AN HISTORY OF THE Wonderful Things of Nature: Set forth in Ten several Classes. Wherein are contained I. The Wonders of the Heavens. II. Of the Elements. III. Of Meteors. IV. Of Minerals. V. Of Plants. VI Of Birds. VII. Of fourfooted Beasts. VIII. Of Infects, and things wanting blood. IX. Of Fishes. X. Of Man. Written by Johannes Jonstonus. And now Rendered into ENGLISH. BY A Person of Quality. LONDON, Printed by John Streater, living in Well-Yard near the Hospital of St. Bartholomew's the Less, and are to be sold by the Booksellers of London, 1657. TO The most Illustrious Princes and Lords, L. Januszius Radziwilius, the sole heir of the Illustrious Prince Christopher. L. Boguslaus Radziwilius, the Son of the most Illustrious Prince Januszius, of most Illustrious Memory. To the Dukes of Birzae, and Dubink, etc. Princes of S. R. I. D. Boguslaus, Count in Lesznum, Palatinidae Belzensi, etc. D. Uladislaus Monwid. L. B. in Dorostaie, High Marshal of the great Dukedom of Lithuania. His most gracious Lords. Most Illustrious Princes and Lords, AS all things have their revolutions, so hath natural History the same chance. It was held for a goddess, and much honoured in former times; witness the writings of Aristotle, Pliny, Dioscorides, and other famous men: but now a days it is so despised, that it is of no esteem at all; this mat●er needs no proving. I confess the history of Plants is adorned by many, and Minerals are made mention of; yet I doubt whether it be entirely professed in any University or School, (except Bononia, where Aldrovandus was). They that search out the secrets of Nature, in cursory discourses, fall unfortunatly upon the thorns of subtleties and snares of questions, and do nothing but wove and unweave them with a fine thread of controversies. Whence young Scholars suppose themselves fit to be Masters in Philosophy, when they know how to quote Aristotle for some things, confusedly and unreasonably for general matters. Most gracious Lords, how unfit and hurtful that is, I leave to every man to judge. As for me, what Goudanus the Mr. of great Erasmus speaks of Pliny, I dare to apply to natural History. That it is such, that who reads it not, is thought to be unlearned; he that disdaigns to read it, is more ignorant; and he that cannot relish it, is most ignorant of all: And if there be any consideration had of conversation, really it is more comely and more convenient for it, and for us to know wonderful nature, and her motions; to learn the forces and natures of living creatures, metals, sprouts, plants, to look into the Anatomy of man, and to contemplate other rare admirable things in nature, than to rest satisfied in a few general things of motion, of the heavens, of meteors, and of the soul, (Johannes valent. Andr. in Jnstit. Magica.) and oft times to agitate these things again, till we grow ridiculous. And indeed if the general Principles of natural Philosophy be looked into, it will appear they cannot consist without knowledge of History. For being that universals are built upon particulars, illustrated, demonstrated, determined, refuted by them, how can he be skilled in Philosophy, who is ignorant of History? or how can he salve the many defects thereof, and constitute Axioms that are introductive to action, and search out the forms, & c? The same will befall him as it befell Ixion, who embraced a Cloud for Juno the powerful goddess, whom he intended to embrace, and so is reported to have begotten Centaurs and Chimaeras. As for what concerns action, he shall never change any other metal into Gold, who knows not the natures of the weight, the yellow colour, of the malleableness, the extensiveness, the fixed and volatile substance of them, and hath not diligently looked into the menstruum, and seeds of minerals. He can never hope to retard old age, who hath not first the knowledge of the nature of dryness, and of the depredation of the Spirits upon solid bodies; of assimilation, and alimentation. But the straightening of nature, and daily contesting with her, is the principal thing whereunto the knowledge of the same is directed. He is to me a true Son of natural Philosophy who knows how to augment, and multiply the Winds, to produce new metals, to make mineral Waters; Artificial, of Vitriol, Brimstone, Alum, etc. and to bring forth new plants and animals. He is a legitimate enquirer into Nature, who knows how to prolong life, keep back old age, change statures and complexions, raise the force of imagination upon any body, cure diseases hitherto uncurable, ease pains, and can hasten the times of maturity, clarification, putrefaction, concoction, and germination. I will now say nothing of Nature's book, wherein we may behold the supreme power, as the Sun is seen in the water. For it is certain, that he is comprehended under the title of natural history, and it is far more easy to find out his goodness wisdom and power, by the apparition of new Stars, the flowing of the Sea about Maccareo, the increase of Iron in Ilva, the marriage of palm Trees, the flowering of Mulberries, the ingenuity of Elephants, the Kingdom of Bees, the harvest of Pismires, the foresight of Dolphins, and the infinite Sympathies and Antipathies of things created, than out of those vast discourses of the entity of materia prima, identity of motion, the measure of time, &c: which are found in Albertus, Thomas, Scotus, Fonseca, Masius, Ruvius Toletus and others. Who knows not but that the knowledge of God is the principal end of Sciences? When I had diligently considered of these things, first induced thereunto by the writings of that reverend man D. Johannes Andreas, my much honoured friend, I not only conceived a high love of natural History, but I thought myself obliged to persuade young men that were studious, to do the same. But because I observed that the theoretical part was shut up in huge Volumes, and the practic involved with great difficulties; and I saw that Youth that are given to idleness, would hate labour; and being addicted to pleasure, would not endure difficult things; I, imitating the Sons of Aesculapius, (who allure the sick to use bitter things, use also syrups confections electuaries, etc.) have culled out the most pleasant things, (and if any be doubtful, it was done to spur them on) as much as my other occasions would suffer me, which I had in Poland, being Tutor to the most noble Kurtzbachius de Zwada: as also by my proper studies in the low Countries, out of the huge volumes of Pliny, (concerning whom, I like that saying of Lipsius He that calls Pliny his works Pandects, in my opinion shall not err; for that man read, knew all, and shut up Greece and Italy in one volume) Agricola, Gesner Aldrovandus, Libavius, Mathiolus, Scaliger, Cardan, and many more writings, and by these my purpose was to invite with entreaty the studious youth, that labour so much in the common principles of natural Philosophy, to a more serious scrutiny of Nature. But, most illustrious Princes and Lords, when, as the manner is, I sought for a Patron, I thought this work did of duty belong unto your Name. For If it be considered; the examples of Solomon, Alexander, Mithridates, Diocletian, Francis the first King of France, and others, will teach you, that the knowledge of natural Philosophy belongs also to Princes and to great men. If you; I confess, the hope of Poland now, and in time may be the Stars, of that Country, that with the beams of their light, will vouchsafe to illuminate the Church, the Commonwealth, and schools of learning. If I; I have drawn these things forth chiefly for the good of my Nation, and I study other things, if God please to lend me space to perfect my intentions. Yet I deny not, but it may be I owe more to you already than I can pay. For, most Illustrivos Prince Janusius, you were pleased at Lipsia to invite me to your Table, and to discourse with me. And the most illustrious Lord Alexander Przybkowic Przybkowsky, your high treasurer, thought me worthy, to have the offer of a place in your illustrious family, if occasion were. Most illustrious Lord, how great your Nobleness was to me, my conversation at Lesna with the most learned Lord Michael Henry, a most excellent Chemist, and your hof-master; and with the reverend Mr. David Ursin, a man of singular fidelity and prudence, who sojourns with you, may sufficiently witness. Also, most Illustrious Lord Boguslaus, your letters are sufficient testimonies, whereby you often spoke to me when I lived in Holland, and the good words you spoke of me being absent, most lovingly when you departed from Lesna. Wherefore, most illustrious Lords, whatsoever this small work is, I lay it down at your feet; and you I hope will receive a small gift of a thankful mind, with that Heroic humanity that is bred in you; and think, that I owe you much more, but I cannot give you more than I do. God grant that the Majesty of Arts buried in our minds, may be recalled and brought to life again by your promoting voice, and be restored to its former lustre. As for me, if I find that you accept of these things, and that they are useful for our students, I shall endeavour to handle these things more accurately, and to frame a complete Circle of Arts and Sciences in a small history, that young students may have the fruit of it, and may more happily be promoted in the course of their studies. I wish it. In the mean while, that you most Illustrious Lords, may live long for the glory of God, and good of your Country. Given at London, May 15 old style, Anno 1631. Your most Illustrious Highness and Greatness, most bounden Servant, John Jonston. The Contents of all the Chapters and Articles contained in this Book. The Contents of the First Classis. Chapter 1. OF the World, Page 1 Artic. 1. Of the Creation of the World, Page 1 Artic. 2. Of the parts of the world, and disposing of them, Page 3 Artic. 3. Of unity, figure, and soul of the World, Page 4 Artic. 4. Of the Duration of the World, past, and to come. Page 5 Artic. 5. Of the hidden qualities of natural bodies. Page 6 Artic. 6. Of God's Providence in the World, Page 7 Chap. 2. Of Heaven, Page 8 Chap. 3. Of the Stars, Page 8 Article 1. Of the Force and Nutriment of the Stars, Page 8 Artic. 2. Of the Light of the fixed Stars, their magnitude and motion, Page 10 Chap. 4. Of the Five lesser Planets, Page 17 Chap. 5. Of the Sun, Page 18 Artic. 1. Of the Magnitude and Unity of the Sun, Page 18 Artic. 2. Of the Sun's light, and Eclipse, Page 19 Artic: 3. Of the Sun's Motion, Page 20 Artic. 4. Of the Inequality of Days and Nights. Page 21 Artic. 5. Of the Four Parts of the Year. Page 22 Artic. 6. Of the Sun's shadow. Page 23 Art. 7. Of the Sun's Influence on Inferior things. Page 24 Chap. 6. Of the Moon. Page 24 Artic. 1. Of the Figures and light of the Moon. Page 24 Artic. 2. Of the Spots and Eclipse of the Moon. Page 25 Artic. 3. Of the Moon's Influence on these sublunary things. Page 26 Chap. 7. Of New Stars. Page 27 Chap. 8. Of Astrological Predictions. Page 29 The Contents of the Second Classis. Chap. 1. Of Fire. Page 33 Artic. 1. Of the Wonderful beginning of Fires. Page 33 Artic. 2. Of Fires in the Waters▪ Page 34 Artic. 3. Of Fires under the Earth. Page 35 Artic. 4· Of the beginning or subterraneal Fire, Page 36 Artic. 5. Of the Miracles of Fires in duration, burning, and quenching, Page 37 Chap. 2. Of the Ayr. Page 39 Artic. 1. Of the three Regions of the Ayr. Page 39 Artic. 2. Of the Infection of the Air, Page 40 Artic. 3. Of the Putrefaction of the Ayr. Page 41 Artic. 4. Of Attraction, cooling, and penetrating of the Ayr. Page 42 Chap. 3. Of the Water. Page 43 Artic. 1. Of the quantity and colour of Waters. Page 43 Artic. 2. Of the Taste of the Water. Page 43 Artic. 3. Of the Smell of the Water: the first and second qualities. Page 44 Artic. 4. Of the Divers running of the Water. Page 44 Artic. 5. Of the change of quantity and of qualities, in Waters. Page 45 Artic. 6. Of some other things admirable in Waters. Page 46 Artic. 7. Of some Floods or Waters; and of the Universal Deluge, Page 48 Chap. 4. Of the Original of Fountains. Page 50 Chap. 5. Of Mineral Baths. Page 53 Chap. 6. Of the Sea. Page 55 Artic. 2. Of Navigation in the Sea, Page 55 Artic. 3. Of the depth, freezing, and colours of the Sea. Page 57 Artic. 4. Of the Salt of the Sea, Page 58 Artic. 5. Of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea. Page 59 Chap. 7. Of the Earth, Page 64 Artic. 1. Of the New World. Page 64 Artic. 2. Of the Miracles of some Countries▪ Page 66 Chap. 8. Of Islands. Page 67 Artic. 1. Of the Original and destruction of Islands. Page 67 Artic. 2. Of the Miracles of some Islands. Page 68 Chap. 9 Of Mountains. Page 69 Artic. 1. Of the Qualities and Quantities of Mountains. Page 69 Artic. 2. Of Aetna and Hecla Mountains. Page 70 The Contents of the Third Classis. Chapter OF Subterraneal Exhalations, Page 73 Chap. 2. Of Comets. Page 74 Artic. 1. Of the Nature and quantity of Comets. Page 74 Artic. 2. What Comets are a sign. Page 75 Chap. 3. Of an Ignis Fatuus, Helena, Castor and Pollux. Page 76 Chap. 4. Of an Ignis Lambens. Page 76 Chap. 5. Of Lightning, Thunder, and Thunderbolts, Page 78 Chap. 6. Of Winds. Page 80 Artic. 1. Of the Original of Winds. Page 80 Artic. 2. Of the kinds and effects of winds, Page 81 Chap. 7. Of Earthquakes. Page 82 Artic. 1. Of the Cause of Earthquakes. Page 82 Artic. 2. Of the place, time and effects of Earthquakes, Page 83 Chap. 8. Of Rain, Page 85 Chap. 9▪ Of Snow and Hail, Page 86 Chap. 10. Of Dew, Manna, and Honey. Page 87 Chap. 11. Of the Rainbow. Page 88 Chap. 12. Of some wonderful Meteors. Page 89 The Contents of the Fourth Classis. Chapter 1 Of Minerals in general. Page 91 2 Of Marle and Potters-Earth. Page 92 3 Of Terra Lemnia, Armenia, and Silesiack. Page 93 4 Of Salt, Page 94 5 Of Alum and Nitre. Page 95 6 Of Calcanthum or Vitriol. Page 96 7 Of Naphtha, Petroleum, and Maltha. Page 96 8 Of Pissasphaltum, and the ways of Embalming dead Corpse. Page 97 9 Of Camphir. Page 98 10 Of Amber or Electrum. Page 99 11 Of Ambergris, Jet▪ and Earthy Bitumen. Page 100 12 Of Coral. Page 101 13 Brimstone and Stybium. Page 101 14 Of Juices that grow into stones. Page 102 15 Of the Loadstone. Page 103 16 Of the Stones, Schistos, Galactites, Gip, Selenites, Amiantus. Page 106 17 Of Stones that represent divers Forms. Page 107 18 Of the Eagle stone, Enhydros, the Touchstone, and the Pumex stone. Page 108 19 Of the Glass-maker's stone, and the Lookingglass stone, Page 108 20 Of the Crystal, Iris, and the Diamond. Page 110 21 Of the Opalus, Emerald, Heliotropion, and Topaz. Page 111 22 Of the Amethyst, Hyacinth, the Sardonix, and the Onychile. Page 112 23 Of the Jasper, Nephritick stone, and an Agate. Page 112 24 Of the Ruby, the Carchedonius, Sandastrus, Chrysolite, and some others. Page 114 25 Of Jewels found in the bodies of living Creatures. Page 114 Artic. 1. Of the Dragon stone, the Chelonia, the Cock stone and Toadstone. Page 114 Artic. 2. Of the Stones Chelidonium, Crabs eyes, Snail Stones, and Bezoar. Page 116 Chap. 26. Of Gold, Page 117 Chap. 27. Of Silver. Page 119 28 Of Quicksilver. Page 120 29 Brass and Copper, Page 121 30 Of Lead, Page 122 31 Of Iron. Page 123 32 Of Fossil Flesh digged up. Page 124 The Contents of the Fifth Classis. Chap. 1. Of Plants in general, Page 127 2 Of Wormwood, Wolfsbane, and Snapdragon. Page 129 3 Of Aloes, Lignum Aloes, and Camomile, Page 129 4 Of Ammi, Holly, Ceterach, and the Strawberry-Tree. Page 130 5 Of the Cane reed, Asserall, and Agnacath. Page 130 6 Of the Scythian Lamb, the bashful Plant, and Amfia. Page 131 7 Of the Balsam Tree, and Betel. Page 132 8 Of Betonie, Birch, and Box. Page 133 9 Of Batat, Boxera, Brusathaer, and Baaras. Page 133 10 Of Cachi, Cacavate, Cassia, our Lady's Thistle, and Corallina. Page 134 11 Of Cinnamon and Cedar. Page 135 12 Of Chamaeleon, Cloves, Gilliflowers, and Cichory. Page 136 13 Of Saffron, Cherries, Cachi or Ciccata. Page 136 14 Of the Cornel, Cypress and Cucumbers, Page 137 15 Of Onions, Celandine, Hemp, and River Sponge. Page 138 16 Of Hemlock, Ciacompalon, and Cocco. Page 138 17 Of Doronicum, Dragons, Olive-honey, Vipers-Bugloss, Eryngion, Euphorbium. Page 139 18 Of Elaterium, Hellebor, Eupatorium, Emitum and Fennel, Page 140 19 Of Fennel Giant and the Figtree. Page 141 20 Of the Ash, Mushrooms, and the Beech. Page 141 21 Of Guajacum, and Gentian, Page 142 22 Of Broom, Ginger, and St. Johns-wort. Page 142 23 Of Elecampane, Turnsole, and Hiuca. Page 143 24 Of Impia, Juniper, and Glassewort. Page 144 25 Of the Bay-Tree, Mastick-Tree, and Flax. Page 144 26 Of the Larch-Tree, Lily, Loosstrife, and the Lote-Tree. Page 145 27 Of Malabathrum, Punic and Assyrian Apples, and the Tree called Mangueis. Page 146 28 Of Musk and Moss, Page 147 29 Of Mandragora, Mallows, and the Mulberry-Tree. Page 148 30 Of Napellus. Page 148 31 Of Nyctegrotus, Granum Nubiae, Nutmegs, and Olive Trees. Page 149 32 Of the Palmtree, Page 150 33 Of the Planetree, Appletrees, and the Tree called Paternoster Page 151 34 Of Pepper, Plantain, Pimpernel, wild tansy, herb Paris, and Papyr. Page 152 35 Of the Oak, Rhubarb, Rape-root, and Rosa-solis. Page 153 36 Of Crowfoot, Rue, Rosemary, Rose-root and rosetree. Page 154 37 Of Scorzonera, Squills, Sage, Scordium. Page 155 38 Of Nightshade. Page 156 39 Of Mustard, Satyrium, and the greater Saxifrage. Page 157 40 Of the Turpentine, and Frankincense Trees. Page 157 41 Of Wheat and Thyme, Page 158 42 Of Tobacco. Page 159 43 Of Trifoly, Teucrium, Thelyphonon, Yew, Thapsia, and Thauzargent. Page 160 44 Of the Vine. Page 161 45 Of Xaqua and Zuccaro. Page 163 46 Of other miraculous Trees. Page 163 47 Of the prodigiousnesse of some Trees. Page 165 The Contents of the Sixth Classis. Chap. 1 Of the Eagle. Page 167 2 Of the Hawk, Page 168 3 Of the Assalon and Heron. Page 169 4 Of the Horn-Owl and Aluco. Page 169 5 Of the Goose, Page 170 6 Of the King's Fisher, of Ducks, and the Bird Emme. Page 171 7 Of Barnacles. Page 172 8 Of the Owl and Cormorant. Page 173 9 Of the Feldifare and Goat-Sucker. Page 174 10 Of the Cuckoo. Page 174 11 Of the Crow. Page 175 12 Of the Rook, and Chrysaethos. Page 176 13 Of the Pigeon. Page 176 14 Of the Swan. Page 177 15 Of the Stork. Page 178 16 Of the Falcon. Page 179 17 Of the Hen and Cock. Page 179 18 Of the Crane and the Woodwall. Page 180 19 Of the Chough. Page 181 20 Of the Swallow. Page 182 21 Of the Osprey, the Ibis, and the Loxias. Page 183 22 Of the Kite. Page 183 23 Of Manucodita and Gull or Cormorant. Page 184 24 Of the Owl and Musket, Page 185 25 Of Onocrotalus, and Rhinoceros. Page 186 26 Of the Parrot. Page 186 27 Of the Phoenix and Wood-pecker. Page 187 28 Of the Pie, Page 188 29 Of the Peacock. Page 189 30 Of the Pheasant and Sparrow. Page 189 31 Of the Partridge. Page 190 32 Of the Ostrich. Page 191 33 Of the Scythian Bird, and the Castrel. Page ibid.▪ 34 Of the Thrush, and Torquilla. Page ibid. 35 Of Urogallus, Page 192 36 Of the Bat. Page 193 37 Of the Vulture. Page 194 The Contents of the Seventh Classis. Chap. 1. Of the Elk and Ram Page 206 2 Of the Ass. Page 207 3 Of the Boar, and the Archopitecus. Page 208 4 Of the Ox. Page 208 5 Of the Buff, Bugle, and the Bonasus. Page 209 6 Of the Camel. Page 209 7 Of the Goat. Page 210 8 Of the Beaver, and Colus. Page 211 9 Of the Cat and Coney. Page ibid. 10 Of the Stag. Page 212 11 Of the Dog. Page 213 12 Of the Marmoset and the Catoblepas: Page 215 13 Of the Baboon and Chamaeleon. Page 216 14 Of the Crocodile. Page 217 15 Of the Horse. Page 218 16 Of the Urchin. Page 219 17 Of the Elephant. Page ibid. 18 Of the Dormouse, and the Gulo. Page 221 19 Of the Hyaena, and the Porcupine. Page ibid. 20 Of the Buck-Goat. Page 222 21 Of the Goat called the Evick, and the Indiat Rat, Ichneumon. Page ibid. 22 Of the Lion. Page 223 23 Of the Hare. Page 224 24 Of the Wolf. Page ibid. 25 Of the Lizard, Page 225 26 Of the Lynx and Lutra or Otter. Page 226 27 Of the Mouse. Page 227 28 Of the Wesil, and the Sable Wesil. Page 228 29 Of the Sheep. Page 229 30 Of the Wild Goat called Oryx, and the Panther or Leopard. Page 230 31 Of the Frog. Page 231 32 Of the Rangifer, and Rhinoceros. Page 231 33 Of divers Serpents. Page 232 34 Of the Squirrel, and Ape-Fox. Page 233 35 Of the Ape. Page ibid. 36 Of Su and Subus. Page 234 37 Of the Sow. Page 234 38 Of the Mole. Page 235 39 Of Tatus and the Tiger. Page 236 40 Of the Tortoise. Page 236 41 Of the Bear. Page 237 42 Of the Fox, Page 238 43 Of the Unicorn. Page 238 The Contents of the Eighth Classis. Chap. 1. Of the kinds of things without blood, Page 241 2 Of Bees, Page 244 3 Of Spiders, Page 246 4 Of Silkworms. Page 247 5 Of the Spanish Fly, and the Glow-worm. Page 248 6 Of the Grasshopper, Page 249 7 Of the Crabfish, and the Shellfish breeding Pearls. Page 250 8 Of the Snail, Page 251 9 Of the Gnat, Page 251 10 Of the Sea-Urchin, the Ephemerus, and the Catterpillar, Page 252 11 Of the Pismire. Page 253 12 Of the Horseleech, and Hippocampus. Page 254 13 Of the Locust, that is an Insect. Page 254 14 Of the Sea-Hare, the Lobster, with his shell, and the calamary. Page 255 15 Of Pearls. Page 255 16 Of the Fly, Page 256 17 Of the Nautilus or Boat-like Fish, Page 257 18 Of Oysters and fish with hard shells, Page 258 19 Of the Butterfly, and the Polypus. Page 259 20 Of the Louse and Flea, Page 260 21 Of the Beetle and the Cuttle. Page 261 22 Of the Scorpion, Page 262 23 Of Worms in Wood, and the Tarantula. Page 263 24 Of Worms. Page 263 Article 1. Of Worms in Brute Beasts. Page ibid. Artic. 2. Of Worms in Men. Page 264 Artic. 3. Of Worms in Plants. Page 264 Artic. 4. Of the Indian Worms, and the March Worm. Page 266 Chap. 25. Of Wasps. Page 266 The Contents of the Ninth Classis. Chap. 1. Of Hornback, Sturgeon or Elops, of the Dace or Groundling. Page 289 2 Of the Eel. Page 290 3 Of the Whale, and the Barbel. Page 290 4 Of the Carp, the Clupaea, and the Conger. Page 291 5 Of the Dogg-fish. Page 292 6 Of Dracunculus. Page 293 7 Of the Dolphin, Exocaetus and the Fiatola. Page 293 8 Of Glanis and Glaucus. Page 294 9 Of the Herring and Huson. Page ibid. 10 Of the Pike and Luna. Page 295 11 Of Manaty, and the Whiting. Page 296 12 Of Mirus, Mola, and Monoceros. Page 297 13 Of the Mullet and the Barbel. Page 298 14 Of the River- Pout, and Lamprey. Page 296 15 Of the Perch and Sea-Calf. Page 296 16 Of the Scale, and the Indian Reversus like an Eel. Page 300 17 Of the Remora, and the Sea-Scarus. Page 301 18 Of the Sea-Serpent, and the Sturgeon. Page 302 19 Of the Salmon and Turdus. Page 302 20 Of the Torpedo, and the Tuni●. Page 303 21 Of the Uranoscopus, and the Swordfish. Page 304 22 Of some other Wonders concerning Fishes. Page 305 The Contents of the Tenth Classis. Chap. 1. Of Man in general, Page 307 2. Of Nourishment, Page 309 Article 1. Of the harmless feeding on venomous things. Page 309 Article 2. Of the eating of other unusual Meats. Page 311 Artic. 3. Of great Eaters. Page 311 Article 4. Of monstrous drinkers▪ Page 312 Artic. 5. Of some Secrets concerning Drunkenness. Page 313 Artic. 6. Of Bread. Page 315 Artic. 7. Of wonderful Fasting. Page 315 Chap. 3. Of Concoction. Page 317 Article 1. Of the Liver and Spleen. Page ibid. Artic, 2. Of Humours in general. Page 317 Article 3. Of blood Page 318 Artic. 4. Of Urine and Reins. Page 320 Artic. 5. Of Marrow. Page 321 Article 6. Of Sweat. Page 322 Article 7. Of insensible Transpiration. Page 323 Chap. 4. Of Increasing Page 324 Article 1. Of Giants. Page 324 Artic. 2. Of Pigmies, Page 325 Chap. 5. Of Generation, Page 326 Article 1. Of Seed. Page 326 Artic. 2. Of menstruous Blood and Milk. Page 327 Artic. 3. Of the Generative parts. Page 329 Artic. 4. Of the Female Sex. Page 329 Artic. 5. Of the noise of the Womb. Page 330 Artic. 6. Of numerous Births. Page 331 Artic. 7. Of monstrous Births. Page 333 Artic. 8. Of the recompense Nature makes to Monsters. Page 334 Artic. 9 Of Nations of divers Forms. Page 338 Artic. 10. Of a wonderful Antipathy between the Father and the Son. Page 339 Artic. 11. Of some Wonders concerning Generation. Page 339 Chap. 6. Of Vital action. Page 340 Article 1. Of the Heart. Page 340 Article 2. Of the Pulse. Page 342 Artic. 3. Of Life and Death. Page 342 Artic. 4. Of Venomous infection. Page 344 Chap. 7. Of the internal and external Sense. Page 345 Article 1. Of Imaginations of melancholy people. Page 345 Article 2. Of the force of Imagination. Page 346 Artic. 3. Of Sight and Smelling. Page 346 Artic. 4. Of the Face. Page 347 Artic. 5. Of Dreams. Page 348 Artic. 6. Of Walkers in the Night▪ Page 349 Artic. 7. Of some things observable concerning the Head and the Senses. Page 350 Chap. 8. Of the faculty of moving from place to place. Page 351 Artic. 1. Of the wonderful strength and agility of some people. Page 351 Chap. 9 Of the rational Soul; and principally of Memory. Page 353, 354 Scalig. l. 1. de Plantis. I Always thought the compass of Wisdom to be, as it were, the Treasury of our Mind, into which I suppose we ought to bring all the tribute of our Cogitations and Inventions; yet only such as are honest: from whence every Man may fetch for his own use without Envy, or Grudging. For we are all one Body, and there is but one Spirit of this Body, which proceeding from God, watcheth for the common Good. To the Right HONOURABLE▪ Edward Lord Montague, Baron of Kimbolton, Viscount Mandevill, and Earl of Manchester. My Noble Lord, THis Excellent HISTORY concerning The Wonderful Things of Nature, was written in Latin; and digested into Ten Classes, by a Native of another Country: who was himself indeed A Wonder in Nature, and might well make up the Eleventh Classis with the History of himself, for his general and vast understanding in the Universe, as will appear to all men that will take the pains (so full of profit and delight) to read his Writings. In his Life-time he was much conversant in England and Scotland, to search out the Wonderful Things in these Nations. And if Englishmen well weigh and consider it, they cannot but thankfully make their returns unto Almighty God for it, since there is no Country of the World that is in all things comparable to Great Brittany itself, being adorned with so many strange and wonderful things. I shall not need to mention the particulars (which have furnished the Author in several Classes with some varieties.) For I fear the World will judge that I have said too much already unto your Honour upon this Subject (who is far better acquainted with the Wonders and Rarities of these Nations than myself) and that I have betrayed my own Ignorance, to offer a Translation of mine, unto your Honour, who is so well versed in the Original, and which cannot be paralleled when it is made to speak any other Language. But I hope your Honour will excuse this Attempt, because the Author was a great Lover of our Country, and therefore it was held convenient to make him a free Denizon, and to speak English for the public Good, which your Honour hath always laboured to advance by your honourable Actions; and I fear not, but your Nobleness will tenderly Embrace what is undertaken for that end; though this Translation can add nothing to your Honour, but seeks for honour from your noble Patronage. Yet since it pleased God to afford me this opportunity to put your Honour in remembrance of me, who was formerly a Scholar at Eton College, and contemporary with your Honour; and that I once had the happiness to be domestic Servant unto your Honour● Noble Father, who now rests in God, and who was then pleased to honour me so much, as to have the review, and commit to the public view his, Immortal and Pious Work, entitled, Contemplatio Mortis et Immortalitatis, the fruits whereof he now enjoys. And that his Honour, for above 40 years accepted my Father to attend so near his Person to do him Service for his bodily health; I knowing also how much I owe to the Memory of your noble Uncles, to that Reverend Prelate of the Garter James Lord Bishop of Winchester, and Sir Sidney Montague, who were both my Honoured Patrons; I might be taxed with high ingratitude, if having nothing better to present your Honour with than this Famous Authors Work, (though in a meaner dress) I had unadvisedly dedicated it to any other Person, and overpast so fair an occasion, whereby I now express my due Respects unto your Honoured Father's Memory, and to all your Family, and in particular to your Honour, to whom I and my Father's house stand so much obliged. My humble Suit is, that your Honour will let pass all other Considerations herein, and to regard only the grateful Mind of him, who shall always pray God to bless your Honour, and your Noble Family, with all blessings Temporal and Eternal, in Him who is the Fountain of all blessedness, the Lord Jesus Christ; and shall remain Your Honours in all obedience, John Rowland. OF THE DESCRIPTION Of Natural Wonders. The First Classis. Wherein are contained the Wonders of the Heavens. ABove there are vast spaces, and the mind is admitted into the possession of them: But so, if it bring no corporeal thing with it, if it scour off all sordid matter, and be quick agile, and seem content with what is moderate, Seneca nature. quaest. l. 1. Praefat. CHAP. I. Of the World. Article 1. Of the Creation of the World. PYthagoras calls this whole Consistence of bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and the Latins from its beauty call it Mundus. Ocellus saith, it was from eternity, de universo Aristotel. l. 8. Phys. and some others. We affirm, that it was created at the beginning by the glorious Trinity; and by faith we understand, that the world was Made. The History is in the Scripture, but the perfect description in Moses' Works, Gen. 1. Nor can the censorious rod of Galen, or of the memory of the Apostles, whereof mention is made by Bishop Turribius, detract any thing from it. The dictates of the Holy Ghost cannot be false, the knowledge of God is free from error. The eternity of Cardan drawn from the salt of the Sea, lib. de subtle. is as easily rejected as propounded. It is a weak proof, that all pure things were made at first; I add, and a false one. Chrysippus apud Laertium amongst the Stoics, speaks boldly: If there be any thing, that can do that, which a man with his reason cannot do, that thing is greater, stronger and wiser than man; but a man cannot make heavenly things: Therefore he that made them excels man in Art, Counsel, Prudence and Power. What therefore can that be but God? All that is, was made of nothing, and by the Word let it be made. Empedocles is false, concerning the concourse of Atoms; (of matter and quantity coeternal) also that is false in Plutarch, That the essence and matter whereof the World was made, was not first created, but was always ready for the Workmaster, and was fit to be compounded and digested, and made, as far as possible it might be to his own likeness. But nothing was with God, before he made it, that was not God himself. He it is, that calls things that are not, as though they were. Hermes in Pimander, The Workmaster made the whole World, not by hands, but by his Word. Moses writes, that all things were made in six days; Some think this was only for order sake, and for our instruction. Augustine thinks, all things were made together in a moment. Philo writes acutely of the making of the World. Moses saith, The World was made in six days; not that God the Maker of it needed time to do it, (for God is not only thought to work by commanding, but by contemplating) but because it was needful that things should be created in some order: and this is a proper number for order; and six amongst all numbers is fittest for generation, for it is the first perfect number after a Unite, consisting of parts whereof it is made; of three that is one half of it; and two a third part, and one a sixth part, being of a masculine and feminine nature. As for the time, it is supposed to be Autumn, as it is collected from the Feast of gathering in of fruits in the end of the year, and from the month Tisri, which answers to September, Bartolin. c. ult. gener. Phys. Some say, the Spring: Ambrose in Hexametro: Thence it behoved the World to begin, where there was a Springlike temper fit for all things. Whence it is that the year sets forth the Image of the World at first beginning, and after winter cold, and frost and mists, the clearer brightness of the Spring shines forth more than ordinary. Macianus Scotus puts the Lord's Day on the 15th of the Calends of April. Macrobius describes the Generation. His words are; In the making of the World, Aries was in the middle of the Heavens; the Moon in Cancer; the Sun rose with Leo; Virgo with Mercury; Libra with Venus; Mars with Scorpio; Jupiter was in Sagittarius; Saturn in Capricorn. We shall say with Firmicus, The Day it was made upon, is uncertain. For the time is different in places; nor was there any then. For all secular things began with the World. If you look at the end, it is the glory of God, and the good of Man. Look which way I will, I see exquisite marks of God's Wisdom, Goodness, and Power. Contraries are here parted, and yet coupled by bands in the mediums. Hence his wisdom appears; The actions have recourse in order; hence appears unity: there is neither old age, nor change, nor weariness; thence his power is manifest: every thing had a sufficient perfection given to it, and is content with it; thence we see his goodness. They are all from God, and they tend unto God; thence is glory. Article 2. Of the Parts of the World, and the disposing of them. We need not be overcurious for the matter of it. It contains the Heaven with the Stars; the Elements, Meteors in the Air, Fishes in the Waters, Minerals in the secrets of the Earth, Plants, Animals and Man are in the upper surface. They are all material and corporeal things, which wise men include in it, and they are all realities. Heaven is thought to be uncompounded, the Elements serve for composition, Meteors are imperfectly mixed; Minerals perfectly, but without life; Plants with life, but without sense; Beasts with life and sense, but without reason: Man with life, sense and reason, is the compendium of all, a little world in the great world. The perfection is as great as the matter could bear; the Workmaster could give more, but the Matter was not capable of it, Scalig. Exerc. 243. s. 3. The goodness is confirmed by the decree of God: Gen. 1. vers. ult. He saw, and behold, all things were good. The manner of ordering them in this great Engine, Zeno in Laertius amongst the Philosophers hath declared; That God at first, whilst he was alone, changed all essence by Air into Water; and as in the birth the seed is contained; so God who is the seminal cause of the World, left such a seed in the moisture, that should afford an easy and fit matter for this work; for the generation of things afterwards. Then he first produced the four Elements, Fire, Water, Ayr, Earth, etc. Trismegistus in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, speaks true; There was, saith he, infinite darkness in the deep, and the water, and an intelligible spirit were by Divine virtue, existing in the Chaos; wherefore the holy light was taken away, and the Elements were congealed and fastened beneath of a moist substance, and all these embraced, and were in love with a seminal nature. And when all things were undivided, and not set in order; they were parted; and things that were leight, chose the uppermost place; heavy, the lowest; moist, the dry Land: all of them being divided by the Fire, and hanging in the Air, and carried by it. And the Heaven appeared in 7. circles, and the gods appearing in the Aspects of the Stars, with all their signs, and the whole circumference was distinguished, and with the gods that are in it was circumscribed with the circumambient Air, and carried by a moving Divine spirit. And every God by his own virtue produced what he was commanded, and there were brought forth fourfooted beasts, creeping things, Fishes, Birds, and every seminal plant: and grass and flowers, and every herb, contained in themselves seeds of regeneration: and the Generations of men were for the knowledge of Divine things, etc. But Moses sets it down most truly, Gen. Chap. 1. Heaven and Earth, and Light, the first day are: The Firmament dividing Waters second were. The third, the waters parted, Plants, the Earth: The fourth to Sun and Moon and Stars gives birth. The fifth gives Fishes, and all kind of Birds: The sixth brought cattle, all made by God's Words: Then Man was made; the seventh rest affords. Danaeus in Phys. Christiana. Artic. 3. Of Unity, Figure, and Soul of the World. DEmocritus and Empedocles supposed, that other worlds were made successively of some indivisible small seeds. Hence Alexander complained, that he had not yet conquered one. Origines, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, said, they were infinite successively; that the Elementary world was made every 7 thousand years, and the heavenly once in 4900 years. For the Sabbath for the earth, and the year of Jubilee was wont to return every 7th year, and every 49, years. Leo Hebraeus toucheth upon this opinion, Dialog de Amore; where he saith, The inferior world by the opinion of the old divines is generated corrupted and renewed once in 7000 years. But because we see nothing moved in it confusedly, nor any thing set without it, whither shall we go out of it? Our desire is answered. For in the end of our cogitations, the same question always returns. Wherefore we say, that there is but one world, and the figure of it is plain, like to a skin stretched forth very large, saith Basilius. But Plato held, that it was like a Circumvex, pointed with many Angles. Sanchumates Berytius the most ancient writer of the affairs of Phoenicia, said it was like to an Egg, wherefore at the feasts of Bacchus they religiously adored an egg, as the emblem of the world. Some compare it to the greek letter Ω, in which the outward lineament represents the Ocean, Dalecham P. ad l. 2. Plin. hist. c. 3. But that it is made like a Globe, not only the name and consent amongst men that call it so, but every man's eyes can tell him; for it is convex, and one half, look upon it which way we will. Plato. Of which living creatures he would have all other living creatures contained, he framed that of such a form, that in that one all the rest might be contained. The Stoics would have it to be a living creature, endued with sense and reason. Hence grew that description by its parts. The Star, (saith Plutarch of the face of the Moon) are shining eyes in the face of the world, they run their race; the Sun is in place of the Heart: as this affords blood and spirit, so that sends forth heat and light; the world useth the Earth and the Sea, as a living creature doth its belly and bladder; The Moon between the Sun and the Earth is as the Liver between the heart and belly, or some soft bowel, and attenuating its respirations by some concoction, and purgation, scatters them about. Elegantly, but not true! For the world hath no known soul; if we ascribe any thing to it, all will be but a diffused force, common to all, and in proportion we may call it a soul. For what the soul is in bodies, the same is force diffused in the universe. Combach. in Phys. cap. de Mundo. Artic. 4. Of the Duration of the World past and to come. THe duration of the World both past and to come, is sought out by many, but no certainty is proved. The Egyptians formerly boasted of 48000 years past, in their History; the Chaldaeans 470000; The East-Indies 700000. The Egyptians are disproved by their disagreement: one of them reported 20000, to Solon that asked him; another 1300 to Herodotus. The Chaldaeans allege that in 48863 there have been only 832 luminaries: But the doctrine of Astronomy shows these to be trifles. If this were not, it might be; yet Diodorus in Augustus his time, searched for the greatest antiquity of the Egyptians, and found scarce 4000 Calisthenes' Nephew to Aristotle by his sister, found the Chaldaeans not to be 2000; Simplicius reports it. Amongst our Chronologers, the Christian Epoch is uncertain; nor is there any beam so clear, to discuss these Clouds. Abraham Bucholzerus, with Mirandula and Reusnerus, saith, it was created before the said Epoch 3970 years. Buntingius, 3968; Mercator, 3967; Scaliger, 3947; Beroaldus, 3929; Broughtonus, 3928; Pareus, 3927; Pavellus, 4022. Hitherto Scaliger hath been preferred, yet it is thought that Pavellus hath discovered his imperfection. The uncertainty concerning its end is greater. Macrobius defines it by 15000 years. Orpheus by 12000, Cassander counts 30 times 6000000. Ber●sus, as Seneca saith, contends that the earth shall be burnt, when all the Stars meet in Cancer, and a flood should be in Capricorn. Amongst Christians, Liborovius will have it to be 1666; Rossinus 1656. (Libavius in declam. de comet. anni 1604). Cusanus 1700, or else the space that goes before 1734. That as after the first Adam, (they are Cusanus hi● words) the consumption of sin came in the 34th Jubilee by the waters of the flood, in the days of Noah, according to Philo; so we conjecture that after the second Adam, in the 34th Jubilee shall come the consumption of sin by fire. (Nancelius citys it, in analog. Microcosm. cum Macrocosmo. l. ult.) Augustinus and Lactantius define it by 6000 years. Alstedius holds the term to be uncertain, but it is certain, it shall not be before the year of Christ 2694, (in Thesauro Chronolog. c. 6. et diatrib. de mille annis). A certain friend dreams of some thousands. Napeirus is of one mind, Copernicus of another. What shall we say to this? It is not in man to declare these things, or to know them; the Angels know them not, nor yet the Son of man. God hath kept these times in his own power. Thomas speaks true, All those that undertook to determine the time of the end of the world, have been found false, and so shall all that shall undertake the same hereafter. Be the time never so uncertain, yet certain it is, it shall have an end. The word of God saith it; The Heavens and the Earth shall pass away. Luc. 21.23. Christ, in Matthew, 23, foreshews the forerunning signs. The Stoics set down the manner in the flood, and in the consuming by fire, and the Hebrews seem to consent. For they affirm that the Sea should ascend above the Mountains tops 40 cubits (Petrus Comestor in Nancelius). Aristotle and Plato universally deny it. It is known by the word of God to Christians, that the world perished by the flood, and the burning of it, is expected. For St. Peter saith, c. 2. and 3. but the Heavens that now are, and the earth are reserved for the fire, at the day of Judgement. But whether there shall be another world differing essentially from this, or this shall be renewed wherein we live, is a question. The Apostle saith, The fashion of this world passeth away: the holy Fathers, Basil, Eusebius, do imply an alteration; and Seneca, in his disputes. Every creature shall be generated anew, and a Man shall be given to the earth, that knows no wickedness, and bred from better principles: yet he adds, Their innocence shall not last longer than while they are first bred; for wickedness will soon break in. He differs from us, because he makes eternal innovations; which we admit not. The censure of Tatianus against the Gentiles. Doth any man determine God to be a Body? I think, He is without a Body. Does he think the world incorruptible? I think, It is corruptible. That it shall be burnt by degrees? I think it shall be but once for ever. Artic. 