the Trochilus doth awake the sleeping Crocodile when he seeth the Ichneumon lye in waite to enter into her I leaue it to the credite of Strabo the reporter and to the discretion of the indifferent Reader Monkeyes are also the haters of Crocodiles as is shewed in theyr story lye in waite to discouer and if it were in their power to destroy them The Scorpion also the crocodile are enemies one to the other and therefore when the Egyptians will describe the combat of two notable enimies they paint a crocodile and a Scorpion fighting together for euer one of them killeth another but if they will decypher a speedy ouerthrow to ones enemy then they picture a Crocodile if a slow and slacke victory they picture a Scorpion And as wee haue already shewed out of Philes that out of the egges of crocodiles many times come Scorpions which deuoure and destroy them that lay them Fishes also in their kinde are enemies to Crocodiles the first place whereof belongeth to the most noble Dolphin Of these Dolphins it is thought there be two kinds one bred in Nilus the other forraine and comming out of the Sea both of them professed enemies to the Crocodile for the first it hath vpon the backe of it sharp thorny prickles or finnes as sharp as any speares poynt which are well knowne to the fish that beareth them as her armour and weapons against all aduersaries In the trust and confidence of these prickles the Dolphin will allure and draw out the Crocodile from his denne or lodging place into the depth of the Riuer and there fight with him hand to hand For the Dolphin as it knoweth his owne armour and defence like other beasts and fishes so doth it knowe the weakest parts of his aduersary and where his aduantage of wounding lyeth Now as we haue said already the belly of the Crocodile is weake hauing but a thinne skin and penetrable with small force wherefore when the Dolphin hath the Crocodile in the midst of the deepe waters like one afrayd of the fight vnderneath him he goeth with his sharp finnes or prickles on his backe giueth his weake and tender belly mortall wounds whereby his vitall spirits with his guts entralls are quickly euacuated The other Dolphins of the Sea being greater are likewise armed with these prickles and of purpose come out of the Sea into Nilus to bid battell to the Crocodiles When Bibillus a worthy Romane was Gouernour of Egypt hee affirmed that on a season the Dolphins and the Crocodiles mette in the mouth of Nilus and bade battell the one to the other as it were for the soueraigntie of the waters and after that sharp combat it was seene how the Dolphins by diuing in the waters did auoyd the byting of the Crocodiles and the Crocodiles dyed by strokes receiued from the Dolphins vpon their bellyes And when many of them were by this meanes as it were cut asunder the residue betooke themselues to flight and ranne away giuing way to the Dolphins The Crocodiles doe also feare to meddle with the Sea-hogge or hog-Hog-fish because of his bristles all about his head which hurt him also when he commeth nigh him or rather I suppose as it is a friend to the Swine of the earth and holdeth with them a sympathy in nature so it is vnto the Swine of the water and forbeareth one in the Sea as it doth the other on the Land There is likewise a certaine Wild-oxe or Bugill among the Parthians which is an enemie to the Crocodile for as Albertus writeth if he find or meete with a Crocodile out of the water he is not onely not afrayd of him but taketh hart and setteth vppon him and with the waight and violent agitation of his body treadeth him all to pectes no maruaile for all beasts are enemies to the Crocodiles on the Land euen as the Crocodile lyeth in waite to destroy all them in the water Hawkes are also enemies to Crocodiles especially the Ibis-bird so that if but a feather of the Ibis come vpoÌ„ the crocodile by chance or by direction of a mans hand it maketh it immoueable and cannot stirre For vvhich cause when the Egyptians will write or decypher a rauâ—ning greedy idle-fellowe they paynt a Crocodile hauing an Ibis feather sticking in his head And thus much for the enmitie betwixt the Crocodiles and other liuing creatures It hath beene sildome seene that Crocodiles were taken yet it is saide that men hunt them in the waters for Pliny saith that there is an assured perswasion that with the gall and fat of a Water-Adder men are wonderfully holpen as it were armed against Crocodiles and by it enabled to take and destroy them especially when they carry also about them the herbe Potamegeton There is also a kind of thorny Wilde-beane growing in Egypt which hath many sharpe prickles vpon the stalkes this is a great terrour to the Crocodile for he is in great dread of his eyes which are very tender easie to be wounded Therefore he auoydeth their sight being more vnwilling to aduenture vpon a man that beareth them or one of them then he is to aduenture vpon a man in compleate Armour and therefore all the people plant great store of these and also beare them in theyr hands when they trauaile There be many who in the hunting and prosecuting of these Crocodiles doe neither giue themselues to runne away from them nor once to turne aside out of theyr common path or roade but in a foolish hardinesse giue themselues to combat with the beast when they might very well auoyd the danger but many times it hapneth that they pay decrely for their rashnes and repent too late the too much reputation of their owne man-hoode for whiles with their speares and sharpe weapons they thinke to pierce his sides they are deceiued for there is no part of him penetrable except his belly and that he keepeth safe enough from his enemies blunting vpon his scales no lesse hard then plates ofyron all the violence of theyr blowes and sharpnesse of weapons but clubbes beetles and such like weapons are more irkesome to him when they be sette on with strength battering the scales to his body and giuing him such knocks as doth dismay and astonish him Indeede there is no great vse of the taking of this Serpent nor profit of merchandize commeth thereby his skinne and flesh yeelding no great respect in the world In auncient time they tooke them with hookes bayted with flesh or els inclosed them with nettes as they doe fishes and now and then with a strong yron instrument cast out a boat downe into the water vpon the head of the Crocodile And among all other there is this one worthy to be related The Hunter would take off the skin from a Swines backe and there-withall couer his hooke whereby hee allured and inticed the Serpent into the midst of the Riuer there
lost or left some poyson vppon the Cats skinne the Monkes by stroking of the Cat were infected there-with And the cause why the Catte was not harmed thereby was for that shee receiued the poyson from the sport and not from the anger of the serpent And this thing surely is not so maruailous seeing that little Mice and Rats doe also play with Serpents and heerein Politicians play the serpents vvho hold correspondence and peace both with the Catte and the Mouse that is with two sworne and naturall enemies together The like peace and league they are also saide to keepe with Eeles as may more plainely appeare by this following historie of a certaine Monke called Rodolphus a Will Monachus Capellensis There vvas as this Monke affirmeth one of his fellowe Monks which did often tell him that beeing a little boy and vsing to sport himselfe by the water side hee hapned to catch an Eele which he attempted for his owne pleasure to carry to another water and by the way as he went hee passed thorough a vvood at which time when hee was in the vvood the Eele began to hisse cry mainelie at the hearing wheteof there gathered together very many serpents round about him insomuch that he was afraid and set downe his basket fast pinned and ranne away afterward he came againe and sought for his basket but he found not the Eele therein wherefore it was supposed that the Serpents deliuered the same Eele out of the basket by some sleight of nature the onely doubt is whether Eeles doe hysse or not seeing they are fishes and Omnes pisces mâ—ti all fishes are mute or dumbe But for answer to this obiection it is most certaine that Ecles haue a voyce as all they knowe which vse fishing in the night for I my selfe haue not onely heard such a voyce in the night time in Riuers and other waters where Eeles abounded but haue had it confirmed by diuers other of greater practise experience in fishing The reason wherof may be their manner of generation for they engender not by spawne as other fishes but of the slyme of the earth or vvater and differ not froÌ„ serpents in their externall forme except in their colour and therefore may be said to partake with fishes serpents in both their natures that is hauing a voyce like a serpent a substance like a fish Such is theyr confederacie with liuing Creatures and with no more that I euer read or heard of But moreouer it is said that they loue some plants or herbes aboue measure as the Fenell and Iuy and for this latter both Pliny and Textor doe not without great cause wonder that euer there was any honour ascribed or giuen to the Iuy seeing that serpents the most vnreconcileable enemies of man-kind delight so much therein But herein the deuil blinded their reason as hee did the modest women that worshipped Priapus or the Tartars which at this day worship the deuill to the end that he should do theÌ„ no harme Thus much I can onely say of the friends and louers of Serpents by the multitude whereof wee may coniecture how among other parts of the curse of God vpon them they are held accursed both by man and beast Now then it followeth that we enter into a more particular description or rather a relation of that hatred which is betweene them and other creatures and first I will beginne with their arch enemie I meane Man-kind For vvhen GOD at the beginning did pronounce his sentence against the Serpent for deceiuing our first Parents among other things he said I will put enmity betwixt thee and the Woman betwixt thy seed the womans seede Whereby he did signifie that perpetuall warre and vnappeaseable discord vvhich should be for euer by his owne appoyntment betwixt them And the truth heereof is to be seene at this day for by a kind of secret instinct and naturall motion a man abhorreth the sight of a Serpent a serpent the sight of a man And as by the tongue of the serpent was wrought mans confusion so by the spettle of a mans tongue is wrought a serpents astonishment For indeed such is the ordinance of God that men Serpents should euer annoy and vexe each other And this Erasmus saith shall continue as long as meminerimus illius inauspicati pomi we shall remember that vnfortunate Apple Isidorus saith that serpents are afraid of a man naked but will leape vpon and deuoure a man clothed Which thing is also affirmed by Olaus Magnus for he saith that when he was a boy hee often tryed it that when hee was naked hee found little or no resistance in serpents and did safely without all danger combat with them hand to hand I my selfe also in my younger time when I was about tenne or twelue yeeres old vsed many times in the Spring and Sommer time to wash my selfe with other my colleagues in certaine fish-ponds wherein I haue seene and met with diuers water-snakes without all harme and I did neuer in my life heare of any harme they did to any of my fellowes beeing naked neither did I euer see any of them runne away so fast on the Land as they did fly from vs in the vvater and yet are not the vvater-snakes lesse hurtfull then the Land-Adders And this was well knowne to many About the beginning or Fountaine Springs of Euphrates it is said that there are certaine serpents which know strangers from the people of the Country wherefore they doe no harme to the naturall borne Country-men but with strangers men of other countryes they fight with might and maine And along the bankes of Euphrates in Syria they also do the like sauing that if they chaunce to be trode vpon by any of the people of those parts they bite like as a dogge doth without any great harme but if any other forrainer or stranger annoy them they also repay him with malice for they bite him and intollerably vexe him wherefore the Country-men nourish them and doe them no harme Such as these are also found in Tirinthus but they are very little ones and are thought to be engendered of the earth The first manifestation in nature of mans discord with serpents is their venom for as in a serpent there is a venome which poysoneth a man so in a man there is the venom of his spittle which poysoneth a serpent For if the fasting spittle of a man fall into the iawes of a serpent he certainly dieth thereof And of this thus writeth the Poet Lucretius Est vtique vt serpens hominis quae tacta saliuis Disperit ac sese mandendo conficit ipsa In English thus As serpent dyeth when spittle of man he tasteth Gnashing his teeth to eate himselfe he wasteth The cause of this the Philosophers which knew nothing of Adams fall or the forbidden Apple doe assigne to be in the contrarietie betwixt the liuing soules or spirits of these Creatures for
described by Nicander with whose words I will conclude this Historie of the Cockatrice writing as followeth Quod ferit hic multo corpus succenditur igne A membris resoluta suis caro defluit fit Lurida obscuro nigrescit opaca colore Nullae etiam volucres quae faeda cadauera pascunt Sic occisum hominem tangunt vt vultur omnes Huic similes alia pluuiae quoque nuncius aura Coruus nec quaecunque fera per deuia lustra Degunt étali capiunt sibi tabula carne Tum teter vacuas odor hinc exhalat in auras Atque propinquantes penetrant non segniter artus Sin cogente fame ventens aproximet ales Tristia fata refert certamque ex aëre mortem Which may be englished thus When he doth strike the body hurt is set on fire And from the members falleth off the flesh withall It rotten is and in the colour blacke as any myre Refus'd of carrion-feeding-birds both great and small Are all men so destroyed No Vulture or Bitter fierce Or weather-telling-Crow or deserts wildest beast Which liue in dennes sustaining greatest famines force But at their tables doe this flesh detest Then is the ayre repleate with 's lothsome smell Piercing vitall parts of them approaching neere And if a bird it tast to fill his hunger fell It dyes assured death none neede it feare OF THE CORDYLL ALthough I finde some difference about the nature of this lyuing creature and namely whether it bee a Serpent or a Fishe yet because the greater and better part make it a Serpent I will also bring it in his due order in this place for a venomous beast Gesner is of opinion that it is no other but a Lizard of the Water but this cannont agree with the description of Aristotle Bellonius who affirme the Cordill to haue Gilles like a Fish and these are not found in any Lizard The Graecians call this Serpent Kordule and Kordulos whereof the Latines deriue or rather borrow their Cordulus and Cordyla Numenius maketh this a kind of Salamander which the Apothecaryes do in many Countryes falsely sell for the Scincus or Corcodile of the Earth and yet it exceedeth the quantity of a Salamander being much lesse then the crocodile of the earth hauing gils and wanting fins on the sides also a long taile and according to the proportion of the body like a Squirrels although nothing so big vvithout scabs the back being bald and some what black horrible rough thorow some bunches growing therupon which being pressed do yeald a certain humor like milk which being sayd to the Nosthrils doth smell like poyson euen as it is in a Salamander The beake or snout is very blunt or dull yet armed with very sharp teeth The clawes of his forelegges are diuided into foure and on his hinderlegges into fiue there is also a certaine fleshy fin growing all along from the crowne of his head vnto his tayle vppon the backe which when he swimmeth hee erecteth by it is his body sustained in the water from sinking for his body is mooued with crooked winding euen as an Eele or a Lamprey The inward parts of this Serpent are also thus described The tongue is soft and spungy like as is the tongue of a Water-Frogge wherewith as it were with Glew he draweth to his mouth both Leches and Wormes of the earth whereupon it feedeth At the roote of his tongue there is a certaine bunch of flesh which as I thinke supplieth the place of the lightes for when it breatheth that part is especially mooued and it panteth too fro so that thereby I gather either it hath the Lights in that place or else in some other place neere the iawes It wanteth ribs as doth the Salamander and it hath certain bones in the backe but not like the ordinary back-bone of other such Serpents The heart is also all spungy cleaueth to the right side not to the left the left care whereof supplyeth the place of the Pericadium The liuer is very blacke and somewhat clouen at the bending or sloape side the melt somewhat red cleauing to the very bottome of the ventricle The reynes are also very spungy ioyned almost to the Legges in which parts it is most fleshy but in other places especially in the belly and breast it is all skinne and bone It also beareth Egges in her place of conception which is forked or double which are there disposed in order as in other liuing gristly creatures Those Egges are nourished with a kinde of red fatte out of which in due time come the young ones aliue in as great plenty and number as the Salamanders And these thinges are reported by Bellonius besides whom I finde nothing more said that is worthy to be related of this Serpent and therefore I will here conclude the History thereof OF THE CROCODILE BEcause there be many kinds of Crocodiles it is no maruaile although some haue taken the word Crocodilus for the Genus and the seuerall Species they distinguish into the Crocodile of the Earth and the water Of the earth are sub-diuided into the Crocodiles of Bresilia and the Scincus the Crocodiles of the water into this here described which is the vulgar one and that of Nilus of all which we shall entreat in order one successiuely following another But I will not contend about the Genus or Species of this word for my purpose is to open their seuerall natures so far as I haue learned wherein the works of almighty God may be knowne and will leaue the strife of wordes to them that spend their wittes about tearmes sillables only Thus much I find that the auncients had three generall tearmes for all Egge-breeding Serpentes Namely Rana Testudo Lacerta And therefore I may forbear to intreate of Crocodilus as a Genus handle it as a species or particular kinde The Hebreus haue many words which they vse for a Crocodile Koah Leuit. 11. which the Arabians render Hardun and the Persiâ—ds Sanga which word commeth neere the Latine worde Scincus for a Crocodile of the earth and yet that word Koah by Saint Ierom and the Septuagints is translated a Chamaeleon In the same place of Leuiticus the word Zab is interpreted a kinde of Crocodile where-withall Dauid Kimhi confoundeth Gereschint and Rabbi Salomon Faget The Chaldes translate in Zaba The Persians An Rasu The Septuagints a Crocodile of the earth but it is better to follow Saint Hierom in the same because the Text addeth according to his kinde wherefore it is superfluous to adde the distinction of the crocodile of the Earth except it were lawful to eate the Crocodiles of the water In Exod. 8. there is a Fish called Zephardea which commeth out of the waters and eateth men this cannot agree to any Fish in Nilus saue onely the Crocodile and therefore this word is by the Arabians rendered Al Timasch Some do hereby vnderstand Pagulera Grenelera Batrichoi that is great frogs
