women of Egipt are so fruitefull that they haue often 3. or 4. children at a burden and though he expresseth not so much yet we must imagine that many of them liue and doe well or otherwise hee would neuer make so often mention of them In this our Spayne we haue often seene a woman deliuered of three children at once and one in a Village not far hence of 4. and in Medina del campo some yeres passed it was publiquely reported that a certain principal woman was brought a bed of 7. at once and it is said that a Bookebinders wife of Salamanca was deliuered of 9. and we must thinke that in other Countries haue hapned the like of as great greater admiration though we as they say being in one ende of the world haue had no notice nor knowledge of them LV. Plinie saith it is certaine that sixe children may be borne at one birth which is most strange vnlesse it be in Egypt where the women bring sildome one alone into the worlde In Ostia there was a woman that had at one burden two sonnes and two daughters all liuing and doing well Besides in Peloponeso a woman was 4 times deliuered each time of 5. sonnes the most part of which liued Trogus Pompeius writing of the Egiptian women saith that they are often deliuered of 7. sons at once of which some are Hermophrodits Also Paulus the Lawyer writeth that there was brought from Alexandria to Adrian the Emperor a woman to be seene which had fiue liuing children 4. of the which were borne in one day the 5. foure daies after the deliuery of the first Iulius Capitolinus writeth the like of a woman deliuered of 5. sons in the time of Anth. Pius so that the matter which signior Bernardo rehersed of the woman with 3. liuing children is not so newe nor strange Besides it is coÌ„firmed with the publique fame of that which hapned to a lady one of the greatest of this land which being in trauaile it was told her husband that she was deliuered of one son within a little space of one more within few houres they told him that shee had brought him forth 4. more which were 6. in all who answered merily to those that brought him the newes if you can wring her well I warrant you qd hee you shal get more out of her This is no fable but a matter known to be true AN. Seeing we are falne into the discourse of prodigious births I can by no means passe ouer with silence that which Nicholaus de florentia writeth alledging the authority of Auicenna in Nono de animalibus that a woman miscaried at one time of 70. proportioned children the same author alledgeth Albertê° Magnê° which said that a certaine Phisition told him for assured trueth that beeing sent for into Almaigne to cure a gentlewoman hee sawe her deliuered of a 150. children wrapt all in a net each of them so great as ones little finger all borne aliue proporcioned I know well that these thinges are almost incredible to those which haue not seene theÌ„ yet is this one thing so notorious wel known that it coÌ„firmeth the possibility of the rest though it be far more admirable then any of theÌ„ all That which hapned to the lady Margaret of Holland which brought forth at one burden 306. children all liuing about the bignes of little mise which were christned by the hands of a Bishop in a bason or vessel of siluer which as yet for memory remaineth in a Church of the same Prouince the which our most victorious Emperor Charles the fift hath had in his hands this is affirmed to be true by many and graue witnesses Sundry authors write hereof especially Henricus Huceburgensis Baptista Fulgoso Lodo. Viues which saith that the cause of this monstrous birth was the curse of a poore woman which coÌ„ming to the gates of this great Lady to demaund almes in steede of bestowing her charity she reuiled taunted her reprochfully calling her naughty pack asking her how many fathers shee had for her children wherat the poore woman taking griefe beseeched God on her knees to send vnto this Lady so many children at a burden that she might be able neyther to know theÌ„ nor to nourish them BE. I think there neuer was the like of this seene or heard of in the world and truly herein Nature exceeded much her accustomed limites the iudgment thereof let vs referre to the Almightie who suffered permitted her to conceaue so many creatures which seeing it comes so well to purpose I will tell you what I haue heard of som men of credit such as wold not report any vntruth which is that in the kingdom of Naples or in diuers places therof the childbirth is passing dangerous to the Mothers because there issueth out before the childe appeare a little beast of the fashion bignes of a little frog or little toade and somtimes 2. or 3. at once if any of the which through negligence come to touch the grounde they hold it for a rule infallible that the woman which is in trauaile dieth presently which because so soone as it coÌ„meth out of the wombe it creepeth that swiftly they haue the bed stopt round about besides the ground wals so couered that it cannot by any means com to tuoch the earth besides they haue alwaies ready a bason of water wherein they presently put those litle beasts couering it so close that they cannot get out carry theÌ„ therin to some riuer or to the sea wherein to auoide the danger they cast theÌ„ and though I haue not seen any Author which writ so much yet all those that haue been in those countries confirme the same so that there is no doubt to be made thereof but that it is as true as strange and though it may seeme that I vse some digression froÌ„ the matter yet me thinks that it is not amisse that we should vnderstand what Aristotle writeth in his 3. booke de animalibus of a he Goat which as it seemed was euen ready to coÌ„ceaue if nature would haue giuen him therto any place for he had teates like vnto the femals great full of milk so that they milked him it came froÌ„ him in such quantity that they made cheese thereof AN. Meruaile not much at this for if you read the booke which Andreas Mateolus of Siena made de epistolis medecinalibus you shal find that he saith hee saw himselfe in Bohemia 3. of the same sort of the which hee himselfe had one for his proper vse whose milke he found by experience to bee the best medicine of all for those which were troubled with the Apoplexy or falling sicknes BER There must be some cause for which Nature in such a thing as this exceeded her accustomed order and perchance it was to bring a
Generall flood it should be destroyed and ouerthrowne the selfe same consideration may serue for this of the Riuers not without proofes very euident and agreeable to reason for if it were destroyed with the Flood euen as it pleased God to permit the vndooing thereof so would hee also ordayne that all signes and markes of the same shoulde cease to the end that the peoples dwelling in the prouinces and borders thereabout shoulde haue no knowledge at all thereof that it should be no longer necessary for the Cherubin to remaine in garde thereof with a fierie Sworde as till that time hee had done But before wee come to handle the principall causes you shall vnderstande that there are some who holde opinion that all these foure Riuers rise neere the Land of Heden and come to ioyne in the same Leauing therefore a part Tygris and Euphrates because that of them seemeth in a manner verified as for Ganges the course therof is not so contrarie but that it may well meete where the other riuers doe and that any inconuenience eyther of lownes or highnes of the earth might bee sufficient to diuert or to cause the same to runne where it now doth But this is an argument that neyther concludeth nor carrieth any reason withall As for the Riuer Nilus they goe another way to worke saying that it is not the same which in the holy Scripture is called Fison for there are two Ethiopias say they the one in Affrica which is watred with Nilus the other in the West Indies in Asia beginning from the coast of Arabia folowing along the coast of the Ocean sea towards the East the which may be vnderstood by the holy Scriptures who call those of the Lande of Madian neere to Palestina Ethiopians Sephora also that was wife to Moises beeing natiue of that region was called Ethiopesse And with this agreeth a Glosse written in the margen of Caetano his discourse vppon thys matter by Anthonio de Fonseca a Frier of Portugall and a man very learned so that Fison may well be some Riuer of these which watereth this Country first discending by the Lande of Heden comming from the same to enter into the Ocean as Tygris and Euphrates and many other deepe riuers doe in the same maner may it be coniectured that Gion should bee some one of these riuers the one and the other through antiquity hauing lost theyr names and that it is not knowne because it cannot perfectly be prooued whether of these two Ethiopias is meant by the holy Scripture Aueneza saith it is a thing notorious that the Riuer Gion was not far from the Land of Israell according to that which is written in the third booke of Kings Thou shalt carry it into Gion although there be other Authors that vnderstande not Gion to be a Riuer but to be the Lake Siloe or else a Spring so called If that Gion were Ganges it is manifest that it runneth not so neere vnto Israel as it is heere said S. Isidore entreating of this matter sayeth that the Riuer called Araxes commeth out of Paradise which opinion is also maintained by Albertus Magnus Procopius writeth of another Riuer called Narsinus whose streame issueth from thence neere to the Riuer Euphrates some thinke that these are Gion and Fison though at this time their waters runne not through the same Lands These are the opinions of Ecclesiasticall Doctors labouring to discusse and sift out the truth of this secret But leauing them all I will tell you my opinion partly agreeing with Eugubinus and his followers that when it pleased God to drowne the whole worlde in time of the Patriarch Noe with a vniuersall flood mounting according to the sacred Text fifteene cubits in height aboue all the mountaines of the earth the same must of necessity make and vnmake change alter and ouerturne many things raysing valleyes abating mountaines altering the Deserts discouering many parts of the earth vnseene before and couering drowning many Citties and Regions which from thence forth remained vnder the water ouerwhelmed in the Sea or couered with Ponds and Lakes as we know that which without the flood happened to Sodome and Gomorrha with the rest which after they were burnt did sinke with them And we see oftentimes in the swelling and ouerflowing of great Riuers whole Countries drowned and made like vnto a Sea yea and sometimes mighty Riuers to lose their wonted passage and turne and change their course another way farre different from the first If I say the violent impetuosity of one onely riuer suffice to worke these effects What shall we then thinke was able to doe the incomparable fury and terrible swinging rage of the generall and vniuersall flood In the which as the same Text sayth all the Fountaines and Springs of the earth were broken vp by their bottomes and all the Conduits of heauen were opened that there might want no water eyther aboue or beneath If then the Springs so brake vp it could not be but that some of them were changed and passed into other places different from those in which they were before theyr streames scouring along through contrary wayes and veines of the earth In like manner might it happen to those which entered into terestriall Paradise issued forth to water those Lands named in the holy Text which eyther through the falling downe of huge mountaines and rocky hills or filling vp of lowe valleyes might be constrained to turne their streames farre differently to their former course or else by the permission and will of GOD which would haue vs to be ignorant of this secrete they changed their Springs and issues by hiding and shutting them selues in the bowels of the earth and running through the same many thousand miles and at last came to rush forth in other parts farre distant from those where they were before neyther passed they onely vnder a great quantity of Lands enhabited and vninhabited but the very Sea also whom they hold for mother Spring whence they proceede hideth them vnder her to the ende that they might returne to issue foorth where they were not knowne or if through some cause they were it should be vnto our greater admiration and meruaile as now it is Neyther wonder you at all if the generall flood wrought so great a mutation in the world for there haue not wanted graue men who affirme that the whole world before the time of the flood was plaine and leuell without any hill or valley at all and that by the waters thereof were made the diuersities of high and lowe places and the seperation of Ilands from firme Land And if these reasons suffice not let euery man thinke heerein what shall best agree with his owne fancy for in a mistery so doubtfull and secrete we may as well misse as hit and so S. Augustine thinking this to be a secret which God would not haue knowne but reserues it to himselfe saith that no
furiously sallied dooing great hurt and damage in the Country killing and wounding the passengers and destroying the fruits laboured grounds Ixion seeing that the people hereby endamaged exclaimed vpoÌ„ him resoluing to take some order for the destruction of these Bulls made it be proclaimed that he would giue rich rewards great recompences to who so euer should kil any of them There were at that time in a Citty called Nephele certaine young men of great courage which were taught instructed by those of the same towne to breake tame horses to mount vpon their backs sometimes assailing and sometimes flying as neede required These vndertooke this enterpise to destroy these Bulls and through the aduantage of their horses the vertue of theyr own courage slew tooke daily so many of them that at last they cleared deliuered the Country of this anoyance Ixion accomplished his promise so that these young men remained not only rich but mighty formidable through the aduantage they had of other meÌ„ with this vse redines of their horses neuer till that time seen or known before They retained still the name of Centaures which signifieth wounders of Bulls They grew at last into such haughtines pride that they neither esteemed the King nor any man else doing what they list them selues so that beeing one day inuited to a certaine mariage in the towne of Larissa being wel tipled they determined to rauish the dames and Ladies there assembled which they barbarously accomplished rising of a sodaine and taking the Gentlewomen behind them on their horses riding away with theÌ„ for which cause the wars began betweene them the Lapiths for so were the men of that Country called The Centaures gathering theÌ„selues to the mountains by night came down to rob spoile stil sauing theÌ„selues throgh the swiftnes of their horses Those of the Countries there about which neuer til that time had seen any horsman thought that the maÌ„ the horse had ben all one because the town whence they issued to make their warres was called Nephele which is as much to say as a cloud the fable was inuented saying that the Centaures discended out of the clouds Ouid in his Meramorphosis entreateth hereof say that it was at the mariage of Perithous with Hypodameya daughter to Ixion he nameth also many of the Centaures by whoÌ„ this tumult was committed but the pure truth is that which Eginius writeth LV. It is no meruaile if the people in those dayes were so deceaued hauing neuer before seen horses broken tamed nor men sitting on their backs the strange nouelty whereof they could not otherwise vnderstand for proofe wherof we know that in the Ilands of the vvest-Indies the Indians when they first saw the Spaniards mounted vpon horses thought sure that the man and the horse had beene all one creature the feare conceaued through which amazement was cause that in many places they rendered themselues with more facillity then they would haue done if they had knowne the trueth thereof But withall you must vnderstand that the Auncients called old men also Centaures that were Tutors of noble mens Sonnes and so was Chiron called the maister of Achilles through which name diuers being deceaued painted him forth halfe like a man halfe like a horse BER I was much troubled with this matter of Centaures wherefore I am glad that you haue made me vnderstand so much therof but withall I would that Signior Anthonio would tell vs what his opinion is of Sea men for diuers affirme that there are such and that they want nothing but reason so like are they in all proportions to bee accounted perfect men as wee are AN. It is true indeede there are many graue sincere writers which affirme that there is in the Sea a kind of fish which they call Tritons bearing in each point the shape humane the female sort thereof they call Nereydes of which Pero Mexias in his Forrest writeth a particuler Chapter alleadging Pliny which sayeth that those of the Citty of Lisboa aduertised Tiberius Caesar how that they had found one of those men in a Caue neere to the Sea making musick with the shell of a fish but he forgot an other no lesse strange which the same Author telleth in these very wordes My witnesses are men renowned in the order of Knighthood that on the Ocean Sea neere to Calays they saw come into their shippe about night time a Sea man whose shape without any difference at all was humaine he was so great and wayed so heauy that the boate began to sinke on that side where hee stoode and if hee had stayed any thing longer it had been drowned Theodore Gaze also alleadged by Alexander of Alexandria writeth that in his time one of these Sea men or rather men fishes accustomed to hide him selfe in a Caue vnder a Spring by the Sea side in Epirus where young maydens vsed to fetch their water of which seeing any one comming alone rising vp hee caught her in his armes and carried her into the Sea so that hauing in this sort carried away diuers the enhabitants being aduertised thereof set such grins for him that at last they tooke him kept him some dayes They offered him meat but he refused to eate and so at length beeing in an element contrary to his nature died The same Alexander speaketh of another Sea-monster which Bonifacius Neapolitanê° a man of great authority certified him that he saw brought out of Mauritania into Spain whose face was like a man some-what aged his beard haire curled and glistring his complexion and colour in a manner blew in all his members proportioned like a man though his stature were somewhat greater the onely difference vvas that he had certaine finnes with the which as it seemed he diuided the water as he swamme LVD It seemeth by this which you haue sayd of these monsters that there should be in them a kinde of reason seeing the one entred by night into the Shyp with intention to doe it damage and the other vsed such craft in his embuscades to entrappe those women AN. They are some likelihoods though they conclude not for as we see that there are heere on earth some beastes vvith more vigorous instinct of nature then others and neerer approching to the counterfaiting gestures of men as for example Apes and such like so is there also in this point difference among the Fishes of the Sea as the Dolphins vvhich are more warie and cautelous then the others as well in doing damage as in auoyding danger for Nature hath giuen all things a naturall and generall inclination to ayde help theÌ„selues withall Olaus Magnus handleth very copiously thys matter of Tritons or Sea-men of which in the Northerne Seas he sayth there is great abundance and that it is true that they vse to come into little Shyps of which with their weight
she willingly condiscending he led her into his Caue whether all the other Apes resorted prouiding her such victuals as they vsed where-with with the water of a Spring neere therevnto she maintained her life a certaine time during the which not being able to make resistance vnlesse she would haue presently been slaine she suffered the Ape to haue the vse of her body in such sort that she grew great and at two seuerall times was deliuered of two Sonnes the which as she her selfe saide and as it was by those that saw them afterwards affirmed spake and had the vse of reason These little boyes being the one of two the other of three yeeres aged it happened that a ship returning out of India passing thereby and being vnfurnished of fresh water the Marriners hauing notice of the Fountaine which was in that Iland and determining thereof to make their prouision set them selues a shore in a Cockbote which the apes perceauing fled into the thickest of the mountaine hiding themselues wherewith the woman emboldened and determining to forsake that abhominable life in the which she had so long time against her will continued ranne forth crying as loud as shee could vnto the Marriners who perceauing her to be a woman attended her and carried her with them to their ship which the Apes discouering gathered presently to the shore in so great a multitude that they seemed to be a whole Army the greater of which through the brutish loue and affection which he beare waded so farre into the Sea after her that hee was almost drowned manifesting by his shrikes and howling how greeuously he took this iniury done him but seeing that it booted not because the Marriners beganne to hoise their sailes and to depart he returned fetching the lesser of the two Boyes in his armes the which entring againe into the water as farre as he could he held a great while aloft aboue water and at last threw into the Sea where it was presently drowned which done he returned backe fetching the other and bringing it to the same place the which in like sort he held a great while aloft as it were threatning to drowne that as hee had done the other The Mariners moued with the Mothers compassion and taking pitty of the seely Boy which in cleare and perfect words cryed after her returned back to take him but the Ape daring not attend them letting the Boy fall into the water returned and fled towards the mountaines with the rest The Boy was drowned before the Marriners could succour him though they vsed their greatest diligence At their returne to the ship the vvoman made relation vnto them of all that happened to her in manner aboue rehearsed which hearing with great amazement they departed thence and at their arriuall in Portugall made report of all that they had seene or vnderstoode in this matter The woman was taken and examined who in each poynt confessing this fore-saide history to be true was condemned to be burnt aliue aswell for breaking the commaundement of her banishment as also for the committing of a sinne so enorme lothsome and detestable But Hieronimo capo de ferro who was afterwards made Cardinall beeing at that instant the Popes Nuncio in Portugall considering that the one of her faults was to saue her life and the other to deliuer her selfe out of the captiuity of these brute beastes and from a sinne so repugnant to her nature conscience humbly beseeched the King to pardon her which was graunted him on condition that shee should spende the rest of her life in a Cloyster seruing God and repenting her former offences AN. I haue hearde this history often and truelie in my iudgement it is no lesse strange then any of those before rehearsed or any other that euer hapned BER That which Iohn de Banos Chronicler of the King of Portugall writeth is no lesse meruailous but of as great or greater admiration then any of these if there were thereof so sufficient witnesses to proue it true Writing certaine memorable thinges of the Kingdomes of Pegu and Sian which are on the other side of the Riuer Ganges hee sayth that the people of those Kingdoms hold and affirme for a matter assured and indubitable that of long time that Country was vninhabited and so wild and desert and possessed of so many fierce and cruell beasts that if a whole Armie of men had come they could not haue preuailed against theyr multitude It hapned on a time that a ship comming from the Kingdome of Chinay was through a violent tempest driuen on that Coast among the Rocks so that all those that were therein perrished sauing onely one woman and a mighty great mastiue the which defended her from the furie of wilde beastes vsing daily with her fleshlie copulation in such sort that she became great and in proces of time was deliuered of a sonne she being at that present verie young the boy in space of time had also acquaintance with her and begat vpon her other children of whose multiplications those two kingdoms became to be inhabited and as yet at this day they haue dogs in great veneration as deriuing from them theyr originall beginning LV. If that of the Triton with the woman and that of the Beare with the mayden and that of the Ape be true there is no impossibilitie of this but let vs leaue heerein euery man to thinke as it pleaseth him without constraining him to beleeue or not to beleeue any thing but that whereto his iudgement shal most encline and though wee haue vsed a large digression yet let vs not so giue ouer the matter which we handled concerning Tritons or Seamen for I haue heard that there is a kinde of fish also called Mermaids resembling in theyr faces fayre and beautifull women the truth whereof I would be glad to vnderstand AN. It is true there is indeede much talke of the Mermaydes whom they say from the middle vpward to haue the shape of women and of a fish from thence downeward They are painted with a combe in one hand and a Looking-glasse in the other some say that they sing in so sweet melodious and delectable a tune that charming there-with the Shipmen asleepe they enter into their ship and bereaue them of their liues but to say the truth I haue neuer seen any Author worthy of credit that maketh mention hereof Onelie Pedro Mexias sayth that in a certaine strange and terrible tempest there was one of them amongst a number of other Fishes driuen a shoare on the Sea-coast hauing the visage of a vvoman most beautifull expressing in lamentable sort such sorrowe and griefe that shee mooued the beholders to compassion vvho gently turned her backe againe into the water vvhereinto shee willingly entred and swamme away vvithout being seene any more And though it may be that there is in the Sea such a kind of fish yet I account the sweetnes of their singing with
