lemnia otherwise called sealed Earth For Diana's Priest taking it upon him for the honour of his Country offering for expiation wheat and barley brought this into the City soked with water and making it like clay he dryed it that it might be like soft wax and when it was become so he sealed it with the sacred seal of Diana Gal. l. 9. Simpl. Now it is digged up yearly not without superstition the sixth day of August onely They that dig are Greeks the pit sends forth a sweet smell It is digged after Sun-rising for 6. hours and it is laid up in one lump and it must see no light till a year be expired Then it is taken out and washt being washt it is put into a bag it is mingled with hands it is made into round Cakes and marked with the Emperours seal Then it is dryed and put into a sealed Cabinet and sent away to the Emperour to Constantinople Stephanus Albacarius in Epist. ad Busbequium It is good against deadly poysons Galen tryed it against the Sea hare and Cantharides and found it good The same Authour writes of it that in a certain hill by the City of the Ephestii where no plant lives it is dug up the ground being as it were burnt Terra Armenia was wont to be brought from that part which is adjacent to Cappadocia Galen saith it helps difficult breathing so that they die whom it cures not It is drank with Wine in a thin consistence moderately allaid if the party have none or but an easie feaver but if a strong one with water At this day there is a Bolus Toccaviensis in Hungaria it is like butter and is good against Catarrhes so that it is preferred before the Earth of Armenia Crato in Epist. Sileciaca Strigensis is also preferred before Terra Lemnia Sennert Scient natural l. 5. c. 1. Johannes Montanus Silesius was the founder of it who writ a book of the same that it is transmuted gold by the ordination of God in his providence of nature prepared and transmuted into a most excellent remedy that chiefly prevails against venome no lesse than the Medicaments that are made with great cost out of the best gold of Hungary CHAP. IV. Of Salt SAlt is either made or else it growes It is made of salt Fountains the water whereof boyled long at length is turned to salt It breeds many wayes It is dryed in the Lake Tarentinum by the Summer Suns and the whole Lake turns to salt in some places it is moderated not above knee deep In Bactria two Lakâ—s very large one toward the Scythians the other toward the Arii boyl with salt Also the tops of some Rivers and condensed into salt the rest of the River running as it were under the Ice as at the Caspian mouth that are called Rivers of Salt Amongst the Bactrians the Rivers Ochus and Oxus carry out of the opposite Mountains sholes of Salt There are also natural salt Mountains as Oxomenus in India where it is cut out of quarries and growes again and the Custome of it is more to their Kings than from gold and pearls
medicament wherewith she anointed the Crown and Garment of Creon's daughter and burnt her by this art Of this in Persia is made a Physical oyl wherewith a dart anointed if it be shot slowly by a weak Bow for with swift flying it is extinguished wheresoever it sticks fast it burns and if any would put it out with water it burns the more and there is no means to put it out but by casting dust upon it It is thus made They season common oyl tainted with a certain herb By experience of these things and by continuance a certain kind is made by the Persians that congealing from a matter very natural is like to thick oyl and they call it Naptha a barbarous name Libav Tom. 3. singul l. 2. c. 7. Petroleum is more liquid than Naphtha In Italy and the Country of Matina it distills out of a Rock white and red of a strong smell In Sicilia it swims upon Fountains which they call Sicilian oyl and they burn it for Lamp oyl Pliny commends it against the Scabs of Cattle In the Country of Parma it runs forth white at the Village Meiana There are 3. Fountains there they gather it every or every other day thus They shake the water with brooms and foroing the oyl into a corner they take it with vessels Every day half a pound in the most hot and dry time of the year Baubinâ—nâ—â— l. 1. Dioscor c. 85. Of the red at the Mount Zibethum in the Winter they collect 15. ounces in Summer 45 ounces In the Village Allense it is collected black with a fleece and a scoop The more water is drawn forth the more oyl they take sometimes 240 ounces It varies as the place doth The Italian burns not in its Fountain the Babylonian doth That is wonderfull which Mathiolus reports in l. 1. Dioscorid c. 82. Hercules of Ferrara â— Contrariis had in his possession a pit into which Petroleum distilled He hired a Plaisterer to stop it and because he could not do it without light he let down a Candle and the Petroleum took fire by it and threw forth the Plaisterer and brake down the sides of his pit Maltha is the straining of Bitumen mingled with mud that is like clay Pliny speaks of it l. â— c. 104. In the City Samosata saith he of Comagena there is a Lake that sends forth burning mud it sticks to any solid thing it toucheth and it followes when you draw from it In joyning of walls it serves for lime And the Babylonians used it to build their walls with Vitruvius l. 1. c. 5. CHAP. VIII Of Pissaphaltum and the wayes of Embalming dead Corps PIssaphaltum is Bitumen that Pitch is boyled with Bauhinus thinks it is Mummy of the Arabians But this is of two sorts naturall and artificiall that they embalmed with consisting of Myrrhe and Aloes But of the materials and the manner how to embalm we shall speak of them here as we come to fall upon them Diodorus Siculus and Herodotus l. 3. are large concerning it Three men perform this work The first is called a Grammarian who as the body lyes on the ground appoints how great the incision shall be about the small guts on the left side The other is the Cutter and he opens the side with an Aethiopian stone and then suddenly runs away for those that stand by detesting the fact pursue him with stones Then follow the Embalmers One of these drawes his incision through the inside of the body besides the Heart and Kidneys Another washeth it with Phoenician wine mingled with spices Lastly they anoint the body washed with Unguents of Cedar and other pretious things for 30. dayes Then it is delivered to the kindred that mourn for him the hairs of his eye-lids and eye-brows being preserved that he may seem to be asleep Herodotus speaks of three kinds of embalming The first was by pulling the brains through the Nostrills with a hook and the bowels taken forth with an Aethiopian stone they cleanse it with Phoenician wine and stuffe it with spices then they fill the fat pannicle with Myrrhe Cassia and sweet odours beaten without Frankincense and sew them in then they salt it for 70 dayes then they wash the Corps and wrap it in a linnen cloth and smeer it with Gum and lay it into the fashion of a Man made of wood The other is by salting it 70 dayes which drawes forth the inward filth The third way is the poor cleanse the belly with washing then for 70 dayes they dry it with salt and then they lay it up And not onely men have been so honoured but beasts also For some beasts were sacred to the Egyptians and when they were dead they covered them with a linnen cloth and spread them with salt striking their breasts and howling And to preserve the body the longer they anointed it with oyl of Ceder and kept it in hallowed places Also they put divers Idols into the brest of it Rondeletius found in the breast of one of them 20 leaves of ancient Paper written with Arabian letters Bauhin ad l. 1. Dioscor c. 85. Moreover the French commend Mummy so much that the Nobility will never be without it They say that Francis the 1. alwayes carried it in his purse fearing no accident if he had but a little of that by him CHAP. IX Of Camphir THe Moors write that Camphir is a Gum of a Tree that spreads out its boughes so far that 100 men may stand under the shadow of it They adde that the wood is white reedy and hath the Camphir in its spungy pith That 's uncertain but it is more certain that it is made of a kind of Bitumen thus The Indian Bitumen which springs from the native Camphir is boyled in a vessel with fire under it the thinner parts turn into a white colour and are carried to the cover which gives them the form we see when they are collected Merchants say there is native Camphir in the Indies It is so near to fire that once fired it will burn all out The flame that comes from it is bright and smells sweet Hanged in the ayr it evaporates by degrees the most thin parts are the cause Hence Apothecaries put it in a close vessel with Milium or Linseed and cover it Plater de l. f. p. 165. The smell of it hinders lust drank or smelled to and carried about it extinguisheth the seed And because it flyes to the head if it carry up with it cold humours it may cause sleep and make men hoary before they be old If to women sick of the Mother or fainting of heart pains a small cup of water be exhibited wherein so much Camphir is burned as a hazel-nut it presently helps Heurnius l. 2. Medic. The Neotericks hold it is cold and that it is mitigated by Ambergreece and that the drynesse may do no hurt oyl of Violets is poured upon it Garzias ab Horto saith he learned by experience that in
inflammations of the eys it was as cold as Snow But Mindererus l. de Peste writes That when he went to visit sick persons and had swallowed a small piece of it he perceived nothing within him but like a very small fire CHAP. X. Of Amber or Electrum SOme think it to be the juice of Trees but amisse There stand no Trees by the Sea that Gums drop from them falling into the Sea of which Amber is made It is more certain that it is a thick juice of the Earth The most part is found in Borussia also in Curlandia on the part of Sarmatia but not so plentiful It is taken in nets like fish When the North-west or West wind blowes hard at Sea they all run to the shore with casting nets of yarn in their hands Agricol in l. de Fossil The winds being allayed but the Sea flowing when the waves return back they draw the Amber from the bottom and an herb like pennyroyall that growes in it When they have taken it they carry it to the Magistrates who give them the weight of it in salt Every Moneth it is said to be sold for ten thousand German Crowns At Buchania in Schetland a masse came to shore greater than a horse The ignorant Clowns used it for Frankincense Hector Boetius in histor Scot. Precious figures are made of it the Romans were so taken with it that a little picture of it was more than the price of a living man Plin. Histor. natural Rubb'd it drawes straws if it be not smeared with oyl or water Some seek the cause in a dry spirit But Scaliger Exerc. 104. s. 12. saw it draw a green Lettice some in the super elementary quality others think it comes by accident Fernel l. 3. Med. c. 4. For it hath piercing and sharp spirits and withal glutinous and fat Being attenuated by rubbing they wax hot and they easily pierce into light things as they break forth Libavius in lib. singular When they meet with cold things they congele congealed they return toward their beginning for the heat is driven back by its contrary If you make a fine powder of chaff and iron the Amber draws forth the chaff the Loadstone the iron In the shore at Puceca of former times they digged up some of ash colour which when it was broken with iron it drew unto it leaves that were upon the ground and two foot from it when they were blown up into the Ayr The white smells the best Because of the Plague Chambers are perfumed with the scrapings of it the sent lasts for 3. dayes every thin piece of it burnt in fire flames away CHAP. XI Of Ambergreece Jet and Earthy Bitumen AMbergreece is a Juice in Asia amongst the Moors Some think it growes like Mushrooms out of the Earth under the Sea Others say that the Cod-fish doth greedily follow after it and kills it self by devouring it which the Fisheâ—s knowing taking him in their Nets when he is dead they unbowel him Maâ—hiolus in Dioscor l. 1. The truth is it runs out of the Fountains into the Sea and being hardned there it is cast upon the shore It is good for the brain that is cold Libav l. 3. Singul. It may hurt the heart unlesse the cause be cold that molests it namely if the spirits be hot and too much attenuated Heurn l. 2. Medic. A Plaister of Amber is good for bald and weak heads from a cold cause He that carrieth it after a little use perceiveth it not The weaker a woman is and the Matrix moveable the more easily is it disquieted by Musk and Amber and her head will ake Infused in wine it will make men drunk Black Bitumen hardned in the Sea is called Jet which the floods use to cast upon the shores of the Aestyi with Amber Earthen vessels that are glazed with it are not defaced Plin. l. 36. c. 19. When it is burned it smells like brimstone It is a wonder that it kindleth with water but is extinguished with oyl It discovers the Falling-sicknesse and Virginity by the smell of it drank by a Virgin fasting it causeth her to make water Dalechamp in Notis ad l. c. Nicander in his Theriacks calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Interpreter expounds that Jet which is found great and of a pale colour oâ— the shore at the Town of Ganges in Lycia Strabo saith That creeping things fly from the sent of Jet It is called Earthy Bitumen otherwise burning stone because it will flame and is good for Iron-Smiths Furnaces It is called Ampelitis because it kills little Worms called Caipas Also Pharmacitis because it is good in Physick I saw it dug up in Scotland So in the Jurisdiction of Leids where if it be hard they make Chapelets of it to say their prayers upon Hitherto belong the bituminous Furrs that being dryed make the Dutch fuel Also theâ— are dug forth in Collaum a Province of Peru which Monardus describes in these words In Collaum a Province of Peru there is a place all bare no Tree nor plant growes upon it because the Earth is bituminous out of which the Indians extract a liquour good for many diseases The way to extract it is this They cut the ground into Turfs and in an open place they lay it upon rods or greater â—eeds putting vessels under it to receive it for by the heat of the Sun this Bitumen melts then the dry turfs remain without liquor fit to make fires Moreover on the left hand in the shore of the Sinus Pucicus not far from the Monastery there are found clots of congealed Bitumen very hard about the bignesse of Eggs. They all burn being kindled Agricol in l. de Fossil Near these there grow pale-coloured shrubs that smell like fish they are 3 or 4 hands breadths high They have no roots and are like little dishes the Greeks call them Lepadas they stick to the clods CHAP. XII Of Corall COrall otherwise Stone-tree It comes from a juice that is stony when it growes under the Sea water it is a small Tree green and soft bearing Berries like the Cornus Tree in shape and magnitude but soft and white it presently growes hard before it is cut it appears all green Sometimes also the stalks of one Corall Tree are partly red partly white and partly black In the Mediterranean they gather great quantity of it and those of Massilia go yearly to fish for it and draw it from the bottom of the Sea with Nets Dispens Chymic l. 2 c. 49. Linschot part 3. orient Ind. c. 1. At the Cape Bon Esperance he saith there are Rocks on which Coral grows of all colours The Indians weare it because Southsayers think it avoids dangers The vulgar thinks it can preserve their Children from Witches This is superstitious but certain it is it will quench thirst being extreme cold Mercurial l. 3. de curand affect Tied to the neck it drives away troublesome dreams and stills the nightly feares of Children
