Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	elephant_n	year_n	young_a	18	3	6.2946	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36034	The historical library of Diodorus the Sicilian in fifteen books : the first five contain the antiquities of Egypt, Asia, Africa, Greece, the islands, and Europe : the last ten an historical account of the affairs of the Persians, Grecians, Macedonians and other parts of the world : to which are added the fragments of Diodorus that are found in the Bibliotheca of Photius : together with those publish'd by H. Valesius, L. Rhodomannus, and F. Ursinus / made English by G. Booth ..., Esq.; Bibliotheca historica. English	Diodorus, Siculus.; Booth, George, 17th/18th cent.; Valois, Henri de, 1603-1676.; Rhodoman, Lorenz, 1546-1606.; Photius, Saint, Patriarch of Constantinople, ca. 820-ca. 891. Bibliotheca.; Orsini, Fulvio, 1529-1600.	1700 (1700)	Wing D1512; ESTC R15327	1,369,223	858

of the Ground is still continually renew'd and the Inhabitants have an easie way to water it by means of a certain Engin invented by Archimedes the Syracusian which from its Form is call'd † A Snail 's Shell Choclia And whereas the Nile flows gently over it it brings along with it much Soyl which resting in low and hollow Grounds makes very rich Marishes For in these Places grow Roots of several Tasts and Savours and Fruits and Herbs of a singular nature and quality which are very useful both to the Poor and those that are Sick for they do not only afford plentifully in every Place things for Food but all other things necessary and useful for the Life of Man There grows in great Plenty Lotus of Lotus Vid. Plin. Nat. Hist lib. 13. c. 17. Ciborium which the Egyptians make Bread for the nourishment of Man's Body Here 's likewise produc'd in plenty Ciborium call'd the Egyptian Bean. Here are divers sorts of Trees amongst which those call'd * Persica Plin. Nat. Hist lib. 13. c. 9. Sycamore Plin. Nat. Hist lib. 13. c. 7. Bates Persica whose Fruit is of wonderful sweetness This Plant was brought out of Ethiopia by the Persians when Cambyses conquer'd these Places The Sycamore or Egyptian Fig-tree some of them bear Mulberries others a Fruit like unto Figs and bear all the Year long so that a Man may satisfie his Hunger at any time After the falling of the Waters of the River they gather the Fruits call'd Bates which for their sweet and delightful Taste are at Entertainments served up at last Course as delicious Deserts The Egyptians make a Drink of Barley call'd Zythus for smell and sweetness Zythus of Taste not much inferior to Wine They make a Liquor like Oyl for the feeding of their Lamps of the Juice of a Plant which they call Cici There are Cici many other Plants which grow in Egypt of admirable use which would be too tedious here to enumerate The River Nile breeds many Creatures of several Forms and Shapes amongst The Beasts of Nile Crocodile Vid. Plin. lib. 8. c. 25. which Two are especially remarkable the Crocodile and the Horse as it 's call'd Amongst these the Crocodile of the least Creature becomes the greatest for it lays an Egg much of the bigness of that of a Goose and after the young is hatcht it grows to the length of Sixteen Cubits and lives to the Age of a Man It wants a Tongue but has a Body naturally arm'd in a wonderful manner For its Skin is cover'd all over with Scales of an extraordinary hardness many sharp Teeth are rang'd on both sides its Jaws and Two of them are much bigger than the rest This Monster does not only devour Men but other Creatures that come near the River His Bites are sharp and destructive and with his Claws he tears his Prey cruelly in Pieces and what Wounds he makes no Medicine or Application can heal The Egyptians formerly catcht these Monsters with Hooks baited with raw Flesh but of later times they have us'd to take 'em with strong Nets like Fishes sometimes they strike them on the Head with Forks of Iron and so kill them There 's an infinite Multitude of these Creatures in the River and the Neighbouring Pools in regard they are great Breeders and are seldom kill'd For the Crocodile is ador'd as a God by some of the Inhabitants and for Strangers to hunt and destroy them is to no purpose for their Flesh is not eatable But Nature has provided relief against the increase of this destructive Monster for the Ichneumon as it 's call'd of the Bigness of a little Dog running up and down Ichneumon near the Water-side breaks all the Eggs laid by this Beast whereever he finds them and that which is most to be admir'd is that he does this not for Food or any other Advantage but out of a natural Instinct for the meer Benefit of Mankind The Beast call'd the † Hippopotamus or Sea-Horse Vid. Plin. Nat. Hist lib. 8. c. 25. River Horse is Five Cubits long Four Footed and cloven Hoof'd like to an Ox. He has Three Teeth or Tushes on either side his Jaw appearing outwards larger than those of a Wild-Boar as to his Ears Tayl and his Neighing he 's like to a Horse The whole Bulk of his Body is not much unlike an Elephant his Skin is firmer and thicker almost than any other Beast He lives both on Land and Water in the Day time he lies at the Bottom of the