very greedily for they say it hath in it a refrigeratiue power And there be some which by certaine inchaunting verses doe tame Dragons and rydeth vpon their necks as a man would ride vpon a horse guiding and gouerning them with a bridle Now because we haue already shewed that some dragons haue winges least it should seeme vncredible as the foolish world is apt to beleeue no more then they see I haue therefore thought good to adde in this place a particuler relation of the testimonies of sundry Learned-men concerning these winged Serpents or dragons First of all Megastenes writeth that in India there be certaine flying Serpents which hurt not in the day but in the night time and these do render or make a kind of vrine by the touching whereof all the parts of mortall creatures doe rotte away And there is a Mountaine which deuideth asunder the Kingdome of Narsing a from Alabaris wherein be many winged-serpents sitting vpon trees which they say poyson men with their breath There be many pestilent winged-serpents which come out of Arabia euery yeere by troupes into Egypt these are destroyed by a certaine Black-bird called Ibis who fighteth with thē in the defence of that Country where she liueth so that there lye great heapes of them many times destroyed vpon the earth by these Birds whose bodies may be there visibly seene to haue both wings and legges and their bones beeing of great quantitie and stature remaine vnconsumed for many yeeres after These kinde of Serpents or Dragons couet to keepe about the Trees of Frankinsence which grow in Arabia and when they are driuen away frō thence with the fume or smoake of Stirax then they flie as is afore-said into Egypt and this is to be considered that if it were not for this Stirax all that Country would be consumed with Dragons Neither haue wee in Europe onely heard of Dragons and neuer seene them but also euen in our own Country there haue by the testimonie of sundry Writers diuers been discouered and killed And first of all there was a Dragon or Winged-serpent brought vnto Frauncis the French-King when hee lay at Sancton by a certaine Country-man who had slaine the same Serpent himselfe with a Spade when it sette vppon him in the fields to kill him And this thing was witnessed by many Learned credible men which saw the same and they thought it was not bredde in that Country but rather driuen by the winde thither from some forraine Nation For Fraunce was neuer knowne to breede any such Monsters Among the Pyrenes also there is a cruell kinde of Serpent not past foure foote long and as thicke as a mans arme out of whose sides growe winges much like vnto gristles Gesner also saith that in the yeere of our Lord 1543. there came many Serpents both with wings and legs into the parts of Germany neere Stiria who did bite wound many men incurably Cardan also describeth certaine serpents with wings which hee saw at Parris whose dead bodies were in the hands of Gulielmus Musicus hee saith that they had two legges and small winges so that they could scarce flie the head was little and like to the head of a Serpent their colour bright and without haire or feathers the quantitie of that which was greatest did not exceede the bignes of a Cony and it is saide they vvere brought out of India Besides a further confirmation of these beastes there haue beene noted in all ages for it is written in the Romaine Chronicles the times of their apparision and manifestation When the Riuer of Tiber ouer-flowed aboue the bankes then were many Serpents discouered and many Dragons as in the time of Mauritius the Emperour at what time a dragon came along by the Citty of Rome vpon the waters in the sight of all men and so passed to the Sea after which prodigie there followed a great mortall pestilence In the yeere 1499. the twenty sixe day of May there came a dragon to the Citty of Lucerne which came out of the Lake through Rusa downe along the Riuer many people of all sorts beholding the same There haue beene also Dragons many times seene in Germanie flying in the ayre at mid-day and signifying great and fearefull fiers to follow as it happened neere to the Cittie called Niderburge neere to the shore of the Rhyne in a maruailous cleere sun-shine day there came a dragon three times successiuely together in one day did hang in the ayre ouer a Towne called Sanctogoarin and shaking his tayle ouer that Towne euery time it appeared visibly in the sight of many of the inhabitants and afterwards it came to passe that the said towne was three times burned with fire to the great harme and vndooing of all the people dwelling in the same for they were not able to make any resistance to quench the fire with all the might Art and power that they could raise And it was further obserued that about that time there were many dragons seene washing themselues in a certaine Fountaine or Well neere the towne and if any of the people did by chaunce drinke of the water of that Well theyr bellyes did instantly begin to swell and they died as if they had beene poysoned Where-vpon it was publiquely decreed that the said well should be filled vp with stones to the intent that neuer any man should afterwards be poisoned with that water and so a memory thereof was continued and these thinges are written by Iustinus Goblerus in an Epistle to Gesner affirming that hee did not write fayned things but such things as were true and as he had learned from men of great honestly and credite whose eyes did see and behold both the dragons and the mishaps that followed by fire When the body of Cleomines was crucified and hung vpon the Crosse it is reported by them that were the watch-men about it that there came a dragon and did wind it selfe about his body and with his head couered the face of the dead King oftentimes licking the same and not suffering any bird to come neere and touch the carkasse For vvhich cause there began to be a reuerent opinion of diuinitie attributed to the King vntill such time as wise and prudent men studious of the truth found out the true cause hereof For they say that as Bees are generated out of the body of Oxen and Drones of horses and Hornets of Asses so doe the bodyes of men ingender out of their marrow a Serpent and for this cause the Auncients were moued to consecrate the dragon to noble-spirited men and therefore there was a monument kept of the first Affricanus because that vnder an Oliue planted with his owne hand a dragon was said to preserue his ghost But I will not mingle fables and truth together and therefore I will reserue the morrall discourse of this beast vnto another place and this which I haue written may be sufficient to satisfie
betwixt Frogs and Mise called Batrachomiomachia hath deuised many proper names for Frogs such as these are Lyninocharis Gracediet Peleus Dust-liuer Hidromedousa Water-haunter Phusignathos Nature-cryer Hypsiboas Loud-cryer Leuthaios Lowe-liuer Poluphonos great Labourer Krambophagos Brasile-eater Lymnesios Poole-keeper Kalaminthios Mint-eater Hidrocharis Water-child Borborokoïtes noise-maker Prassaphogos Grasse-eater Pelauseas dust-creeper Pelobates dust-leaper Krawgasides drought-hater Prassaios Grasse-greene and such other like according to the witty inuention of the Author all which I thought good to name in this place as belonging to this History In the next place wee are to consider the diuersity and kindes of Frogges as they are distinguished by the place of their abode for the greatest difference is drawn from thence some of them therefore are Water-Frogges and some are Frogges of the Land the Water-Frogges liue both in the water and on the Land in Marshes standing-pooles running streames and bankes of Ryuers but neuer in the Sea and therefore Rana Marina is to be vnderstood of a Fish and not a Frog as Massarius hath learnedly prooued against Marcellus The frogs of the land are distinguished by their liuing in gardens in Meddows in hollow Rockes and among fruites all which seuerall differences shall be afterward expressed with their pictures in their due places here onely I purpose to talke of the vulgar and common frogge whose picture with her young one is formerly expressed Besides these differ in generation for some of them are engendered by carnall copulation some of the slime and rottennesse of the earth Some are of a greene colour and those are eaten in Germany and in Flanders some againe are yellow and some of an Ashe-colour some spotted and some blacke and in outward forme and fashion they resemble a Toad but yet they are without venome and the female is alwaies greater then the male when the Aegyptians will signifie an impudent man and yet one that hath a good quicke sight they picture a frogge because he liueth continually in the Mire and hath no bloud in his body but about his eyes The tongue is proper to this kinde for the fore-part thereof cleaueth to the mouth as in a fish and the hinder part to the throat by which he sendeth forth his voyce and this is to bee vnderstood that all frogges are mute and drunke except the greene frogs and the frogs of the Water for these haue voyces And many times the voyces of frogs proceedeth from the nature of the Countreyes wherein they liue for once all the frogges in Macedonia and Cyrenia were drunke vntill there were some brought thither out of some other Countries as at this day the frogges of Seriphus are all drunke whereuppon came the Prouerb Batrachos ec Seriphou A frogge of Seriphus because the frogs of that Countrey doe neuer croake although you carry them into any other Country This Seriphus is one of the Islands of the Sporades in Greece wherein is the Lake called Pierius which doth not runne in the Summer but onely in the winter and all the frogs which are cast into that lake are perpetually silent and neuer vtter their voyce whereof there are assigned two causes one Fabulous and the other true and naturall The first the Seriphians say that when Perseus returned with the head of Medusa hauing gone very far till he was weary layd him downe beside that lake to sleep but the croaking frogs made such a noyse as he could take no rest Whereat Perseus was much offended and therefore prayed Iupiter to forbid the frogs from crying who instantly heard his prayer inioyned perpetuall silence to the frogs in that water and this is the Fabulous reason being a meere fiction of the Poets The second and more true reason is that of Theophrastus who saith that for the coldnesse of the water the frogs are not able to cry in that place The voyce of frogges is said by the Latinists to bee Corare and by the Graecians Ololugon peculiar words to set forth this crying now because their tongue cleaueth to the pallet of their mouth and theyr voyce proceedeth but from their throat to their mouth and the spirit is hindered by the tongue so as it cannot proceed directly therefore it hath two bladders vppon either side of the mouth one which it filleth with wind and from thence proceedeth the voyce Now when it croaketh it putteth his head out of the water holding the neather lip euen with the water and the vpper lip aboue the water and this is the voyce of the male prouoking the female to carnall copulation They haue but very small lungs those without bloud ful of froth like to al other creatures of the water which do lay egges and for this cause they do neuer thirst wherefore also Sea-calues and Frogges are able to liue long vnder the Water They haue a double Liuer and a very small Melt their Legges behind are long which maketh them apt to leape before they are shorter hauing deuided clawes which are ioyned together with a thinne broad skinne that maketh them more apt to swimme The most place of their abode is in fennes or in warme Waters or in fish-pooles but yellow and Ashe-coloured frogs abide in Riuers Lakes and standing pooles but in the Winter time they all hyde themselues in the earth And therefore it is not true that Pliny saith that in the VVinter time they are resolued into slyme and in Summer they resume againe their first bodyes for they are to be seene many times in the winter especially in those waters that are neuer frozen as Agrecolaana Mathiolus hath soundly obserued and they haue beene seene in certaine running streames holding small fishes in their mouths as it were sucking meat out of them Sometimes they enter into their holes in Autumne before winter and in the spring time come out againe When with their croaking voyces the Male prouoketh the femall to carnall copulatiō which he performeth not by the mouth as some haue thought but by couering her backe the instrument of geneneration meeting in the hinder parts and this they performe in the night season nature teaching them the modesty or shamefastnesse of this action And besides in that time they haue more security to giue themselues to mutuall imbraces because of a generall quietnesse for men and all other their aduersaries are then at sleepe and rest After their copulation in the waters there appeareth a thicke Ielly out of which the young one is found But the Land-frogges are ingendered out of Egges of whom wee discourse at this present and therefore they both suffer copulation lay their egges and bring forth young ones on the land When the Egge breaketh or is hatched there commeth forth a little black thing like a peece of flesh which the Latines call Gyrini from the Greeke word Gyrrinos hauing no visible part of a liuing creature vpon them besides their eyes and their tailes and within short space after their feet are formed and their taile deuided
sibi pabula terra Nec licet id magno cupiat studeatqque labore Arescente sitim potis est depellere fauce Which may be englished thus The Scytall like the Double-head thou shalt in feature find Yet is it fatter and tayle that hath no end much thicker is As bigge as crooked hand is wonted for to wind The haft and helue of digging-spade the earth that rifts As long it is as that thinne crawling worme which heauens rayne Begets on fruitefull earth when bowells warmely moystened are And when the mother-Goddesse great sends forth her creepine traine Which is Yeeres-youth fresh time of Spring both calme and fayre Then leaues it off his wonted bed in rocke obscure And in what sunne he stretches out his limbes and sinnewes all Eating the new spring-blades of Fennell-herbe so putting teeth in vre In holes of the declining hills so keepes both great and small Where time in deepest sleepe of buried nature it doth passe And beeing hungry the earth in toppe of hole it eates Quenching the thirst by force of dryest chappes as grasse Though without payne desirelesse it seekes these drinkes and meates The byting of this Serpent is like the byting of the Double-head and therefore the cure is in the same manner wherefore I shall not neede to repeate the signes thereof or the cure in this place And so I will conclude the story of this Serpent OF THE SEA-SERPENTS AMong the manifold kinds of Sea-serpents as well knowne as vnknown wherof some are like the Lamprey some like the Myrus and many other like the Serpents of the earth except in their head as Aristotle writeth for that is more like the head of a Conger then a serpent it peculiarly hath one kind in colour forme not vnlike an Eeele in length about three cubits in the gylls finnes resembling a Conger but it hath a longer snout or beake which is also fortified inwardly with very many small sharpe teeth the eyes not so great a smooth or pield skinne and hanging ouer at the backe hauing no scales so as it may easily be fleyed The belly of it is betwixt redde and white and all the body ouer is set with spires so as beeing aliue it is not handled without danger And this is by Pliny called the Dragon of the Sea which commeth out of the Sea into the Sands and therein with an admirable celerity and dexteritie maketh his lodging place For the snout thereof is sharper then the Serpents of the earth therefore there-with it diggeth and hideth it selfe in the hole or hollow place which it hath made This is also called by Pliny Ophidion but I thinke it better to follow Aristotle who doth call it Ophis thalattios a Sea-serpent the colour whereof is blacker or dymmer then the Conger There be also Vipers of the Sea which are in shew little fishes about a cubit long hauing a little horne in their fore-head the byting or sting whereof is very deadly therefore when the Fisher-men haue taken any one of these they instantly cut off the head and bury it in the sand but the body they eate for good meate yet these Serpents are thought to be none other then the Fishes called Aranei or spyder-Spyder-fishes sauing that they are said to haue a sharpe sting in their head and this a horne for all Water or Sea-Serpents haue harder and lesse heads then the Serpents of the Land In the Germaine-Ocean there is found a Serpent about the bignesse of a mans legge which in the tayle carryeth a sting as hard as any horne this haunteth onely the deepest part of the Sea yet is it some-time taken by the Fishermen and then they cut off the tayle and cate the residue of the body Yet I will not expresly define whether this may be called a Sea-Serpent or a Serpentine-fish it may be it is the same that is a Forke-fish or Ray which by reason of the tayle thereof it might giue occasion to Albertus to call it a serpent of the Sea There be also Snakes or Hyders in the Sea for although all water-serpents as well of the fresh salt sweet waters may be called Hyders or Snakes yet there be some peculiar Snakes such are those in the indian-Indian-Sea where they haue broade tayles and they harme more by byting with the sharpnes of their teeth then by any venome that is contained in them and therefore in this they some-what resemble the Snakes of the earth And Plinie vvriteth that once before Persis vppon the coasts of certaine Ilands there were seene of these Sea Hyders very many of the length of twenty cubits where-withall a whole Nauy or fleet of ships were mightily affrighted And the like is reported of three other Ilands lying betwixt the promontory of Carmania and Arabia and such were those also in the Affrican-sea who are said by Aristotle not to be affraid of a Gally but will set vppon the men therein and ouer-turne it And he himselfe saw many bones of great wild-oxen who had beene destroyed by these kind of Sea-snakes or Hyders The greatest Riuer that falleth into the Red-sea is called Sinthus the fall whereof a far off seemeth to the beholders to be like winding Snakes as though they were comming against the passengers to stay them from enterance into that Land and there is not onely a sight or resemblance of Serpents there but also the very truth of them for all the Sea-men know when they are vpon these coasts by the multitude of Serpents that meet them And so do the Serpents called Graae about Persis And the Coast of Barace hath the same noysome premonstration by occurrence of many odious blacke and very great Sea-serpents But about Barygaza they are lesse and of yellow earthy colour their eyes bloody or fierie red and their heads like Dragons Keranides writeth of a Sea-dragon in this maner saying The Dragon of the Sea is a fish without scales and when this is growne to a great and large proportion whereby it doth great harme to other creatures the winds or clowdes take him vp suddenly into the ayre and there by violent agitation shake his bodie to peeces the parcels whereof so mangled and torne asunder haue beene often sound in the tops of the mountaines And if this be true as it may well be I cannot tell whether there be in the world a more noble part of Diuine prouidence signe of the loue of God to his creatures who armeth the clowdes of heauen to take vengeane of their destroyers The tongue of this Sea-dragon saith hee is like a horses tayle two foote in length the which tongue preserued in oyle and carried about by a man safegardeth him from languishing infirmities and the fat thereof with the Herbe-Dragon annoynted on the head or sick-parts cureth the head-ache and driueth away the Leprosie and all kind of scabs in the skinne Heere is also the picture of another Sea-serpent very like to the serpent of the earth being 3.