Table the spirit as was said is not hindred CHAP. XVI Of the Stones Schistos Galactites Gip Selenites Amiantos SChistos the more it shines like Iron the harder it is In Missena there are bred some knobs about the bigness of a Wallnut so hard that laid on an anvil they resist the strokes Agricola saw one of Missena that weighed 14 pounds Galactites at Hildesham is dug forth of a Sand-pit yearly it increaseth from a milky and lutinous juice so that some are found as big as ones head they say it makes Nurses full of milk that drink it in powder with water or sweet wine All Gin is hard In Saxony in the Land of Hildesham it is found like to Sugar The Inhabitants of Hercinium and Thuringum burn â—hat which is hard and grind that which is burnt and wetting it with water they use it for Lime what colour soever it be it growes white by burning Lysistratus of Syâ—e Brother to Lysippus was the first that made a Mans picture with a face in Gyp and then poured Wax melted into that form trying thereby to make it better A wall was made of Gyp in pieces of Ash-colour at Northusia in Thuringia and the Port of Algâ—â—s a Town of Mauritania Caesariensis Selenites is a stone that is wont to be found at dark night when the Moon increaseth and it represents the Moon by shining in the night and it increaseth and diminisheth with it daily It not onely shews your face but it will represent the image of a thing behind your back It endures the Suns heat and Winters cold but it cannot away with rain for it will corrupt if great pieces of it be exposed to rain Amianthus is made of an appropriate juice the fire is so far from polluting its lustre that if it be cast in it will shine the brighter Once lighted it never goes out if oyl fail not Hence it is called Asbestos and because it is like to womens full hair and to mens hoarinesse it is called Bostrychitis and Corsoides We saw saith Pliny in banqueting places napkins made of it that when the filth was burnt out of them were cleansed more with fire than they would have been with water It was found at the siege of Athens that things anointed with it would not burn under L. Sylla This stone is kembed spun and wove though with difficulty because it is short and they make not onely Napkins but Table-cloaths of it and Towels Also of old time they made the Funeral Coats for Kings which were put upon them when they were put into great fires to be burnt that so the ashes of their bodies being parted from the wood-ashes might be laid up in their Sepulchres Pliny saith that this Linnen hath been found to equall the price of the best pearls but now it is sold at mean rates CHAP. XVII Of Stones that represent divers Forms THere are many stones representing divers forms We will mention some here namely Trochites Eutrochos Encrinos Enorchis and others Trochites is like the round head of a pillar the round part is smooth but each broad part hath as it were a kind of conveyance from whence are lines unto the extream part of the Circle Put into vinegar it raiseth bubbles and some are found that move from place to place Eutrochos is made of Trochites not yet separated Whose Trochites have eminent lines in that part where two of them meet there seems to be a girdle twisted round within it But the Trochitae are so joyned that the lines of the one enter into the furrowes of the other Encrinos is like Lillies for when one part with corners is parted from the other both shew like five Lillies Enorchis in the shards is like testicles In the Diocesse of Trevirs when Cements are digged up to repair buildings they meet with blackish stones that represent the secrets of women Diphyis by an intercurrent line represents the Genitals of both Sexes The Dâ—ctyli of Ida in Crete of an iron colour are like a mans thumb There is also a stone found like a new Moon cloathed with Armour of a golden colour Haephestites represents the nature of a glasse and in the Sun it will fire dry matter At Salfelda in Thuringia there is a stone dug forth of a pit 20 fathom deep it is like a firm breast a foot and half long three hands breadth on the former part where the ribs end it is six fingers thick on the hinder part where the whirlbones are pierced through the middle but three the back-bone was empty where it should represent the marrow The outside of this stone was either black or some rare colour and the inside was like to the Lapis Arabicus It is supposed to be of great vertue Belemnites is like an Arrow with a large head and a sharp point There is in it a kind of rift it is clothed with golden coloured lines and it shines naturally like a Looking-glasse It smells like filed or burnt horn if it be rubb'd The Saxons name it by a name compounded of Ephialtes and an Arrow and they say if one drink it that it is good against suppressions and such hags in the night CHAP. XVIII Of the Eagle stone Enhydros the Touch-stone and the Pumex stone THe Eagle stone is found in divers Countries In the Country of Misenus then especially when great rains fall It smells like a Violet by the Mosse sticking upon it It hath in it little stones that being loose and shaken make a noise They commonly stick to Misenus some have earth with them as at Hildesham and some gold as those of Cyprus That which hath a little stone in its belly as the Greeks say if it be bound to the left arm of a woman great with Child through which an Artery runs from the Heart toward the ring-finger next to the little finger it will hold the Child in the womb that is ready to miscarry bound to the left thigh of one in labour it will so help her that she shall be delivered without pain but so soon as she is delivered it must be taken off that the Matrix follow not As it fell out with the Wife of a Citizen of Valencia Francis valeriola l. 1. observ 10. It helped her tyed on to be delivered but not taken away it was her death Enhydros hath water within it It is perfectly round it is white and smooth but it flotes when it is shaken There is liquour in it like as in an Egg. Also liquid Bitumen sometimes that smells sweet is found in stones shut up as in vessels The Touch-stone is that stone they prove gold by In Theophrastus's dayes they were onely found in Tmolus but at this day in the Rivers of Hildesham and Gosselar The parts of them that are found looking toward the Sun are the best for tryall the worst look toward the Earth those are the dryest but these are hindred by their moysture that they cannot take the colour of gold or silver
went home concealing the matter for three dayes when he returned to the Wood he found that these water Snakes were gon and none â—f these venemous Creatures were left but only one Toad that was killed and a Snake in a white glutenous humour and thick shining like to frog-Spawn and neere to it that Toadstone Bufonius which he catcht up and wiped it and carried it with him home keeping it for some farther profit But after that Gratterus came into the Town about a 100 yeares since the stone was used successully for Man and Beast as it followes The eldest Sonne of the house of Gratterians keeps this Toadstone and he will not lend it especially to strangers under a pawn of 50 or a 100 Livers Amongst the other vertues it is observed that it hath very great force against malignant tumours that are Venemous Cholerick or Erisipelas Apostems and Bubos and for Cattel that are bewitched They are used to heat it in a bag and to lay it hot without any thing between to the naked body and to rub the affected place with it They say it prevails against Inchantments of Witches especially for great bellied Women and Children bewitched So soon as you apply it to one bewitched it sweats many drops In the Plague it is laid to the heart to strengthen it It draws Poyson out of the heart and out of Carbuncles and Pestilent sores It consumes dissipates and softens all hardnesse Tumours and Varices Artic. 2. Of the Stones Chelidonium Crabs eyes Snail Stones and Bezar CHelidonius is so called as if it came from Swallows Yet it is formed of a yellow Gold coloured Jasper Bound to the right arme it is good against fantastick thoughts from melancholy It cures such as are Lunatick and mad and hath a peculiar vertue against diseases of the eyes Plater Also in the heads of River Crabs there are stones which steeped in most sharp Vinegar they will seem to move Quercet in dial s. 3. c. 7. With their powder to half a dram in White Wine the Stones of the Kidneys are happily driven out Henric. a Bra. de calc The Snail-Stone put under the tongue hath a great force to cause salivation It makes the tongue moyst and the humour fluent and stencheth thirst and represseth heat Bound on it helps Children to breed teeth Plin. l. 30. c. 5. A water Snake casts up by vomit a stone into the water under her if you bind a cord to her tayle Holler l. 1. de morb inter c. 39. This hath such force to consume water that it presently drinks it up Wherefore laid to the belly of an hydropick person it consumes the water by degrees Plater l. de vita The Bezar Stone is found in the Stomack of a hee Goat rather of a shee Goat in the Indian Mountaines Sennert l. 5. Epitom scient natural c. 4. Somthing which hath a kind of bark and is as I may so say Chamford saith Sennertus proceeds from a small beginning that is oft times straw to which some moisture sticks like glew and hence it is that that stone is made up as it were of many thin plates It is great in an old lesse in a young shee Goat and all those plates both inward and outward are smooth and shining Rasis by experiment commends it against all Venome Not only drank saith Mathiol on Diascorid l. 5. c. 75. but also bound on so that it may touch the naked skin of the left side it excells all other things Abdalnarchus adds farther The stone they call Bezoar we have now seen with the Sons of Almirama keeper of the Law of God for which stone at Cardubahee at the beginning of the Warrs parted with a magnificent and allmost Kings Palace Some say that the Bezar stone is nothing but the Tears of the Stag for they say that the old ones overgrown with Age do eat Serpents and grow young again and for to conquer the venom they drench themselves in a River onely their head forthâ— and as they stay so a clammy humour falls from their eyes and being congealed by the Suns heat it becomes a Stone there It is like an Acorn and being fallen from their eyes it is gathered up by such as attend for it Yet they are thought to be divers Scalig. Exerc. 112. writes thus concerning the Stags tears which he held to be the dearest thing to him in his Treasure of the Muses Before 100 years a Stag hath none after that age it growes at the corner of the eye and thrusting forth like a bone it growes harder than horn The prominent part is round very shining of a gold yellow colour with prints of other veins It is so smooth that you can scarce feel it and it so drawes it self away that it even seems to move It is an excellent remedy against poysons To those infected with the Plague it is given with a little wine and they will sweat so as if their whole body would melt Thus far Scaliger He that would be fully instructed let him read Bauhinus of the Bezar stone CHAP. XXVI Of Gold WEe have done with Minerals thus far Now follow Metals First Gold This is found in its proper vein and in stones that are of shining white also in the true Pyrite and sometimes in stones of iron In Spain some pieces have been found weighing above ten pound weight It is plough'd up in Galitia Justin. l. 44. Dubravius writes that in the Mountains of the Gelovienses a masse of ten pounds was taken out of a Rock and he saith it was presented to King Wenceslaus In India the Pismires which in Aegypt are as great as Wolves do carry it and keep it In the Islands of the Sea of Aethiopia the plenty of it is so great that the Inhabitants have barter'd a Talent for horses Plin. l. 6. c. 36. This one thing loseth nothing by fire but the more it burns it growes the better Yet the juyce of Lemmons will abate from its weight Lemnius occult l. 2. c. 36. and if hens limbs be mingled with melted gold they consume it Plin. l. 29. c. 4. The heat of living Creatures may work upon it as Wendlerus witnesseth in Prognostic Anni 1619. A Senator of Gorlicum had a fat Hen she had eaten about 4. books of leaf-gold beaten out with the hammer When she was killed it was found pure within her In her breast 3. golden streaks were seen some Artificer was thought to have drawn them Schnitzerus Epistol 50. writes that in the stomach of another that was killed some moneys were found half consumed To this adde what Zacharias à Pâ—teo affirms in his Clavis Medica Spagyrica and Chirurgica When saith he I studied at Padua it happened that one of our Hens flew upon the Table there were upon it some ornaments for women amongst the rest a precious pearl which hung to an ear Jewel curiously made by an Artificer and it had some golden covers drawn about it the Hen swallowed this