5. Of the hidden qualities of natural bodies. I Said, that natural bodies were contained in the world; now I say that they are so ordered that they have their peculiar virtues, and in some things they are partakers. Every one hath its nature, they are contained in place, measured by time, defined by number, they begin, they perish, they move, augment, diminish, they act, and suffer. Amongst the rest hidden qualities are admirable according to which there is either consent in things, or jarring and discord; Philosophers call this sympathy and antipathy. The first and second qualities are no causes of these things; examples of them are spread through the whole field of Nature. The raging Elephant grows calm if he see a Ram; and if he see a Rhinoreroes, he is angry. The tender flesh of sheep bitten by a Wolf, and the wool woven also, will breed Worms. cattle almost dead, and men faint, are revived by the smell of bread. Pencerus de divin. sect. de Astrolog. Porphyrio a bird will die if it look on a Whore. Woodpeckers will, with grass, drive out wedges. A Stag draws out Arrows with dittany. The venom of the Tarantula is driven away by the sound of Music and dancing by measure, Alexander ab Alexan. l. 2. genial. dier. Many will sweat if a Cat be present. Quercetan in diaetetica, and make water at the sound of the harp. Scalig. excerc. 344. s. 6. One was driven from a feast at the sight of Apples, if we credit Quercetan. A boy's lips swelled by eating of eggs, and his face was spotted with black spots. Marcel. A Monk, saith Lusitanus, swooned at the smell of a Rose. Another hated bread and flesh, and lived only upon eggs. One espied an old woman at a feast and could not endure her, and when he was forced to stay, he was carried forth dead. One swooned with the combing of his hair. Demohon the builder of Alexandria was cold in the Sun or a hot Bath, and hot in the shade. The same is said, of a certain Idiot that clothed himself with skins in Summer, but went naked in Winter. Pontanus his dog would eat no Cocks flesh; but Scholtzius his, would howl lamentably when the strings of a Lute were wound higher. But when they were tuned as they should be, and sounded harmoniously, he was quiet. I say no more. Libavius de Antipathia rerum. The cause of all these things is hid; But it is certain that the most eminent of them arise from those qualities, that both agree with their forms, and are moved by the force of them. The knowledge of secret forces appertain to natural magic, wherein we had need of a wonderful caution. Alvernius lib. de universo writeth that Turnsoil will make men invisible, and that quicksilver put between two reeds will hinder witchcraft; That Rue taken away by stealth, & Basil planted with a feast will grow the more abundantly, saith Trievius de Daemon. decep. and he adds that 7 grains of a certain herb cast amongst the guests at a drinking feast, will make them fight up to the ears in Blood. These are fooleries, and confuted by propounding them, Delrius l. 1. disquis. Magic. c. 3. Artic. 6. Of God's Providence in the World. GOd was not pleased only to make all these things, but he would have them all under his Government, and Providence. Hence comes the preservation of the beings and virtues of things; and the disposing of them all after the freedom of his will, the wise ordering of all things. In this are the ends set orderly, the means to these ends are tightly disposed, and being disposed, are most wisely directed. This Providence was so often and forcibly maintained by the Stoics, that they became a sport and a jest to their adversaries, who called this, The fatal old Wife of the Stoics that foretold future things. Epictetus' in Arrianus, speaks admirably; What concerns the gods, some deny there is any God. Some say there is, but an idle careless Deity, that provides for nothing. There is a third sort, that maintain there is a God, and that his Providence governs, yet only in great and heavenly matters, but in no earthly thing. A fourth sort say, That he takes care for heavenly and earthly things, but in general only, not for particulars, and for every one severally. But there are a fifth sort, wherein Ulysses and Socrates, who affirm, That I cannot, O God, be hid or deceive thee in the smallest motion. There is here no place for fortune, nor for casual and needless violence, That Eternal Light spreads his beams every way, and at the same instant he pierceth into all the windings and depths of the Heavens, Earth, and Seas; nor is his Divine Nature only Precedent over all these things, but is in them all. CHAP. II. Of Heaven. THe Wisemen ascribed the first place amongst bodies to the Heavens; both because it is simple, and also is set in the highest place as principal. Some write, that it is of the same nature with sublunary things, and not amiss; for the Scripture writes, Psal. 102. that it shall wax old like a garment. Also the generation of new Stars seems to intimate as much: All the space in these that reacheth to the fixed Stars, is filled with air; and it is so much the more pure, light, and hot, as it comes nearer unto them, etc. If you consider the magnitude, the Heavens are the greatest body; the Earth is but a point in comparison to it. The number is but one; yet Astronomers have distinguished it into divers orbs▪ Eudoxus into 23. Calippus into 30. Aristotle 47. Ptolemy 31: Regiomontanus 33. The common opinion is, that there be Ten; to which if you add the Heaven of heavens, (Aquiba called it, the marble Table of the World, Maimon. l. 1. perplex). they will be eleven. The consideration of the Tenth amongst them is wonderful; For they say, it is ten times greater than the eighth sphere, and than the earth 1960; and they say, that in 24 hours it goes 469562845 miles, Bodin. l. 5. Theatr. The Miracles of the 9th are not small. The Ancients say, it proceeded one degree in one hundred years; the neoterics have observed 44 minutes. The period of its motion is 49000 years, if we credit Alphonsus; but Copernicus saith, 25816. This period is called, the great and Platonic year. It is a wonderful Engine, and all the great works of men compared with it, are less than nothing. Plato l. 10. de Repub. imagined a certain spindle, as bright as a Diamond, contained in 8 wheels; and he makes the Heaven to hang by that, lest it should fall. But alas poor man, why so? There is a God that supports it; who gave it a power to stand fast at first, when he made it: yet this shall go into smoke, and shows us, that nothing is stable contained in this World. CHAP. III. Of the Stars. Artic. 1. Of the Force of the Stars, and Nutriment of them. MAhomet said, That the Stars hang in the Air by golden chains: That the Workmaster set them in the Heavens, bright & round, we religiously acknowledge; that they were made for signs and seasons; All men know, that they shine and communicate their virtue to sublunary things; which is done, by sending forth their beams: the will of man, and works of Artificers, are out of this account. There is in these no mixture of new qualities; but only an accidental species is induced to a body ready made. The mind is free from the Elements; if it suffer any thing, it is by the mediation of the Instruments of the body, the temperament whereof men's manners easily follow. Hence you may see an error; That the characters were form by a certain position of the Heavens, and are moved by a stronger power from the Heavens. Plato saith false, That the Souls before they come into the bodies were made subject to some Star. These are toys, That Stars are appointed for every one of us, bright Stars for rich men; little ones for poor men; dark ones for defects; and some for every man's condition, Pliny l. 2. Histor. Natur. c. 8. There is not so great Society between Heaven and us, that for our destiny the brightness of the Stars should be mortal. Our chance is in God's hand: It is false, That Jacob read his sons destinies in the Tables of the Heavens. More writes elegantly of one White, in an Epigram: White in the Stars did oft his Wife behold, That she was chaste and good he all men told; He looked to find her in the Stars once more, And then he did proclaim her for a Whore. But that thy Wife was common, though thou see Through all the Stars, not one declares to thee. Cleomedes in lib. de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, speaks something of the nutriment of the Stars, as Dalechampius citys it, and the Stoics observed the same. Laertius (in Lipsius in Manuduct. ad Physiol. Stoicam.) saith, That these fiery Stars are fed and nourished, (the Sun and Moon, and the rest) the Sun by the great Sea, as being the great Torch, and a kind of burning endued with understanding: But the Moon, by fresh waters, and such as may be drunk because it is mingled with the Air, and is near to the Earth. Wherefore Macrobius in Somnium Scipionis ascribes it to providence, that the Ocean was placed under the torrid Zone. That all that space which the Sun and the rest of the Planets and the Moon wander up and down in, on this side and that side of the Eccliptick, may have moisture for their nourishment. The opinion seems absurd at first; yet Ambrose l. 2. Hex. c. 3. thought so; nor doth Libavius l. 5. the origin. rerum, seem to deny it. Lucianus saith, there shall be a common bonfire for the world. Whence shall this burning be, but that moisture must fail? and that cannot fail, but for nutriment. Yet see that you make not a combustion amongst the Stars, by assuming an aetherial spirit into the nature of the Stars. Artic. 2. Of the light of the fixed Stars, with their magnitude and motion. THe 8th sphere contains the fixed Stars, and those in number numberless. Alongtime men observed 1022, which the Phoenicians reduced to constellations. Braheus added 74, Houtmannus 14, about the Antarctic pole. Bartholin. de Coelo. c. 3. Also they are of divers magnitudes, yet all greater than the Earth, except the sixth magnitude. The magnitude will give you the vast distance: we see them like sparks of fire, yet Astronomers reckon 14000 diameters of the earth. They have their own natural light which shines to men in the night, not that it is put out in the day by the Sun beams, but that the medium being enlightened admits of the more forcible species, the lesser and weaker is carried through the medium unperceived. Scalig. exerc. 6.2. Historians observe that they have been seen in the daytime, and not without some token. In Commodus his times they were seen a whole day, some were drawn forth at length, as though they were fastened in the Air. The slaughter of the Parthians followed, civil wars, and the kill of five Emperors in one year. The same thing was seen in the reign of Constantius, from Sun rising till noon, about Sun set the Sun first appeared with crooked horns, and then but half, some suppose it was an Eclipse. Cardanus saw two at Milan, l. 14. de varietat. rer. c. 70. One Anno 1511, and the French were driven out of Italy: another 1535, and the death of Francis Sfor●ia followed, and because he died childless, the Prince was changed, Charles took the Government. Lastly the 9th of June, this year there was one seen in England before noon, when a solemn thanksgiving was made to God for the birth of the Prince of Wales. we were certified that some French men saw the same at Diep the same time. There is a wonderful matter in their motion. Besides their own, which is made from North to South upon the poles of Aries and Libra, they are said to be drawn by the 9th sphere from west to east. Hence it comes that they are all moved from their places. Braheus saith in a hundred years they are drawn back, one degree, 25 minutes. Meto, who flourished in the 130th year after Thales, observed the Star of Aries to be in the Equinoctial. Timochares, that it gained two degrees, Hipparchus four and nine minutes, Ptolemy 6, and 40 minutes, Albategnius 18, and 12 minutes, Alphonsus 23, and 48 minutes, Vernerus 26, and 54 minutes, Bodinus 28 and 20 minutes; The bright one in the utmost tail of the little dog, which is for the pole Starr, Hipparchus observed to be 12 degrees distant from the pole of the world, we see it but almost three now adays. Cardan saith, that the heads of the motions of this Orb will be not only in contrary places, in the year 1800, but the motion will be contrary also, and he collects from thence that there will be strange alterations in the Christian religion, de varietat. rer. l. 2. c. 3. CHAP. IU. Of the Five Planets. THe wand'ring Stars are called Planets. The Ancients accounted them to be seven; Those of our times have added four about Jupiter, and no fewer about Saturn. Each of them hath its own sphere, its nodes, epicycle, and its aequant. Their motion is more free than the rest: sometimes they are present with mortals, sometimes they depart from them. Hence arise the names of Aux, and Absis, Peregaeum and Apogaeum amongst Astronomers. But so great is the difference, that Saturn requires 30 years, Jupiter 12, Mars 2, Venus 360 days, and Mercury as many. Venus is a Planet, by her surnames that stands in emulation with the Sun and Moon. For rising before the Sun, she is called Lucifer, like another Sun hastening the day; again shining in the West, she is called Vesper, or the Evening Star, as prolonging the light, and standing in place of the Moon, Plin. l. 2. c. 9 The cause of their wand'ring motion, some ascribe to the Sun, who either by its beams sets them forward, or removes them on one side, o● departing from them, lets them remain in their own places. Extraordinary influences, Medicaments, Baths, Phlebotomy, Planting, choice of business, change of the Air, are by some tied to the hour of their position. It is observed, that the Plague grows fierce about Wittenburg, when Saturn moves in Leo or Sagittarius, and abate● by the access of Mars; the same thing is threatened to them at Norimberg, by the signs of Gemini or Sagittarius. Those that Mars and Saturn being in the angles, assail with a quartile aspect, are short-lived; if they pass their Infancy, it will be difficult for them to attain the flower of youth; their conjunction increaseth their force. If Mars and Venus are in conjunction when one is born, the concupiscible appetite is contaminated; more, if it be in Capricorn, and Mercury be present. By the concurrence of Mars, Mercury, and the Moon, men have subtle wits, Peucerus l. de divinat. s. de Astrologia▪ But this is a lesser conjunction. That is a great Conjunction, which is made by Saturn and Jupiter; one happened in the seventy year and 200 days. The signs of the Zodiac are run through, that at the beginning of the first meeting there may be a conjunction of the Planets; the Learned called it a revolution, Alsted. in thesauro Chronologico. There are seven reckoned since the World was made, and constant observation hath proved, that none of them ever came without some notable alteration. All things were heroical in the first conjunction; at the second, men despised Noah's preaching; at the third, there were great pressures in Egypt. The fourth was 17 years after, when Rome began to be built: the fifth was in the 26th year of Christ. The Bishops of Rome pretended the Donation of Pippin and Constantine, when the sixth was. The seventh was in the sign of Sagittarius, in the year I was born in, 1603. the last was in Leo, 1623. what this shall produce, God knows. The City of Rome about the 800th year under its fiery sight, was thought to be renewed. At the beginning of that, happened the dispersing of the Jews; what if about the end of it, the call of them again may be? CHAP. V. Of the Sun. Artic. 1. Of the Greatness and Unity of the Sun. EPicurus thought the Sun to be an accidental Globe, and fire, but an earthly gross Body. Anaximander thought it was red-hot Iron, the Peruvians think it a GOD; and so did Aurelianus a Prince of old; May the gods do it, and the Sun the created god, in Vopisco. Porphyry writes, that it was adored in the East under the name of Mytra, in his Comment. de Nymph. cultu. And Macrobius shows, l. 1. Saturn. cap. 17. That all the gods of the Gentiles were extended to the Sun. After him Cluverius Polyhistor, in Germ. antiqua. So great reverence was there toward it, in the minds of the Gentiles. It is with us the Principal Planet, and the great Luminary. It is greater than the Earth 167 times; and it is distant from the Earth in its Apogaeum, 1012868 miles, Kecherm. in his Astronomy. It is but one, and where is there room for more in so great a magnitude? yet there are more also. That is but one of which we speak, the rest are but figures and draughts of this one beautiful Sun. The Philosophers call them Parelia, they have always some future signification, as we frequently observe, and find it. In 1514. there were 3. seen; in each there was a bloody sword. The Reformation followed. So, many were seen in Helvetia, in 1528: a wonderful Famine was the sequel of it. In 1532. at Venice they were seen with two Rainbows opposed to the Sun; one presently vanished, but the other was seen for two hours, Cardan. l. 14. de varietat. Rer. cap. 70. The Suns themselves were transparent, the greater was Southward, the less Northward, increasing. In the year 1314. before the War of Lodowick of Bavaria, and Frederick of Austria, more Suns were seen: they signified the dissensions of the Electors, and their falling to sides. Peucer. in Meteorol. Before these troubles we saw it; a Comet with a fatal tail followed. Because the Empire of Nero had the same beginnings, the future event might easily be foreknown. Artic. 2. Of the Sun's light, and Eclipse. THe Thalmudists hold that the light of the Sun was seven times greater in the Creation, but was lost afterwards. We see it very great and ruling almost every where. For the Sunbeams enlighten and enliven all things. Cardan maintains that by the force of it, the Southern parts are pressed down lower, but whether it be so, every one may judge. And though at Rhodes or Syracuse there never be a day that the Sun is not seen in some parts of it; Plin: l. 1. Cap. 62. yet it is certain that the Sun's light is often intercepted. When Constantine was blind, the Sun did not shine for 17 days. In Pliny's time ●e was often 12. days, in Leo's time 4. days. So never seen that Mariners lost their Course Maiol, Colloq. 1. But this was only a Clouding. An Eclipse is somewhat more, when the Sun's beams are turned away from by interposing of the Moon. Barbarians understand not this, whence Columbus foretelling the Moon's Eclipse, won the favour of the Indians. It was a Capital crime in Plath's days to maintain that the Moon could hold the Sun beams from us. Alexander Aphrodis. Problem, 46. Some thought the Devils were the cause, and therefore ran to assist it with lighted Torches. Archelaus was so ignorant, that the day the Eclipse of the Sun was, he shut up the Court, and shaved his son, as the custom was in time of adversity and of mourning, Senec. l. 5. the benefic. C. 6. The Eclipse of the Sun happens in the new Moon, or in the Conjunction, nor real, but appearing so, when Sun, Moon, and our eyes are in the same right line. It it be total, it is in a moment in respect of the parts. It was so when Scipio fought and overcome Hannibal at Carthage, Zonaras, Tom. 2. Nicephorus saith the same happened at Augustus' death, Sometimes in five years some are seen. Maiolus thinks they produced Wars, Famines, and Deaths of Popes. It seems to be certain that both of them may be Eclipsed twice in six Months, and in five Months, either of them: and that the Sun's light may be twice taken from one Country in the period of seven Months, Peucer. in Astrolog: Some are of opinion their operation begins afterwards; I dispute not, but this is certain they never appear, but they foreshow something. When in the year 3343, an Eclipse was seen, the most corrupt state of the Kingdom of the Jews appeared. In the year 3350. began the 70 years' captivity. In 3360, the Temple and Jerusalem were destroyed by Nabuchadnezzar. About the Eclipse in 1619, Stars were seen at noonday, and the War of Peloponesus began with the Athenians. In the year 360, the Sun was Eclipsed until noonday, and also in 592. What followed? Phocas confirmed the Pope's supremacy, 622, wicked Mahomet, sowed his mischief. Alsted in Thesaur Chronol: In 812, before the Death of Charles the great, a Spot of a black had appeared for seven days, witness Eginbartus. It seems to intimate, say some, the darkening of the Gospel. In 1415 the 7. of June, so horrible was the Eclipse of the Sun, that birds fell to the Earth, At this time John Hus was burned in the Council of Constance, the 6. of July, That was supernatural at our Saviour's passion. It was a total Eclipse at a full Moon, and lasted three hours. Dionysius said of it, Either the God of nature suffers, or the frame of the World dissolves. He afterwards, consulting with the Philosophers, built an Altar to the unknown God, and was converted by St. Paul's Preaching. Tertullian in Apologetico saith, it was laid up amongst the public Acts of Rome, but forbidden to be published. Also there is a notable use of Eclipses amongst Chronologers, especially of those, which with certain circumstances of time, Year, Day, Month, Hour, Minute's, and of the distance from other Eclipses, were exactly taken, such as was the Eclipse at Arbelia in C●rtius; or Peloponesus, in Thucydides; at Cambisia, in Ptolemy. Powel in his Consilio Chronologico. For there are certain bounds and Characters of times fastened in the Heavens, hence Calvisius commends Scaligers Chronology, because he hath observed Phainomena, and Eclipses, almost according to the years of the World, out of the Tables of the Heavenly motions, and are fitted to the same. Hence the Calyppic period, comprehended in 76, years; in which time all conjunctions of the Planets, new Moons, and full Moons, and Eclipses return to the same moment of time. See the famous Chronologer Pavellus, treating accurately of these things. I hasten to other matters. Art: 3. Of the Sun's Motion. THe mahometans fain that the Sun is carried with Horses, and sets in the Sea, and well washed rises again. Daily experience showeth us a double motion, we see it rise every day, and set again: and every year it makes an Oval figure, passing to North and South. Yet so right under the Ecliptic, that it swarves not a hair from it: The compliment of the motion in the Zodiac varieth with many. Hipparchus assigns to it 365 days. Ours, 6 hours less. Tebitius saith that there want nine minutes of the 6, hours. Henricus Mechiniensis, hath written, that all those shall err perpetually, who observe Eclipses by the Tables of Ptolemy, or Albategnius. Bodin. 5. Theatri Naturae. It is the vulgar tenant, to assign 365 days, and 6, hours. In that oblique course, we observe the Sun to be nearer the earth, whilst he passeth through the Southern signs, and to be further off in the Northern. That is finished in 178, days, 21 hours, and 12 minutes. This requires 186, days, 8 hours, 12, minutes. But because the distanc● of the Eccentrick is variable from the centre of the World, therefore Melancthon and Origanus write, that the Sun is nearer to us now than in Ptolemy's days, by 9900 miles, but Copernicus and Stoflerus cast it to be 26660 miles. Alsted in Theoria Planetarum. Scaliger dislikes this, Exerc. 99 sect. 2. Nor is it probable, saith Bodin. l. 5. Theat. in so great variety of distance that the knowledge of Eclipses could be so exactly preserved. The Scripture tells us that the Sun went backward miraculously in Ezechiahs' days, as was known by the shadow on the Dial. The History of Josuah witnesseth that it stood still, and made a day of 36, hours, Justin Martyr, in Dialog: cum Tryphon. Some think the Sun danceth when it riseth on Easter-day, and honours our Saviour's Resurrection in Triumph. If that be so, it is necessary for it to dance a whole day, because it riseth the whole day. What ever this is, it must be ascribed to the Air, interposed betwixt, which, about the Sun rising, abounds with Vapours, and if at any time, most in the Spring, because the pores are open, and it sends forth more Vapours, Camer. Cent. 2. Memorab. p. 39 Artic. 4. Of the inequality of Days and Nights. WHen the Sun comes to the Horizon, the Day riseth with us; Night comes when the Sun departs. But because it moves obliquely, and is girt within the bounds of both Tropics, it keeps equality under the Equinoctial; it varies which side soever it declines: yet the greater it is, the farther the Countries are distant from the aequator. In Arabia, a Province of the new World, the Days and Nights are always equal. Geographers have written the same of Peru, Ovetan, in Summa. In a Country of Africa called Gambra, in the month of July, the Night is no shorter than 11. hours; The Sun riseth suddenly without dawning. The Troglodytes and men of Africa have but 13. hours to their longest day, Strabo, l. 1. They that live under the Pole of the Stars in the spring-Equinox; see the Sun rising; but in the Autumnal, setting, Mela. l. 3. c. 2. Hence it is, that they have half a year day, and then half a year night. The Hollanders, at the straits Vaigats, from the 4th. day of November, to the 24. day of January, have found but one continual Night under the degree of 71. Boetius, in the description of the Narrow Sea, Vaigats. In Laponia, one Night lasts 3. months, and there is in that time no more light, than the Moonshine or clear twilights afford, Zigler. in Laponia. In the farthest part of Norway the Sun is not hid in the night. In another Northern Climate, the Nights are very bright, at the Summer Solstice. Saxon Grammaticus. The Day and Night with us are equal, when the Sun enters Aries and Libra; they are longer when he is in the Tropic of Cancer; shorter in Capricorn. The month of June is said to contain the longest day, the shortest is assigned to the 25. of December. The more superstitious are persuaded, that strange things are seen the night before. The Olive Tree, and the white Poplar, and the leaves of Willows are said to be driven about. Macrob. l. 9 c. 7. The moisture in Trees ascends upwards from out of the root. The Appletree brings forth blossoms and unripe fruit. Some strings of Instruments are struck with the fingers, and the other strings sound. Suetonius l. 1. Ludicra Historia. The small livers of Mice are increased. The kernels that are shut up in Apples are turned the contrary way. Cicero, lib. 2. de Divinat. Artic. 5. Of the Four Parts of the Year. THe motion of the Sun through the Zodiac makes a Year. Mathematicians make this to be twofold. The one is the space in which the Sun goes from the Spring Equinox, and returns to the same again; and it consists of 365 days, five hours, 49 first minutes, 10 seconds. The other is from the time the Sun departs from the first Star in Aries, and returns to the same again; and it consists of 365, 6 hours, 9 first minutes, seconds 23. Copernicus' appointed this, and he deserved great thanks for it, Of the former there are four parts, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter: Spring and Autumn make the Equinoxes; this the Winter Equinox, that the Summer. They both happen, when the Sun passeth the Line. The most certain sign of the Springs approach, is the Butterfly, being a weak creature. Pliny in histor. Natural. Cancer makes the Summer, when the Sunbeams are vertical with us. It is inflamed by the rising of the Dog-star, saith Pliny, l. 2. c. 40. yet it were more Philosophical to say, that when the Sun repeats his Journey, he raiseth hot blasts and wind; whence our bodies partake of great heat. Truly, sometimes it is extreme, if we credit Histories. I read in Livy, l. 4. Histor. That in the year of Rome 322. not only rain from Heaven was wanting, but the Earth also wanted its inbred moisture, that the Rivers that run continually were almost dry; that many Fountains and Rivers wanted water, that the cattle died for thirst. In the year 1153 the Woods were fired with overgreat heat, the fat Earth took fire, and could be extinguished with no rain. Mergerius. The Germane Records report, That in 1228, the heat was so great, that the Harvest was ended (I will use their own words) before the Feast of St. John Baptist. Lipsius citys it in his Epistles. In the year 1573. the Wood of Bohemia burned 18. Weeks. The Danube was so dried up, that in many places one might ford it. And what is wonderful, there was no loss in the Corn. But in 994. in the end of July, the Lakes and Waters were so hard frozen, that all the Fishes died, and there was great scarcity of water. Cardan thinks it is a mark of an overhot Summer, de varietat. rer. l. 15. c. 38. if old sheep are very much given to lust in the Spring. Men write, that there was so pleasant an Autumn in the year, 1584. that the Roses and young branches flourished. It is our Winter when the Sun enters Capricorn, than all things quake, are covered with Snow, and bound up with Ice. The Sun foreshews a most bitter Winter in the Northern parts, when he hides himself in a red cloud, as a pillar of fire, and casts out his beams like fiery darts. That descending, it is turned into black. Cardan. l. 1. Or when things that use to be moist seem dryer, or drops dripping from houses fall more slowly. And sometimes the winter hath been excessive. Chronicles say, that in 1234. the winter was most fierce, so that in the Adriatic Sea the Venetian Factors passed over the Ice with their charge of moneys. Zonara's reports the like to have happened under Constantine Copronymus: so in the Pontic Sea, and the straits adjoining. Marianus Scotus. In the year 32. of Charles the Great, there was a great and most bitter Frost, so that the Pontic Sea was frozen 100 miles in the East, where it was 50 cubits from top to bottom. In the year 1525. the winter was so cruel, that in Brabant▪ an infinite company of E●l●s by reason of the Ice went forth of the Lakes, which is a wonderful thing, and hid themselves in Hay-ricks, and perished there with extremity of cold, Robertus de Monte. The Trees had hardly any leaves afterwards in May. Sometimes the winters are so calm too. In the year 1225. in December the Peach Tree budded▪ In 1186. in December and January, Crows and other birds hatched their Eggs with young. But these divers parts of the year for length and duration comes from a divers position. They that live under the Pole are 'tis probable in perpetual cold; and they are more hot that live under the Equinoctial. They under the Equinoctial have a double most pleasant winter, and a double Spring. He that would know more of this may read. Mayolus Colloqu. de proprietat: locor. Artic. 6. Of the Sun's shadow. TWo things chiefly are observable concerning the Sun's shadow, the operation and the diversity. It can hardly be said how great it is. Men skilled in the Optics have described it more acurately. It shows the reason of Eclipses, the Sun's magnitude, the variety of Eccentricks, the condition of time hath been demonstrated by it. Men are taught thereby to define the climates and parallels, to prove the Earth to be round, and that the Earth's Globe stands exactly in the midst of the Universe, to know the Earth's magnitude: etc. Examples show the diversity; Those that dwell Northward between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle, their Noonshadowes are cast Northward, and to the Southern people Southward. They of Finmarch and Groenland, and that pass the degree of elevation 66, see the shadows run round about them: Gauricus in Geograph. In Syene a Town above Alexandria, 5000 furlongs, at noonday on the solstice, there is no shadow at all, and a pit was made to make experiment of it, and the Sun shined to every part in it. Pliny, l. 2. c. 73. And in India above the River Hispasis, the same falls out a● the same time, as Onesicritus hath recorded. In the Island of Merce, which is the chief of the Ethiopian Country, the shadows fail twice a year, and in Summer they are cast Southwards; in winter toward the North. In the same, in the most famous Haven of Patales, the Sun riseth on the right hand, the shadows fly Southward. It is lastly manifest, that in Berenice a City of the Troglodytes, and from thence for 4820 furlongs in the same Country, in the Town of Ptolemais, which is built on the brink of the red Sea▪ at the first hunting of Elephants, the same thing falls out 45. days before the Solstice, and as many after it, and during those 90 days, the shadows are cast into the South. Plin. l. 1. Art. 7. Of the Sun's Influence on the Inferior World. IT was easy to observe, how powerfully this Eye of the World would work upon Inferior bodies by his lighter and public motion. There is nothing in the parts of the year, or days, or nights, or variety of shadows, but must be ascribed to it. When the Sun ariseth, all things are enlightened; when it sets, all are in the dark. Things flourish, when he approacheth; fade, when he departeth: These are generals, and if we respect particulars, are not much less. It is certain, that tempests, and seasonable weather are from the Sun. About the middle of Sagittarius, and the constellation of Pisces by the help of Stars that are in them, and rise, it blows warm to those that are under it; and, the humours that were frozen being melted, and the earth being watered with them, it produceth the fruitful Western blasts, and stirs up the force of the Pleyades and Hyadeses in Taurus, and of the Kids from the North, from the South or Orient that is near unto it; and of Arcturus that lies opposite to it, which raise up Southern winds, and for some days do water the seed sown with continual rain. Peucer in Astrol. When the Herbs are grown and want moisture again for their just magnitude, it affords it and draws it forth by it, coming up toward the Stars of Cancer. Pliny takes the signs of Tempests from it, l. 18. c. 35. It belongs to motion; for Scaliger saith, That men sail faster with the Sun. Exerc. 86. And Pliny l. 2. Histor. c. 71, writes, That the Currior Philonides ran from Sicyon to Elis, 1200 furlongs in 9 hours of the day, and came back again, ofttimes, though it were down hill, at 3. a clock at night: The reason was, because he ran out with the Sun, but returned against the course of the Sun. CHAP. VI Of the Moon. Artic. 1. Of the Figures and light of the Moon. THe Stoics thought the Moon to be a dark and hairy light. Cleomedes supposed it was a ball, white on one side, and blew on the other. We acknowledge it to be a heavenly body, one of the two great Lights that God made. Sometimes there have been two, sometimes 3. seen, as when Cn. Domitius, and C. Fannius were Consuls, whom they called the Night-Suns. Pliny, l. 2. c. 82. She is less than the Earth, thirty times 9, or 3. times 40, if we follow Copernicus. She is distant from it, 44916 Germane miles; or if we credit Schrechenfuchsius, whom most follow, it is 28359, She borrows her light from the Sun. Whence it comes that she hath so many Aspects; she is always increasing or decaying, and sometimes she is crooked with horns, sometimes she is equally divided; sometimes she is crooked, sometimes full, sometimes she is suddenly wane, and the same appears suddenly again. Pliny, l. 2. c. 9 The Ancients adored the full Moon as a type of beauty. There is a merry Tale in Plutarch in his Symposiacks of Wiseman concerning the Moon decreasing, That the Moon asked of her Mother a Coat fit for her; and she answered, How can I do that? for sometimes thou art a full Moon, sometime a half Moon, and sometimes with two horns. In Biarmia she is never seen but with a full circle toward the surface of the Earth, of a fiery colour, and like a coal. Olaus, l. 1. Artic. 2. Of the Spots and Eclipse of the Moon. THe substance of the Moon is spotted: if you ask the reason, wise men have said that the parts of the Moon are unequally compacted. The Poets thought she carried a Boy with her whom she loved, who covered his face for shame. When she is deprived of the Sun's light, she is Eclipsed. But that is only in a diametrical opposition, when the Moon hath no declination from the Ecliptic, or that which is less than 67, minutes, and so it either enters the shadow of the Earth, or cannot avoid it. The ancients thought she might be drawn from Heaven by Charms, and being thrust down, she might be compelled. That she powereth forth her venom and force into the herbs that are subject to her, which may be more successfully used in Magic arts. Hence it was that they tinkled in Cymbals, that the Charms might not be heard. There are no Eclipses of Sun or Moon, but there follow some changes in sublunary things. There was one in the year, 3459. And Darius at Marathon was overthrown by the Athenians with wonderful ruin. another was, 3782. and Perseus King of the Macedonians was conquered by consul Aemilius, and an end was put to the Kingdom of Macedonia, Alsted. in thesauro Chronolog: Some observe them superstitiously: for example, Niceas of Athens (Ubbo Emmius Tom. 2. vet. Graec.) being beaten at Epipolas in Sicilia; when his Country was in danger, he should have marched away, as Demosthenes and Eurymedon persuaded him: When he did march, the Moon was Eclipsed. Many took that for an ill Omen: this so moved Niceas, that he said he would decree nothing, to remove his Tents, until three times 9, days were over, that the Wizards had foreshowed. Plin: l. 2. C. 12. He did it, and so wasted the forces of the Athenians. To this may be referred, the ridiculous opinion of some, who think that an Ass drank up the Moon: for when the Ass drank, the Moon was seen in the water, when the Ass went away, she was covered with a Cloud, and could not be seen. Wherefore they cast the miserable Ass Silenus' rod on, into Prison, and cut up his belly, that they might have the Moon again, and they most cruelly took out his bowels. Delrius, disquisit: Magic: l. 2. quest. 11. In the year, 1499, about setting, the moon was first changed into black; then she was divided into two parts, and the one part leapt upon the other backwards, both parts were sprinkled with red. They united afterwards, and set as one Moon. Many confederacies followed, and the Nobles, who in 1496 were confederate, opposed themselves against the King of the Romans, Linturius cited by Wolsius in Memorabil. Artic. 3. Of the Moon's Influence on these sublunary things. INnumerable are the operations of the Moon on sublunary things. If you would run over all the field of nature, Plants, Animals and men's bodies are subject to the Moon's Government. Palladius reports, (Cardan de varietat: l. 2. c. 13,) If Garlic be set when the Moon is under the Earth, and be pulled up again when the Moon is under the Earth, it will lose its strong smell. So they say that Basil bruised in the new Moon, and put into a new Pot, at the full Moon it will send forth flowers at one end; and if it be set under the Earth twice as long time, it engenders Scorpions. Vines in the day time are nourished by drawing moisture to them, and in the night they increase, and grow. Lilies and Roses open their buttons only in the night. Keckerman disp: Phys: 3. coral: 11. Of all that bear head, only the Onion is augmented when the moon increaseth; when it grows new it fades, as if it hated the course of that Planet. Lucilius. Wherefore the Egyptians at Pelusium hate to eat it. Gellius, Lib. 20. C. 7. As for living Creatures, Savanarola writes that in the Leap-yeare, living Creatures are barren, Cardan, l. c. It is observed that in the full Moon all Oysters, Perwinkles, and all shell fish increase, and their bodies decrease with the Moon. Also the more industrious have found out, that the fibres of Rats answer to the days of the Moon: and that the little Creature, the Ant, is sensible of this Planets force, and always rests in the Conjunction of the Moon. Pliny, Lib. 2. Cap. 41. The skins of the Sea-Calves and Sobles are stiff, and the hairs stand upright, when the Moon increaseth, and they sink down when the Moon decreaseth, and grow weak, Keckerman, l. c. As for Mankind, if the Moon come to the Sun passing thorough Aries or Scorpio, when any one is born, it so afflicts the brain of him that is borne, that when he comes to be a young man, he shall be troubled with melancholy. Things bred in the Conjunction of the Moon, are frequently dry, and are encumbered with a sharp heat, and have all their limbs especially affected, Peucerus de divinat. They that sleep under the Moon-beams, are troubled with heaviness of their heads and defluxions. Camerar. Memorab. Cap. 9 Art. 85. For by the Moon beams, the moisture of the brains of those that sleep is melted, which being restrained in the head, the internal heat being not active enough to expel it outward, it breeds Catarrhs. The Epileps is exasperated in the full Moon. For the abundance of moisture hinders the sharpness of Vapours, and the putrefaction that they cannot breathe forth. A smaller quantity doth more easily corrupt, and the heat acting upon it, makes sharper Vapours according to its proportion, Libavius, tom. 3. Singul, lib. 3. cap. 18. At the same time dropsy people are grievously tormented, and therefore they all die almost about the full Moon. Truly, in March, 1629. when we writ this, it took away that Reverend man, D. Martin Gratianu● the superintendent of the Reformed Churches in the greater Poland, who was the Chariot and Horsemen of Israel. Let his memory be blessed. When the Moon is opposite to the Sun, madmen rage's most. They that are troubled with a disease of the brain from too much plenty of brain, are choked in the full Moon. Hence it is that the Britan's on the 14. day of the Moon whip mad folks. Bodin. l. 5. Theatr. Better therefore it is to give a medicament against the Epilepsy the day after, than in the opposition of the Luminaries. For in the hour of conjunction the Moon is calm, nor are there propensions to either side, of advantages; the next time after it, she begins to work in the humours, and to augment them. Libav. Epist. 