ingender in them a certaine vvorme which by little and little becommeth great and feathered and at last lifteth vp the wings and flieth into the ayre Cassaneus in his Catalogue of the glory of the world in the twelfth part repeateth thys otherwise In times past sayth he there grew in England vpon a Riuers side a strange and wonderfull tree that brought forth a fruite like vnto Ducks the which being ripe and falling of those which fell on the Land side rotted and perished but those vvhich fell into the vvater receaued presently lyfe recouering feathers and wings and in short space became able to flie Others write that there were many of these Trees and so by consequence many such foules in great number But whether there be any such nowe or no I know not Besides these Authors I remember that I read in an Epitaphe which is written in the Map of the world printed by a Venetian called Andreas Valuasor that one Andrew Rosse cittizen of the same towne had at that present two of these foules about the bignes of two little Ducks the which were brought him out of Spayne but I think there was an error in the writing and that he should haue written England or Scotland for a thing so miraculous as this is cold not in Spayne be obscure vnknown BER Truly as you say this may wel be termed miraculous but mee thinks this disagreement of opinions maketh the matter seeme doubtfull LU. There is no mortall sin neither in beleeuing nor vnbeleeuing it but Nicolaê° Leonicê° affirmeth another thing as strange as this that in the Citty of Ambrosia situated at the foote of the hill Parnassus there should be a tree called Ys and by another name Cocus whose leaues are like those of the Dock and the fruite about the bignes of a Pease the which if it be not gathered in season engendreth a little flie like vnto a maget at the beginning which afterward coÌ„meth to haue wings flyeth away leauing the fruite hanging on the tree withered vp which some let perrish of purpose because the blood of those flyes is singulerly excellent to die silke withall AN. Of no lesse admiration are those trees of which Pigafeta in his relation to the Pope maketh mention whose leaues falling downe presently moue go as it were vpon 2. poynts which they haue on the one side like feete seeming to haue life he affirmeth to haue seen this himselfe Therefore whatsoeuer is said and affirmed by graue Authors we ought to beleeue that it may be for though some haue a fault in ouerreaching yet others will not register any thing but that which is true Turning therefore to our purpose of waters let vs not in silence passe ouer the greatnes of such Riuers as haue beene in our times discouered for till now Nylus Ganges Danubius and Boristhenes haue bin accounted great but at this present the greatest that is in all Asia Affricke or Europe is but a little streame in comparison of those vvhich by Nauigation are newly found out in the West Indies scarcely to be beleeued vvere they not sufficiently authorized by the infinite number of so manie vvitnesses As for example the riuer of Orellana so called by the name of him that first discouered it is so great that it beareth fifty leagues of breadth at the mouth where it entereth into the Sea and through the extreame furie vvith vvhich it forciblie passeth it pierceth in such sort through the vvaues of the salt vvater that the Saylers call that Coast the Sweete vvater Sea The Riuer Dela plata nowe inhabited by our Spanyards there as the Sea receaueth it containeth xxv leagues in breadth and the Riuers of Maranion fyfteene There are also many others of infinite largenesse whereby we may coniecture that there is a greater quantity of Lande theÌ„ that which is already discouered for it is not possible that such mighty Riuers shoulde rise out of any Spring but that many other Riuers shoulde fall into them and that out of diuers Regions but let vs leaue this till we meete another time when we shal haue more leysure BER First I pray you tell vs what is your opinion concerning the source and rising of Riuers both these and the rest and whence theyr spring issue and proceed for I haue heard herein diuers contrary opinions which cause me to be doubtfull I would be glad to be resolued AN. The opinion of Aristotle and others that imitate him is that the Riuers are engendred in the hollowe and hidden parts of the earth where the ayre through the great moysture coldnes conuerteth it selfe into water the which running along the veynes of the earth coÌ„meth at last to the height thereof where not being fully perfected it taketh thicknesse and issueth out discouering it selfe as well in great Riuers as in little streames and Fordes such as wee see Anaximander and many other Phylosophers with him affirmed that the earth hath within it selfe and in the midst thereof a belly full of water out of which breake forth all these Fountaines Riuers and Springs but the surer opinion and the truth indeed is that all Riuers streames and Fountaines and Lakes that come of flowing waters issue proceed out of the Sea as sayth Ecclesiastes in the first Chapter by these wordes All Riuers enter into the Sea and the Sea for al that encreaseth not and the Riuers returne to the same place out of which they issued and begin to runne anew BER You haue giuen vs very good satisfaction in this matter of vvhich we doubted onely one thing remaineth in which I beseech you to resolue vs concerning the foure Riuers that issue out of earthly Paradise for in all that I haue seene or read I haue onely founde the names of Tygris and Euphrates as for Gion and Fison I heare them not named in the world Besides I should take it that these Riuers must needs be of great vertue seeing their source Spring originall commeth out of Paradice AN. I would not willingly that you should engulfe either your selfe or mee in a matter so profound and deepe entring once into the which I know not how wee should gette out for of such difficulty is this poynt which you haue touched that he had neede of great vnderstanding and learning that should therein well resolue you which both are in mee wanting neyther being so great a Diuine or so well seene in the holy Scriptures that I can satisfie you without bringing you into many doubts whereas you haue nowe onely one For to discourse of these Riuers of force we must first declare that which may be said of Paradice of which when I set my selfe to consider my vnderstanding is in it selfe confounded for the disagreeing contrariety of Authors which haue written heereof is such that I know I should weary you with hearing them LU. I knowe not how wee may spend the time better then in searching
Taurus and that of Tygris on the other part of the same Mountaine tovvardes the South the sources of these two Riuers are distant the one froÌ„ the other 2500. stadies This is also affirmed by other Authors and Beda sayth It is a thing most notorious that those riuers which are said to come out of Paradise spring and ryse out of the earth Gion which is Ganges out of the hill Caucasus which is a part of the mountaine Taurus Fison which is Nilus not farre from the mountaine Atlas in Affrica towards the West and Tygris and Euphrates out of a part of Armenia which two Nylus as the Historiographers say hide themselues in many places vnder the earth Pomponiê° Solinus Ptolomie and the rest are of Bedas opinion as touching the rising of these Riuers and the words of Procopius are these Out of this Mountaine saith hee arise two Fountaines the which immediatly make two riuers of that on the right hand commeth Euphrates and of that on the left hand Tygris AN. I tolde you that whence soeuer these Riuers come so they enter thorough the prouince which they called Heden according to the opinion of Eugubinus they may enter into earthly Paradise and vvater it neyther for all thys leaueth it to agree with the text of Genesis especially making one whole riuer after they come to ioyne by Babylon LVD Leauing these two Riuers let vs speake of the other two seeing it is also notorious that Ganges taketh his beginning in the Mountaine Caucasus though some vvill say in the Mountaine Emodos whose height and sharpnesse is such that few haue been able to reach vnto the place where the source of the Riuer is whence some took occasion to say that Paradise was placed in the midst of those Rockes and rough vnaccessible crags and so shall you find it described in the most part of Mappes but is certaine that this consideration is false and leauing it for such I say that the streame of this Riuer discendeth from betweene the East the North and coÌ„meth running thorough many Countryes of the East-Indies euen till it enter into the Ocean Sea and contrarilie the Riuer Nilus ryseth as I haue sayde in Affrica neere the Mountaine Atlas and as some thinke towards the East though by the Nauigation of the Portugals which discouered it it seemeth that the rysing thereof shoulde bee in the Mountaine called De Luna bending towards the South But how soeuer it be his streame is contrary in opposit to the riuer Ganges and entred by a different and contrary way into the Redde Sea so that I see not how it may stand with reason that these two Riuers shoulde conforme themselues in theyr rysing or that they shoulde euer come both out of one part ANT. Haue patience awhile and perchaunce though now it seeme to you vnpossible you will straight be of a contrarie opinion First therefore you must suppose that there is eyther now a Paradise in the worlde or else that the same is through the waters of the Generall floode destroyed The will of him which planted and made it is not that we should haue thereof any notice not onely concealing from vs the place where it stoode and standeth but taking also from vs all signes and tokens whereby we might come to the knowledge and vnderstanding thereof So that though Paradise nowe remaine in such sort as when it vvas first made planted by the hands of GOD yet hath hee so diuerted from thence the current of those Riuers guiding them by vvayes different and contrary one to another that by them it is vnpossible to attain to the knowledge therof For it Paradise be in the East and vnder the Aequinoctiall according to the common opinion and that the foure Riuers ought to come from those parts and to deriue theyr streames from thence we now see that Nilus and Ganges are towards the West or rather South-west and Tygris and Euphrates though they come from the East-wardes yet is it by very contrary wayes the reason is because those Riuers at theyr comming foorth of Paradise or at least before they come to be knowne of vs doe hide themselues in the depths and veynes of the earth breaking out againe in other parts with new Springs and rysings the one beeing distant froÌ„ the other so many thousand leagues and that this may be so vvee see daily amongst our selues the experience thereof as for example the Riuer of Alpheus in the prouince of Achaia which entring into a coÌ„cauitie vnder the earth turneth to come out againe in the Spring of Arethusa neere Caragosa in Sicilia vvhich by this experience is apparantly knowne for all such thinges as are throwne into the same in Achaia beeing such as may swim and flote aboue water come foorth at the mouth of Arethusa passing not onely vnder the earth but also vnder the Mediterranean Sea as Plinie affirmeth saying There are many Riuers that hyding themselues vnder the earth come to appeare and runne anewe in other partes as the Riuer Licus in Asia Erasine in the region of Algorica and Tygris in Mesapotamia The like also doe the Riuers of Sil and Gaudiana in our Spaine although the space of grounde vnder which they runne hidden be not so great yet suffise they for examples of that which wee say And in thys manner doe the riuers which come from Paradise hide and put themselues in the concauities and hollowe veines of the earth and turne to breake out anew in other parts where of force they must alter and change the course and currant of theyr streames S. Augustine entreating of thys matter affirmeth the riuers of terrestriall Paradise to hide themselues vnder the earth Encisus in his Cosmography discoursing of Landes on the Coast of the Oryent reaching to the Golfe called the great Sea which by the same coast goeth towards the North in coÌ„ming to speak of the land called Anagora sayth From thys place forwards there is knowledge of no more Lands for no man hath sayled any farder and by Land it is vnaccessible for the Lande is full of Lakes and high rockie mountaines of meruailous greatnes where they say is the seate of earthly Paradise and that there is the Fountaine where the foure Riuers make a crosse and afterwards sinck into the earth going along by the hollow veynes vvhereof they come out againe the one at the Mountaine Emodos which is Ganges and the other in Ethiopia at the mountaine De Luna which is Nylus and the other two at the rough mountaines of Armenia which are Tygris and Euphrates All this is so easie for him which made the whole World of nothing of nothing created all thinges in the same that we ought not so to meruaile at this but as a thing vvhich may be Leauing thys opinion and returning to that of Eugubinus that Paradise should be planted in the prouince of Heden that through the waters of the
little was by them brought and put into a pond or standing water in the Iland of S. Domingo a little after the conquest thereof by the Spaniards Being in which fresh water in short space hee encreased to such greatnes that hee became bigger then any horse and withall so familiar that calling him by a name which they had giuen him he would come ashore and receaue at theyr handes such thinges as they brought him to eate as though he had beene some tame domesticall beast The boyes among other sportes and pastimes they vsed with him woulde sometimes gette vp vppon his bace and hee swimme all ouer the Lake with them without euer dooing harme or once dyuing vnder the water with any one of thē One day certaine Spanyards comming to see him one of them smote him with a pyke staffe which he had in his hand from which time forward hee knewe the Spanyards so vvell by theyr garments that if any one had beene therby when the other people called him hee woulde not come ashore otherwise still continuing with those of the Country his vvonted familiaritie Hauing thus remained in this Lake a long space the water vpon a tyme through an extreamitie of raine rose so high that the one side of the Lake ouerflowed and brake into the Sea from which time forward he was seen no more Thys is written by the Gouernour of the fortresse of that Iland in a Chronicle which he made Leauing them therefore now I will briefely speake of certaine notable Fish coasts from the West of Ireland forwards winding about towardes the North For it is a thing notorious that many Kingdoms Regions Prouinces haue their prouisions of Fish frō thence of which our Spaine can giue good testimonie the great commodity considered that it receaueth yeerely thereby To beginne therefore the farther forth this way that you goe the greater plenty you shall finde of fishe many of those Prouinces vsing no other trade forraine Merchants bringing into them other necessary thinges in exchange thereof The chiefest store whereof is founde on the Coast of Bothnia which deuideth it selfe into three Prouinces East West and North-Bothnia The last whereof is different farre from the other two for it is a plaine Champaine Land seated as it were in a Valley betweene great and high Mountaines The ayre thereof is so wholesome the Climat so fauourable that it may be well termed one of the most pleasant and delightfull places of the world for it is neither hote nor cold but of so iust a temperature that it seemeth a thing incredible the Countries lying about it beeing so rigorously cold couered with Snow congealed with a continuall Ise. The fields of themselues produce all pleasant varietie of hearbes and fruites The woods and trees are replenished with Birdes whose sweet charmes melodious tunes breedeth incredible delectation to the hearers but wherein the greatest excellencie and blessing of this Land consisteth is that amongst so great a quantitie of Beasts and Fowles of which the Hilles Woods Fieldes and Valleyes are full it breedeth not nourisheth or maintaineth not any one that is harmefull or venemous neyther doe such kindes of Fishes as are in the Sea hurtfull approach theyr shoares which otherwise abound with Fishes of all sorts so that it is in the fishers handes to take as many and as few as they list The cause of which plentie is as they say that diuers forts of Fishes flying the colde come flocking in multitudes into these temperate waters Neyther bapneth this onely on theyr Sea-shoare but in theyr Lakes Riuers within the Land also which swarme as thicke with fishes great and little of diuers kindes as they can hold The enhabitants liue very long neuer or sildome feeling any infirmity which surely may serue for an argument seeing it is so approouedly knowne to be true to confirme that which is written concerning the vpper Byarmya which though it be seated in the midst of vntemperate cold countries couered and frozen with continuall Snow and Ice yet is it selfe so temperate and vnder so fauourable a Climate and constellation that truly the Authors may well call it as they doe a happy and blessed soile whose people hauing within thēselues all things necessary for the sustentation of humaine life are so hidden sequestred from other parts of the world hauing of themselues euery thing so aboundantly that they haue no need to traffique or conuerse with forraine Regions And this I take to be the cause that we haue no better knowledge of some people that liue vppon the Hyperbores who though they liue not with such pollicy as we doe it is because the plenty of all thinges giueth them no occasion to sharpe their wits or to be carefull for any thing so that they leade a simple and rustique life without curiosity deuoyd of all kind of trouble care or trauaile whereas those who liue in Countries where for their substentation maintenance it behooueth them to seeke needefull prouisions in forraine Landes what with care of auoiding dangers well dispatching their affaires and daily practising with diuers dispositions of men they cannot but becom industrious pollitique and cautelous And hence came it that in the Kingdome of China there was a Law and statute prohibiting and defending those that went to seeke other Countries euermore to returne into the same accounting them vnworthy to liue in so pleasant and fertile a soile that willingly forsooke the same in searching an other But returning to our purpose in this North Bothnya which is beyond Norway is taken incredible store of fish which they carry some fresh some salted to a Citty called Torna situated in manner of an Iland betweene two great Riuers that discende out of the Septentrionall mountaines where they hold their Fayre and Staple many and diuers Nations resorting thither who in exchange of theyr fish accommodate them with such other prouisions as their Country wanteth so that they care not to labour or till their grounds which if at any time they doe the fertillity thereof is such that there is no Country in the worlde able to exceede the same The people is so iust that they know not howe to offende or offer iniurie to any man they obserue with such integrity the Christian fayth that they haue him in horrour and destentation that committeth a mortall sinne They are enemies of vice and louers and embracers of vertue and truth They correct and chasten with all seuerity and rigour those that are offendours insomuch that though a thing bee lost in the streete or field no man dareth take it vp till the owner come himselfe There are also other Prouinces maintayned in a manner wholely by fishing as that of Laponia in the vvhich are manie Lakes both great and little infinitelie replenished with all sorts of excellent fishes and that of Fylandia which is very neere or to say better vnder the Pole The