be troubled with the Strangury any more who quencheth in his urine the burning root of Tamarisk Physitians do diversly dispose them the Chymists teach us to know them by their signatures and Porta of Naples thinks that it is certain that what part of Man they resemble that they are good for Sennert de cons. Chym. c. 18. But of these more hereafter if God please Now let us see Nature prodigall in Plants and opening her Treasures let us admire with thanksgiving CHAP. II. Of Wormwood Woolfsbane and Snapdragon WOrmwood is in many things a wonderful Plant it is very bitter yet the distilled water of it is sweet Hence the Commentators on Mesues think that the intrinsecal parts are sweet but the matter must be ascribed to the thinnesse of the outward parts for these being soluble into a vapour being more attenuated by heat of the fire are easily resolved and abate of their bitternesse Mathiolus in Dioscor c. 24. The Lye out of which the salt of it is prepared will so benum the hands that they almost lose their feeling Mathiol de febrib pest It is credible that if Infants before they be 12 weeks old be anointed with the juice of Wormwood on their hands and feet that neither heat nor cold will ever trouble them during their life and if the whole body be anointed they shall never be scabby Guerth in Append. ad memorab Mizaldi Wolfsbane is the quickest of all venomous things for if it touch but the secrets of a woman it kills her the same day This was the poyson that Mar Coecilius objected that Calphurnius Bestia killed his Wives with when they were asleep hence it is that he so sharply declamed against him that they dyed by his hand Yet experience teacheth that this may be made use of for mans good and against the bitings of Scorpions given in hot wine the nature of it is to kill Man unlesse it find some venome in him to be destroyed Scorpions are stun'd by the touch of it and being astonished shew by their palenesse that they are subdued White Hellebore helps them by its resolving touch and Wolfsbane yields to two evils to that which is evil to it self and to all others Pliny But Snapdragon is so contrary to them that the sight of it stuns them but whilest some by this Amulet hope to procure Princes favours they are deceived Mathiol in l. 4. Dioscor c. 128. CHAP. III. Of Aloes Agallochum and Camomill SCaliger had found by above 40 years tryal that Aloes hurts the Liver Exerc. 160. Sect. 3. They whose veins swell or are opened if they take never so little of it it will certainly go thither for it will adde something of its own to open these vessels But Agalloâ—â—um is Aloes wood so excellent that cast into water it will not swim at all but sinks presently When it is cut from the Tree the Inhabitants bury it a whole year that the bark may wither under ground and the wood lose nothing and they think it will never be so sweet unlesse it first be worm-eaten Simeon Sethi citante Mathiâ—lo Camomil is so like to May-weed that you cannot know them asunder by sight but onely by smell This stinks and bound on will presently blister the skin The flowers of Camomil taken without the leaves and beat in a Mortar and made with oyl into balls if they be dissolved in the same oyl and those that have Feavers be anointed therewith from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet and be presently covered with blankets to sweat if they sweat plentifully it cures them of their Agues This is Nictessius Aegyptius his receipt Mathiol in Dioscorid l. 3. c. 1 37. CHAP. IV. Of Ammi Holly Ceterach and the Strawberry-Tree AMmi if it be the right seed that comes from Alexandria it cherisheth Womens fruitfulnesse if you drink of it a dram weight in the morning every other day 3. hours before meat Yet in those dayes they must not lie with their husbands as Mathiol in 3. Dioscor c. 61. With the flowers of Holly water congealeth and a stick made of it thrown at any living creature though it fell short by the weaknesse of him that threw it yet of it self it will fall nearer to him Plin. l. 22. Ceterach growes in Crete by the River Potereus that runs between two Cities Enosa and Cortina it destroyes the Spleen in Cattel that eat it thence it hath its name Spleenwort In a certain place that lyes toward Cortina this Spleenwort is found in great abundance but it is otherwise toward Enosa for there growes none In the wrong side of the leave of it there is found a precious powder which being given one dram weight with half a dram of the powder of white Amber in the juice of Purslane cures the Gonorrhaea The Strawberry Tree flowers in July the buds by a singular hanging together are joyned in clusters at the utmost end each of them like a long form'd Myrtil berry and as great without leaves hollow as an Egge made so with the mouth open when it fades what hindred is perforated Theophrast l. 3. c. 16. de Plantis CHAP. V. Of the Cane reed Asserall and Agnacath IN Zeilam the Reeds are so large that they make boats of them severally also they make Javelius of them As in the Kingdom of Pegu they make Masts and Oars of the Myoparones Certain it is that they are some of them 7 foot about Scaliger Exerc. 166. Mathiolus writes that in India they grow so great that between every knot they serve for Boats to sail in Lakes and Rivers for three Men to sit in them Mathiol in Dioscorid l. 1. c. 97. Between the Reed and the Fern there is a deadly feud and they say that a Reed tied to the Plough destroys all the Fern that growes there It agrees with Sparagus for if they be sowed in Reedy grounds they increase wonderfully Mathiol l. citat The Turks going to battle devoure Asseral and by that they grow merry and bold against dangers Juglers use this often on their Scaffolds They mingle a Medicament with Wine that will draw their mouths together and whom they would put a trick upon they bid him dip his finger in and suck it he putting this into his mouth cannot for pain suck it The Juglers as if they pittied him in this case annoint the arteries of his wrists and temples with some peculiar Oyntment When he is recovered like one that comes from Sea after Shipwrack he winds his hair and garments as if they were wet and wrings them out he wipes his Armes blows his Nose Scaliger Exerc. 159. Agnacath is a Tree like a Peare Tree and as great allwayes with green leaves and very clear in the outside It makes men so lusty that it is miraculous Kin to this is a root in the Western Hills of Allas the Inhabitants call that part Surnaga The eating of it gives wonderfull strength for Venus they say if
a Man make water on it he is presently provoked If Virgins do but sit on them in the fields or Urine upon them the Hymen is presently broken as if they had known a Man Scalig. Exerc. 175. s. 1. CHAP. VI. Of the Scythian Lamb the bashfull Plant and Amfiâ— THe Scythian Lamb is a Plant that come 〈…〉 seed like a Kernel but not so long The Tartars call it 〈…〉 It gâ—â—ws like a Lamb about three foot high and is like a Lamb in his feet claws ears the whole head except the Horns For Horns it hath hâ—ire is is singular like a Horn and a very thin Horn covers it the inhabitants take it off and use it for cloathing It is of a wonderfull sweetnesse Blood runs forth of the wound As long as other herbs grow about it so long it will live It dies when these are gon Wolves desire it but other beasts that feed on flesh do not Scaliâ—â—r exerc 181 sect 2. The Bashfull-Tree draws back if you but touch the leaves with your hand Apollodorus Scholler to Democritus discovered that Amfia is a medicament amogst the Iridi of wonderfull use They that are not used to it from their Childhood if they eat it afterwards it kills them also it kills those that are used to it and then 〈…〉 it but hurts not those if they continue it The women of Cambaya when they would avoid punishment feed of it and dye without pain The King of Province fed with this from his young yeares grew so Venemous that the very flies that but suckt his skin swelled and died with it It is thought to be Opium and the Turks Maslach Tthough Turnheuserus herbar l. 1. c. 29. saith that by the secret relation of the Turks he learned that this was made of the juyce of Leopards bane yet it is nothing else but Opum as Scaliger Poterius and Johannes Baptista Sylvagius interpreter for the Venetians with the Turkish Emperour do testify He being demanded by Bucretius reported that the Turks have two medicaments to make them merry Afra and Bongelie That prepared of Opium this with Honey and the leaves and seeds of hemp powdred and used frequently This will make them undergo any dangers for it makes them frantick and if they sleep they dream of the fighting of Gyants and fires and Cities burning CHAP. VII Of Balsome Tree and Betel BEfore these times in Judaea the Balsom Tree yielded great profit and there was an Orchard of it in two Kings dominions one of 20 Acres the other not so many but now there is none to be found It is probable that the Kings of Aegypt transplanted it into their own Gardens as being jealous of their greatnesse Plin. l. 12. c. 25. In grand Cairo there is a Garden of Balsom Trees the leafe is like Rue leaves alwaies green The Gum of it is gathered in the Trunk of it making incision at the upper part with Iron When the Sun is hottest that which remaines is not much For a man can hardly fill a Cockle shell in a whole day Theophrastus l. 9. c. 6. de plantis Pliny writes if it be cut with an Iron it presently dies and therefore they that gather Balsome use Glasse Stone and Bone-Knives to cut the Bark and taking the juyce in wool they collect it in little Hornes That which is Indian or Occidental is brought out of the West Indies into Spain It is the liquor of a Tree called Xilon the bark of it which is thinne being cut a clammy whitish liquor in small quantity flows forth which the Inhabitants preserve Also the boughs and roots cut into pieces very small like Chips and boyled in a Cauldron with water when it is cold yeilds the same From Shell-fish they collect an Oyle that swims at top that is red from black of a most sweet smell a sharp tast and somwhat bitter A pound of it in Spain is sold for three Dudats whereas an ounce was wont to be sold for 10 or 20. Bauhin in Dioscorid Beâ—â—l a lease called so from the River which runs not far from Gambaâ—a it grows from a Plant that is wrapt with others and wants proppingâ— it hath neither flower nor juyce The Indians feed daily on it when they are at leasure for they think when it is green that it promotes venery It makes their lips red and their teeth black Mathiol l. 4. Dioscorid c. 2. It troubles their minds if they eat of it too freely therefore the women of Tarnassarum to lament for their Husbands eat it till they grow mad and so they run into the fire and are burnt with them It is sprinkled with water made of lime from Shells of Fishes and then they eat it Scaliger Exerc. 1.46 s. 2. CHAP. VIII Of Betonie Birch and Box. BEtonie is said to defend consecrated places and graves from fearfull apparitions and is so forcible that it will draw forth broken bones bruised with a little salt and put into the nose it stops the bleeding of it Mathiol in 5 Dioscorid c. 1. Birch loves to grow in a cold and Snowy Country The stalk pierced with a piercer sends forth abundance of most clear water it is good to break stones in the Reins and Bladder if it be long drank Mathiol l. 1. c. 93. The Ananii take of the bark of it and wreath it and make Candles of it to burn at night which because they abound with a Pitchy fat they burn like Torches and give the colour of Rosin like Pitch In the Boxwood there is a kind of narcotick force and a sleepy sulphureous matter That is apparent from the stinking smel of it and the ground it delights to grow in For it breeâ—â— in Mountaines and stony grounds and prospers there and drinks in a most stinking Brimstone From the rasping of it a water is distilled like the spirit of Vitriol The greatest Tooth-ach is allayed if you dip a Tooth-picker into it and thrust it into the root of the aâ—ing Tooth and that so suddenly that by miracle allmost and by way of a Charms the pain is presently gonâ— Queâ—â— et Tetrad c. 1â— The flowers 〈…〉 said so to purge the blood that if one drain thereof be givâ—â— with field Poppy water and blood be drawn aâ— hour after it will run clear Petreius in Nosol Harm discurs 14. CHAP. IX Of Batat Baxera Brusathaer and Baaraâ— BAtat is a root like a Turnep with a black rind it spreads underneath as it were by Armes The colour of the 〈…〉 and so it is divided into divers kinds but the worst is the yellow It is planted wonderfully for it is Seâ—moâ— with the root but 〈…〉 the Olive by a Slip the twig being cut into severall parts is 〈…〉 yet some of the rind must be left They set it like the Vine and prop it up for the fibres of it run about like hops In the fifth month it is ripe Scaliger exerc 181. s. 17. Baxera◠〈…〉 a Tree in the Kingdom of Belus which
unlesse it be boyled it growes sowr after 3. daies Mathiol ad l. 1. c. 126. Boyled it is converted into most sweet honey which afterwards is resolved in water in 20 daies it is strained forth artificially and so clarified it will last But the Palm-Trees which Dioscorides calls Thebaicae in time grow so dry in the Sun that they are ground to make bread of them Thevet speaks of a Palm-Tree that yields wine in the promontory of Aethiopia which is the fairest sort of Palm-Trees for height and for being alwaies green They cut it 2. foot above the ground to draw forth the juice They let it run into Earthen vessels for their daily drink and to make it keep they cast in a little salt It is like white Wine of Campania in colour and substance Linschottus l. 4. America novae c. 26. reports That in a place of the West-Indies called St. John de portu divite there growes a Palm-Tree that every moneth brings new leaves and is loaded with Cocker-nuts Pierius in Hieroglyph saith it is an Emblem of the year because this Tree alone at every new Moon sends forth several branches CHAP. XXXIII Of the Plane-Tree Apple-Trees and the Tree called Pater-Noster OF old they gave so much honour to the Plane-Tree at Rome that they infused the roots in Wine a long time to preserve them In the Island of Candie there is one that never loseth its leafs Plin. l. 1. c. 1. But there is a noted one in Lycia by the way side that is hollow like a house the hollow cave in it is 81 foot wide it hath a wooddy top and vast boughes like great Trees it overshadowes the fields with its far casting shadow and that nothing may be wanting to the likenesse of a Cave there is a stony circumference within that is full of mossy Pumex stones the miracle is so great that L. Matianus that was thrice Consul thought fit to divulge it to posterity that he and 18. more feasted in it If Apples in winter be kept amongst Grapes they so corrupt the Grapes that they presently wither and corrupt It is reported that if a woman with Child eat Quinces she shall be delivered of an industrious and witty child Citron Apples keep garments from Moths and Worms how good they are against poyson you may know by examples out of Athenaeus A Citron Apple hath cured some that were stung by Vipers They keep longer uncorrupted if they be put into a heap of Barley or Millet They cure Scabs if they be cut in the middle and powder of Brimstone be finely strewed upon them and they be rosted in hot Embers and so the Patient be rubb'd therewith Apples of Sodome are fair to sight but touched they fall to ashes Solin c. 36. In Hispaniola there is a Tree called Pater noster the fruit is as great as a Hasel nut put this in boyling water and dip a linnen or woollen Cloth in it it will be died gallantly with diversity of spots but it corrodes with its over-great force Ovetan l. 9. c. 1. CHAP. XXXIV Of Pepper Plantain Pimpernel wild Tansie herb Paris and Paper ROund black Pepper growes upon some weak branches like tendrels that creep up to the tops of Trees by them clinging about them It growes like the fruit of the wild Vine in clusters flourishing close together of a green colour till it become dry which when it doth as it doth in October it is gathered and laid upon Palm-Tree coverlids in the open Sun to torrifie and so it becomes black and shrivelled Mathiol l. 2. Diosc. c. 153. The root of the greater Plantain put in a little bag and bound with a thread near the Region of the heart preserveth a man from the Plague Scholtius relates it for a certain remedy out of Monavius Epist. 