15. to S●hnitz●r. CHAP. VII. Of New Stars. We have spoken of those things that ordinarily are done by Nature in Heaven. I will now add some things which the right hand of God hath produced above nature. I mean new Stars, which have appeared, and not being of long continuance, have shortly disappeared again, and vanished from our sight. The Star at our Saviour's birth is the chief, which (Fulgentius saith) had no place in the Firmament, nor in the Ayr. It went forward with an uncertain motion, sometimes it showed itself, and sometimes it was hid. Damascenus, l. 2. Orthodox. fidei. Chalcides' the Platonist, speaks thus of it, upon Timaeus of Plato; There is also a more holy and more venerable History that relates, that by the rising of a Star that was unusual, not Death and Diseases were foreshowed, but the venerable descending of God, for man's salvation, and in favour of mortal things, which men testify to have been observed by the Chaldaeans, who adored God with gifts, who was newly born. Whence they learned the knowledge of its apparition, is showed in the Books of Balaam the Soothsayer, wherein are many fabulous things. The other is that which appeared in the year 1572. This is that year, wherein that Bartholmy-slaughter was acted at Paris, in which (not excluding other places) 30000 men were slain, 100000 of honest Families were oppressed in three days, Widows and Orphan Children innumerable being brought to the greatest beggary or want. Prisbach. in Respons●. ad oration. habitam apud Helvetios. The sum was so great, that the wiser sort that were no ways addicted to the Protestant side, when they were come to themselves, and considered the sad condition of things at that time, and disavowed the Act, and sought out curiously the causes of it, and excuses for it, they judged that there was no such Example of cruelty to be found in all Antiquity▪ should their Chronicles be searched into. Thuan. l. 53. Histor. That that appeared the 6th. of the Ides of November, under the Constellation of Cassiopaea; some men said, it was in the Firmament itself amongst the heavenly spheres. It had neither Tail nor hair, but like the other Stars, it sent forth beams equally. The Diameter of it contained the Diameter of the Earth 7. times and ½ part; and it was greater than the Earth 361 times and ½, it was bigger than the Sun twice and 2/● parts. Tycho Brache 1. part, Progymnas. Astronom. Yet this Eminency of greatness and light decreased afterwards by degrees, until it vanished quite away. It had no motion, except that which it had common with the fixed Stars, it always held the same Position to the neighbouring Stars in Cassiopaea. It lasted 16 months. What was foreshowed by it, is variously determined by divers men. Gemma Frisius in Cosmocritica, writes, That since the birth of Christ there was hardly any apparition to be compared with it, whether we consider the height of the sign, or the rarity, or the long continuance of it. The Britan's ascribed it to the lamentable death of Mary. a Oxford ginger was Author of this opinion, who by Cassiopaea, the Sister to King Cepheus, said, That some Queen in the North must be noted out by it; and by its 16 month's continuance he foreshowed, (I know not according to what calculation of the Arabians, and the ascending of the Star into the upper parts,) That that Northern Queen after 16 years should ascend up into heaven. The event made good his predication. Thuan. l. 5▪ 4 Molerus seemed to expect a new Prophet by it, in the year, 1590., and the conquest of the Gospel over all through the World. Liborovius foretold, but falsely, War, in 1619, and the banishment of the chief Prince in Germany, in 1620; the restoring of him again by the Eastern Countries, in 1627., and many such like things. There is extant concerning this Star a godly and excellent Copy of Verses of a certain famous Writer, which I here set down: Whether that Comet without blazing tail, That shines as clear as do the fixed Stars, Shall in succeeding times so far prevail, As to raise Dearths or Plagues, or bloody Wars; God only knows, and aftertimes will show. But if Man's Wit can any thing foretell, 'Tis not amiss to search such signs are new, And lift our minds above this place we dwell▪ This is that Star which did the Wisemen bring From the East land, to Bethleem, and there In David's City, born was the great King. It now foreshows again, and doth declare, That God is coming: cruel Herod fear! Good Men rejoice, your Redemption draws near. The fifth month after the Star disappeared▪ Charles died of a bloody flux. The third was seen in the year, 1577. in November, and which the following year vanished, Jannuary the 26, Mestlinus placeth this in the sphere of Venus. Tycho writes that the head was 308 german miles diameter. Dantzick was then besieged, and 1578, the War of Moscovia began. It was supposed to portend the Death of great Men. In that year (Thuan. l. 65.) after a desperate sight in Africa, Sebastian King of Portugal died, and Melchus Chorisius King of Morisco Trigitana, whom he came to subdue. And Mahomet that caused the War was drowned. 8000, Christians were slain, and as many taken Captives, almost all the Nobility of Portugal fell into the hands of the Moors. That was done in one day. Portugal came ne●t under the Government of Philip. Then in 1604, about the beginning of October, a fourth new Star appeared in the 17. degree of Sagittarius, and was from the Ecliptic, but 37 minutes. Astronomers say, it was between Saturn and the 8. Sphere; yet that seems absurd. Keckerman in his consultation concerning the Star in the year, 1604. Thes. 53. Also because it had its own proper motion, distinct from the Sphere of Saturn, and the fixed Stars; and the Stars move in and with their Orbs, but that had none. Crabbius saith directly, that it was from the Centre of the Earth 22267636 miles, and from the superficies of the Earth, 22266777 miles. disput. de Comet: Thes: And hence he concludes it was greater than the Earth, 91 times; and hence he proves it was above Saturn, being from the Earth 1007250 miles. It shined full four Months: and after that was to be seen from the 28 of November with Saturn, from the 29. with Sol, and from the 13 of December with Mercury in Conjunctions; and with Mercury, Mars, Sol, in oppositions, the May following, which was supposed to portend great consultations, confederacies, and changes in France, Spain, the Low Countries, England. Thuan. lib. 131. But the opposition that fell out on the 6, of June, was held to be Ominous, and men conjectured that this Star would cause Wars and calamities to many Countries, and chiefly to Germany in point of Religion. An excellent Mathematician Keplerus writ concerning it, and who was no whit guilty of Astrological superstition, by the testimony of Thuanus. See him. I call these apparitions Stars, not that I am ignorant, that they are referred to Comets, but because I find that in the Sky they are placed amongst the second moveables, and are called celestial, which is not agreeing to Planets: and I think it more fit to call them Stars, than by naming them Comets, to overthrow the doctrine of Meteors received from the Ancients. CHAP. VIII. Of Astrological Predictions. COncerning Astrological Predictions many men have many minds. Some magnify them, others reject them as idle vanities. It is certain that natural actions, as the changes of days; night●, years, seasons, because they have determinate causes in the position of the Stars, may be foretold by them. Yet because the matter of the elements is mutable and flitting, many particular causes overthrew general causes, and many Stars in both motions are yet unknown; and some of them sometimes are opposite to the others forces: also most experienced Artists are few: and lastly there is a vast distance in placing the beginning and ends of the Houses, and proprieties, and therefore it is no wonder if error creep in. Bartholin de caelo. And if we observe particular and individual actions, the error will be the greater, for beside the general influence of the Stars, there is a special influence which ariseth from the special complexion. The indisposition of the matter hinders the good influence of Heaven; and the goodness of the temper derived from the Parents, keeps off the bad influence. We know that Jacob and Esau were born at the same time, in respect of the Heaven's position, yet was their fortune most different. In civil actions the Stars have nothing to do. It is an elegant saying of Bodinus. Lib. 4. de Repub. Cap, 3. There is but one Rule, saith he, of all Philosophers, even of those that idly dispute of what is done in the Heavens; that a wiseman is not under the affection and power of the Stars, but only those who like beasts are ruled by their appetites and desires, and will not be subject to reason and good laws, whom Solomon, the Master of wisdom, threatened sharply with punishment of the rack: yet many have adventured to make trial. The Chaldeans by men's actions collected the day of a man's Birth, and from the day of a man's Birth, the fortune of his whole life; And that men should not reject them, they boasted they had spent 470, thousand years in the experience of this Art. And so bold they were, that they vaunted that it was a thing as necessary to be known, how the position of the Stars and the force of the Heavens were, when a man would build a house, or make, sow, or put on his clothes, as to know how they were disposed when Children were new born. Lucius Tarutius Firmianus, by the acts of Romulus, his Life, and Death, found that he was born in the first year of the second Olympiad, the 23, day of the Month; Peucer de divinat. sect. de Astrolog: and born in the 21, day of the month Tooth, about Sun rising. And hence he found out the first day that Rome was built, and that it began when the Moon was in Libra, the Sun with Mercury and Venus in Taurus, Jupiter in Pisces, and Saturn with Mars in Scorpio. To this purpose we may refer him, who by the first day of Jannuary, would foretell all events. If that a Rainbow in the Sky appear, God is well pleased with man, they need not fear. If burning Meteors from the Heaven's shine, Of great long during heats they are the sign. If Thunder Roar, or Rivers overflow, This foreshews Tempests as all seamen know. But if the Earth be stirred and seem to quake, This shows Religion will be brought toth' stake. If Rivers freeze, it than portends great joy, Each woman shall conceive and bear a Boy. Mayol. Colloq. 1. Canicular. Of such, this is true: These Mathematicians by a false interpretation concerning the Stars, and by their lies, cast a mist before those that are light and foolish witted, for their own advantage; Valer. Maxim. l. We have examples of their fraud in Nicetas Chronias, otherwise a prudent Historiographer. In our times (saith he) the Emperors do nothing but by advice of Astrologers, and they make choice of days and nights to do their business, as the Stars shall dictate unto them. Therefore Alexius the Emperor, desired long to know when he might seasonably return to Blacherna; at last the day and hour were chosen according to the Stars. He returned, and that so happily, that the Earth opened very deep before him, and he escaped, but his Son in law Alexius, and many of his Nobles fell into the pit, and were hurt, and one Eunuchus that was a favourite perished. That of Manuel is more ridiculous: when he was Emperor, they of Sicily and Italy had possessed themselves of the Sea near Constantinople; he had sometimes sent out a Fleet, but with ill success. Wherefore the Mathematicians were consulted to assign a more prosperous time▪ Constantinus a famous man prepares himself, but he was once more called back again; because the Prince had found, that the inquiry was not so certainly and wisely made as it ought to be, and there had been some error. The Scheme was therefore set once more, and Constantinus was sent forth on the day chosen: He was scarce got to Sea, but he and all his forces were taken; Lips. in monit. polit. A brave art; yet I wonder, since I read of some that were seldom frustrate of their ends. Nigidius Figulus, foretold to Augustus, that he should be Emperor, (Xiphilinus). Thrasyllus foresaw the Empire of Tiberius, and his own danger when he was on the Tower with the Prince, and should have been cast down headlong; Sueton. in Octavio. Largius Proculus gave notice of the day that Domitian should die; Ascletarius foretold the kind: and being required of him to answer what kind of death, he himself should die, he said he should be eaten with Dogs: and so it was. For though Domitian to disprove him, commanded that he should be burnt, and he was then burning, yet a tempest rose suddenly, and put out the fire. The spectators ran away, and the Dogs came and devoured him, Sueton. in Domitian. Josephus that wrote the Antiquities of the Jews, saith, that he foretold to the Emperor Vespasian, and to his Son Titus, that they should be Emperors. We know it was so. Petrus Leontius, a Physician of Spoletanum foresaid, that he himself was in danger of drowning. And he was found afterwards drowned in a pit, Jovius, Elog. 35. The Archbishop of Pisa consulted Astrologers concerning his destiny: they told he should be hanged; Annal. Florentin. It seemed incredible when he was in so great honour; yet it proved to be true. For in the sedition of Pope Sixtus the fourth in a sudden uproar he was hanged. Richardus Cervinus had foretold to his son Marcellus that he should come to great dignity in the Church. Hence he conceiving hope of it, when he was invited by his Mother Cassandra Benna, to marry, refused it stoutly; saying, He would not with the bands of Matrimony bind himself from a greater fortune that the Stars foreshowed unto him, living single and unmarried: Thuan. l. 15. It so came to pass. Lucius Gauricus delivered this in his Book of Nativities. Which Book, (and it is a very wonderful thing) saith Thuan. l. 1. was published at Venice three years by Curtius Trojanus, before Cervinus was proclaimed Pope. This was that Pope, who when the Reader, as the manner is, read the Scriptures, or Writings of the Fathers at dinner time, said, He could not perceive how those that held so high a Place, could provide for their own salvation. These are Examples of Predictions made good by the Events, Lipsius, l. 1. Monitor. ascribes some to inspiration: Delrius refers some to compacts with the Devil, l. 4. Disquisit. Magic. cap. 3. quaest. 2. Certain it is, that God sometimes suffers them for a punishment to those that are so bold, and that they are true but by accident only. See Delrius, who handles this Argument largely. The End of the First Classis. Of the Writings of Wonders in Nature. The Second Classis. Wherein are contained the Wonders of the Elements. WHat is the chief thing in humane affairs? Not to fill the Seas with Ships, nor, to set up standards on the shores of the red Sea; not where Land is wanting, to wander in the Ocean to injure other men, and seek out unknown places: but to see all with the mind; and, than which there is no greater victory, to overcome our vices: Seneca, Natur. quaest. l. 3. Praef. CHAP. I. Of Fire. Artic. 1. Of the Wonderful beginning of Fire. FIre was a long time unknown to the Ancients, especially if you respect them who in the utmost borders of Egypt dwelled by the Sea side, Plin. histor. Natural. l. 16. c. 40. When Eudoxus found it, they were so pleased with it, that they would have put it in their bosoms. Fire, is not unknown to us. So great is the variety of it, and it is so manifold, that I know not what order to deliver it in. Pliny saith it is from itself; steel rubbed against steel causeth fire. Also the stones we call fire-stones, stricken against steel or other stones, send forth sparkles. Therefore the Laplanders begin their Contracts of Marriage with the fire and flint, Scalig. Exerc. 16. s. 1. For fire with them is the Author of life, and the flint is eternal, wherein the treasure never fails. It is in vain to try that in a brittle stone: for the piece falling away, that which should draw forth the Air is lost. The rubbing of sticks one against another will fetch fire. The Indians do so; They make two sticks fast together, and put another stick between them, turning it swift like a wimble, and so they make them take fire, Ovetan. l. 6. c. 5. In Apulia they wrap a Ca●●● i● cords, and draw them as fast as they can forward and backward, till they fire it by motion, Mayolus Colloq▪ 2●. The Vestal Nuns did the same, when their eternal fire went out, if we credit Festus. In Nympheus, a flame goes out of a Rock, which is kindled by rain. Aristotle saith, in Admirand. it is not perceived until you cast oil upon it, and then the flame flies upward. We find also in Authors, that in the Country of the Sabins, and Apulia, there is a stone that will fire if you anoint it, Plin. l. 2. c. 207. In Aricia, if a live coal fall on arable ground, the ground will burn. In a Town of Picenum, Egnatia, if wood be laid on a certain stone, that they account holy there, it will flame presently. Also a flame goes forth at the waters of Scantia, but it is very weak at the going forth, and will not last long in any other matter. Also at Gratianopolis in Dauphin, flame shines out, when you stir the burning Fountain with a staff, so that straw may be kindled by it; Dalechamp. ad l. c. The fire of the Mountain Chimer● is kindled by water, Plin. l. 2. c. 106. If you hold a glass Globe full of water in the Sun, fire will rise from the repercussion of the light from the water, in the coldest frost: Lactan. de ira Dei, c. 10. Sometimes also fire ariseth so suddenly in houses, that it may be thought wonderful. Cardan. l. 10. de varietate, c. 49. ascribes the cause to the salt, and Salt-Peter that sticks to the walls of the houses. Which Valerius reports concerning the Scholar of the vestal Nun, Maxima Aemilia, l. 1. c. 1. that she adoring Vesta, when she had laid her fine linen veil upon the hearth, the fire that was out, shined forth again: an old wall being scraped down, he writes, that it might take fire only by hot Ashes. If you look in the Bible, you shall find a wonderful original of fire in it, 1 King. c. 18. Elias when he offered sacrifice brought fire down from heaven, which consumed the sacrifice, wood, stones, dust, and water. In the Book of Judges, Ch. 6. when Gideon at the command of the Angel had laid flesh and bread upon a stone, and poured Frankincense upon them, fire came forth of the stone, and consumed them. Artic. 2. Of Fires in the Waters. IF we will credit Histories, it is most certain, that fires have been seen in the waters. Pliny saith, lib. 2. c. 107. That the whole Lake Thrasimenus was on fire. That the Sea did burn, Liv. lib. 33. when Alaricus wasted Italy, and John chrysostom was driven from his Bishopric, the Earth quaked, fire fell from Heaven, and a wind took it, and cast it into the Sea, which took fire by it, and at last went out again; Niceph. l. 13. c. 36. In the fields of Babylon there is a Fishpond that burns, which is about an Acre of ground, Plin. lib. 2. c. 106. A stone cast into a Lake near to Denstadium of Thuringia, when it sinks to the bottom, it hath the form of a burning arrow; Agricol. lib. 4. the nat. affluent. c. 22. In a City of Comagena, called Samosata, there is a Lake that sends forth burning mud; Plin. l. 2. c. 104. Posidonius saith, that in his time, about the Summer Solstice, in the morning, that between Suda and the Sea of Evonymus, fire was seen lifted up to a wonderful height, and to have continued so a pretty while, carried up with a continued blast and at length it sunk down. Many days after, Slime appeared, that it swum on the top of the waters, and that flames broke forth in many places, and smokes, and soot, and at length that Slime grew hard, and that the lumps grown hard, were like unto Millstones. Julius Obsequens adds, that it dispersed a great multitude of fish, which the Liparenses much feeding on, were spoiled by them, so that the Islands were made waist with a new plague, Strabo. l. 6. Between, Ther and Therasia which are in the Cycladeses, flames went out of the Sea, in such abundance, that is was extreme hot, and seemed to burn; and when it had swelled by degrees, of the pieces cast out, that were like to Iron, an Island was made, which was called Hiera and Automate, now it is called Vulcanellus: by a very small arm of the Sea, it is parted from Vulcanellus. Plin. l. 2. c. 87. Artic. 3. Of Fire under the Earth. I Said that fire was also in the waters; now I will show that in the bowels of the earth fire is generated. When Claudius Nero was Emperor, fire was seen to come forth of the Earth, in the land of the Town of Colein, and it burned the Fields, Villages, Houses; now because the matter of it was bituminous, and could be quenched neither by rain, nor River waters, nor by any other moisture, it was extinguished by Stones and old Garments. In Misena a Country of Germany, a Mountain of Coles burns continually, the trenches falling down by degrees in the superficies, which if any man behold, they appear to be burning Furnaces. The fire kindles any thing near to it, at four foot distance, but not put close to it. Agricol. de nature. effluent. ex terr. Vesuvius, also a Mountain in Campania, burned, when Titus Vespasianus, and Flavius Domitianus the seventh, were Consuls. First it cast out Stones from the top broken open; after that, it cast forth such Flames, that two Towns, Herculaneum, and Pompeti were set on fire; and it sent forth such thick smoke, that it obscured the Sun; and lastly it blew forth such a quantity of Ashes, that like snow it covered the Neighbour Country, which by force of winds was carried into Africa, Egypt, Syria; Dion. Cass. in Histor. When the Elder Pliny beheld this Fire, (the Younger in Epistol. ad Tacitum) the smoke so stopped his sharp artery, that his breath being intercepted, he was choked, There is also a mountain of late in Campania, full of rises, from the time the fire was bred there, which burns and roars within, and sends forth smoke in many places, and very hot brooks, the shore smokes at the foot of the Mountain, the sand is hot, & the Sea boyles, Agricol, l. c. In the same place, there are many ditches covered with sand, into which some that have viewed these things carelessly have sunk in, and were stifled. This is in Europe. In India, there are no less burnings by fire. In Ciapotulan, a Province of the Kingdom of Mexico, a Mountain casts forth stones as big as houses, and those stones cast forth have flames of fire in them, and seem to burn, and are broke in pieces with a great noise; Petrus Alvarad. ad Cortesium. In the province Quahutemallan, of the same Country, two Mountains within two Leagues one of the other, vomit out fire, and tremble, Petrus Hispalens. p. 5. C. 23. In Peruacum also, out of the Mountain Nanavata, the Fire flies out at many holes; and out of one, boiling water runs, of which salt is made. In the same Peruacum in the Town Molaha●o fire is vomited forth, and ashes is cast out for many days, and covers many Towns. There is an Island next to great Java, in the middle of which land there burns a perpetual fire Odoard. Barbosa. In the Island Del Moro, there is a Fire cast forth with such a noise, that it is equal to the loudest Cannon, and the darkness is like Night. The Ashes so abound, that houses have sunk down under them, and Trees have been barren for three years, their boughs being lopped off, all places are filled with Ashes, and living Creatures destroyed with hunger and pestilence, also sweet waters have been changed into bitter. Diat. Jesuita. Also there are concealed Fires, namely there, where the waters run forth, hot, warm, or sour, or where exhalations break forth, good or bad, and where places seem adust. Strab. in Geograph: There is a Country in Asia, which is called Adust, which is 500 furlongs long, and 50 broad, whether it should be called Misia or Meonia, saith Strabo. In this there grows no Tree but the Vine that brings forth burnt Wine, so excellent that none exceeds it. You may not think that those Fires stay only in one strait place, for they pass many miles under ground; Agricol. l. 4. the nat. Effl. c. 24. in Campania, from Cunae, through Baianum, Puteoli, and Naples. Also out of Campania they seem to come as far as the Islands, Aenaria, Vulcania, etc. Hence Pindarus elegantly feigned that the Gigant, Typ●o, being stricken with a Thunder-Bolt, lay buried under these places. Artic. 4. Of the Original of Subterraneal Fire. We will now search out the original of these Fires, and what it is that kindles and nourisheth them. The Poets speak Fables concerning Aetna, (but of this, more in the 4th Chapter.) Hyginius Mytholog. cap. 152. Hell, of the Earth begat Typhon, of a vast magnitude, and a wonderful shape, who had 100 Dragons heads that sprang from his shoulders; He challenged Jupiter, to strive for his Kingdom. Jupiter hit him on the breast with a burning Thunderbolt, and having fired him, he cast Mount Aetna upon him, which is in Sicilia, and from that time it is said to burn yet. Isidor. l. 14. c. 8. ascribes it to Brimstone that is kindled by the blasts of winds. Justinus affirms, that it is nourished by water. Bleskenius relates of Hecla, that no man knows by what fire, or what matter it burneth; but since that brimstone is dug forth of all Islandia, it should appear, that a brimstony matter was sometimes kindled there. Not far from Hecla are Pits of brimstone, saith Bertius, in Islandia. That is certain, that brimstone affords nourishment for this fire under ground, and it is such as will burn in water. For in these Mountain's Writers make mention of waters▪ and we have showed, that it hath sometimes burned in the Sea. But Lydiat, L. de orig. font. thinks, That in the gulfs of the Sea, a most violent fire is contained; and he demonstrates this by Earthquakes. Therefore the food of it cannot be dry, and like to the Earth which we call Dorfa; for that is quickly consumed by fire, and is quenched by water. Nor is it Marl, for that will not burn, unless it be sulphureous and bituminous. Brimstone burns indeed, but it is soon put out with water; therefore it is Bitumen; and this seems to be the subject of it. Strabo writes, That there are under this Cave, Fountains of water; and Pliny adds, l. 2. c. 106. that it burns with water running from Bitumen. Burning Bitumen sends forth fire in Hecla a Mountain in Islandia, which consumes water: The stones of Rivers and the sand, burn at Hephestios, a Mountain of Lycia, and they are bituminous. Naphta is very near akin to fire, and it presently flames, Pliny, l. c. Wherefore we think Bitumen to be the food for these fires, and they are kindled by a fiery vapour that takes fire, if but cold thrust it forth, as the Clouds thrust ou● lightnings, or drives it into some narrow places, where rolling itself up and down, and seeking to come forth, it burns in the conflict, and flames; Agricol. lib. cit. Artic. 5. Of the Miracles of Fire in duration, burning, and in being Extinguished. SOme Fires are perpetual. The stone Asbestos, once lighted, can never be extinguished; therefore Writers say it was placed in Idol Temples, and the Sepulchers of the dead; Solinus, c. 12. There was a Monument once dug up, wherein was a Candle that had burned above 1500 years; when it was touched with the hands, it went to fine ashes: Vives ad lib. 21. de Civitat. Dei. Vives saw wicks at Paris, which once lighted, were never consumed. In Brittany the Temple of Minerva had a perpetual fire; when it consumed, it was turned into balls of stone; Solinus, c. 24. Polyhist. The same thing is written of a certain Wood near to Urabia in the Newfound World. There are some fires that burn not, either not at all, or in some certain matter, or else miraculously. In Pythecusis, saith Aristotle admirand. c. 35. there is a fervent and hot fire that burns not: An Ash that shadows the Waters called Scantiae, is always green. Plin. lib. 2. c. 107. In the Mountain of Puteoli consisting of Brimstone, there is a fire comes forth, that is neither kindled nor augmented by oil, nor wax, or any fat matter, nor is it quenched with water, or kindled, and it will not burn towe cast into it, nor can any Candle be lighted by it. Mayolus Colloq. 22. he conceives it is not fire, but fiery water. Near Patara in Lycia, flame is cast forth of a field, you shall feel the heat if you put your hands to it, but it will never burn. The parts of the ambient air that are cold and moist, are said to be the cause of it, that by their thinness entering into the fire, do hinder the burning of it. Some napkins made of a kind of Flax will not burn: and being dirty, they are never washed; but being cast into the fire they are made clean; Lemnius in l. 2. the occult. That kind grows in the deserts of India, where such is the condition of the Air, and the quality of the Earth, which causeth such a temper of the Plants, that they may be spun and woven into linen Cloth. Wood and Planks, if they be anointed with Alum (I add, and smeared with Eggs) they will not burn, Plin. l. 29. c. 3. Nor will posts painted with a green colour, so you do it thick, and Allom with the ashes of white lead be plentifully mingled with the paint: Because the wood is thickened and hardened, the fire cannot enter. Hence it was, that Sylla could not fire a Tower that was smeered with Allom. C. Caesar set fire to a Castle near to Po, that was built of Larch-tree, and it would not burn, Vitruu. l. 2. c. 9 for the Larch tree is not only free from rottenness, nor will it resolve into coals. The cause is the compacted matter, Lemnius, l. c. What shall we say of Pyrrhus, on whose great joint of his right foot, fire could not prevail? What of Zwinglius, whose heart was not touched after his body was consumed by fire, Thuan. l. 5. Histor. The Salamander lives safe in the midst of the flames, if we credit Pliny; And the bottom of the Cauldron is cold, when it stands in the midst of the fire, and the water boyles, the sides are red hot. Yet Dioscorid. writes, l. 2. c. 52. That the Cauldron being cold by nature, doth for a while keep off the fire by being so near to it, but at last it burns and wastes. The reason of this is from the Pyramidal figure of the fire, which ascends in a point, and the thin parts rise up first; the thicker are cast to the sides; Keckerm: Disp: 4. Phys: coral: 10. In the Scriptures we have examples, God appeared to Moses in a flaming bush, the bush did not burn, Exod. Ch. 3. Elias was taken up into Heaven, with a fiery Chariot and horses. The three Children, cast into the fiery furnace in Babylon, had not a hair touched, and they were consumed that came but near, in the Apocryph: ad c. 3. Daniel is. Eugenius relates what befell an Hebrew Boy at Constantinople. So much for Burning. Now for putting it out: A certain fire came forth of Mount Hecla, which is extinguished with Tow; that which comes forth of the Mount Chimaera, is put out with Hay, or Earth: At Cullen of the Ubii, with stones, or clothes. But when Charles Duke of Burgundy had taken the City of Geldria, the ground was burnt, the grass and roots burned, the fire could be extinguished by no art of man; it penetrated into Burgundy; Fulgosius, l. 1. To these I shall add those Chemical devices of Tritenhemius, whereby he procured everlasting fires, as an Anonymus reports in Aureo vellere, in the name of Bartholmaeus Korndorferus. Now there are two Eternal Lights. The first of them is made by mingling brimstone and calcined Alum, 4. ounces, and by subliming them, they are made flowers. He joined 2 ounces and a half, to 1▪ ounce of 〈…〉 Vedetus like Crystal; and to these 〈…〉 bruised, and put into a h●llow glass, he poured on the spirit of wi●● four times distilled, and making digestion▪ and drawing that off, he poured on new, and he did this twice, thrice, or four times, until the brimstone made hot upon plates of brass, would run like wax without smoke. This is the food of it. Afterwards the Wick must be thus ordered; The small shords of the stone Asbestos, about the length of the little finger, and about half so thick, must be tied together with white silk. The Wick thus made, is sprinkled with brimstone, of the foresaid matter in a Venice-glass, and it is put under ground, and is boiled in hot sand 24 hours, the brimstone always boiling up. The wick so anointed and wet, is put into a hollow glass, that it may a little come forth, the prepared Brimstone is heaped on, the glass is set into hot sand, that the Brimstone may melt and hold fast to the wick, then will this set on fire, burn with a continual flame: you may see the Lamp in any place. This is the first eternal Fire. The latter is made thus: To a pound of decrepit Salt pour on strong Wine Vinegar; Draw it off to the consistence of oil, put on new▪ let it steep, distil it as before, and do this four times. Infuse in this Vinegar glass of Antimony finely powdered, one pound; set the infusion in hot ashes 6 hours in a close vessel, and draw out a red tincture; Pour off that vinegar, and pour on more, and draw it off again, repeating the labour, until all the colour be resolved and drawn forth. Coagulate the extractions to the consistence of oil, and rectify it in Balneo till it be pure: Then take the powder of Antimony, out of which the redness was drawn, and make fine flower of it, put it into a glass, and pour on the rectified oil; draw it off, and pour it on 7 times, until the body have drank in all its oil, and become dry. Draw out this by the spirit of wine, changed so often until all the substance be drawn forth; distil the Menstruums collected in a Venice Viol., covering it with a five doubled paper, that the spirit coming forth, the incombustible air may remain in the bottom; which must be used with a Wick, as that of Brimstone before. CHAP. II. Of the Ayr. Artic. 1. Of the three Regions of the Ayr. Philosopher's make 3. Regions. The Region in the middle is so cold, that it is almost ready to freeze the Kite, which is wont to live there in the dog days from Noon till Night, or his limbs should grow stiff by staying there too long. And in the Alps there is always so much snow, that in Summer the passage is dangerous. They that have crept up to the tops of the Mountains of Baldus, in the Country of Verona, feel no less cold in July and August, than in the coldest Winter. Aldrov●●●●, Ornith, l. ●. c. 15. Some think the air to be so thin there, that a man can hardly live. Augustin. de Genes. ad litter, l. 13. c. 2. reports from other men, that such as go to the top of Olympus, either to sacrifice, or to view the Stars, carry sponges with them wet in water, to breathe with. But from the History of the flood, and others, we may observe that some Mountains are so high, that they are above the Clouds, and yet a man may live in that air▪ Libav. de orig. rer. l. 6. There is in the Island Zelainum, a very high Mountain, and most pleasant on the top. In Arabia Faelix there is an extreme high Mountain, and there is a Town on the top of it. If we observe the force of the air, it is notable: Philosophers speak much of it. Cardan saith that if it be shut up, it corrupts living Creatures, and preserves dead things, but the open Air is contrary. But examples will hardly make that good. In the Navigations of the portugals, some Mariners under the Equinoctial had almost breathed their last, though it were in the middle of the Sea, and a in a most open air. And when we were present, saith Scaliger, Exercit 31. some Italians of Lipsia in the Stoves were like to swoon; and you may remember from Histories concerning the death of King Cocal. Wheat in Syria laid close in Mows corrupts not, but is spoilt shut up in Barns; if the Windows be open, it takes no harm. Artic. 2. Of the Infection of the Air. The Air doth not always retain its own qualities, it is infected sometimes with hurtful things. They that go out of the Province of Peru, into Chila thorough the Mountains meet with a deadly air, and before the passengers perceive it, their limbs fall from their bodies, as Apples fall from Trees without any corruptions, Liburius de Origine rerum. In the Mount of Peru Pariacacca, the air being singular, brings them that go up, in despair of their lives. It causeth vomit so violent that the blood follows, it afflicts them most that ascend from the Sea, and not only Man but Beasts are exposed to the danger. It is held to be the highest, and most full of Snow in the World, and in three or four hours a man may pass over it. In the Mountains of Chilium, a Boy sustained himself three days, lying behind a multitude of Carcases, so that at last he escaped safe from the Venomous blasts. In a Book concerning the proper causes of the Elements, it is written that a wind killed the people in Hadramot. The same Author reports that the same thing happened in the time of King Philip of Macedo, that in a certain way between two Mountains at a set hour, what horseman soever past, he fell down ready to die. The cause was not known. The foot were in the same condition, until one Socrates by setting on high, a steel Lookingglass, beheld in both Mountains two Dragons casting their venomous breath one at the other; and whatsoever this hit upon, died, Liban. l. cit. But the true cause of this mischief was a mineral air, stuffed with nitrous and other metallic Spirits. Such a one is found in some Caves of Hungary and Sweden, and we know that the Common Saltpetre is full of Spirits; it is moved dangerously and forcibly if fire be put to it, and cast into water, it cools them much. But that bodies corrupt not, that we ascribe to cold, but it may be attributed to the Spirits of cold by mixture, such as are in some Thunderbolts, for the bodies of living Creatures killed by them do not easily corrupt, and they last long, unless some more powerful cause coming, drive it out. Artic. 3. Of the Putrefaction of the Ayr. THe Pestilence comes from putrefaction of the air: which in respect of divers constitutions is divers. It is observed that there never was any at Locris or Croto: Plin. l. 2.99. So in that part of Ethiopia, which is by the black Sea. In Mauritania, it ruins all. It lasted so long sometimes at Tholouse, and in that Province, that it continued seven years. It perseveres so long, and oftimes, amongst the Northern people, and rageth so cruelly, that it depopulates whole Countries; Scaliger, exercit, 32. It is observed in the Southern parts, that it goes toward the Sun setting, and scarce ever but in winter, and lasts but three months at most. In the year 1524, it so raged at Milan, that new baked bread set into the air but one night, was not only musty, but was full of Worms, those that were well, died in 6, or 8, hours; Cardan de rer. varietat. l. 8. c. 45. In the year 1500 it destroyed 30000 at London, sometimes 300000 at Constantinople; and as many in the Cities of the Vandals, all the autumn thorough. In Petrarches days, it was so strong in Italy, that of 1000 Men scarce ten remained. Alsted in Chronolog. But that in divers Countries it works so variously on some men and several Creatures, that proceeds from the force of the active causes, and the disposition of the passive. Forest. l. 6. observ. de Febre. If the active cause from the uncleanness of the Earth or water be not strong, it only affects those beasts that are disposed for such a venom; but if it be violent, it seizeth on Mankind; yet so that of its own nature, it would leave neither Country, not City, nor Village, nor Town free. This lays hold on men in one place only. But if the active force be from a superior cause, or be from the air, corrupted below, Mankind alone are endangered by it. But if both a superior and an inferior cause concur, then may all living Creatures be infected with the Plague, yet it must be according to the disposition of their bodies. Artic. 4. Of Attraction, cooling, and penetrating of the Ayr. NO man almost is ignorant, but that the Air serves for the Life of man; for the branches of arteria venosa, drink in blood from the whole Lungs, brought to them by the arteria venosa, and it is made more pure in them. The Air drawn in at the mouth is mingled with the blood, and this mixture is carried to the left ventricle of the heart, to be made spirituous blood; Ludovi: du Gardin Anatom: c. 40. But being drawn in heaps it strangles, Zwinger, Physiol. l. 2. c. 23. For if you compass a burning Candle in the open air, with wine from above, you put it out; because it cannot attract the Air prepared on each side, by reason the wine is betwixt, and it cannot from below draw the crude and unprepared Ayr. The desaphoretick force of it will appear in an Egg; when that is new, a pure spirit sweats through its shell, whilst it roasts, like unto dew. What will this do in the body of man? It will make that full of chinks, if it be touched by a small heat: otherwise it fills and penetrates all things. It pierceth thorough a brick, and there it inflates the concocted lime, so that the quantity of it is increased till it break it. We see that the Air entering by the pores of a baked brick, doth swell a stone that was left there for want of diligence, and is turned into Lime; and so puts it up, till the brick breaks, Zwinger, Phys. l. 2. c. 25. Farther it is concluded by certain observation, That a wound is easy or hard to cure by reason of the Ayr. In Fenny grounds wounds of the head are soon cured, but Ulcers of the Legs are long: Hence it is, that wounds of the head are light at Bonnonia and Paris, but wounds of the Legs are deadly at Avignon and Rome. There the Air is of a cold constitution, and is an enemy to the brain: here it is more hot, whereby the humours being melted, run more downwards, Pa●ae●s, l. 10. Chirurg: c. 8. It may be cooled 9 ways, by frequent ventilating of it with a fan that fresh air may come; if Snow and water be set about the bed; if the walls be compassed about with Willow leaves, or with linen cloaths dipped in vinegar and Rose-water, if the floor be sprinkled, and fountains made to run in the chamber; if beds, saith Avicenna, be made over a pit of water, If beds be made of Camel's hair, or of linen, laying the skin under them: If the Bed be strewed with herbs; and lastly, if fragrant fruits be placed near the bed; Heurn: lib, 2. Medic. c. 18. CHAP. III. Of the Water. Artic. 1. Of the quantity and colour of Waters. SO much for Air: Now follows the Element of Water. And first we shall consider the quantity, and the colour of it. In the Country of the great Cham, near the City Simqui, there is the River Quian, which is 10 miles broad; and waters 200 Cities, and it is so long, that it cannot be sailed in 100 days. Polus writes, That he told in the Haven of it 50000 Ships. Also in Moscovia the Duina is so great by the melting of the Snow, that it cannot be passed over in a whole day with a well sailing Ship, it is at least 50 miles broad. Jovius, a Lake of Genebar, the Portingal●s call it January, Thuan. histor. l. 16. is so large under Capricorn, that men write, who have sailed thither, That all the Ships in the World may well harbour there. As for Colours, they are different in many waters. Danubius is white as milk and water, which divides Noricum, and Windelicia from Germany, Agricol. de Natur. effluent. The Waters of the Main, especially where it hath passed the Francs, and is fallen into the Rhine, are yellowish. The Fountain Telephus is muddy near Pat●ra, and mingled with blood. In Ethiopia there are red Waters, that make one mad that drinks them. At Neusola in the Mountain Carpath●s, waters running out of an old passage under ground, are green. At Ilza, that which comes forth of the Mountains of Bohemia, and runs into Danubius, is black. Artic. 