this busines or History There be of Torteyses three kinds one that liueth on the Land the second in the sweet waters and the third in the Sea or salt-salt-waters There are found great store of these in India especially of the Wateâ— Torteyses and therefore the people of that part of the Country are called Chelonophagi that is Eaters of Torteyses for they liue vpon them and these people are sayd to be in the East-part of India And in Carmania the people are likewise so called And they do not onely eare the flesh of them but also couer their houses with their shells and of their abundance doe make them all manner of vessels And Pliny and Solinus write that the Sea Torteyses of India are so bigge that with one of them they couer a dwelling Cottage And Strabo sayth they also row in them on the waters as in a Boate. The Islands of Serapis in the redde-Redde-Sea and the farthest Ocean Islands towardes the East of the Red Sea hath also very great Torteyses in it and euery where in the red-Red-Sea they so abound that the people there doe take them and carry them to their greatest Marts and Fayres to sell them as to Rhaphtis to Ptolemais and the Island of Dioscorides whereof some haue white and small shels In Lybia also they are found and in the night time they come out of their lodgings to feede but very softly so as one can scarcely perceiue their motion And of one of these Scaliger telleth this story One night saith he as I was trauayling being ouer-taken with darkenesse and want of light I cast about mine eyes to seeke some place for my lodging safe and secure from Wild-beasts and as I looked about I saw as I thought a little â—ill or heape of earth but in truth it was a Torteyse couered all ouer with mosse vpon that I ascended and saâ—e downe to rest where-vppon after a little watching I feâ—l asleepe and so ended that nights rest vppon the backe of the Torteyse In the morning when light approched I perceiued that I was remooued farre from the place whereon I first chose to lodge all night and therefore rising vp I beheld with great admiration the face and countenaunce of this Beast in the knowledge whereof as in a new nature I went foreward much comforted in my wearisome iourney The description of the Torteyse and the seuerall partes thereof now followeth to bee handled Those creatures saith Pliny which bring forth or lay egs eyther haue feathers as Fowles or haue scales as Serpents or thicke hides as the Scorpion or else a shell like the Torteyse It is not without great cause that this shell is called Scutrem and the Beast Scutellaria for there is no buckler and shield so hard and strong as this is And Palladius was not deceiued when he wrote thereof that vppon the same might safelie passe ouer a Cart-wheele the Cart being loadâ—d And therefore in this the Torteyse is more happy then the Crocodile or any other such Beast Albertus writeth that it hath two shellâ—s one vppon the backe the other on the belly which are conioyned together in foure places and by reason of this so firme a couer and shell the flesh thereof is dry and firme also long lasting and not very easie or apt to putrefaction This shell or couer is smooth except some-times when it is growne old it hath mosse vppon it and it neuer casteth his coate in old age as other creeping thinges do In the head and tayle it resembleth a Serpent and the great Torteyses haue also shelles vpon thâ—ir heads like a shield yet is the head but short and the espect of it very fearefull vntil a man â—e well acquainted there with And by reason of the hardnesse of their eyes they mooue none but the neather eye lidde and that without often winking The Liuer of it is great yet without any blood It hath but one belly without diuision and the Liueris alwaâ—es foule by reason of the vitious temperature of the body The Melt is exceeding small comming far short of the bodies proportion Beâ—…e the common nature of other thicke-hided-creatures It hath also reynes except that kind of Tortoyce called Lutaria for that wanteth both Reynes and bladder for by reason of the softnesse of the couer thereof the humour is ouer fluent but the Tortoyâ—e that bringeth foorth Egges hath all inward partes like a perfect Creature and the Females haue a singular passage for theyr excrementes which is not in the Males The Egges are in the body of their belly which are of a party-colour like the Egges of Birds Theyr stones cleaue to theyr loynes and the tayle is short but like the tayle of a Serpent They haue foure Legges in proportion like the Legges of Lizards euery foot haâ—ing fiue fingers or diuisions vpon them with nayles vpon euery one And thus much for the seuerall parts They are not vniustly called Amphibia because they liue both in the water and on the Land and in this thing they are by Pliny resembled to Beauers but this must bee vnderstood of the general otherwise the Tortoyces of the Land doe neuer dare come into the Water and those of the Water can breath in the water but want respiration and likewise they lay theyr Egges and sleepe vppon the dry Land They haue a very slowe and easie pace and thereupon Pauuiuâ— calleth it Tardigrada and also there is a Prouerbe Testudineus incessus for a slow and soft pace when such a motion is to be expressed The Tortoyce neuer casteth his coate no not in his old age The voyce is an abrupt and broken hissing not like to the Serpents but much more loud and diffused The Male is very salacious and giuen to carnall copulation but the Female is not so for when shee is attempted by the Male they fight it out by the teeth and at last the Male ouercommeth whereat he reioyceth as much as one that in a hard conflict fight or battaile hath won a fayre Woman the reason of this vnwillingnesse is because it is exceeding paynefull to the Female They engender by riding or couering one another When they haue layde theyr Egges they doe not sit vpon them to hatch them but lay them in the Earth couered and there by the heat of the Sun is the young one formed and commeth foorth at due time without any further help from his parents They are accounted crafty and suâ—tle in theâ—r kinde for subtlenesse is not onely ascribed to thinges that haue a thinne bloud but also to those that haue thicke skinnes hides and Couers such as the Tortoyce and Crocodile haue The Tortoyce is an enemy to the Bariridge as Philes and Aelianus write Also the Ape is as frayde thereof as it is of the Snayle and to conclude whatsoeuer enemy it hath it is safe inough as long as it is couered with his Shell and clyngeth fast to the Earth beneath and therefore came the Prouerbe Oikos philos
vndoubted Antiquaries and also the euidence of all ages not excepting this wherein we liue wherein are and haue beene shewed publiquely many Serpents and Serpents skinnes I receiue warrant sufficient to expresse what they haue obserued and assured aunswere for all future Obiections of ignorant incredulous and vnexperienced Asses Wherefore as the life of Serpents is long so is the time of theyr groweth and as their kindes be many as wee shall manifest in the succeeding discourse so in their multitude some grow much greater and bigger then other Gellius writeth that when the Romanes were in the Carthagenian warre and Attilius Regulus the Consull had pitched his Tents neere vnto the riuer Bragrada there was a Serpent of monstrous quantitie which had beene lodged within the compasse of the Tents and therefore did cause to the whole Armie exceeding great calamitie vntill by casting of stones with slings and many other deuises they oppressed and slew that Serpent and afterward fleyed off the skinne and sent it to Rome which was in length one hundred and twentie feete And although this seemeth to be a Beast of vnmatchable stature yet Possidonius a Christian Writer relateth a storie of another which was much greater for hee writeth that he saw a Serpent dead of the length of an acre of Land and all the residue both of head and bodie were answerable in proportion for the bulke of his bodie was so great and lay so high that two Horsemen could not see one the other beeing at his two sides and the widenes of his mouth was so great that hee could receiue at one time within the compasse thereof a horse and a man on his backe both together The scales of his coate or skinne beeing euery one like a large buckler or target So that now there is no such cause to wonder at the Serpent which is said to be killed by S. George which was as is reported so great that eight Oxen were but strength enough to drawe him out of the Cittie Silena There is a Riuer called Rhyndacus neere the Coasts of Bythinia wherein are Snakes of exceeding monstrous quantitie for when thorough heate they are forced to take the water for their safegard against the sunne and birds come flying ouer the poole suddenlie they raise their heads and vpper parts out thereof and swallow them vp The Serpents of Megalauna are said by Pausanias to be thirtie cubits long and all their other part answerable But the greatest in the world are found in India for there they grow to such a quantitie that they swallow vp whole Bulls and great Stagges Wherefore I doe not maruell that Porus the King of India sent to Augustus Caesar very huge Vipers a Serpent of tenne cubits long a Torteise of three cubits and a Partridge greater then a Vulture For Alexander in his nauigation vpon the Red-Sea saith that hee saw Serpents fortie cubits long and all their other parts and members of the same quantity Among the Scyritae the Serpents come by great swarmes vppon their flocks of sheepe and cattell and some they eate vp all others they kill and sucke out the blood and some part they carry away But if euer there were any thing beyond credite it is the relation of Volateran in his twelfth booke of the New-found Lands wherein he writeth that there are Serpents of a myle long which at one certaine time of the yeere come abroad out of their holes and dennes of habitation and destroy both the Heards and Heard-men if they find them Much more fauourable are the Serpents of a Spanish Island who doe no harme to any liuing thing although they haue huge bodies and great strength to accomplish their desires In the kingdome of Senega their Serpents are so great that they deuoure whole beasts as Goates and such like without breaking any one of their bones In Calechute they are as great as their greatest Swine and not much vnlike them except in their head which doth farre exceede a Swines And because the King of that Country hath made a Lavv that no man kill a Serpent vnder paine of death they are as great in number as they are in quantitie for so great is his error that hee deemeth it as lawfull to kill a Man as a Serpent All kindes of Serpents are referred to their place of habitation which is eyther the earth or the waters of the earth and the serpents of the earth are moe in number then the serpents of the vvater except the serpents of the Sea And yet it is thought by the most learned Rabbines that the serpents of the Sea are fishes in the likenes of Dragons Nowe the places of Serpents abode beeing thus generally capitulated wee must enter into a farther narration of their habitations and regions of their natiue breeding In the first place India nourisheth many and diuers sorts of Serpents especially in the Kingdome of Morfilium and Alexander the Emperour found among other Beasts sundry kinds of serpentâ— in a long Desert which is on the North-side of India But all the Nations of the World may giue place to Ethiopia for multitude and varietie for there they gather together on heapes and lye in compasse like round hills visibly apparant to the eyes of them that behold them a farre off The like is said of all Affrica for in Numidia euery yeere there are many men women and children destroyed by Serpents The Island Pharus is also by the testimony of the Egyptians filled with serpents The Coastes of Elymais are annoyed by serpents and the Caspians are so annoyed by serpents which come swymming in the floods that men cannot sayle that waies but in the Winter-time For from the beginning of the Spring or aequinoctiall they seeme for their number to approch fauening like troupes and Armies There are also certaine Ilands called Ophiusae insulae named after Ophis a serpent for the multitude bred therein And there are serpents in Candy Ephesus and all hot Countries for this priuiledge hath GOD in nature giuen to the colder Countreys that they are lesse annoyed with serpents and their serpents also lesse nocent and hurtfull and therefore the serpents of Europe are fewer in number lesser in quantity and more resistable for their weakenes and strength There were a people in Campania called Osci because of the multitude of serpents bred among them Likewise there are great store in Lombardy and Ferrara And whereas we haue saide that the most nocent and harmfull serpents are breddâ— in the hotest Regions where they engender more speedily and also grow into greater proportions yet is it not to be vnderstood of any speciall propertie appertayning to them alone for I read in Olaus Magnus his description of the Northerne Regions of serpents of as great quantitie as in any other place of the World but yet their poyson is not halfe so venomous hurtfull as in the hoter Regions especially the Affrican serpents In Botina
all the liuing creatures in the water draweth a certaine thin bright skinne from his fore-head ouer his eyes where-withall hee couereth his sight and this I take to be the onely cause of his dimme sight in the waters The head of this beast is very broade and his snoute like a Swynes When hee eateth or byteth he neuer mooueth his neather or vnder chappe Whereof Aristotle giueth this reason that seeing Nature hath giuen him so short feete as that they are not able to hold or to take the prey therefore the mouth is framed instead of feete so as it may more vehemently strike and wound and also more speedily mooue and turne after the prey and this is better done by the vpper thē the nether chap. But it is likely that hee was not deceiued although he speaketh of Crocodilus Marinus a crocodile of the sea vvheras there is no Crocodile of the Sea but rather some other monster like a Crocodile in the sea and such peraduenture Albertus saw and there-vpon inconsideratly affirmed that all Crocodiles moue theyr vnder-chapps except the Tenchea But the learned Vessalius prooueth it to be otherwise because that the nether chappe is so conioyned and fastned to the bones of the temples that it is not possible for to be moued And therfore the Crocodile onely among all other liuing creatures moueth the vpper-chap and holdeth the vnder-chap vnmoueable The second wonder vnto this is that the Crocodile hath no tongue nor so much as any appearance of a tongue But then the question is how it commeth to distinguish the sapours and tast of his meate Where-vnto Aristotle aunswereth that this Crocodile is such a rauening beast that his meate tarrieth not in his mouth but is carryed into his stomacke like as other water-beasts and therefore they discerne sapours and rellish theyr meate more speedily thē other for the water or humour falleth so fast into their mouthes that they cannot stand long vppon the tast or distaste of their meate But yet some make question of this and they aunswere that most men are deceiued heerein for whiles they looke for his tongue vpon his nether-chap as it is in all other beasts and find none they conclude him to want that part but they should consider that the tongue cleaueth to the moueable part and as in other beasts the nether-chap is the seate of the tongue because of the motion so in this the tongue cleaueth to the vpper-chappe because that it is moueable and yet not visible as in other and therefore is very hardly discerned For all this I rather conclude with the former Authours that seeing it liueth both in the waters and on the land and therefore it resembleth a fish and a beast as it resembleth a beast locum obtinet lingua it hath a place for a tongue but as it resembleth a fish Elinguis est it is without a tongue It hath great teeth standing out all of them stand out before visibly when the mouth is shut and fewer behind And whereas Aristotle writeth that there is no liuing creature which hath both dentes prominentes serratos that is standing out and deuided like a saw yet the Crocodile hath both These teeth are white long sharpe a little crooked and hollow their quantity well resembling the residue of the proportion of the body and some say that a crocodile hath three rowes of teeth like the Lion of Chius like the Whale but this is not an approoued opinion because they haue no more then 60. teeth They haue also 60. ioynts or bones in the back which are also tied together with so many nerues The opening of his mouth reacheth to the place of his eares and there be some Crocodiles in Ganges which haue a kind of little horne vpō their noses or snout The melt is very small this somesay is onely in them that bring forth egges their stones are inward cleaue to their loynes The taile is of the same length that the whole body hath and the same is also rough armed with hard skin vpon the vpper part the sides but beneath it is smooth tender It hath finnes vpō the tayle by the benefit wherof it swimmeth as also by the help of the feete The feet are like a Beares except that they are couered with scales in stead of haire their nailes are very sharp strong for if it had a thumbe as well as it hath feet the strength thereof would ouer-turne a ship It is doubtful whether it hath any place of excrement except the mouth And thus much for the seuerall parts of the Crocodile The knowledge also of the naturall actions inclinations of Crocodiles is requisite to be handled in the next place because that actions folow the members as sounds do instruments First therfore although Aristotle for the most part speaking of a Crocodile calleth it aquatilis fluuiatilis yet it is not to confine it to the waters riuers as though it neuer came out of thē like fishes but onely to note that particuler kind which differeth frō them of the earth for it is certaine that it liueth in both elements namely earth water for the time that it abideth in the water it also taketh ayre not the humour or moistnes of the water yet can they not want either humor of the water or respiration of the ayre and for the day time it abideth on the land in the night in the water because in the day the earth is hoter then the water in the night the water warmer then the earth while it liueth on the land it is so delighted with the sun-shine lieth therein so immoueable that a man would take it to be stark dead The eyes of a Crocodile as we haue said are dull blind in the water yet they appeare bright to others for this cause whē the Egyptians wil signifie the sun-rising they picture a Crocodile in the water looking vpward to the earth when they will signifie the west they picture a Crocodile diuing into the water and so for the most part the crocodile lyeth vpon the banks that he may either diue into the water with speed or ascend to the earth to take his prey By reason of the shortnes of his feet his pace is very slow therefore it is not only easie to escape from him by flight but also if a man do but turne aside wind out of the direct way his body is so vnable to bend it selfe that hee can neither wind nor turne after it Whē they go vnder the earth into their caues like to all other foure-footed egge-breeding serpents as namely Lizards Stellions Torteises they haue all their legs ioyned to their sides which are so retorted as they may bend to either side for the necessity of couering their egges but when they are abroad and goe bearing vp all their bodies then they bend only outward