268. Pimpernel was found out by Prince Chaba for with this alone were cured 5000 wounded Hungarians after the battel Clus. in Nomen Pannon steeped in hot water it is approved for to cure a continual Feaver It hath so great force against the disease called Hydrophobia that whosoever shall use it betimes in the morning for some dayes in Sallets or otherwise after he hath been bitten shall find no harm Fernelius Wild Tansey applyed to the palms of the hands and soles of the feet abates the heat of any Feavert Mathiol in l. 5. c. 37. In the berries of Herb Paris there is found seed that hath great vertue against Witchcraft Some grow sottish by Chronicle diseases others by Witchcraft If these drink the seed one dram for 20. days they are cured Paper reed growes in the Lakes of Aegypt or where the waters of Nilus have run over and stand still and are not above two Cubits high the crooked root is as thick as ones arme it hath triangular sides it is not above ten Cubits in length it runs up spire wise like a Javelin Plin. l. 13. c. 12. The Aegyptians made matter to joyne their Ships together with the inside of this bulrush cutting off the tops of the reed also they made Sailes and shoes of it Herodot l. 2. Onely the Priests wore those shoos as Arist. writes They were wont to sell and to eat the lower part of about a Cubit in length and they were exceeding sweet when they were torrified in an Oven This was the chief meat of the Aegyptians hence was the original of Paper Dalechamp ad l. 13. Plin. c. 11. CHAP. XXXV Of the Oake Rhubarb Rape-root and Rosa-solis IN Maritania Oaks beare a long Acorn that tasts sweeter and more delicate than Chestnuts Scaliger Exerc. 181. s. 26. The land of the shore of Sinus Pucicus is Rocky and the Clods of Earth are bituminous there grow upon them pale shrubs scarce a foot high They have a kind of Okes and Box-Trees but they have no root Scaliger saw one that was without knots and straight 75 foot long There were 30 Crowns offered for it Scalig. Exerc. 166. A little above the Cauchi Pliny lib. 16. c. 1. writes that there were mighty ones by the banks of two Lakes which being either undermined by the waters or blown down with the wind pull'd up great Islands with them that they grew upon with their roots and so standing equally ballanced they sailed being furnished with huge boughs They oft terrified the Roman Navy when as they were driven by the Waves as it were of purpose and seen by those that kept watch on the decks There was one in the Country of Thurirum that never cast its leaves yet never budded till midsummer Rheubarb grows only in China and is brought by Usebech into Turkie and so to Venice The vertues of it are said to be notable and they bring an example of an hydropick person who having been in exceeding great danger by the use of Rhubarb he was cured and lived to be a very old man Adolph Occo in Scholtii Epist. The same man received a mortall wound by his Servant after his disease and the
feed on it and there follows either a scowring or death Theophrastus l. 9. c. 22. It grew famous by Nero For he when he had his face bruised by his revellings in the night he annoynted it with Thapsia wax and Frankinsence and beyond expectation it was whole the next day For it wonderfully takes away bruised marks Plin. l. 13. c. 22. Thauzangent is a root in the Western Mauritania of so good smel that a smal quantity hanged about the roof of the house will make a gallant perfume Scalig. Exerc. 142. s. 6. CHAP. XLIV Of the Vine VInes are somtimes infinite great For in Campania those that grow neere the tall Poplar Trees run up by the boughs of them with their joynts till they come to the top so that he that is bound to gather their grapes is in danger of his life Plin. l. 4. c. 1. Pliny saith they will not easily corrupt For the Image of Jupiter in the City Populonia remain'd there many yeares uncorrupted and the Temple of Diana of Ephesus had staires to go up to the top made of one Vine of Cyprus Some of them do yeeld fruit thrice a yeare Dalechampius saw it in many places at Lyons especially in the Garden of Guilet Caulius They are called mad Vines Dalechamp ad c. 27. s. 16. Plin. At the end of the Spring they send forth smal flowers like Starrs set about with round scrapings like Silver of a subspiceous colour These being fallen off like to a little Starre presently appear the clusters of Grapes Lemnius in herb bibl c. 2 The smell of them drives away Venemous Beasts the water that runs from the Vine when it is pruned heals Scabs Some catch it in a glasse bottle and set it in the Sun a whole yeare in the open ayre free from rayn At last a honey substance congeles which is of as great vertue as balsome For it cleanseth fills with flesh conglutinates takes away spots Water distilled from the tender leaves of the Vine in May is good for women that long They suffer no harm though they want it Sennert l. 4. p. 2. c. 2. From Grapes Wine is pressed that we drink The vertues of it are divers as the Wines are Lemn de occult l. 1. c. 16. The Wines of Poictou make men peevish and froward for the Vapours of it prick the braine but your Rhenish Wines are more gentle In the Country of Goritium the Wine is highly commended and next to that is the Wine of Pucinum and Vipacum Mathiolus when he had a long time paines of the Stomach by experience found the force of it Livia Augusta owed her 82 yeares of her life to the Wine at Pucinum Plin. l. 14. c. 6. The Country people that inhabite Japidia because they drink Wines neere Pucinum are seldom sick Galen de Theriaca saith that the best never grows sowr and Pliny writes that some have lasted 200 yeares when it is corrupted it becomes Vinegar the natural heat being resolved It is of an excellent vertue For it hinders tempests and the ruine of Sailers and dissipates the â—aulâ—y ayre suffering no humours to corrupt Plin. l. 2. c. 48. Pearls are tuâ—â—'d into Powder by it as we have an example from Cleopatra who objected to Antony that she alone would spend at one supper a hundred thousand Sestertii and she took a Pearle out of her eare the like was not found in the East Indies and put it into a sawâ—â—r of Vinegar and when it was dissolved she drank it up Plin. l. 9. c. 35. Aqua vitae is also made of it which is otherwise called Elixir the Golden water the Heaven of the Philosophers the quintessence the Soul of Wine the Divine water and the Philosophers Key Canonher de admirand vini l. 1. c. 5. Physitians write wonders of it which are impossible for ignorant people It is thin and the best part of it will flye into the ayre that you would wonder at it For the heat of it kept inwardly by help of the motion of the Ayre resolves the thin substance into a Vapour Cardan de Aethere Things steeped in it in 24 hours lose their vertues Heurn l. 1. prax Medic. It is an Antidote for all things Mathiol in Dioscor l. 6. and not only drank but spurted out of ones mouth into anothers face it recalls Epileptick and hystericall persons restoring lost speech Antonius della Scarparia when he was 80 yeares old said O Aquavitae for 22 years I owe my life to thee Savanarola of the art of making Aquavitae simple and compound Francis the first Duke of Mantua was much delighted with it for having a cold Stomach he was troubled with wind His words are these That he had tried all remedies and found none so good as Aquavitae Canonher loc cit Quercetan shews an unusuall way of trying Wine in Diaetetica in these words All the Gascony Wines that must be transported by Sea are brought to Burdeaux there they are laid in Wine-Cellers for publick use that are wonderfull long and broad so that they may be truly called the Wine-Market without the City a little way and there they are set in close order only a place is left between the ranks to draw Wine at The Merchants that come to buy Wines and are cunning care not so much to taste the Wines that are good but they will go over all the Wine-Vessels and so they can tell by treading on them which are the most spiritful Wines and lightest and those they seal For they go lighter and nimbler on the best Wines than on the grosser and more earthly Wines for they make their passage more heavy There be wonders of it in Pliny l. 14. c. 18. In Arcadia it makes women barren and men mad Theophrast l. 6. c. 19. In Achaia it causeth abortion if Bitches eat Grapes they cast their whelps Victor l. 7. c. 23. They that drink Traezenium lose their generative faculty In Thasias one kind causeth sleep another makes men wake In Aegypt the Grape is sweet and purgeth the belly in Lycia it binds it CHAP. XLV Of Xaqua and Zuccarum or Sugar XAqua is a Tree in Hispaniola The fruit is like to Poppie and a clear white water runs forth of it and whatsoever is sprinkled with it grows like black so that no washing will make it clean In 20 dayes it parts from the rind of it self Ovetan Summ. c. 77. There are two kinds of Zuccarum one from Canes another from an hearb There is another kind from an Indian Tree called Haeoscer Scalig. Exerc. 164. But this is scarce Sugar but the thinner part of milk compacted by heat which falling forth of the buds and roots of the leaves thickneth into a gum They say the fruit is like to Camels Testicles Out of any part of the Tree cut Milk runs forth so hot that it is held for the best meanes to take off haire The Inhabitants make their skins smooth with this There are two kinds of the true
principall parts and the heart The Gyrsaulcons are of divers kinds They are some white found in Moscovy Norway Ireland They are bold If one of them be let fly at five Cranes he will follow them all till he have killed them The food of it reserved in its Cave it will take in order She never wets her self with water but onely with sand She loves the cold so well that she will alwayes delight to stand upon ice or upon a cold stone sometimes untaught she is sold for 50 Nobles There is a Faulcon called Ruâ—eus because the spots that are white in the rest are red and black in this kind yet they seem not to be so but when she stretcheth forth her wings The cause of this rednesse is a feeble colour infused into the superficies of the body and inflaming the smoaky moysture which is put forth to breed the feathers CHAP. XVII Of a Hen and Cock HEns in the Kingdom of Senega are thrice greater than ours there are many near to Thessalonica some lay two eggs that is with two yolks which are parted by a partition that they may not be confounded Aristot. in mirabil reports that some have laid â—â— double ones and to have hatcht them one chicken was greater than another and at last it became a Monster In Macedonia there was one Hen which once laid 18 eggs and hatcht two young chickens at once saith Pierius l. 24. Hieroglyph But their eggs as also dâ—uer birds eggs are first conceived above where the partition is where first it is seen to be faint and white as Aristot. writes than red and bloody and as it increaseth it becomes all yellow but as it more increaseth it is distinguished so that the yellow part is inward and the white goes outwardly about it when it is perfect it is finished and comes forth of the shell soft at first hatching but presently it growes hard The place of its perfection is the Matrix it self into which they fall Aldrovand l. 14. Ornithol Some report also that a Cock layes an egge when he is 9. or 14. years old and they suppose it proceeds from seed putrified or ill humours concurring together It is thought to be round and to be laid about the rising of the Dog-star For the expulsive faculty being then weak is helped in an aged Cock by the outward heat With Ferrans Imperatus an Apothecary one was seen that was long fashioned Aldrovand The Cocks are wonderful falacious for they will tread the Hens 50 times a day and they have been seen to ejaculate their seed when they but saw the Hen or heard her note Aelian There was an old Law as Plutarch saith in Libro Num bruta ratione careant That if one Cock trod another he should be burnt alive When he finds he is too full of blood he will scratch his comb till he fetch blood All men know he Crowes in the morning Some say the cause is the Love he hath to the Sun some to his venery others to his desire of meat The Mahumetans say they answer a Cock that crowes in heaven Keckerm in Physicis The first reason seems something for he will crow when he is full also and after copulation also he crowes when the Hen is present but when he is gelt he crowes no more Plin. Yet l. 29. c. 4. he saith That a circle of Vine-twigs tied about his neck he will not sing Albertus saith if his head and forehead be anointed with oyl He is at great Amity with the Kings-Fisher that if they be both in the same house and the Kings-Fisher dye the Cock will dye with hunger They that have fed on Fox flesh boyl'd are free for two moneths from their Treachery Boetius As for a Dung-hill Cock Gesner saith he found it in a German Manuscript that a Noble-man having tryed all remedies for pains of the Collick and finding none at length he drank a small cup of Capons-grease unsalted boyl'd in water But saith he you must drink the fat that swims on the top as hot as you can CHAP. XVIII Of the Crane and the Woodwall THe Cranes travell all over the World Yet Aldrovandus saith he scarce believes that they will live willingly in all Countries l. 20. The Aspera arteria of them is set into the flesh on both sides at the Breast-bone whence you may hear a Crane afar off They travel but no time is set yet how swiftly they fly is manifest by the example of Cyrus who was said so to have disposed of his Posts at certain stages that when one was weary another should proceed night and day that they out-went the Cranes that flew When they fly they keep a triangular sharp angled figure that they may the easier pierce through the Ayr that is against them That Crane that gathers the rest together will correct them as Isidorus saith When one is hoarse another succeeds When they light upon the Earth to feed the Captain of them holds up his head to keep watch for the rest and they feed securely Before they take rest they appoint another Sentinel who may stand and ward with his neck stretched forth whilest the rest are asleep with their heads under their wings and standing upon one leg The Captain goes about the Camp and if there be any danger he â—laries Lest they should sleep too soundly they stand upon one foot and hold a stone in the other above ground that if at any time being weary they should be oppressed with sleep the stone falling might awaken them They love their young ones so much that they will fight whether shall give them their breeding Albertus saw a maleâ—Crane cast down a female and kill her giving her eleven wounds with his bill because she had drawn away his young ones from following of him This fell out at Colen where tame Cranes use to breed Those are fables that men relate of the Battels between the Pigmies and the Cranes The Woodwall hangs up her nest on the boughs like a Cup that no four-footed beast can come at it The nest is like to the fashion of a Rams-stones Albert. Magn. Some say there is Silk â—ound in it and that rhe nest is built not far from the water made of moss and the cords it hangs by are horse hairs She leaves Italy when Arcturus ariseth As she hangs down she sleeps upon her feet hoping for more safety thereby Plin. l. 10. c. 32. When she comes into Germany there is great hopes that Winter for Snow and Frost is gone CHAP. XIX Of the Chough IT is thought that the Choughs feed on Locusts besides Corn because the Inhabitants of the Island Lemnos were reported to worship these birds because they flew to destroy the Locusts Plin. l. 10. c. 29. The males will rather lose their lives than part with their females They fly at the eyes of him that holds them The reason is rendred by Nicolaus Leonicus because the eyes are shining and very