he vvould faine come foorth she her selfe liuing in pittifull extreamity and painfully gasping for life vvhich her seruants perceauing opened the wound a little more and tooke the Infant out causing him to be nourished the which prospered so vvel that he aftervvards cam to attaine the royall Diademe and raigned many yeeres And not much before our time a Gentleman called Diego Osorio of the house of Astorgo vvas borne in the selfe same manner but they tooke so little heede in cutting of his mothers belly that they gaue him a slash on the legge of which hee remained euer after lame and liued manie yeeres AN. Children to be borne toothed is a thing so common that we haue seene it often amongst the Auncients as Pliny and Soline writeth were Papinus Carbo and Marcus Curius Dentatus I can giue good testimony heereof my selfe as an eye witnes of some that haue been borne with teeth and that with those before vvhereby we may the better beleeue the antiquity LV. Some Greeke Authors write that Pirrhus King of the Epirotes in steede of teeth was borne with a hard massie bone onely one aboue and another beneath And Herodotus vvriteth that in Persia there vvas a whole linage that had the like Caelius Rodiginus in the beginning of his fourth booke de antiquis lectionibus bringeth for author Io. Mochius vvhich affirmeth that Hercules had three rowes of teeth which is passing strange but no doubt there haue happened many miraculous things in the vvorld vvhich for want of vvriters haue not come to our knowledge and if we could see those things which happen in other Countries we should not so much vvonder at these of which we novv speake neither neede we goe farre to seeke them for wee shall finde enough euen in our Europe and Countries heere abouts BER I will tell you vvhat I saw in a Towne of Italy called Prato seauen or eight miles off from Florence a child new borne vvhose face was couered with a very thick beard about the length of ones hand white and fine as the finest threeds of flaxe that might be spunne which when he came to be two moneths old began to fall off as it had peeld avvay through some infirmity after which time I neuer savv him more neither knovv I what became of him LV. And I once savv a little vvench which was borne with a long thick haire vpon the chine of her backe and so sharpe as if they had beene the brisles of a vvild Boare so that shee must continually euer after keepe it cut short or othervvise it hurt her vvhen shee cloathed her selfe AN. These are things vvherein Nature seemeth not farre to exceede her accustomed order Let vs therefore come to thē that are more strange and of greater admiration Pliny writeth that there was a woman called Alcippa deliuered of an Elephant and another of a Serpent besides he writeth that he saw himselfe a Centaure brought to the Emperour Claudius in hony to keepe him from putrefaction which was brought forth by a woman of Thessalia Besides these there are manie other such like thinges reported by vvise and graue Authors that such as neuer heard of them before vvould be astonished at theyr strangenes LVD And thinke you that this age and time of ours yeeldeth not as many strange and vvonderfull things as the antiquitie did Yes vndoubtedly doth it vvere vve so carefull to registre and to commit them to memory as they were I will tell you one of the which I am a witnesse my selfe of a woman that hauing had a very hard trauaile in the which she was often at the poynt of death at last was deliuered of a child and withall of a beast whose fashion was lyke vnto a Firret which came foorth with his clawes vpon the childes brest and his feete entangled within the childs legges both one and the other died in few houres BER Wee see and heare daily of many things like vnto these and besides we haue seene women in steede of chyldren bring forth onelie lumpes of flesh which the Phisitions call Moles I haue seene my selfe one of the which a woman was deliuered of the fashion of a great Goose-neck at one end it had the signe of a head vnperfectly fashioned and the woman told me that when it came into the world it moued and that therfore they had sprinkled water vpon it vsing the words of Baptisme In engendring of these things Nature seemeth to shewe herselfe weake and faint and perchance the defect heereof might be in the Father or mother the imperfection of whose seed was not able to engender a creature of more perfection AN. Your opinion herein is not without some reason but withall vnderstande that there may bee aswell therein supersluitie which corrupting it selfe in steede of engendring a child engendreth these other creatures which you haue rehearsed as the Elephant the Centaure and the rest but the likeliest is that they are engendred of corrupted humors that are in the womans body vvhich in time wold be the cause of her death in steed of which Nature worketh that vvhich Aristotle saith in his Booke De communi animalium gressu that Nature forceth her alwaies of things possible to doe the best and vvhen she can create any thing of these corrupted humors whereby she may preserue lyfe shee procureth to doe it as a thing naturall LU. The one and the other may wel be true but yet in my iudgement there is another reason likelier then eyther of them both which is that all these thinges or the most part of them proceede of the womans imagination at the time of her conception For as Algazar an auncient Philosopher of great authority affirmeth The earnest imagination hath not onely force and power to imprint diuers effects in him which imagineth but also may worke effect in the things imagined for so intentiuely may a man imagine that it rayneth that though the wether were faire it may become clowdy raine indeed and that the stones before him are bread so great may be the vehemency of his imagination that they may turne into bread BE. I beleeue the miracle which Christ made in turning water into wine but not these miraculous imaginations of Algazar which truly in mine opinion are most ridiculous AN. In exteriour things I neuer sawe any of these miracles yet Aristotle vvriteth in his ninth Booke De animalibus that the Henne fighting with the Cocke and ouercomming him conceaueth thereof such pride that shee lyfteth vp her crest and tayle imagining that shee is a Cocke and seeking to tread the other Hennes vvith the very imagination whereof she cōmeth to haue spurres But leauing thys let vs come to Auicenna for in thys matter we cannot goe out of Doctors and Philosophers whose opinion in his seconde Booke is that the imagination of the minde is able to work so mightie a change in naturall things that it hapneth oftentimes
by Nature the which is that from theyr birth they are so parted and deuided that they seeme to be double so that they vse them diuersly and in one instant pronounce different reasons and which is more they counterfet also the voyce of the birdes and fowles of the ayre but which is of other most admirable they speake with two men at once to one with the one part and to the other vvith the other part of the tongue and demanding of the one they aunswere to the other as though the two tongues were in two seuerall mouthes of two sundry men The ayre is al the yeare long so temperate in this Iland that as the Poet writeth the Peare remaineth on the Peare-tree the Aple on the Aple-tree and the Grapes vppon the Vine without withering or drying The day and night are alwaies equall the Sunne at noone dayes maketh no shadow of any thing They liue according to their kindreds to the number of 500. in company together They haue no houses not certaine habitations but fieldes and Medowes The earth without tillage yeeldeth thē aboundant store of fruites for the vertue of the Iland and the temprature of theyr climate maketh the earth being of it selfe fertile passing fruitfull yea more then enough There grow many Canes yeelding great store of white seedes as bigge as Pidgions eggs which gathering and making wette with hote water they then let dry which being done they grinde it and make thereof bread wonderfully sweet and delectable They haue sundry great Fountaines of the which some are of hote water most wholesome to bathe in and to cure infirmities others to drinke most sweete and comfortable They are all much addicted to Sciences and principally they are curious in Astrologie they vse 28. letters and besides them other 7. Characters euery one of the which they interprete 4. wayes for the signification of theyr meaning All of them for the most part liue very long cōmonly till the age of a 150. yeres and for the most part without any sicknesse And if there be any one that is diseased with a long infirmitie he is by the law constrained to die In like sort when they come to a certaine age which they account complete they willingly kill themselues They write not like vnto vs for theyr line commeth from aboue downeward There is in that Ilande a kinde of hearbe vpon which all those that lay themselues downe dye sleeping as it were in a sweet slumber The women mary not but are common to all men they all bring vp the children with equall affection oftentimes they take the children from their mothers and send them into other parts because they should not know thē the which they do to that end that there should be no particuler but equall loue affection amongst them they haue no ambition of honour or valour more one then another so that they liue in perpetuall agreement and conformity There are bred certaine great beasts of a meruailous nature and vertue in their bodies they are rounde like a Tortoys in the midst diuided with 2. lines athwart in the end of each of those halfes they haue 2. eyes and 2. hearings but one belly onely into the which the sustenance commeth as well from the one part as the other they haue many leggs and feet with the which they goe as well one way as another the blood of thys beast is of singuler vertue for diuers things what part soeuer of a mans body being cut and touched with this blood healeth presently There are in this Iland manie Foules and some of such greatnes that by them they make experience of theyr children setting them vp on theyr backs and making them flie vp into the ayre with them and if the laddes sitte fast vvithout any feare they account them hardy but if they tremble or seeme to be fearefull they bring them vp with an ill vvill reputing them simple of dull courage and of short life Amongst those kindreds which keepe alwayes companie together the eldest is King and gouernour to whom all the rest obey who when he commeth to the age of a hundred and fiftie yeares depriueth himselfe of life in whose place succeedeth without delay the eldest of that Trybe The Sea is rounde about thys Ilande very tempestuous The North-starre and many other starres which we see here cannot there bee discerned There are seauen other Ilands rounde about this in a manner as great with the selfe same people and conditions Though theyr ground be most fruitfull in all aboundance yet they liue most temperately and eate theyr victuals simple without anie composition separating from them those that vse anie arts in dressing their meats other then seething or vvasting each thing by it selfe They adore one onelie God the Creatour of all thinges vsing besides a peculiar kinde of reuerence to the Sunne and all the other celestiall thinges They are great Hunters and fishers There is great store of Wine and Oyle The trees grow of themselues without being planted The I le bringeth foorth great Serpents but hurtlesse whose flesh in eating is most sauorie and sweet Theyr garments are made of a certaine fine woll like Bombast which they take out of Canes which being dyed with a kinde of Sea Ore they haue becommeth of a most daintie colour like Purple They are neuer idle but stil employ themselues in good exercises spending many houres of the day singing hymnes vnto God and the other celestiall things whom they particulerly hold as mediators for theyr Iland They burie themselues on the Seashoare where the water may bayne their Sepulchres The Canes out of the which they gather theyr fruites grow and decrease with the mouing of the Moone Iambolo and his companion remained 7. yeares in this Iland they were driuen out vnwillingly and perforce as men that liued not according to theyr innocent customes and vertuous simplicitie so that putting them a great quantity of victuals in theyr boate made them goe aboard and cast off who hoysing vp theyr sailes after great tempests and dangers many times reputing themselues as dead lost men at last came to land in a part of India where they were by a certaine King gently entertained from whom afterward they were sent with a safe conduct into Persia and thence to Greece This is the selfe same which Iohn Bohemus writeth without adding or diminishing one word BER The thinges of this Iland are so strange that I can hardly beleeue them for mee thinkes they are like those fables which Lucian writeth in his booke De vera narratione yet Alexander of Alexandria confirmeth that of the Foules flying vp into the ayre with the children whose wordes are these There are certaine Ethiopians which set their children as they waxe great vpon certaine Foules which to that purpose they nourish of diuers sortes and making them mount vp with them into the ayre whereby they knowe what
These were indued both with strength and courage and through the vse thereof the one and the other accomplished great and worthy enterprises leauing behind them a fame glorious and euerlasting but there haue beene and as yet are sundry of rare and excellent strength which they haue employed and doe employ so ill that there is no memory nor reckoning made of them There was one not long since in Galicia called the Marshall Pero Pardo de Riba de Neyra who bearing great grudge to a certaine Bishop and finding no meanes to accomplish his reuengefull despite was contented to yeeld to the request of certaine that went betweene to make them friends at such time as they should meete together for the consummation of their attonement the Marshall went to embrace him but his embracing was in such sort that he wrung his guts out and crusht all his ribs to peeces leauing him dead betweene his armes LU. Hercules did no more when hee fought with Antheus whom he vanquished in the same manner though this act be so villainous especially hauing giuen security that it deserueth not to be spoken of There are besides at this day many trewants peasants and labourers of such accomplisht strength that if they employed it in worthy works they would winne thereby great estimation BER It is not sufficient to haue courage with this strength but they must be also fortunate for else they are soone dispatcht with a blow of a Canon yea and though it be but of a Harquebuz it is enough to abate the strongest man liuing and therefore they had rather liue in assurance dishonourable and obscure then with such ieopardy to seeke glory and fame But let vs returne to those that haue no thirst least we forget it It is a common thing that there are diuers men which bide fiue or sixe dayes without drinking especially if the victuals they eate be colde and moyst I knew a woman that made but a pastime to abstaine from drink eight or tenne dayes and I heard say that there should be a man in Medina del Campo I remember not well from whence he was that stayed vsually thirty or fourty dayes without drinking a drop and longer if it were in the fruite season for with eating thereof hee moystned so his stomacke that hee made no reckoning of drinke It vvas tolde mee for a truth that there was in Salamancha a Chanon of the same Church vvhich vvent to Toledo and returned being out xx dayes in all which time till he returned to his owne house hee neuer dranke any droppe of water or wine or any other liquor But that which Pontanus writeth in his booke of Celaestiall thinges causeth mee to wonder a great deale more of a man that in all his life time neuer drank at all which Ladislaus King of Naples hearing made hym perforce drinke a little vvater vvhich caused him to feele extreame payne and torment in his stomack I haue been told also by many persons worthy of credite that there is in Marsile neere to the Citty of Lyons at this present a man lyuing which is wont to continue three or foure monthes vvithout drinking without receauing thereby any discommoditie in his health or otherwise AN. There are many strange things reported about thys matter the cause wherof we will leaue to Phisitions who giue sufficient reasons whereby we may vnderstand how possible thys is which seemeth so farre to exceede the ordinary course of Nature BER If wee leaue thys purpose let vs returne to our former of strength for I was deceaued in thinking that the greater part thereof consisted in bignes of body members AN. If we should follow this rule we should oftentimes deceaue our selues for we finde many great men of little and slender force and manie little men of great and mightie puissance the cause whereof is that Nature scattereth and separateth more her vertue in great bodies then in lesser in which beeing more vnited and compacted it maketh them strong and vigorous and so saith Virgil. In a little body oftentimes the greatest vertue raignes LVD But we must not alwaies alowe this rule for true for we haue read and heard of many Giants whose wonderfull forces were equall with the largenes of theyr bodies BER For my part I thinke that thys matter of Gyants be for the most part feigned and though there haue beene great men yet were they neuer so huge as they are described for euerie one addeth that as he thinketh good Solinus writeth that it is by many Authors agreed that no man can passe the length of seuen foote of which measure it is saide that Hercules was Yet in the time of Aug. Caesar saith he there liued tvvo men Pusion and Secundila of which either of them had x. feete or more in length and theyr bones are in the Ossary of the Salustians and afterwards in the time of the Emperor Claudius they brought out of Arabia a man called Gauara nine foote and nine inches long but in a thousande yeeres before Augustus had not beene seene the like shape of men neither since the time of Claudius for in this our time who is it that is not borne lesse then his Father AN. If you mark it wel in the same chapter in which Solinus handleth this matter he sayth that the bones of Orestes were found in Tegoea which being measured were 7. cubits long which are more then 4. yardes according to the common opinion and yet this is no great disformity in respect of that which followeth Besides saith he it is written by the Antiquitie and confirmed by true witnesses that in the warres of Crete vpon an irruption of waters breaking vp the earth with the violent impesuositie thereof at the retreate thereof amongst many openings of the earth they found in one monument a mans body 33. cubites long Among the rest that went to see this spectacle so strange was Lucius Flacus the Legate and Metellus who beholding that with theyr eyes which otherwise they vvoulde not haue beleeued remained as men amazed Pliny also saith that a hill of Crete breaking there was founde the body of a man 45. cubits long the which some said was of Orion and others of Ocius And though the greatnes of these 2. bodyes be such that it seeme incredible yet farre greater is that of Antheus the which Anthoniê° Sabellicê° in his Aeneads saith was found in the citty of Tegaena at such time as Sartorius remained there Captain generall of the Romaine Army whose Sepulchre being opened and his bones measured the length of his carkas was found to be 70 cubits to confirme the possibility of this he addeth presently that a certaine host of his a man of good credit told him that being in Crete meaning to cut downe a certaine tree to make therewith the mast of a ship that selfe tree by chance was turned vp by the roote vnder the which was found a mans
a part of the vvorlde where the dayes and nights equally endured sixe moneths a peece AN. This is the inconuenience that those which haue seene and reade these strange and wonderfull secrets may not make relation of them but in presence of those that are learned wise and of cleare vnderstanding so that these matters which we haue heere priuately discoursed are not to be rehearsed before other men the grosnes of whose ignorance would account vs more grosse and ignorant and inuenters of fables and nouelties neyther should it auaile vs to alleadge witnesses for they will say they knowe them not who nor whence they are yea though they be such Authors as neuer wrote with greater grauity and credite But seeing it is now so late and that we haue spent so great a part of the night me thinks it were not amisse if we retired our selues for this shall not be the last time God willing that we will meete together LV. This our communication hath been long though for my part I could haue been contented that it should haue lasted till to morrow morning and therefore Signior Anthonio afore we depart I will take your word that we shall to morrowe meete heere againe in the euening AN. Assure your selues Gentlemen that I will not faile for the profite heere of is mine LV. The pleasure you haue already done vs is not small neither shall that be lesse which we hope to receaue to morrow The end of the first Discourse The second Discourse contayning certaine properties and vertues of Springs Riuers and Lakes with some opinions touching terestriall Paradice and the foure Riuers that issue out from thence withall in what parts of the vvorld our Christian beleefe is professed Interlocutores LVDOVICO BERNARDO ANTHONIO LU. WHat thinke you Signior Bernardo had I not reason in commending Anthonio to be a man most accomplished in letters and ciuility and of a most sweete pleasing conuersation BER Truly I little thought him to be so sufficient in discourse as I perceaued yesterday that he is of which seeing I nowe begin to tast the sweetnes I should be exceedingly glad that it were our happe according to promise to meete together againe to day for our time cannot in my opinion be better employed then in his company who vnlesse I be deceaued goeth far beyond a great many which presume themselues to be great and learned Clarks LV. Beleeue me in this one thing which I will tell you it is sildome or neuer seene a foole to be curious folly and vertuous curiosity being two things directly repugnant contrary for wise men procure alwayes to extend their knowledge farther esteeming that which they already knowe and vnderstand to be little or nothing but fooles whose vnderstanding reacheth not to thinke that there is any farther knowledge to be had then that which they vnderstand and comprehend within the grosse compasse of their owne barraine capacity imagine that all wisedome knowledge maketh there an end so that bounding there their definitiue conclusion they argue and dispute without willing yeeld to any thing more then that whereto the dulnes of their sence reacheth whereas the vvise man for much that he knoweth thinketh alwaies that there is an other that knoweth more and neuer wedding him selfe to his owne fancy nor trusting his owne opinion and iudgement remitteth him selfe alwayes to those of more vnderstanding and this is the cause wherefore they erre so sildome whereas the other blockish dull heads neuer iudge a right in any thing because trusting opiniatiuely to their owne wit they neuer perswade them selues that they are deceaued whereby they remaine continually in error BER This which you haue sayd is so true that I must needes yeeld there-vnto vnlesse I would shew my selfe as ignorant and wilfull as those which you speake of but Lupus est in fabula for if I be not deceaued yonder commeth Signior Anthonio I should be glad that hee came vnaccombred with other matters to the ende we might haue his conuersation a while as yesterday we had LU. Though it were with deere price to be bought wee should not permit the contrary AN. A better encounter then this I could not haue wished in meeting you both together for being three I feared that we should not all haue met so conueniently LV. Neyther are we lesse glad of our good hap in meeting you in this place hoping that it shall please you to fauour vs in prosecuting that good conuersation with the which you left vs yesterday so engaged AN. You shall finde me ready wherein it shall please you to commaund me BER Lette vs then if you thinke good vvalke a while amongst these Vines the fragrant greenes and spreading of whose pleasant branches yeeld an ayre nothing inferiour in freshnes to that which yesterday refreshed vs by the Riuers side and a little beyond is a delicate Fountaine where being wearied with walking we may rest and repose our selues it is enuironed round about with greene trees whose shaddowe will serue to defend vs from the scorching of the sunne which also now beginneth to decline AN. Let vs goe whether it shall please you for in truth such is the sweete and delectable freshnes and verdure of these fields that it reuiueth a man that beholdeth them and it may serue for a motiue to lift vp our minds and to be thankfull vnto God which hath for our vse created them BER If our care were as great to consider of this as his is to blesse vs with his benefites wee should without ceasing prayse his Name and bee continuallie busied in the contemplation of his glorious workes but see here the Fountaine place most commodious for vs to repose in LVD Well let vs then sit downe together for thys very Fountaine wil yeeld vs sufficient matter of admiration whose water we see spring out so perfectly pure and cleere that it runneth as it vvere cheerfully smyling amongst the peble stones the which parting with his course the sands it leaueth bare and naked procuring with his christaline freshnes thirst to the beholders inuiting them as it were to drinke AN. God hath giuen to many things different force and qualitie so that few or none are without theyr particuler vertues if wee were able to attaine to the knowledge of them but chiefely hath he enriched the water ouer and aboue the generall vertue as beeing one of the 4. Elements concurring in the generation of all things created with sundry proper and particuler gifts vertues and operations the diuersities of which by experience we finde in Riuers Springs Fountaines Ponds Lakes and Floodes the cause whereof is though the water be all one proceed wholy from one beginning originall that the Sea passing through the veynes and concauities of the earth taketh and participateth the vertue nature and propertie of the same earth and minerals through which it passeth whereof it commeth that some Springs are hote some cold some bitter som sweet