making their thighes more visible It is som-what questionable whether they lye hid within their caues 4. months or 60. daies for some Authors affirme one thing some another but the reason of the difference is taken from the condition of the cold weather for which cause they lye hid in the winter-time Now forasmuch as the winter in Egypt is not vsually aboue foure months therfore it is taken that they lye but foure months but if it be by accidēt of cold wether prolonged longer thē for the same cause the crocodile is the longer time in the earth During the time they lye hid they eate nothing but sleepe as it is thought immoueably when they come out againe they do not cast their skinnes as other Serpents doe The tayle of a Crocodile is his strongest part and they neuer kill any beast or man but first of all they strike him downe and astonish him with their tailes and for this cause the Egyptians by a Crocodiles tayle doe signifie death darknes They deuoure both men and beasts if they find them in theyr way or neere the bankes of Nilus wherein they abide taking sometimes a calfe from the cow his damme and carrying it whole into the waters And it appeareth by the portraiture of Nealces that a Crocodile drew in an Asse into Nilus as he was drinking and therefore the dogges of Egypt by a kind of naturall instinct do not drinke but as they runne for feare of the Crocodiles wherevpon came the prouerbe Vt canis é Nilo bibit fugit as a dogge at one time drinketh and runneth by Nilus When they desire fishes they put their heads out of the water as it were to sleepe and then suddenly when they espy a booty they leape into the waters vppon them and take them After that they haue eaten and are satisfied then they turne to the land againe and as they lye gaping vpon the earth the little bird Trochilus maketh cleane their teeth and is satisfied by the remainders of the flesh sticking vppon them It is also affirmed by Arnoldus that it is fedde with mud but the holy Crocodile in the Prouince of Arsinoe is fedde with bread flesh wine sweet and hard sodde flesh and cakes and such like thinges as the poore people bring vnto it when they come to see it VVhen the Egyptians will write a man eating or at dinner they paynt a Crocodile gaping They are exceeding fruitefull and prolificall and therfore also in Hieroglyphicks they are made to signifie fruitfulnes They bring forth euery yeere and lay their egges in the earth or dry land For during the space of three-score dayes they lay euery day an egge within the like space they are hatched into young ones by sitting or lying vpon them by course the male one while the female another The time of their hatching is in a moderate and temperate time otherwise they perrish and come to nothing for extremity of heate spoyleth the egge as the buds of some trees are burned and scorched off by the like occasion The egge is not much greater then the egge of a Goose and the young one out of the shell is of the same proportion And so from such a small beginning doth this huge and monstrous Serpent grow to his great stature the reason whereof saith Aristotle is because it groweth all his life long euen to the length of ten or moe cubits When it hath layd the egges it carryeth them to the place where they shall be hatched for by a naturall prouidence and fore-sight it auoydeth the waters of Nilus and therefore euer layeth her egges beyond the compasse of her floods by obseruation whereof the people of Egypt know euery yeere the inundation of Nilus before it happen And in the measure of this place it is apparent that this beast is not indued onely with a spirit of reason but also with a fatidicall or propheticall geographicall delineation for so shee placeth her egges in the brimme or banke of the flood before the flood commeth that the water may couer the nest but not herselfe that sitteth vpon the egges And the like to this is the building of the Beauer as we haue shewed in due place before in the History of Foure-footed beastes So soone as the young ones are hatched they instantly fall into the depth of the vvater but if they meete with frogge snayle or any other such thing fit for their meate they doe presently teare it in peeces the damme byteth it with her mouth as it were punishing the pusillanimity thereof but if it hunt greater things and be greedy rauening industrious and bloody that she maketh much of and killing the other nourisheth and tendereth this aboue measure after the example of the wisest men who loue their childrē in iudgement fore-seeing their industrious inclination and not in affection without regard of worth vertue or merrit It is said by Philes that after the egge is layd by the Crocodile many times there is a cruell stinging Scorpion which commeth out thereof and woundeth the Crocodile that layde it To conclude they neuer prosper but neere the waters and they liue threescore yeeres or the age of a mans life The nature of this beast is to be fearefull rauening malitious and trecherous in getting of his prey the subtiltie of whose spirit is by some attributed to the thinnesse of his blood and by other to the hardnes of his skin and hide How it dealeth with her young ones we haue shewed already as it were trying their nature whether they will degenerate or no and the like things are reported of the Aspes Cancers Torteyses of Egypt From hence came the conceit of Pietas Crocodili the pietie of the Crocodile But as we haue said it is a fearefull Serpent abhorring all manner of noyse especially from the strained voyce of a man and where hee findeth himselfe valiantly assaulted there also hee is discouraged and therefore Marcellinus saith of him Audax Monstrum fugacibus at vbi audacem senserit timidissimum An audacious Monster to them that runne away but most fearefull where he findeth resistance Some haue written that the Crocodile runneth away from a man if he winke with his left eye and looke stedfastly vppon him with his right eye but if this bee true it is not to be attributed to the vertue of the right eye but onely to the rarenesse of sight vvhich is conspicuous to the Serpent from one eye The greatest terrour vnto Crocodiles as both Seneca and Pliny affirme are the inhabitants of the Ile Tentyrus within Nilus for those people make them runne away with their voyces and many times pursue and take them in snares Of these people speaketh Solinus in this manner There is a generation of men in the Ile Tentyrus within the waters of Nilus which are of a most aduerse nature to the Crocodile dwelling also in the same place And although their persons
or presence be of small stature yet heerein is theyr courage admired because at the suddaine sight of a Crocodile they are no whit daunted for one of these dare meete and prouoke him to runne away They will also leape into the Riuers and swimme after the Crocodile and meeting with it without feare cast themselues vppon the Beasts backe ryding on him as vppon a horse And if the Beast lift vppe his head to byte him when hee gapeth they put into his mouth a wedge holding it hard at both ends with both their hands so as it were with a bridle leade or rather driue them captiues to the Land vvhere with theyr noyse they so terrifie them that they make them cast vppe the bodies which they had swallowed into theyr bellies because of this antypathy in nature the Crocodiles dare not come neere to this Iland The like thing wee haue before in our generall discourse of Serpents shewed to be in the Indian Psylli against the greatest Serpents And Strabo also hath recorded that at what time crocodiles were brought to Rome these Tentyrites folowed droue thē For whom there was a certaine great poole or fish-pond assigned and walled about except one passage for the Beast to come out of the water into the sun-shine and when the people came to see them these Tentyrites with nettes would draw them to the Land put them backe againe into the water at theyr owne pleasure For they so hooke them by theyr eyes and bottome of theyr bellyes which are their tenderest partes that like as horses broken by theyr Riders they yeelde vnto them and forget theyr strength in the presence of these theyr Conquerours Peter Martyr in his third booke of his Babylonian Lagation saith that from the Cittie Cair to the Sea the Crocodiles are not so hurtfull and violent as they are vp the Riuer Nilus into the Land and against the streame For as you goe further vp the Riuer neere the mountanie and hilly places so shall you find them more fierce bloody and vnresistable whereof the inhabitants gaue him many reasons First because that part of the Riuer which is betwixt the Citty Cair and the Sea is very full of all sorts of fishes whereby the beasts are so filled with deuouring of them that they list not come out of the water on the Land to hunt after men or cattell and therefore they are the lesse hurtfull for euen the Lyon and Wolfe doe cease to kill deuoure when theyr bellyes are full But sometimes the Crocodiles beneath the Riuer follow the gales or troupes of fish vp the Riuer like so many Fisher-men and then the Country Fisher-men inclose them in Nettes and so destroy them For there is a very great reward proposed by the Law of the Country to him that killeth a Crocodile of any great quantitie and therefore they grow not great and by reason of their smalnes are lesse aduenturous For so soone as a great Crocodile is discouered there is such watch and care taken to interrupt and kill him for hope of the reward that he cannot long escape aliue Thirdly the Crocodiles vp the Riuer towards the Mountaines are more hurtfull because they are pressed with more hunger and famine and more sildome come within the terrour of men wherefore they forsake the waters and run vp and downe to seeke preyes to satisfie their hunger which when they meet withall they deuoure with an vnresistable desire forced and pressed forward by hunger which breaketh stone walls But most commonly when the Riuer Nilus is lowest and sunck downe into the channell then the Crocodiles in the waters doe growe most hungry because the fish are gone away with the floods and then the subtile beast will heale and couer himselfe ouer with sand or mudde and so lye in the banke of the Riuer where hee knoweth the women come to fetch water or the cattell to drinke and when he espieth his aduantage he suddainely taketh the woman by the hand that she taketh vp water withall and draweth her into the Riuer where he teareth her in peeces and eateth her In like sort dealeth he with Oxen Cowes Asses and other cattell If hunger force him to the Land and he meete with a Cammell horse Asse or such like beast then with the force and blowes of his tayle he breaketh his legges and so laying him flat on the earth killeth and eateth him for so great is the strength of a Crocodiles tayle that it hath beene seene that one stroke thereof hath broken all the foure legges of a beast at one blow There is also another perrill by Crocodiles for it is saide that when Nilus falleth and the water waxeth low the Barkes thorough want of wind are faine by the Marriners to to be tugged vp the streame with long lynes and cordes the subtile Crocodile seeing the same doth suddainely with his tayle smite the same line with such force that eyther hee breaketh it or by his forcible violence tumbleth the Marriner downe into the vvater whom he is ready to receiue with open mouth before he can recouer Yea many times by meanes thereof the Barke it selfe so tottereth and reeleth that the violent beast taketh a man out of it or else cleane ouer-turneth it to the destruction of all that are in it Aelianus saith that among the Ombitae which are in Arsinoe the Crocodiles are harmelesse and hauing seuerall names when they are called doe put their heads out of the vvater and take meate gently which meate is the head and garbage of such sacrifices as are brought thether But in another place hee writeth that among the Ombitae or Coptitae it is not safe for a man to fetch water from the Riuer or to wash theyr feete or walke on the Riuers side but with great caution and warines For euen those beastes which are most kindly vsed by men doe rage against their Benefactours as namely the Crocodile the Ichneumon the Wild-cats and such like And yet Plutarch in his booke Vtra animalium saith that the Priestes by the custome of meate-giuing haue made some of them so tame that they will suffer theyr mouthes and teeth to be clensed by men And it is further said that during the seauen Ceremoniall dayes of the natiuity of Apis there is none of thē that sheweth any wilde tricke or cruell part but as it were by compact betwixt them and the Priestes they lay aside all cruelty and rage during that time And therefore Cicero writeth most excellently saying Egyptiorum morem quis ignoret quorum imbutae mentes prauitatum erroribus quamvis carnificinam potius subierint quam ibim aut aspidem aut crocodilum violent That is to say Who is ignorant of the custome of the Egyptians whose mindes are so seasoned and indued with erronious wickednesse that they had rather vnder-goe any torment then offer violence to an Ibis an Aspe or a holy Crocodile For in diuers places all these and Cats also were worshipped
this Serpents History They are brought out of the Easterne Countries or out of Aegypt yet the Monkes of Mesuen affirme that they had seene Scinkes or Crocodiles of the earth about Rome Syluaticus and Platearius in Apulia But howsoeuer their affections may lead them to coniecture of this serpent I rather beleeue that it is an Affrican beast seldome foūd in Asia or Europe They loue the bankes of Nilus although they dare not enter the water and for this cause some haue thought but vntruely that when the Crocodile layeth her egges in the water the young is there also engendered and hatched and is a Crocodile of the water but if they lay theyr egges on the dry Land from thence commeth the Scinke or Crocodile of the earth This folly is euidently refuted because that they neuer lay egges in the water but all vpon the dry Land They are found as I haue said before in Aegypt and also in Affricke and among the Lydians of Mauritania otherwise called Lodya or rather Lybia among the Pastorall or Plow-men Affricans among the Arabians and neere the red Sea for all those at this day solde at Venice are brought from those partes The greatest in the world are in India as Cardan teacheth who are in all thinges like Lizards sauing in their excrements which smell or sauour more strongly and generally the difference of their quantity ariseth from the Country which they inhabite for in the hotter and moyster country they are greater in the hotter dryer Region they are smaller generally they exceede not two or three cubits in length with an answerable proportionable body which is thus described There bee certaine crosse lines which come along the backe one by one somewhat white and of a dusky colour and those that be dusky haue also in them some white spots The vpper part of the necke is very dusky the head and the tayle are more white the feet and all the neather part of the breast and belly are white with appearance vpon them of some scales or rather the skinne figured in the proportion of scales vppon either feete they haue fiue distinct fingers or clawes the length of their Legges is a Thumbe and a halfe that is three inches the tayle two fingers long the body sixe so that the whole length from the head to the tippe of the tayle which is first thicke and then very small at the end is about eyght fingers When they haue taken them they bowell them and fill theyr bodies with Sugar and Silke of Wooll and so they sell them for a reasonable price That which I haue written of their length of eyght fingers is not so to bee vnderstood as though they neuer exceeded or came short of that proportion for some-times they are brought into these partes of the World twenty or foure and twenty fingers long sometimes againe not aboue fiue or sixe fingers long When they lay theyr Egges they commit them to the earth euen as the Crocodiles of the water doe They liue vpon the most odoriferous flowers and therefore is his flesh so sweete and his dung or excrements odoriferous They are enemies to Bees and liue much about Hiues insomuch as some haue thought they did lay their Egges in Hiues and there hatch their young ones But the occasion of this error was that they savve young ones brought by theyr Parents into some Hiue to feede vpon the labouring Bee For the compassing of theyr desire they make meale of any tree which they haue ground in the Mill of their owne mouths and that they mix with blacke Hellebor iuyce or with the liquor of Mallowes this meale so tempered they lay before the hiues wherof assoone as the Bees tast they dye and then commeth the Crocodile with her young ones and lick thē vp and beside Bees I doe not read they are hurtfull to any The Indians haue a little beast about the quantity of a little Dogge which they call Phattage very like to a Scinke or Crocodile of the Earth hauing sharp scales as cutting as a saw There is some hurt by this beast vnto men for which cause I may iustly reckon it among the venomous for if it chance to bite any man if the wounded man fall into a seuer before he make water he dyeth for it but if he first make water the beast dyeth and the man escapeth It is thought that it containeth a kind of naturall magicke witch-craft or sorcery and therefore they say it hath a stupifying power changing the mind from louc to hatred and from hatred to loue againe The powder of this Serpent drunke in Wine if it stirre venerous lust it hurteth the Nerues and sinnewes There be certaine magicall deuises raysed out of this Serpent which are not woorth the writing as not hauing in them any dram of wit learning or truth and therefore I will not trouble the Reader with them but follow on the conclusion of this Crocodiles story in the Narration of the medicinall vertues which are farre moe and more operatiue then those in the former Crocodile for I thinke Almighty GOD blesseth meekenes and innocency with excesse of grace in men and beastes as may be seene in these two kindes of Crocodiles the dung and excrement of the one beeing more worth then the body of the other through harmelesse innocency The body of this Serpent to be dryed after it hath line long in salt and to bee preserued in Noosewort as Ruellius and Marcellus write but truth is there is no need of Salt where Nosewort is applyed because the Arcrimony of this Hearb doth easily dry vp the moysture of the beast keeping Wormes from breeding in it With the powder thus prepared venerious men stirre vp their lustes Mithridate is called Diasincu because it is compounded of the Scinke or Crocodile of the earth and it containeth in it a most noble Antidote against all poysons Gallen had an Antidote against Scorptions which among other thinges containeth in it the flesh of a Crocodile of the Earth wherewithall he cured all them that had beene stung with Scorpions in Lybia It is also good agaynst the byting of mad beastes and pleurises against poysoned Hony or the crudity and loathing that commeth in the stomacke by eating of sound Honny It is profitable against empoysoned Arrowes or Dartes being taken immediately before or after the wound as Apelles hath obserued Serapio did make a medicine compounded of the dung of this Crocodile and applyed the same against the falling sicknesse Of the body of this Scinke except the head and the feete being sod or rosted and eaten by them that haue the Sciattica an old cough especially children or the paine of the loynes giueth them much ease They are also mixed with medicines against the paine of the feete as Galen did for Amarantus the Grammartan They are also good in medicine against the coldnesse of the sinnewes This beast is very hot and therefore increaseth the seede