treads them and ratifies as it were the seed eaten Those hens that he treads not do bring eggs that are windy Olaus Magnus writes that in the Winter in the North the lesser Urogalli will lye hard under the Snow two or three moneths But in Pontus they say in Winter some Birds are found that neither boult their feathers nor do they feel when their feathers are pluckt out nor when they are thrust through with a spit but onely then when they wax hot at the fire It is hardly true The greater Grygallus is so deaf that he cannot hear the noise of a great Gun CHAP. XXXVI Of the Batt PLato calls the Bat a bird and no bird Valla half a Mouse He loves Caves and holes in the earth In the hollow placeâ— of Apenniâ—uâ— there were some thousands that lodged It brings forth the young ones ready formed when they are bred they are first like young Mice smooth and naked as young children She suckles her young ones with her milk and she casts them especially between the hollow places in Tiles or roofs of houses They stick so fast to her Teats that they cannot be pull'd off when she is dead She the second day after she hath disburden'd her self of them flies to find food but in the mean time she devours the secondines Sometimes she is bred of putrid matter Frisius saith she proceeds from a sickly excretion of the Ayr she flyes with leather wings or as Isidore saith born up with the membranes of her arms flying winding up and down and not far from the earth When she is weary she hangs by her claws the rudiments whereof they have in the middle of their wings she will fly also with two young ones in her bosome They eat Gnats Flies Bacon They will so eat a flitch that hangs by a beam that they will lye in the hollow place In hot Countries they will fly at mens faces In Dariene a Province of the New World they troubled the Spaniards in the night One of them fell upon a Cock and Hen and bit the Cock dead Martyr Pompilius Azalius saith That in the East-Indies some are so great that they will strike men passing by down with their wings The Argument of this is their carcases that lie all over the Vale. The Storks eggs grow barren if a Bat touch them unlesse she take â—eed by laying Plane-tree leaves in her nest It is killed by the smell and smoke of Ivy Aelian de animal Locusts will not flye over the place where Bats are hang'd on the Trees that lie open The biting of it is cured with Sea-water or other hot water or with hot ashes as hot as one can suffer it Strabo saith That in Borsippa a City of Babylon where they are greater than in other places they are pickled up for food So in St. John's Island they are skinned with hot water and they are made like chickens with their feathers pull'd off with us for their flesh is very white The Inhabitants of the Isle of Catigan in the Sea del Zur do eat them They are as great as Eagles and as good meat as Hens Scalig. Exerc. 236. s. 3. CHAP. XXXVII Of the Vulter THe Vulter hath filthy and terrible eyes and a space under his throat as broad as ones hand set about with hairs like Calfs hairs Bellonius l. 2. observ c. 1. He hunts after Cattell in Chyla a Province of the West-Indies and that not from Sun-rising till Noon but from Noon till Night Monard de Arom Some say that the males are not bred but the females conceive by the wind which is false for they have been seen between Worms and Augusta of Trevirs â—o couple and to lay eggs Alb. Mag. They are so libidinous that when they are kindled if the male be absent they will tread one the other and conceive by a mutuall Imagination of lust or else drawing dust by force of desire they will lay eggs When he wants his prey he will draw blood from his thighs to feed on Simocatta writes that they are great with eggs 3. years He hath an excellent sight for he will see when the Sun riseth from East to West and when the Sun sets from West to East He will smell Carrion 500 miles Aldrovand Avicenna saith That he sees the carcases from aloft but Aldrovanduâ— writes That the wind carries the sent of them to him He hath an exquisite sense to perceive He lives a hundred years If you pick your teeth with his quill it will make your breath sowr A kernel of a Pomegranate will kill him Plin. l. 30. c. 4. Aelian l. 6. c. 46. The End of the Sixth Classis AN APPENDIX TO The Sixth Classis Wherein some things are taken out of a Treatise of Michael Maierus a most famous Physitian concerning the Bird that growes on Trees WHen one shall read that there is a place in the World where Geese grow on Trees like Apples perchance he will be doubtfull concerning the truth of it and question the Authour And if any man shall say that living Creatures are bred not onely of one but of divers kinds from Trees and vegetables that part will fly and part will not fly hâ— will have enough to do to make good what he sayes if he would not be accounted a Lyar. Yet I think it may be easily proved by what we have said already where we have asserted from experience that Gnats are bred in Okes and mosse of Okes and Worms are bred in other Trees and Vegetables which though they be small creatures yet are they reckoned in the number of living creatures because they feel and move Yet I should not affirm the first as the words sound For Birds make their nests sometimes in Trees hedges bryars and other vegetables but that they grow there like pears is incredible There is one of the Canary Islands called Ferro where is a Fountain of sweet water concealed and there is none besides in the whole Island in some Trees by a wonderfull Indulgence of Nature the leaves do draw abundantly water out of the Earth or Ayr which they drop down for the Inhabitants to drink For should they want this boon no men nor Cattell could live there for there are no Fountains but the Ocean or salt-salt-water runs round about it The great bounty of God hath afforded water to those to whom it is denyed in other considerations As in Egypt where there never falls any rain Nilus overflowes to supply that defect and other Countries have other gifts given them So also is this bird afforded to the Isles of the Orcades and other neighbouring places which is found no where else Yet should any man look to find him growing on the Trees he might wander all the Woods over and find none nor yet do Pyrats amongst the Ferrenses find water but are forced to leave the Country for want of it nor can they find it in the Trees Concerning this bird that is no Fable that
in other birds But since it is not propagated ex traduce from an egg or seed it neither leaves egg nor seed nor gives more to another than nature gave to it For if it lay'd eggs that chickens might proceed from the Barnacle had been so bred her self but neither of these is so For as a Mule is not bred of a Mule but from the mingling of an Asse and Mare together so it doth not generate a Mule but continues alwaies Barren as this bird doth Bees are bred of Worms the Worms in the honey combs from honey by a wonderfull operation of nature though without any sensible body of seed yet not without virtuall seed imprinted on the Honey-Combs by the Bees which they first had from Heaven Nor is it possible that these effectual and spiritual qualities should proceed from the pure Elements or onely by propagation since the matter of the seed which is made of nutriment and blood could be extended in infinitum without diminution of it self For we observe that the Elements are but like dead and materiall receptacles of the formal vertues and that the matter of the seed is dayly supplyed and heaped up by the Elements And therefore it is necessary that the formative force should daily flow into the formed seeds or where they are wanting into a matter prepared by Nature from corruption or other operations From whence the form of this wonderfull Creature is easily drawn namely that it is an imaginative vertue of the Heavens or of the Sun actively infused into a viscous matter of that wood in those places so disposed by corruption that it may enliven it and promote it to be a new kind of living plant or bird included in a shell which so soon as it falls into the waters may swim and when the wings are grown fly about The final cause is the common ornament of the World the variety and wonderfull works of Nature the profit of those that dwell near and especially the providence omnipotence and clemency of our good and great God all whose attributes do appear to mankind as well from this creature as from the rest whilest he crowns the year with his free gifts and the whole earth with variety of Creatures So that he is far more mighty in creating and making different kinds of living Creatures than we are able to expresse them to nominate or to know them Let it suffice us that we have seen some part of the wonderfull works of God and taken a view of them for it is not possible for a mortall Man to be capable to apprehend them all yet to consider of none of them were brutish and we should so be more like unto Beasts than Men. OF Naturall VVonders The Seventh Classis Wherein are set down the Wonders of Four-footed Creatures Seneca l. 3. de ira c. 30. WE are troubled with frivolous and vain matters A red colour makes a Bull angry and a viper is stirred by a shadow A picture will make Bears and Lions fiercer All things that are cruell and ravening by nature are moved with vain things The same things happen to unquiet and foolish spirits they are stricken with jealousie and suspition of things CHAP. I. Of the Elk and the Ram. THe Elk is a four-footed beast commonly found in Scandinavia in Summer of an Ash-colour almost in Winter it turns toward black The horns are fit for footstools each of them is 12 pound weight and two foot long His upper lip hangs out so long that he cannot eat but going backwards Men write that he is subject to the falling sicknesse and that the remedy he hath is to lift up the right claw of the hinder foot and put it to his left Ear. It holds the same vertue if you cut it off when he goes to rut in August or September He is commended for his swiftnesse for he will run as much ground in one day as a horse shall in three He is very strong for a strong blow with his foot will kill the hunter The Ram for six Winter moneths sleeps on his left side but after the vernal equinoctiall he rests on his right Aelianus hath discovered this but the Butchers deny it In Camandu a Country of Tartary they are as big as Asses their tails weigh 30 pound weight One was seen in the Court of the King of the Arabians whose tail weighed 40 pound Vartom Cardanus ascribes that to its cold temperament when the rest of the bones will no more be extended Lest he should be choked with his own fat he sends down the humour unto his tail CHAP. II. Of the Asse IN the Kingdom of Persia Asses are so esteemed that one of them is sold for 30 pound of gold amongst the Pigmies they are as big as our Râ—ms Paul Venet. In Egypt they ambâ—e so swiftly that one will go 40 miles a day without any hurt Scalig. Exerc. 217. s. 1. She doth sparingly dip-in her mouth when she drinks She is afraid saith Cardanus For when she beholds the great shadow of her ears in the water she is fearfull they will be wet There are some found in Africa that do not drink She staleth when she seeth another stale or upon a dunghill For Nature doth stirre them up being slothfull by the acrimony of the smell Cardan l. 10. subtil Observation proves that where an Asse hath cropt a vine branch the vine will grow more fruitfull The monument of this matter was seen at Nauplia where an Asse of stone was set up in thankfull remembrance for posterity Vadimonius writes that there is a fruitfull Orchard in the middle whereof she was buried Aldrovand l. 1. de quadr c. 2. In Hetruria when they have eaten Hemlock they fall asleep that they seem to be dead The Countrey-men are deceived by it for oft-times they rise up and fright them when they have pull'd off their skins almost Mathiol in Dioscorid Sheep will run into the fold if you pen them in an Asses stall If one be stung by a Scorpion if he sit upon on Asse with his face toward the tayl the Asse will endure the pain and not he It is a sign of it because she will dye farting Merula Asses milk is commended Poppaea the Wife of Domitius Nero that conceived in all 500 times did wash her body in a Bath of Asses milk thinking to stretch her skin thereby Plin. l. 15. c. 40. 〈…〉 of crete being in a Consumption recovered by feeding on Asses flesh Moreover there are some in Scythia whose horn contains Stygian water for it will pierce through iron vessels Some in 〈…〉 have one horn in their forehead Who drinks out of that is preserved from a disease but if any venomous matter be drank it is caâ—t forth They are so strong that they will kill a horse to travell with them Also that was a wonderfull one that was sent as a present with other gifts by the King of Assyria to Ferdinand of Naples for the hair was