2. Of the Taste of Water. THere is no less variety of Waters in their tastes: Some are sweet, some taste like wine: you shall find every where, salt, Allom tasted, sharp bitter waters every where. The Waters of Eleus, Chocops, Rivers, are sweet: The Kings of Persia drank of them, and transported them to far Countries. The water of Cardia in a field called Albus, is sweeter than warm milk. Pausanias. So is Vinosa near Paphlagonia; whence so many strangers come thither to drink of it. In the bosom of the Adriatic Sea, where it turns to Aquileia; there are 7. Fountains, and all of them, except one, are salt, Polyb. in Hist. At Malta there is one, that the waters running above are very sweet, but the lower waters are brackish, Aristobul: Cassand. The small River Exampeus is so bitter, that it taints the great River Hypanis in Pontus. In the Lake Ascanium, and some Fountains about Chalcis, the upper waters are sweet, and the lower taste of nitre, Plin. in Hist. The Fountains are sour about Culma; and because the water, though it be cold, boils, they seem to be mad, Agricol. lib. cit. In the same place there is a Mineral water, which they call Furious, because it boils and roars like thunder. In Cepusium at Smol●icium, it not only eats iron, but turns it into brass. But the water about Tempe in Thessaly, of the River Styx, can be contained in no vessel of silver, brass, iron, but it eats through them, nothing but a hoof can hold it. Artic. 3. Of the Smell of Water: and of the first and second qualities. THe hot Baths that are distant from Rhegium, the Town of Lepidus Aemilius 26 miles, smell of so gallant Bitumen, that they seem to be mingled with Camphir. There was a Pit in Peloponnesus near the Temple of Diana, whose water mingled with Bitumen smelled as pleasant as the unguent Cyzicenum. In Hildesham there are two Fountains; the one flows out of Marble that smells like stink of rotten Eggs, and taste sweet: but if any man drinks of it fasting, he will belch, and smell like the Marble pownded: The other is from Brimstone, and smells like Gunpowder: The water of this brook, covers with mud the stones that lie in the channel of it, scrape it off and dry it, and it is Brimstone, Agric. lib. cit. Arethusa, a Fountain of Sicily, is said to smoke at a certain time. At Visebad, there is a Spring in the Roadway, the water whereof is so hot, that you may not only boil Eggs in it, but scald chicken, and hogs; for it will fetch off feathers or hair, if you dip them in, or pour it upon them. Ptolemy Comment. lib. 7. affirms, That at Corinth there is a Fountain of water, which is colder than Snow. Near the Sea-Banks at Cuba, there is a River so continual, that you may sail in it; yet it is so hot, that you cannot touch it with your hands, Martyr Sum. Ind. Near the Province Tapala it runneth so hot, that one cannot pass over it, Ramus. tom. 3. At Segesta in Sicily, Halbesus suddenly grows hot in the middle of the River. Pontus, is a River that lies between the Country of the Medes and the Scythians, wherein hot burning stones are rolled, yet the water itself is cold. These, if you move them up and down, will presently cool, and being sprinkled with water, they shine the more bright. Lastly, near the City Ethama, there is a River that is hot, but it is good to cleanse the Lepers, and such as are ulcerated, Leonius. Also some waters swim above others. Arsanias swims above Tigris that is near unto it, so often as they both swell and overflow their banks▪ Peneres receiveth the River Eurôta, yet it admits it not, but carrieth it a top of it like oil for a short space, and then forsakes it, Plin. hist. Natural. Artic. 4. Of the Divers running of the Water. IT is said of Pyramus, a River of Cappadocia, which ariseth from Fountains that break forth in the very plain ground, that it presently hides itself in a deep Cave, and runs many miles under ground, and afterwards riseth a Navigable River, with so great violence, that if any man put a sphere into the hole of the Earth where it breaks forth again, the force of it will cast out the sphere; Strabo l. 12. Not far from Pompeiopolis in the Town Coricos, in the bottom of a Den of wonderful depth, a mighty River riseth with incredible force; and when it hath run with a great violence a short way, it sinks into the Earth again, Mela. l. 1. c. 6. The Water Marsia after it hath run along tract, from the utmost Mountains of the Peligni, passing through Marsius and the Lake Fucinus, it disemboggs into a Cave, than it opens itself again in Tiburtina, and is brought 9 miles with Arches built up, into Rome, Plin. l. 31. c, 3. The sabbatical River was wont to be empty every seventh day, and was dry; but all the six days it was full of water. But that ceased when the sacrifice ceased, Joseph. l. 7. c. 24. There is a certain River Bocatius speaks of, every ten years, it makes a mighty noise, by the stones striking together; and this is suddenly in a moment, and the stones ran downwards for 3. days, and 3 or 4 times a day, though it be fair weather; and after three days all is quiet. Strabo writes of the Rivers of Hyrcania, l. 11. There are in the Sea high shores that are prominent, and are cut forth of Rocks; but when the Rivers run out of the Rocks into the Sea with great violence, they pass over a great space as the fall betwixt the Sea and the Rocks, that Armies may march under the fall of the waters as under Arches, and receive no hurt▪ Trochlotes in North Norway makes such a noise when it runs, that it is heard 20 miles, Olaus, l. 2. c. 28. Became in Livonia runs forth of the Rocks with such a fall, that it makes men deaf, Ortel: in Livon. T●nais, by a very long passage from Scythia, falling into the Lake Meotis, it makes it so long and broad, that those that are ignorant of it, take it for a great Mountain, Boccatius. In Solomon's Temple there ran a Spring, great in Summer, small in Winter; Euseb. praeparat. Evangel. l. 9 c. 4. If you ask the cause, it is taken from the Time. All things are wet in Winter, then are the Channels full; and for want of evaporation the waters are kept in. But in Summer all things are dry, and the Sun's heat penetrates. Hence it is that they are congregated in their Fountains, and run out by the Air enforcing them. Maeander is so full of windings and turnings, that it is often thought to run back again, etc. He that seeks more concerning Nilus and other Waters, let him read Geographerrs. Artic. 5. Of the change of quantity and of qualities, in Waters. THis great variety in Waters that I have set down, is a token of the wisdom and power of God▪ and it is no less wonder, that the same waters should be so diversely changed. It is certain that they are changed. A Fountain in the Island Tenedos always from 3. at night till 6. after the Summer Solstice, overflows. There is another in ●odon, that hath its Name from Jupiter, it fails always at Noonday; And the River Po in Summer, as if it took its rest, grows dry, saith Pliny. In Italy, Tophanus a Fountain of Anagnania is dry when the Lake Fucinus is frozen; at other times of the year it runs with great quantity of water, Agricol. l. cit. passim. The Waters of the Lake of Babylon are red in Summer. Boristhenes at some times of the year seems to be died with Verdigrease. The water of the Fountain of the Tungri is boiling hot with fire subterraneal, and is red. The Waters of the River Caria by Neptun●s Temple were sweet, and are now salt. But in Thrace when Georgius Despota ruled, a sweet Fountain grew to be bitter intolerably, and whole rivers were changed at Cithaeron in Beotia, as Theophrastus writes. Men report, that of the Mineral Waters which run by the Pangaeus, a Mountain of Thrace, an Athenian cotyle weighs in Summer 64 grains, and in Winter 96. In the Province of Cyrene, the Fountain of the Sun is hot at midnight, afterwards it cools by degrees; and at Sunrising it is cold: and the higher the the Sun riseth, the colder it is; so that it is frozen at mid day: then again by degrees it grows warm, it is hot at Sunset; and the more the Sun proceeds, the hotter it becomes. The same Fountain every day as it grows cold at midday, so it is sweet; as it grows hot at midnight, so it grows bitter. Artic. 6. Of some other things admirable in Waters. THey were wonders that are passed, but greater follow. In those, it is easy to assign a cause, mixture or some such like, if you rightly consider it; but here it is difficult, for though you may in some, yet commonly we must fly to hidden qualities. I will briefly rehearse them. Some drops of a Fountain of the Goths poured upon the Earth, cease to move, and are thickened by the air. The waters of Cepusia in Pitchers turn into a Stone, those of Rhaetid make people foolish; they pull out the teeth in two years, and dissolve the ligaments of the sinews, which Pliny writes to be in Germany by the Seaside. Those of Islandia change things that are hollow into stones. Tybur covers Wood with stone covers. Zamenfes in Africa makes clear voices. Soractes when the Sun riseth, runs over, as though it boiled, birds that then drink of it die. He grows temperate, who drinks of the Lake Clitorius; and he forgets who drinks of a well ne'er the River Orchomenus, sacred to the God Trophonius, Philarch. He proves dull of wit that drinks of a Fountain in the Island Cea. Agricola de reb. 〈…〉 terra effluent. gives a cause for it, as for the former, by reason of the bitumen. For, saith he, the seeds of wild Parsnips wrapped in a linen clout, and put into Wine, as also the powder of the flowers of Hermodactylus, which the Turks use, being drunk with it, are the cause that it will make a man sooner and more drunk, so some kind of Bitumen mixed with water, is wont to make men drunk. The horses, drinking Sebaris are troubled with sneesing, whatsoever is sprinkled with it, is coloured black. Clitumnus of Umbria drank of, makes white Oxen, and Cesiphus of Beotia white sheep: but a River in Cappadocia makes the hair whiter, softer, and longer. In Pontus, Astaces waters the fields, in which Mares are fed, that feed the whole Country with black milk. The waters in Gadaris make men bald, and deprive Cattle; of hair, hooffs and horns. Cicero writes that in the Marshes of Reate, the hoofs of beasts are hardened. The hot baths at the Fort of Newhouse, colour the Silver Rings of such as wash in them with a Golden colour, and make Gold Rings more beautiful. Aniger that runs out of Lapithum a Mountain of Arcadia will nourish no fish in it, till it receive Acidan, and those that go then out of it into Aniger are not edible, but they in Acidan are, Pausanias. Agrigentinum a Lake of Sicily will bear those things that do not swim in the waters. In Aethiopia there is one so thin that it will not carry up leaves that fall from the next Trees. In the lake Asphalti●es a man bound hand and foot cannot sink. The cause is held to be the great quantity of Salt. Hieronymus Florentinus, saw a Bankrupt bound and cast headlong from the Tower into it, and it bore him up all the night. Posidonius observed that bricks in Spain, made of Earth, with which their Silver plate is rubbed, did swim in the waters. Cleon and Goon were two Fountains in Phrygia; either of their waters made men cry. There were two in the fortunate Island; they that tasted of one laughed till they died, the other was the remedy for them. Anauros' of Thessaly and Boristhenes, send out no vapour, nor exhalation: many refer the cause of it to its mixture, others seek it otherwhere. Agricola. l. 2. de effl. ex terr. c. 17. saith, In what part of the Rivers, the Channels in the Fords have no veins and fibres, by that they can breathe forth no exhalations. In the snows of Mount Caucasus, hollow Clods freeze, and contain good water in a membrane: there are Beasts there, that drink this water, which is very good, and runs forth when the membranes are broken. Strab. in Geograph. Nilus makes women so fruitful that they will have 4, and 6, at one venture; Pliny in Histor. There is a Well of water, that makes the inhabitants of the Alps to have swollen throats. Lang. l. 5. Epist. 43. But in field Rupert near to Argentina, there is a water said to be, that makes the drinkers of it troubled with Bronchocele, they seem to be infected with quicksilver: for this is an enemy to the brain and nervs, for it not only sends back phlegm to the glandulous parts of the head and neck, but that which is heaped up in the head, it throws down upon the parts under it, Sebizius de acidul. s. 1. dict. 6. Corol. 1. thes. 12. Diana, a River of Sicily that runs to Camerina, unless a chaste woman draw its water, it will not mingle with Wine; Solinus, C. 10. Styx in Arcadia drank of, kills presently, it penetrates and breaks all; yet it may be contained in the horns of one kind of Ass, Seneca. l. 3. nature, c. 25. Two Rivers runs into Niger, a River in Africa, one is reddish, the other whitish, Barrens. Histor. dec. 1. l. 3. c. 8. If any man drink of both, he will be forced to Vomit both up, but if any man drink but of one, he shall Vomit leisurely, but when they are both run into Niger, and a man drink them mingled, he shall have no desire to Vomit. Narvia is a River of Lithuania; so soon as Serpents taste of the water, they give a hiss, and get away. Cromer. descript. Polon. l. 1. A Fountain of Sardinia, in the Mediterranean, keeps the length and shortness of days, and runs accordingly. In the Island of Ferrum, one of the Canaries, there is no water, the Air is fiery, the ground dry, and man and beast are sad for want of water. But there is a Tree, the kind is unknown, the leaves are long, narrow, and always green. A Cloud always surrounds it, whereby the leaves are so moistened, that most pure liquor runs continually from it, which the inhabitants fetch, setting vessels round the Tree, to take it in. Bertius in descript. Canariar. Sea-waters if they be lukewarm, they portend tempests before two days be over, and violent Winds. Lemnius de occult. l. 2. c. 49. In England, near Newcastle there is a lake called Myrtous, part whereof is frozen in Summer. Thuan. in Histor. But I have done with these. Authors have more, if any man desire it, especially Claudius Vendilinus, whom I name for honour sake, if he seek for the wonders of Nilus. Artic. 7. Of some Floods or Waters; and of the Universal Deluge. THe Floods were signs of God's anger, and so much the more as that was greater, and men's sins more grievous. The greatest was that we call the general Deluge, which began about the end of the year of the World, 1656. All the bars of the Channels were broken, and for 40 days a vast quantity of water was poured down. Also the Fountains of the great Deep were cut asunder; so that the Waters increased continually for 150 days, and passed above the highest Mountains 15 Cubits. At length they abated by degrees; for after 70 days the tops began to appear. The Inhabitants of the New World say, they had it from their Ancestors. Those of Peru say, that all those Lands lay under waters, and that men were drowned, except a few, who got into wooden Vessels like Ships; and having provision sufficient, they continued there, till the waters were gone: Which they knew by their dogs which they sent forth of doors; and when the dogs came in wet, they knew they were put to swim; but when they returned dry, that the waters were gone, August. Carat. But they of Mexico say, that five Suns did then shine, and that the first of them perished in the waters, and men with it, and whatsoever was in the earth. These things they have described in Pictures and Characters from their Ancestors; giving credit to Plato's Flood, which was said to have happened in the Island Atlantis. Lupus Gomara. But Lydiat ascribes the cause of that universal Deluge to a subterraneal fire in a hotter degree, increasing the magnitude by rarefaction, so long as it could not g●t out of its hollow places. Genesis seems to demonstrate it. For the Fountains of the great Deep are said to be broken open; and that a wind was sent forth after 40 days, and the waters were quieted. We must understand a wind from a dry Exhalation, which a subterraneous fire much increased, had most abundantly raised out of the deep of the Sea, which was then thrust forth of them, and did increase the motion of the air that it laid hold of, together with the revolution of the Heavens, and the vehemency of the Firmament. But there were other miraculous Deluges besides this. CHAP. IU. Of the Original of Fountains. Sea by passages under the Earth. The Sea alone is sufficient to supply all Springs; and when we see that it no ways increaseth by the Rivers that run into it, it is apparent that they run to their Fountains by secret channels. But the question is, of the manner how they ascend. Socrates ascribes it to the Tossing of them; Pliny to the wind, l. 21. c. 65. Bodin, l. 2. Theatr. to the weight of the Earth driving forth the water▪ Scaliger, to the Bulk of the Sea; others, to vapours redoubled into themselves. It is a hard matter to define all things, nor is it our purpose. But because Thom: Lydiat, an English Man, hath written most acutely of this Subject, we will set down his opinion here, contracted into a few Propositions: I. The Rolling of the Water is not the cause of its ascending to the superficies of the Earth. For there is no cause for its tossing, and wherefore then should it not at length stand level? II. To be driven with the wind, is not the cause. 1. For it seems not to be raised in the Sea by a fixed Law of Nature, but by way of Tempest. 2. The Channels are winding, and should carry it rather to the sides than to the superficies. 3. If a contrary wind cannot do so much in any water, what then can the wind do here? Also if there were any receptacles for the waters forced upwards, Miners, those that dig in mines, would have found them out, as Vallesius saith. III. The weight of the Earth squeesing out the water is not the Cause. For the Earth doth not lie upon the waters, but contrarily where the Conduits are not full, the lower part is not empty, but the upper part. IU. Nor the Bulk of the Sea. Scaliger thinks that the Waters being pressed in the channels by the Sea lying upon them, do seek to get forth. His Example is of a stone in a vessel. But two things are here assumed. 1. That the gravity is every where, the same as in the weight of a stone. 2. That a great part of the Sea water is out of its place. V. Nor yet vapours redoubled into themselves, and so drawing; nor the spongy Nature of the Earth, nor the veins of the Earth, whereby the moisture of the water may be drawn forth. For 1. attracting forces would be more fit for Champion ground, than for Mountains. 2. If they should attract, it were for that purpose that they might have the fruition of it, but from whence are there such Rivers? 3 The veins of waters are no where found so full, as that reason requireth, whether it be for blood in living creatures, or for squirts. VI The water is raised out of the Caves of the Earth, to the Tops of Mountains, as the Sea is raised above the middle Region of the Ayr. VII. But this Elevation is made by the force of heat resolving the water into vapours. Aristotle himself intimates, that heat is required; but that water may be made of a vapour, there needs no cold, but a more remiss heat. VIII. The heat of the Earth proceeds not from the heat of the Sun, namely of the Earth in its entrails. For first, it can penetrate but two yards deep, and therefore the Troglodytes make their Caves no deeper. 2. In the hottest Summer a wooden post, that is but one or two Inches thick is not penetrated. 3. The entrails of the Earth about 8 or 10 yards deep are found colder in Summer then in Winter. IX. The Antiperistasis of the cold Air in the superficies of the Earth, is nothing to the purpose. 1. It is more weak than the cold of the firm Earth. 2. What ever of the Sun's heat is bred within, passeth out by the pores and vanisheth. 3. It perisheth being besieged by both colds to which it bears no proportion. X. The heat that is in the bowels of the Earth, is from a double cause. For in the parts nearest the superficies it proceeds from the Sun beams, but in the bowels of the Earth from other causes. That passeth out by the pores of the Earth in Summer, being opened by the Sun, and therefore it vanisheth when as being removed from its original it is weaker; but in winter it is bound in by the cold. XI. The heat in the bowels of the Earth, is known by the heat of the Waters; but these are neither hot by the Sun nor from brimstone, or quicklime in the conduits, but only from a subterraneal fire. Not from the Sun. For. 1. That cannot penetrate so far. 2. If it were from thence it would be most in Summer. Not from brimstone or quick lime, for brimstone heats not unless it be actually heated, and quicklime, only then when it is resolved by Water. Also the vast quantity of it would be resolved in a short time, and would make a change in the Channels. But it may be understood some ways, how it may be heated by a subterraneal fire. 1. As it is actual, and so the Channels being solid stone cannot derive it. 2. As it is more remote, but sends forth Vapours by pipes, as in Baths, so also not; for Vapours cannot have so great force as to make it boil. 3. That the Water may run amongst the burning fire, as in bituminous Channels; But here the question may be; why it doth not cast out the Bitumen, as in Samosata a City of Comagenes, Pliny saith, l. 2. c. 104. and 107, that a certain lake cast forth flaming mud, and fire came out at the Waters of Scantium. 4. The fourth way is the truth. Art doth some ways imitate Nature, but in Stills the water by the force of heat, is resolved into Vapours, and the Vapours fly upwards, to the heads, where they stick, and being removed from the violent heat, they return to Water again, so also in the bowels of the Earth. XII. But Fountains that boil, seem not to be of those Waters that run, but that stand still: Namely Wells that have formerly been opened by the quake of the Earth, which it is no wonder that they are joined to the Sea. In a small Island against the River Timevu●▪ Pliny l. 2. c. 103. writes that there is a hot spring, that ebbs and flows with the Sea. In the Gades it is contrary, Pliny, l. 2. c. ●2. But if any of these hot springs do run●, we must observe of them, that their Channels are so situated, that when the Sea flows, it comes unto them, or if it were come into them before, it poureth forth the more. And so the heat of the fire will be either proportionable, and the exhalation greater, or not, and so less. XIII, But what Agricola writes of bituminous Waters, and that yield a smell, must be ascribed to their nearness, but it vanisheth at a farther distance. The same is observed in artificial distilled waters, that in time the burntness of them will vanish away. XIV. But because this fire by the shaking of the Earth can do much in the superficies, it can then do more in the place it is. It can therefore stop up old Channels, open new ones, in divers caves of the Earth, without sending forth of the matter combustible, or propagation of fire, or conflict of Vapours, it can raise new fires; from whence new Rivers may be produced, yet sometimes also it useeth to be extinguished, or sunk so deep, that it cannot send its force to the superficies. This is the opinion of Lydiat, which we have set down more amply; that being better known, it might be more exactly weighed. CHAP. V. Of hot Baths. THe heat of hot Baths is diversely spoken of by Authors. Aristotle thought it proceeded from Thunder, which is false, for the force of Thunder is pestilential, any man may know it, that beholds Wine corrupt by Thunder. It makes men mad or dead, but these are healthful, as experience daily shows. Also there are many places that were never touched with Thunder, for that never descends above five foot. Sennert. Scient. natural. l. 4. c. 10. thinks it comes from two waters that are cold to be felt, but grow hot in their meeting, from repugnancy of the Spirits, as we see in oil of Tartar, and Spirit of Vitrial, and in Aquafortis and Tartar, and of the butter of Antimony and Spirit of Nitre, all which, though they are cold to the touch, yet if you mingle them, they grow hot, and so that if you suddenly pour oil of Tartar into Aquafortis, wherein Iron is dissolved, it will not only boil, but the mixture will flame, which also happeneth if you pour fast the spirit of Nitre into the butter of Antimony. Some impute it to the native heat of the earth, or to a certain hot spirit; so that these natural spirits of exhalations heating not violently but naturally, in some places the secret channels of the Earth grow hot: that this heat is communicated to the Walls of those concavities, by reason whereof a sufficient and continual heat may be communicated to the Baths, even as in an Oven heated, when all the flame is gone, the bread is sufficiently baked, Horstius de nature. Thermar: Others ascribe it to subterraneal fire; but whether it be so, may be known by what proceeded, Bartholin: de aquis. Farther it may be showed by an Example: Mingle salt-water with Clay, make of this clay or mud a ball, and hollow it within, then stop the orifice with the clay, and put in a narrow pipe into it, and put this ball to the fire; the pipe being from the fire, when the ball waxeth hot, out of the ball by the pipe hot water will run, Sennert. l. 4. scient. natural. c. 10. Baths have a taste by the mixture of Earth's▪ and so have things in the Earth. Hypocrates l. de nature. human. saith, That there is in the Earth, sweet, sour, and bitter; and in the bowels of it there are divers faculties, and many humours, l. 4. de Morbis. Every thing draws its nourishment from the Earth in which it is. Hence in jonia and Peloponnesus, though the heat of the Sun be very sufficient, yet Silphium grows not, though it be sowed, namely, for want of such a humour as might nourish it. Yet there are in that earth juices, not only for the vaporous, but also for the moist and solid substance. Juices condensed are dissolved by waters, the moist are mingled, Earth's are dissolved, and scrape of metals are found. The goodness of them differs sometimes; because those that in Summer are bewrayed with the Sun's heat, and attenuated, are the best: In Autumn they are less beat upon by its beams, because he is nearer to them: so in the spring. For the Earth is opened, the waters are purified, the healthful light of the Sun approaches: but in the Winter they are worst: for they are heavier, thicker, and more defiled with earthly exhalations. That they suffer changes, we may learn by divers examples. Fallop. de Therm. c. 11. Savanarola saith, That the Bath waters in the Country of Pisa cause great diseases in those that drink them, and the Inhabitants are warned of it. For in March, April, and May, when they see the waters look yellow, and to be troubled, they foresee they are dangerous. Alcardus of Veroneus, a Physician, who writ of the Cal●erian Baths, saith, That the water of Apponus is sometimes deadly, by the example of one Galeatius a Noble man, who with his Son in Law drank of it, and died. The sharp waters of Alsatia are sometimes so sharp, that they cause the dysentery; and sometimes they are feeble, and are deprived of their wont vigour, Sebizius de acidulis, diss. 50. s. 1. The causes are divers; amongst the ordinary, a rainy, cloudy, dark, Southern constitution of the Air, too violent flowing of the Sea, inundations, Earthquakes. It is wonderful that is written concerning some hot Baths in Germany, that they grew dry when there was a tax set upon them, Camerar. horis subcis. cent. 2. c. 69. Something like this, fell out in shellfish at the Sluice; for when a kind of tribute was laid upon the collecting of them, they were no more found there; they returned, when the Tax was taken off, Jacob Mayer. in Annal. Flandriae. CHAP. VI Of the Sea. Artic. 1. 〈…〉 Artic. 2. 〈…〉 and Hercules Pillars, about Spain and France, in his days. But the North Sea for the greatest part was passed over by the happy success of the famous Augustus. We find in Velleius, that Germany was surrounded by sailing so far as the Promontory of the Cimbri, and from thence the vast Ocean was discovered; or known by relation as far as Scythia, and the parts that were frozen, by the command of Tiberius. The same Pliny tells us, that Alexander the Great extended his Victories over the greatest part of the East and Southern Seas, unto the Arabian shores; whereby afterwards when C. Caesar the Son of Augustus managed the business, the ensigns of ships were known to belong to the Spaniards that had suffered shipwreck there. But when Carthage flourished, 〈…〉 from the Gades to the furthermost parts of Arabia, and 〈…〉 writing that Voyage, and Hamilco at the same time was sent to discover the outward parts of Europe. Moreover, Cornelius Nepos is the Author of it, in Pliny, that one Eudoxus in his time, when he fled from Lathyrus King of Egypt, came from the Arabian Coasts as far as Gades; and Caelius Antipater long before him affirms the same, that he saw him, who sailed out of Spain into Aethiopia 〈…〉 Merchandise. The same Author writes, that the King of Sweden gave freely to Quint. Metellus Celer, Pro Consul of France, those Indians▪ who sailed out of India for Traffic, and were by Tempests carried into Germany. That Voyage hath been attempted of late, but with extreme danger of life, men being hindered continually by Ice, and extreme darkness. If these things be so, then was all our World sailed about. It is further questioned whether there be any passage, through the North Sea, to the Kingdom of Sina, and to the Moluccos. Jovius reports that he heard it of Demetrius Moschus, that Duidna with many Rivers entering into it, ran into the North a wonderful way; and that the Sea was there open, so that steering the course toward the right hand shore, (unless the land be betwixt) mwn might sail to Cathay. Those of Cathay belong to the furthest parts of the East, and the parallel of Thracia, and are known to the Portingalls in India, when they, to buy spices, sailed to the Golden Chersonesus, through the Countries of Sina and Molucco, and brought with them garments of Sabell skins. Petru● Bertius, a man that deserved well for his learning, but ill for divinity, reports, in descrip. no●▪ Zembliae, that he saw a Table described 〈…〉 the Russes▪ wherein the shores of the Russes, Samogetans, and Ting●●eri, with the North Sea, ne'er unto them, and some Islands were ●●●ely set forth. In that the Duina River was farthest West▪ but others Rivers followed towards the East, and in the first place, Peisa, Petcho●a, Obi●, Jeneseia, and Peisida. Therefore the passage must be open from the River Obii, to Peisida. The Histories of ●●e Russes reports, that when the Moscovites and the Tingesis were curious to search out Countries farther toward the East, they sent out discoveries over Land, who passed beyond the River Obii and Jeneseia so far as Peisida ou● foot▪ and there they fell amongst people, that in their habit, manners, and speech were far different from them. There they heard the found of Bells from the East, the noise of Men, the neighing of Hortes; they saw say is four square, such as the Indians use. They saw a place, in April and May, abounding with all sorts of flowers▪ The Duke of Moscovia heard of this afterwards, and trial was made, but the Duke died in the interim, and this noble design was hindered. It is supposed that those places are ne'er the Indies, and therefore if the River Peisida can be overpassed, the passage to Cathay and Sinae, were not difficult. Artic. 3. Of the depth, freezing, and ●olo●ys of the Sea. COncerning the depth of the Sea, there are many opinions▪ Burgensis saith, it is deeper than the Earth 〈…〉 Plin. l. ●. c. 22. and Solinus; c. 54, that in many 〈…〉 no borrow can be found. But there speak of a certain Sea in the 〈…〉, and they speak according to their days, when navigation was 〈…〉 known. Priscianus, reports that Julius Caesar, found by his Searchers 15 furlongs; others, give 30. But the English, portugals, 〈…〉 who now a days use most Navigation▪ reckon 2▪ Italian miles and a time. Olaus Magnus, (l. 2. Histor. septent. c. 10.) we●●es that at the sho●es of Norway, it is so deep, they not open can 〈…〉, but that is by reason of the hollow shores, and full of cracks every where. And though there be such a wonderful force of waters in the Sea, yet certain it is that it is sometimes frozen. Strabo. l. c. Geograph, writes that in the mouth of Maeotis, so great Ice was seen, that in the place that King Mithridates General overcame the Enemy in the Ice, the same he passed over with his Fleet. When 〈…〉 four, the Sea of Pontus was so frozen for a 100 ●●les▪ that it 〈…〉 hard as a stone, and was above 30 Cubi●s 〈…〉; Vintent. l. 〈…〉 But Olaus, l. 11. c. 25, saith that in the North Sea, they 〈…〉 and draw along their Engines for Warts, and ●aires 〈…〉 kept. The condition of the Ice there, is very strange. Being carried on the shore it presently thaws, no man furthering it, Ziglerus, l. ●. 8. In Islandra, if it be kept, it vanisheth▪ and he affirms that some will turn to a stone. The Sea hath many colours: Andrea● Causalius saith, that near the Inhabitants of the East-Indies there is a milk 〈…〉 that is seen for 300 miles. Martyr also attests the same in his Sum●l●●. That which washes the Island Cabaque, is sometimes green, and sometimes of the year, red; for the Shellfish every where pour much blood▪ Petrus Hispan. The red Sea, though it be so called, because it is rinctured with red waters, yet it is not of that nature 〈…〉 for; but the water is tainted by the shores that are near▪ and all the land about it is red, and next to the colour of blood: 〈…〉. l. 13. c. 1●. The Sea useth frequently to change its colour▪ Aul●●ell, noct. At●●l. 2. c. 30▪ gives the cause; It is, faith he, observed by the best Philosophers, that when the South wind blows, the Sea is bluish, and ●●eyish, but when the North blows, it is blacker and darker, etc. When the Do● days are, it is troublesome. Men ascribe that to the Sun, that pierceth the inward parts of the Sea with its beams, and stirs the grosse● parts, but consumes them not. But this is strange that is said, that the Sea Parium in the New Word, is so entangled with so many green herbs, that Men cannot fall in it; the long branches of herbs, like n●ts hindering them. That Sea is so like a Meadow, that as the Waves turn, all the herbs turn with it also; that the storms are less from the Waves, than from the grass. This endangers Seamen, and first Columbus, Ovetan. l. 2. c. 2. For the Ships are held by the bend of little branches, that they cannot turn. It is deep enough for Galleys to row in, but the herbs rise from the bottom, and grow together on the top, and are 15 hand-breadth higher sometimes. Pliny, l. 13. c. 25. reports that in the red Sea, Woods flourish▪ chiefly ●he Laurel, and the Olive, bearing Olives, and if it rain, Mushrom●● which, when the Sun shines, are converted into a Pumex-stone. The sprouts themselves, are 3, cubits great, and are stored with abundance of dog fish, that it is scarce safe to look out of the Ship, and they will set upon the very oars oft times. The Soldiers of Alexander that sailed from India, reported that the boughs of Trees in the Sea were green, but taken out of the Sea, were presently changed by the Sun into dry salt. Also Pol●bius reports, that in the Sea of portingal, Oaks grow, that the Thynni fishes feeding on their Acorns grow fat. Athenaeus, l. 7. Artic. 4. Of the Saltness of the Sea. THe Works of God are wonderful in Nature, but two are most wonderful, the saltness of the Sea, and its flowing and ebbing. It is said, that there is an Island in the Southern Ocean, that is water●d by a sweet Sea; which also Diodorus Siculus seems to testify and assert, concerning the Scythian Sea, Pliny l. 6. c. 17. But that is ascribed to the great running of Rivers into it; and how small is this in respect of the other Sea? Yet Philosophers argue concerning the saltness of the Sea. Aristotle l. 2. Meteor. c. 1. calls for the nature of the Sea, and efficacy of the Sun, to assist him. For the Sea-waters by the mixture of the ground and the shores is thicker, and the Sun by its heat calls forth thinner parts, and resolves them into vapours; which being burnt with heat, and mingled with the water, cause its saltness. Man's body will help us in this, wherein the native heat dissolves the sweetest meats into the saltest humours; which being collected in the Reins; is cast forth by urine. Experience confirms it; that shows us that the Sea is more salt in Summer than in Winter, and more toward the East and South than elsewhere. Lydiat likes not this opinion, but brings another; That Youth may more exactly comprehend the sense of this brave man; We will set it down here in a few Propositions. I. The vehement heat of the Sun doth not boil the Sea to be salt. For, 1. Why is not the same done in a little water in a basin? 2. The same cause of saltness should work upon the subject▪ with less resistance. II. A hot dry, earthly exhalation carried by rain into the Sea, i● not the cause of its saltness. For, 1. Why is not the same done in Fountains● 2. It is too little. 3. Why is it not only salt in the superficies, but in the deep. For though Scaliger, Exercit. 51. denies that▪ saying, that the ●●●nators have proved it to be sweet, yet Patricius saith it was found otherwise in the 〈…〉 between Crete and Egypt, when it was very calm; Philip 〈…〉 witnesseth the same. III. The Sea is salt by the mixture of something with it. That is clear● because all tasting is o● mixed bodies. IV. That which is mingled with the Sea, hath the nature of a hot and dry exhalation▪ That is apparent▪ 1. Because the Sea is such▪ 〈…〉 will hardly extinguish flames, and it is easily 〈…〉 that are washed in it are quickly dried. 3. 〈…〉 as Britanny and France hotter. V. The Sea is not only salt, but bitter: therefore it is 〈…〉 called Mare, than S●●um. VI The salt and bitterness of the Sea i● from a subterraneal 〈…〉 fire. 1. Bitumen is perceived so bitter in taste, that it may be known to be the first subject of it. 2. Bitumen hath great force to cause i● salt and bitter taste. The bituminous Lake of Palestina is so salt and bitter, that no Fish is bred in it; it scours clothes if one wet them▪ and shake it well out. 3. Pliny reports, that a bituminous water tha● is also salt at Babylon, is cast out of their Wells into salt Pi●●, and is thickened partly into Bitumen, partly into Salt. VII. A salt Exhalation proceeding fro●●hose De●p● i● easily divided by the body of the Sea. For as fine flower or 〈…〉 thing else cas● into 〈…〉 boiling liquor, is cast from the place that boils unto other parts 〈…〉 on one side to the other, if in the middle to the circumference▪ 〈…〉 bituminous Exhalation from thence where it boileth most, and the Sea is most hot, is cast and dispelled into the whole body of it▪ So 〈…〉. Artic. 5. Of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea. ANother great miracle of Nature is the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea, When the Philosopher sought for the cause of it, h● grew desperate. Possidonius in Strabo l. 3. Geograph. makes 3. Circuits of the Sea's motion. The diurnal, monthly, and yearly. The first is, when the Moon is risen above the Horizon but one sign of the Zodiac▪ or is gone down under the Horizon, than the Sea swells until the Moon comes to the midst of the Heaven, 〈…〉 it above or beneath the Earth. When it declines from thence▪ the Sea begins to retire until the Moon is but one sign distant from the East or West, and then it stops. Pliny assents thus far to him, that the flowing of the Sea begins about two equinoctial hours after the rising or setting of the Moon, and ends just so long before its setting or rising. He determines the other to be monthly, in the conjunction, when he saith, That the greatest and quickest returnings of the Sea do happen about the new▪ and full Moon; the mean, about the Quarters of the Moon. And Mariners approve this, when they call it the Living Sea, by reason of the great ebbings and flow, in the new and full Moons; but the dead Sea in the half Moons, because of the lesser and slower motions of it▪ Possidonius adds more▪ That one S●leucus observed a Sea, that was derived from the red Sea▪ and was different from it, that kept the monthly course of returning, namely according to the Lunar month, which men call periodical. For he had observed in the Moon being in the Equinoctial signs, that the Tides were equal, but in the solstices they were unequal both for quantity and swiftness, and the same inequality held in the rest, so far as any of them happened ●ear to the foresaid places. Lastly, Possidonius saith▪ That he learned the yearly motions from the Mariners of Gades. For they say, that about the summer Solstice, the ebbing and flowing of the Sea increaseth much▪ and that he conjectured the same did diminish as far as the Equinoctial; and again to increase until Winter● from 〈…〉 to decrease until the spring Equinox ● and so increase again until the Summer solstice. Pliny determines the contra●● 〈…〉 reason of the Equinox. But Patricius witnesseth, That i● Lib●●●ia in January great part of the strand● are naked, and continue dry for some days. The same Pliny l. ●. c. 97. observes▪ That in every eight years, in the Moons 100 circumvolution, the Tides are called back to their first motions, and like increasings; that is to say, the Sun and Moon then returning to a conjunction in the same sign and degree, wherein they were in conjunction eight years before. But for the daily Tides there is a difference amongst Writers. In the Sicilian Sea 〈…〉 and flow are twice a day, and twice in the night. 