mouthes vppon euery iawe and with most bright and cleere-seeing eyes vvhich caused the Poets to faine in their writings that these dragons are the watchfull-keepers of Treasures They haue also two dewlappes grovving vnder their chinne and hanging downe like a beard which are of a redde colour theyr bodies are sette all ouer with very sharpe scales and ouer theyr eyes stand certaine flexible eye-liddes When they gape wide with their mouth and thrust foorth their tongue theyr teeth seeme very much to resemble the teeth of Wilde-Swine And theyr neckes haue many times grosse thicke hayre growing vpon them much like vnto the bristles of a VVilde-Boare Their mouth especially of the most tame-able Dragons is but little not much bigger then a pype through which they drawe in theyr breath for they wound not vvith theyr mouth but with theyr tayles onely beating with thē when they are angry But the Indian Ethiopian and Phrygian dragons haue very wide mouthes through which they often swallow in whole foules and beasts Theyr tongue is clouen as if it were double and the Investigators of nature doe say that they haue fifteene teeth of a side The males haue combes on their heads but the females haue none and they are likewise distinguished by their beards They haue most excellent sences both of seeing and hearing and for this cause theyr name Drakon cōmeth of Derkein and this was one cause why Iupiter the Heathens great God is said to be metamorphised into a Dragon whereof there flieth this tale vvhen he fell in loue with Proserpina he rauished her in the likenes of a dragon for hee came vnto her and couered her with the spires of his body and for this cause the people of Sabazij did obserue in their misteries or sacrifices the shape of a dragon rowled vp within the cōpasse of his spires so that as he begot Ceres with child in the likenes of a Bull he likewise deluded her daughter Proserpina in the likenes of a dragon but of these transmutations we shall speake more afterwards I thinke the vanity of these tooke first ground frō the Affricans who beleeue that the originall of dragons tooke beginning from the vnnaturall cōiunction of an Eagle a shee-Wolfe And so they say that the Wolfe growing great by this conception doth not bring forth as at other times but her belly breaketh and the dragon commeth out who in his beake and wings resembleth the dragon his father and in his feete and tayle the vvolfe his mother but in the skin neither of them both but this kind of fabulus generation is already sufficiently confuted Their meates are fruites and herbes or any venomous creature therfore they liue long without foode and when they eate they are not easily filled They grow most fat by eating of egs in deuouring wherof they vse this Art if it be a great dragon he swalloweth it vp whole and then rowleth him selfe whereby hee crusheth the egges to peeces in his belly and so nature casteth out the shells keepeth in the meate But if it be a young dragon as if it were a dragons whelp he taketh the egge within the spire of his tayle and so crusheth it hard holdeth it fast vntill his scales open the shell like a knife then sucketh hee out of the place opened all the meate of the egge In like sort do the young ones pull off the feathers frō the foules which they eate and the old ones swallow them whole casting the feathers out of theyr bellyes againe The dragons of Phrygia when they are hungry turne themselues toward the west gaping wide with the force of their breath doe draw the birdes that flie ouer their heads into their throats which some haue thought is but a voluntary lapse of the fowles to be drawne by the breath of the dragon as by a thing they loue but it is more probable that some vaporous and venomous breath is sent vp from the dragon to them that poysoneth and infecteth the ayre about them whereby their sences are taken from them and they astonished fall downe into his mouth But if it fortune the dragons find not foode enough to satisfie their hunger then they hide themselues vntill the people be returned from the market or the Heard-men bring home their flocks and vppon a suddaine they deuoure eyther men or beastes which come first to their mouthes then they goe againe and hide themselues in their dennes and hollow Caues of the earth for theyr bodies beeing exceeding hote they very sildome come out of the cold earth except to seeke meate and nourishment And because they liue onely in the hottest Countries therefore they commonlie make theyr lodgings neere vnto the waters or else in the coldest places among the Rocks and stones They greatlie preserue their health as Aristotle affirmeth by eating of Wild-lettice for that they make them to vomit and cast foorth of theyr stomacke what-soeuer meate offendeth them and they are most speciallie offended by eating of Apples for theyr bodies are much subiect to be filled with winde and therefore they neuer eate Apples but first they eate Wilde-lettice Theyr sight also as Plutarch sayth doth many times grow weake and feeble and therefore they renew and recouer the same againe by rubbing their eyes against Fennell or else by eating of it Their age could neuer yet be certainely knowne but it is coniectured that they liue long and in great health like to all other Serpents therefore they grow so great They doe not onely liue on the land as we haue said already but also swimme in the water for many times they take the Sea in Ethyopia foure or fiue of them together folding theyr tayles like hurdles and holding vp their heads so swim they ouer to seeke better foode in Arabia We haue said already that when they set vpon Elephants they are taken and killed of men now the manner how the Indians kill the Mountaine-dragons is thus they take a garment of Scarlet and picture vpon it a charme in golden letters this they lay vpon the mouth of the Dragons denne for with the redde colour and the gold the eyes of the dragon are ouer-come and he salleth asleepe the Indians in the meane-season watching muttering secretly words of Incantation when they perceiue he is fast asleepe suddainely they strike off his necke with an Axe and so take out the balls of his eyes wherein are lodged those rare precious stones which containe in them vertues vnvtterable as hath beene euidently prooued by one of them that was included in the Ring of Gyges Manie times it falleth out that the dragon draweth in the Indian both with his Axe and Instruments into his denne and there deuoureth him in the rage whereof hee so beateth the Mountaine that it shaketh When the dragon is killed they make vse of the skin eyes teeth and flesh as for the flesh it is of a vitriall or glassie colour and the Ethiopians doe eate it
young ones are conceiued of themselues by the help of the sun Some there be which affirme that the old one deuoureth the young ones assoone as they be hatched except one which she suffereth to liue this one is the basest most dullard hauing in it least spirit of all the residue yet notwithstanding afterwards it deuoureth both his parents which thing is prooued false by Albertus for seeing they want memory to finde out their owne Egges it is not likely that they haue so much vnderstanding as to discerne their own young ones nor yet so vnnaturall as to destroy the noblest of their broode but rather they should imitate the crocodile which killeth the basest and spareth the best spirits It is affirmed that they liue but halfe a yeare or sixe months but it is also false for they hide themselues the foure coldest monthes and therefore it is likely they liue more then sixe for else what time should they haue for generation Twice a yeare they change their skinne that is in the Spring and Autume like other Serpents that haue a soft skinne and not hard like the Tortoyces Their place of conception and emission of their Egges is like to Birds and therefore it is a needlesse question to inquire whether they bring egges foorth of their mouth or not as some haue foolishly affirmed but without all warrant of truth or nature They liue by couples together and when one of them is taken the other waxeth mad and rageth vppon him that tooke it whether it be Male or Female In the old Testament Lizards Weasels and Mice are accounted impure beastes and therefore forbidden to be eaten not onely because they liue in Graues and designe in constancy of life but also Theeues and trecherous persons They are affraide of euery noyce they are enemies to Bees for they liue vpon them and therefore in ancient time they mixed Meale and iuyce of Mallowes together and layde the same before the Hiues to driue away Lizards and Crocodiles They fight with all kind of Serpents also they deuour Snailes and contend with Toades and Scorpions The Night-Owles and the Spiders doe destroy the little Lizards for the Spider doth so long wind her thred about the iawes of the Lizard that hee is not able to open his mouth then she fasteneth her stings in her braines The Storkes are also enemies to Lizards according to this saying of the Poet Serpente ciconia pullos Nutrit inuent a per deuia rura lacerta In english thus With Lizards young and Serpents breede The Storke seeketh her young ones to feed Notwithstanding that by the law of GOD men were forbidden to eate the Lizard yet the Troglodytes Ethiopians did eate Serpents and Lizards and the Amazons did eate Lizards and Tortoyces for indeede those Women did vse a very thinne and slender diet and therefore Caelius doth probably coniecture that they were called Amazons because Mazis carebant that is they wanted all manner of delicate fare Wee haue also shewed already that the Inhabitants of Dioscorides Isle do eate the flesh of Lizards and the fat after it is boyled they vse instead of Oyle Concerning the venome or poyson of Lizards I haue not much to say because there is not much thereof written yet they are to be reproued which deny they haue any poyson at all for it is manifest that the flesh of Lizards eaten I meane of such Lizards as are in Italy do cause an inflamation and apostemation the heare of the head-ach and blindnesse of the eyes And the Egges of Lizards doc kill speedily except there come a remedy from Faulkens dung and pure VVine Also when the Lizard byteth he leaueth his teeth in the place which continually aketh vntill the teeth bee taken out the cure of which wound is first to suck the place then to put into it cold water afterward to make a plaister of Oyle and Ashes and apply the same therevnto And thus much for the naturall description of the Lizard The Medicines arising out of the Lizard are the same which are in the Crocodile and the flesh thereof is very hot wherefore it hath vertue to make fat for if the fatte of a Lizard bee mixed vvith Wheate Meale Halinitre and Cummen it maketh Hennes very fat and they that eate them much fatter for Cardan saith that their bellies will breake vvith fatnesse and the same giuen vnto Hawkes maketh them to chaunge theyr Fethers A Lizard dissected or the head thereof being very well beaten vvith Salt draweth out yton poyntes of Nayles and splentes out of the flesh or body of man if it bee well applyed thereunto and it is also said that if it bee mingled with Oyle it causeth hayre to to grow againe vpon the head of a man where an Vlcer made it fall off Likewise a Lyzard cut asunder hot and so applyed cureth the stinging of Scorpions and taketh away Wennes In Ancient time with a field-Lizard dryed and cut asunder and so bruzed in peeces they did draw out teeth without paine and with one of these sod and stamped and applyed vvith Meale or Frankensence to the forehead did cure the watering of the eyes The same burned to powder and mixed with Creticke Hony by an oyntment cureth blindnesse The Oyle of a Lizard put into the eare helpeth deafenesse and dryueth out Wormes if there bee any therein If Children bee annoynted with the bloud fasting it keepeth them from swellinges in the belly and Legges also the Liuer and bloud lapped vp in Wooll draweth out Nailes and Thornes from the flesh cureth all kind of freckles according to this verse of Serenus Verrucam poterit sanguis curare Lacertae That is to say The bloud of Lizards can Cure freckles in a man The vrine and if there be any at all helpeth the rupture in Infants The bones taken out of the Lizards head in the full Moone doe scarifie the teeth and the braine is profitable for suffusions The Liuer laide to the gumbes or to hollow teeth easeth all the paine in them The dung purgeth wounds and also taketh away the whitenesse and itching of the eyes and so sharpneth the sight and the same with water is vsed for a salue Arnoldus doth much commend the dung of Lizards mixed with Meale the blacke thereof being cast away and so dryed in a furnace and softned againe with water of Niter and froth of the Sea afterwards applyed to the eyes in a cloth is very profitable against all the former euils And thus much shall suffice to haue spoken of the first and vulgar kinde of Lyzard for killing of whom Apollo was in ancient time called Sauroctonos OF THE GREENE LIZARD THe greater Lizard which is called Lacerta Viridis the greene Lizard by the Graecians Chlorosaura by the Italians Gez and by the Germans Gruner Heydox is the same which is called Ophiomachus because it fighteth with Serpents in the defence of man They are of colour greene from whence they
with rage of sandy flankes Nor sayles bend downe to blustering Corus wayne Now can it not the swelling sinewes keepe in hold Deformed globe it is and truncke ore-come with waight Vntoucht of flying foules no beakes of young or old Doe him dare eate or beasts full wilde vpon the body bayte But that they dye No man to bury in earth or fire Durst once come nigh nor stand to tooke vpon that haplesse case For neuer ceased the heat of corps though dead to swell Therefore afrayde they ranne away with speedie pace The cure of the poyson of this Serpent is by the Phisitians found out to be wild Purslaine also the flowers and stalke of the bush the Beauers stones called Castoreum drunke with Opponax and Rew in wine and the little Sprat-fish in dyet And thus much of this fire-burning venomous Serpent OF THE RED SERPENT THis kinde of Serpent beeing a serpent of the Sea was first of all found out by Pelicerius Bishoppe of Montpelier as Rondoletus writeth and although some haue taken the same for the Myrus or Berus of which we haue spoken already yet is it manifest that they are deceiued for it hath gills couered with a bony couering and also sinnes to swym withall much greater then those of the Myrus which wee haue shewed already to bee the male Lamprey This Serpent therefore for the outward proportion thereof is like to the Serpents of the Land but of a redde or purplish colour beeing full of crooked or oblique lines descending from the backe to the belly and deuiding or breaking that long line of the backe which beginneth at the head and so stretcheth foorth to the tayle The opening of his mouth is not very great his teeth are very sharpe and like a saw his gills like scalie fishes and vppon the ridge of his backe all along to the tayle and vnder-neath vppon the ryne or brimme of his belly are certaine haires growing or at the least thinne small things like hayres the tayle beeing shut vp in one vndeuided finne Of this kind no doubt are those which Bellonius saith hee sawe by the Lake Abydus which liue in the waters and come not to the Land but for sleepe for hee affirmeth that they are like Land-serpents but in theyr colour they are redde-spotted with some small and duskie spots Gelliusâ—…th â—…th that among the multitude of Sea-serpents some are like Congers and I cannot teâ—…ether that of Vergill be of this kind or not spoken of by Laocoon the Priest of Neptune Solennes taurum ingentum mactabat ad aras Ecce autem gemini á Tenedo tranqulla per alta Horresco referens immensis orbibus angues Incumbunt pelago pariterque ad littora tendunt Pectora quorum inter fluctus arecta iubaeque Sanguineae exuperant vndas pars caetera pontum Pone legit sinuatque immensa volumine terga Fit sonitus spumante saelo c. Which may be englished thus Whilst he a Bull at Altars solemne sacrifice Behold I feare to tell two monstrous snakes appeared Out of Tenedus shore both calme and deepe did rise One part in Sea the other on Land was reared Their breasts and redde-blood manes on waters mounted But backe and tayle on Land from foaming sea thus sounded OF THE SALAMANDER I Will not contrary their opinion which reckon the Salamander among the kinds of Lyzards but leaue the assertion as somewhat tollerable yet they are not to be followed or to be beleeued which would make it a kinde of Worme for there is not in that opinion eyther reason or resemblance What this beast is called among the Hebrewes I cannot learne and therfore I iudge that the Iewes like many other Nations did not acknowledge that there was any such kinde of creature for ignorance bringeth infidelitie