River and in the Night time comes forth to Land and feeds upon the Grass and Corn. If this Beast were so fruitful as to bring forth Young every Year he would undo the Husbandman and destroy a great part of the Corn of Egypt He 's likewise by the help of many Hands often caught being struck with Instruments of Iron for when he is found they hem him round with their Boats and those on Board wound him with forked Instruments of Iron cast at him as so many Darts and having strong Ropes to the Irons they fix in him they let him go till he loses his Blood and so dies His Flesh is extraordinary hard and of ill digestion There 's nothing in his inner Parts that can be eaten neither his Bowels nor any other of his Intrails Besides these before mention'd Nile abounds with multitudes of all sorts of Abundance of Fish in Nile Fish not only such as are fresh taken to supply the Inhabitants at hand but an innumerable Number likewise which they salt up to send Abroad To conclude no River in the World is more Beneficial and Serviceable to Mankind than Nile It s Inundation begins at the Summer * June 10th Solstice and increases till the † Sept. 10th Equinoctial in Autumn during which time he brings in along with him new Soyl and waters as well the Till'd and Improv'd Ground as that which lies waste and untill'd as long as it pleases the Husbandman for the Water flowing gently and by degrees they easily divert its Course by casting up small Banks of Earth and then by opening a Passage for it as easily turn it over their Land again if they see it needful It 's so very advantageous to the Inhabitants and done with so little pains that most of the Country People turn in their Cattel into the sow'd Ground to eat and tread down the Corn and Four or Five Months after they reap it Some lightly run over the Surface of the Earth with a Plow after the Water is fallen and gain a mighty Crop without any great Cost or Pains But Husbandry amongst all other Nations is very laborious and chargable only the Egyptians gather their Fruits with little Cost or Labour That part of the Country likewise where Vines are planted after this watering by the Nile yields a most plentiful Vintage The Fields that after the Inundation are pastur'd by their Flocks

as looking upon that to be the best sort Funerals of Burial Others by pouring upon them melted Glass keep them in their Houses because they think it not convenient or decent that their Countenances should not be known by their Kindred or that they should be forgotten by their Posterity Some bury them in Earthen Coffins about their Temples and to swear by their Names is counted the most Sacred Oath Those that are most Beautiful some of of them chuse to be their King judging that Regal Power and Beauty are always the Gifts of Fortune Others intrust the Royal Power in the Hands of the most industrious Shepherds as such as would make it their business to take most care for the good of their Subjects Others bestow the Kingdom upon those that P. 104. are richest judging such only most able by their Riches to supply the wants of their People There are others that are for the advancing them to the Throne who are most approv'd for their Valour because they judge those that are Conquerors to be most worthy of Honour That part of the Country in Lybia that borders upon Nile is the most pleasant The Description of the Parts of the Country and richest for all manner of Provision for the Morasses afford the most advantagious shelters against the parching heat of the Sun and therefore the Ethiopians and Africans quarrel and are at continual Wars one with another for the possession of that Place Herds likewise of Elephants out of the higher Lybia as some write come down into those Parts because of the abundance of Pasture and the sweetness of it For there are wonderful Morasses abounding in all sorts of Food all along the Banks of the River and here they are held by the Mouth when they taste the sweetness of those Reeds and Canes that grow here and so eat up the Food of the Inhabitants and therefore the People are forc'd to resort to these Places for Relief being Shepherds and living in Tents making that their Country where they can find the most Plenty The Herds of Elephants of which we before hinted leave the upper Parts for want of Pasture which is presently burnt up there by the heat of the Sun For by reason of the scorching Heat and want both of Spring and river-River-water the Grass is parcht up and none to be had Some write that in the Deserts and other wild Places as they are call'd are bred a World of Serpents of a wonderful bigness These they say with great fury and violence set upon the Elephants at the brink of the Waters clasping themselves in many Circles round their Thighs and sticking fast there so long as that at length the Beasts tir'd out by their great and weighty bulk fall down in a foaming Sweat to the ground upon which others in multitudes coming in they presently devour them and that with ease the poor Creatures being so unweldy as scarce able to move themselves If for some Reason or other they succeed not in their Attempt out of eagerness to their natural Food they pursue not