wonderfull the body was full of streaks of divers colours and equall lines Pontan dâ— Magnificent CHAP. III. Of the Boar and the Archopitecus IN Crete there are no Boars In a great part of the New World there are some that are lesse than ours Their tails were so short that the Spaniards thought they were cut off The fore-feet are whole the hinder feet cloven In some parts of Scandinavia they are 12 foot long Scaliger writes that the petty King of Salvimons had a huge one which would at the sound of the horn go forth to hunt with his Lord and the dogs Archopitecus is a creature in America that is wonderfull ill-favour'd The Inhabitants call it Haâ—â—t He is as great as a Monky his belly toucheth the ground he hath a head and a face like a child and when he is taken he sighs like to a child Three claws hang to his hinder feet and four long ones to his fore-feet like the great prickly bones of a Carp and with these he creeps up upon Trees His tail is 3. foot long He was never found to eat mans flesh whilest he is alive and they think he lives upon nothing but leaves which in their language they call Amohut When he is tame he will love a man and run up upon his shoulders Thevet left him in the open Ayr yet was he never wet CHAP. IV. Of the Ox. IN one of the outermost Provinces of Asia between the outmost Mountains of India and Cathay Oxen are bred white and black with a horses tail but more full of hairs and reaching down to their feet The hairs of them are most fine like feathers and as dear Venet. Brought into Hispaniola they will grow so much that they are greater than Elephants Petr. Martyr in Decad. In these parts where we write these things Guickardinus testifieth that one of them weighed above 1600 weight we saw one at Leyden that weighed 2970 pound But Ptolomaeus 11 had the horn of one that held 27 gallons When the Cows are great with young men say they carry their young ones on their right side though they be great with two But they that drink of the River Charadrus not farr from the City of the Patrenses conceive for the most part only Males the same will come to passe if in time of copulation you bind the left testicle of the male with a band or let them couple when the North wind blows Pausan. in Achaicis and if the right or when the South wind blows the Cows will conceive a female The Cows if they be more fruitfull in summer are a Token of a rainy Winter For a fruitfull Creature cannot abound with generative humour unlesse it be moved by a celestiall influence Albert. Somtimes they are very fierce In the yeare 1551 in Rhoetia between Duria and Velcuria some of them brought into the fields from two Villages fought so violently that 24 were killed before the combate could be ended Gesner de quadrup Somtimes they are puffed up with fullnesse for the cure whereof they use a Charme nameing the swelling In the name of the Father Son and Holy-Ghost Men say that Pythagoras by whispering some words at Tarentum tamed an Oxe so that he forsook bean straw and followed a Country Man and lived to be very Old at Tarentum eating out of mens hands Coelius The smok of Oxe-dung will preserve Bee-hives free from Flies and Spiders Bullocks blood powred into a wound will stop the bleeding Also the dry dung burnt drunk three spoonfulls will cure the dropsy CHAP. V. Of the Buffe and Bonasus A Buff is a Creature greater than an Oxe with a bunch on his back two or three men may sit between his Horns for it hath a very large forehead and curled with haire that smels like Musk. The flesh of it is most fat in Summer but it tasts of Garlick that it feeds on It is wonderfull strong for he will take up a Horse and his Rider The blood of it is redder than purple so hot that it will make Iron on the Hunters Speare turn every way and in the greatest cold it will corrupt in two houres In the Scotch woods they so abhor the company of men that they will not touch the shrubs that men have touched after many days and being taken by art they will dye for grief Cambd. in Scotia Gesner makes the Bonasus to be a kind of Bugle of whom men write that he dungs extream hot when the Hunter follows him but that happens to living Creatures by running so fast The intestines grow hot thereby and heat raiseth winds which being shut in they break forth violently through a narrow place chiefly if there fall out to be any pressing of the places by motion Also the Cuttle fish gives an example that feare will cause her to cast out her inky juyce Philip King of Macedon killed one with a Dart at the foot of Mount Orbelus the Hornes were 16 handfulls which were consecrated to Hercules CHAP. VI. Of the Camel THe Camel hath a manifold belly either because he hath a great body or because he eats Thorny and Woody substances God hath provided for the concoction Puddle water is sweet to him nor will he drink River water till he have troubled it with his foot In Africa when they have fasted 50 days they will not eat at night but when they have their burdens taken off they will feed on leaves in the fields Leo Afric L. 3. He lives a hundred yeares unlesse the Ayre agree not with him Plin. They serve the Indians to travel with if we credit Philostratus nor is it beyond his force to go a thousand furlongs in one day But that kind of Camel the Africans call Ragnail will go a hundred miles a day for 8 days together with a very little meat They never couple with their dams When as his keeper had admitted him to the dam vailed when she was discovered he was so inraged that she trampled on him and threw her selfe headlong Arist. in admirand Examples shew that they are very docile when they are longer on their journey than ordinary between Aethiopia and Barbary they do not whip them forward but they sing to them whereby they will run so fast that men can hardly follow them One at Alcair danced at the sound of a Taber being taught by a strange art For when he is young he is brought into a stove the pavement being very hot One plays on a Tabret at the dore he because of the heat lifts up one foot they continue this exercise and use him to it a whole yeare that coming in publick remembring the hot pavement when one plays on the Tabret he will lift up his feet and seem to dance Leo. Aphric In the Land of Gyants there is a Creature that hath a head ears and neck like to a Mule a body like a Camel a taile like a Horse he is 6 foot high and five foot long his neck is as white as
and Garlands and according to the musick they gently and in order moved their feet and performed all things as well as the best sword Players Then they which is a mad wonder as they were taught sat down at Table did eat and drink very modestly as if they had been men The beds to sit on were low covered with Purple and embroidered work the Tables were furnished with divers kinds of provision in abundance cups of Gold and Silver great and small were set upon them in great dishes were meat bread flesh and fruit Then came in the Elephants 6 males and 6 females they in Mens Gowns these in Womens Cloaths They lay themselves very decently and reverently on the beds and so sat at Table Then when the Mr. gave the sign they put forth their snowts to the Table instead of hands and take the meat very modestly and tast of it no greedinesse or ravening was observed in them none seemd to covet the greater or the better part nor did they catch one before the other when boys that waited on them gave them the cup and then by meanes of their trunk drank it jovially off and they did sprinkle the remainder of the Wine upon the standers by and so made a noise as pot companions do Lipsius writes this in his own words and it is the direct opinion of Aelian And they learn all these things so eagerly that Plutarch and Pliny say that an Elephant that was somthing dull and was often beat for not learning well was found acting his part by Moon light and some say that Elephants will learn to write and read For Pliny saith plainly from Mucianus that one of them learned to describe the Greek letters and did write in the same tongue these words I my self writ this and I offerd the Celtick spoils But what we may judge of them may be collected out of Libavius de Intellectu bestiarum They seem also to hold a sympathy with the Moon for when the Moon after Conjunction begins to appeare again they crop boughs from Trees and hold them up and looking toward the Moon they shake them They may 〈…〉 her diety But I say no more CHAP. XVIII Of the Dormouse and Gulo THe Dormise sleep all the Winter as round as a ball when they come to the calm Ayr they will revive between your hands by a warm breathing Gesner They are strangely taken in the valley of Pelnig for the Country men go forth in the night with Torches and coming near them they blind them with the light and so take them with their hands They put Apples on cleft sticks or forks which the Dormise love to eat the kernels of so they can the better take them out Amongst the Rhetians that speak Italian they salt up their flesh because it is sweet and fat and as pleasant as hogs flesh Gesner Gulo is a creature in the North parts he feeds on Carrion till he be full like a drum then he goes between narrow Trees and presses his stretched belly till he unload himself and then he crams again Michov l. 2. descript Sarmat Europeae CHAP. XIX Of the Hyaena and the Porcupine THe Hyaena is a Creature as big as a Wolf and hath horses hair but harder and it goes all over his back Aristot. in admirand He seems to have the genitals of both Sexes but some have onely a long line under their Tail Aristot. If you take hold of the right when he is at his venery he becomes stupid but if by the left it kills him Gillius in Aelian A Portupine is like a Pig at two moneths old he hath a head like a Hare ears like a man feet like a Bear a mane that stands up and the forepart is hollow Two little bunches of skin grow on both sides of his mouth long bristles grow out of them In Summer he lies hid but comes forth in Winter and when it is great with young it is said to follow the Bear in time Agricola de subterran Gisner refers Cardanus Monster to the Porcupine for he writes thus l. 10. subtil There was a Creature saith he of a strange kind which this present year 1530 January 19 we saw at Papia It was as great as Fox but the face was sowething longer and the jawes were like to a Hares with long hair and two very long teeth for they stuck out as long as a mans finger like to a Squirrils teeth the eyes were like to Serpents eyes black and without corners There was a cap on its head like a Goats beard but no otherwise than a Peacocks tuft The hair was like to a Weasels very fair onely about the neck it appeared like white wooll the forefeet were like a Badgers the ears and hinder feet like to mens but that the feet had nails like a Bear On the back and hinder part there were about a hundred thorny quills like a Porcupine some of them were crooked at the point they stuck forth but were not moveable as they say the Porcupine can shoot hers when it moved they made a noise by rusling together The tail was like a Gooses but the feathers were pointed like thorns If you saw nothing else you would say it were a Goose. He had feathers white and coloured and a great eye like a Goose. The tone was obscure and hoarse like the barking of a dog It was an angry creature yet the Mountebank could easily deal with it It hated dogs extreamly this was a young one and a shee It did not drink but eat bread dipt in water c. CHAP. XX. Of the Hee-Goat A Goat sometimes runs so violently at one that he will run a hole in a board or a Target after he is 7 months old he begins to couple Aelian His blood is a present remedy for the pains of the stone in the Reins or bladder For it dissolves stones that are bred and will let no more grow easing the pains also Aetius l. 11. c. 12. But great Gesner shews how it must be prepared When the Grapes begin to grow ripe take a new pot and pour water into it and boyl it untill the pot have been well cleansed then take a Hee-goat that is of ripe age out of the herd about 4. years old and kill him and receive the middlemost blood in the pot leaving that blood that came first forth and that which comes last let the middlemost blood thicken and as it is in the pot break it into many pieces with a sharp reed then expose it to the open Ayr covered with a thick net or thin linnen cloath or a close sieve that it may be prepared by the Sun and become dewy wipe off the dew and after two of the clock set it in the Sun taking care that no rain fall upon it When it is well dryed put it up diligently in a box for use and when the pain abates give a spoonful of it with Candie wine This medicament is called Gods-hand CHAP. XXI
their skin is fine and they cannot endure to tread on the cold earth and therefore they leap up Aratus Some think they will not be taught yet Albertus saith in upper Germany he saw a Mouse hold a Candle at supper time to give light to those that sate at Table when his Mr. commanded him If a Mouse fall into new Wine and be drown'd put him into hot ashes and he will recover Colâ—mel 12.31 There are many kinds of Mice A rat is four times as big as a Mouse Agricola saw one taken in the mid'st of Aprill that was white with red eyes sticking out and it was all hairy and had a beard with very long haires Men say that there are none to be found at Auspurg about the Temple of St. Huldericus when they are lustfull they are furious so that iâ— they pisse on any naked part of a Man it will rot to the bones nor will the Ulcer be cured Albert Aquatic They will hunt fish and diving under water they will find some holes to come to land another way The field-Mice that breed of putrefaction have one right gut and no more A Physitian that dissected one observed that Gesner When Nilus runs back again little Mice are found imperfect part of their body being alive from the mixture of earth and water and part dead earth In some places they come so suddedly in abundance that they will eate up all the Corn Pliny The Wood-Mice steep from the ending of Autumne till the Spring begins Gesnerus In Norway it is called Citellus it dwells in the Caves of the earth There are found somtimes 40 in one hole with abundance of small nuts They eate them fresh or dried in the Chimney Agricola The Cricotus or Hamester is referred to Mice his haire sticks so fast to his skin that the skin will sooner come from the flesh than the hairs from the skin He will not easily be drawn out of his hole but by scalding water The male is false for when there is meat enough within he shuts out the female But she revengeth his falsenesse with fraud for possessing her self of some hole not far from him she will gather Corn he knows not of and live upon that Agricola Mice in the Alps are as big as Hares or else betwixt a Coâ—ey and a Hare It will foreshew a tempest with a very shrill voyce like a pipe and that not only in the Mountains but when he is kept in the House He hath three holes in his cave at one he enters and comes out again in another he rests and dwells in the third he â—ays his excrements When Mountains are covered with snow he hides himself in his Cave and shuts the holes he stops in the earth so fast and rams it in that it is easier to dig up the earth on either side than where it is rammed into the holes CHAP XXVIII Of the Wesil and the Sable Wesil WEesils carried into Baeotia will run away in a certaine Island they will not be taken out for if they be they dye Albertus There was a man that affirmed he saw a Weesil passing over the River Limagus constantly leaping so that he never swam but leaped upon the surface of it It is an Aegyptian Hieroglyphick for they say it ingenders by the eare and is delivered by the mouth this emblem shews the nature of speech His genitalls are bony and is a speciall remedy against the stone Yet that must not saith Albertus be understood as if it were so indeed but only by proportion that it hath The Germans call the best sort of them Zobella This skin is of very great price for sometimes 2000 Crowns at Constantinople will hardly buy a coat of them Jovius But the nature of them is such that laid in the Sun to dry they will consume more than if they be worn a whole yeare This creature whilst it lives alwaies lurks in a shady grove and watcheth for Coneys They are nimble and use their taile for a helme as squirrils do and will leap from Tree to Tree CHAP. XXIX Of the Sheep SHeep are creatures known to all The Arabian Sheep have a very broad taile and the fatter it is the thicker it will be Some tails weigh ten pounds some 20 and it naturally grows faâ— Johannes Africanus saw one above 80 pound weight some have seen them above 150 pound weight In Africa Rams are bred with Horns presently and also Sheep as there are some with Horns in England Albertus saw a Ram that had 4 great Horns growing on his head and two long ones on his legs that were like to Goats Horns yet in Pontus in the Province of Scythia they have no Horns Aristot. And they have no gall But in the Island Naxus they have two and men say the Pontic Wormwood is the cause of it Plin. In cold Countries when the snow abounds they lose it but recover it again in the Spring Aelian Anno 1547 one was given to the French King that was very fat in Picardy one of the claws namely the inward claw of both feet was eight inches long the extream part of it turned upwards and it had a Horn like to wild Goats Gesner In the Country of Prasy they yeeld most sweet milk for it rayns liquid honey that they feed on Aelian The milk is very fat in the Isle Erythea for it hath no whey and to make cheese they temper it with abundance of Fountain water The cause is the plenty of pasture It grows so fat and full that in 30 days the Sheep will be choked if it be not let blood Pliny About Calimos a Village of India they smell like fish for wanting grasse they eate fish and they that feed on fish give them dry fish to eate Arrian When the North wind blows males are chiefly conceived when the Southwind females For such is the force of the North wind that it will change those that yean none but females and cause them to bring males Plin. When a noise is made they flock together and if when it thundereth one that is with lamb be left alone she will miscarry Arist. In the Orcades Islands they all almost yean twins and oft times 3 lambs Boetius Though their bodies be very soft yet they are free of the plague Columella One was seen to run mad which a mad Cow had hit with her Horn. In England they rot in their bowells if in rainy Summers they feed on moyst ground and lick the dew Gesner In France if they eate the herb Duva they breed black Creatures in their Livers and this disease is incurable The French in Normandy call that hearb Duva that is like to the sharp dock but the leaves are narrovver and stand alvvaies upright and the middle nerve is almost red and serves for Causticks Gesner Meadovv vvater drank breeds Horseleeches shut up in bladders in the same place they are a finger and half long and almost halfe as broad CHAP. XXX Of the