Beleeue me the vertues of the water are no lesse then theyrs for as the herbes sucke and draw theyr propertie and vertue out of the earth which nourisheth and produceth them yeelding moisture and sustenaunce to their rootes so likewise the water draweth to it selfe the propertie of the earth minerals through which it passeth participating with thē of their vertues which beeing so deepe in earth are frō vs hidden vnknown But I know not whether the vertue of a Spring which Aristotle writeth to be in Sycilia in the Country of the Palisciens proceede of thys cause for the misterie which it contayneth is farre greater and so sayth Nicholaus Leonicus that it is a thing verie hardly credible for he affirmeth the propertie thereof to be such that who so taketh a solemne oath and the same oath be written in Tables and cast with certaine solemnities into the Fountaine If the oath contained therein be true the Tables remaine floating aloft vpon the water but if it be false they sink incontinently downe to the bottome And he which tooke the same is burned presently in the place and conuerted into ashes not without damage many times of those that were present They called this the holy Fountaine and appointed the charge and custody thereof to Priests which suffered no man to sweare vnlesse that hee first put in sureties that hee would content him selfe to passe by this triall LV. I rather thinke that Aristotle and those that wrote heereof were deceaued then otherwise because we heare not at this present that there is any such Fountaine knowne in Sicilia if there had beene in times past any of such force and vertue the memory thereof would be farre more rife and famous then it is BER Let vs neuer trouble our selues with the triall heereof for in this sort we may say the like of all those others which we haue not seen AN. The selfe same Nicolaus Leonicus writeth of another Fountaine in the Country of the Elyans nere to the Riuer Citheros into the which all the water that ranne there out degorged There stood by this Fountaine a sacred house the which they constantly affirmed to haue beene the habitation of foure Nimphs Caliphera Sinalasis Pegaea and Iasis All manner of diseased persons that bathed them selues in this Fountaine came there out whole and sound The like is written of two other Riuers the one in Italy called Alteno and the other called Alfeno in Arcadia But of no lesse wonder then all the before rehearsed is that which is vvritten of the Lake in Scithia in the Country of the Dyarbes neere to the Citty Teos the which besides the meruailous plenty of fish in which it aboundeth hath a property most admirable for in calme and warme weather there apeareth aboue the vvater great aboundance of a kind of liquor like vnto oyle which the inhabitants in Baotes made for the same purpose skimme off from the vvater and apply the same to their vses finding it to be as good and profitable as though it were very oyle in deede There is likewise in the Prouince of Lycia nere a Citty called Pataras a Fountaine the vvater that floweth from which looketh as though it were mingled with blood The cause whereof as the Country men say is through one Telephus who washing therein his wounds it hath euer since retained the colour of blood But the likeliest is that it passeth through some veine of red clay or coloured earth vvith the which mixing it selfe it commeth forth stained with that colour the Author hereof is Nicolaus Leonicus And Athenaeus Naucratites sayeth that in an Iland of the Cyclades called Tenaeus there is a Fountaine whose water will agree by no means to be mingled with vvine alwayes howsoeuer it be mingled or poured with vvine into any vessell it remaineth by it selfe a part so that it is to be taken vp as pure vnmedled as when it was poured forth yea though all possible diligence were vsed to ioyne and mingle them LV. There be a great many that would be glad that all water were of this condition by no means brooking the mixture therof with wine as a thing that keepes them somtimes sober against their wils AN. You say truth but leauing them with their fault which is none of the least but one of the greatest foulest that may be in any man pretending to beare honour or reputation I say there is in the Iland of Cuba according to the relation of many which haue seene the same a Fountaine which poureth forth a thick liquor like vnto Tarre which is of such force that they cauke and pitch their ships withall in such sort that they remaine as firme dight against the entry of water as though they were trimmed with the best sort of Pitch that we doe heere vse in these parts BER I haue heard say that there is in the same Iland a great Valley the stones that are found in which are all so round as if they had by Art euery one beene fashioned in the same forme LV. Perchaunce Nature hath so framed them for some effect of the which wee are ignorant seeing that few or none of her workes are without some secrete mistery and as well may these stones serue to some vse as the liquor of that Fountaine but let vs heerewith not trouble Signior Anthonio from prosecuting his discourse AN. Solinus discoursing of the Iland of Cerdonia saieth that it containeth many wholsome vvaters Springs amongst the rest one whose water healeth all infirmity of the eyes withall serueth for a discouery of theeues for whosoeuer by oath denieth the theft which he hath cōmitted in washing him selfe with that water loseth incontinent his fight if so be that his oath be true his eye siight is therby quickned made more sharp liuely but whosoeuer obstinately persisteth in denying his fault remaineth blind for euer But of this Fountaine there is now no notice at all for I haue beene long resident in that Iland during which time I neuer heard any such matter Many the like vnto these are written of by diuers Authors the which for their vncertainty I wil not weary my self in rehearsing only I wil tell you of a Lake which is in the Spanish Iland called S. Domingo in a mountaine very high vninhabited The Spaniards hauing conquered that Country found round about this mountaine no habitation of people through the cause of a hideous noise which was therein continually heard amazing making deafe the hearers therof the hiden cause secret mistery wherof no man being able to comprehend three Spaniards resolutly deliberated to goe vp into the height thereof to discouer if it were possible the occasion whence this continuall roaring proceeded so that prouiding them selues of all things necessary for the difficulty ragged sharpnes of the way being ful of craggy rocks shruby trees bushes
stopping their eares fast close with pelets of wax taking some few victuals with thē put themselues onward in their enterprize not without exceeding wearines trauel insomuch that the one fainting by the way was forced to bide behind The other two with chereful labor vertuous alacrity ouercōming all difficulties cam at last with much ado vnto the top of the mountain wher they found a great Plain without any trees in the midst a lake the water of which was obscure black as inke boiling bubling vp as though all the fire in the world had been flaming vnder it making a noise so terible thundring that though they had stopped their eares with all possible care diligence yet the intollerable roring noise thereof wrought such a humming and giddines in their heads that they were constrained with all possible hast to returne without bringing any certaine relation then this which you haue heard BE. Such a matter as this cannot be without great mistery for put case that there were vnderneath some mine of Sulphur or brimstone sufficient through the heat of the fiery matter therein to make the water seeth vp and boile yet could not the same cause a noyse so tempestuous horrible as you said the same is and besides me thinks this continuall boiling should in time consume the water and so the Lake by consequence become dry LU. Perchaunce there may be some Spring or Fountaine there neere which feedeth the Lake with as much warer as the fire consumeth by which meanes it can neuer be voyde or empty AN. Let vs leaue these secrets of Nature to him onely which hath made them for though we through some causes represented in our vnderstanding would seeke to yeeld reasons thereof yet when we thinke to hit the white we shall finde our selues far wide returning therefore to our former matter of Springs Waters me thinks it were not reason that speaking of things so farre off we should ouer-slip these which we haue heere at home in our owne Country hauing in this our Spaine two Fountaines whose effects are not a little to be admired at the one of which is in a Caue called de la Iudia by the Bridge of Talayuelas neere the Castle of Garcimunios which though I my selfe haue not seene yet I haue been thereof so certified that I assuredly know it to be true It yeeldeth a vvater which in falling congealeth and becommeth hard in manner of a stone which hardnes it alwayes after retaineth without dissoluing in such sort that they apply it to theyr buildinges BER It were neede of great Philosophy to know the mistery of this that vvater should in such sort harden that it should neuer afterwards dissolue the contrary reason whereof we see in great heapes of Ice which how hard so cuer they be yet change of weather maketh them to dissolue and melt LV. This is because the heat vndoeth that which is done by the cold as in snow haile ice which seeing it worketh not the like effect in these stones we may thereby gather that not the cold but som other secret to vs hidden vnknown is the cause of this obduration hardnes I haue heard with great credite affirmed that there is also neere the towne called Uilla Nueua del obyspo a Fountaine in which during sixe moneths of the yeare from such time as the sunne entreth into the signe of Lybra which beginneth about the midst of September called the Equinoctiall of the Autumne till the middest of March there is no one drop of water and all the other halfe yeare there runneth a most cleere abundant streame and thys is euery yere ordinary Of thys Fountaine maketh mention also Lucius Marineus Siculus Sinforianus Campegius wryteth of another in Sauoy which breedeth by miraculous operation stones of exceeding vertue BER If this be true then am I deceaued for I neuer thought that stones could be bred but that they were as the bones of the earth alwayes of one bignes neyther decreasing nor increasing for otherwise if stones should grow in time they would come to be of such quantitie and greatnes that they would be in diuer parts very combersome AN. And doubt you of this Assure your selfe that stones waxe and diminish according to the qualitie of which they are the place where they are and the property nature and condition of the earth where they are founde Though those which wee here call peble stones remaine alwayes in one greatnes or els grow so little and so slowly that it can in many yeeres hardly be perceaued yet all those stones which are any thing sandie contracting drawing the earth about them conuert the same into theyr owne nature hardning it in such sort that in short space a little stone becōmeth to be exceeding great yea and in such sort that sometimes we see things of different nature and kinde enclosed shut vp within them still retaining their owne substance and essence which if you desire better to vnderstand behold but the stone in the Earle Don Alonsos garden which hee hath caused to be placed there as a thing meruailous to be viewed of al men which though it be hard and sound hath in the midst therof a great bone seeming to be the shinbone of some beast which the same stone embraced by all likelihood lying neere it on the ground and continually growing came at last to compasse it rounde about which beeing afterwards carued by a Mason was found lying in the very bosome midst therof and that thys should be a very perfect bone there is no doubt to be made thereof for I my selfe haue made most sufficient proofe and try all of the same BER I haue also viewed it very narrowly and am of your opinion AN. Turning to our discourse of Fountaines I am perswaded that there are many of rare and great vertues vtterly to vs vnknowne and sometimes it hapneth that the vertue of the water worketh through the ayde of some other thing ioyntly together matters verie admirable as that which Alexander writeth in his booke De diebus genialibus that in those partes of England vvhich bende toward the West when any shyps are broken and the ribbes or planches of them remaine a while in the water that with the continuall moystnes they engender bring forth certaine Puscles like Mushromps which within fevve dayes seeme to be aliue and to haue motion and by little and little grow gather feathers That part wherewith they are fast to the rotten tymber is like vnto a water-foules bill which comming lose of it selfe thys miraculous foule beginneth to heaue it selfe vp and by little and little in short space of time to flie and mount into the ayre Pope Pius whose name was Aeneas Siluius rehearseth this in another sort saying that in Scotland vpon the bankes of a Riuer there growe certaine Trees whose leaues falling into the water and putrifying
and debating a matter so pleasant and delectable though it were to no other end then to moue vs to seeke and aspire vnto that heauenly Paradice which this terestriall representeth vnto vs. AN. Well then seeing it so pleaseth you I will recite the opinions of such as vnderstand it better than I doe and you may thereof iudge that which seemeth most agreeing to our Catholique faith and to reason I will with the greatest breuity I may make you pertaker of that which I remember Many Diuines especially those which haue written vpon Genesis haue discoursed vpon this matter of earthly Paradice amongst whose opinions though there be some diuersity yet they shoote all at one marke though in the meane time it be some confusion to those which curiously procure to sift out the truth thereof But seeing their opinions are all Christianlike and of good zeale I account it no error in following eyther of them But leauing a while the Christians and Diuines let vs first see what was the old Philosophers opinion though it were at blindfold concerning Paradise and the place on earth where they thought it to be If wee take this name of Paradice generally it signifieth a place of delight and so sayeth Saint Hierome in his Translation that Heden in the Hebrew Text signifieth delight according to the 70. Interpreters which hauing said that God planted Paradice in the place of Heden turne presently to declare the same calling it a Garden of delight of these delightful places there are many in the worlde for their exceeding beauty and pleasantnes called by this name and so Casaneus alleadging Philippus Bergamensis the one very late the other not very auncient sayeth that there is one in the Oryent towards the side of Zephyrus and this hee thinketh to be the same of which we now speake another in the Aequinoctiall betweene the winds Eurus Euronotus the third betweene the tropick of Cancer and the circle of the South pole a fourth in the Orient on the other side of the Aequinoctiall where the Sunne scorcheth with so vehement heate a fifth at the Southerne pole of which he sayth that Solinus also maketh mention and as I take it it is in his discourse of those that dwell on the other side of the Hyperbores The sixth he placeth in the Occident and withall he alleadgeth that the Senate of Rome had made a decree that none should be chosen high Pontif vnlesse he were in the Garden of delights in the prouince of Italy But me reemeth that Casaneus Philippus reckoning vp such places as these are calling them paradices and taking the word so largely might haue found a great many more For Salomon also sayeth he maketh Gardens and paradices and planteth in them fruitfull trees And Procopius writeth of a paradice in a certaine part of Affrica whose wordes are these There was saith he builded a royall pallace by a King of the Vandales in the most delightfull paradice of all those that euer I haue seene for there were many delicious Fountaines of which it was bedewed and watered and the vvoods round about were continually most fragrant greene flourishing These paradices are vnderstood as I haue said to be all the purest pleasantest places of the earth refreshed with sweet gales temperate wholesome ayres though perchance also such as haue written of them haue added somwhat to the truth and as for those of which Phillip of Bergamo speaketh they are described in places so far distant from vs that it is almost vnpossible to know the truth The Gentiles likewise according to their fals sects opinions fained the Elisian fields to be paradice whether they imagined the soules of those that liued well to be transported after their death Which some dreamed to be in the prouince of Andaluzia in this our Spain because it is a plat most pleasant delectable Others held opinion that they were not any where else then in an Iland called Phrodisia consecrated to Venus neere vnto Thule which was the most delicious and comfortable place that might be found in the whole world which sodainly sinking into the Sea vanished was seen no more But the commonest opinion was that the Elisian fields were those which we now call the fortunate Ilands the enhabitants of which are saide to liue so long that they are held to be as it were immortall Plato in his fourth book called Phedon writeth that there is a place on the earth so high aboue the clouds that they cannot raine vpō the same neither though it be neere the region of the fire feeleth it any immoderate heate but that there is alwaies a temperature of aire most pure perfect in such sort that many are of opinion that al things grow there in greater fertility abundance then in any other part of the earth and that the men are of purer complexion longer life then we whose bodies are such that many think them to be formed the greater part of fire aire as for water and earth they participate thereof very little neither feed they of such fruits victuals as we doe heere but differ far from vs in customs alwaies enioy a perfect freshnes of youth These words rehearseth Caelius Rodiginus which were saith he of a man that went serching out the certaine knowledge of our faith who was not far of frō being a Christian if there had been any man to haue instructed him wherin he was found to say so of him I know not for Plato spake wrote many other things wherein he deserued the name of Diuine out of which greater argument may be taken then out of these words to iudge as he doth of him That agreeth very well with this of Plato which Lactantius Firmianus writeth in verse in a little Treatise of the Phaenix discoursing of that Country whether after shee hath burned her selfe in Arabia and turned to reuiue againe of a vvorme engendered in her owne ashes she taketh her flight to passe her life till such time as of necessity she must returne to renue her selfe againe His very words are these There is saith he in the farthest part of the East a blessed place where the high gate of the eternall pole is open it is neyther anoyed with the heate of the Sunne nor the colde of the Winter but there whence the Sunne sendeth discouereth to vs the day there are neyther high mountaines nor low Valleyes the fields are all flat in a great and pleasant Plaine which notwithstanding the euen leuell thereof is ten fadoms higher then the highest mountaine of ours There is a flourishing vvood adorned with many beautifull trees whose braunches and leaues enioy perpetuall greenes and at such time as through the ill guiding of the chariot and horses of the Sunne by Phaeton the whole world burned this place was vntouched of the flame and when Deucalions flood ouerwholmed the whole