the Elephants to the Rivers Bank before mentioned For they say these vast Serpents avoid all they can the open Fields and abide about the Feet and hollows of the Mountains in deep Holes and Caves And hence it is that they leave not those Places so fit for their shelter and defence Nature teaching every Creature to make use of that which is most helpful to it and to avoid what is hurtful And thus much we have thought fit to say of the Ethiopians and their Country And now something is to be said of the Historians For many have written such things concerning Egypt and Ethiopia as deserve not the least credit in as much as the Authors were either too easie to believe Lies or else in sport and for diversion invented them themselves But Agatharchides of Cnidus in his Second Book of the Affairs of Asia Artemidorus the Ephesian in his Eighth Book of Geography and some others that were natural Egyptians who have written Histories of the things herein before by us related have in their Writings nearly pursu'd the Truth And I my self in the time of my Travelling and Sojourning in Egypt associated with many of the Priests and conferr'd with many Ambassadors and others sent out of Ethiopia whence having exactly come to the knowledge of every thing and having likewise examin'd the several Relations of the Historians have fram'd and moulded my History so as to suit with those things wherein all of them did agree and consent But this shall suffice to be said of the Western Ethiopians We shall now speak a little of those inhabiting the Southern Parts and towards the Red Sea But it 's fit first that we say something of the making of Gold in these Parts In the Confines of Egypt and the neighbouring Countries of Arabia and Ethiopia P. 105. Manner of making Gold there 's a Place full of rich Gold-mines out of which with much Cost and Pains of many Labourers Gold is dug The Soyl here naturally is black but in the Body of the Earth run many white Veins shining with white Marble and glistering with all sorts of other bright Metals out of which labourious Mines those appointed Overseers cause the Gold to be dug up by the labour of a vast Multitude of People For the Kings of Egypt condemn to these Mines notorious Criminals Captives taken in War Persons sometimes falsly accus'd or such against whom the King is incens'd and that not only they themselves but sometimes all their Kindred and Relations together with them are sent to work here both to punish them and by their Labour to advance the Profit and Gain of the King There are infinite numbers upon these Accounts thrust down into these Mines all bound in Fetters where they work continually without being admitted any rest Night or Day and so strictly guarded that there 's no possibility or way left to make an escape For they set over them Barbarians Souldiers of various and strange Languages so that it 's not possible to corrupt any of the Guard by discoursing one with another or by the gaining Insinuations of a familiar Converse The Earth which is hardest and full of Gold they soften by putting Fire under it and then work it out with their Hands The Rocks thus softn'd and made more pliant and yielding several Thousands of profligat Wretches break it in pieces with Hammers and Pickaxes There 's one Artist that is the Overseer of the whole Work who marks out the Stone and shews the Labourers the way and manner how he would have it done Those that are the Strongest amongst them that are appointed to this Slavery provided with sharp Iron Pickaxes cleave the Marble-shining Rock by meer Force and Strength and not by Art or Slight of Hand They undermine not the Rock in a direct Line but follow the bright shining Vein of the Mine They carry Lamps

brightness of the Sun it 's not seen in the Day but shines bright and glorious in the darkest Night and discovers it self at a great distance The Keepers of the Island disperse themselves into several Places to search for this stone and whereever it appears they mark the Place with a great Vessel of largeness sufficient to cover the sparkling Stone and then in the Day time go to the Place and cut out the Stone and deliver it to those that are Artists in polishing of ' em Then sailing on further from these Parts appear many of those Nations call'd the Ichthuophages dispers'd along the Sea-shoar and many likewise of those Troglodites call'd † Shepherds Nomades several Mountains likewise present themselves in this Course as far as to the Haven call'd * Sotera Safe-Port which gain'd this Name from some Grecians that first sail'd into these Parts and there arriv'd safe Thence passing on the Gulf begins to grow narrower and bends its Course towards Arabia And the peculiar property of the Places is such that both the nature of the Sea and the Soyl seem to be chang'd for the Land appears very flat and low without any Hills or Rising Ground and the Sea seems to be muddy and green all over and is not above † Three Orgia's every Orgia Two Yards Two Fathom and an half deep The Greenness there is not ascrib'd to the nature of the Water but to the abundance of Moss and Sea-Grass that grows at the bottom and casts their Colour through the Water