in strange things and propositions The Graecians call it Salamandra which word or terme is retained almost in all Languages especially in the Latine and therefore Isidore had more boldnesse and wit then reason to deriue the Latine Salamandra quasi valincendram resisting burning for beeing a Greeke word it needeth not a Latine notation The Arabians call it Saambras and Samabras which may wel be thought to be deriued or rather corrupted from the former word Salamandra or else from the Hebrew word Semamit which signifieth a Stellion Among the Italians and Rhaetians it retaineth the Latine vvord and sometimes in Rhaetia it is called Rosada In the dukedome of Sauoy Pluuina In Fraunce Sourd Blande Albrenne and Arrassade according to the diuers Prouinces in that Kingdome In Spayne it is called Salamantegna In Germany it is called by diuers names as Maall and Punter maall Olm Moll and Molch because of a kinde of liquour in it like milke as the Greeke word Molge from à melgein to sucke milke Some in the Country of Heluetia doe call it Quattertetesh And in Albertus it is likewise called Rimatrix And thus much may suffise for the name thereof The description of theyr seuerall parts followeth which as Auicen and other Authours write is very like a small and vulgar Lyzard except in their quantitie which is greater theyr legges taller and their tayle longer They are also thicker and fuller then a Lyzard hauing a pale white belly and one part of their skinne exceeding blacke the other yellow like Verdigreace both of them very splendent and glistering with a blacke line going all along their backe hauing vppon it many little spots like eyes And from hence it commeth to be called a Stellion or Animal stellatum a creature full of starres and the skinne is rough and balde especially vpon the backe where those spots are out of which as writeth the Scholiast issueth a certaine liquour or humour which quencheth the heate of the fire when it is in the same This Salamander is also foure-footed like a Lyzard and all the body ouer it is set with spots of blacke and yellow yet is the sight of it abhominable and fearefull to man The head of it is great and sometimes they haue yellowish bellyes and tayles and some-times earthy It is some question among the Learned whether there be any discretion of sexe as whether there be in this kinde a male and a female Pliny affirmeth that they neuer engender and that there is not among them eyther male or female no more then there are among Eeles But this thing is iustly crossed both by Bellonius and Agricola for they affirme vpon their owne knowledge that the Salamander engendereth her young ones in her belly like vnto the Viper but first conceiueth egges and she bringeth forth fortie and fiftie at a time which are fully perfected in her wombe and are able to runne or goe so soone as euer they be littered and therefore there must be among them both male and female The Countries wherein are found Salamanders are the Region about Trent and in the Alpes and some-time also in Germany The most commonly frequent the coldest and moystest places as in the shaddow
Canaria also are many Scorpions and those most pestilent which the Turkes gather as often as they may to make oyle of Scorpions In Italy especially in the Mount Testaceus in Rome are also Scorpions although not so hurtfull as in Affrica and other places and it is thought that Psylli whose nature cureth all kind of venomous Serpents harmes did onely for lucers sake bring Serpents and Scorpions into Italy and there they left them whereby they encrease to that number multitude which now we see them haue And thus much may suffice to haue spoken of the Countries of Scorpions The kindes of Scorpions I finde also to be many but generally they may be referred vnto twayne whereof one is called the Scorpion of the earth and the other the Scorpion of the water or of the Sea whose discourse or history is to be found among the fishes for we in this place doe onely write of the Scorpion of the earth which is also called by Auicen a wild Scorpion Of this kind there are many differences First they differ in sex for there are males and females and the female is greater then the male beeing also fatte hauing a grosser body and a greater sharper sting but the male is more fierce then the female Againe some of these haue wings and some are without wings and some are in quantitie greater then a Beane as in Heluetia neere Rapirsnill by Zuricke The Scorpions called Vinulae are of reddish colour as it were rose-water and wine mixed together and from thence it is probable that they tooke their name and from their colour the Authours haue obserued seauen seuerall kinds The first is white and the byting of this is not deadly The second is reddish like fire flamant and this when it hath wounded causeth thirst The third is of a pale colour and therefore called by the Graecians Zophorides these when they haue wounded a man cause him to liue in continuall motion and agitation of his body so as he cannot stand still but remaineth distract without wit alway laughing like a foole The fourth kind is greenish and therefore termed Chloaos which hauing wounded causeth intollerable trembling shaking and quiuering and also cold so that if the patient be layd in the hot sunne yet he thinketh that he freezeth like hayle or rather feeleth hayle to fall vpon him The fift kind is blackish-pale and it is called Empelios it hath a great belly and broade whereof the poyson is great and causeth after stinging an admirable heauinesse and sorrowfull spirit This kind is called by Gesner Ventricosum because of the large belly by the Arabians Algetarat and by Ponzettus Geptaria It eateth herbes and the bodyes of men and yet remaineth insatiable it hath a bunch on the backe and a tayle longer then other Scorpions The sixt is like a Crabbe this is called by Elianus a flamant Scorpion it is of a great body and hath tonges and takers very solide and strong like the Gramuell or Creuish is therefore thought to take the beginning from that fish The seauenth is called Mellichlorus because of the honny-colour thereof or rather waxe-colour and the wings it hath on the backe are like the wings of a Locust Also Scorpions do differ among themselues in regard of their outward parts for some of them haue wings as those in India which are spoken of by Strabo Nicander others and therefore many times when they settle themselues to flie they are transported by the wind from one country to another There is also another difference obserued in their tayles and in their stings for some of them haue sixe knots on their tayles and some of them seauen and those which haue seauen are more hardy fierce but this falleth out very sildome that the Scorpions haue seauen knots in their tayle and therefore much sildomer to haue nine as writeth Apollodorus For if any haue seauen then is there likewise in them a double sting for there is also another difference some of them hauing a single and some a double sting yea some-times a treble one and the sting of the male is more thicke and strong then the sting of the female And to conclude there is also a difference in motion for some of them holde vp theyr tayles from the earth and these are not much venomous others againe draw them along vpon the earth a little rowled together and these are most deadly and poysonfull some of them also flye from one Region to another as we haue shewed already Againe there is nothing that giueth a man a more liuely difference then the consideration of their poyson for the Scorpions of Pharus and that part of the Alpes neere Noricum doe neuer harme any liuing creature and therfore are they suffered to abound so as they liue vnder euery stone In like sort in the I le Sanguola the Scorpions are like vnto those that are in Castilia or Spayne for there the sting of the Scorpion dooth not bring death yet they cause a smarting paine like the paine that commeth by the stinging of a Waspe differing heerein that the Scorpions stinging is more lasting continueth longer then the stinging of a Waspe for it tarrieth about a quarter of an houre and by the byting thereof all are not payned alike for some feele more and some lesser paine Contrary to these are the Scorpions of Pescara in Affrick who euer with theyr tayles vvound mortally And those in Scythia which are great and hurtfull vnto men and beastes kylling swyne who doe not much care for any other serpent especially the blacke swyne who doe also dye the sooner if they drinke immediatly after the wound receiued The like may be said of the Scorpions of Egypt And thus much for the different kinds of Scorpions wherein nature produceth a notable varietie as may appeare by all that hath been said Now it followeth that wee likewise make some relation of theyr congruity one with another They are all little liuing creatures not much differing in proportion from the great Scarabee or Horse-flie except in the fashion of theyr tailes Their backe is broad and flat distinguished by certaine knots of seames such as may be seene in Sea-crabbes yet theyr head differeth and hath no resemblance with the Crabbe because it is longer and hangeth farre out from the body the countenaunce whereof is fawning and virgin-like and all the colour a bright browne Notwithstanding the fayre face it beareth a sharpe sting in the tayle which tayle is full of knots where-withall it pricketh and hurteth that which it toucheth And this Pliny affirmeth to be proper to this insect to haue a sting in the tayle and to haue armes For by armes hee meaneth the two crosse sorkes or tonges which come from it one both sides in the toppes whereof are little thinges like pynsons to detaine and hold fast that which it apprehendeth whiles it woundeth with the â—â—ing in the tayle
It hath eyght feete foure on the one side and foure on the other from whence as we haue shewed already it is called Octopos For the feete and armes therof is very much like vnto the Sea-crabbe and therefore may not vnfitly be called eyther the Mother or the Daughter thereof They haue also tongues where-withall they vse often to licke and smooth ouer theyr owne bodyes And seeing of all other things they loue fresh cleane linnen whereinto they insinuate and wrappe themselues when they can come vnto it then also first of all they clense theyr whole bodyes all ouer with theyr tongues and next to their flesh put on this cleane linnen as a man would put on a shirt As wee haue said alreadie it hath a tayle wherein the sting thereof is placed but what this sting is diuers Authours are of diuers opinions concerning the same some affirming it to be hollow others denying it finding in it no passage at all to containe or couay poyson Aelianus againe sayth that there must needs be in it a passage or cauitie although it be so small as by no meanes it can be perceiued with the eyes of any mortall man and in that sting is the poyson lesse visible which when it striketh disperseth it selfe instantly into the wound But what should this poyson be whether a substance or spirituall humor surely a substaunce which although it be Mole minima yet facultate maxima that is of great power although of small quantitie And therefore another Authour namely Gerardus writeth thereof after this manner Scorpius è centro quod cauum esse creditur emittit humorem venenosum That is to say the Scorpion out of a hollow center sendeth foorth a venomous humour And of this venom wee will afterwards discourse more at large Thus much in this place may serue to make knowne the seuerall parts and members of this Serpent Now then it followeth that we enquire about the manner of their breede or generation which I find to be double as diuers Authors haue obserued one way is by putrefaction and the other by laying of egges and both these wayes are consonant to nature for Lacinius writeth that some creatures are generated onely by propagation of seed such are men Vipers Whales the Palme-tree some againe onely by putrefaction as the louse the flye grasse such like imperfect things some both wayes as myce scorpions emmets spyders Purslaine which first of all were procuced by putrefaction and since their generation are conserued by the seede and egges of their owne kind Now therefore wee will first of all speake of the generation of Scorpions by putrefaction and afterward by propagation Pliny saith that when Sea-crabbes dye and theyr bodyes are dryed vppon the earth when the Sunne entereth into Cancer and Scorpius out of the putrefaction thereof ariseth a Scorpion so out of the putrified body of the Creuish burned arise Scorpions which caused Ouid thus to write Concaua littoreo si demas brachia cancro Caetera supponas terrae de parte sepulta Scorpius exibit caudaque minabitur vnca And againe Obrutus exemptis Cancer tellure lacertis Scorpius exiguo tempore factus erit In English thus If that the armes you take from Sea-crab-fish And put the rest in earth till all consumed be Out of the buried part a Scorpion will arise With hooked tayle doth threaten for to hurt thee And therefore it is reported by Elianus that about Estamenus in India there are abundance of Scorpions generated onely by corrupt raine-water standing in that place Also out of the Baziliske beaten into peeces and so putrified are Scorpions engendered And when as one had planted the herbe Basilica on a wall in the roome or place thereof hee found two Scorpions And some say that if a man chaw in his mouth fasting this herbe Basill before he wash and afterward lay the same abroade vncouered where no sun commeth at it for the space of seauen nights taking it in all the day time hee shall at length find it transmuted into a Scorpion with a tayle of seauen knots Hollerius to take away all scruple of this thing writeth that in Italy in his dayes there was a man that had a Scorpion bredde in his braine by continuall smelling to this herbe Basill and Gesner by relation of an Apothecary in Fraunce writeth likewise a storie of a young mayde who by smelling to Basill fell into an exceeding head-ach whereof shee dyed without cure and after her death beeing opened there were found little Scorpions in her braine Aristotle remembreth an herbe which he calleth Sisimbriae out of which putrified Scorpions are engendered as he writeth And wee haue shewed already in the history of the Crocodile that out of the Crocodiles egges doe many times come Scorpions which at their first egression doe kill theyr dam that hatched them which caused Archelaus which wrote Epigrams of wonders vnto Ptolomaeus to sing of Scorpions in this manner In vos dissoluit morte redigit Crocodilum Natura extinctum Scorpij omnipotens Which may be englished thus To you by Scorpions death the omnipotent Ruines the Crocodill in natures life extinct And thus much for the generation of Scorpions out of putrefaction Now we wil proceede to the second manner of their generation which is by propagation of seede for although Ponzettus make some question about their copulation yet he himself inclineth to that opinion as neerer vnto truth which attributeth carnall copulation vnto them and therefore he alledgeth the example of flyes which admitte copulation although they engender not thereby Wherefore wee will take it for graunted that Scorpions lay egges after copulation which hapneth both in the Spring and Autumne And these are for the most part in number eleuen vpon which they sit and hatch their young ones and when once they are perfected within those egges which are in sight like the little wormes out of which Spyders are engendered then doe they breake theyr egges and driue the young out For as Isidorus writeth otherwise the olde should be destroyed of the young euen as are the Crocodiles Some againe say that the old Scorpions doe deuour theyr young ones Beeing thus produced by generation they liue vppon the earth and those which are bredde of the Sea-crabbe doe feede vppon the foame of the sea-Sea-water and a continuall white mould or chalke neere the Sea But the Scorpions of Ethyopia doe eate all kind of wormes flyes and small Serpents Yea those Serpents whose very dunge beeing troden vpon by man bringeth exulcerations And a tryall that Scorpions eate flyes was made by Wolphius at Montpelier for hauing a young one in a boxe for one whole month together it liued vpon flyes and grew by the deuouring of them bigger beeing put into the glasse vnto him They liue among tyles and bricks very willingly and for this cause they abound in Rome in the hill called Testaceus They are also in Bononia