〈…〉 in the Sin●s of Aegeum repeats its motion 7. times a day, and sometimes is seen thrown down from the highest Mountains, and so steep down, that no ships can be safe there, Basil i● Hexaemex. In England at Bristol the Ebb is daily twice, and so great, that the ships that were in the Sea, stand dry, and are twice on dry Land, twice in the Sea. Pitheas' Massiliensis, as Pliny testifies, l. 2. c. 67. writes, that it sw●lls fourscore cubits higher than Britanny. In the Southern part of the New World, the Sea rising, flows two Leagues, Ovetan sum. c. 9 But in a certain Northern Sea there i● no flowing or ebbing observed by the waves of it, Petrus Hispan. p. 5. c. 1. Not far from Cuba Promontory, and by the shores of Margaret Island, and Paria, the Sea flows naturally▪ nor can ships by any means, though they have a prosperous gale, sail against the floods, nor make a mile in a whole day, Petrus Marty●●●n sum. Indiae. In the Adriatic Sea formerly there was wont to be a very great flowing forth, early in the morning, the Sea being so advanced into the Continent, that it went as far up as a strong man could run in a day, Procop. l. 1. Belli Gothici, ●ut singular was that Tide, and a wonder of the World, which in particular, which proceed from whirlepools, by which the waters are sucked up and spewed out again by turns. It is very probable this happens in Charybdis, the Syrteses, and Chalcydis about Eubaea. This represents a true flowing, and comes from winds breaking forth of the Caves of the Earth, and forcing forward the waters, or to the Waves running back again and sinking down. But the fourth is 〈…〉 true ebbing and flowing, which runs neither Eastward nor Westward, but begins from the Navel of the Sea, and that boils up, and as the waters rise thus, they are poured forth toward the Banks, more or less, as the cause is more or less violent; unless something hinder, the cause whereof we shall seek last of all. And true it is that Mariners in the straits of Magellan, where the South Sea is separated from the North by a notable difference, marking diligently the Tides of both Seas, have observed what they could not do in the vast Ocean, namely that both Seas do not begin to flow at the same time. And that it is not moved by any outward cause, not from the Heavens, nor is it brought in from the East or West, but comes from the bottom of it, and boyles out from thence; the superfluity running toward the Land variously, as the swelling is great or small, the shores high or low, and the cause that moves it from the bottom upwards, weaker or stronger. This is confirmed by the nature of the water, which casts up from the bottom whatsoever it sucks in, if it be not too heavy. Hence it comes to pass that all Seas purge themselves in the full of the Moon. Not that the attraction of the Moon is the cause of it, but because the wind that was in the interim collected in the hollow places under ground, strives to fly upwards, or being heaped up about the putrefactions of the Sea, breaks forth. Lydia●, de orig▪ s●ntium, attributes it to subterraneal fire; That you may know the grounds of his opinion, I will set it down in a few Propositions. I. The flowing of the Sea is not because of the Moon, by the nearness of her light, and of that especially which she borrows, which breeds exhalations, whereby the waters swell and run over. For in the full Moon her light is thwart the earth, and yet there is a tide great enough. II. The Sun and Moon do not by their beams cause the flowing of the Sea. 1. When it flows in one hemisphere, and both the Luminaries are in the other, what is the cause of that? For it hath not equal forces in both. 2. If Sun and Moon cause the flowing of the Sea, wherefore elsewhere in the very Ocean, and that between the torrid Zone, where their power is extreme, are there no Tides at all, or very small ones? III. When we inquire concerning the flowing of the Sea, we must suppose: 1. That there is a wonderful plenty of water in the bosom of the Earth. 2. That water which is in the bosom of the Earth is not only continued to itself, but to this we see, in the Sea, and is joined with it by the channels or open chaps of the Earth. First, it is probable from hence, that it is a part of the same body. Then, the deeps of the Sea, that were never yet certainly known, are a token of it. 3. When two most vast Continents, on this side Asia Africa Europe; on that America, divide CHAP. VII. Artic. 1. Of the New World. and Asia, by which the passage was open to other neighbouring Islands, and from the Island to all the continent, which was in sight, and near to the Ocean; but in the mouth of it there was said to be a Haven with a narrow entrance, &c: After this, by a wonderful Earthquake▪ and a continual inundation for a day and a night, it came to pass that the Earth clavae asunder, and swallowed all those warlike people, and the Island of Atlantis was drowned in the deep. But Aristotle, lib. de admirand. c. 8. relates, that in the Sea beyond Hercul●s Pillars, an Island was found out by the Carthagenians, which had Woods and Rivers fit for shipping, but it was distant many days Voyage. But when more Carthagenians, alured by the happiness of the place, came and dwelled amongst the Inhabitants, they were condemned to death, by the Commanders; he adds, by those that sailed thither. Let us also hear Seneca, lib. 7. quaest. c. 31. The people that shall come after us, shall know many things we know not; many things are reserved for after ages, when we are dead and forgotten. The World is but a very small matter, unless every age may have something to search for. And again, quaest. 5. c. ult: Whence do I know, whether there may not be some Commander of a great Nation, now not known, that may swell with fortune's favours, and not contain his forces within his own bounds? Whether he may not provide ships to attempt places unknown? How do I know whether this or that wind may bring War? Some suppose Augustus extended his Empire so far. Marianus Siculus is the Author, that there was found in the new World, old Golden Money with the Image of Augustus; and that it was sent to Rome to the Pope in token of fidelity, by Johannes Ruffus, Bishop of Consentia. That is more wonderful, that the Spaniards write; that there is a Town in the Province of Chili, in the Valley called Cauten, which they name Imperiola, for this cause, because in many Houses, and Gates, they found the Spread-Eagle, as we see now a days in the Arms of the Roman Empire. Animlanus, l. 17. observes something not unlike it, that in the obeliscks of the Egyptians there were engraven many Pictures of Birds and Beasts, also of the other World. What shall we say to these things? We say they knew them, but scarce ever traveled thither. But if those relations are true that Plato reports, of which Tertullian also speaks, Apolg. c. 39 and Marcellinus, l. 17. we add farther▪ That the predication of Seneca sounds rather of the British Islands in favour of Claudius. That is false which is said of Augustus, We have all the Acts of this Noble Prince; if there be any thing buried in silence, it is some mean matter; But Novelty easily gains the name of Antiquity, if there be fraud in him that forgeth it. Artic. 2. Of the miracles of some Countries. PLiny relates, and we out of him. There is a famous Temple at Paphos dedicated to Venus, into a Court whereof it never reins, Pliny, l. 2. c. 96. By Harpasa a Town of Asia, there stands a hard Rock, which you may move with one finger, but thrust it with your whole body, and you cannot stir it. There is Earth in the City Parasinum, within the Peninsula of Tauri, that cures all wounds. In the Country Ardanum, Corn that is sowed will never grow. At the Altars of Martia in Veii, and at Tusculanum, and in the Wood Ciminia there are places, where things fastened into the Earth cannot be drawn forth. Pliny, l. 2. c. 94. In Crustuminum, Hay that grows there is hurtful, but out of that place it becomes good. Some Earth's tremble at the entrance, as in the Country of the Gabii not far from Rome, about a 100 Acres, when men ride upon it; and likewise at Reate. In the Hills of Puteoli the dust is opposed against the Sea Waves, and being once sunk, it becomes one stone that the waters cannot stir, and daily grows stronger; also, if it be mingled with the Cement of Cumae. Plin. l. 35. c. 13. Such is the nature of that Earth, that cut it of what bigness you please, and sink it into the Sea, it is drawn forth a stone. In a Fountain of Gnidium that is sweet; in eight months' time the Earth turns to a stone. From Oropus, as far as Aulis, whatsoever earth is dipped in the Sea, it becomes a stone. Tilling of the ground was of old, of great esteem amongst the Romans, they found one sowing, and gave him honours, whence is the surname Serranus. As Cincinnatus was ploughing his four Acres in the Vatican, which are called Quintus his Meadows, Viator offered him the Dictator ship, and, as it is reported, that he was naked, and his whole body full of dust; To whom Viator said. Put on thy clothes, that I may deliver to thee, the commands of the Senate and people of Rome: Whence, Pliny, l. 18. c. 3. answers to this question, Whence was it then they had so great plenty? The Rulers at that time tilled their grounds ●ith their own hands (as it is fit to believe). The Earth enjoying a plough Crowned with Laurel, and a Victorious ploughman: whether it were that they managed their Corn with the same care they did their wars; and disposed of their fields with the same diligence they did their Camps; or because by honest labour, all things prosper better, because they are done more carefully. CHAP. VIII. Of the Islands. Artic. 1. Of the Original and destruction of Islands. ISlands are parts of the Earth, compassed about with the Sea. They have many causes of their beginnings. Some came forth of the Sea; some were broke off from the continent; some were made by matters heaped together. One was made in the Aegaean Sea, whilst Seneca beheld it: Seneca, quaest. l. 6. c. 21. He adds that another came forth of the Sea in his Forefathers days; The Sea (saith he) fo●●ed continually, and a smoke ascended from the deep▪ for at last it did disclose a fire not continual, but shining by times as lightning's do; as oft as the heat of that was under, had vanquished the weight that lay a top: At length stones were rolled together▪ and Rocks partly untouched, which the vapour had driven forth, before they were transformed, and partly corroded, and turned to be as light as a pumex-stone, last of all appeared the top of a burnt Mountain, etc. Strabo l. 6.1. Geograph. writes, that between Thera and Therasia▪ flames first broke forth of the Sea for four days together, as if the Sea burned, then by little and little came forth an Island that was twelve furlongs wide, and it was all made of fire-stones. Atalanta, a City of Locris that was fast and contiguous to it, was out off by a sudden violence of the Sea, and was made an Island by itself. O●osius, l. 2. c. 18▪ ●nder Leo the Emperor, an old Historian▪ (Evagriu● l. 2. c. 14▪) hath said, that at Constantinople, and Bythinia, there was such abundance of Rain, that in the Lake Beana, which is not far from Nicomedia, by the frequent filthy matter cast into it▪ Islands were made, thus bega● the Island Tyberina. For Lucretia being violated, by Tar●uin▪ when Brutus had given counsel to plunder the King's goods, and to cast them into Tiber, an Island was made. So Livy, l. 2. Histor●●▪ By 〈…〉 some standing Corn was then of Wheat or Barley, that was read● for the harvest, which fruit of the field, because it was unlawful to destroy, they cut the Corn down with the straw by the help of many men coming together▪ and poured i● out of baskets into Tybur, when it ra● but slowly, as it is 〈…〉 to do in the hot weather, and so the heaps of Corn remained in the foards, wrap● over with mud, whence by degrees, and by other things cast in by accident, an Island was made. Also some Islands have ceased to be, as Pliny saith, lib. 2. c. 89. Antissa first an Island was joined to Lesbos, Zephyr●● to Halicarnassus, Aethusa to Myndus, Narthecusa to Parthenius Promontory. Hybanda was once an Island of jonia, now it is 200 furlongs from the Sea. Ephesus hath Syrien in the Mediterranean. Artic. 2. Of the Miracles of some Islands. AS Nature hath given Islands, so she hath bestowed on some, singular prerogatives. There is an Island in a certain Lake, about the entering of Nilus, that hath Groves, Woods, and great buildings upon it, yet they float, and it is driven every way with the wind, Mela, l. 1. c. 5. In the Lake Vadimonis, and Cutilia, there is a dark Wood, that is never seen a night and a day in the same place, Plin. l. 2. c. 95. Of the latter Macrobius speaks; l. 1. Satur. c. 7. The Pelagi found an Island in the Lake Curilia, for there are large fields for grass, whether it were a continent, or the mud of the Lake, it is handsomely trimmed up, and fitly joined with twigs and Trees like a vast Wood, and floats every way with the Sea floods, that from hence we may credit the relation of Delos, which hath high Mountains and large Champion ground, yet floats on the Sea. The Calaminae so called, in Lydia, are not only driven by the winds, but by long poles, whither one please, and many Citizens escaped by that means in Mithridates' War, Plin: l. 2. c. 95. In the great Lake Tarquiniense in Italy, there are two that carry woods, sometimes they are of a three square figure, sometimes round in compass, when the winds drive them, but they are never four square. In Garumna a River in Spain, the Island A●ros is pendulous, and lifted up with the waters increasing, Mela l. 3. c. 1. Also in Nymphaeum there are small ones called Saltuares, because in singing of a consort they move at the strokes of the musical paces: Besides these, in the Fortunatae, Fennel gigant grows as big as a Tree, Solin. c. 58. In Madera, grapes hang down upon four branches, the skins filled with juice, want a kernel, they are ready to gather in March. Cadamust●s, when Columbus found out the Island Hispaniola, he mowed Wheat on the 30 of March, that was sown in the beginning of February; In this short time the ears grew so great, that they were as long and a big as a man's Arm: Each of them contained 2000 grains, Peter Martyr in Sum. Indiae. There are fresh Melons every quarter of the year, Ovetan. Sum. c. 81. Historiar. l. 11. c. 1. so great, that one man can hardly carry one upon his shoulders. Grass mowed will in five days grow a cubit high again. Tiles, two Islands in the Persian Gulf, the Land of them exceeds all other places for this rarity, that no Tree that grows there ever wants leaves, Solin. c. 53. In the Island Ormutium no living creature is found, nor any Fountain-water; Manna falls down with the night dew, Polus l. 3. c. 4. Dog's will not come into Sigaron an Island of Arabia Foelix; put them there, and they die running mad, Plin. l. 6. c. 28. In Ithaca, Hares brought thither from other places cannot live, Aristot. histor. Animal. l. 8. c. 28. Ebusus, one of the Baleares, hath no Serpents at all, Plin. l. 10. c. 29. In Creta there lives no Owl; bring one thither, it will die: and in the same Island there is no mischievous living Creature besides the Spider Philangium. Cyprus in former times was so impatient of graves, that it would cast forth the next night, bodies buried in the day. Ericus the first Danish King was brought dead to Jerusalem by the winds, who was intended for the same place, Saxo Gram. l. 12. In the Island Cephalonia there is a River that hath on one side an infinite multitude of Grasshoppers, but none on the other side, Aristot. histor. Animal. l. 8. c. 28. In Cumana an Island of the New World, the Cobwebs of Spiders are knit so fast, that they cannot be broken, Hispan. p. 5. c. 15. Iron that is dug up in Ilva, cannot be melted there, Bertius in descript. Ilvae. To conclude this, in the Arm of the Sea, by Fortha, there is the Island Magotia; In this Birds build, like Wild-Geese, in such great multitudes, that the 100 Garrison Soldiers that defend the Fort Bassus, feed on no other meat than fresh fish, brought in hourly by these birds; nor do they use any other wood but the sticks to make fires, which the birds bring to build their Nests. Bellovadius; and from him, Thuan. in histor. CHAP. IX. Of Mountains. Artic. 1. Of the Qualities and Quantities of Mountains. We must suppose the Mountains to have been created at the beginning in part, and part of them have been made since: Only one Modern Author in Italy may confirm this. There are many in the World of wonderful height, and admirable qualities. Olympus and Athos are so high; that Ashes left on the top of them a whole year, are neither blown away with winds, nor washed off with rain: And such as stand on the Top of Vesavius, have observed the Clouds that are near to be of equal height with the Mountain, and some Clouds to appear under them, Kepler, l. 1. Astrom. p. 3. What Zabarel writes of the Region of the Air, c. 8. doth make this good, I went (saith he) up to the top of Venus' hill in Paravium, and there for the whole day I had a most clear Air; but about the middle of the Mountain I saw Clouds, which were between my sight and the Valleys, that I could not see them; but in the Evening when I was come down from that Mountain, I found that it had reigned a great shower that day at the lower par● of that Mountain, yet it reigned not at all on the top of it. Piccolomin. de Meteor. c. 11. saith, the same thing happened to him travelling over the Alps, and Apenninus. In Seleucia there is a Mountain next to Antioch, from whose top at the fourth Watch of the night the Sun's body might be seen; and but turning the body about, the beams dissipating darkness, there was day, here night to be seen, Solin. c. 37. The Walk about to the top is 19 miles, and 4. miles upright. In the Country of the New World, some Mountains are above 50 miles high; some are so high, that you cannot see the valleys in three days coming down, Martyr in Sum. and Polus l. 2. c. 43. In Tenerif, which is like a Pyramid, it is 60 Italian miles high, Cadamustus. If you regard the qualities, some abound with great Lakes, some vomit out fire; others have other rarities worthy admiration. In Mount Noha of Arabia Felix, there is a wonderful Cistern seen for collecting of rain waters, which will serve for 100000 men. At Dossrinium in Sweden they are covered with such a mass of Snow, even in Summer also, that the balls falling from tops of houses, grow so much in the foot of them, that they overthrew the Towns, Olaus l. 3. c. 23. In new Spain, there is a smoke that always riseth out of the top of a certain Mountain, and keeps round like a Globe; as it ascends no winds disperse it, and it moves as swift as an arrow, Cortes. relat. 2. In Helvetia near to Lucerna there is a Mountain, and in that is Pilat's Lake; if you cast a stone into it, you raise tempests, and Pilate is seen there every year, if you will believe it, in the Habit of a Judge, Joachimus Vadianus in Mela. In the Alps of Spain there are Mountains of Salt only: Cato Major saith, the more you take from them, so much more will grow to them, Gellius l. 2. c. 22. In the Province of Cyrene, there is a Rock and Fountain of the Suns; when you touch it with a man's hand, a Fountain riseth, and it riseth as fiercely as the Sea in its fury, Mela l. 1. c. 4. Lastly, there are two Mountains about the River Indus, the nature of the one is to hold all Iron, the other to refuse it▪ therefore if there be nails in your shoes, the one Rock holds your feet immovable; the other drives them off, Pliny l. 2. c. 96. Artic. 2. Of Aetna and Hecla Mountains. AETna is a Mountain in Sicily, hanging over the City Catana, and all the shore there; Pliny, Mela, Ptolomey, Strabo, Solinus mention it. The Inhabitants call it now vulgarly, Monte Gibello. It hath two Caves, whereof the one is narrow and strait like a pit putting out stones every way like two bed sides; the stones are burnt, and of many colours, and a stony plain holds it in a narrow circumference. The other is in circumference 24 furlongs, it goes not to the bottom of the same largeness, but the belly of it is something narrower inwardly, so long, till in the middle of it, it is hollowed with a sit mouth to cast out what the Mountain affords. Smoke comes always forth of those two holes; when the Sky is clear, it is most white, like a cloud; the fires are not seen, unless some burning flame rise up, Bembus in dialogo. Cl●verius, Sicil. Antiq. l. 1. c. 8. found stones cast out from thence 60 miles from it, on both sides of the City Catana, by the way men go from Leontini to Taurominium, but especially to Catana itself, at the foot of the banks by Aetnae, which is the way to Taurominium, where they represent a sad and formidable Spectacle to Travellers, of great and sharp Rocks. That noise hath been sometimes so great, that they could hear it as far as to the Hills Gemelli; the sparks were so great, that they slew burning so far as Catana, and wasted the Town with fire: somewhiles there was such plenty of Ashes driven with the winds, that they filled all places 100 miles; the smoke was so thick, that it so hindered the light, that no man could see in two days. At sundry times the burning of this Mountain hath been after a divers manner. Anno, 1329, on the I●es of July, about Sun set, from the bottom of the Mountain, suddenly a great Mouth; and a little after, two more were opened in the same ground, with that force, that out of four Caves not far asunder one from the other, an infinite quantity of great stones were cast forth at once, and lifted up the low Valleys, and Forests, and Woods, to the height of Mountains; For a mighty River ran out of these four Gulfs, like metals melting in the Furnace, burning not only the Land, it lighted upon, Trees, stones, but also consuming them; the ground itself that men before went upon, was on fire, and was sent and dispersed far and wide as foam of the Sea that beats against Rocks. But after that this Torrent of fire had passed through many passages of the Mountain, it divided itself at last into three Channels, two of them ran Eastward for many days, the third ran toward Catana, which before it entered the borders of it, the vail of St. Agatha ● Sacerdotibus being cast before it, by the walls of the City, did extinguish it; while these things were done in the lower part of the Mountain, the rage was no less on the top of it; whence there rose such a shower of Ashes in the Country of Catana, that Fields and Mountains were hid by it. And the North wind then blowing, plenty of them with a brimstony smell were brought as far as the Island of Malta, which is a 160 miles distant from the Hole. Amongst the greatest Torrents, that is reckoned, which happened a little before our days, (they are the words of Bembus in his dialogue of Aetna) that ran as far as Catana, and wasted great part of the City by fire, and that Haven, of which Virgil writes, And that great Harbour where no wind could blow, Near thundering Aetna lies some thing below. The torrents of Aetna have so filled up the Haven now, that you would say VIRGIL committed an error to speak of a great Harbour where is none to be seen almost. Anno, 1537. on the Calends of May, all Sicily for 12 days together began to thunder, like Canon shot off frequently. The noise was heard not only at Catana and neighbouring places, but at Palermo, Lylibeum, Sacca, Agrigentum, and almost in the whole Island, whereby a little Earthquak arose that shook the houses. When these hideous sounds increased, on the third of the Ides of May, unusual Caves were opened in Aetna, out of which so great a quantity of fiery matter was cast forth, that in four days it went 15, miles, and burnt down all things it met with, and run as far as the Monastery of St. Nicolas, de. Arenis where, (leaving the Monastery untouched) it invaded Nivolasum, and Monpelavium two Towns, and almost destroyed them. The upper hole of the Mountain, shortly after for three days cast out so much black ashes, that as far as Consentia in Calabria, the Towns were filled with ashes, and they were so scattered by the winds upon the Seas, that for 300 miles distant from Sicily, the ships were fouled by the ashes: afterwards Aetna began to roar mightily, and as it did roar the upper top of it was broken off, and swallowed in the Cave. Though the fire of Aetna be so terrible, yet the land there is so fruitful that what Pliny speaks of Campania, l. 3. c. 6. we may say the same of the neighbouring parts, From this border begin the hil●s that bear grapes, the juice whereof is famous in all lands, and the great contest between Bacchus, noble for drunkenness (as the Ancients said) and Ceres. In that woody Country there are spacious places, (saith Fazellus, rer. sic. dec. 1▪ l. 2. c. 4.) that are very fruitful for Corn, and there is so good pasture for Cattle, that unless you let them often blood in their ears, they are in danger by plethory moreover the fluent matter that is cast forth of Aetna by this fire, grows so hard, that for a good depth it changeth the surface of the ground into a stone, and when they would come at the ground they must cut the stones. For the stone being melted in the Holes or Caves, and cast forth, the humour that swims on the top, is black mire running down from the Mountain, and when it grows together, it becomes as hard as a Millstone, holding the same colour, it had when it ran, and ashes are made of the burnt stones, as of burnt Wood, now as Rue is nourished with Wood-ashes, so it is credible that the Vines flourish by the ashes of Aetna. And thus far for Aetna. Hecla is a Mountain in Islandia, not far from the Sea, sometimes it casts forth flame, sometimes fiery water, after that black ashes and Pumex stones in such abundance, that it darkneth the Sun, yet sometimes the Mountain is wonderful quiet, especially when the West wind blows· An. 1553. the 19, of November, about midnight a flame appeared in the Sea by Hecla, that lightened the whole Island. An hour after, the Island shaked, then there followed a terrible noise, that if all the Guns for War were shot off, they were nothing to this terrible noise. Dithnarus Bleskenius writes thus, We had thought the frame of the World would now be dissolved, and that the last day was come (Camer Horar. subcis. cent. 3. c. 17.). It was found afterwards that the Sea was gone back from that place two miles, & it was all left dry. An. 1580, it vomited out fire with such a noise, that for 80 miles' men thought the great Guns were discharged. The common people think the souls of the damned, are there tormented. Georgius Bruno in theatro Mundi. The End of the Second Classis. OF Natural Wonders. The Third Classis. Wherein are the Wonders of the Meteors. WHat then? Is it better think you to perish by discontent of Mind, or by Thunder? Therefore rise stronger against the threaten of Heaven; and when the World is all on fire, think that thou hast nothing to lose in so great a Mass, Seneca, quaest. nature. l. 2. c. 59 CHAP. I. Of Subterraneous Exhalations. Meteor's are made of Exhalations, the Sun and the rest of the Stars draw them forth; and the subterraneal fire is the worker of very many of them. We shall speak nothing of them. These are some hurtful, some safe, as may be proved by many Examples. At the foot of the Mountain Tritulum Halveatum, there are waters you must ascend by 43 degrees; to a place of sweeting, It is in length three miles, the more you are lifted up above them, the hotter you are; the more you descend into them, the cooler. Those draw phlegm from the parts, and cure distillations from the head. There is a hot Bath near the hot waters that run forth of the Lake Agnanum; The ditches are covered with Turfs of grass, and stones being removed, a hot vapour is sent out, that makes them sweat that receive it. Out of Avernus a Lake of Campania, before Agrippa had cut down the Woods that covered it, and laid it open, the Exhalations were so thick that came forth, that the birds were killed that flew over it. At the Lake of Agnanum in Italy, there is a Mountain, in which there is a narrow Cave, it declines moderately downwards, being 8 foot long; if you touch the earth of it with your foot or hand, it feels hotter than the rest, it chokes any living creature that is cast in by the venomous blast, deprives them of sense and motion, though you pull it out presently; but cast the same presently into the next Lake, it is a wonder how it restores their life again, Camer. Cent. 7. Mirab man. 50. In the Island Ebusus, Exhalations do so infect the ground, that if they fall upon places where Serpents are, the pestilent Creatures cannot endure them. In the great places of refreshment at Baianum there is a ditch, the water whereof sends forth such hot vapours, that wax Candles will melt, & be put on● by them; and they are so pernicious, that men fall down dead therewith. In Babylon there is a Cave also, out of which riseth such a pestilent vapour, that it kills all that draw it in. Also Plutonium in a little hill of a Mountainous Country hath so moderate a mouth, that it can receive but one Man, but it is wonderful deep: It is compassed about with square pales, and that so many as would compass in half an Ac●e, which are so full of cloudy thick darkness, that the ground can hardly be seen. The Air hurts not those who come to the outside of the pales, as being clear from that darkness, when the winds blow not; If a living Creature goes in, he dies immediately. Bulls brought in fall down, and are drawn forth dead. Lastly, at Hierapolis in Syria, as Dio in the Life of Trajan writes, there is a den of a filthy and deadly smell; what living creature sucks it in, is destroyed by it; Only Eunuches are free from the venom and hurt of it, Scaliger, Exerc. 277. Sect. 4. CHAP. II. Of Comets. Artic. 1. Of the Nature and Magnitude of Comets. THe original and nature of Comets hath diversely troubled wise then; nor yet was any man found that could decide the question. Some think they are perpetual, and are carried about the Sun, like Venus and Mercury, and oft times they lie hid; some think they are newly created, and are not in sublunary but heavenly places. Democritus thought they were the souls of famous men, who when they had been vigorous many Ages in the earth, make their triumphs when they die. Bodine confesseth his ignorance; yet he to this inclines, and 〈…〉 l●st they become 〈…〉 Stars; The cause. The Ancients say they all vanished, and did not se●. Others said they were of two sorts, false ones in the Air; true ones, who foreshowed things to come from the heavenly place. What ever it be, they are secret things; and because they are in the Heavens, they are so much the harder. That which shined, Anno 1456. possessed more than two signs in the Heavens; that which appeared Anno 1472, for a whole month retrograde from Libra, 〈…〉 through the whole Zodiac in its motion, at first 40 parts, than 120 parts every day, Sennert. l. 4. Epitome. Cap. 2. Anno 1556. There was one so great, that not only the most light and dry vapours, but all Woods and Groves, be they as many as are in the whole Earth, would not serve for to feed it two months that it shined. They are Bodin's words, l. 2. Theatr. Anno 1543, it had a very long tail toward the North, a flame flew from it like a Dragon, it drank up a River, and consumed the fruits of the ground, Sennert. l. c. When Attalus reigned, there was one so great, that it was stretched out exceedingly, and was equal to the milky way in the Heavens, Senec. quaest. natural. l. 7. c. 15. Aristot. 1. Meteorol. c. 7. In the time of Anaxagoras, a huge great one burned 75 days; and so great a Tempest of winds followed, that it broke a stone off as great as a Chariot, and the whirlwind carried it aloft, and threw it into the River Aegaeum in Thracia, Niceph. l. 12. c. Again, in the Reign of Theodosius the elder, an unusual one appeared at midnight, about Lucifer, and a great multitude of Stars were gathered about it, which by their mutual lustre sent out the greater light; this was resolved into one flame, like to a two edged sword: The same day in July the Spaniards report they saw it: that was fatal to them and to their Ships. Cardanus l. 4. de varietat. c. 63. saith, it happened either by reason of the pureness of the Air, or the union of Light, or by reason of the darkness of the day. Artic. 2. Of the Comets signification. MEn say, it is a forerunner of Calamities, if we look upon the Judgement; and it is found so to be. It foreshowed Vespasian's death; Rome's Captivity by Alaricus; the miserable end of Mauritius; the destruction of Mahomet; the destructive diminution of the Emperors of Rome; the end of Charles the Great; the Excursion of the Tartars into Silesia, and the cutting off of Lugs. Records say, that Charles the Great when he saw it, was frighted; and reasoning with Eginhartus, he said it foreshowed the death of a Prince. And when he, lest he should be sad at it, said, Be not afraid at the signs in the Heavens; He replied, We must fear none but him who created us, and the Stars also: but we are bound to praise his Clemency, who will vouchsafe to admonish our sluggishness with such signs, Alsted▪ in Chronol. One was held to be fortunate, which appeared to Augustus, when he prepared Plays for his Genitrix Venus. These are his words, Pliny l. 2. c. 25. The very same days I had my pastimes, a hairy Star appeared for seven days in the Region of Heaven, which is under the North Star. It rose about the 11th hour of the day, and was clear to be seen in all Lands; The people believed that that Star signified, that Caesar 's Soul must be received amongst the immortal Gods, upon which account that Ensign was added to the Image of an head, which presently was consecrated by us in the public Judicature. In the one side of an old Roman penny, Caesar's Image was to be seen, with these Letters, Imp: Caes: Divi, 111. Vir: R.R.C. on the other side the forepart of Venus' Temple with a Star, and Caesar's Statue in his Robes of Inauguration, and the Altar where he was wont to sacrifice, make his Vows and Controversies, by interposing an Oath, and these Letters were added to it, Divo Jul. Delchamp. add. 2. Plin. c. 25. CHAP. III. Of an Ignis Fatuus, Helena, Castor and Pollux. AN Ignis Fatuus useth to be seen about Sepulchers and Gallows, for it riseth from a birdlimy fat Exhalation. It is lighted by an Antiperistasis of the air in the night, and it is carried here and there with the Airs motion. It seems to fly from travellers, coming toward it; and to follow those, that run from it. The Cause is in the Air; It is driven forward in running, and it draws them forward; but in flying from it, it follows, and keeps them company: Hence are strangers travelling in so great danger oft times. For they thinking that it is light from Towns, fall into bogs. These 3. following use to appear at Sea. Pliny l. 2. c. 37. saith, That these lights are dangerous, if they come alone, and sink the ships, and burn them if they fall to the bottoms of their Vessels; but two are successful, and signs of a prosperous Voyage; for they by their approach drive away, say they, that unhappy and threatening Helena. Wherefore they assign that deity to Castor and Pollux, and call upon them at Sea, making them the tutelar Captains for their Ships. Act. 28. c. 11. Cardan. de sub●ilitat. l. 2. of the Star Helena writes thus; The Star of Helena is almost of the same kind, about the Mast of the Ship, which falling, will melt brazen Vessels, a certain sign of shipwreck. For it appears only in great Tempests, and cannot be driven into the ship but by great force of winds, being a most gross Exhalation; and burn also; whence it signifies imminent danger. CHAP. IU. Of Ignis Lambens. IGnis Lambens riseth from a thin and fat Exhalation, and cleaves to the hairs and clothes of living Creatures; and if it be of a hotter temperament, it kindles by their sweat. Virgil writes some such thing of Ascanius, 2. Aeneid. Behold a shining Crest, was from Jülus head Seen to give light, and so the harmless flame Did feel full soft, and on his Temples fed. Cardanus, l. de varietat. 10. c. 49. relates to a friend of his, when he came at one a clock at night, laying down his cloak, as he was wont to do, sparks flew forth behind his Hat; but 15 days after, he being accused of Witchcraft, at his friend's persuasion went into voluntary banishment. Also when Servius Tullius was a little boy, and was asleep, a flame shined about his head as they saw it in the house▪ Which wonder, Tanaquil, Wife to Tarqvinius Priscus admired at, and bred up Servius born of a servant Maid, as if he had been her son, and he was elevated to be King, by her, Valer. Max. l. 1. c. 6. Livy l. 35. Also one appeared on the head of L. Martius, Commander of two Armies, as he made an Oration; the ruin of them, weakened P. and Cn: Scipio in Spain. A Boy of Jena pulling off his shirr over the hinder part of his head, he wiped many sparks off with it, Liban. l. 1. de origin. rerum. The Countess of Caumantia; whilst her hair was combed in the dark, it seemed to vomit forth fire. We had (saith Scaliger, Exerc: 174.) a white War-Horse out of Calabria, he in the dark, when he was curried, seemed to sparkle. They give the cause to be refraction of Light in a polished subject; as in the dewy Airs, the drops are as so many Looking-Glasses; so in a hairy head, fat and clammy, and scaly, are hairs and scales: Also in Infects, some fiery matter is said to appear. In the Island Solebe, all the flies every night seem to shine so gallantly, that they represent so many Torches, Libavius l. c. A Worm is found like a Star, that shines like a Star in the night: (May be it is the Sea-Star the Chemists promise to extract light from the liquor of it). From the joints of some Worms in Hispaniola Island, a great light shines forth, and glitters like hoar frost. There are others that will give light 100 paces, and that not from their whole body, but only from their joints. In Spain, of the New World, ●here is said to be a Fly like a Beetle for magnitude, with it wings in a sheath, called Cocujus, whose Eyes enlighten the night, that it serves for a wax Candle to give light to those that walk abroad, and for a Lamp in their Chambers to read and write by; and that not only whilst they live, but after they are dead. Some make themselves little ropes of those Candles, and tie them to their necks, to give them light as they travel. The cause is not in Ignis Lambens, but it lies in the humours of these Creatures, and is done by way of repurcussion, some are thought to have some light shining within them. Truly, Glowworms shut up in your fist, give light if you look through a chink in the darkest night. Reischius saith, That Fish in their scales comprehend some fiery parts, and by that they shine. The Dolphin seems to confirm this; for it seems gilded in the night, yet is it blew on the back, green on the sides, white on the belly, Reischius in Margarit. Philoso. CHAP. V. Of Lightning, Thunder, and Thunderbolts. He that would nearly understand the breeding of Thunder must consult with Chemists, for so oft as a part of Salt-Peter and brimstone 〈…〉, there is made a great noise, and we shall say that thundering Gold is carried with a greater force. Also it is well known that if a mixture be made of Niter, Brimstone, Quicklime, and Bitumen, that it will kindle by pouring on any moisture; and so it is here, for when the brimstony and nitrous Vapours in Summertime, are carried upwards, by heat of the Sun, especially the Southern wind being quiet, they are united and condensed by the opposite winds, and are kindled by a peculiar antiperistasis; hence comes the sound and lightning. Histories write that it hath been heard in a clear Sky. Senec. natural. l. 2. cap. 30. Aetna sometimes hath abounded with great fire, and hath cast out a wonderful quantity of burning Sand, the day was hid in dust, and sudden night frighted the people. They say that at that time there were great thunder claps and noises in the Sky, which were made by the concourse of dry things, and not of the Clouds; for it is likely in so clear weather, that there were none. The Thunderbolt oft times is carried into the Earth, because it is cast forth of the Cloud with great violence, and is made of a fast and well compacted matter, yet Pliny, l. 2. c. 55. saith, that it never strikes above five foot deep into the Earth. The effects of it are wonderful; vessels of water are drank up, the cover being untouched, and no other token being left: Gold, Brass, Silver have been melted within, and the bags no ways burned, nor so much as the Seal of Wax defaced; Pliny, l. 2. c. 51. Lucius Scipio proved that, by Gold he had in a Chest of Osiers. Marcia a Queen of the Romans was Thunder-stricken, when she was great with Child, she had no hurt at all, only the Child was killed. The cause is put in rarity and thickness; that penetrates more easy, this because it penetrates with more difficulty doth more harm. Aristotle, 3. Meteorolog. c. 1. The wine sometimes stands still the vessel being broken, the cause is because the heat of the thunder, thickneth the outward parts of the Wine, that the wine seems to stand, as shut up in a skin; Sennert. l. 4. Epitome. c. 2. but this hardness will not last 3. days, Seneca quaest. natural. l. 2. c. 5. That is most admirable which Me●rerus in Comment Meteorolog. reports that a certain Minister was so suddenly taken away out of the sight of Men, in the way that men pass from Lipsia to Torga, that he was never seen again. Those that shall be presently stricken, are so stupefied, that they neither hear the Thunder, nor the greatest claps of it. That, in the Germane Wars, happened to Severus Master of the Horse, Julian being Emperor. First he was stiff, and then lither, death being at hand; Pliny writes that it will not touch the Bay-Tree, the Sea Calf, the Eagle; Rhodiginus adds, the figtree: and saith it is by reason of its bitterness, Rhodig Antig, lect. l. 3. c. 29. Therefore Tiberius Caesar, as Suetonius saith in his life, fearing thunder, when the Skies were troubled, wore a Crown of Bays upon his head, and for this reason saith Columella, when a Hen sits they put Bay boughs under her. Therefore they were wont to make the Emperor's Tents of Sea Calves Skins. And Suetonius writes that Augustus was so fearful of Thunder, and Lightning that he always carried the same with him. Severus the Emperor had a litter made of the same matter for the same purpose: yet Vicomercatus, ad 3. Meteoror, c. 10. relates that the Bay Tree is sometimes stricken from Heaven, and Conimbricense thinks this freedom it hath to be but imaginary, but only by an instinct of nature, they foreshow Thunder. I need not speak much of the Thunderbolt, kept in houses, of herb, and Candles, at the more solemn feasts purged with holy water, and of the ringing of Bells▪ who sees not but that these things are superstitious. Some of them say, (Remig. l. 1. daemonol. c. 26), that ringing of Bells is uneffectuall and useless, if any one of them when it is purged, bear the name of the Priest's Concubine. For if that sound do rarify the Air, (which yet spoken absolutely is false, for it neither dissipates the Clouds, that are nearer to us, nor doth it fly right upwards, but in many places it comes forth obliquely by the Windows, nor doth it come to the Cloud) it were better that only the great Guns should be shot off, and only the greatest Bells Rung. Constant observation shows that Dogs, Cats, and Goats are most obnoxious to be Thunder struck. Hence it is that if a Dog be by a man in an open field, he will be frighted and lie between his feet, Cl. Bortholinus casts the cause of it upon the Vapours breathing forth of these Creatures bodies, which as a known matter and nutriment, the Vapours for thunder follow, especially if these Creatures be abroad, that they may be freely carried into the open Air; Hence it is that Cats are often stricken in the entry, and who knows not that the Dogs and Goats smell strong? And Cats send out such Plenty of Vapours by their pores that some men have fainted at their being present, and the more noble Horses, if they be hid in the Coach, will sweat extremely, as experience teacheth. Thunder seldom happeneth in the Winter. For but very few or almost no hot exhalations are lifted up, yet Curtius, l. 8. de Alex, mentioneth that in the time of Alexander, There was saith he almost a continual Thunder, and the Thunder bolts seemed to fall in divers places, then suddenly a shore of hail was poured forth like a Torrent, and force of cold froze this shower into Ice, Ola●s, l. ●. c. 6. think that they are more vehement in Northern Climates, for they kill Men; and in the Kingdom of Mongall in Tartary they fall mingled with Snow; In Brasile Thunder bolts fall but seldom, but such lightnings that they seem lighter than the Sun; Joseph Ac. sta, Anno, 1560. In the time of Marcus Antoninus the Philosopher, we read that the Enemy was stricken with Thunder at the prayers of the Christian Soldiers, whence the Christian Legion was called the Thundering Legion, presently (saith the Emperor of them in Epist.) as they lay upon their Faces and prayed to a God I know not, a cold shower fell upon us; but upon our Enemies, hail mingled with thunder, that we found immediately that the hand of the mighty God assisted us. CHAP. VI Of the Winds. Artic. 