This part is very safe and commodious for small Ships with Oars because the Sea is there very calm and no roughness of the Waves for many Leagues and there they take abundance of Fish But the Mariners that transport Elephants run into great and desperate Hazards by reason of the strong built Ships they use for that purpose and the depth of Water they draw For oftentimes they are so driven by the violence of the Winds at full Sail in the Night time that they are either split upon the Rocks or stranded upon some of the deep sanded Necks of Land thereabouts and it 's no going for the Mariners out of the Ship because the Ford is above the height of any Man Neither can they force the Ship in the least forward with their Poles And although they throw all over-board but their Victuals yet even while they have Provision they are reduc'd to the utmost Extremities for neither Island Promontory or Ship is to be seen P. 122. in these Parts being desert and seldom frequented by Mariners And to the other Inconveniencies this further is an Addition the violent Waves on a suddain raise up such heaps of Sand out of the Channel and so inclose the Ship as if Men on purpose had fixt it to some Continent Being plung'd into this Calamity at first they only gently and modestly breath out their Complaints to a doleful Wilderness which regards them not yet not altogether desparing of deliverance For often by the raging working of the Sea the Ship is mounted up on high above the heaps of Sand and so the poor Creatures that were in this desperate Condition are unexpectedly as by some God assisting them out of an Engin deliver'd But if this help from God do not intervene when their Provision grows low the stronger throw the weaker overboard that the Meat that is left may last the longer for the support of those few that remain But at length when all hope of safety is gone and Provision spent these few die far more miserably than those that perisht before For these in a moment of time give up that Breath which Nature had given them but those by prolonging their Misery and dividing as it were their Sorrows into several parts dye at last with more lingering Torments The Ships being in this miserable manner depriv'd of their Pilots and Mariners continue a long time as so many Solitary Sepulchers and at length being buried in heaps of Sand their lofty Masts and Main-Yards remain only Spectacles to move Compassion in them that see them afar off For by the King's Command the Monuments of these Misfortunes are not to be toucht but are to remain as Sea-marks to Mariners to avoid those dangerous Places It has been an ancient Report among the Ichthuophages the Inhabitants of those Tracts continu'd down to them from their Fore-fathers that by a mighty reflux of the Sea which hapned in former days where the Sea is thus green the whole Gulf became dry Land and appear'd green all over and that the Water overflow'd the opposite Shoar and that all the Ground being thus bare to the very lowest bottom of the Gulf the Water by an This seems to be the Passage of the Israelites over the Red-Sea extraordinary high Tide return'd again into the ancient Channel The Navigation from * Ptolemais not in Phaenicia but that bordering upon the Red Sea Ptolemais to the Promontary of Taurus has been describ'd when we spoke of Ptolemy's Pleasure in hunting of Elephants From Taurus the Sea Coasts turn towards the East Here from the time of the Summer to the Winter Solstice A further Description of the Country of the Troglodites the Sun casts the shadow to the South contrary to what it does with us This Country is water'd with Rivers flowing down from the Psebarian Mountains as they are call'd and is divided into many spacious Plains which produce Mallows Cardanum and extraordinary Palm-Trees and divers other Fruits of an unsavory Taste altogether unknown to us The South parts of this Country are full of Elephants wild Bulls Lions and other wild Beasts In passing over to this Coast there lye several Islands in the way which are altogether barren as to any Fruit that is grateful but in them are bred strange sorts of Birds and wonderful to view and observe From hence sailing forward the Sea is exceeding deep and abounds with mighty great Whales which yet do no harm unless any by chance run upon their erected Finns for they cannot pursue the Ships because when they rise up towards the top of the Water they are struck blind by the brightness and splendour of the Sun These are the utmost Bounds of Troglodita known to us inviron'd with the Psebarian Promontaries And now we shall pass over to the other side of the Gulf and take a view of The Arabian side of the Red Sea the Regions lying towards Arabia beginning again at that part of the Sea which is call'd † Neptunium P. 123. Neptunium because Ariston erected there an Altar in honour of Neptune when Ptolemy sent him to discover the Arabian Coast as far as to the Ocean From thence to the Month of the Gulf is a place along the Sea-Coast of great esteem among the Inhabitants for the profit it yields them it 's call'd the Garden of Palm-Trees because they abound there and are so very Fruitful that they yield sufficient