necke thereof are two blanches and betwixt them a hollow place the backe part whereof is attenuated into a thinne and sharpe tayle and vppon eyther chappe they haue many teeth which are sharpe and without poyson for when they byte they doe no more harme then fetch blood onely and these men for ostentation sake weare about their necks and women are much terrified by them in the hands of wanton young boyes The backe of this Snake as writeth Erastus is blackish and the other parts greene like vnto Leekes yet mixed with some whitenesse for by reason it feedeth vppon herbs it beareth that colour They are also carried in mens bosoms and with them they will make knots For the same Erastus affirmeth that he sawe a Fryer knit one of them vp together like a garter but when hee pulled it harder then the Snake could beare it turned the head about bytte him by the hand so as the blood followed yet there came no more harme for it was cured without any medicine and therefore is not venomous In the mountaine of Mauritania called Ziz the Snakes are so familiar with men that they waite vpon them at dinner-time like cats and little dogges and they neuer offer any harme to any liuing thing except they be first of all prouoked Among the Bygerons inhabyting the Pyrenes there be Snakes 4. foote long and as thicke as a mans arme which likewise liue continually in the houses and not onely come peaceably to their tables but also sleepe in their beds without any harme in the night-time they hisse but sildom in the day time and picke vp the crummes which fall from their tables Among the Northerne people they haue household-Snakes as it were houshold-gods and they suffer them both to eate and to play with their Infants lodging them in the cradles with them as if they were faythfull Keepers about them and if they harme any body at any time they account it Pium piaculum a very diuine and happy mischaunce But after they had receiued the Christian-fayth they put away all these superstitions and did no more foster the Serpents broode in detestation of the deuill who beguiled our first Parents in the similitude of a Serpent Yet if it happen at any time that a house be burned all the Snakes hide themselues in their holes in the earth and there in short space they so encrease that when the people come to reedifie they can very hardly displant their number Plautus in his Amphitryo maketh mention of two-maned-Snakes which descended from the clowdes in a shower but this opinion grew from the fiction of the Epidaurian-Snake which onely by the Poets is described with a mane and a combe and therefore I will not expresse the Snake to haue a mane There is no cause why we should thinke all Snakes to be without poyson for the Poet hath not warned vs in vaine where he saith Frigidus ô puèri fugite hinc latet Anguis sub herba Which may be englished thus Fly hence you boyes as farre as feete can beare Vnder this herbe a Snake full cold doth leare For this cause we will leaue the discourse of the harmelesse Snake and come to those which are no way inferiour to any other Serpent their quantitie and spirit beeing considered wherefore we are to consider that of Snakes which are venomous and hurtfull there are two kinds one called the Water-Snake the other the Land-Snake The Water-Snake is called in Greeke Hydra hydros hydrales karouros Enhydris in Latine Natrix and Lutrix Munster calleth it in Hebrew Zepha and Auicen relateth certaine barbe rous names of it as Handrius Andrius and Abides and Kedasuderus Echydrus and Aspistichon The Germans call it Nater Wasser-nater and Wasser-schlange and they describe it in the manner as it is found in their Country which doth not very farre differ from them of our Country heere in England It is as they say in thicknes like the arme of a man or child the bellie thereof yellow and of a golden colour and the backe blackish-greene the very breath of it is so venomous that if a man hold to it a rodde newly cutte off from the Tree it will so infect it that vppon it shall appeare certaine little bagges of gall or poyâ—on And the like effect it worketh vppon a bright naked sword if it doe but touch it with the tongue for the poyson runneth from one end to the other as if it were quicke and leaueth behind a lyne or scorched path as if it had beene burned in the fire And if this Serpent fortune to byte a man in the foote then is the poyson presently dispersed all ouer the body for it hath a fiery qualitie and therefore it continually ascendeth but when once it commeth to the hart the man falleth downe and dyeth And therefore the meetest cure is to hang the party so wounded vppe by the heeles or else speedilie to cut off the member that is bitten And that which is heere said of the vvater-Snake doth also as properly belong to the Land-snake seeing there is no difference betwixt these but that at certaine times of the yeere they forsake the water when it draweth or falleth lowe and so betake themselues to the Land They liue in the water and in the earth but they lay their egges on the land in hedges or in dunghills and especially in those waters which are most corrupt as in pooles where there is store of Frogs Leaches Newtes and but few fishes as in the Lakes about Puteoli and Naples and in England all ouer the Fennes as in Ramsey Holland Ely and oâ—… such like places and when they swymme they beare their breast aboue the water They abound also in Corcyra and about Taracina in Italy and in the Lake Nyclea and especially in Calabria as the Poet writeth Est etiam illa malus Calabris in saltibus Anguis Squammea conuoluens sublato pectore terga Atque notis longam maculosus grandibus aluum Qui dum amnes vlli rumpuntur fontibus dum Vere madent vdo terrae ac pluuialibus austris Stagna colit ripisque habitans hic piscibus atram Improbus ingluuiem ranisque loquacibus explet Postquam exhausta palus terraeque ardore dehiscunt Exilit in siccum flammantia lumnia torquens Saeuit agris asperque siti atque exterritus â—stâ— Which may be thus englished That euill Snake in the Calabrian coasts abides Rowling his scaly backe by holding vp the brest And with great spots vpon large belly glydes When as the Riuers streames in fountaines all are ceast For whiles the moystened spring with raine from Southwind falls It haunts the pooles andin the water all blaoke it feedes In rauening wise both fish and frogs doe fill his gall For why when Sommers drought enforce then must in needes Fly to dry Land rowling his flaming eye Rage in the fields to quench his thirstfull dry There be some Writers that affirme that there is
and orbicular Yet Gesner reporteth that he had one sent him of the proportion of a Lentill and as great as the fist of a man within euery egge appeare certaine smal things like the tailes of Serpents or Leaches beeing in number tenne fiue greater and fiue smaller one folded or lapped within another And these haue also little pustules vppon the skinne or crusts whereof one doth not touch the other Out of these egges come the young ones but I cannot affirme what great affection the old ones beare vnto them or that when many Snakes lay their egges together euery one in that multitude hath skill to discerne her owne egges from the other For I haue beene with other my colleagues or Schoole-fellowes when I was young at the destruction of many thousands of them and neuer perceiued that the old Snake did with any extraordinary affection fight for their egges but rather forsooke them and suffered vs to do with them what we pleased which some-times we brake sometimes scattered abroade vpon the dunghill out of which wee digged them and some-times wee cast them into the next Riuer we came at but neuer saw any of them recollected againe to their former place by the Snakes although the place were very full of them and therefore I conclude for mine owne experience that Snakes cannot be perceiued to beare any exceeding loue in nature to their egges or young ones Theyr ordinary foode for the most part is earth frogges vvormes Toades and especiallie Paddocks or crooke-backed Frogges Newtes and small fishes The Foxes and Snakes which are about the Riuer Nilus are at continuall variance and besides the Harts are by nature common enemies to all Serpents They are not in venom inferiour to other Serpents for they infect the waters neere to houses and are many times the causes of diseases and death whereof the Phisitians cannot discerne When they bite or sting there followeth extreame paine inflamation greenenes or blacknes of the wound dizzines in the head and death within three dayes Whereof dyed Phyloctetes Generall of the Fleete of Greece in Lemnos Daedalus Menalippus The cure of this euill must be by Origan stamped and layd to the sore with lye oyle or ashes of the roote of an Oake with pitch or Barly-meale mixed with honny and water and sod at the fire And in drinke take wilde Nosewort Daffadill-flowers and Fennell-seede in Wine And it is also said that a man carrying about him the Liuer of a Snake shall neuer be bytten by any of that kinde And this Liuer is also prescribed against the stone in the bladder beeing drunke in strong drinke And thus much for this Serpent ¶ Of Spyders and their seuerall sorts And first of those that are commonly called Phalangies THIS kinde of venomous creature of the Latines is called Arnanaeus or Aranea of Cicero in his bookes Denatura Deorum Araneola and Araneolus Of the Graecians Arachnes or Arachne Hesichius termeth it Stibe The Hebrewes name it Acobitha Acbar Acabith and Semamith The Arabians Sibth Phihib In the Germaine tongue Spinn and Banker In English Attercop Spyder and Spynner Of the Brabanders Spinne In Fraunce Araigne In Italy Ragno and Ragna In Spayne Arana or Taranna Of the Illyrians it is called Spawanck Of the Polonians Pajak and Pajeczino Of the Hungarians Pox. Of the Barbarians Roatan Kersenat Isidore in his twelfth booke saith that the Spyder is termed Araneus because she is both bred and fedde in the ayre but heerein hee hath fallen into a double errour For if they liued onely in the ayre and by the ayre as hee would seeme to enforce I maruell to what end and purpose they should so busily make and pitch theyr nettes for the ensnaring of flyes And if they receiue their first beeing and breeding in the ayre I cannot see to what purpose they doe eyther lay egs or exclude small little wormes after their coupling together But we will easily pardon this presumptious Etymologist and deepe diuer into Interpretations with others also of the same humour whose ordinary custome thus to dally and play with words is with them esteemed as good as Statute-law for the most part There are many sorts of Spyders and all of them haue three ioynts apeece in their legges Estque caput minimum toto quoque corpore paruum est In latere exiles digiti pro cruribus haerent Latera venter habet de quo tamen illa remittet Stamina Which may be englished thus Little is theyr head likewise the body small All ouer is and fingers thinne vpon the sides In steed of legges out of the bellyes flancke doe fall Yet out of which she makes her webbe to glyde All Spyders are venomous but yet some more and some lesse Of Spyders that neyther doe nor can doe much harme some of them are tame familiar and domesticall and these be cōmonly the greatest among the whole packe of them Others againe be meere wilde liuing without the house abroade in the open ayre which by reason of their rauenous gut and greedy deuouring maw haue purchased to thēselues the names of wolfes and hunting-Spyders The least sort of these weaue no webbes at all but the greater beginneth to make a small and harsh webbe about hedges nie vnto the earth spreading and setting the same abroade in the very entry and in voyde places neere their lurking holes their deceitfull nets obseruing very diligently the stirring of their deceitfull webbes and peroeiuing them moouing though neuer so lightly she maketh no stay but with all speed possible hasteneth her selfe to the place and whatsoeuer shee there findeth she seazeth vppon as her lawfull prize The most dangerous hurtfull Spyders are called Phalangia if they byte any one for they neuer strike their poyson is by experience found to be so perrillous as that there wil a notable great swelling immediatly follow therevpon These kindes of venomous Spyders are of two sundry sorts for some of them are lesser and some greater The lesser sort are very vnlike one to another and of changeable colours violent libidinous hot styrring sharpe-topped holding on their pace and way as it were in iumping manner or leaping-wise and these I find to be called by Aristotle in his xj booke De Animal Psullas or Pulices and Pitheci or Simij Of some they are called Oribates because they are vsuallie found among Trees that grow vppon Mountaines They are also called Hypodromi because they liue vnder the leaues The Phalangium or Phalanx Spyder is vnknowne in Italy as Pliny saith there are found many sorts of them One sort of them is very like vnto a great Pismire but much bigger hauing also a redde head but all other parts are blacke speckled and garnished with many white spots running all alongst their bodies This formicarian or Pismire-like Phalanx of Aetius is described to haue a body much resembling soote in colour his necke ash-coloured and his backe glistering as it were with many
voyces The explycation of this riddle will shew the whole nature of the beast and of the Harpe called Chelys For some things are related herein of the liuing Creature and some things againe of an Instrument of Musicke made vppon his shell and couer And thus much for the Tortoyce in generall the Medicines I will reserue vnto the end of this History OF THE TORTOYCE OF THE earth whose shell is onely figured THese Tortoyces which neuer come in water either sweet or Salt cleare or muddy are called by the Graecians Chelone Chersaie by the Latines Chersinae and Testudines Terrestres Syluestres and Montanae by Nicander Orine and the French peculiarly Tortue des Boys a Tortoyce of the wood These are found in the desarts of Affrica as in Lybia Mauritania in the open fieldes and likewise in Lidia in the Corne-fieldes for when the Plow-men come to plowe their Land their shares turne them out of the earth vpon the furtowes as big as great Glebes of land And the shels of these the Husbandmen burne on the land and dig them out with Spades and Mattocks euen as they doe Wormes among places full of such vermine The Hill Parthenius and Soron in Arcadia doe yeeld many of these Land-Tortoyces The Shell of this liuing Creature is very pleasantly distinguished with diuers colours as earthy blacke blewish and almost like a Salamanders The Liuer of it is small yet apt to be blowen or swell with winde and in all other parts they differ not from the common and vulgar generall prefixed discription These liue in Corne-fieldes vpon such fruits as they can finde and therefore also they may be kept in Chestes or Gardens and fed with Apples Meale or Bread without Leauen They eate also Cockles and Wormes of the earth and three-leaued-grasse They will also eate Vipers but presently after they eate Origan for that herbe is an antidote against Viperine poyson for them and vnlesse they can instantly finde it they dye of the poyson The like vse it is sayde to haue of Rue but the Tortoyces of the Sandy Sea in Affrique liue vpon the fat dew and moystnesse of those Sandes They are ingendered like other of their kind the Males are more venerous then the Females because the female must needes bee turned vppon her backe and she cannot rise againe without helpe wherefore many times the Male after his lust is satisfied goeth away leaueth the poore Female to be destroyed of Kytes or other aduersaries their naturall wisedome therefore hath taught them to preferre life and safety before lust and pleasure Yet Theocritus writeth of a certaine Hearb that the Male-Tortoyce getteth into his mouth and at the time of lust turneth the same to his Female who presently vpon the smell thereof is more enraged for copulation then is the Male and so giueth vp her selfe to his pleasure without all feare of euill or prouidence against future daunger but this Hearb neither he nor any other can name They lay Egges in the earth and do not hatch them except they breath on them with their mouth out of which at due time come their young ones All the winter-time they digge themselues into the earth and there liue without eating any thing insomuch as a man woulde thinke they could neuer liue againe but in the Summer and warme weather they dig themselues out againe without danger The Tortoyces of India in their old and full age change their shels and couers but all other in the World neuer change or cast them This Tortoyce of the earth is an enemy to Vipers and other Serpents and the Eagles againe are enemies to this not so much for hatred as desirous thereof for Physicke against their sicknesses diseases of Nature and therefore they are called in Greeke Chelonophagoi aetoi Tortoyce-eating-Eagles for although they cannot come by them out of their deepe and hard Shell yet they take them vp into the ayre and so let them fall downe vppon some hard stone or Rocke and there-vpon it is broken all to peeces and by this means died the famous Poet Aeschilus vvhich kind of fate was foretold him that such a day he should dye wherefore to auoyd his end in a fayre Sunne-shine cleare day he sat in the fields and suddenly an Eagle let a Tortoyce fall downe vpon his head which brake his scull and crushed out his braynes whereupon the Graecians wrote Aeschulographonti epipeptoke Chelone Which may be englished thus Eschilus writing vpon a rocke A Tortoyce falling his braines out knocke The vses of this Land Tortoyce are first for Gardens because they cleare the Gardens from Snayles and Wormes out of the Arcadian Tortoyces they make Harps for their shelles are very great and this kind of Harp is called in Latine Testudo the inuentor whereof is said to be Mercury for finding a Tortoyce after the falling in of the Riuer Nilus whose flesh was dryed vp because it was left vppon the Rockes hee strucke the sinnewes thereof which by the force of his hand made a musicall sound and thereupon he framed it into a Harp which caused other to imitate his action and continue that practise vnto this day These Tortoyces are better meate then the Sea or Water-Tortoyces and therefore they are preferred for the belly especially they are giuen to Horses for by them they are raysed in flesh and made much fatter And thus much shall suffice for the Tortoyce of the earth OF THE TORTOYCE OF THE sweete-sweete-water PLiny maketh foure kindes of Tortoyces one of the earth a second of the Sea a third called Lutaria and the fourth called Swyda lyuing in Sweete-waters and this is called by the Portugalls Cagado and Gagado the Spaniards Galapag and the Italians Gaiandre de aqua There are of this kinde found in Heluetia neere to Zuricke at a Towne called Andelfinge but the greatest are found in the Riuer Ganges in India where theyr shels are as great as tuns and Damascen writeth that he saw certaine Ambassadours of India present vnto Augustus Caesar at Antiochia a Sweete-water-Tortoyce vvhich was three cubits broad They breede theyr young ones in Nilus They haue but a small Melt and it wanteth both a Bladder and reines They breede their young ones and lay their Egges on the dry Land for in the water they dye without respiration therefore they digge a hole in the Earth wherein they lay their Egges as it were in a great ditch of the quantity of a Barrell and hauing couered them with earth depart away from them for thirty dayes afterwardes they come againe and vncouer theyr Egges which they finde formed into young ones those they take away with them into the water and these Tortoyces at the invndation of Nilus follow the Crocodiles and remoue their nests and egges from the violence of the flouds There was a magicall and superstitious vse of these Sweete-water-Tortoyces agaynst Hayle for if a man take one of these in his right hand and