1. Of the Original of Winds. ARistot. 2. Meteor. c. 4. saith, That the Sun is the cause of the winds, by drawing up the moisture that is upon the surface of the Earth, and by heating, doth dry the Earth itself. Lydiat likes not this opinion; For the Earth moistened being dried, affords but little matter for winds. For the Earth drinks in no more rain than may quench its thirst, and which it may change into a dry nature, from whence comes no Exhalation of the same allowance, much goes to rain, which is no small part of it. What then shall be left for the vast winds? wherefore, inward heat is pleaded for. And truly, in Winter the Earth sends forth a smoky exhalation. In the Southern parts, Winds arise from Snow; A breath riseth from Lakes and standing Pools; and storms from the Sea, though it be calm: whence is this, but that the Earth breathes out vapours, which break forth through the depth of waters. The Chemical Instrument will show this, which they use for bellows, Sennert. l. 4. Epitome. c. 3. A Globe is made of Copper, that it may be filled with water, and then shut, a pipe with a small hole is made of one side, the Glob filled with water is set to the fire, and the pipe for bellows is set to another. As the Globe grows hot, and the water rarefies, the Air continually breathes forth, and serves for bellows till all the water be consumed. Winds are then bred, when heat burns the moist Earth. The Sun by drying openeth the pores, and the Air helps by its motion. If it rise from the Sea, the Sea at firs● calm making a muttering noise, signifies that an exhalation that is matter for wind, is already then bred in the bowels of it; some fish's sport, some fasten themselves to rocks: then the Sea swelling a little, shows that the exhalation newly bred, seeks a passage forth; then when it fails, it shows it is come to the superficies, but in small quantity; then the blasts breaking forth with all their force, lift up the waves before them, and cause Winds and Tempests. Artic. 2. Of the Kind's and Effects of Winds. THere are many kinds of Winds, which were chiefly found out by Navigation, and the operations of them according to the difference of their blasts and properties. The North-East wind draws clouds to it. Circeius a Southern wind, hinders, that the North wind be not mingled with the smell of plants; and the force of it is so great, that it will overthrow an armed man, and lift ships up from the water into the Air, and carry away Windmills with the stones, house and men, to some other place, Pliny l. 2. c. 47. Gel. l. 2. c. 22. Olaus l. 1. c. 4. and 2. c. 3. There is a whirlwind that causeth such Tempests to those that sail out of the Country of China to Jupan, that it is a miracle to escape shipwreck. In the Country of St. Vincent it roots up Woods; in Hispaniola it will take up men and carry them a furlong. If they arise in the Island of Ormuth, they kill those they meet, with heat; and they part the flesh of those that are killed from the bones, as boiling water doth. To avoid the danger, they hide themselves in the water up to the head, Ovetan l. 6. Polus l. 1. c. 5. Women are wonderfully prone to lust when their privities are obvious to the South wind; but the North wind is said to be fit for generation; whence it is that some believe it will raise men dying with its blast, Rhodigin l. 54. c. 4. & l. 15. c. 23. In Lesbos at Mytilene, when the South wind blows, men are sick; they cough when the Northwest wind blows; the North wind makes them well again. In Tercera it eats Iron and stones, Bertius in Geograph. Amongst the rest are the Etesia, that are very moderate winds, every year two days after the rising of the dog-star they are wont to blow 40 days. They temper the heat with their blast, and cool the Summer, and defend us from the burden of the hot months. They rise at 3. of the clock of the day, (thence they are called sleepy winds,) and they cease at night. It is likely they are bred by great heat, melting the Snow that yet remains in the Northern parts. It is credible, that the Earth being freed from Snow, and uncovered, they will blow the freer. The Ancients sacrificed to the winds to please them. Herodotus saith, That a Temple in Ilissum was built to Boreas; They called them at Athens Boreasmi, who kept the Feasts of Boreas. We believe P. Victor, that at Rome there was a Temple for Tempest, Rhodigin: l. 20. c. 25. CHAP. VII. Of the Earthquake. Artic. 1. Of the rising of an Earthquake. THe Ancients believed, that the Earth moved by waters fluctuating in the Caves of the Earth. Whence they called Neptune, Earth-shaker and mover, Gell. l. 2. c. 28. Others thought, the wind in the surface of the Earth returning into the hollow caves of it, did shake it. Others again, that the Sun kept the vapours within the ground, and they seeking passage to come forth, did wander where they could, when they found none. Reason and Experience are against it. There is in the West part of Spain a Mountain of wonderful height, with many hollow Caves, Scalig. Exerc. 38. waters fall down in them with so great noise, that they are heard five miles, yet there is no Earthquake there; nor yet is the wind or Air that goes under, very great; it is dispersed in the largeness of the Channels, and the diverticles it finds, going farther, it is stopped: Mineral operations show this. For they make mighty bellows to draw the air, lest they should be choked for want of it. The contest of winds doth nothing, for that rather tends to the sides, or flies upwards by its lightness; and at the first hindrance, they fly from the Earth like a whirlwind. It is uncertain whether the Sea can stop the passages, there are seldom any such great Caves by the Sea; nor can that go in at once, but it will be thrust back again: The Sun cannot more easily exercise its force upon the Earth, and beget an Exhalation, than he can bring it forth being begotten; for the Sun beams operate no● but by resistance. Whilst they heat and dry, they open the same, because exhalations ascend more strongly to that place which is near; One, in respect of continuity, follows another; but howsoever they enter in, they easily come out of the Earth, and more easily than they can shake it; for in Mines where the powder finds but a chink, when it is fired, it is lost labour. Wherefore Exhalation bred from fire under the Earth, and shut up in the bowels of the Earth, causeth an Earthquake. And that is apparent by this. For before an Earthquake, Well-waters will not only boil, but be more troubled, and brimstony vapours come forth. From whence? The like vapours are tossed in the bowels of the Earth, Pliny l. 2. Artic. 2. Of the place time and effects of an Earthquake. THose places are subject to Earthquakes, which can easily take in wind. Solid places will not admit it, sandy places mixed with lime do easily discuss it, they want receptacles for winds▪ Champion places have no Caves. Yet the whole Earth is never shaken, for the Vapours included have no proportion to the Globe of the Earth. If it should happen it must be ascribed to divine power, which nature would seem to challenge to herself; If you consider the duration, it differs as the resistance is; few Vapours are sooner discussed, many last longer, and rage a greater time; Senec. naturals, l. 6. c. 3. Campania trembled many days; Livy writes that at that time, when L. Cornelia and Q. Minucius near Consuls▪ the Earthquakes were so frequent, that men were weary not only of it, but of all business. The same Author says that an Earthquake lasted 40 days, others say one hath lasted two years, and returned again and again, Livy, l. 44. & l. 45. Aristot. l. 2. Meteor. c. 8. Plin. l. 2. c. 82. Such is the condition of the effects of it, that those that hear of it, will be astonished at it, and those that see it die. Oft times it doth not devour Houses, Cities, or whole famelies only, but whole Nations and Countries: sometimes the Earth falls upon them, sometimes it takes them into its deep jaws and leaves not so much whereby it may appear, that what is not now, ever was. Seneca, L. 6. nature c. 1. The ground covers sometimes the most noble Cities, without leaving any mark of their forme● being, when as the great hollow Caves in the Earth are forced and shaken with winds and fall down, oft times in the Sea, a hollow pit opening drinks up the waters, on the Land Rivers, that both fish and shipping sink into it. On the otherside, the Earth lifted up into a high tumour, hath caused Mountains on land, and Islands at Sea, sometimes the course of Rivers hath been changed, that hilly ground having been removed on that side that they formerly ran. Histories are full of these calamities. The last year of Nero, fields and Olive Trees, that the high way passed between, in the Country of the M●rrucinum were transported to the other side. L. Marcius, and Sextus Julius being Consuls, in the Country of the Mutinenses, two Mountains fell together with a mighty noise, Plin. l. 2. and l. 16. c. 40. Many Villages were then beaten down, and cattle killed. In Parthia, there is a place called Ragai from the cliffs, where many Towns, and Villages 2000, were overwhelmed. At Cajeta in Italy, there is a Mountain toward the South, a part whereof an Earthquake so divided, that one would believe the division was made by the art of Man, the Sea runs under it with a great noise. Agricol▪ in reb. quae efflu▪ ex terra. The Houses of Helice and Bura two Towns in the Sinus of Corinth, did appear in the Sea. In the Island Aenania, a Town was so taken in, that there was no appearance of it left. Not far from Ptolemais, the Waves of the Sea were carried into the deep, and so lifted up themselves, that they appeared like a great Mountain, and afterwards they were carried to the land, and drowned the Army of Tryphon. When Cneius Octavius and C. Scribonius were Consuls, the River at Velia broke down the bridges, and threw the banks of the River into the waters, drove away the stones that were in the Market place; in Town and Field it shook the Churches, which a few days after fell down. By an Earthquake, the City of Lacedaemon fell all down, when the Mountain Taygetus was broken. In the War of Mithridates, at Apamaea a City of Phrygia, new Lakes, Pools, Fountains and Rivers came forth, many of the old ones being sucked in, and amongst these one was salt, that put forth an infinite plenty of Fish and Oysters, and yet Apamaea is far distant from the Sea, Nicolaus Damascenus. During the second Punic War, there were such great Earthquakes, at Liguria, and the parts near unto it, so far as the Sea of Tyrrhenum, that the Rivers ran the contrary ways. The most wonderful Earthquake was in Hereford here in England, in the year of Grace, after the 15 century, 71, the 12 of the Calends of March at six a Clock at night the Earth parted in the Eastern part of the County, and a Mountain with a Rock under it, (first with a wonderful noise and roaring, that the neighbour parts might hear it) as if it had been raised out of a long sleep, lifted up itself, and ascended into an upper place, leaving its deep Chamber, and it carried with it the Trees that gr●w upon it, the folds and slooks of sheep: some of the Trees lay overwhelmed with the Earth, others were joined to the Mountain, and grew there as well as if they had been there planted at first. It left the place from whence it came with a great pit, 40 foot broad, and 80 else long. The whole field was about twenty Acres It overthrew a Chapel in its way; It carried a Pear Tree that was planted in the Churchyard from West to East, and with the same force it thrust forward high ways, Paths, Hedges with Trees that grew in them, It made pasture ground of arable, and arable again of pasture. It rolled against the upper ground, and being driven with greater violence, it heaped it up into a high Mountain; so when it had passed up and down from Saturday evening, till Monday noon, it rested quiet. This is Cambdens' description of it. The Philosophers call this kind of Earthquake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. To this may be referred the Earthquake in Apulia, Anno. 1627., it was open above 200 miles, and overthrow great part of the City, St. Severus, Sarra, Capreola, Dragonora, Procina of St. Lyander; it laid hold on, Assolum, Bovinium, Troia, Andria, Tranium, Foggita, Campus Marinus, Remitium, Itistonium, Franca, Villa, Asanum, Consilinum, &c: Also it killed 17 thousand Men. It is certain that it brings with it not only present mischiefs, but it is a forerunner of mischiefs to follow, Rome had never any Earthquake that did not foreshow, some future events Pliny, l. 2. c. 64. Socrates saith it foretells of discords in religion: wherefore what the Romans did of former times by appointing holiday by injunction let us do the same. They might fear lest by naming one God for an other, they might induce the people to a false religion: but we know that God, by whose power the Earth is shaken. CHAP. VIII. Of Rain. THere is a great difference in respect of the abundance of Rain, in time and other circumstances; and very wonderful: no less variety than there is in days; and ofttimes greater, if you respect extraordinary things. In Ahab's days it reigned not for 3. years. It never reins in Cyrenica: The harvest there is only that which for the hasty ripening of things by reason of the Sun, or Air, or Winds, useth to come to pass. It is reported, that from sowing of Seed it is but 30 days to the harvest, Maiolus Colloq. 1. About Uraba a City of the New World; it reins most part of the year, and therefore the drops hang always on the trees, Hispal. p. 5. c. 26. It never reins in Winter amongst the Tartars, but oft in Summer. But in the Country of Mexico the drops fall with such force, that they are said to kill men: If you consider the substance, it is common water, that is the matter of it; yet examples show, that it hath been of another kind oft times. It reigned blood sometimes in Borussia, Thuan. l. 27. in the Island Pelagia, gold; in Lucania, iron, before the Parthian War in which Crassus was slain, Ammian l. 17. It reigned Corn in Carinthia for two hours, above two miles' space, of which they made bread, Thuan. l. 5. de Anno 1548. Stones fell with rain, as big as Hen's eggs, wherein were pictures of men's countenances, and Diadems, Lintur. ad fascic. Anno 1496. Ashes reigned in the time of Leo, which lay a little hands height upon the tiles, Niceph. l. 15. c. 20. In the Wood Neuholen, they say that a great piece of Iron fell out of the Air, like to the dross, and it weighed many pounds, so that it was too heavy to carry, and no Cart could carry it, because the ways were unpassible, Agricola observ. Metal. c. 8. In Egypt it frequently reins very small drops, Mice breed of them, that use to gnaw and cut the ears of Corn, Aelian l. 6. c. 40. Also in Thebais, when it reins with hail, Mice are said to appear in the earth, half mud, half flesh, Aelian l. 2. c. 56. But that is most wonderful, if it be not a Fable, that Ol●us l. 18. and Ziglerus hath in Norway, concerning the Northern Creatures. And from them Scaliger hath it, Exerc. 192. Sect. 3. Lemer bestiolae. There are fourfooted Creatures as big as field Mice, of a divers coloured skin, they fall in tempests and showers; we know not whether they come from the remote Islands, or from feculent clouds. Assoon as they fall, you shall find herbs in their bowels, raw, not digested. These like Locusts eat up all green things; this plague continues till green herbs come again. They come together like Swallows departing; they either die at the set time, or are devoured by (Lefrat) other little Beasts. We were told by our Master, the famous Doctor, Menelaus Vinsenius, Doctor of Physic, and Professor in the University of Frisia, that it reigned Frogs in Ameland, which admits of no Frogs. To conclude, in Velaunium, there reigned from Heaven so many Caterpillars in one night, that they were forced for two days to burn straw to kill them creeping in their houses; all the men and women there, were hardly sufficient to perform this work, Dalecha●p, ad l. 2. Pliny, c. 56. Sennertus thinks, that Creatures that can breed of putrefaction, are bred either of some matter watered by rain, or else they lying hid in the bowels of the Earth, are called forth; but more perfect Creatures, and stones come another way: yet he thinks that many of these aught to be referred to superior Causes. CHAP. IX. Of Snow and Hail. IN the Winter there is an infinite abundance of Snow with us, but there is none in the deep Sea, Pliny l. 2. c. 103. Nor is there any such in Aethiopia, Alvarez. de reb. Aethiop. But it is greater in the North. Sometimes great Trees being in the way, it all sticks upon the boughs, and the Air stops it that it can fall no lower, making as it were a vaulted Gallery. It is said to have beaten down a City, being on the top of the Mountains of Dofrinium, where it first was like a ball, but at last like a mighty round Mountain, Olaus l. 59 c. 15. and l. ●. c. 13. The tops of Mount Caucasus have scarce any less, for they cannot be come at in Winter; especially in Cambisena the quantity is so great, that whole Troops of men are overthrown by it, Strabo l. 11. The Armenians are in the same condition; for those that pass over the Mountains, are suddenly covered with clots of Snow, that they cannot be seen, and that in the fierce Winter; Rhodigin. l. 18. c. 29. In Tartary it comes on also in Summer: mighty cold, vast Snowes, all▪ are removed by the wind, Hispal. p. 4. c. 23. In the same, the Champion places of Pamer do sustain so great cold, that it will put out the fire, for it will give no light, nor can any thing be boiled with it, Polus l. 2. c. 28. In Moscovia, where water runs out of a high hill, it is congealed before it touch ground, Surius ad Anno 1501. In Armenia they are red, which proceeds from the places that abound with Minium, and by the force of its exhalations they are coloured. Nor is this against reason; for plenty of bloods yields a blood-coloured dew. Homer shows that, at Troy, (when he speaks of bloody drops of dew) that of it sprang hairy rough red Creatures; Apollonius calls them Worms; Theophanes, Mountain worms. There is a liquor in them which the people love to drink, Eustath: in Homer, Aristot. 5. Anim. Hail is a kin to Snow, whereof we have nothing to say▪ except of its greatness; for in the time of Valens it fell like stones of unusual greatness, at Constantinople, Socrates histor. Eccles. l. 4. c. 10. When Alaricus took the City, it was greater than stones that can be handled, and was about 8. pounds in weight, Maiolus in Ca●●cul. In France, when Paschal was Pope, one piece fell down that was 12 foot long, Bonsinius. At Augustodanum, one 16 foot long, 7 broad, and 2 foot high, Segebertus. And no less fell in the time of Bergoma; for it was compared to an Ostrich Egg, and was 12 inches about, Bonsinius. They say, in the same year at Bommel in Gelderland there fell one stone was 3 pounds weight, on the 12th of June; sometimes the forms of it have been wonderful. Anno 1395, it had the Images of men, with beards, of women with Kerchers and hair. At Cremona, Anno 1240, it had the sign of the cross. But we are often deceived, and imagine what is not so. Yet the Works of God are wonderful. CHAP. X. Of Dew, Manna, and Honey. Due comes from a thin vapour, resolved into water by the cold of the night. It is first found in the light and thick leaves and flowers of plants; and sometimes it is scarce lift up above two Cubits high. Some say it was the daughter of Jupiter and the Moon; for as Plutarch saith, The full Moon makes plenty of Dew. And therefore dogs in the full Moons, can sent out things by the foot worst, because the cold dew takes away the sent, that they cannot smell them; wherefore it is hard to hunt well in the Spring time. Plutarch saith, that fat women were wont to gather dew with clothes or soft skins which they used, to make them lean, (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.) Christophorus Vega writes, That Manna is made by some little Bees like thick Gnats, from whom sitting by swarms upon Trees, sweat as it were drops from them. Sennertus l. 4. c. 8. thinks, that they are rather drawn thither by the sweetness of the Manna, and that they make it not. The Learned make a question, whether the Jews Manna was the same with ours? Many things agree, but in this they differ, that theirs, ground in a mill, or bruised in a mortar, was fit to make wafers. If it be not prevented, it will melt with any Sun; for an Easterly Sun will melt it. We read that it is used for Sugar with water alone to drink, and to quench one's thirst; amongst those Shepherds that frequent the deserts of Targa, Scalig. Exerc. 164. Manna is of kin to to honey. This comes out of the Air, especially at the rising of the Stars; it is made especially when the Dog-star shines; nor doth it appear before the Pleiades shine in the morning, Plin. l. 11. c. 12. Therefore then in the morning early the leaves of Trees are bedewed with honey; and if any in the morning be in the open air, they shall perceive their clothes anointed with the Liquor, and their hair glued together. This dew is afterwards collected by Bees, it is altered by them in little bladders: It is put up in little Cells, like pure liquor, in which afterwards it grows hot, and is concocted with natural heat. The 20th day it grows thick, then is it covered with a thin membrane which grows together by its frothing heat, Pliny l. cit. c. 13. Also that it is made by Wasps, Pliny teacheth out of Aristotle. The Spanish Navigations confirm, that it is made of some Molucca flies in Trees, which are less than Ants. Lithuania and Moscovia have great plenty. The story is old, concerning a Countryman that fell into a hollow Tree of honey, and a Bear drew him forth. We have heard that concerning honey, that Aristotle speaks of grated wine, for it grows so thick, that it must be shaved off to drink it. Amongst the Troglodytes at Belgada, honey is as white as Snow, and hard as a stone, Scaliger, Exerc. 191. S. 1. It is so solid in Calicut, that they carry it it in baskets. Many things are preserved by honey, and many things die by it; for the milky humour in it is not weak; wherefore that remaining uncorrupt, corrupts others: walnuts keep their nature in it, for by their unctuous quality they resist their peculiar humidity, but Figs, Peaches, Pears, Apples, corrupt in it, Scaliger Exerc. 170. CHAP. XI. Of the Rainbow. THe Poets feigned the Rainbow to be Daughter of Thaumas. The Ancients thought that she drew water by her two horns let down toward the Earth. Hence Virgil, Georgic. ver. 138. — and the great Bow Drank— But Propertius▪ L. 3. Why doth the Purple Bow Rain-water drink? The colours are so exact, that no Painter can equal them. The blue colour is said to show that the Flood is past, but the fiery colour shows that which is yet to come Strabo. citant. Rhodigin. Albertus thinks that 3, and sometimes more may be made in it. When it is made at noon, we cannot see it, for no man ever saw a Rainbow beyond 3, miles. It is never made when the Cloud ascends, but always as it goes downward, for so it causeth no dew, but when it falls away Rhodigin, l. 22. l. 12. c. 7. Celius denies that it can be made by the Moon beams. Scaliger, exerc. 80. s. 12. approves it. In the Island of St. Thomas, saith he, if a shower went before, the Moon will make a Rainbow, the colour of it will be like a whitish Cloud. Combachius, Anno 1609, in June saw such a one at Oxford. But Anno, 1599, at Midsummer after mighty Lightning at Wittenburg, Sennertus, l. 4. Epitome. c. 9 As for the influence, some say that Plants smell the sweeter by the Rainbows hanging over them, Scaligor, exerc. 81. s. 7. Cardanus condemns this, yet it is not to be laughed at, for Scaliger saw a Cloud come down as low as the cleft of a hill, and Aristot, affirms it, of those especially that naturally send forth the sweetest flowers. If it be in the Morning it shows a tempest; but one in the Evening, fair weather, as Mariners and Husbandmen have observed. The cause of the latter is by reason of the Cloud that hath unloaded itself of water; the former is because of the plenty that was collected by the moisture of the night. These things for recreation are alleged by Scaliger, Exerc. 81, s. 12. But it is no light matter to give certain reasons for things, that are uncertain. CHAP. XII. Of some admirable Meteors. THose things that happen extraordinarily either in the Air near us, or in the higher Heaven of the Stars, by their continual circumrotations, at God's command, are ranked in the number of wonders. Not only of old time, but even of latter times, variety hath been observed. God and the holy Angels make some of them, and the evil Angels make the rest. Casparus Peucerus in Theratoscopia. Anno, 1532, not far from Oenipo●s wonderful sights were seen. The first was a Camel that was compassed round with flame, the other was a Wolf vomiting fire, and hedged in with a ring of flame; A Lion followed this; and an Armed Man, standing in the entering of the Mountain, did gently struck his Mane, and he seemed again to flatter him. These pictures were forerunners of the death of John Duke of Saxony and Elector: first there was a Tree withered and overturned, then there was a Knight on Horseback prepared, carrying the Tree with the boughs lopped off, then there was a great black Cross in a thick Cloud. At length a horrible Thunder bolt was seen to be cast out of it, with a wonderful noise. Anno, 1534, the 3d day of July, in the Town Schleswich, at noon in a clear Sky, Lyons were seen in the Air, coming apace from divers parts to fight. An Armed Knight took their parts, shaking his spear. There lay not far from the Knight a Man's head without a body, wearing an Imperial Crown, a little while after a Boar's bristly head was seen, and two Dragons spitting fire. Lastly there appeared the Image of one most spacious City situate by a Lake, and it was besieged with a Navy and Land-forces. On the top of this was a bloody Cross, by little, and little turned into black. There came forth an other Knight on Horseback, burning with a fiery colour, with an imperial Crown on his head, a horse followed him that had no Rider. Then in a large plain there appeared two burning Forts, near to a high Mountain, where there was a great Eagle, that hid half his body behind the side of the Mountain: there appeared some young Eagls, very complete of a white colour. Also the head of a sleeping Lion crowned with a Crown, and a dunghill Cock with his bill beaking and digging his head, till it fell loose from his body, and vanished; the body remaining lay visible. There were other Lion's present, and by the Boar's head, a Unicorn by degrees turning himself against the Dragon; and many other Creatures of extraordinary figures, and greatness. The Fort upon a high rock compassed in with two Armies, burned; and the whole Country seemed full of many Towns, Forts, and Villages. But presently the whole Country where they stood was consumed with fire, and a most large Lake overwhelmed the ruins of this vast Country, nothing but the Towers appearing in that place, where that great City stood before. At the bank of this great Lake stood a Camel as if he drank. But Anno 1545, the next day after Whitsuntide, these Images were seen in Silesia; A Bear led an Army well appointed from the East; an armed Lion met him with his Forces; between both Armies a most clear Star appeared, presently they met and fought stoutly, that blood seemed to drop from their wounds, and their bodies to fall down dead. As they fought, an Eagle flew from a high rock, and waved herself over the Forces of the Lion with her wings. The fight being ended, the Lion shined amongst his Armies; but there was no sign of the Bear; but they were all dead carcases, where the other Army stood, and very venerable old men with their grey heads stood by them. The battle ended, the Lion retreated with his Army to the West; and when he was gone a little forward, a certain Soldier riding on a white horse very well adorned, returned from the Forces to the place of the fight; and upon that horse he set a young Soldier that stood there in Armour; and accompanying him riding toward the East, he vanished with the rest of the Apparitions. But what speak I of old things? our Age hath seen wonderful things, even this year. For in 1627. two Armies were seen to fight in Pomerania, the Northern Apparition became Victor. A fiery beam followed this, Mercurius Gallobelgicus. But Anno 1629, in March, in Misnia two Armies met in the lower Region of the Air, they were so framed out of the Cloud, that their faces and countenances might be seen. The lesser Army got the victory, and put the greater to flight. It may be, these are forerunners of things hereafter; which that they may happen, we heartily wish; and with this wish, we will conclude this Third Classis. Oh, oh! that it might be so. The End of the Third Classis. THE DESCRIPTION OF Wonders in Nature. The Fourth Classis. Wherein are contained the Wonders of Minerals. THis is an Argument of Wealth, and thought to be true Glory, to possess that which may all presently perish. Nor doth this suffice us, that we drink in a trumpet of Jewels, and we interweave ou● cups with Emeralds; and we delight to hold the Indies for our drunkenness, and gold is now but an addition, Plin. l. 33. Histor. natural. in praef. CHAP. I. Of Things digged up, in general. HItherto we spoke of things elevated into the Superior world; Now we shall consider of things under the Earth. Which because they are brought forth by man's labour, the Philosophers called them Fossilia, or things dug out, including ●hem under the names of Earth's, Juices, Stones, Metals. They think they are bred by subterraneal heat. Others think, that they were at first created by God, and do increase by a seminal principle. And indeed, it is not against Truth, that Metals are made of some vapours. Avicenna saith, That more than once bodies of brass, like to Arrows with forked heads, have fallen down in clear day, in Persia. But in Spain a Mass of stone with Veins of metal fell out of the Skies, Lydiat de fontib. 6. c. 6. The latter is confirmed by the testimony of some Writers. For the Gold of Corbachium in Westphalia, every four year grows and springs again in heaps. In Sclavonia a vein of Lead every 40. years is changed into Silver. A dry scale of Brass into Gold, in one year. Iron in Silesia at Saganum is digged a new, every tenth year. In Sweden, red f●nny mud, laid one year in the open Sun, becomes good Iron; The Mountain of Fessula in Hetruria hath lead-stones, which if they be cut out, will in a short time grow again; Caesalpinus, l. 2. the metal. c. 6. relates of Iron that is dug up in Ilva, an Island of the Tyrrhene Sea, that all the Earth that wanted Metal, that is dug up with the Iron will the next time they dig, be turned into good Iron, Lastly in the Indies, there is the Mountain Oromenus, where salt is cut out, as out of quarries, and it grows again, Caesalpin, l. 1. de Metal. c. 1. But that is wonderful which Garzias ab horto writes of the Diamant, Simple, Indiae, l. 1. c. 47. The Adamants, saith he, that lie deep in the bowels of the Earth, and require many years to their perfection, are bred almost on the surface of the ground, and are ready in 2 or 3 years: for dig this year but a cubit deep in the quarry, and you shall find Diamonds; dig there after two years, and you shall find Diamonds again. But how that should be, it is hard to say; yet no man can speak with more care, than Nature can work, when especially she is prodigal, and sports herself in the variety of things, Pliny, l. 21. praefat. Yet it doth not seem unreasonable that the Vapour should congeal with a fit matter, and that which is not well concocted to put off to another time, and so to perpetuate the generation. Truly the Flux of Veins hath something proportionable to vegetable nature; and the relation of a Physician of Friberg, that, in the Lungs of such as use to dig in Mines, their bodies being opened when they are dead, you shall find the same Metals grown hard, wherein they laboured being alive (Sennertus lib de consensu et diss. Chymicorum et Galenicorum) seems to intimate as much. CHAP. II. Of Marle and Potters-Earth. MArle is a thick fat Earth, and yet is sometimes so fluxible and white, that it seems like to marrow in the bones of living Creatures. Of times it is hard, and being drank it stops the Veins that bleed at the mouth, and hath the same force that Terra Samia hath; It is dug up in many places, especially amongst the Saxons, At Gossaria there are two sorts, one is Ash-coloured, and the other is whiter, of which are made forms, wherein your Image makers make their Pictures they cast. Sharp cold will divide them both into very thin plates, though the former, before the cold have seized upon it, consists of thick crusts. Potter's Earth is thick, soft, it is hard to come by: works are made of fat and thick matter, that the force of fire will not quickly break. Of the same are made Vessels that will neither drink up, nor consume liquor: wherein water that parts Gold from Silver is both made and kept. Potter's Vessels have ennobled many Countries: as Asia, by those were made at Pergamus, those that were made at Tralleis. Terra Coa, and Samia are not unknown; and Aretina is wonderful, Plin. l. 5. c. 13. Noriberga sends earthen Furnaces, wherein Gare are and Metals are boiled. Of clay digged up at the Fort of Rottingberg, are made purging Vessels wherein Alchemy is made. These being cast out of the fire with the brass do not break, but are drawn and wound like burning Glass. Agricola de illis quae essodiuntur ex terra. CHAP. III. Of Terra Lemnia, Armenia, and Siles●ack. TErra Lemnia, otherwise called sealed Earth; For Diana's Priest, taking it upon him for the honour of his Country▪ offering for expiation, wheat and barley, brought this into the City, soaked with water, and making it like clay, he dried it▪ that it might be like soft wax, and when it was become so, he sealed it with the sacred seal of Diana, Gal. l. 9 Simpl. Now it is digged up yearly, not without superstition, the sixth day of August only. They that dig are Greeks, the pit sends forth a sweet smell. It is digged after Sunrising for 6. hours, and it is laid up in one lump, and it must see no light till a year be expired. Then it is taken out and washed, being washed it is put into a bag; it is mingled with hands, it is made into round Cakes, and marked with the Emperor's seal. Then it is dried and put into a sealed Cabinet▪ and sent away to the Emperor to Constantinople, Stephanus Albacarius in Epist. ad Busbequium. It is good against deadly poisons. Galen tried it against the Sea hare, and Cantharideses, and found it good. The same Author writes of it, that in a certain hill by the City of the Ephestii, where no plant lives, it is dug up, the ground being as it were burnt. Terra Armenia was wont to be brought from that part which is adjacent to Cappadocia; Galen saith, it helps difficult breathing, so that they die, whom it cures not. It is drank with Wine in a thin consistence, moderately allayed, if the party have none, or but an easy fever; but if a strong one, with water. At this day▪ there is a Bolus Toccaviensis in Hungaria, it is like butter, and is good against Catarrhs; so that it is preferred before the Earth of Armenia; Crato in Epist. Sileciaca Strigensis, is also preferred before Terra Lemnia; Sennert. Scient. natural. l. 5. c. 1. Johannes Montanus Silesius was the founder of it, who writ a book of the same; that it is transmuted gold, by the ordination of God in his providence of nature, prepared and transmuted into a most excellent remedy, that chiefly prevails against venom, no less than the Medicaments that are made with great cost out of the best gold of Hungary. CHAP. IU. Of Salt. Salted is either made, or else it grows; It is made of salt Fountains, the water whereof boiled long, at length is turned to salt. It breeds many ways. It is dried in the Lake Tarentinum, by the Summer Suns, and the whole Lake turns to salt; in some places it is moderated, not above knee deep. In Bactria two Lakes very large, one toward the Scythians; the other toward the Arii, boil with salt: Also the tops of some Rivers, and condensed into salt, the rest of the River running as it were under the Ice, as at the Caspian mouth, that are called Rivers of Salt. Amongst the Bactrians the Rivers Ochus and Oxus carry out of the opposite Mountains shoals of Salt. There are also natural salt Mountains, as Oxomenus in India, where it is cut out of quarries, and grows again; and the Custom of it is more to their Kings, than from gold and pearls. In Cappadocia it is digged out of the earth, the humour being condensed: there it is cut out like Tal●um glass. King Ptolemy found some about Pelusium, when he pitched his Tents. By this example, afterwards between Egypt and Arabia, it began to be found under the sands, as in the deserts of Africa, so far as the Oracle of Ammon. It increaseth with Moon-nights, Pliny. A thin salt is bred by the Sea; for when the Sea flows, it froths, and drives that froth against the shores and Rocks. These are cut off, and laid upon them to dry, and in some places are turned into salt, Dioscor. There is a Lake of Salt in Sicily so bright, that, as Pliny writes, you may see your face in it. That of Colomeum tastes like roasted eggs▪ when it is hard, it cracks in the fire and leaps out; but melted, it doth not so: nor yet that which breeds in Lakes that is dried by the heat of the Sun. Salt of Agrigentum will leap out of water, saith Pliny; torrified, it loseth little or nothing of its magnitude; but moistened, it loseth. Heaps of Salt that in Africa are made by Utica, and like hills for height, they grow so hard by the Sun's heat, that no rain will melt them, and they can hardly be cut with Iron. It is observed, that such who are much disposed to putrid Fevers, are preserved from them by eating of salt freely with their meat, Math. de sebr● pestle. Also fields where it is sprinkled, become fruitful by it, as experience makes good. Fat women, by the moderate use of it for to season their meats, grow fruitful: for it wipes away the moisture, and dries the Matrix that is over-moyst, that the seed may stick. Also it stirs up the loins in men, and causeth Erection, Lemnius de occult. l. 2. c. 36. Hence the Egyptians used no salt. That it helps to fruitfulness, Mice abounding in ships, and the continual lusting of women that use much salt, is a sufficient argument. Libavius tom. 3. singul. l. 5. thinks it nourisheth, and is changed into one's substance with other things: for we see that there is no body but that Salt may be extracted from it. The generating of the most precious Pearls in the Sea, and of Coral, that comes forth of Rocks with boughs and branches like a Tree divided, is ascribed to salt, Quercetan de medic. Prisc. Phil. 2. Farther▪ being put to the mouths of such as are Epileptic, it raiseth them. In swoonings, either by resolution of the spirits, or by oppression of them, do but rub the Lips with it, and it is a present remedy. Held in the mouth or swallowed, it hinders Worms from ascending into the stomach. Lastly, that it is an Antidote both for hunger and thirst, the Army of Charles the Fifth made good, at the siege of Tunetum: They had died, had no● every one of them held a grain or two under their Tongues, Bicker. in Praes. lib. de f●nit. const. CHAP. V. Of Alum and Nitre. THere are many figures of congealed Alum; Alum called Seissum, is the flower of Alum in clods, and is pressed together like planks; or it flourisheth severally like grey hairs: round Alum swells like bubbles, or is like a sponge, by reason of the holes in it. The liquid Alum sends out of itself such a vapour that smells like fire, as stones do when they are rubbed together to cause fire. When it is put upon burning coals, or else put into a pot and is torrified with fire burning under it, it swells into bubbles, and loseth something of its substance, Plin. l. 31. c. 10. Nitre in the Clytae of Macedonia is the best▪ they call it Calastricum, it is white, and next to Salt. There is a nitrous Lake, where a sweet little Fountain comes forth of the middle of it, there Nitre is made about the rising of the Dog star for 9 days, and then it ceaseth as long; than it swims upon it again, and then ceaseth. This is the wonder, that, the Spring of water always running, the Lake doth neither increase, nor run over. Those days wherein it is made, if there fall any rain, they make the salter Nitre. The Northern showers make the worst, because they stir the mud too violently. It is made also of the urine of living Creatures, that falls always upon good and shadowy ground, Ang: Salic: Vinc: S. 1. aph. 28. It looks white, feels cold; it hath in itself a most red spirit, most hot and taking fire, Sennert. l. 5. Epitome. Scient. nature. c. 2. When it is burnt, it sends out alone no savour, that sense can perceive; but mingled with quick lime, it hath a most vehement smell. The Egyptians strewed their Radishes with their Nitre, as we do with Salt. The Macedonians add some of the Calastraeum to their Meal, and mould them together to make bread. The fine sands of Nilus, which as it seems were nitrous, were carried by Patrobius, a Freeman of Neson, to white their bodies with. Also Nitre, of which is made Halinitre, is at Servesta, and Bernbergum, Georg. Agricola. That Land will receive no Rain above a cubit. Like unto this, is that, where stone Walls, both in Wine-Cellars and shady places that are free from showers, that use to wash it off, do so sweat▪ as if they were sprinkled with flower. CHAP. VI Of Calcanthum or Vitriol. THe best is the Roman, and Hungarian, the goodness is tried by rubbing your knife against it; for if it make it look like Copper, it is the best, Quercetan. de capit. affect. c. 30. It is apparent, that in its secret qualities, it contains Copper. The Ancients took one dram inwardly, and killed their Worms, and cured the venom of Mushrooms, Sennert. l. 5. Epit. Scient. natural. c. 2. A little piece of the white dissolved in water, is happily used for the