world this remained free for the waters were not able to ouercome the height thereof There is neyther languishing disease painefull old age nor consuming death No feare no greefe no coueting of riches no battailing no raging desire of death or vengeance bereaueth their repose Sorrowfull teares cruell necessities and carefull thoughts haue there no harbour No frozen dewe toucheth their earth no misty cloude couereth their fieldes neyther doe the heauens poure into them anie troubled waters onely in the midst thereof they haue a Fountaine which they call Uiba cleare pure aboundant of sweet vvaters which once a moneth moystneth the whole vvood The trees therein are of a meruailous height hang alwaies full of fruit in this delicious Paradice liueth the Phaenix the onely one bird of that kinde in the world c. BER Lactantius praiseth this Country very largely neither agreeth his opinion ill with Platos But he speaketh heere like a Philosopher and not like a Christian though perchaunce if hee had beene asked his opinion like a Christian in what part of the world he thought terestriall Paradice to be hee would haue described it in like sort But leauing these Philosophers Paradices seeming rather to be fictions then worthy of credite tell vs I pray you what the Doctors and Diuines say heerevnto whose diligence study and care hath beene greater in procuring to vnderstand write the veritie thereof AN. I will in few words tell you what some of them and those of the greatest authority haue written on thys matter S. Iohn Damascene in his second booke chap. 2. saith these words God being to make Man to his owne image likenes and to appoint him as King and ruler of the whole earth and all therin contained ordained him a sumptuous royall being place in the which he might leade a blessed happy glorious life and this is that diuine Paradise planted by his owne omnipotent hands in Heden a place of all pleasure and delight for Heden signifieth a delightfull place and hee placed him in the Oryent in the highest and most magnificent place of all the earth where there is a perfect temprature a pure and a delicate ayre and the plants continually greene fragrant it is alwayes replenished with sweet and odoriferous sauours a light most cleere and a beauty aboue mans vnderstanding a place truly onely fitte to be inhabited of him that was created to the image likenes of God himselfe LVD S. Iohn differeth not much in the situation and qualities hereof from the opinion of the others before alleadged but passe on I pray you with your discourse AN. Well be then attentife a while Venerable Bede handling this matter sayth Earthly Paradise is a place most delightfull beautified with a great abundance of fruitfull trees refreshed with a goodly fountaine The situation thereof is in the oryentall parts the ground of which is so high that the water of the flood could not ouer-reach the same and thys opinion holdeth Strabo the Theologian affirming that the height of the earth where Paradise is reacheth to the circle of the Moone through which cause it was not damnified by the flood the waters of which could not rise to the height thereof Those which follow this opinion might better conforme themselues with Origen who iudgeth that all this which is written of Paradise must bee taken allegorically and that it is not situate on the earth but in the third heauen whether S. Paule was lyfted in Spirit but leauing him because hee is alone in his opinion without hauing any that followeth him let vs returne to our alleaged Authors against whō S. Thomas and Scotus argue saying that Paradise can by no meanes reach vnto the circle of the Moone because the Region of the fire beeing in the midst the earth can by no meanes passe thorough the same without being burnt destroyed Besides this there are many other reasons sufficient to refute this opinion for so shold those Riuers which come from Paradise passe through the region of the fire which the contrariety of the two Elements being considered is absurd and besides if this ground vvere so high it could not chuse but be seene a farre of from manie parts of the world aswell by sea as by land and by this means also there should be a place in the worlde by the vvhich it seemes a man might goe vp into heauen so that this opinion is grounded vpon small reason and easie to be confuted Many other Authors there are which affirme Paradise to be in so high a part of the earth that the water of the Deluge could not reach vnto the top thereof to anoy it and to the obiection which may be made against them out of Moises which sayth that the waters thereof couered and ouerflowed the height of xv cubits all Mountaines vnder the vniuersall heauen they aunswer that these Mountaines are to be vnderstood such as are vnder the region of the Ayre where the clowdes are thickned and ingendered for Heauen is meant many times in the holy Scripture by this region as the royall Psalmist saith The foules of heauen the fishes of the Sea Where by this word heauen is vnderstoode the region of the ayre thorough which the birds flie so that according to their opinion the mount or place where Paradise is exceedeth is aboue this region of the ayre where there is neither blustering of winds nor gathering of cloudes so that it could not be endomaged by the waters of the flood This is the selfe same of which we discoursed yesterday as touching the mountains Olympus Athos Atlas that of Luna which in height according to the opinion of many exceedeth all the rest on the earth and many other like mountaines in the world ouer whose tops there is neither raine wind nor clowdes the ashes lying from one yere to another vnmooued because that the height of their tops exceedeth the midle region of the ayre pierceth thither where it is still pure without any mouing But S. Thomas also argueth this not to be tru saying that it is no conuenient place for Paradise to stand in the midst of the region of the ayre neither could it beeing there haue such qualities conditions as are necessary because the winds and waters would distemper it LU. This shold be so if it were in the midst of the region but you your selfe say that it passeth farder where the winds waters haue no force to worke any distemprature AN. If not the winds waters thē the fire wold work it for the farder it shooteth beyond the region of the ayre the neerer it approcheth the region of the fire BE. You speak against you self for yesterday you said that the city Acroton builded on the top of the mountain Athos being in the superior region of the ayre enioyed a singuler temperature AN. You say tru but things are not to be
confound not with theyr intricate and obscure contrarieties it is best therefore that we referre our selues to the Church following for Pylots in this matter the holy Doctors who cleerelie expresse the pure truth hereof and so shall we attaine to the vnderstanding of that which we pretend BER You say well but first declare vnto vs whether Lucifer those other Angels that offended with him in ambition and pryde fell altogether into hell or no AN. They fell not altogether into the very Abysme of Hell though they all fell into the truest hell which is Punishment Those which remained in the places betweene was because they had not offended with so determinate an obstination and vehemence as the others had and they remained also there because it was necessary conuenient for our merite that we should haue Spirits for our enemies in such place where they might vexe vs with theyr temptations For which cause God permitted a great part of them to remaine in the ayre the earth and the water vvhere they shall continue till the day of iudgement and then they shall be all damned into the very dungeon of Hell so that we haue with them a continuall warre who though they be in the places which I haue said yet are they not out of Hell in respect of torment for theyr paine is all alike All this is out of S. Thomas in the first part Quest. 64. Ar. 4. The difference of the degrees of Spirits is rehearsed by Gaudencius Merula taking the same out of Pselius who maketh 6. kinds of Spirits betweene Heauen Hell The first who are those that remained in the highest region of the Ayre hee calleth Angels of fire because they are neere vnto that Region and perchance within it The second kinde saith hee is from the middle region of the Ayre downeward towardes the Earth The third on the earth it selfe The fourth in the waters The fift in the Caues and hollow vautes of the earth The sixt in the very dungeon and Abysme of Hell LU. In such sort that they are as it were enter-linked one with another but tell mee haue all these Spirits one selfe dutie and office AN. No if we will beleeue Gaudencius Merula but manie and those of diuers sorts For the cheefest greefe and paine of the first which vvere those that had least offended seeing themselues so neere Heauen is the contemplation that through theyr wickednes they haue lost so great a Beatitude though this be generall to them all and these are nothing so harmfull as the others are For those which are in the middle of the region of the Ayre and those that are vnder them neerer the earth are those which sometimes out of the ordinary operation of Nature doe mooue the windes with greater fury then they are accustomed doe out of season congele the clowes causing it to thunder lighten haile and to destroy the grasse Corne Vines and fruites of the earth and these are they whose helpe the Negromancers do often vse in their deuilish operations Amongst other things which are written in the Booke called Mallcus Maleficarum you shall finde that the Commissioners hauing apprehended certaine Sorceresses willed one of them to shew what she could doe assuring her life on condition that from thence forward shee should no more offend in the like Wherupon going out into the fields in presence of the Commissioners many other besides she made a pitte in the ground with her hands making her vvater into the same which being done she stirred about the vrine with one of her fingers out of the which by little little after shee had made certaine Characters and mumbled a few wordes there arose a vapour which ascending vpwarde like a smoake began to thicken of it selfe in the midst of the region of the ayre gathering and making there a blacke fearfull Clowde which cast out so many thunders lightnings that it seemed to be a thing hellish and infernall the vvoman remaining all thys while still asked at last the Commissioners where they woulde haue that clowde to discharge a great quantitie of stones they poynting her to a certaine place where it could doe no hurt at all the clowde of a suddaine began to moue it selfe with a great furious blustering of winds and in short space comming ouer the place appointed dyscharged a great number of stones like a violent shower directly within the compasse thereof And in this sort may the Witches and Negromancers worke many such like thinges through the help of those Spirits as we wil hereafter declare But turning to the third kind of Spirits beeing on the earth whose principall office function is to persecute men and to tempt and allure them to sinne and thereby to worke theyr damnation enuying that those glorious places which they once enioyed in heauen should bee possessed replenished with men These vex vs these trouble vs these deceiue vs and entise vs to all those wicked offences which we cōmit against the maiestie of him who made created vs of nothing these lie in waight day and night to entrap vs sleeping and waking they allure vs to euill thoughts and naughty works tempting our soules perswading vs to run the way of perdition the which because they are Spirits they may very well do in vexing and tempting our Spirit yea and many times so that wee are not not able to perceaue it And though Gaudencius Pselius attribute to sundry kindes of Spirits sundry functions in perticuler yet in generall each of thē can indifferently vse them though they be of another kinde For in dooing euill they agree all in one malice and most earnest desire to worke our damnation by all meanes possibly they may BER Is that true which they say that there is no man but hath at his right hand a good Angell and at his left hand a bad AN. Doubt not of this for as God for our good and benefit hath ordeyned to each one of vs a good Angel to accompanie vs whom we call our Angel of gard who as by the holy church we are taught keepeth defendeth vs frō many dangerous temptations by which the deuil procureth to work our damnation so also haue we at our left hand an ill Spirit which stil is solliciting perswading and alluring vs to sin and offend by all meanes possibly he may And the Gentiles though they were not so illuminated as we are yet did they in part acknow ledge this calling the good Angell Genium Hominis though this of the euill Angell I haue not found approoued by ame Author onely that it is an opinion which the common people holdeth and is generally allowed and besides the readines of them at hande to procure vs to sin is confirmed by the holy Scripture in sundry places BER What power hath God giuen vnto these good and bad Angels which wee carry daily in our company AN. That
feele anguish and payne And if you be desirous to see many particularities and the seuerall opinions of diuers learned Authors read Caelius Rodiginus in his second Booke De Antiquis Lectionibus where hee discourseth copiously thereof But now for not digressing frō the principall let vs come to that which they call Phantasma the vvhich hath his beginning in the fantasie which is a vertue in Man called by an other name Imaginatiue and because thys vertue beeing mooued worketh in such sort that it causeth in it selfe the thinges feigned and imagined to seem present though in truth they are not Wee say also that the thinges which vanish away so soone as we haue seene them are fantasies seeming to vs that wee deceaue our selues and that we sawe them not but that they were onely represented in our fansie But thys is in such sort that sometimes we trulie see them indeed and other times our imagination fansie so present them to our view that they deceaue vs and wee vnderstand not whether they were things seene or imagined and therefore as I thinke comes it that wee call the thinges which we really see Visions and others which are fantasticated and represented in the fantasie Fancies vvhether of which this was that hapned in Fuentes de Ropell I know not but sure I am that it was as true as strange neither is the place so farre distant beeing onely two miles hence but that you may by infinite witnesses be thorowly resolued of the veritie thereof There lyued about 30. yeeres since a Gentleman of good account called Anthonio Costilla who of the vvhich I my selfe can giue good witnesse was one of the valiantest hardiest men of all the Country for I haue beene present at some broyles byckerings of his in which I haue seen him acquite himselfe with incredible courage and valour Insomuch that beeing somewhat haughtie and suffering no man to ouercrowe him he had many enemies thereabouts which caused him wheresoeuer he went to goe alwayes well prouided so that one day riding from his owne house to a place called Uilla Nueua hauing vnder him a good Ginet and a strong Launce in his hand when he had doone his businesse the night cōming on and the same very darke he lept a horse back and put himselfe on his way homeward comming to the end of the Village where stoode a Chappell in the forepart or portall of which there was a lettice window within the same a Lampe burning thinking that it shoulde not be wel done to passe any further without saying his prayers hee drewe neere vnto the same saying his deuotions a horseback where whiles hee so remained looking into the Chappell hee savve three visions like Ghostes issue out of the middest thereof seeming to come out from vnder the ground to touch the height of the roufe with their heads As he had beheld them awhile the haire of his head began to stand an end so that being somewhat affrighted he turned his horse bridle and rode away but he had no sooner lyfted vp his eyes when hee sawe the three visions going together a little space before him seeming as it were to beare him company so that commending himselfe to God blessing him selfe many times he turned his horse spurring him from one side to another but wheresoeuer hee turned they were alwaies before his eyes vvhereupon seeing that he coulde not be rid of them putting spurres to his horse he ranne at them as hard as he could with his Launce but it seemed that the visions went and mooued themselues according to the same compasse wherein hee guided his horse for if he went they went if he ranne they ranne if he stood still they stood still alwaies keeping one euen distance from him so that hee was perforce constrained to haue them in his company till hee came to his owne house before which there was a great court or yard opening the gate of which after hee was lighted of his horse as he entred he found the same visions before him and in this manner came hee to the doore of a lodging where his wife was at which knocking and beeing let in the visions vanished away but hee remained so dismayed and changed in his colour that his wife thinking hee had receaued some wounde or mishap by his enemies often asked him the cause of this his deadly countenaunce alteration and seeing that he would not reueale the same vnto her she sent for a friende of his that dwelt thereby a man of good qualitie and of singuler learning and integritie of life who presently comming and finding him in that perplexity importuned him vvith such instance that at last he recounted vnto him the particularity of each thing that had hapned He being a very discrete man making no exterior shewe of vvonder or amazement bad him be of good courage and shake off that dismaiment with many other comfortable perswasions causing him to goe to supper and from thence brought him to his bedde in which leauing him layd with light burning by him he vvent forth because he would haue him take his rest and sleep but hee was scarcely gone out of his chamber when Anthonio Costilla began with a loud skrietch to cry out for help wherevpon he with the rest entring into the chamber and demaunding the cause of this outcry he told them that hee was no sooner left alone but that the three visions came to him againe and made him blind with throwing dust vpon his eyes which they had scraped out of the ground which in trueth thed found it to be so from that time forward therefore they neuer left him vnaccompanied but all profited nothing for the seauenth day without hauing had Ague or any other accident he departed out of this world LV. If there were present heere any Phisition hee would not leaue to affirme and maintaine that this proceeded of some melancholly humor ruling in him with such force that he seemed really to behold that which was represented in his fantasie BER The same also may wel be for many times it seemeth that we see things which in deed we doe not being deceaued through the force of our imagination and perchance this of those visions may be the like who being once represented in the imagination of fancie had force to work those effects and the humor which caused the same encreasing through amazement and feare might at last procure death yet for all this I will not leaue to beleeue but that these visions were some Spirits who taking those bodies of ayre earth water or fire or mingling for that effect any of those Elements together came to put so great amazement in this man that the same was cause of his death AN. In all things which by certaine knowledge cannot be throughly approoued there neuer want diuers and contrary opinions so that in this diuersity of iudgements I would rather impute it to the worke of Spirits then to any
the conquest of India who desiring to make triall of theyr fiercenes caused wilde Bores and Beares to be brought forth and to be thrust into an inclosed yarde where one of these dogs was turned loose who neuer stirred at sight of them but laying himselfe downe on the grounde let them passe by quietly so that Alexander thinking him to be but a fearefull and cowardly curre caused him presently to be killed which being vnderstood of those that had the charge to present them they came vnto Alexander telling him that the dog disdained so base a conquest as that of those beasts presented before him for proofe wherof they desired that some fiercer beast might be brought before the other which remained whereupon Alexander commaunded that a Lyon of exceeding cruelty shoulde be thrust in to him which presently without any difficulty hee slew then bringing him an Elephant he leapt and skipt wagging his taile making the greatest ioy that might be set so fiercely vpon him that at the first hee puld him ouer and ouer and vvould haue kild him but that they tooke him presently away King Lysimachus had also a dogge which seeing the fire wherin his dead daughter was to be burned according to the custome of that time after hauing accompanied the dead corps to the place where it was to be burnt and seeing it throwne thereinto cast himselfe also presently headlong into the midst therof refusing lothing and despising life after the death of his Mistresse Neither is that lesse wonderfull which hapned in Rome in the Consulship of Appius Iunius and Publiê° Silus to a gentleman condemned to death for a greeuous crime by him committed after whose execution a dog which hee had nourished young and that had borne him alwaies companie in his imprisonment seeing his deade bodie carried along the streete followed after with so pittifull cries and howlings that he mooued all those which heard him to compassion some of theÌ„ giuing him to eate thinking therby to appease him he tooke the bread and offred the same to his dead Maisters mouth perswading him as it were to eate therof and lastly the body beeing according to the sentence of condemnation cast into the Riuer of Tyber the dog plunged himselfe into the water and putting himselfe vnder the body heaued it vp and brought it to the shoare not without exceeding wonder and admiration of all the beholders But leauing apart these old matters what shall wee thinke of that dogge called the little Lyon which passed ouer with a Souldiour when Colona began his discouery of the Occidentall Indies who in theyr battailes accustomed to fight vvith such incredible fiercenes that the Indians confessed theyr feare to be greater of the dogge then of twentie Christians together and which is more if any Indian prisoner were broken loose and runne away in telling the dogge thereof hee vnderstood presently theyr meaning and followed after him as fast as he could by the track neuer leauing till he had found him out and which is strangest of all he knewe him amongst a thousand other Indians going directly to him would take him by the bosom bring him along if he resisted not without hurting him at all but if he striued to defend himselfe do the other Indians what they could he neuer left till he had torne him in peeces but commonly hee found small resistance for they were generally so terrified at his sight that happy vvas he that had the best heeles BER Truly mee thinkes these thinges are such that they could neuer be done without vnderstanding for confirmation whereof wee need not goe so farre to seeke examples hauing had in this our towne one so notably strange as that of the Earle Don Alonsos dog called Melchorico which dyd many things almost vnpossible to be done of any vnreasonable creature and scarcely credible but that there are so many witnesses of them so that the Earle tooke such exceeding pleasure in him that hee would neuer suffer him to be out of his sight giuing on his deathbed commaundement that the dogge should bee well kept and nourished bequeathing to that effect a yeerely pension but the dogge missing the Earle after his death began to droupe in so strange and mourneful a sort as though nothing had wanted to expresse his extreame griefe but only speech for the space of 3. dayes would neuer receaue any sustenaunce at all till at last those of the house taking pittie of the silly dog endeuoured by deceauing him if it were possible to preserue his life There was in the house a Iester which counterfeited the Earle so in his speech and gesture and resembled him so neere in fauour that beeing attired in his apparrell hee seemed in a manner to be the Earle indeed Vpon whose backe they put on a sute of apparrell which the Earle had been accustomed to weare causing him therewith to enter into the Chamber and to call the dogge by his name and to whisle and cheere him vp as the Earle was wont to doe The dogge beeing at the first sight deceaued presentlie sprang vp leaping and fawning on him making the greatest ioy that hee possibly might and fell incontinent to his meate but within awhile perceiuing the deceite he returned to his former drouping refusing vtterly to eate and continuing so a few dayes at last died LU. This is a matter verie large that yeeldeth manie arguments to perswade vs that there is also in other beasts some sparke of reason vnderstanding for what coÌ„mon wealth of the world can be better gouerned then that of the Bees hauing one onely King their soueraigne and superior whom they obey folow how strange is it to see the order agreement they hold in gathering their hony bringing it to their hiues And as Plinie writeth there are some amongst them who serue onely for discouerers or skouts guiding the rest to those parts that are commodious for the gathering of their hony Besides what artifice can be greater theÌ„ that which they vse in building their combs or little lodgings wherein they lay their hony which when the cold winter commeth when the flowers are faded gone serueth to them for for sustenance The selfe same do the Emets laying vp while the somer endureth in their caues storehouses prouision for the winter which being for the most part corne seeds they knip bite the graines in sunder least otherwise through the moistnes of the earth they might come to sprout and shoote forth Neither is their art with which they stop dresse their Cabbins lesse exquisite defending themselues thereby from the wind water infinit other things are written of them of which we may take example yea be ashamed that we cannot so wel gouerne order our selues as do those feeble and silly beastes Let vs also marke the diligent vigilance of the Cranes which for their security by night while they sleepe