Wild Goat call'd Oryx and the Panther or Leopard PLiny reckons Oryx amongst wild Goats When the Moon comes to the East it looks upon it and cryes and men say that for hate thereof it will digge up the ground with its forefeet and will set the very balls of the eyes to the ground and cast it up Some think it doth the same when the Sun riseth what place soever in the desart it finds water in it will trouble it by drinking at it and stirs the mud and throwes dust into it that it may not be fit to drink The Panther smells so sweet that it will allure all the wild beasts but the frowning countenance it hath frights them wherefore he hides his head and so they come and are caught In the right shoulder they have a mark like to the Moon and as that increaseth this increaseth and decreaseth Albert. It breeds but once in the life-time if we credit the Author of the Book of naturall things When the young ones are grown in the Mothers belly they will not tarry but tear out their passage she with pain is delivered of them and so can never after conceive again the parts being corrupted where the seed should stay Demetrius Physicus writes of it that one of them lay in the way waiting for a man and suddenly appeared to him he was frighted and began to run away but the wild beast came and tumbled before him that was frighted and was grieved at it Which also may be understood of a Panther For she had littâ—red and her Whelps were fallen into a pit First therefore he had cause to pity her and not to be afraid and next to take care and he was secure as he understood the cause of her grief and followed her she gently laying her claws and drawing him by the garments and he had his life for a reward for taking out her whelps and she having got her young ones again went along with him and guarded him out of the desart and she was jocant and merry that it might easily appear how gratefull she was and not to wrong him for his good deeds which is a rare thing in a Man They love wine and when they are drunk they are catcht The Holy Ghost likeneth Alexander the Great who founded the Graecian Monarchy to the Leopard You shall see the application in Cl Domino Conrado Grasero our Master in his Isagogue of Universal History a Work never can be enough commended CHAP. XXXI Of the Frog FRogs couple in the Spring and lay their spawn in the spring of the year following in the middle of it the frog lieth hid the Frogs being come forth shew their great heads Albertus At Lutavia they catch Bees when they come to drink at the water it is observed that they will eat a dead mole Albert. In August their mouth is so shut that they can neither eat nor drink nor cry and you can hardly open it with your hand or with a stick lib. de nat rer Their young ones are destroyed by the leaves of Mullens or Nut-leaves cast into the water Aelian If a candle lighted be set on the bank they will leave croking African in Geopont Their spawn is first found in March wash your hands in it and it will cure the Itch. Gesner saith it will cure the worms whereof a fellon is a kind if you lay it on your fingers The Egyptian Frogs when they light upon a water-Snake will take a reed in their mouthes and so they cannot be devoured Gillius A Toad burned will breed again of his own ashes But in Dariene a Province of the New World they breed presently from the drops that fall from their slaves hands whilest they water the pavements Martyr changeth them in Summer into Fleas he ascribeth it to the filthy muddy Ayr. If you beat him with a wand he will first cast forth his venom by his legs and then he sweats some drops like milk Frederick Duke of Saxony gave one of them to hold till it grew hot it was first thrust through with a woodden spit dryed in the shade and wrapt in Sarsnet and this was his remedy to stâ—nch blood Gesner makes the reason to be Cold. Borax is a kind of Toad especially of a brown colour and in hot Countries is of a cubital magnitude and sometimes carries its young on its back In the forehead of this Toad is the stone found sometimes it is white sometimes brown which is best if it have a yellow spot in the middle Some say it is onely a bone some say it is bred of that bird-limy froth which Toads meeting together in Spring-time do breathe into the forehead of one of the chief of them Gesner l. 2. de Oviparis he cannot believe that it is a stone He that would hear more of Frogs shall â—ind it in the books of Libavius his Battrachiorum if he reads them CHAP. XXXII Of Rangifer and Rhinoceros RAngifer breeds in the North specially in Norway and Swethland it is like a Hart but bigger in body and exceeding strong He â—ath three ranks of horns on his head so that in each there are two and his head seems to be set about with twigs Of these two are greater than the rest when they come to perfection they are five cubitâ— and have 25 branches in them Albertus They are milked and will go 30 miles a day Olaus Rhinoceros is a Beast as big as an Elephant he hath one horn in his nose and from thence he hath his name It is moderately bent and so sharp that is will pierce stones and Iron Aelian His skin is very thick with skaly crusts in colour and figure like a Tortoisse shell It is so fast that a Dart can hardly enter it He is an Elephants enemy when he fights with him he whets his horn on a stone then putting his horn under the Elephants belly where it is softest he rends him He that will see examples let him read Camerarius in subcisivis horis CHAP. XXXIII Of divers Serpents IN the Province of Caraia under the King of Tartaria some Serpents are ten yards long and ten hands broad some want fore-feet but have clawes in the room of them Their eyes are as great as two small loaves They are wonderfull good in Physick For one bit by a mad dog if he drink but a penny weight presently he will be suddenly cured and a woman in labour if she taste never so little thereof will be delivered immediately Paul Venetus Americus Vespatius saw some in the Indies that men did eat They were as big as Kids and a yard and half long their feet were long armed with strong claws their skin was of divers colours and nose like a Serpent From the ears to the end of the tail a certain bristle went quite through the back that you would think they were Serpents indeed Calecut breeds the like so great as Boars and sometimes with greater heads four feet no venom yet they
Crabs will hang about it Some say that in June they will go forth to feed in the fields catch Frogs and feed on grasse Fed with milk without water he will live many dayes Gesner kept one alive in water 13 days put into distilled wine burnt he presently growes red and may be set on the Table alive amongst those that are boyl'd Georg. Pictorius The Males are easily discerned from the females For they where their tail is joyn'd to their body underneath have four long rods sticking forth but these have none Also their tail is rounder plainer and thicker Leonellus Faventinus commends the powder of their eyes drank with water of peach leaves after opening a vein against a bastard Pleurisie The powder of them rubb'd on the teeth cleanseth and whiteneth them In India a Shell-fish that breeds Pearl is sometimes found so great as they report that in the Island Borneus in the Sea there was one taken that the meat within it weighed 47 pound yet methinks it is questionable CHAP. VIII Of the Snail THe Snails which Dioscorides calls Garden Snails are found in abundance in the Mountains of Trent and they are the best In Winter they are dug up out of the Earth and in Gardens with some iron hooks near to the roots of herbs the Earth being dug forth They are covered with a white shell against the cold it is like to Gip so they lye under ground hid and afterwards they are more pleasant meat Matthiolus They have eyes in the top of their horns and they pull them in when any thing comes near to them and put their horns into their heads their heads into their bodies Albertus They lay white eggs as great as the Pikes eyes and in May they are found to sit upon them Gesner Albertus saith they are bred of corruption and clammy dew and that that dew hardneth into a shell Porta saith the same Phytol l. 5. c. 4. Pliny l. 9. c. 5. saith they are bred in Winter Fulvius Hirpinus made Caves of them in Tarquinis a little before the Warr with great Pompey c. Pliny l. 9. c. 56. In the Island Scyathos the Partridges feed on them but those that are call'd Ariones deceive them For going out of their shells they feed leaving their empty houses to the Herns and Partridges Aelian l. 10. c. 5. Andreas Fulnerus Gallus relates That a Remedy is made of them to multiply hair Take 300 Snails out of their shells and boyl them in water and take them out again and gather the fat that swims a top and put that into a glazed vessell and pour a Sextarius of water upon it wherein Bay leaves have been boyled with three spoonfulls of oyl one spoonfull of Honey Saffron one scruple and a little Venice Soap and a spoonfull of common Soap moderately stirred boyl them altogether With this liquor anoint your hair often and wash it with a Lye made of the Ashes of burnt Colewort stalks the place is obscure or corrupted and you shall find your hair increase daily CHAP. IX Of the Gnat. IN Aegypt there are great store of Gnats whence Herodotus calls it Conopaeam and Bellonius observat l. 2. c. 35 writes that he was so vexed with them the first night that the next day he seemed to have the Measils In divers parts of India there are kinds of Gnats whereof some in Summer time especially when the fields are cleansed do lye in the Woods others lye about the shores At Myon a City of Jonia there was a creek of the Sea not very great which when Maeander a River of that Country running into it that was very muddy had stopped the mouth of it with mud brought along with it so that in time it made a Lake there bred from thence such abundance of Gnats that the people of Myon left their City and went to Miletus When the Northern people would hinder their biting they sprinkle a decoction of Wormwood or Nigella on their heads and the rest of their body Olaus Yet he makes a difference in their bitings For they that have their blood pure and not corrupted bite them they not They meddle not with fruit before they grow sharp by corruption and they most delight in sowre things Leoâ—h Jaâ—hin But because they chiefly suck mans blood they are called the spowts of the blood of Man It is not proved that they will suck things that are sweet For the sweeter part of the blood that is most pure is consumed for nourishment and lyeth inwardly that which is rawest comes next to the skin whence it is that Pushes break forth of the body CHAP. X. Of the Urchin the Ephemera and the Catterpillar SEa-Hedge-hogs so often as they are tossed with the flowing water make themselves heavy with ballast lest they should be tossed too much being light or carried away with a tempest and so they stick fast to the Rocks Plutarch l. Utr. Animal The parts of the live ones covered with their shell and armed with their prickles if they be broken and cast into the Sea they will come together again and will know the part that is next to them and being applyed they will joyne and unite by a natural sympathy Aldrovandus As for the Ephemara the River Hypanis in Cammerius Bosphorus under the Solstice produceth little bladders greater than grape stones out of which flying creatures proceed with four feet This kind of creature lives till the afternoon the same day when the Sun departs it decays and presently dies when the Sun sets from hence it hath the name of Ephemer or a creature that lives but one day Aldrovand As for Catterpillars Hieracles testifieth that if Horses rowle themselves upon them black and blew spots will arise their skins will grow hot their eyes will be distorted and the cure is to bray vitriol one quarter of a pound Vinegar half a pound They feed on pot hearbs but if a rocket seed be sowed amongst them they will not touch them But that those hearbs may breed no noysome creatures dry all the seeds you mean to seâ— in a Tortis shell or sow mint in many places especially amongst Coleworts Prasocurides saith Cardan are such living Creatures that use to do hurt in Gardens Men say that if you bury the panch of a Wether with the dung in it not deep within the earth in the place where they abound in two days you shall find them all in heaps in that place in twice or thrice so doing you may destroy them all Paulus Aegineta writes that herb rocket annoynted with oyle will preserve men safe from the bitings of Venemous creatures CHAP. XI Of the Pismire IN the Kingdom of Senega there are white Pismires and naturally they build low houses For they carry earth in their mouths and cement it without lime you would say that they are like Ovens or little Country houses Scaliger exerc 367. In the Province of Mangu they are red and they eat them with Pepper Scalig.