itching and redness of the eyes, Platerus de dol. p. 313. Riolanus saith, That the spirit of it is a caustick, that it will eat glass wherein it is made. It hath Antipathy with the oil of Tartar, they are both most acute and sharp. If you mingle them, the acrimony of both is lost, and the liquor becomes insipid, Boethius l. 2. the lapid. Joined with Nitre, it makes water sit to dissolve silver, Minder. de Vitriol. c. 9 CHAP. VII. Of Naphtha, Petroleum, and Maltha. NAphtha, is the percolation of Bitumen of Babylon, so near akin to fire, that it will take fire at a distance, and easily be inflamed by the Sunbeams. Plutarch relates, That in the hollow Caves of Echatana, by the heat of fire, that it ●low'd as it were into a pond; so ready to take fire, that before it came at it, it would take fire with the light of a Torch, and fire the Air that was between. The Barbarians to show this to Alexander, strewed a Village with it, that was in the way to the King's Lodging; and at last putting a firebrand near it, it flamed as if it had been all on fire. Hence he adds, that Naptha by some was called Medea's medicament, wherewith she anointed the Crown and Garment of Creon's daughter, and burned her by this art. Of this in Persia is made a Physical oil, wherewith a dart anointed, if it be shot slowly by a weak Bow, (for with swift flying it is extinguished) wheresoever it sticks fast, it burns; and if any would put it out with water, it burns the more; and there is no means to put it out, but by casting dust upon it. It is thus made: They season common oil tainted with a certain herb: By experience of these things, and by continuance, a certain kind is made by the Persians, that congealing from a matter very natural, is like to thick oil, and they call it Naptha, a barbarous name, Libav. Tom. 3. singul. l. 2. c. 7. Petroleum is more liquid than Naphtha; In Italy and the Country of Matina it distils out of a Rock, white and red of a strong smell. In Sicilia it swims upon Fountains, which they call Sicilian oil, and they burn it for Lamp oil; Pliny commends it against the Scabs of Cattle. In the Country of Parma it runs forth white, at the Village Meiana; There are 3. Fountains there; they gather it every, or every other day, thus; They shake the water with brooms, and foroing the oil into a corner, they take it with vessels. Every day half a pound in the most hot and dry time of the year, Baubin●n●● l. 1. Dioscor. c. 85. Of the red, at the Mount Zibethum, in the Winter, they collect 15. ounces, in Summer 45 ounces. In the Village Allense, it is collected black, with a fleece and a scoop. The more water is drawn forth, the more oil they take; sometimes 240 ounces. It varies as the place doth. The Italian burns not in its Fountain, the Babylonian doth. That is wonderful which Mathiolus reports, in l. 1. Dioscorid. c. 82. Hercules of Ferrara ● Contrariis, had in his possession a pit, into which Petroleum distilled; He hired a Plasterer to stop it; and because he could not do it without light, he let down a Candle, and the Petroleum took fire by it, and threw forth the Plasterer, and broke down the sides of his pit. Maltha, is the straining of Bitumen, mingled with mud, that is like clay. Pliny speaks of it, l. ●. c. 104. In the City Samosata (saith he) of Comagena, there is a Lake that sends forth burning mud, it sticks to any solid thing it toucheth, and it follows, when you draw from it. In joining of walls it serves for lime, And the Babylonians used it to build their walls with, Vitruvius l. 1. c. 5. CHAP. VIII. Of Pissaphaltum, and the ways of Embalming dead Corpse. PIssaphaltum is Bitumen that Pitch is boiled with. Bauhinus thinks, it is Mummy of the Arabians. But this is of two sorts, natural, and artificial, that they embalmed with, consisting of Myrrh and Aloes. But of the materials, and the manner how to embalm, we shall speak of them here, as we come to fall upon them: Diodorus Siculus, and Herodotus l. 3. are large concerning it. Three men perform this work. The first is called a Grammarian, who as the body lies on the ground, appoints how great the incision shall be about the small guts on the left side. The other is the Cutter, and he opens the side with an Aethiopian stone, and then suddenly runs away; for those that stand by detesting the fact, pursue him with stones. Then follow the Embalmers. One of these draws his incision through the inside of the body, besides the Heart and Kidneys; Another washeth it with Phoenician wine mingled with spices. Lastly, they anoint the body washed with Unguents of Cedar, and other precious things for 30. days. Then it is delivered to the kindred that mourn for him; the hairs of his eyelids and eyebrows being preserved, that he may seem to be asleep. Herodotus speaks of three kinds of embalming; The first was by pulling the brains through the Nostrils with a hook, and the bowels taken forth with an Aethiopian stone, they cleanse it with Phoenician wine, and stuff it with spices, than they fill the fat pannicle with Myrrh, Cassia and sweet odours beaten, without Frankincense, and sew them in, than they salted it for 70 days; then they wash the Corpse, and wrap it in a linen cloth, and smeer it with Gum, and lay it into the fashion of a Man made of wood. The other is, by salting it 70 days, which draws forth the inward filth. The third way is, the poor cleanse the belly with washing, then for 70 days they dry it with salt, and then they lay it up. And not only men have been so honoured, but beasts also. For some beasts were sacred to the Egyptians; and when they were dead, they covered them with a linen cloth, and spread them with salt, striking their breasts, and howling. And to preserve the body the longer, they anointed it with oil of Cedar, and kept it in hallowed places. Also they put divers Idols into the breast of it. Rondeletius found in the breast of one of them 20 leaves of ancient Paper, written with Arabian letters, Bauhin. ad l. 1. Dioscor. c. 85. Moreover, the French commend Mummy so much, that the Nobility will never be without it. They say, that Francis the 1. always carried it in his purse, fearing no accident, if he had but a little of that by him. CHAP. IX. Of Camphir. THe Moors write, that Camphir is a Gum of a Tree, that spreads out its boughs so far, that 100 men may stand under the shadow of it. They add, that the wood is white, reedy, and hath the Camphir in its spongy pith. That's uncertain, but it is more certain, that it is made of a kind of Bitumen; thus, The Indian Bitumen, which springs from the native Camphir, is boiled in a vessel with fire under it, the thinner parts turn into a white colour, and are carried to the cover, which gives them the form we see, when they are collected. Merchants say, there is native Camphir in the Indies. It is so near to fire, that once fired, it will burn all out. The flame that comes from it, is bright and smells sweet. Hanged in the air, it evaporates by degrees, the most thin parts are the cause. Hence Apothecaries put it in a close vessel with Milium or Linseed, and cover it, Plater. de l. f. p. 165. The smell of it hinders lust; drank, or smelled to, and carried about, it extinguisheth the seed. And because it flies to the head; if it carry up with it cold humours, it may cause sleep, and make men hoary before they be old. If to women, sick of the Mother, or fainting of heart pains, a small cup of water be exhibited, wherein so much Camphir is burned as a hazelnut, it presently helps, Heurnius l. 2. Medic. The neoterics hold it is cold, and that it is mitigated by Ambergris; and that the dryness may do no hurt, oil of Violets is poured upon it. Garzias ab Horto saith, he learned by experience, that in inflammations of the eyes it was as cold as Snow. But Mindererus l. de Peste writes; That when he went to visit sick persons, and had swallowed a small piece of it, he perceived nothing within him, but like a very small fire. CHAP. X. Of Amber or Electrum. SOme think it to be the juice of Trees; but amiss. There stand no Trees by the Sea, that Gums drop from them, falling into the Sea, of which Amber is made. It is more certain, that it is a thick juice of the Earth. The most part is found in Borussia, also in Curlandia, on the part of Sarmatia, but not so plentiful. It is taken in nets like fish. When the Northwest or West wind blows hard at Sea, they all run to the shore, with casting nets of yarn in their hands, Agricol. in l. de Fossil. The winds being allayed, but the Sea flowing, when the waves return back, they draw the Amber from the bottom; and an herb like pennyroyal, that grows in it. When they have taken it, they carry it to the Magistrates, who give them the weight of it in salt. Every Month it is said to be sold for ten thousand Germane Crowns. At Buchania in Schetland, a mass came to shore greater than a horse. The ignorant Clowns used it for Frankincense, Hector Boetius in histor. Scot Precious figures are made of it; the Romans were so taken with it, that a little picture of it was more than the price of a living man, Plin. Histor. natural. Rubbed, it draws straws, if it be not smeared with oil or water. Some seek the cause in a dry spirit: But, Scaliger Exerc. 104. s. 12. saw it draw a green Lettuce▪ some in the super elementary quality: others think it comes by accident, Fernel. l. 3. Med. c. 4. For it hath piercing and sharp spirits, and withal glutinous and fat. Being attenuated by rubbing, they wax hot, and they easily pierce into light things, as they break forth, Libavius in lib. singular. When they meet with cold things, they congeal; congealed, they return toward their beginning; for the heat is driven back by its contrary. If you make a fine powder of chaff, and iron, the Amber draws forth the chaff, the Loadstone the iron. In the shore at Puceca, of former times, they digged up some of ash colour; which when it was broken with iron, it drew unto it leaves that were upon the ground, and two foot from it, when they were blown up into the Air: The white smells the best; Because of the Plague, Chambers are perfumed with the scrape of it, the scent lasts for 3. days; every thin piece of it burned in fire, flames away. CHAP. XI. Of Ambergris, Jet, and Earthy Bitumen. Ambergris is a Juice in Asia amongst the Moors. Some think it grows like Mushrooms, out of the Earth under the Sea: Others say, that the Codfish doth greedily follow after it, and kills itself by devouring it: which the Fisher's knowing, taking him in their Nets when he is dead, they unbowel him, Ma●hiolus in Dioscor. l. 1. The truth is, it runs out of the Fountains into the Sea, and being hardened, there it is cast upon the shore. It is good for the brain, that is cold, Libav. l. 3. Singul. It may hurt the heart, unless the cause be cold that molests it; namely, if the spirits be hot, and too much attenuated, Heurn. l. 2. Medic. A Plaster of Amber is good for bald and weak heads from a cold cause. He that carrieth it, after a little use perceiveth it not. The weaker a woman is, and the Matrix movable, the more easily is it disquieted by Musk and Amber, and her head will ache. Infused in wine, it will make men drunk. Black Bitumen hardened in the Sea is called Jet: which the floods use to cast upon the shores of the Aestyi with Amber. Earthen vessels that are glazed with it are not defaced, Plin. l. 36. c. 19 When it is burned, it smells like brimstone. It is a wonder, that it kindleth with water, but is extinguished with oil. It discovers the Falling-sickness and Virginity by the smell of it: drank by a Virgin fasting, it causeth her to make water, Dalechamp. in Notis ad l. c. Nicander in his Theriacks calls it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; the Interpreter expounds that, Jet; which is found great, and of a pale colour o● the shore at the Town of Ganges in Lycia. Strabo saith, That creeping things fly from the sent of Jet. It is called Earthy Bitumen, otherwise burning stone, because it will flame, and is good for Iron-Smiths Furnaces. It is called Ampelitis, because it kills little Worms called Caipas; Also Pharmacitis, because it is good in Physic: I saw it dug up in Scotland. So in the Jurisdiction of Leids, where if it be hard, they make Chapelets of it to say their prayers upon. Hitherto belong the bituminous Furs, that being dried, make the Dutch fuel: Also the● are dug forth in Collaum, a Province of Peru, which Monardus describes in these words: In Collaum, a Province of Peru, there is a place all bare; no Tree nor plant grows upon it, because the Earth is bituminous, out of which the Indians extract a liquor good for many diseases. The way to extract it, is this, They cut the ground into Turfs, and in an open place they lay it upon rods or greater ●eeds, putting vessels under it to receive it; for by the heat of the Sun this Bitumen melts, than the dry turfs remain without liquor, fit to make fires. Moreover, on the left hand in the shore of the Sinus Pucicus, not far from the Monastery, there are found clots of congealed Bitumen, very hard, about the bigness of Eggs. They all burn, being kindled, Agricol. in l. de Fossil. Near these there grow pale-coloured shrubs that smell like fish, they are 3 or 4 hands breadths high. They have no roots, and are like little dishes; the Greeks call them Lepadas, they stick to the clods. CHAP. XII. Of Coral. Coral, otherwise Stone-tree. It comes from a juice that is stony when it grows, under the Sea water: it is a small Tree green and soft, bearing Berries, like the Cornus Tree; in shape and magnitude, but soft and white: it presently grows hard before it is cut; it appears all green. Sometimes also the stalks of one Coral Tree are partly red, partly white, and partly black. In the Mediterranean, they gather great quantity of it; and those of Massilia go yearly to fish for it, and draw it from the bottom of the Sea with Nets, Dispens. Chymic. l. 2▪ c. 49. Linschot. part 3. orient Ind. c. 1. At the Cape Bon Esperance, he saith, there are Rocks, on which Coral grows of all colours. The Indians wear it because Soothsayers think it avoids dangers. The vulgar thinks it can preserve their Children from Witches. This is superstitious, but certain it is, it will quench thirst, being extreme cold. Mercurial. l. 3. the curand. affect. Tied to the neck, it drives away troublesome dreams, and stills the nightly fears of Children. Pansa de prorog. vitae l. 4. If a Man wear it, it will be very red: but pale, if a woman use it. Lemn, l. de occult. c. 22. The fuliginous Spirits in a woman are the cause of it, and the faint heat in Coral. In men the natural heat is strong and evaporates. Hence if Coral be covered with Mustard seed it waxeth red. There are other Plants in the Sea that come from a juice that grows into a stone. About Hercules' Pillars, and in the outland Sea, Trees grow like Bay Trees. In the Indian Sea, there are Bulrushes and Reeds; in the red Sea, Mushrooms; all which being cast forth, are changed into stones. Theophrastus and Pliny confirm these; To this appertains Syringites, that is like a jointed straw, and the reed hollow. CHAP. XIII. Of Brimstone and Stybium. BRimstone is dug up in Islandia by the Mountain Hecla, and that without fire. It is yellow that is digged out of a Plain of Brimstone, which in Campania they call Virgin-Brimstone, because women paint their faces with it. It is so friendly to fire, that pieces of it laid about the wood will draw the fire to them. The Greeks and Romans did purify houses with the fume of it; put into the fire, it will by the sent discover the Falling-sickness. Anaxilaus made sport with it, carrying it about in a red hot cup with fire under it, which by repercussion made the guests look pale as if they had been dead; Plin. l. 35. c. 15. The Chemists make such an effectual oil of Balsam of Brimstone, that it will suffer neither live or dead bodies to corrupt; but keeps them so safe, that no impression from the Heavens, or corruption of the Elements, or from their own original, can hurt them Weck▪ Antidote, Spec. l. 1. I shall say something of Stybium. It hath an exceeding purgative quality, as we see by experience. Mathiol. ad Dioscorid, l. 5. c. 59 Andrea's Gallus, a Physician of Trent fell into an inflammation of the Lungs, Heart and Stomach, with a wonderful thirst, swelling of the Throat, beating of the heart, and a strangling distillation almost from the head. He took three grains of Stybium with Sugar rosat: first he cast up yellow choler 4, ounces weight, and afterwards 2 pound weight, symptoms ceased, and he recovered his former health. Georgius Hendschius writes, that the same thing happened to him in the pestilence; Also Lucas Contilis. Senensis: taking 4, grains of Stybium vomited up 12, bits of Turpentine Rosin, that he had swallowed 15. days before. But a Parish Priest of Prague that was mad of melancholy, taking 12 grains of the same, purged choler downwards, that had like scrape of flesh mingled with it, and they appeared as great melancholy Veins called varices cut into pieces. CHAP. XIIII. Of Juices that grow into stones. I had almost forgot juices that harden like stones. Nature hath wonderfully spo●ted herself in them, sometimes it hardens before it touch the ground, and sometimes when it is fallen down. Both these ways are seen at Amberga, where there are white pillars made by it. Agricol. l. de effl. ex terra. What ever drinks it in, is made a stone, if it be but porous. Hence you shall find stony Fountains▪ and Wood and Bones that are dug up. When the workmen in time of War fled into the Mines of Lydia, about Pergamus, the entrance being shut up, they were strangled, the den was afterwards made clean, and there were found Vessels of stone filled with a stony juice. About the Coast of Elbog, there are great-firr Trees, with their barks, in the cracks whereof a fire stone of a Golden colour grows. About Cracovia in Bohemia, there are Trees with boughs, out of which there are Whetstones with corners; which was a Present▪ sent from the Lords of Columbratium, to Ferdinand the first. Hildesham hath beams laid upon heaps; the heads of these sometimes stick forth, these being stricken with Iron or with another stone, not unlike the marble at Hildesham, they smell like the sent of burnt horn. There is also Wood changed into a stone, and in the cracks of it there is Ebony dug forth, which T●eophrastus was not ignorant of, that it lay hid scattered in the hollow o● other stones. Looking Glasses, rubbing clothes, Garments, Shoes, being brought into a quarry in Assus of Troas become stones, Mucianus. But stones that congeal from juice are commonly soft and brittle. In the hot Baths of Charles the 4th, many stones together are found, hollow like Hives, half Globe figured, so great as pea●e, they grow from the drops of the hot waters falling down. But those earthen Vessels that are found in the Earth; were Pi●chers for dead men's bones, because in all of them covered with lids, there were ashes, and in some Rings were found, we saw such a one in the Library Thoruniense. It was the fashion of the Ancients, as all know, to burn and lay up their ashes. In Italy also some urns were found of glass. Caesar Carduinus had four found in the fields of Naples: but what happened at Verona, see Bertius in desc●i. agri Veronen. CHAP. XV. Of the Loadstone. THe Loadstone is well known: The effects of it are admirable, two are special, its turning to the poles of the World, and its dawing of another Loadstone and Iron. As for the first, in many places it doth nor exactly respect the poles, the Declination is sometimes more or less. This age observeth, that for 10 degrees beyond the fortunate Islands, where Cosmographers have set the beginning of Longitude, it concurs with the poles of the World; toward the East it varies more: About Norimberg, they count 10 degrees, in Norway 16, in Zembla 17, as the Dutch observed; but one Gilbertus hath found out 23 degrees variation. Whence we collect the greatest variation to be 23 degrees. If we ask the cause, the learned are of divers opinions, some say there are certain Mountains of Lodestones under the poles, and they say the Loadstone moves by sympathy. Others write that it turns to certain Stars. Others say there are in it two opposite points, whereof the one turns to the North, the other to the South. Others think, that it moves toward the South, because the operation of all the Planets is Southward. They all seem to be deceived. How great and what kind of Mountains these are, is yet unknown, and there are many Mines of it in Egypt. It doth not directly point at the Pole, unless it stand in the Meridian. The point that is toward the South, is held the stronger. The workmasters gives us a notable Maxim, when in the finger of the Mariners Chart, they rub that part of the neidle with the Loadstone, wherewith it turns to the South. Lastly there are opposite places, wherein the Eccliptick declines from the Aequator toward the North, and the Planets from the East make their motions by the North. It seems most probable, Sennert, l. 5. scient. natural. c. 4. that the Loadstone moves toward the South pole, either only, or if it hath two motions, the greatest is Southward. Let it suffice what Scaliger writes Exerc. 131. Nature, saith he, is at concord, and agrees with herself, she unites by an admirable order, all things above and below, that it may be one by a perpetual necessity. So that there are in things separated not only steps, entrances, and retreats, but also minglings of those things which seem to be wholly parted. Bodinus pronounceth that all the 4, parts of the world are equally respected by the Loadstone Theatr. nature. l. 2. For (saith he) the steel needle easily rubbed upon the Loadstone, from that part of the Loadstone that pointed North before it was cut out of the rock, if the needle be equally balanced, the end rubbed with the Loadstone will turn to the North. The same force there is to the South part, if he needle be rubbed on the South part of the Loadstone. Nor is the force less for the East or West part of the Loadstone▪ though the stone cannot turn itself to the Poles of the world, but only the steel needle that is touched with it. But this I have said cannot be understood, but by experience: for if you put a piece of Loadstone upon a piece of Wood swimming in the water, and you apply that side of the Loadstone that looked Southward before it was cut out of the Rock to the side of another Lodstone that looked Southward also, before it was hewn forth, the stone that swims will fly unto the opposite part of the Vessel with water; but if you turn the Northern part of the Loadstone, to the Southern part of another Loadstone swimming in the water, the Loadstone that swims presently comes and joins with it, so that th●● both unite by an admirable harmony of nature; though the Wood or the Vessel of water be between. The same will be done, if you put only an iron Needle, thrust through a quill into a Vessel of water, and hold in your hand a piece of a Loadstone, one side of the Loadstone will drive off the needle, the other will draw it. So saith Bodin. What concerns drawing: that the Loadstone doth draw, is maintained of the Aethiopian Loadstone; Plin. l. 36. c. 16. experience hath proved it; Libavius. ay, saith he, when I proved this, wiped off all dust from the Loadstone, and then I scraped away some powder of its own substance, this was laid upon a paper or plank of wood, and the powder scraped from it was laid under it, the Loadstone moved and attracted. The Loadstone draws the Loadstone, by a certain line, because there is a spirit in it like to the other, and nature inclines and is carried to its like, as much as may be. It is as certain, that it draws Iron also. The hardness of Iron gives way, and obeys; and that matter which tames all things, runs to I know not what empty thing, and as it comes nearer it stands still, and is held and sticks in imbraceing, Plin. l. 36. c. 26. The virtue of it was found out, when the nails of his shoes and top of his crook stuck fast, for the first inventor was a Heyward. Nor doth it draw Iron on each part with the same force. The rule seems to be a right line. Therefore where the virtue comes not, the ends are turned, and whilst one of them inclines to the needle, the other accidentally turns from it, and seems to reject it. The same reason serves for divers Lodestones. In the Midland Seas of Sardinia, at the foot of the Mountains that part, they bend Eastward; they say there is a Loadstone that draws Iron, but on the opposite part, one that drives it off, and therefore it is called Theamedes, Plin. l. 2. Wherefore do we go to Mountains? We may see it in every laboratory, if we will believe Libavius, Syntagm, Art. Chymic. Tract. 1. l. 1. c. 19 There are opposite parts in one and the same stone contrary to the rest: and it hath an example of sympathy and antipathy in itself; as Vipers, Scorpions and venomous Creatures have in themselves both their friends and their enemies. I shall set down some examples of attraction. Severus Milevitanus saw, when Bathanarius, heretofore governor of Africa, put Silver under between the Stone and the Iron; the Iron on the top moved, and the Silver was in the middle, and suffered nothing but with a most swift retreat, the Man drew the stone downward, and the stone drew the Iron upward. August de civitat. Dei lib. 21. cap. In Alexandria in Egypt, at the roof of the Temple of Serapus, there was a Loadstone fastened in, which held an Idol that had an Iron in the head so fast, that it hung between the roof and the ground; Euseb in Histor. Eccles. Agricola said, he saw a round looking glass, that was three hands breadth broad, and two high; in the concave part whereof there was a Loadstone, included above, (Agricola de subter●●n) that drew an Iron boul placed at the bottom of the glass unto itself, so that the thick body of the glass could not hinder the force of it; the Iron Globe that useth to fall down, was carried up. Let us come to the cause, and inquire whence comes this force in the Loadstone. Each man speaks diversely, and so many men almost so many opinions. Libav. l. 1. de Bitum▪ c. 12, saith that there is a bituminous nature in the Loadstone, reduced to the disposition of Iron, by a similitude of sympathy and mixture, whereby the same principles grow in Iron. And he adds, that there is an Iron bituminous spirit common to them both, but it flows not out continually, and as strong from Iron as from the Loadstone, by reason of the diversity of coagulation or commis●ion; Others attribute that to the hidden form: Others allege a mutual harmony of natural things. There are in the great world, saith Langius, l. 2. Epist. 55, under the concave of the Moon, some things that by a secret consent agree wonderfully together. The truth is, the Loadstone is some kind of vein of Iron, and Iron may be generated of it: Sennert. l. 8. Epit. c. 4. But the Loadstone loseth its attractive force, if you work it in the fire: For whilst it burns, the brimstony spirit of it flies forth, as Libav. l. 2. singul. thinks. We saw, saith Porta (Mag. nature. l. 7. c. 7.) with great delight, the Loadstone buried in burning Coals, to cast forth a blue brimstony Iron kind of flame, which being dispersed, the quality of its life departed, and it lost its power to attract. It yields to the injuries of the weather, and dies with old age. The expiring of it, is hindered by ointments rubbed upon it, and the tenacious juice of Leeks; others add, oil of Bricks. Lem. l. 4. c. 10. the occult. But Cardanus l. 7. the subtle: denyeth this. It will not lay hold on rusty Iron, and much less on rust, Scaliger Exerc. 112. Otherwise if Iron-filings were buried in dust, or the Iron be on the other side of the Table, the spirit, as was said, is not hindered. CHAP. XVI. Of the Stones, Schistos, Galactites, Gip, Selenites, Amiantos. SChistos the more it shines like Iron, the harder it is. In Missena there are bred some knobs about the bigness of a Walnut, so hard, that laid on an anvil, they resist the strokes. Agricola saw one of Missena, that weighed 14 pounds. Galactites at Hildesham is dug forth of a Sand-pit; yearly it increaseth from a milky and lutinous juice so that some are found as big as one's head; they say it makes Nurses full of milk that drink it in powder with water or sweet wine. All Gin is hard: In Saxony in the Land of Hildesham, it is found like to Sugar; The Inhabitants of Hercinium, and Thuringum, burn ●hat which is hard, and grind that which is burnt; and wetting it with water, they use it for Lime: what colour soever it be, it grows white by burning. Lysistratus of Sy●e, Brother to Lysippus, was the first that made a Man's picture with a face in Gyp, and then poured Wax melted into that form, trying thereby to make it better. A wall was made of Gyp, in pieces of Ash-colour, at Northusia in Thuringia, and the Port of Algous, a Town of Mauritania Caesariensis. Selenites is a stone that is wont to be found at dark night when the Moon increaseth; and it represents the Moon by shining in the night, and it increaseth and diminisheth with it daily. It not only shows your face, but it will represent the image of a thing behind your back. It endures the Sun's heat, and Winter's cold, but it cannot away with rain; for it will corrupt, if great pieces of it be exposed to rain. Amianthus is made of an appropriate juice; the fire is so far from polluting its lustre, that if it be cast in, it will shine the brighter. Once lighted, it never goes out, if oil fail not. Hence it is called Asbestos; and because it is like to women's full hair, and to men's hoariness, it is called Bostrychitis and Corsoides. We saw (saith Pliny) in banqueting places, napkins made of it, that when the filth was burnt out of them, were cleansed more with fire, than they would have been with water. It was found at the siege of Athens, that things anointed with it would not burn; under L. Sylla. This stone is kembed, spun and wove, though with difficulty, because it is short: and they make not only Napkins, but Tablecloths of it▪ and Towels. Also of old time they made the Funeral Coats for Kings, which were put upon them, when they were put into great fires to be burnt, that so the ashes of their bodies being parted from the wood-ashes, might be laid up in their Sepulchers. Pliny saith, that this Linen hath been found to equal the price of the best pearls; but now it is sold at mean rates. CHAP. XVII. Of Stones that represent divers Forms. THere are many stones representing divers forms. We will mention some here, namely, Trochites, Eutrochos, Encrinos', Enorchis, and others. Trochites, is like the round head of a pillar: the round part is smooth, but each broad part hath, as it were, a kind of conveyance, from whence are lines unto the extreme part of the Circle. Put into vinegar, it raiseth bubbles, and some are found that move from place to place. Eutrochos is made of Trochites not yet separated. Whose Trochites have eminent lines; in that part where two of them meet, there seems to be a girdle twisted round within it. But the Trochitae are so joined, that the lines of the one enter into the furrows of the other. Encrinos', is like Lilies, for when one part with corners is parted from the other, both show like five Lilies. Enorchis in the shards is like testicles. In the Diocese of Trevirs, when Cements are digged up to repair buildings, they meet with blackish stones that represent the secrets of women, Diphyiss by an intercurrent line represents the Genitals of both Sexes. The D●ctyli of Ida, in Crete, of an iron colour, are like a man's thumb. There is also a stone found like a new Moon, clothed with Armour of a golden colour. Haephestites, represents the nature of a glass, and in the Sun it will fire dry matter. At Salfelda in Thuringia, there is a stone dug forth of a pit 20 fathom deep; it is like a firm breast, a foot and half long, three hands breadth; on the former part where the ribs end, it is six fingers thick, on the hinder part where the whirlbones are pierced through the middle, but three; the backbone was empty, where it should represent the marrow. The outside of this stone was either black, or some rare colour, and the inside was like to the Lapis Arabicus▪ It is supposed to be of great virtue. Belemnites, is like an Arrow, with a large head, and a sharp point: There is in it a kind of rift, it is clothed with golden coloured lines, and it shines naturally like a Looking-glass: It smells like filled or burnt horn, if it be rubbed. The Saxons name it by a name compounded of Ephialtes, and an Arrow; and they say, if one drink it, that it is good against suppressions, and such hags in the night. CHAP. XVIII. Of the Eagle stone, Enhydros, the Touchstone, and the Pumex stone. THe Eagle stone is found in divers Countries; In the Country of Misenus, then especially, when great reins fall. It smells like a Violet, by the Moss sticking upon it. It hath in it little stones, that being loose and shaken, make a noise: They commonly stick to Misenus; some have earth with them, as at Hildesham, and some gold, as those of Cyprus. That which hath a little stone in its belly, as the Greeks say, if it be bound to the left arm of a woman great with Child, through which an Artery runs from the Heart, toward the ring-finger, next to the little finger, it will hold the Child in the womb that is ready to miscarry; bound to the left thigh of one in labour, it will so help her, that she shall be delivered without pain: but so soon as she is delivered, it must be taken off, that the Matrix follow not. As it fell out with the Wife of a Citizen of Valencia, Francis. valeriola l. 1. observ. 10. It helped her, tied on, to be delivered; but not taken away, it was her death. Enhydros hath water within it; It is perfectly round, it is white and smooth, but it floats when it is shaken. There is liquor in it like as in an Egg. Also liquid Bitumen, sometimes that smells sweet, is found in stones shut up as in vessels. The Touchstone is that stone they prove gold by: In Theophrastus' days they were only found in Tmolus; but at this day in the Rivers of Hildesham, and Gosselar. The parts of them that are found looking toward the Sun, are the best for trial; the worst look toward the Earth, those are the driest: but these are hindered by their moisture that they cannot take the colour of gold or silver. The Pumex stone is found in places that have been burnt, baked out of the earth, or stone: because it hath holes, in which the light air floats; and because it is without moisture, it burns not. They that have charge of Wines put it into a vessel of boiling new Wine, and it presently gives off boiling. Drunkards that strive for mastery in drinking, arm themselves with the powder of it; but unless they drink abundantly, they are in danger, saith Theophrastus. CHAP. XIX. Of Lapis Vitrarius and Specularis. THere are three kinds of stones that will run in a burning furnace. The one is like to transparent Jewels. It hath their colour, but is not so hard. Of this kind is Alabandicus, which melts in the fire, and is melted for glass; The second kind is not much unlike it, but hath not so many colours, the third kind is lapis Vitrarius. This hath its proper Veins also. At A●nebe●gum, in a Silver Mine it was found in the form of a Cross; at Priberg like to an Ape; pieces of it are found also out of the Earth: but by the running of the waters, they are polished by rubbing against some stones of their own, or of some other kind. The white stone is burnt, beaten to powder, searsed; of that they make sand, of these they blow glasses. The River Belu● at the foot of the Mount Carmel, rising in Phoenicia, between the Colony of Ptolemais and the City Tyre, brings those kind of Sands fit for glass to the Sea side, which being tumbled with the Waves of the Sea, shine, their foulness being washed off. Plin. l. 6. c. 26. The report is that a ship came loaded with Nitre, the Merchants provided their Victuals as they were dispersed here and there on the Sea shore, and when they found no stones to make them Tables of, these took fire, and the Sea shore●sand mingled with them, thence those transparent Rivers of this noble liquor began to run; and this was the beginning of Glass. But we must not think that Glass is made of this Sand only. To three parts of that they add one part of Nitre, and of these melted cometh Amm●-●itre. If Nitre be wanting, mineral salt will supply the defect. If this, than either Sea salt, or the Ashes of the herb Anthyllis burnt. But when that the matter of glass melts in the fire, it froths, and the froth is taken off with a drag: when they are forthwith hardened, they are made into white loaves, in which there is a mixed taste more salt than bitter. Men report that in Tiberius' days, there was a way invented to make glass malleable, and that his whole shop was ruined, that the price of Gold, Silver, Brass and other mettles should not be brought down; but the fame of it is more constant than certain. In our time, especially at Venice, is glass of high esteem; we have seen some that have framed divers works of it, as bright as a Candle. When Nero reigned, by the art of making glass, was found out to make small Cups with two ears, they called them Pinnati or Pterota: one of them was sold for 6000 Denarit. I refer the lapides speculares to these, because they were of a bright substance, as Basilius writes, it was transparent like the Air. The Ancients used it for Windows, as we do glass. Nero made a Temple for Fortune of these stones, so that whosoever stood without was seen, though the doors were shut, the light appeared though not sent through. Pancirolla, l. 1. de veter. deperd. CHAP. XX. Of Crystal, Iris, and the Diamond. COncerning the Original of Crystal, writers differ. Pliny, l 37. c. 2, saith, that it is made by the most violent frost from Snow or Ice. Agricola, l. 6. fossill. saith, it is some sap congealed by cold in the bowels of the Earth. The former opinion seems to be true. For not only the name confirms it, but the place also where it is bred, for it is found in those places where the Winter Snows are, in such unaccessible places of the Alps, that oft times they are fain to be let down with ropes to draw it to them. In Asia and Cyprus it is Ploughed up, and carried along with the torrents. Scalig. exe●c. 119. From the Percinian Rocks, which are in the extreme parts of Noricum, it is pulled off from the tops of Mountains there, that are covered with no earth. Sometimes there is a kind of course Silver in it, of the colour of lead o'er, and of divers weights. In India it is found so great that they make a Vessel of it sometimes that will hold four Sextaryes. Livia Augusta dedicated one in the Capitol, that made a Vessel that held 50, pounds. They are seldom found single, many of them oft times stick upon one root, sometimes rising together, and sometimes a part. They lie sometimes so fast, that it is a hard matter to pull them off. Every Crystal point, and the whole body of it, is with 6 Angles. It cannot be melted by heat of the Sun. The extreme cold hath so frozen it, that it is not a small thing can melt it, yet can it not endure heat, Bodin. l. 2. Theatr Natur. For in the hottest furnaces and great flames, it will run by continuance; being melted, it will harden again; and if you pour hot liquor into a Crystal cup, it will break. It is thought, worn about one, to cure the Vertigo; and for that cause, Men drink out of Venice Glasses, Plater, l. 1. de. l. f. There are made of it, both Glasses and Chamber pots, such a one as Pliny writes was bough by a Matron that was not very rich, for H. S. C. L. M. or 150000 sestertii. Pancirolla had one of so pure matter, and so transparent, that it seemed almost to be air, the outsides only being opposed to the view. It had an adder in it, with open mouth ready to devour a young Lamb, but he was hindered by the opposite Crosse. Pancirol. de veter. deperd. l. 1. Also Iris is a white Jewel: if it have a sexangular form, held against the Sun beams entering in at the Windows, it casts the colours of the Rainbow on the wall that is over against it. The Diamond is found in many Mines. The Indian Diamond exceeds not the kernel of a small nut, that of Cenchros is no bigger than a millet seed, Agricola l. 6. the fossil. The Ancients speak much of it, namely that it cannot be broken by hammers, that it takes all virtue from the Loadstone; and so resists fire, that it will never wax hot. Those of our days have found the contrary. Camer. memorab. med. c. 8. M. 42. For a hammer will break it, and an iron pestle will bring it to powder. It yields to fire, and may be calcined with a long continued flame; yet though in an hour by the fire it will lose its lustre, it will recover it again by polishing with some defect in the lustre. It hath been found, that rubbing one against the other, they have been so glued, that they could not easily be parted, Bodin. Theatr. Natur. l. 2. It hath been seen to draw straws when it hath been hot, Garzias ab Horto l. 1. arom. c. 47. It was hitherto believed, that the powder of it drank, would breed the Dysentery; but that hath been disproved. Slaves have swallowed down some to hide their theft; they sent them forth by stool whole, without any hurt to their health. Cardan. (2. Tract. 5. Contrad. 