leaue by turne one alwaies waking as their Sentinel or watchman the which to auoyde sleeping standeth vpon one foote only lifting vp the other holding therin a stone the fall of which awaketh her if she should chance to sleep so that surely in my iudgement this warie and prouident carefulnesse of theirs to preserue themselues from such dangers as might otherwise at vnawares fal vpon them while they sleepe can by no meanes be without some vse of reason or vnderstanding AN. I confesse that all these things alleadged in your replycation are true but not that they do them with vnderstanding election of good from euil or of that which is hurtfull and noisom from that which is wholsom profitable as for reason it is more then manifest that they haue thereof no vse at al for only man is a creature resonable neither can that of theirs by any means be called vnderstanding though they seeme in these operations which you haue said to haue vse thereof for vnderstanding is so conioyned vnited with reason that the one cannot be without the other Nothing I say can vnderstand but that which hath the vse of reason nor any thing haue reason but that which vnderstandeth This therefore in those beasts which seemeth to be reason vnderstanding is a liuely instinct with which nature hath created them more theÌ„ others that are more brutish haue the power of phantasie more grosse dark which is the vertue that worketh in them with that imaginatioÌ„ by the which they are guided to put the same in effect and this proceedeth as saith Albertê° Magnê° in his eyght chapter De animalibus not that the wilines sagacity and craft of brute beastes is more in one then in another because they haue reason or vnderstanding in those thinges which they do but because their complexion is purer better and theyr sences of more perfection and because also the Caelestiall bodies haue better influence into them through which theyr appetite is better guided by instinct and Nature So that we may heereupon inferre that all theyr workes are done by onely appetite fancie and the vertue imaginatiue which mooueth them so that seeing all this is doone without reason or vnderstanding or purpose or intention directed to any ende it cannot bee saide that this definiton of Fortune is competent or appliable to brute beastes Though many other reasons and arguments might be alleaged about this matter yet this that is already sayd shall suffise seeing we pretende no farder then to knowe the difference betweene Chaunce and Fortune the rest we will leaue to be debated of by the Phylosophers LVD I throughly vnderstand all that which you haue sayd and the Phylosophers opinion also concerning the same but I see that that these words are dailie vsed farre wide from theyr definition and opinion for in naming Fortune we neuer marke whether the thing be done with any purpose or to any end but rather the contrary for we vse this worde so generally attributing thereunto all accidents whatsoeuer that we make no difference of one from an other and therefore Tully in his Offices Great sayth hee is the sway of Fortune in prosperity in aduersitie who knoweth not her force Whiles wee enioy her fauourable prosperous winde wee attaine vnto the fruition of our desires when otherwise we are afflicted and full of miseries so that he maketh no difference what is an accidentall cause vvhat is not neyther bindeth he her to things onely done contrarie to the purpose and pretended ende as for example when a Prince with a little Army presenteth battel to another whose Army and force is farre in number more puissant it is manifest that his meaning is to doe the best he can and his intention firme to obtayne victory otherwise he would neuer put himselfe in so apparant a danger which if hee according to his hope obtayne nothing hapneth therein vnto him contrarie to the purpose and meaning which he had but hee attayneth the end for which hee hazarded the battaile yet for all this we let not to say that hee had good fortune to ouercome so mighty an Army with so slender forces if one should goe to Rome with purpose to be made a Bishoppe beeing of so small merrite that there were no reason at all why hee should hope to obtaine so great a dignity yet in comming to be one we may well say that Fortune was fauourable vnto him therin and so when Iulius Caesar in his warres against Pompey being in Durazo where he attended a supply of Souldiours without the which his party was not strong enough to encounter with Pompey seeing that they came not without trusting any man else determined himselfe in person disguised and vnknowne to goe fetch them according to which resolution putting himselfe into a Fisher-mans boate thrust off from the shore and began to passe the straight but the water being rough and the tempest violent his Pilot the poore Fisher-man feared drowning would faine haue turned back againe and was therein very obstinate which Caesar by no meanes permitting him to doe after many perswasions and threatnings seeing him still perseuer in his feare at last be of good courage man quoth he and passe on without feare for thou carriest with thee the good Fortune of Caesar. It is manifest that his chiefe purpose and meaning in this ciuill warre was as the sequel shewed to obtaine alone the Empire which he afterwards did and yet in common course of speech wee let not to say that his good Fortune aduaunced him to that estate What shall we say of Caesar Augustus who from that very instant that Iulius Caesar was slaine had presently a meaning to succeed him in the Empire employing al his thought care and imagination about the compassing thereof and at last obtayned it indeede according to his pretence from the first without any contrary accident vnexpected Lucke or sodaine Chaunce and yet for all that neither was he forgetfull to giue thankes vnto Fortune neither erre we in calling him Fortunate for they were wont to say in an old Prouerb that there was neuer any Emperour more vertuous then Traiane nor more Fortunate then Octauian which was the same Augustus Caesar of whom we speake And now daily wee see this name of Fortune so commonly vsed that in a manner the rule and signeury of all worldly thinges seemeth to be attributed vnto her as though it were in her power to guide direct them at her pleasure and so saith Salust that Fortune dominateth ouer all thinges and Ouid that Fortune giueth and taketh away whatsoeuer pleaseth her and Virgil attributeth vnto her authority ouer all humaine matters bee they wrought by accidentall causes or fall they out aunswerable to our desire according to that which we procure and seeke AN. That which Aristotle saith is in true Philosophy which though we vnderstand yet we apply not well for Fortune is not
contagion of these inferior bodyes and therfore the Philosophers party is not so freely generally to be maintained without exception of some particularities for if we will looke downe vnto the herbes we shal find that the Hemlock a kinde of weede yeelded to our elders a iuyce with the which they executed their sentence of death constraining those whom they condemned to die to drinke thereof as Plato writeth in his Phaedon The iuyce also of the Mandragora is knowne to be mortiferous and deadlie to those that drinke thereof AN. Passe on no farther in this matter for I confesse it to be as you say yet Hemlocke was not created by God neither doth the influence of the constellations worke in it any effect but for our profit commoditie for if you read Dioscorides you shal there find that there is nothing of greater efficacie to heale Saint Anthonies fire it asswageth the raging of the Milke in women newly deliuered and Plinie sayth that it preserueth the teates from swelling Cornelius Celsus affirmeth that it healeth watry eyes and stauncheth the bleeding at the nose and Galene sayth that the grayne thereof is the naturall foode of many Byrdes namelie Stares Neither is the Mandragora lesse profitable and wholsome for the roote thereof moystned and tempered with Vineger healeth the woundes made by Serpents dissolueth the Kings euill and cureth the disease called the Wolfe asswageth the paine of the Goute causeth the flowers of women to come downe and taketh spots out of the face All this saith Auicenne thereof in his seconde Booke Tryacle Escamonia Turbit Agarico and other Medicines made of herbes wee notoriously know to contayne poyson in them and yet wee see by daily experience how wholsome their operations are to those that are sicke and the like is in all other herbes vvhich are venomous of which there is not any one to be found that wanteth peculiar vertue or that is not one way or other helping and profitable Neither is there lesse vertue to be found in lyuing things which are commonly held to be venomous as for example though the Snake be not without poyson yet her skinne which she casteth as sayth Dyoscorides being sod in Wine and some drops thereof let fall into the eare diseased helpeth the paine thereof and the same Wine beeing taken and held in ones mouth cureth the tooth-ache and the flesh thereof being made into a certaine preparatife eaten healeth the Leprosie The Viper is most venemous and full of poyson yet are they no small vertues and commodities which she yeeldeth for as Pliny sayth in his 29. booke the ashes of her skinne beeing burned is the best remedy that may be to cause hayres falne of through infirmitie or disease to grow againe and that shee herselfe beeing burned and beaten into powder tempred with the iuyce of Fenell and certaine other things cleereth the eye-sight and driueth away Rhumes and Catarres Dyoscorides also sayth and Plinie affirmeth the same that the payne of gowtie feete is taken away by annointing them with her greace and Galen in his sixth booke De virtute medicamentorum affirmeth that if a Viper be choked with a corde or string made of coloured Flaxe and hanged about the neck of him which suffereth any passion stuffing or choaking in the throat it shall be an admirable remedie the selfe same affirmeth Auicenne in his 3. booke though there be many that regard not whether the string be of Flaxe or of wooll of what colour so euer and for the most part they vse therein white Besides Aristotle sayth in his third booke De Animalibus that as the Vipers and Scorpions are knowne to be noysome and full of poyson so haue they also many profitable and helping vertues if wee could attaine to the knowledge and experience of them all And lastly that the Viper sod in vvine healeth those that are infected with Leaprosie which Gallen confirmeth by an example alleadged in his eleuenth booke of simple Medicines where he sayth that certaine Mowers brought with them into the field where they laboured a little vessell of vvine leauing the same vnder a hedge by forgetfulnes vncouered within a while returning to drinke thereof as they poured out the vvine there fell out of the vessell a dead Viper into their drinking boule which hauing crept into the same was therein drowned so that they dared not to tast thereof There was thereby by chaunce at that present in a little Hute or Cabbine a man infected with a disease which they call Leaprosie who through the loathsome contagiousnes of his disease was expelled the Towne and forced to remaine in the fields to the end that the infection of his disease should scatter it selfe no farther The Mowers mooued with compassion accounting the calamitous life of this poore man to be more miserable then death gaue vnto him this impoysoned vvine to drinke as a work of charity thereby to deliuer him out of that languishing life so full of horror loathsomnes and calamity which hauing done the successe that followed was meruailous for so soone as the sick Leaper had greedily swallowed in the wine his disease and filthines began by little and little to fall from him and in short spacee he becam whole sound so that I say that all hearbs beasts and stones contayning in them any poyson or thing noysome containe also in them many good and profitable vertues neyther are we to attribute vnto the starres the blame of the domages which they doe but vnto our selues vvhich know not how to vse them as we ought and should doc for our health and commodity For the Sunne which with his comfortable heate conserueth and cheereth our life would perchaunce be occasion of death to him that in midst of a raging hot day would lay himselfe naked vpon some high place to be scorched parched with the beames thereof And as a sword or dagger which is made for the defence of man and to offend his enemy may be the causer of his owne death if he wil desperatly thrust it into his owne body in like sort those men who vse not the before rehearsed things and such like as they should doe in receauing thereby the profit they may in auoyding the harme that through the vse of them ill employed may ensue can not iusty lay blame on any but themselues Concluding therfore I say that pestilentiall contagious diseases are caused by matters of the earth it selfe infecting the ayre as dead carrions corrupted carkasses sinks standing stopt waters that come to putrifie and stink with many such other filthy infectious things As for great inundations droughts and famines with the rest of such like accidents that offend anoy vs they come and proceed for our chastisement from the wil of God causing permitting thē without the which neither can the starres haue any force or vertue at all neither can they be the causers of any
reason therfore but they neuer talke of that Land which runneth on in length by the sea coast on the left hand towards the West passing by the kingdome of Norway and many other Prouinces and Countries for they know not what Land it is neither whether it goeth nor where it endeth nor where it turneth to ioyne with those parts of which they haue notice LV. By this meanes then it may be that they are deceaued which say that Europe is the least part of the three olde diuided parts of the world yet some say that on the other side of the bounds of Asia also there is much vnknowne Lande AN. You haue reason for this Land of which I speak stretching out along the Occident commeth turning to the Septentrion euen till vnder the Northern Pole which is the same that we here see from which forward on the other side what Lande there is or howe it extendeth it selfe wee knowe not though perchaunce the same be very great and spacious But let vs leaue this matter till hereafter where I will declare it more particulerly let vs return to entreate of som grounds and principles which are necessary for the facility of vnderstanding that which wee will speake of for otherwise in alleaging euery particuler wee should bring in all the Astrologie and cosmography of the world and therfore ommitting to declare what thing the Sphaere is and in what sort it is vnderstood that the earth is the Center of the worlde and then how the Center of the Earth is to be vnderstood with infinit other the like I will onelie alleadge that which is necessarie for our discourse First therefore all Astronomers and Cosmographers deuide the heauen into fiue Zones which are fiue parts or fiue gyrdings about according to which also the Earth is deuided into other fiue parts The one hath in the midst thereof the Pole Artick or North-pole which is the same that wee see the other hath the South or Pole Antartick directly contrary on the other side of the Heauen These 2. Poles are as two Axeltrees vpon which the whole Heauen turneth about they still standing firme in one selfe place in the midst betweene them both is the same which we call Torrida Zona and of the other two Colaterall Zones the one is between Torrida Zona the North-pole beeing the same in which we inhabite cōtaining Asia Affrick Europe it hath not bin known or vnderstood til these our times that any other of the Zones or parts of the earth hath been enhabited and so saith Ouid in his Metamorphosis that as the heauen is deuided into fiue Zones two one the right hand and two on the left and that in the midst more fierie then any of the rest so hath the diuine Prouidence deuided the Earth into other fiue parts of which that in the midst is through the great heate vninhabitable and the two vtmost in respect of their exceeding cold The selfe same opinion holdeth Macrobius in his seconde booke of the Dreame of Scipio Virgill in his Georgiques and the most part of all the auncient Authors whose authorities it serueth to no purpose to rehearse because in these our tymes we haue seene and vnderstood by experience the contrary as touching Torrida Zona seeing it is as well to be enhabited as any of the others and euery day it is past vnder frō one part to another as wee the other day discoursed And trulie the ignoraunce of the Auncients must bee verie great seeing they know not that Arabia faelix Aethiopia the coast of Guyne Calecut Malaca Taprobana Elgatigara many other Countries then in notice were vnder Torrida zona beeing a thing so notorious manifest that I maruaile how they coulde so deceaue themselues and not onely they but diuers moderne Writers also which though one way they confesse it yet another way they seeme to stande in doubt as may be seene by the Cosmography of Petrus Appianus augmented by Gemmafrigius a man in that Science very famous whose wordes are these The fiue zones of the Heauen constitute so many parts in the Earth of which the two vtmost in respect of theyr extreame cold are vnenhabitable the middlemost through the continuall course of the Sunne and perpendiculer beames thereof is so singed that by reason it seemeth not at all or very hardly to be habitable The Greeke Commendador likewise a man of great fame estimation in Spayne deceaued himselfe in his glosse vvhich hee vvrote vpon Iohn De Meno wherein hee maintayneth thys auncient opinion by these vvordes The Mathematitians sayth hee deuide the Earth into fiue Zones of which the two vtmost next the Poles through theyr great extreamitie of colde are not enhabitable neyther that in the midst through extreame heate the other two of each side participating of the heate of the middle and the colde of the vtter Zones are temperate and inhabitable Of these two the one is enhabited by those Nations of which we haue notice and is deuided into three parts Affrica Asia and Europa the other is enhabited by those whom we call Antypodes of whom we neuer had nor neuer shall haue any knowledge at all by reason of the Torrida or burned Zone which is vninhabitable the fierie heate of which stoppeth the passage betweene them and vs so that neyther they can come at vs nor we at them c. Though heere the Comendador confesse that there are Antypodes with whom wee cannot conuerse nor traffique yet the Auncients accounting the Torrida Zona as vninhabitable doubted whether there could be of the other side therof any people seeming vnto them vnpossible for any man since the creation of Adam which was created in this second Zone of the Pole Articke to passe ouer the burning Zone and there to generate and spred mankind Of this opinion seemeth to be S. Austine when he saith Those which fabulously affirme that there are Antypodes which is to say men of the contrary part where the Sunne riseth when it setteth with vs and which goe on the ground with theyr feete right against ours are by no meanes to be beleeued and Lactantius Firmianus in his third booke of Diuine Institutions laugheth and iesteth at those which make the earth and the water to be a body sphaericall and round at which error of his being a man so wise and prudent I cannot choose but much meruaile in denying a principle so notoriously known as though the world being round those people which are opposite to vs vnderneath should fall downe backwards The grosnes of which ignorance being nowe so manifestly discouered I will spend no more time in rehearsing his wordes so that they deny that there are Antypodes and that the world is enhabitable at all the Zones the contrary whereof is manifest Pliny handleth this matter in the sixty fiue Chapter of his second booke but in the end he resolueth not whether