Ayre and sents that they take in by their nostrills they take no meat nor drink but only the diversity of smells from roots and flowers and wild Apples that they carry with them in long Voyages that they may not want sweet smells and if the sents be too strong a little they easily are killed thereby Pliny l. 7. c. 3. Yet surely sents being but qualities can nourish no man they may out of all question refresh and cherish the brain Artic. 3. Of prodigious Eaters THere was a Woman once at Alexandria as Athenaeus sets it down he saith She eat 12 pound of flesh four chaevice of bread that is more than 12 pound and she drank a gallon of wine and upward Maximinus the Emperour would drink often in one day 9. Gallons of Wine of the Capitol measure he eat 40 pound of flesh and as Cordus saith 60 pound Capitolinus is my Authour now an Amphora is 8 congii that is about 9 Gallons One Phagon in Vopiscus who was in great respect with Aurelianus the Emperour eat so much in one day that he devoured a whole Bore a hundred Loafs a Wether and a young Hogg and he drank more than an Orca of Wine with a tunnel put into it now an Orca was a Vessel of Wine greater than an Amphora What shall I say of Clodius Albinus the Emperour He as Capitolinus writes devoured so much fruit as is incredible to speak for Cordus saith that he eat 500 dried Figs which the Graecians call Callistruas for a breakfast and a hundred Peaches of Campania and ten Melons of Ostia and 20 pounds of Grapes of Lovinium and a hundred Gnatsappers and 400 Oysters Uguccio Fagiolanus being a banish'd old man did glory at the Table before Scaliger at Verona that when he was a young man he eat four fat Capons and so many Partridges and the roasted hinder parts of a Kid and the breast of a Calf stuft beside salt fish at one Supper To this appertains that prodigious man in the time of Caesar Maximilian who eat a raw Calf and a Sheep at one meal Suidrigellus Duke of Lithuania sate 6. hours at Supper and fed on 130 dishes Sylv. l. 2. Comment in Pannormit The Epitaph of Thymocreon Rhodius was this Here Lies Timocreon Rhodius who had skill To eat and drink and rail and speak much ill Now over-great appetite if it proceed from a praeternatural cause it is called Bulimos and if it be with vomiting it is call'd dogs appetite And it proceeds from some gnawing humour in the stomach or from a consumption of the whole body or by reason of the operation of the cold ayr or lastly from Worms Brutus when he went from Dyrrachium to Apollonia through the Snow had like to have got this disease and a woman that cast up a Worm of twelve fingers breadth long lost her great stomach and so did another that voided 100 worms Brasavolus testifies that this disease was epidemical at Ferrara and Anno 1535 it was so in Borussia Leonellus Faventinus writes it Gemma Frisius speaks of a woman not very aged that could not live one moment without eating He gives the cause to be the greatnesse of her Liver and the prodigious peculiar temperament of it For her fat being increased unmeasurably and her heat choaked her belly was opened and about 20 pounds of fat were taken out her Liver was found to be sound swelling with blood and spirits but extream red and huge great that by its very weight it pressed the vitall parts Frisius l. 1. c. 6. Cosmocrit Article 4. Of monstrous drinkers IT is no hard matter to find men that sail in drink and rowe in their cups You see that drunkennesse abates in no part of the World and as if we were born to consume Wines and they could not be poured forth but through the bodies of Men. What Seneca foretold That a time should come when drunkennesse should be honour'd and to drink abundance of Wine should be esteemed Vertue is come to passe in our dayes He is counted best not he that can speak knowingly of Philosophy but he that can drink off many great cups Galen And not onely wine and waters but smokes and fumes are introduced to make men mad Yet all go not an equal pace some will win the garland In that publick drinking for a wager before Alexander there was one Promachus that drank four Congii that is 40 pound We read the same of Proteus of Macedonia in Athenaeus Novellius Torquatus of Millan drank 30 pints at one draught Tiberius the Emperour standing by to see this wonder Plin. l. 14. hist. Natur And which is more wonderfull in him they are Pliny his words He wan the glory of it that is very rare for he never fail'd in his speech nor did he vomit or void any thing any way when he drank nor did he sleep he drank most at one draught and drank many more little draughts and he was faithfull in the businesse not to take his breath when he drank nor to spit any out nor did he cast away any snuff that could be heard dash on the pavement Cicero the son drank two gallons Bonesus as the words of Spartianus confirm drank more than any man Aurelianus said often of him He was not born to live but to drink Yet he long honour'd him for military affairs For if any Embassadours of barbarous people came from any Country he drank with them to make them drunk and so in their cups he would find out their secrets He drank what he pleased and was alwaies sober and as Onesimus the writer of Probus his Life He was wiser in his drink This was farther admirable in him that so much as he drank the like quantity he pissed and his belly or stomach or bladder were never burthened A certain man drank 6 gallons at a marriage of a Noble-man in the dayes of Lipsius Nicetas l. 3. Histor. writes of Camaterus Logotheta that drank two gallons Article 5. Of some Secrets concerning Drunkennesse DRunkards differ in their manner of their drunkennesse for some are drunk before others And some when they are drunk fall backwards some forward some sing some quarrel Writers give many reasons for this They that are soonest drunk are not accustomed to Wine or they have drank more then their ability for naturally one cannot go from one extream to another without inconvenience or they have narrower veins that are too hot or have a thicker constitution of body or they prate too much when they drink For speaking out augmenteth natural heat that is inflamed by wine and fills the head with vapours and heaps up abundance of them which being corrupted by continuall motion are distributed through the whole body distending the eyes inflating the temples offending the brain The same reason serves for such who at Feasts eat hot bread drink strong wine and eat abundance of meats that are salt and talk continually For all these things increase thirst
exceedingly and makes men drink out of measure Also divers sorts of men eat bread wherein there is contain'd Nigella seed Darnell when they eat brown bread or mingled with Millet seed For these cause heavinesse and a passion like to drunkennesse by grosse vapours Canonher l. 3. de admirand Vini c. 1. Hitherto appertains refined wine poured from the Lees. For this though it be weaker to preserve it self and having no lees will sooner grow sowr for the Lees are the root to preserve the Wine yet because it is moyster and pierceth into all the Veins of those that drink it it sooner inflames the blood makes men drunk and overturns reason Jason Pratens de morb cerebri But women come not into this consideration nor such as drink sharp Wine after sweet or such as delight in new Wine For women are of a very moyst body are often purged have very open passages Macrob. in Saturnal Yet because they have a weaker brain and narrower sutures of their skull it is better to say with Alphonsus Lupeius that they are seldom so drunk that they rave but they are often sottish in their drink Sweet Wine stops the pores through which the Vapours of sharp Wines might ascend to the head Lastly sweetnesse so resists drunkennesse that Physitians cause such that are too much inflated with Wine first to vomit much and then they give them bread with honey to eat to repell the fumes that remaine of the Wine Macrob. Saturnal What concerns their divers gestures that is founded in the diversity of the parts and humours Fumes from Wine flye to the forepart of the head and fumes of Beer and Ale to the hinder parts Those that are drunk with this fall backwards but these with Wine fall forwards Those are clamorus and talkative these sleepy and forgetfull Lemnius l. 2. de occult c. 19. They see things lesse a farr off because the optick Spirits are made more thick The sanguine tempers laugh the cholerick prate and are mad the phlegmatique grow stupid the melancholique sad And because all of them have their opticks troubled with Vapours they all see a divers colour'd circle about the light of the Candle Gordon Libro Medic. part 2. c. 21. If they weep they delight in so doing Rhodig l. 12. c. 4. Moysture makes them stammer for by this the tongue is extended as a sponge with water and being swoln and thick cannot speak plain Jacob Pratens de natura vini Moreover experience hath found that Coleworts resist drunkennesse exceedingly chiefly raw and above all the red Cabbage Lemnius l. 2. c. 11. de occult But Galen saith L. 2. de composit medicam c. 5. hot Cabbage macerated and bound about the head And so great is the antipathy between it and Wine that if one powre Wine to it whil'st it boyls it will not boyle much If you desire a reason some say that by eating of it grosse Vapours ascend that thicken the Vapours of the Wine Aristotle saith that it draws the moysture of Wine down to the belly and cools the body Weckerus attributes the same force of the Ivy and Alexander saith that smallage nuts Lupins will do the like Pumanellus saith powder of Pumex-stone drank in water will do it Gratarolus speaks the same of Saffron de vini natura c. 5. Africanus of a Goats Lungs Amandus de Sancta Sophia l. 1. de veris secretis attributes as much to new Milk drank fasting Platerus prax medic Tom. 1. c. 3. prescribes pap made of Milk and Barley meal taken with Vinegar And he describes a certain powder thus Take Colewort seeds 1 dram Coriander seed 5 drams camphir 10 graiâ—s make a powder and give one spoonfull in sharp Wine But the dung of swallows powdred and drank will maka a man sober Pliny Rue eaten Merula The humour that first drops from the Vines at the beginning of the Spring bread that is made of darnâ—l dried and made into powder But that is superstitiously said That whosoever shall rehearse this verse before the first glasse of Wine he drinks Juppiter his alta sonuit clementer ab Ida. shall never be drunk Artic. 6. Of Bread THe chief foundation of mans preservation and nutriment and the staffe of life is bread well ordered Hence some say Panis Bread comes from pasco to feed some take it to be so call'd from Pan that is all because it answers all meat It is made of divers things The Aethiopians made it of the seed of Orindium The Icthyophagi made it of fish dried in the Sun Plin. l. 7. c. 1. The Aegyptian shepherds made it of the Lote-Tree seed Pliny l. 22. c. 21. Neer the Mountain Vogesus about the Town Burcken there is a fine white meale dug forth of a Mountain the Inhabitants make Bread of it and all sorts of Cakes Claudius Diodatus l. 2. Panther Hygiastici c. 4. But I say that can be no true meal but it must be miraculous I think it is some thick juyce that proceeds out of the earth and in time is congealed by heat of the Sun and so becomes fine meale Divers Medicaments are made of bread Aqua-vitae the most noble treasure of life is thus made Take the best bread cut into thin sippets what is sufficient put them into a hot Furnace that by degrees they may dry like red Bisquit then bruise it grosely and put it into a wide cauldron and for every pound of this Bread put in five pound of Fountain Water flowers of hops one handfull of anniseeds one ounce boyle them together till one part be consumed let them coole a little and then powre them forth and pass them through a basket or sieve then powre on some leaven first dissolved in warm water shut this up in a Vessel and let it ferment and work like new wine lastly part it as it grows clear distill it and rectifie it like Spirit of Wine Some distill the crumbs of white bread newly taken forth of the Oven putting it into glasse Stills four ounces of it are given successefully against the Epilepsie See Deodate how the quintessence may be extracted Artic. 7. Of wonderfull fasting THough nourishment be necessary for our life yet there have been many that have lived along time without it In Saint Augustine his days one lived 40 days without eating any thing Another in the time of Olimpiodorus the Platonist for so long as he lived he neither fed nor slept but only stood in the Sun to refresh himself The daughter of the Emperour Clotarius fasted eleven years Petrus Aponus saw one fasted 18 years Rondeletius saw one fasted ten and afterwards became a fruitfull Mother Hermolaus knew a Priest who lived in health 40 years without any thing but by sucking in the Ayr. Lastly one Nicolaus Helvetius under Waldensis Anno 1460 after that he had five Children by his Wife lived a solitary life and neither ate nor drank in 15 years Some dare affirm that he fasted 22 years and Bocatius saith that
part hurt be thrust into that place where Cocks use to be gelt a hole being cut open Platerus l. 2. de vit c. 5. proved it and found it so A noble Matron stayd bleeding at the nose by holding a bit of white chalk under the ring-finger on that side the nostrill bled Forest. l. 13. c. 10. Osorius writes also of Nahodaguca a Prince in the Kingdome of Malacca who was hurt with many wounds and fell down yet not one drop of blood came forth when he was stript and a bracelet of gold was taken off then it began to run That stone was said to have power to stop blood that was set in it It is taken out of beasts which the Sinenses call Cabrisias Osor. l. 7. de reb Afric et Indicis That it comes forth of a vein cut the distending of the vessels is the cause For the continuall motion of the arteries added to the veins doth presse the veins but if the veins be opened the blood comes forth because there is nothing to hinder it Hence when a vein is opened if one swoond the blood stops For the vitall spirit doth no longer distend the vessels Bartholin Probl. 5. It is observed that when a man is killed it will run forth if the murderer be present but when a man is drown'd it runs forth when friends are present When you ask the cause it is either motion and agitation that opens the orifices of the veins or Sympathy and Antipathy The revenge of the person is put for an Argument He that is grievously wounded becomes the Assailer saith Rhodigiâ— Thought greedily desires revenge choler burns suddenly for it the blood is presently inflamed with it and runs with all its force to the wound both to foment it and to revenge The spirits fly together and by an inbred leightnesse do fly about the Author of it by whose heat they continue and remain for some time Rhodig 3. Antiq. c. 12. It was of old thought to be a remedy for the Falling-sicknesse to drink man's blood yet warm It was the Devil's Invention who delights in the slaughter of men and to do them mischief The Wife of Marcus Antonius the Philosopher fell in love with a Fencer the Wizards were enquired of and they gave counsel to kill him and that Faustina should drink his blood the next time she lay with Caesar. It was so done and her love was ended but the boy born was of a fighting disposition and destroy'd the Common-wealth Jul. Capitolin Langius reports that the Son of a certain shepherd was faint-hearted for robberies but when he had eaten a crust of bread dipt in mans blood he was flesh'd for all villany The Carmani had this custom that at Feasts they would open a vein in their face and mingle the blood that ran forth with wine and so drink it holding it the end of their friendship to taste one the others blood But these things belong to the description of Wonders in Customes There is compounded a Lamp of life and death with mans blood whereof Ernestus Burgravius writes thus This Lamp or Light once lighted burns continually so long as that man of whose blood it was made doth live and at the very same moment that he diâ—s it will go out Know also that if the flame be bright rising high and quiet that Man feels nothing that troubles his Mind or Body But if it be otherwise and the flame rising twinckles diversly or is lower and clowdy and troubled it gives thee a sign of great sorrow and other passions For perpetually from the coelestiall influences bred with the Microcosme and from the naturall inclinations since that blood is nourished by the blood of that man and the body of the same from the substance of this very blood from which blood was as it were mutually taken to prepare it that flame shines according to the state and habit of that man in prosperity or adversity and so shews it self Sennertus and Deodate call this Pyromantia Artic. 4. Of Urine and Reins MAny things perswade us that there is somthing else contain'd in Urines beside the watery substance For in diseases they are made plentifully though men have drank nothing And it is observed that creatures that drink nothing will make water Physitians foretell many things by their colours thinnesse and thicknesse And Chymists find salt in Urine resolved But whatsoever that is it is call'd Serum and it is the superfluous salt matter in meats and drinks and is not fit for nutriment Salt is hid in meats to season them and that plants are full of salt you may find by distilling them It is very well known that divers kinds of salt may be fetched out of Urines Aegineta saith that artificiall Chrysocolla is made with Urine Nitre is made of earth moystned with the Urine and dung of living creatures Baccius shews the way His words are Saltpeter is made now a days by industry of a most sharp Lixivium that drains forth from old dung or rotten ordure from the matter of Churchyards and some earths that are rotted together the sane water being often powred on in wodden Vessels This Lixivium is boyld in great Cauldrons and Salt-peter is made long fibres growing hard in the bottom like to salt Hence Ruffus Ephesmus said that Urine was a nitrous humour that falls into the bladder de appel corp human c. 36. The Arabians write that in the Urine of those are bit with mad dogs the pictures of dogs may be seen Abenzoar But that seems to be attributed to the force of the Venom because it changeth exceedingly a mans constitution and makes it like to a doggs For the humours are so corrupted by it that some little creatures like to puppies are bred in the body Sennert l. 2. p. 2. s. 2. c. 4. Truly we find Worms to breed in the bladder for a woman voided one a span long and a noble maid voided many as great as wiglice Schenck l. 3. obs Also Charls Count of Mansfield voided one like a Magpie Duretus like a Hog-louse But one that had the stone of the bladder voided two with a sharp head with horns the back and belly were crusty and they were black and like Tortoises but that their belly was red Pareus l. 19. c. 3. Holler de morb intern Another voided a living Scorpion another shell-fish Schenk observ All know the urinary passage yet somtimes other things are voided by it The Sonne of Boninus made water a little beneath the glans and a Maid of a noble family at the Hague urin'd her Navel An old Vine dresser had it coming forth at an Ulcer of his left buttock a Souldier Voided it by his hip and thigh others by their belly Schenk in obser Fernel l. 6. Pathal c. 13. As for the Kidneys Gemma saw 3 or 4 Lib. 6 Cyclogn Wolphius and Columbus l. 15. Anatom saw but one They were seen fastned to the Liver by Holtzapfelius at Auspurg The fat of them