carrie it with the belly vpward round about his Vineyard so returning in the same manner with it afterward lay it vpon the backe so as it cannot turne on the belly but remaine with the face vpward all manner of Clouds should passe ouer that place and neuer empty themselues vppon that Vineyard But such diabolicall and foolish obseruations were not so much as to be remēbred in this place were it not for their sillinesse that by knowing them men might learne the weakenesse of humaine wisedome when it erreth from the Fountaine of all science and true knowledge which is Diuinity and the most approoued operations of Nature And so I will say no more in this place of the Sweete-water-Tortoyce OF THE TORTOYCE OF the Sea IT were vnproper and exorbitant to handle the Sea-Tortoyce in this place were it not because it liueth in both elements that is both the water and the Land wherefore seeing the earth is the place of his generation as the Sea is of his foode and nourishment it shall not be amisse nor improper I trust to handle this also among the Serpents and creeping things of the earth Pliny calleth this Sea-Tortoyce Mus Marinus a Mouse of the Sea and after him Albertus doth so likewise The Arabians call it Asfulhasch and the Portugalles Tartaruga and in Germany Meerschiltkrott which the common Fisher-menne call the Souldier because his backe seemeth to bee armed and couered with a shield and Helmet especially on the forepart which shield is very thicke strong and triangular there being great veines and sinnewes which goe out of his Necke shoulders and hippes that tye on and fasten the same to his body His forefeet being like hands are forked and twisted very strong with which it fighteth and taketh his prey and nothing can presse it to death except the frequent strokes of Hammers And in al their members except their quantity their feet they are much like the Tortoyces of the Earth for otherwise they are greater and are also blacke in colour They pull in their heads as occasion is ministred to them eyther to fight feede or be defended and theyr whole shell or couer seemeth to be compounded of fine Plates They haue no teeth but in the brimmes of theyr beakes or snouts are certaine eminent diuided thinges like teeth very sharp and shut vppon the vnder lippe like as the couer of a Boxe and in the confidence of these sharp prickles and the strength of their hands and backes they are not afrayde to fight with men Theyr eyes are most cleare and splendant casting theyr beames farre and neare and also they are white in colour so that for their brightnesse and rare whitenesse the Apples are taken out and included in Rings Chaines and Bracelets They haue reynes which cleaue to their backes as the Reines of an Bugle or Oxe Theyr feete are not apt to be vsed in going for they are like to the feet of Seales or Sea-calues seruing in stead of Oares to swim withall Their legges are very long and stronger in their feet and nailes then are the clawes of the Lyon They liue in Rockes and the Sea-sands and yet they cannot liue altogether in the water or on the Land because they want breathing and sleepe both which they performe out of the Water yet Pliny writeth that many times they sleepe on the top of the water and his reason is because they lye still vnmooueable except with the Water and snort like any other Creature that sleepeth but the contrary appeareth seeing they are found to sleepe on the Land and the snorting noyse they make is but an endeuour to breath which they cannot well doe on the toppe of the Water and yet better there then in the bottome They feede in the night-time and the mouth is the strongest of all other Creatures for with it they crush in peeces any thing be it neuer so hard as a stone or such thinges they also come and eate grasse on the dry Land They eate certaine little Flshes in the Winter time at which season their mouth is hardest and with these Fishes they are also bayted by men and so taken Pausanius writeth that in Affrica there are Maritine Rocks called Scelestae and there dwelleth among a creature called Scynon that is Zytyron a Tortoyce and whatsoeuer he findeth on that Rockes which is a stranger in the Sea the same he taketh and casteth downe headlong They engender on the Land and the Female resisteth the copulation with the Male vntill hee set against her a stalke or stemme of some Tree or Plant. They lay their Egges and couer them in the earth planing it ouer with their breasts and in the night-time they sit vppon them to hatch them Their Egges are great of diuers colours hauing a hard shell so that the young one is not framed or brought foorth within lesse compasse then a yeere as Aristotle writeth but Pliny sayth thirty dayes And for as much as they cannot by Nature nor dare for accident long tarry vppon the Land they set certaine markes with their feete vppon the place where they lay theyr Egges whereby they know the place againe and are neuer deceiued Some againe say that after they haue hidde their Egges in the earth forty dayes the Female commeth the iust fortith day not fayling of her reckoning and vncouereth her Egges wherein shee findeth her young ones formed vvhich she taketh out as ioylfully as any man would do Gold out of the earth and carryeth them away with her to the Water They lay some-times an hundered Egges and sometimes they lay fevver but euer the number is very great There is vppon the left side of Hispaniola a little Island vpon the Port Beata which is called Altus-Bellus where Peter Martyr reporteth straunge thinges of many Creatures especially of the Tortoyces for hee writeth that when they rage in lust for copulation they come on shore and there they digge a Ditch wherein they lay together three or foure hundered Egges beeing as great as Goose-Egges and when they haue made an end they couer them with Sand and goe away to the Sea not once looking after them but at the appoynted time of Nature by the heate of the Sunne the young Tortoyces are hatched engendered and droduced into light without any further helpe of theyr Parents Great is the courage of one of these for it is not afrayde to set vppon three men together but if it can bee turned vpward vppon the backe it is made weake and vnresistable And if the head be cut off and seuered from the body it dieth not presently nor closeth the eyes for if a man shake his hand at it then vvill it winke but if hee put it neere it will also byte if it can reach it If by the heat of the Sunne theyr backes grow dry they also grow weake and inflexible and therefore they hasten to the Water to remollifie them or else they
dye within short time and for this cause this is the best way to take them In the whottest day they are drawne into the deepe where they swimme willingly with their backes or shelles aboue the Water where they take breath and in continuance the Sunne so hardeneth them that they are not able to helpe themselues in the water but they grow very faynt and weake and are taken at the pleasure of the Fisher-man They are also taken on the toppes of the Water after they returne weary from theyr feeding in the Night-time for then two men may easily turne them on theyr backes and in the meane-while another casteth a Snare vppon them and draweth them safely to the Land In the Phaenician Sea they are taken safely without daunger and generally where they may be turned on theyr backe there they can make no resistaunce but where they cannot many times they wound and kill the Fisher-men breaking the nets asunder and let out all the other Fish included with them Bellorius writeth that there bee of these Sea-Tortoyces two kindes one long the other round and both of them breath at theyr Noses bycause they want Gilles and the long ones are most frequent about the Port Torra in the redde Sea whose couer is variable for the Males shell is playne and smooth vnderneath and the Females is hollow The Turkes haue a kinde of Tortoyce whose shell is bright like the Chrysolite of which they make haftes for Kniues of the greatest price which they adorne with Plates of gold In Iambolus an Island of the South there are also found certaine Monsters or liuing creatures which are not very great yet are they admirable in Nature and in the vertue of their bloud Their bodyes are round and like the Tortoyce hauing two crosse lynes ouer theyr backes in the ends of which is an eye and an eare at eyther side so as they seeme to haue foure eares the belly is but one into which the meate passeth out of the mouth They haue feete round about and with them they goe both backward and forward The vertue of their bloud is affirmed to be admirable for whatsoeuer body is cut asunder put together if it be sprinkled with this bloud during the time that it breatheth it covniteth as before The ancient Troglodytes had a kind of Sea-Tortoyce which they call Celtium which had hornes vnto which they fastened the strings of their Harpes these also they worshipped and accounted very holy Yet some thinke that they might better be called Celetum then Celtium but I thinke Hermolaus dooth better call them Chelitium apo tes Cheluos which signifieth both a Tortoyce and their broad breastes and with their Hornes they helpe themselues in swimming Albertus also maketh mention of a Tortoyce called Barchora but it is thought to be a corrupt word from Ostra Codermus These Sea-Tortoyces are found sometimes to be eyght cubits broad and in India with their shelles they couer houses and such vse they also put them vnto in Tabrobana for they haue them fifteene cubits broad And thus much for all kind of Tortoyces OF THE VIPER NOtwithstanding the asseueration of Suessanus who will needes exclude the Viper from the Serpents because a Serpent is called Ophis and the Viper Echis yet I trust there shall be no reasonable man that can make exeption to the placing of this liuing Creature among Serpents for that great learned man vvas deceiued in that Argument seeing by the same reason hee might as vvell exclude any other as the Snake Dragon Scorpion and such like who haue their peculiar names beside the generall vvord Ophis and yet might hee also haue beene better aduised then to affirme a Viper not be called a Serpent for euen in Aristotle whom he expoundeth and approoueth hee might haue found in his fifth Booke of Gen animal and the last Chapter that the Viper is recorded Inter genera opheon That is Among the generall kindes of Serpents although as wee shall shew afterward it differeth from most kindes of Serpents because it breedeth the young one in his belly and in the winter-time lyeth in the Rockes and among stones and not in the earth The Haebrevves as it appeareth Esay 59. and Iob. 6. call it Aphgnath and according to Munster Aphgnaim plurally for Vipers because of the variety of colours wherewithall they are set all ouer The Arabians from the Greeke word Thereon signifieng all kind of wilde Beastes doe also call it Thiron and that kinde of Viper vvhereof is made the Triacle they call a Alafafrai and Alphai they also call it Eosman as Leonicenus wryteth Beside it is called Alphe which seemeth to bee deriued of the Haebrevves and Afis which may likewise be coniectured to arise from the Greeke vvord Ophis The Greekes call the Male peculiarly and properly Echis and the Female Echidna and it is a Question whether the vulgar word among the Gaecians at this day Ochendra doe not also signify this kinde of Serpent Bellonius thinketh that it is corrupted of Echidna the Female Viper The Germans haue many vvords for a Viper as Brandt Schlangen Natet-Otter Heck-Nater and Viper-Nater The French Vne Vipere The Spaniards Biuora and Bicha The Italians Vipera Maraesso Scurtio and sometimes Scorzonei although Scorzo and Scorzone be generall wordes in Italy for all creeping Serpents without feet and that strike with theyr teeth There is also about the word Maraeso some Question although Leonicenus decideth the matter and maketh it out of all Controuersie and Rhodigimus thinketh it a very significant vvord deriued from the people Marsi bycause they carryed about Vipers The Mountebankes do also call Suffili from Sibila the hissing voyce which it maketh Some will haue Nepa to be also a Viper yet wee haue shewed that already to signyfie a Scorpion The Graecians say that the Viper is called Echidna paro to echinin eaute ten gonen achri thanaton bycause to her ovvne death shee beareth her young one in her belly and therefore the Latines doe also call it Vipera quasi vipariat bycause it dyeth by violence of her byrth or young and they attribute vnto it venome and pestilence and generally there are fevve Epithets vvhich are ascribed to the Serpent but they also belong vnto this There is a pretious Stone Echites greenish in colour which seemeth to bee like a Viper and therefore taketh name from it Also an Hearbe Echite like Scammony and Echidmon or Viperina In Cyrene there are Myce which from the similitude of Vipers are called Echenatae Echion was the name of a man and Echionidae and Echionij of people and Echidnon a Citty beside the Sea Aegeum Also the Eagle vvhich by the Poets is fayned to eate the heart of Prometheus is likewise by them sayde to bee begotten betvvixt Typhon and Echidna and the same Echidna to be also the Mother of Chimaera which from the Nauell vpward was like a Virgin and down-ward like a Viper of which
of the iuyce of Raddish l. j. mixe them together for Iron beeing often quenched in this water will grow exceeding hard Another Take of Earth-wormes l. ij destill them in a Limbecke with an easie and gentle fire temper your yron in this destilled water Another Take of Goates blood so much as you please adding to it a little common salt then bury them in the earth in a pot well glased and luted for thirtie dayes together Then destill after this the same blood in Balneo to this destilled liquor adde so much of the destilled water of Earth-worms Another Take of Earth-wormes of the rootes of Apple-trees of Rapes of each a like-much destill them apart by themselues and in equall portions of this water so destilled and afterwards equally mixed quench your yron in it as is said before Antonynus Gallus It shall not be impertinent to our matter we handle to adde a word or two concerning those wormes that are found and doe breede in the snow which Theophanes in Strabo calleth Oripas but because it may seeme very strange incredible to think that any wormes breede and liue onely in the snow you shall heare what the Auncients haue committed to writing and especially Strabo his opinion concerning this poynt It is saith hee receiued amongst the greater number of men that in the snow there are certaine clots or hard lumpes that are very hollow which waxing hard and thicke doe containe the best vvater as it were in a certaine coate and that in this case or purse there doe breede vvormes Theophanes calleth them Oripas and Apollonides Vermes Aristotle saith that liuing creatures will breede also euen in those things that are not subiect to putrefaction as for example in the fire and snow which of all thinges in the world one would take neuer to be apt to putrefie and yet in old snowe Wormes will be bred Old snow that hath lyen long will looke some-what dunne or of a dullish white colour and therefore the snow-wormes are of the same hiew and likewise rough hairie But those snow-wormes which are found to breed when the ayre is somwhat warme are great and white in colour and all these snow-wormes will hardly stirre or mooue from place to place And Pliny is of the same iudgement and the Authour of that booke which is intituled De Plantis falsely fathered vpon Aristotle Yet some there be that denying all these authorities and reiecting whatsoeuer can be obiected for confirmation thereof to the contrarie doe stoutly maintaine by diuers reasons that creatures can breede in the snow because that in snow there is no heate and where no quickning heate is there can be no production of any liuing thing Againe Aristotle writeth that nothing will come of Ise because it is as hee saith most cold and heere-vpon they inferre that in all reason nothing likewise can take his beginning from snow neither is it credible that husbandmen would so often wish for snow in Winter to destroy and consume wormes and other little vermine that els would prooue so hurtfull to their corne and other fruites of the earth And if any wormes be found in the snow it followeth not straightwaies that therein they first receiue theyr beginning but rather that they first come out of the earth and are afterwards seene to be wrapped vp and lye on heapes in the snow But by their leaues these reasons are very weake and may readily be aunswered thus that whereas they maintaine that nothing can breede in the snow because it is voyd of any heate at all herein they build vpon a false ground For if wee will adhibite credite to Auerrhoes there is nothing compounded and made of the three Elements that is absolutely without heate And Aristotle in his fift booke De Generatione Animalium telleth vs precisely that there is no moysture without heate His wordes are Ouden hugron aneu thermou Now snow is a compact and fast congealed substance and some-what moyst for although it proceedeth by congelation which is nothing els but a kind of exsiccation yet notwithstanding the matter whereof it first commeth is a vapour whose nature is moyst and with little adoe may be turned into water I must needes say that congelation is a kind of exsiccation but yet not simply for exsiccation is when as humidity goeth away it putteth forth any matter but in snovv there is no humiditie that is drawne out but it is rather wrapped in and enclosed more strongly and as it were bounded round Furthermore Aristotle in his first booke of his Meteors saith that Snow is Nubes congelata a clowde congelated or thickned together and that in snow there is much heate And in his fift booke De Generatione Animalium he further addeth that the whitenes of the snow is caused by the ayre that the ayre is hot and moist and the snow is white where-vpon we conclude that snow is not so cold as some would beare vs in hand I well hold that nothing will take his originall from Ise inregard of his excessiue coldnes but yet snow is nothing nie so cold as that So then all the hinderance and let is found to exceede of cold which is nothing so effectuall or forceable as in Ise the cold beeing prooued to be farre lesser there can nothing be alleadged to the contrary but that it may putrefie Now in that snow is such an enemie to wormes and many other small creatures as that for the most part it destroyeth them yet it followeth not that the reason of Aristotle is quite ouer-throwne because as wee daily see that those creatures which liue in the ayre will for the most part be suffocate and dye in the water and contrariwise those that liue in the water cannot endure the ayre Yet here-vppon it followeth not that if they be choked in the water that none at all will liue in the water and the same reason is to be alleadged concerning the ayre Therefore it is no maruell if those wormes that first breede in the earth and liue in the earth be killed by the snow yet it necessarily followeth not that no liuing creature can take his first beeing either from or in the snow But if it can as Aristotle witnesseth it is so farre vnlikely that the same snow should be the destroyer of that it first was bred of as I thinke rather it cannot liue seperately but of necessitie in the same snow no otherwise then fishes can liue without water from which they first sprung and had theyr beginning And to this opinion leaneth Theophrastus in his first booke De Causis Plantarū whose words be these Apanta gar phainet ai ta zoa kai ta phuta kai diamenonta kai genomena en tois oikeiois capois For all creatures saith he whatsoeuer seeme both plants to remaine and to be generated and bred in their owne due and proper places And after this he addeth and vrgeth a little further Aparthe men hupo