it freeze and become more hard and cleare vsing the same in certaine warlike pastimes they haue in steede of a Castell of lyme or stone one troupe entereth there-into to defende the same and another bideth without to besiege assault or surprize it and this in most solemne sort with all engines stratagems and manners of vvarfare great prices being ordained for those that shall obtayne the conquest besides the tryumph wherein the conquerours doe glory ouer the vanquished Who so amongst them is found to be fearefull or not forward in executing that which he is commaunded is by his companions stuft full of Snow vnder his garments and somtimes tumbled starke naked in great heapes of the same enuring them therby better to abide hardnes another time These Septentrionall Lands haue many Lakes and standing waters of great largenes som of the which are a hundred miles long These are at somtimes so frozen that they trauaile ouer them both a foote and horsebacke In the Countries of East and Westgothland there are Lakes vpon which great troupes of horsmen meete and runne for wagers their horses are in such sort shod that they sildome slide or fall in time of warre they skirmish often vpon these frozen Lakes yea and sometimes fight maine battailes vpon them At sundry seasons they hold vpoÌ„ them also certaine Faires to which there resorteth a great concourse of strange Nations the beginning of which custome was ordained as saith Iohn Archbishoppe of Vpsala Predicessour to Olaus by a Queene of Swethland called Disa who being a woman of great wisedome commaunded her Subiects on a certaine yeere in which her dominions were afflicted with extreame dearth scarsity of graines to goe vnto the bordering Regions carrying with them such merchandize as their Country yeelded and to bring with them in exchange thereof Corne and graine withall to publish franchize to all such as should bring thither any victual to be sold where-vpon many strangers repairing thither at such time and season as the Lake was frozen she appointed them that place for holding of their Faire from which time till this day that custome hath continued Northward of these Regions there are many great and meruailous Lakes such as scarcely the like are to be found in any other part of the world that is peopled of which leauing apart one that is neere the Pole is called the white Lake which is in maner an other Caspian Sea yeelding great commodities of fowle and fish to the adioyning Prouinces part of the same reaching out euen to the Muscouites There are in the Regions of Bothnia Lakes of 300. 400. miles long where there is such quantity of fish taken that if they could conueniently be carried about they would serue for prouision to halfe the world Thereby also are many other notable Lakes of which the three most famous are as the Authors write Vener Meler and Veher Vener containeth in length 130. miles which are about 44. leagues as much in breadth within it it hath sundry Ilands well peopled with Citties Townes and Fortresses Churches and Monasteries for all those three Lakes are in Country of Christians though we haue heere little notice of them Into this Lake enter 24. deepe Riuers all which haue but one only issue which maketh so terrible a noyse amongst certayne Rocks falling from one to another that it is heard by night six or seauen leagues of making deafe those that dwell neere there abouts so that it is sayd there are certaine little Villages and Cottages thereby the enhabitants of which are all deafe They call the issue of these Riuers in their Country language Frolletta which is as much to say as the deuils head The second Lake called Meler is betweene Gothland and Swethland hath in the shore thereof many mynerals of mettals both of siluer and others the treasures gathered out of which enricheth greatly the Kinges of those Countries The third also called Veher aboundeth in mines on the North side thereof The waters thereof are so pure cleare that casting there-into an egge or a white stone you may see it lye in the bottome though it be very deep as well as though there were no water betweene Within this Lake are many peopled Ilands in one of which wherin are two great Parish Churches Olaus writeth that there happened a thing very meruailous and strange There liued in this Iland saith hee a man called Catyllus so famous in the Art of Negromancie that in the whole worlde his like was scarcely to be found Hee had a Scholler called Gilbertus whom hee had in that wicked Science so deepely instructed that hee dared so farre presume as to contend with him being his Maister yea and in som things seeme to surpasse him at which shamelesse ingratitude of his Catyllus taking great indignation as alwayes Maisters vse to reserue vnto themselues certaine secrete points with onely wordes and charmes without other band fetter or prison he bound him in an instant both body hands and feete in such sort that he could not wag himselfe in which plight he conuayed him into a deepe Caue vnder one of the Churches of the same Iland where he remaineth till this day according to the common opinion is alwayes liuing Thither vsed darly to resort many not only of that Country people but strangers also to see him and to demaund questions of him They entred with many Torches and Lanternes and with a clew of threed of which they fasten one end to the dore whereat they enter vnwiding the same still as they goe for the better assurance of finding their way out the Caue being full of many deepe pits crooked turnings and corners But at length because the moisture dampish cold thereof with a lothsome stench besides anoyed so much those that entred that some of them came out halfe dead they made a law that on greeuous paine none of the Countrimen should froÌ„ that time forward resort nor enter into that Caue neither giue counsaile aide or assistance to strangers which for curiosities sake shold atempt the same LV. This is without doubt the worke of the deuil who the same Gilbertê° dying perchance presently entered into his putrified stinking carkasse abusing the people aunswered to their demands For though the force of enchauntments be great yet can they not preserue life any longer then the time fixed appointed by God AN. You haue reason and in truth it seemeth that the deuill is there more lose and at greater liberty then in other parts so that som wil say the principall habitation of deuils to be in the North according to the authority of holy Scripture All euill shal come discouer it selfe from the Aquilon Zachary Chap. 2. crieth ho ho flie from the land of the Aquilon howbeit that these authorties are vnderstoode coÌ„monly in that Antichrist shal come from those parts whose like was neuer in persecuting the people of
continually hearde so great hideous a noyse that no man dareth to approch neer it by three or foure leagues The shyppes keepe alwayes a loofe of fearing and flying that Coast as death it selfe There is seene amongst those trees such an abundance of great black fowles that they seeme in a manner to couer them who rysing vp into the ayre doe make so great a clowde that they obscure in a manner the cleerenesse of the Sunne theyr crying or rather roring is so horrible and fearefull that such as heare them though verie farre of are constrayned to stoppe theyr eares They neuer flie out of the precincts of thys Iland the same beeing alwayes shadowed with a kinde of obscuritie in manner like a Clowde diuersifying it froÌ„ the Land neere vnto it Some saith he doe affirme this Mountaine to be a part of Hell where the condemned soules are tormented vvhich opinion though it bee ridiculous yet the propertie of this Mountaine is strange and in the cause thereof some hidden mysterie which we comprehend not BER These are matters the secrecie of whose causes are not to be sifted out like vnto that of the Mountaines of Angernamia one of the farthest of those Northerne Prouinces which are so high that they are seene a farre of by those that sayle on the Bothnycke Sea and by them with great care and diligence auoyded through a wonderfull secret in them contayned which causeth a noyse so hideous violent feareful and full of astonishment that it is heard many leagues of and if that by force of tempest driuen or otherwise through ignoraunce vnwitting any ship passeth neere thereunto the horror thereof is so great that many die presently through the penetrating sharpnes and vntollerable violence of the same many remaine euer after deafe or diseased and out of theyr wits Neyther are they that trauaile by Land lesse carefull in auoyding these Mountaines Once certaine young men of great courage beeing curious to discouer the cause heereof stopping theyr eares as artificially as they coulde deuise attempted in little Boates to rowe neere these mountaines and to view the particularities of them but they all perrished in that attempt by theyr desastre leauing an example and warning to others not to hazard themselues in like danger That which we may hereafter imagine is that there are some clefts or Caues within the Rocks of these Mountaines and that the flowing and ebbing of the water striuing with the wind and hauing no aspyration out causeth that fearefull rumbling and hideous noyse and this is vnderstood because the greater the tempest is at Sea the greater is the noyse in those Mountains the same being in calme and milde weather nothing so loude and violent Of these mountains Vincentiê° maketh mention in his glasse of Histories though he write not so particulerlie of them as some moderne Authors doe which affirme that they haue seene them LV. Me thinks this place is as perrillous as that of Charibdis and rather more considering the sharpnes and terror of the noyse which penetrateth so farre and in my iudgement the flowing and ebbing of the water should draw vnto it the shippes and make them perrish though you made therof no mention AN. It seemeth vnto me that you also haue read these Authors which treat of the Septentrional Countries seeing it commeth now to purpose I will tell you one no lesse admirable then the rest which is that in a citty called Viurgo neere the prouince of Muscouia there is a Caue called Esmelen of so secret a vertue that no man hath hetherto been able to comprehend the mistery and cause thereof which is that casting any quicke beast into the same there issueth out presently a sound so terrible as though 3000. great Canons were discharged and shot off together the effect of which is such that the hearers thereof if they haue not their eares very well stopt closed do fall presently down depriued of all feeling sence like dead men out of which mortall traunce som neuer reuiue some do but froÌ„ that time forward so long as they liue they detaine som defect or other The greater the beast is that is throwne thereinto the greater is the noyse and roaring that resoundeth out This Caue is compast about with a verie strong wall and the mouth thereof shut vp with a mightie strong doore hauing many Lockes of vvhich the Gouernour hath one Key in his keeping and the rest of the Magistrates each of them a seuerall least otherwise some desastre might fall out by which the Citty might come to be dispeopled which though it be very strong both of walles and Ramparts yet the greatest strength thereof consisteth in the Caue neyther is there any enemy so mightie or puissant that dareth to besiege it hauing before his eyes the ruine of great Armies that haue attempted the same before by which after the Citty was brought into some extreamitie the Cittizens bethinking themselues of the propertie of the Caue coÌ„maunded by publique proclamation all those of the towne to stop theyr eares and one night vnawares to the enemie they cast into the Caue a great number of liuing beasts vpon vvhich there presently issued forth such a hideous infernall noyse and the violence thereof strooke such amazement into the enemies that some fell downe in a traunce and others throwing away theyr Armes fledde out of theyr Cabbines trenches the most confusedly that might bee and withall to encrease theyr misery the Cittizens issuing out massacred the greater part of them by that meanes deliuering theyr Cittie from seruitude And though they could not but receaue som inconuenience through the horrour of that hellish noyse though theyr eares were neuer so well closed yet through the ioy of theyr victory and recouered libertie they made small account of the same since which time all the borderers there abouts fearing the effect of theyr Caue doe liue in league amitie with them BER In truth this is a matter of great admiration and such that though diuers very great secretes both of heauen and earth are comprehended yet the curiositie of no wit how perfect soeuer can reach to giue heereof anie reason LVD Let vs leaue these secrets to him that made them whose will perchance is to conceale theyr causes froÌ„ vs. AN. You say well and in truth the more wee should beat our wits about them the lesse we should be able to vnderstand them it suffiseth therefore for vs to knowe that these are the secrete and wonderfull workes of God shewen by Nature the vnderstanding whereof is aboue our reach and capacitie But to follow on our discourse of the wonders of this Countrey you shal vnderstand that in those standing waters frozen Lakes of which wee spake before the ayre remaineth oftentimes shut in and inclosed the which moouing it selfe and running vp down vnder the Ise seeking vent causeth such roring and noyse that it were able to amaze
are of such courage in defending themselues against the Wolfes that they are sildome by them assailed for their hornes are so sharpe and strong and withall doe grow in such order as though Nature had of purpose planted them there for their defence LU. I haue seene often some with 4. hornes but neuer any with 8. BER Nay more then this they say there are also Weathers of 5. quarters for the taile waieth more then any of the other 4. therfore may wel be taken for one Of these I my selfe sawe certaine in Rome which whether they were brought thence or no I know not but surely they seemed vnto me wonderfully strange AN. But let vs now come to say somwhat of the fishes that are fouud in those parts seeing of their Beastes we haue sufficiently discoursed Notwithstanding that we all knowe that the Sea is the Mother of Monsters and that therein are contained so many kinds and sorts of fishes as there are Beasts on the earth or Fowles in the ayre Yet seeing there are some very strange and of which the Authors Historiographers make particuler relation I cannot but say somewhat of them Amongst the rest there is one to whom for the horrible and hideous forme thereof they giue no other name then Monster His length is commonly fifty cubites which is but little in comparison of the greatnes and deformity of his proportion and members his head is as great as halfe his body and round about full of hornes as great and long or rather more then those of an Oxe The greatnes and manner of his eyes is meruailous for the onely apple is a cubite in length and as much in breadth which by night glistereth in such sort that a farre off it resembleth a flame of fire His teeth are great sharpe his tayle forked containing from one point to the other fifteene cubites his body full of haires resembling the wing-feathers of a Goose beeing stript and his colour is as blacke as any Iet in the world may be The violence force of this Monster is such that with great facility in a trice hee will ouer-turne the greatest shippe that vsually crosseth those Seas neither can the resistance of the Marriners though they be many in number auaile The Archbishop of Nydrosia and Primate of the Kingdome of Norway called Henry Falchendor writing a Letter to Pope Leo the tenth sent him withall the head of one of these Monsters which was a long time kept for a wonder in Rome There are other Sea-Monsters called Fisiters no lesse dangerous to those that saile then the other their length is commonly 200. cubits the head and mouth proportionable to the same The tayle is also forked in the midst and containeth from one point to another a hundreth feete their belly is exceeding great and wide nosthrils they haue none but in steede thereof two deepe open holes aboue the forehead out of which they spout out such a quantity of water that shipps haue beene many times through the violent fall thereof in danger of drowning vvhich if that suffice not they throw halfe their body vpon the sides of the shippe ouerwhelming it with the waight thereof neyther is their tayle lesse dangerous with which they giue so mighty a blow that it is able to smite any ship in peeces The domage were infinite that these deformed Monsters would doe but that it hath pleased God that a remedy should be found out to preuent their mischiefe for they flie the sound of Trumpets and the thundering of Artillerie as death it selfe and this is the onely meane which the Marriners doe vse in driuing them away There was one of these Fisiters found on the way towards India with which happened a notable chaunce in this sort A Galley in which Ruynas Pereyra went for Captaine sayling neere the Cape of Bona Speransa with a reasonable good winde and all her sayles out stoode of a sodaine still so that the Marriners thought she had stroken a ground and were in great feare of their liues But dooing their diligence to redresse the danger in which they were they perceaued the Galley to haue water enough onely that she was deteyned by one of these Fisiters which had clasped himselfe about her keele thrusting vp of a sodaine certaine finnes that reached aboue water euen to the mizzen sayle vpon which many of them layd their hands and some would haue striken him with their Iauelins others would haue shot at him with Muskets or discharged a peece of Artillery to neyther of which counsailes the Captaine would by any meanes consent least through the strugling and tossing of the Monster being wounded the Galley should be in hazard of drowning The onely remedy therfore that he had refuge vnto was to desire the Chaplain of the company to reuest himselfe in his Priestly habite and with humble Prayers to beseech the Maiestie Diuine to deliuer them from that imminent danger In the midst of whose deuotions it pleased God that the fish by little and little vnwound himselfe and diued downeward into the water the last that was seene of him was his head being of an incredible greatnes out of the holes of which he launced out so much water and so high that the same in falling resembled a mighty cloude dissolued into rayne and there-with he went his wayes those of the ship infinitely praysing God for this their miraculous deliuery There is also in the West part of this Northerne Sea a great number of VVhales which though they be hurtful of great terror yet are they nothing so much feared as the others before named There are of thē two kinds of which the skin of the one is couered with great thick haires these are far greater then the other in so much that there haue been of them taken 900. or 1000. foote long the other whose skinnes are smooth and plaine are nothing so great But seeing there are many of them in this Sea of ours and their shape and proportion is so well knowne vnto vs it were time lost to describe particulerly the manner of them Onely I will tell you what Olaus Magnus writeth of one taken in those Countries which seemeth a thing if not incredible yet passing admirable the which is that his eyes were so great that twenty men sitting within the circle of one of them did scarcely fill it vp according to which the other parts of his body carried full prorortion and conformity The greatest enemy they haue and of greatest courage in daring to assaile them and by whom they are many times conquered and slaine is a fish called Orca though not great and huge yet passing fierce and cruel and extreamely swift and nimble his teeth are long and sharpe as Sizers with which comming vnder the Whale being heauy and sluggish he rippeth vp his belly Of all others this fish the Whale dareth not abide and oftentimes in flying him
greatest part of this Prouince obeyeth the King of Swethen vvho hath in the frontyers thereof one of the best and strongest Castels in the worlde called Newcastle which is situated vppon a high Rocke accessible onely of one side and that with great difficulty At the foote of this Rocke runneth a great and deepe Riuer in such sort that in some places it is hard to sound any bottome the waters of which and all the fishes therein are so blacke that it is therefore called the blacke Riuer it discendeth from the Aquilonar mountaynes commeth along through such desert and craggie Landes that no manne knoweth where the head thereof riseth onely it is thought that it commeth out of Lacus Albus waxing black by reason of the soile through which it commeth There is in this Riuer great aboundance of Salmons and of other fishes of such excellent relish and pleasing tast that there can in no part of the world be found any better They serue not onely for prouision to the Country it selfe but are carried thence into many farre places Amongst the rest there is found a fish called Treuius which in the Winter is blacke and in the Sommer white whose meruailous property is such that binding him fast with a corde and letting him downe into the bottome of a Riuer if there be any gold in the sands thereof the same cleaueth fast to his skin which how great soeuer the peeces be fall not off from him till they be taken off so that some vse no other occupation to winne theyr lyuing with then this It is sayde for an assured certainty that sometimes there is openly seene a man goe in the middle of the streame playing most sweetely vppon an Instrument like a trebble Viall which at such time as men beholde him with greatest delight of a sodaine sinketh downe into the water There are also often heard vppon the shore Trumpets Drummes and other loud Instruments without seeing those that sound them vvhich when it happeneth they holde the same for a signe or presage of some harme or disastre that is to ensue to some principall person of the gard of this Fortresse which they haue often found true by experience But leauing to speake of the great plenty of fish which is in these Countries Now I will come to say somewhat of the Birdes and Fovvles which are in these parts of which there are many kinds farre differing from those which we haue heere among the rest some as great or rather greater then Patridges whose feathers are diuersified with beautifull colours chiefely white blacke and yellow called Raynbirds because towardes rayne they cry otherwise holding continually their peace It is held for a certainty that they liue by the ayre for being very fatte they are neuer seene eate at any time neyther when they kill them doe they finde any sustenance at all in theyr belly or mawe Theyr flesh is of a very sauourie taste and much esteemed There are other Birdes found on the high and rough mountaynes such as are for the most part continually couered with Snowe somewhat bigger then Thrushes which are in the Sommer white and all the Winter long blacke Their feete neuer change culour which is a most perfect yellovv They sleepe and shroude themselues for the most part alwayes in trees But when they see any Hawke or Fowle that lyueth by pray they choppe dovvne into the Snovve fluttering the same ouer them with theyr vvinges in such sort that they leaue no part of them vndiscouered preseruing thereby theyr lyfe Of all other Fovvles they are hardlyest taken they hide themselues so artificially in the Snow and therefore they call them Snow-birds Of Falcons there is passing great store ouer all these Northerne Countries and of many sorts At such time as the day lasteth the whole Sommer long in those Regions neere the Pole fewe or none remaine in the bordering Lands but flie all thither returning thence againe when the night commeth about Amongst these there are certaine white which pray both on fowles and fishes which Riuers for their pleasure doe reclaime taking with them both fish and fowle Their two feete are of sundry and seuerall fashions the one with long sharpe talents with which they seaze their pray the other like vnto a Goose the talents whereof are nothing so long The Rauens in these Lands are so great and harmfull that they kill not onely Hares and Fawnes but also Lambs and Pigs of which they make so great spoile and destruction that there are Lawes made by the which there is a reward appointed to such as shall kill them so much for the head of euery one About the Sea shore and Lakes there are many which they call Sea-Crowes and of diuers kindes some are great and haue sawes in their beakes in manner of teeth with which they sheare the fishes asunder Their principal foode is Eeles which if they be not very great they swallow in whole and many times slice them out againe behind afore they be fully dead There is an other sort of them somvvhat lesse otherwise of small difference which in seauen dayes make their nests and lay their egges and in other seauen dayes hatch their young-ones There are other Birdes called Plateae which are alwaies houering also ouer Lakes Ponds they haue mortall warres with the Crowes and with all other fowles that liue by fish of which if they see any haue in his beake or talent any pray they make him let it goe or otherwise they kill him for they haue of them a great aduantage through the sharpnes of their beake and talents Of Ducks wilde tame there is such infinite abundance in these prouinces that they couer the Lakes and waters no other foule being any thing neere in so great quantity especially where there are any veynes of warme water which keepe the Lakes longer without freezing where when they doe freeze yet the Ise is so thin that it may easily be broken They are of diuers colours and sizes otherwise all of one making Certaine Authors which write of these Countries affirme that one kinde of these Duckes is of those which are bred of the leaues of certaine trees in Scotland which falling into the water take life as in manner aboue saide becomming first a worme then getting winges and feathers at last flying vp into the ayre Olaus saith that he hath seene Scottish authors which affirme that these trees are principally in the Ilandes called Orcades They affirme also that there are Geese bredde and engendred in the same manner betweene whom and the other there is great difference both in colour many other particularities And seeing this wonder is by the testimonie of so many Authors confirmed I see no reason but that vvee may well beleeue it without offending and that also vvhich they write of a towne in the vtmost parts Northward of that Kingdome
the commoditie rising to which through the aboundance of Duckes is so great that I cannot ouerslip the same There is neere this Towne a mighty great and craggy Rocke to which at breeding time these Fowles come flocking in such quantities troupes that in the ayre they resemble mightie darke clowdes rather then any thing else The first two or three dayes they doe nothing else then houer aloofe and flie vp and downe about the Rocke during which time the people is so still and quiet that they scarcely styrre out of theyr houses for feare of fraying them so that seeing all things silent and still they settle themselues boldlie and fill the whole Rock with nests Their sight is so sharpe and pearcing that flittering ouer the sea which beateth vpon the same Rock they see the fish through the water which incontinentlie plunging themselues into the same they snappe vp vvith such facilitie that it is scarcely to be beleeued but of him that hath seene it Those that dwell neere thereabouts and know the passages and wayes to get vp into this Rock do not onelie sustaine themselues by the fishe which they finde in the nestes of theyr young ones but carry thē also to other townes to sell. When they perceaue that the young ones are ready to flie to enioy this cōmoditie of the fish the longer they pluck theyr wings and entertaine them so many dayes as men vse to doe young ones of Eagles and then when the ordinarie time approcheth in which they vse to take theyr flight away they take and eate them theyr flesh being very tender and of good smack These Ducks differ much frō al the other sorts and are neuer seene in that Region but at such time as they breed euen as the Storkes are in Spaine though they kill many of them yet the next yere they neuer faile to come as many as the rock can hold Their fat greace is much esteemed applied to many medecines in which it is founde to be of meruailous operation vertue There are ouer al these Northerne Regions many other fowles farre different from these which we haue heere the varietie of whose kinds seeing they haue no notable perticuler property or vertue it were in vaine to recite And though as I said the Climat be cold yet there are founde many kindes of Serpents of such as are wont commonly to breede in hote Landes There are Aspes three or foure cubites long whose poyson is so strong and vehement that whosoeuer is bitten by one of them dieth within the space of foure or fiue howres if he haue not presentlie such remedy as is requisite which is Treakle of Venice if they haue it if not they stampe a head of Garlick and mingle the iuyce thereof with olde Beere giuing it the patient to drinke and withall stamping another head of Garlicke they apply it to the place bitten These Aspes are so cruell and fierce that in assayling any man they stretch out theyr head with great fiercenesse a cubite aboue the earth and in finding resistance they dart out of theyr throates an infinite quantitie of poyson and venom whose pestilent contagion is such that whosoeuer is touched therewith swelleth and dyeth as I sayde if hee be not presently remedied There are other Serpents called Hyssers whose cheefe abyding is among herbes that are hore and dry They runne exceedingly swiftly but they are easie to be auoyded because the noyse and hyssing they make is so great that they are heard and descried a farre of and thereby easily shunned and auoyded They vse to giue a leape tenne or twelue foote high when they cast out theyr venome the nature of which is such that if it fall vpon any mens garments it burneth them like fire hauing doone which they run presentlie away Theyr poyson representeth to our sight sundry and strange colours There is another kinde of Serpent whom they call Amphisbosna hauing two heads one in the due place annother in the tayle they goe and turne aswell one way as another doe appeare are seene as well in cold weather as in warme Gaudencius Merula vvryteth that there are manie of these in Italie and other parts In the Spring-time there are found at the feete of Oakes and other trees many little Serpents which haue a cheefe Ruler or King amongst them as the Bees haue by whom they are gouerned Hee is knowne amongst all the rest because hee hath a vvhite crest which if it happen that he be killed the whole Armie of them presently breaketh and scattereth All these and many other Serpents which are there are so as it were enameled with sundry bright and glistring colours that they arrest often the eyes of the beholders as vpō a most beautifull worke of Nature neyther doe they onely liue on dry Lande but there are also of them about the Sea liuing both within without the same feeding vpon fish nothing lesse hurtfull then the rest of this kind there is at this present one most notable of wonderfull greatnes in the prouince of Borgia which is within the limits of the Kingdome of Norway whose terrible shape crueltie and horrour is such that there were doubt to be made thereof vnlesse it were by the testimony of many witnesses which haue seene him confirmed In the place vvhere hee lyueth are certaine Rockie Mountaines rough and verie high both Seaward and Landward couered in many places with desert thickets and wilde bushes and trees Heere was bred this horrible dreadfull and deformed monster whose length according to the gesse of those which haue seene his manner making and proportion is aboue two hundred cubites his breadth from the backe to the bellie at least 25. from the neck downward to the fourth part of his body he is full of great haires at least a cubit long apeece from thence downeward he is bare and plaine except his loynes which are couered with certaine great sharp scales or rather shelles His eyes are so bright and shining that by night they seeme to be flames of fire so that by them he is easie to be discouered a farre off at such time as hee rangeth abroade to seeke his pray which is commonly of Oxen sheep Hogges Stagges and other Beastes both wilde tame such as he can find but if in the woods and fieldes he cannot light of enough to satisfie his hunger hee getteth him to the Sea-shore and there filleth himselfe with such fish as he can catch If any ships chaunce to approch neere that shore eyther by tempest or ignorance he putteth himselfe presently into the water and maketh amaine at them hee hath beene seene at times to reare himselfe of an exceeding height aboue the decke and to take men out of the shippe with his teeth and to swallow thē in a liue a thing truely to be spoken or heard full of amazement terror what is it then to them that find themselues
Bergomensis Procopius Plato Porphirius Paulus Iouius Pythagoras Proculus Proctus Plotinus Pselius S. Paule Paulus Guillardus Proclus Petrus Mexias Ptolomaeus R. Rufus Festus S. Solinus Strabo Scotus Stephanus Sinforianus Campegius Seruius Sigonius Salomon Suidas Graecus Socrates Seneca Suetonius Tranquillus Salustius Sestus Pompeius Silenus T. S. Thomas Trogus Pompeius Translatio septum Interpretum Tesias Theodorus Gaza Titus Liuius Tully V. Virgilius Vincentius Ualasco de Taranta X. Xenocrates Xenophon Z. Zacharias THE FIRST TREAtise In the which are contained manie thinges worthy of admiration which Nature hath wrought and daily worketh in men contrary to her common ordinarie course of operation With other curiosities strange and delightfull Interlocutores LVDOVICO ANTHONIO BERNARDO LVD THis dayes exceeding heate hath distempered mee in such sort that it causeth mee to doubt with my selfe whether of the two extremities were easier to bee endured the violent sharpnes of the colde Winter or the fierie raging of the hote Sommer BER On this question there are so many and sundry opinions of each side so manie reasons that I dare not vndertake to determine thereof though in my slender iudgement the cold how sharpe soeuer in the deepest furie of the Winter is far easier to be suffred then these feruent and contagious heates of the Dogge-dayes in the Sommer But to heare this of both sides debated with reasons and proofes that may be alledged it is doubtfull to whether to encline Leauing therfore euery man to thinke herein what pleaseth him let vs in the meane time not lose the freshnes of this pleasant euening which after the great heate is now turned into an ayre most sweete and comfortable and seeing wee haue nothing to doe let vs walke a while by the streames of this running Riuer passe our time in some honest conuersation LUD It happeneth better then we looked for see where Anthonio commeth whose wisedome behauiour and discreete discourse is such that you would neuer be weary of his company BER It is true indeede I know him well to be a man both curtious learned and wise I would we could set him in some good vaine to the ende wee might heare him discourse LV. I will doe my best to make him walke along with vs. AN. God saue you Gentlemen LV. And you Sir are most welcom in the fittest time that may be vnlesse you haue some busines which may hinder vs from enioying your company vnder this tuffet of trees where if it please you now after this excessiue heate we may awhile refresh our selues with the mildnes of this sweet ayre and the delightfull coolenes of thys fresh riuer AN. Truly Gentlemen nothing can let me in any thing wherin I may doe you seruice for my will is fully bent to follow yours and therefore without any excuse I will obey you in what soeuer it shall please you to commaund me BER This curtesie of yours is so great that I know not by what meanes we shal be able to deserue it to the ende therefore that wee may the better enioy the desired fruite of your conuersation let vs if it please you repose our selues vnder this shadow where couered from the sunne what with the pleasing sound of this clere streame trickling along the peble stones and the sweete murmurings of the greene leaues gently mooued with a soft and delicate winde we shal receiue double delight LV. It is true but not if wee remaine standing you hauing taken vp the best place BER Indeed I might haue offered you the place but mee thinkes you are not much amisse especially because heere is roome in the middest between vs both for Signior Anthonio who how neer soeuer he be vnto me me thinks is neuer neere enough AN. All this Signior Bernardo is but to increase the desire I haue to do you seruice for in truth such is the reputation of your wisedom that wheresoeuer you are we ought to seeke you out to th' end to be participant of your vertue and knowledge LU. Let vs lay apart these friendly ceremonies and busie our selues in contemplating the diuersity of those things which we see round about this place where we repose that we may be thankfull to the Creator and Maker of them In trueth so great is the varietie of flowers Roses which are in thys Medowe that beholding narrowly euery one apart me thinkes I neuer saw any of them before so many manners are there of them theyr shapes and formes so sundry and diuers theyr colours so rare and daintie their branches flowers placed in such excellent order that it seemeth that Nature hath endeuoured with her vttermost industry to frame paint and enamell each of them BER You wonder at a little in respect of the much we haue to wonder at I would to God it had been your hap to haue beene where I was yesterday in the company of ten or twelue Gentlemen where discoursing of the strange and meruailous effects wrought by Nature in the world they were so amazed at some to the common sort vnknowne vvhich I told them as though I had come out of the other world and told them stories of such things as I there had seene LV. I pray you tell vs some of them that we may know what reason of amazement they had BER I could tell you many but that which they least beleeued and iested at as a fable was because I said there was a part of the earth inhabited where the day dureth the full space of a whole halfe yeare and the night in like sort as much LU. And meruaile you if they wondred heereat It is true indeede that I haue sometimes my selfe hearde as much but I giue as litle credite thervnto as these gentlemen did BE. I perceiue wel that signior Anthonio vnderstandeth this matter better then either of vs because I see him smile ask him therfore what his opiniō is hereof An. I am glad gentlemen to see that in so few reasons you fal vpō a matter so high that to declare it wel other things of necessity must first be touched so strange that vnlesse it be amongst men wise of deep vnderstanding it were better to passe them ouer with silence according to the saying of the Marquesse of Santillana Neuer report wonders for in so doing of the greatest part thou art sure not to be beleeued but to be laughed at as was signior Bernardo amongst those gentlemen BE. In this maner though you may my ignorance considered pretende great reason to holde your peace yet I beseech you let nothing with-hold you from explaining vnto me thys doubt and some other which I haue about the sesecret hidden misteries of Nature AN. This is but a small matter so that you wil not binde me to say more than I know which truly is very little BER I know that in the fountaine of your brest there is not so little water but that it may suffise throughly to asswage satisfie our thirst
least therefore the time passe away in superfluous reasons seeing we are to intreate of the wonders meruailous workes of Nature I beseech you begin with her definition that wee may thereafter the better vnderstand her effects AN. Aristotle saith that Nature is the beginning of Motion and rest of the selfe same thing in which it is principall and by it selfe alone not by any accident but I will not spende the time in alledging the definitions and opinions of ancient Philosophers seeing they are so far different frō those of later time and because this our discourse shall be altogether Christianlike leauing out all those Authors Philosophers which were Gentiles I will onely followe those which vvere Christians of the which he that went neerest to the marke in my iudgement was Leuinus Lemnius which following Saint Thomas leauing ancient opinions like a Christian in the beginning of his Booke of the Meruailous secretes of Nature sayth That Nature is nothing else then a will or reason deuine causer of all things that are engendred and conseruer of them after they are ingendred according to the qualitie of euerie one of them This word therefore Name of Nature serueth not for other then to represent vnto vs the will and minde of God by which all things are made and created and in theyr times and seasons vnmade and dissolued and therefore it is said that the leafe of a tree cannot wagge without the will and ordinaunce of God from whom as the very onelie foundation and beginning proceed depend all creatures reasonable and vnreasonable euen to the very least Yet I know there want not Philosophers which hearing these definitions will say that there is Natura naturans which is God himselfe and Natura naturata which is the effect which by his deuine will hee worketh in creatures But let vs not stay here but behold the foundation whence al proceedeth which is God indeed which if we well contemplate this aboundant and plentifull spring wee shall finde that those which are so astonished hold for miracles some new things aboue their capacity which happen in the worlde haue small reason of their so great amazement For what can be more worthy of admiration to men vertuous and of cleare iudgement then the wonderfull machine and composition of this world the mouing of the heauens in order so iust and due the admirable effects of the Sunne the Moone and of the other Planets the strange influences of the Starres the exceeding strength of the Poles vpon whom all these things not straying one iote out of compasse are moued with a Harmony so meruailous the reason wherewith the foure Elements stand and containe them selues in their places appointed them each of them affording vnto vs that part of himselfe of which we haue neede the cloudes forming and thickning them selues in the region of the ayre the raine haile snow and ice the vehement force and terrible violence of the winds thunders lightnings and blazing-starres Besides these the world daily bringeth foorth and yeeldeth to our view so many thinges new rare and full of wonder that if we would busie our selues to admire and contemplate the variety strangenes of each of them we should haue leasure to doe nothing else For how wonderfull is it to see that amongst so many men as are in the world and daily are borne of new though they beare all one proportion and shape of eyes mouth nose forehead lippes cheekes eares c. Yet it is almost impossible to finde one like another and though it happen somtimes that one resemble another yet there neuer wanteth some difference of diuersity Besides this behold the difference of trees plants hearbs and flowers which in each Countrey groweth with such diuersity of colour tast smell property and vertue and if these things because we see them daily with our eyes and handle them with our hands as thinges common doe not amaze vs why should wee then so much wonder in seeing some things which passe this common agreement and order of nature Which for all that doe not exceede nature neither are vnnaturall though the conceite thereof passe the grosnes of our reach and vnderstanding To see a dead man raysed a dumb man made speake or a man borne blind restored to sight such a thing we may well terme vnnatural miraculous But as for things monstrous of which som we see some are out of vse some vtterly vnknowne me thinks in a vvise man they should work no alteration nor breed any astonishment at all Look amongst the green plants hearbs you shall there somtimes find litle creepers worms some of one sort some of another painted with sundry colours some with many feet some with great hornes in the forehead some with wings some with 2. heads one before and another behind that they go moue as well of the one side as the other if we should see these great huge how would they thē wonder be amazed that are ignorant of their causes But perchance he that created al things aboue vnder the heauēs in the aire the earth the Sea of nothing with his only wil hath lost his force or his hand is become vnable to doe all the rest which in respect therof is nothing No no without dout now is the selfe same God which than our soueraigne Lord maker which as he easily without any trauaile by his only will of nothing made all things so can he whē it pleaseth him by the selfe same wil only turne to vndoe them make of all things nothing as they were before LU. It is all as you haue saide Signior Anthonio your definition of nature is true agreing to our Christian beleefe according to the which all things may be termed naturall but yet I remaine in dout of som part of that which you haue said therfore I pray you before you passe any farther declare it better vnto me First making all things so easie in the hand wil of God which you term nature it self when it cōmeth by the same to work great meruailous things as raising of the dead you say they are supernaturall miraculous in the which vnder correction me thinks you contrary your selfe seeing the one is as naturall to God as the other AN. This cōmeth proceedeth not from God but from the things thēselues which being so ful of difficulty neuer before seen of vs for their great strangenes we cal thē miracles which is as much to say as meruailous supernaturall Because nature or rather to speak more properly God is not wont often to work them therefore not finding any other word or maner to expresse them we say they are miracles supernaturalli so you must vnderstand it not that it is to God any more difficulty to worke the one then the other LV. You haue satisfied me in this point but