9) saith, That one dram weight drank in powder, did no more harm than a piece of bread. The Turkish Emperor gave 50000 Crowns for one. CHAP. XXI. Of the Opalus, Emerald, Heliotrop, and Topaz. OPalus is a Jewel, which when you hold it downward, it hath the clear fire of the Carbuncle, the shining purple of the Amethyst the green Sea of the Emerald, and all things else shining with an incredible mixture. An Emerald doth so change the air about it with its own tincture, that it will yield neither to candles, Sun light, nor shade. Hence in the water it seems greater. Those that are not perfectly green, of them, are made better by wine and oil. They are seldom so great, as that you may grave a seal upon them. Yet there is one not very small at Lions in a Monastery, and that which▪ was seen at Prague in the Chapel of St. Vencessius, it is above 9 parts of 12, greater than that, Bodin. l. 2. Theatr. There is one longer at Magdeburg, which is contained in part of the spire fashioned Cabinet, wherein the Host is carried; some say it was the handle of the knife of Otho the first. There was a Jewel once found in Cyprus, the one half of it was an Emerald, and half a Jaspir. The Emerald hath wonderful virtue; It is an Enemy to poisons and bitings of venomous beasts; and it breaks, if they overcome it. It is said, to further women's labour, tied to the hips; and to hinder it, laid to the belly, Sennert. l. 5. Epitome. Scient. natural. c. 5. Shut in a ring, or hanged about the neck, if it touch the naked flesh, it preserves from the Apoplex, Plat. l. 1. deal f. It hath been known to break off from the fingers of the Master of it that wore it, when he was dead. It cannot endure venery; for if it touch one's body in the act, it will break▪ Albertus, the King of Hungary had one that broke at that time in 3. pieces. Heliotropium is a Jewel marked with bloody veins; cast into a vessel of water, it changeth the Sun beams falling on it, by reflection, into blood colour. Out of the water it receives the Sun, like a burning Glass, and you may perceive the Sun's Eclipses by it, how the Moon moves under. A Topaz is not only transparent, but also shines wonderfully; and the brightness goes forth like gold: it is greater than other Jewels: for thence it was, that a Statue was made for Arsinoa Wife to Ptolomaeus, Philadelphus, of 4 cubits high, and was consecrated in the Temple that was called the golden Temple. CHAP. XXII. Of the Amethyst, Hyacinth, the Sardonix, and the Onychite. IT is called an Amethyst, because it comes near the colour of wine, and before it comes to it, it ends in a Violet colour, Plin. l. 21. c. 8. Laid to the Navel, first it draws the vapours of Wine to itself, and then it discusseth them; wherefore it keeps him sober that wears it, Aristotle. The Hyacinth in clear weather shines the brighter; in cloudy weather the darker. By its fast cold, it condenses, and refreshes bodies, and preserves one that wears it, from the fierce pestilence. Sardonix is a Jewel compounded of a Sardonius and an Onyx. It shows inverted like a nail of a man's hand: the most generous roots are from a certain blackish ground, and first represent Onyxes, than they are compassed with a reddish circle, from thence a round line goes about them, then at a greater distance the circle grows larger; last, to all those girdles another kind of basis is placed under them. The Grecians made great account of this Jewel. Polycrates the King of Samos esteemed it so highly, that when as fortune had always favoured him, that he might try the contrary fortune, he cast his ring into the Sea, wherein this stone was set. An Onychites at Colonia, in the Temple of the 3. King's is broader than one's hand, Agricola. The milky veins of it so run forth, that they represent two young men's heads; the black veins so, that they represent a Serpent descending from the forehead of the lower head, and a black-Moors head with a black beard: But that was placed upon the mandible of the white head. Two Onyxes rubbed under a Table, will so burn, that you cannot hold them in your hands. CHAP. XXIII. Of the Jasper, Nephritick stone, and an Agate. A Jasper bound to the thigh, will stop the menstrual flux of blood, and all bleedings, which admit of no help otherwise. It stops bleeding at the Nose, being hanged about the Neck, Sennert. l. 5. Epitome. Scient. natural. Bound to the mouth of the stomach, and so carried all day for the Falling-sickness; if sweat follow, it frees from the fit, or else the sick fall, Baccius de gem. Pliny saith, he saw one of eleven ounces, and of that was made the picture of Nero in Armour, Plin. l. 37. c. 9 There is found in Silis one of a blue colour, that goes 9 foot deep, and then comes a dark sandy stone, about 12. foot long, that hath no Jasper in it, Agricola l. 6. de Fossil. From the authority of Thaetilis the Jew, There are found some strange kinds of it. There was a man seen in one, that had a Buckler on his neck, a Spear in his hand, a Serpent under his feet; It had virtue against all enemies: In another, there was a man with a bundle on his neck. It had virtue to discover all diseases, and to stop blood, Lemnius de gemmis Biblicis. The report is, that Galen wore it on his finger. There is a green one found signed with the cross, good to keep one from drowning. The Nephritick stone is referred to the Jasper, it is found only in Hispaniola, Sennert. l. 7. Inst. l. 5. p. 1. S. 1. c. 17. The superficies of it is always fat, as if it were anointed with oil. The Spaniards wear them cut in divers forms. Many things confirm the wonderful virtue of it, Unzer. de Nephritid. l. 1. c. 7. Hanged about the neck, it so breaks the stones, that they will seek for passage out of the body at both the Eyes, and where they can find way. A certain Merchant of Lipsick testifieth this, who had such things happened to him; and both his eyes grew red, by the salt and sharpness of the same. It will cure all distillations that fall from the head on the Chest, saith the same Merchant's Wife. For when she had carried one 3 weeks, she was cured; but the Physicians could not cure her. It will cause one to make water that is stopped, as we find in the same place: but this is singular, that born about one awhile, it will cause a great tickling; yet it ceaseth in 2. or 3. days space; but it returns, if it be applied again. Also it causeth hollow places under the skin; which if you break, than they send forth a very great quantity of sand. It is prepared by a singular and secret art, and one dram and a half for a dose of it so prepared, is given in Parsley and Juniper water: But the gravel doth hurt, if it find the stomach full. Libavius 1. Synt. Art. Chym. l. 1. c. 14. doubts of it, whether it doth these things by its own force, or another's. His words are; Sometimes it happens, that nature is stimulated, by mere persuasion and belief, from some conception of the mind, which we ascribe to the Object, the Fancy moving first by that. But the efficacy is not alike in all, nor is their assent and belief alike, unless you would say, that not only the Patient is troubled with the gravel, but he must be of such a disposition also, as may admit the force of that stone. And it is found, that the Nephritick stone is uneffectual to many. An Agate out of a River of Sicilia, hath its name from it. Veins and spots do so run up and down in it, that sometime it represents a Turtle; sometimes a horn; sometimes one small Tree, 2, 3, or 4; appearing like a Wood Camillus of Pisdura, saw once one that had as it were 7. Trees in a Plain. I● the Agate of King Pyrrhus there were the 9 Muses naturally with Apollo; and the Muses had their several badges. That which is of one colour, being boiled in an earthen pot full of oil with several paints, and in two hours being made somewhat hot, will make one colour like red Lead out of them all, Dalechamp in Plin. l. 37. Agricola l. 6. Fossil. Plin. l. 37. c. 1. CHAP. XXIV. Of the Ruby, the Carchedonius, Sandastrus, Chrysolite, and some others. A Ruby is of an exceeding red colour; Sometime it is so great, that vessels are made of it, containing a Sextarius. A Carchedonius is so called, because it was found amongst the Garamantes and Nasamones, amongst the gravel, and was brought to Carthage. It is otherwise called a Granate. It is said, that when they sealed, though in the shade, the wax would melt, Archelaus. It will not burn in the fire. Sandastrus hath red with a golden colour, golden spots shine within, as Stars in a transparent body; the more they are, the more costly is the Jewel. But because commonly it is marked with the 5. Stars called Hyadeses, both in their nmber and disposition, the Chaldaeans were superstitious about it. The Chrysolite differs in the plurality of its Stars. Bochus writes, he saw a Spanish one of 12 pounds' weight. Agricola saw a clod dug out of the Mines in Germany, that was made of more than 60 Chrysolites, all of them four square. The greatest was an inch broad, and 2 fingers in length, it was too soft to polish: Asyctos, made hot in the fire, contains the heat for 7 days; it is black and ponderous with red veins distinguishing it. Calcophnes is black, but struck upon, it sounds like brass; it is said to be good for Tragedians to carry with them. Catochites is a stone of Corsica, wonderful, if report be true; it holds, your hand laid upon it, like Gum. The Medes send Gasidanes, it grows in Arbelis. They say it conceives, and being shaken, you may hear the noise of the Infant; it conceives in 3. month's space. CHAP. XXV. Of Jewels found in the bodies of living Creatures. Artic. 1. Of the Draconite, the Chelonia, the Cock stone and Toadstone. MAny Jewels are found in the bodies of living Creatures. I will only set down some. For too reckon them all is to much for an Epitomist. Draconites of Dracontia is made out of Dragon's brains, but unless you cut it out whilst they are alive, it will never grow hard, by reason of the malice of the Creature, finding itself ready to die. Therefore Men cut them out when they are asleep. Sotacus, who writ, that he saw that Jewel with a King, saith, that those that seek it▪ ride in Chariots, and when they spy the Dragon they scatter sleepy medicaments, and so they come to cut it out. Plin. l. 37. c. 10. They are transparent white, and admit of no art to polish them. Cinediae are found in the brain of a fish of the same name; they are white and somewhat long and wonderful in effects, if it be so as men write. They foreshow the face of the Sea, by their troubled or peaceable colour. Chelonia is the eye of an Indian Tortis, most wonderful by the invented lies of Conjurers: for they promise, that if you lay it upon your tongue with liquid honey, it will foreshow future events at the full and new Moon for all day; but when the Moon decreaseth, before the Sun is up, at other times from one a Clock till six. Moreover of Draconitis, Philostratus writ; and ascribes to it as much virtue as Gyges' ring had; Rhodig. c. 11. l. 6. antiq. lection. Alectorius is cut out of the gizzard of a Cock with a Comb, being included with a thin skin or membrane, 4, years after he hath been gelded; Lemn. de occult. It may, be it is congealed from the excrement of seed, by force of his imbred heat, as milk grows hard in the breasts. It procures Men favour, and makes them lusty. Toads produce a stone; with their own Image sometimes. It never grows but in those that are very old. Libav. l. 3. singul. In the family of Lemnius there is one kept that is greater than a Hazel nut. Lemnius de occult. l. 2. c. 30. It is proved to dissolve tumors that rise from bitings of venomous beasts, if you rub it on often. The Lapis Bufonius, called Grateriano, the Swedes Chronicles write of it, it weighed 5, Physical pounds, and 3, Ounces, 2, drams less; Crasius annal, Suevit. l. 12. p. 3. c. 37. The words are these. After the joyful birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Virgin Mary, the mother of God. Anno, 1473; after the birth of St. John, the 27 of June, Berchtholdus Gratterus dwelling then at Hopstach, in the afternoon went into a Wood, which they call the Vale of Dipachia, to cut poles to make hoops for Vessels. In that place he heard a hissing and a great noise by a River in that Valley, and when he stood a far off to see what the matter was, he saw an incredible heap of Serpents and Vipers, and Toads lying twined together. As ne'er as he could conjecture, it was a greater quantity than a great washing Tub could contain. He was frighted and durst go no nearer, yet he cut a bough, and marked the place there in the confines; that day he came twice back, and beheld that conventicle of Serpents, and he found them all, almost together upon a heap: wherefore he left them and went home, concealing the matter for three days; when he returned to the Wood, he found that these water Snakes were gone, and none ●f these venomous Creatures were left, but only one Toad that was killed, and a Snake in a white glutenous humour, and thick, shining like to frog-Spawn, and near to it, that Toadstone Bufonius, which he catcht up, and wiped it, and carried it with him home, keeping it for some farther profit. But after that Gratterus came into the Town (about a 100 years since) the stone was used successully, for Man and Beast, as it follows. The eldest Son of the house of Gratterians keeps this Toadstone, and he will not lend it especially to strangers, under a pawn of 50, or a 100, Livers. Amongst the other virtues it is observed that it hath very great force against malignant tumors, that are Venomous, Choleric or Erisipelas, Apostems, and Bubos; and for cattle that are bewitched. They are used to heat it in a bag, and to lay it hot without any thing between to the naked body, and to rub the affected place with it. They say it prevails against Enchantments of Witches, especially for great bellied Women and Children bewitched. So soon as you apply it to one bewitched, it sweats many drops. In the Plague it is laid to the heart to strengthen it. It draws Poison out of the heart, and out of Carbuncles and Pestilent sores. It consumes, dissipates and softens all hardness, tumors, and Varices. Artic. 2. Of the Stones Chelidonium, Crabs eyes, Snail Stones, and Bezoar. CHelidonius is so called as if it came from Swallows: Yet it is form of a yellow Gold coloured Jasper. Bound to the right arm, it is good against fantastic thoughts, from melancholy: It cures such as are Lunatic and mad, and hath a peculiar virtue against diseases of the eyes, Plater. Also in the heads of River Crabs, there are stones which steeped in most sharp Vinegar, they will seem to move. Quercet. in dial. s. 3. c. 7. With their powder to half a dram in White Wine, the Stones of the Kidneys are happily driven out. Henric. a Bra. de calc. The Snail-Stone, put under the tongue, hath a great force to cause salivation. It makes the tongue moist, and the humour fluent, and stencheth thirst, and represseth heat. Bound on, it helps Children to breed teeth, Plin. l. 30. c. 5. A water Snake casts up by vomit, a stone into the water under her, if you bind a cord to her tail. Holler. l. 1. de morb. inter. c. 39 This hath such force to consume water, that it presently drinks it up. Wherefore, laid to the belly of an hydropic person, it consumes the water by degrees, Plater. l. de vita. The Bezoar Stone is found in the Stomach of a he Goat (rather of a she Goat) in the Indian Mountains. Sennert l. 5. Epitome, scient. natural. c. 4. Something which hath a kind of bark, and is, as I may so say, Chamford (saith Sennertus) proceeds from a small beginning, that is oft times, straw, to which some moisture sticks like glue, and hence it is that that stone is made up as it were of many thin plates. It is great in an old, less in a young she Goat; and all those plates both inward and outward are smooth and shining. Rasis by experiment commends it against all Venom. Not only drank saith Mathiol. on Diascorid. l. 5. c. 75. but also bound on, so that, it may touch the naked skin of the left side, it excels all other things. Abdalnarchus adds farther, The stone they call Bezoar, we have now seen, with the Sons of Almirama keeper of the Law of God: for which stone at Cardubahee, at the beginning of the Wars, parted with a magnificent, and almost King's Palace. Some say, that the Bezoar stone is nothing but the Tears of the Stag; for they say, that the old ones, overgrown with Age, do eat Serpents, and grow young again: and for to conquer the venom, they drench themselves in a River, only their head forth●; and, as they stay so, a clammy humour falls from their eyes; and being congealed by the Sun's heat, it becomes a Stone there. It is like an Acorn, and being fallen from their eyes, it is gathered up by such as attend for it. Yet they are thought to be divers, Scalig. Exerc. 112. writes thus concerning the Stag's tears, which he held to be the dearest thing to him in his Treasure of the Muses; Before 100 years a Stag hath none; after that age it grows at the corner of the eye, and thrusting forth like a bone, it grows harder than horn. The prominent part is round, very shining of a gold yellow colour, with prints of other veins. It is so smooth, that you can scarce feel it; and it so draws itself away, that it even seems to move. It is an excellent remedy against poisons. To those infected with the Plague, it is given with a little wine, and they will sweat so, as if their whole body would melt. Thus far Scaliger. He that would be fully instructed, let him read Bauhinus of the Bezoar stone. CHAP. XXVI. Of Gold. We have done with Minerals thus far. Now follow Metals. First, Gold: This is found in its proper vein, and in stones that are of shining white; also in the true Pyrite, and sometimes in stones of iron. In Spain some pieces have been found weighing above ten pound weight. It is ploughed up in Galitia, Justin. l. 44. Dubravius writes, that in the Mountains of the Gelovienses, a mass of ten pounds was taken out of a Rock; and he saith, it was presented to King Wenceslaus. In India the Pismires (which in Egypt are as great as Wolves) do carry it and keep it. In the Islands of the Sea of Aethiopia, the plenty of it is so great, that the Inhabitants have bartered a Talon for horses, Plin. l. 6. c. 36. This one thing loseth nothing by fire, but the more it burns, it grows the better. Yet the juice of Lemons will abate from its weight, Lemnius occult. l. 2. c. 36. and if hen's limbs be mingled with melted gold, they consume it, Plin. l. 29. c. 4. The heat of living Creatures may work upon it, as Wendlerus witnesseth in Prognostic. Anni 1619. A Senator of Gorlicum had a fat Hen, she had eaten about 4. books of leaf-gold beaten out with the hammer. When she was killed, it was found pure within her. In her breast 3. golden streaks were seen, some Artificer was thought to have drawn them, Schnitzerus Epistol. 50. writes, that in the stomach of another, that was killed, some moneys were found half consumed. To this add what Zacharias à P●teo affirms in his Clavis Medica Spagyrica, and Chirurgica; When, saith he, I studied at Milan, it happened, that one of our Hens, flew upon the Table; there were upon it some ornaments for women: amongst the rest a precious pearl, which hung to an ear Jewel curiously made by an Artificer, and it had some golden covers drawn about it, the Hen swallowed this pearl with the ear-jewel; when 4. or 5. hours were passed, the Pearl and Jewel were mistress A certain Maid thought the Hen had swallowed it; because some days before the said Hen had swallowed one, the Italians call Gazetta. Wherefore, the hen was killed, and presently her Gisard being parted and cut, we found the pearel with the ear-ring not yet passed into the cavity of the stomach, but contained in the orifice thereof; extreme hot, and yielding to the touch like wax, and the ornaments of it almost consumed by the heat thereof, which Jewel in a short space, when it grew cold, and the heat was gone, became hard, as it was before; the form was spoiled, and when it was weighed with another caring like it, it wanted a third part in weight. But to return to Gold. No Metal is drawn out further, or can be more divided: for one ounce of it will be hammered into 750 and more leaves, of 4. fingers broad and long, Plin. l. 33. c. 3. That it may be wiredrawn, and spun without silk, I need not approve of; The Luxury of the Age is well known. Pliny lived, when Agrippina, as Claudius, made a show of a Sea-sight, sat by him, clothed in a robe of woven gold, without any other addition. Now though it consumes not in the fire, yet it is resolved Chemically, and becomes so aërial, that if it be but stirred with an iron Spatula, or grow hot any other way, it will presently take fire and make a great noise; and one scruple of it shall work more forcibly than half a pound of Gunpowder, Crollius cited by Sennert. c. 18. de Consens. et dissens. Chymicor. A few grains of it if they fly down perpendicularly, can strike through a Table of wood, Quercetan. The cause is, the contrariety of the spirit of Nitre, and the brimstone of gold: for when as oil or salt of Tartar is poured into the solution of gold, the salt of Tartar unites itself with common salt, and also with Alum, and Ammoniac; and hence it is, that gold left to itself sinks to the bottom; and if any of these salts is left with the gold, it is washed off with hot water, Sennertus de consens. et dissens. Chymic, et Galen. c. 19 only the spirit of Nitre is left, which perfectly unites with the Gold. If that therefore grow hot, so soon as it perceives that the Sulphur of gold is there present, it opposeth itself against its Enemy, and breaks forth with a mighty noise, in flame. It hath been long disputed, whether it can be made potable; experience shows that it may. For that famous man Dr. Francis Antony, Physician of London, brought it into a consistence like honey, and sent certain portions of it to the Physicians of Germany to try it, Johan. Vincent. Finckius in Enchiridio dogmatico Hermetico. Yet Heurn. l. 1. Aph. 24, thinks it hath no nutritive faculty, because between potable and solid Gold, there is no difference but the liquefaction; and if a man cannot be nourished by the pure Elements he can hardly be fed with things inanimate and distilled: Also it may be made, nay it was made. Kelleius an English man converted one pound of quicksilver with one drop of a liquor of a deep red colour, into Gold, that with one grain, he tainted 5000, and with one he extracted about ten Ounces of pure Gold, Sennert. de consens et diss. cap. 2. And what Theophrastus did, is known out of Neander; it is known out of Oporinus, Neander in Geographia, Oporinus in Epistolis. Nicolaus Mirandulanus, made an Ingot of Gold out of Brass, he did it also at Jerusalem, and there are so many witnesses, that it were impudence to deny it. Picus Mirandula Apollinaris did aver sincerely that he had above 20 ways to make Gold. Hence was made that Epitaph at Rome, To the collector of Gold out of Lead. Some think they may be changed in shape but not in substance, I see not what hinders. The form of Lead is not turned into Gold; but, that departing, this succeeds. Where there is community of matter, there must be symbolisation of necessity. Plants have a perfect form in their kind, yet are they turned into Chylus, and it is no sophistication; The forms of things are unknown to us, we know them but by their properties; and, when as they all inhere in that, what place is there for doubting? Yet that is difficult, and to be attempted warily. Penotus was an excellent Chemist; learned men know how miserably he was deceived in his old age. His words were, If there were any man whom he could not hurt by open violence, he would persuade him to turn Chemist. Sennert. lib. cit. It is known to all Men, that divers works are made out of Gold. Heliogabalus unloaded his belly in Golden Vessels. Xerxes had a Golden Tree, under which he was wont to sit. A King of Egypt buried his daughter in a Coat of Coffin. Agricola in observ. Metal. In lower Germany, on Danubius, there were Vines that had tendrels and sometimes white leaves of pure Gold, Alexander. The cause is assigned, That (there) are Gold Mines, and that Gold grows about their roots, and being bred with it, and hardened by a secret Original, whilst Vines send out their branches, by a wonderful work of nature or decree of the Stars, the Gold grows out with them. Alexander ab Alexandro, l. 4. Genial. dier. CHAP. XXVII. Of Silver. PUre Silver is dug up in many places, but especially out of two places in Germany. So much was dug forth of the Mine at Sueberg, that it was worth 1000000 Rhenish Nobles. That of Abertham afforded 150000 Nobles. About some hundreds of years since, the Mine at Friberg yielded enough to buy all the Kingdom of Bohemia: Agricola in praefat. in decemfossil libros ad Henricum Principem M●senae. Wherefore Prince Henry, near Northusa set a great Tree of Silver, that he might bestow some of the leavs of it, (which were partly Silver and partly Gold) on those Noble Men that had gallantly discharged themselves in fight on horseback. Sometimes great lumps are dug forth. In the time of Albertus the Saxon, the pieces were so great, that he used them in the Mines for a Table, saying; Frederick the Emperor is powerful and rich, yet he hath not at this time such a Table▪ In the Valley Joachim, they report that there was a Lump dug forth that weighed ten Attic Talents. Nature makes it of many fashions; sometimes like Trees, sometimes like hairs. It is white, yet some hath been found green. Put rude suddenly into the fire, it will leap forth: When black Lead is mingled with it, it is melted in a great vessel, and part is turned into Lead o'er, part into Lytharg: but when it burns long, it loseth something, sharp things corrode it; Divers works are made of it. Amongst the Tectosages there are made silver Mills. An Historian writes, that the Buckler of Barchinus Asarubal weighed 138 pounds. The History of the Passion was made in pure silver; so were Herculeses 12 labours, brought to King Ferdinand. To Charles' the Emperor a Pillar made of silver. Cortesius himself brought it from Mexico. The price was 49000 Crowns, Maiolus de metallis. I saw Diana with a Stag and Hounds made of silver, with a Dial on the backpart, and there were many kinds of Infects about it cast very exactly. That it stood upon, was like a Table with many wheels. It ran, and their heads seemed to shake as they were turned back. India is chiefly fruitful of silver. The Mines of Potossum are known. Geographers will direct you, Bertius in Geograph. Also the Treasures of Spain are known. They that are acquainted with it, have written, that 9 times a hundred 45 millions of Crowns have been brought thence, Boterus in Hispan. descript. If there be a fifth part of silver to five of gold, it makes Electrum; of which formerly they made Calices, because it would discover venom. For bows like the Rainbows will run up and down in these cups with a fiery crashing, and so foreshow it two ways. By the light it is clearer than silver, Plin. l. 33. c. 4. CHAP. XXVIII. Of Quicksilver. IT is found pure in the Trenches, when Cenoble is washed with waters dropping from the veins; for so it is collected and turned into Quicksilver. The same dried turns again to be like Vermilion, very plentiful Fountains run in the veins of it, and the grass grows very green upon it, Vitruvius l. 8. c. 3. For they that search for the veins of it, in a clear morning in May, they observe the clouds coming forth of the Tops of the Mountains, and hanging like wool upon the grass. It hath a marvellous sympathy with gold, Plater. l. 2. del. f. c. 3. If it be in the body, it is drawn forth by drinking of gold. Silver cannot be gilded without Mercury. It is a wonder, that if one be anointed for the French Pox, let him have a gold ring in his mouth, and with his tongue roll it up and down, the Quicksilver in the body falls to the ring, it is taken out like silver, it is recovered by putting it into the fire, Lemnius l. 2. the occult. c. 35. When all other things swim upon it, only Gold sinks into it. It so flies the fire, that if it cannot go downward, it will fly upwards: and being shut in, it breaks the cover, Unzer. l. de Merc. c. 1. Put into a rin●, and put to the fire, it makes it leap. Bread in the Oven, Pease in the Pot, Eggs at the fire, if they be touched with a drop of it, will make men laugh by their dancing. The fire will make it fly into a vaporous smoke, but it is not dissipated. For, received and kept in a vessel, it shortly returns to Quicksilver again, and loseth nothing of its weight. Poured on a a plain body▪ it moisteneth not, and therefore men think it is dry. That is false; for nature makes it round, and it is hindered from sti●king by the lead o'er that surrounds it, Palm. Constant. de morb: Contag. l. 3. c. 4. It always moves. The terrestrial part is excellently well concocted, the air and spirits are the cause of it, for they are so shut in, that they cannot get forth; because they strive to get out▪ they are moved, Marc. l. 4. c. 6. The use of it, is divers. The Moons, when as all things are burnt by the heat of the Sun, pour that into a Vessel, and casting a skin upon it, they lie down upon that and cool themselves: Put into the ear, and so into the brain, it causeth the Falling-sickness. For it dissipates the animal spirits, Heurn. de cap: off. c. ●●. Water wherein some Quicksilver hath been infused, if it be strained and drank, wonderfully drives forth Worms. Midwives when women have been long in labour, for the last remedy give them a scruple of Quicksilver. Put into a hazel nutshell by a hole, and so fastened in, and tied about one's neck with a red silk, it preserves one from the Plague, Quercet. l. 2. pest. alex. 5. There have been so many experiments of it, that we must needs commend it before other remedies. If it hang down to touch the belly, it is singular against the Colic, Plater. de dol. c. 13. CHAP. XXIX. Of Brass and Alchemy. PUre Brass is found both in its own Mines, and amongst silver Mines. The lumps are dug forth of divers fashions, like Ic●● sickles, globes, rods. In shops where they separate brass from silver, it is yellow and red, which they call regular▪ duskish red they call Cauldrons mettle, Agric. in lib. Fossil. That is softer, and may be dilated and not melted only; this will melt, but not be drawn: with the tincture of Cadmia it will look like gold, and is called Alchemy. It melts and runs in the fire, but in a great crucible it will not endure the force of the fire, nor yet put alteraatì● with things that purge silver and gold, but will be consumed wholly. It will not corrupt, and keeps other things from corruption. Hence saith Horace, (A Monument more lasting than brass) and therefore the Egyptians seem to have put plates of brass into the Carcases of dead bodies. Pierius in Hieroglyph. testifies, that they were wont to stick sharp Spears of Brass into dead bodies. Camerar. ho●. subcis. cent. 1. c. 14. saw such Images at Venice with Lauredanus. The son of Lawredanus affirmed, that they were taken out of the bodies of men that were embalmed. There are divers works made of Brass. The hundred gates of Babylon are celebrated in records: and that brazen cup of 900 Gallons which the Lacedæmonians gave to Cro●sus. At Florence the Chapel of St. John Baptist, which they call the Font, hath three brazen doors gilded. The Colossus of Rhodes was made of the same metal, it was 70 cubits high. Fifty years after it was thrown down by an Earthquake, and lay many years for a miracle, Plin. l. 34. c. 7. Few could fathom the thumb of it, the fingers were longer than most Statues. Vast Caves were seen when the limbs were broken. There were within it mighty great stones: by the weight of them he ●hat made it, made it stand fast. They say it was 12 years making of 300 Talents. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. CHAP. XXX. Of Lead. LEad is of 3. sorts, white, ash-coloured, and black. The first is not found of its own colour, but the stones are whitish of which it is made. Ceruse is made of it corroded by the steam of vinegar. The ash-coloured is dug up at Sneberg. When silver is boiled out of it, the fire consumes it all. Of the black are made square vessels, in which salt is boiled from salt water; from nitrous water, Nitre, Agricol. in observat. These filled with liquor, and set in the Air, foreshow rain, if there be drops on the outside. There is nothing hotter than it, yet if you anoint your hands with the juice of Mallows or Mercury, you may wash your hands in melted lead, so you do it quickly with swift motion, Lemnius l. 2. the occult. c. 34. It is heavier than silver, yet will swim upon it being melted. It may be, the volatile parts of evaporating Led fly away by the fire; but the silver not evaporating, sinks down, Libavius l. 2. Epist. Chym. Ep. 98▪ It is said to increase in weight and magnitude, if it be hid in C●llars, where the Air is troubled, so that what is put there, presently gathers rust. The Leaden bands of Statues that bind their feet, are sometimes found to grow, and to swell sometimes so much, that they will hang like Crystal out of the stones. Experience hath proved it to be unfit for Medicament, Fernel. lib. de lieu Vener. c. 7. For when as one by the advice of an Empiric, had eaten half a pound of the powder of it with his meat in 15 days, to cure the joint Gout, those things that were taken in, had a nidorous taste of Lead, and what was voided by stool, looked of Lead colour. Yet it is found also to be for external medicinal use. For it cools. Wherefore both Mortars and Pessels are wont to be made of it, in which if Liquors are beaten, what comes by the mixture of both is very cooling. The plates are good to lay to the loins overheat with venery, and against nocturnal pollutions in dreaming. Calvus the Orator, did prevent lust therewith, that he might preserve his strength for his study, Pliny. Musicians were wont to lay them upon their breasts, to sing the louder, Isidorus. Nero had a plate of Lead to lay upon his breast when he slept, to preserve his voice, Suetonius in Nerone. CHAP. XXXI. Of Iron. THe Mine of Iron is the greatest of all Metals. On that part of Cantabria which the Sea passeth by, there is a Mountain, high and cragged, it is incredible to speak it, it is all of Iron o'er; Plin. l. 34. c. 14. It is rare in India. Hence they write that 14, pounds of Iron, at the Island of Zabur have been bartered for 250, pounds of Gold. Pegaffetta. It was formerly found in China, called Azzalum Indicum, of such an excellent temper in the edge that it would cut any Iron, Pancirol, l. de novis repertis. Digged up in Sicily, and Lusatia, it grows again, and the earth and stocks of Trees, as it grows, become Iron. First it is like a thick liquor, and by degrees it grows hard, Agricola in observat. metal. When it is boiled, it becomes moist like water, afterwards it is broken into Sponges. The more tender Iron instruments, are steeped in oil to quench them, lest they should grow too hard and brittle with water. Plin. lib. citat. But in the Island Palmosa, it cannot be melted, & also in Aethalia, Strabo. l. 15. Bertius in Descript Ilvae. Smeared with Alum and Vinegar it becomes like brass. At Smolnicium (it is a Town of the Mount Carpathum) water is drawn out of a pit, and it is poured into Pipes laid in a threefold order, and that pieces of Iron in them, turn into brass. Agricol de metal. But the piece of Iron that is put into the end of the Pipes, is eaten by this water, that it becomes like mud; that, afterwards boiled in a furnace becomes good Brass. It is most agreeing with all Copper, that it will mingle with it in melting. The Poets call these Mars and Venus in their Fables, Minder. de Vitriolo. c. 1. Aristonides, when he would express the fury of Athamas who would throw down headlong his Son Clearchus, and when he had done so, the manner of his sorrow; he mingled Brass and Iron, that the rust of it shining through the brighter Brass, might express his shame and bashfulness, Plin. lib. citat. Plunged fiery▪ hot in water, it becomes Steel; in Vinegar, it will endure no hammering, but will sooner break than draw. Hence the Lacaedonians who were wont to make their coin of Iron Rods, steeped them red hot in Vinegar; that, being brittle, they might never be put to any other use. Plutarch in Lycurgo. If you seek a reason, we say that Vinegar goes into the heart of the Iron; Bodin, l. 2. Theatr: In Furnaces where they make it into bars, there rise such Vapours from it, when it is hammered, that a certain powder increaseth sensibly, and multiplies sticking to the walls. Albert. Madge, in lib. de Animal. It is so strong that it can never be consumed by fire. In the new World there is an herb called Cabuja or Hentquen; of the leavs of it, there is a reddish string, that with sand will cut Iron. Ovetan. Histor. l. 7. c. 10. Iron scales are very drying, they put it in their shoes that have sweeting feet. The best Iron is most white and light, and hath little branches, sometimes like to Coral, sometimes bound together with very fine strings. They make bullets of it, for great Guns. CHAP. XXXII. Of Fossil Fl●sh. Andrea's Libavius, a Man exceedingly deserving in Philosophy and Physic, saith, that it was reported on the credit of the Jevenses Schroterori, that at the rampire of Erfurd, by the port of St. Andrews, upon occasion of raising the Bulwark higher, that great pieces of raw flesh were dug out of ground, and that it was brawny; much like to Oxe-flesh, (only it had no bones): Hubnerus affirms this in Epistol. ad Libavium. But because those that dug it up prated that they could find it only upon Thursdays, wise men began to suspect the matter, and having discovered the fraud, the deceivers were cast into Prison. Though fraud here may be objected; yet it is not against reason to say with Libavius, that there may be fossil flesh. Most true it is that the Earth, (I add the water also) is the Mother of some living Creatures, and of those imperfect ones that came by aequivocal generation; and by the mixture of both these, Clay may be made fit for the breeding of an animal principle, which sometimes becomes a perfect Creature, and sometimes is deficient. As in the kinds of perfect Creatures, sometimes rude lumps are bred, sometimes provided with that supplies their defect. If that be first, and yet, helps being present, it is not frustrated of its motion, it is likely that a Mole of clotted blood or something like flesh should be made: no otherwise than as matter disposed with it for a bone, becomes a bone, which is called Fossil Horn. So Histories relate, that shell fish have been found in the tops of the highest Mountains of sand, from Marle and Marble putrified: which though some think they are the relics of the General flood, yet is it not probable, that they could last so long, by reason of the injury of time. For Marble itself will at last dissolve. And if you think it absurd that a Creature with blood should proceed from matter that is without blood; I could by examples show your absurdity. When Nilus sinks down, living Creatures are bred of the mud by heat of the Sun, some perfect, some half perfect, sticking to the Clods, Diodor. Sicul. A Venomous frog is bred deep within the Earth, where you can see no holes, when as the future's of stones are broken with wedges, Agricola. Of the raining of blood and flesh there are many Histories, and that came not by the Sun, drawing blood from Carkeises, but by changing the humour so disposed. In a ditch of the Town Beichelstein beneath out of a Willow, stinking blood ran. At Spira they say it came forth of bread. At Suidnicium, a bloody Fleece of Snow fell down like hail. What shall I say more? The Chemists say that of Satyrium, great Comfrey, Tutsan, Bread and Wine, a juice may be made that is perfectly blood, which by due digestions may be made into substantial flesh. Of Brimstone boiled in Linseed Oil, they make a Mass like a Liver. Lastly the fowls in the Orcadeses are said to be fruits of Trees. You shall see it proved in the appendix of the sixth Classis. Wherefore we conclude with Libavius, that there may be Fossil Flesh; and with this discourse we will shut up this Classis. Setting aside those things that may be said concerning Devil in Metals, which we shall speak of in our Thaumatographia Pneumatica, which if God pleaseth, we intent to publish. I add one thing that I had forgot. When Henry the 2. King of France was at Bononia, there was brought to him from the East Indies by an unknown person, but, as it appeared by his gesture, a Barbarous fellow, a stone of a wonderful shape and nature, for it shone with light and clearness exceedingly, and it seemed as if it were all on fire, and turn it which way you would, the lustre of it so enlightened the air with its beams, that they could hardly endure to look upon it: And this was strange in it, that it could endure no earth upon it, but if it were covered with it, it would break forth with violence of its own accord: no art of man could hold it in a narrow place, for it delighted in the spacious Air, it was exceedingly pure and bright, no filth was upon it, it had no certain figure, but was inconstant, and changed in a moment; and being so beautiful to behold, yet it was not safe to touch it, and those that dealt roughly with it to hold it, felt the inconvenience, as many that stod by can testify. If any part were broken off from it, by contending with it, for it was not very hard, yet the virtue of it was very useful for many things, and the Stranger said it was needful chiefly for Kings. He boasted much of the miracle, but refused to discover it, unless he might first receive a mighty reward. Thuan saith, that he delivered these things as they were in Leters of John Pipin an eye witness of it: who in the Family of A. Mamorantius, M. E. professed Physic, and sent his Leters to Antony Mizaldus a famous Physician; also, to Bononia, on the day before Ascension day, and saith, he leaves the matter to Philosophers to discuss farther. For Pipinus in his Letters, neither said that the Ancient knew any such stone, nor do I affirm it. Thuan, l. 5. Histor. The End of the Fourth Classis. OF Natural Wonders. The Fifth Classis. Wherein are the Wonders of Plants. NAture, daily breeds Flowers and Scents: it is evident, that men are much admonished thereby, that those things that flourish most delightfully, do soon wither, Plin. l. 21. histor. Natural. c. 1. CHAP. I. Of Plants in general. We have seen the Wonders of things without life; Now let us see the Wonders of living Creatures▪ Plants are first in order; not that they are the chief, but because they have that degree in common to all living Creatures. They have a vegetative soul, producing the nutritive, augmenting, and generative faculties, with all things subordinate to them. And besides, each hath a specifical form of its own being, works by it, and is distinguished from others. Nature hath made up their bodies of certain parts, which Philosophers call the kernel, the pith, the bark of the root, the stock, the boughs, the branches, the flowers, the fruit. As these vary, so is there very great difference in Plants. The Earth is their Mother, their faculty was given by creation; and because qualities are different, it is found very various in Plants also. Moses speaks expressly, Let the Earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself upon the Earth. But Porta (l. 2. Phytogn. c. 1.) when he had heaped up much ground together, which was cast forth from the foundations of houses, and laid it open to the Air; a few days after, from the divers qualities of the Earth, divers sorts of herbs sprang forth. He saw these things familiarly in Naples climate and grounds, some of them must needs marry. The principles of Male and Female are mingled in them. But that which Pliny writes is false, that they are begot by the West wind. They whither that fructify most, for their nourishment is consumed; and beyond St. Thomas Island, the South wind only is said to blow, elsewhere only two winds by courses: And it is certain, that all kinds of Plants do not grow in all places. For near Rome Chestnuts will hardly grow: and about Cimmerian Bosphorus, in the City Particapaeum. King Mithridates and the rest of the Inhabitants wanted the Bay and Myrtill Tree in their solemnities. Some new Plants are found in newfound places, as Tobacco lately in America, wild Tobacco was found in the Woods of Thuringia, Libavius l. 4. the orig. rerum. Anaxagoras ascribes it to the air that hath in it the seeds of all things, and sends them down in showers, and they become Plants. Diogenes, to the waters putrifying and mingled with the earth. Others to the winds, bringing them. We ascribe them, to Divine providence, which did not produce each individual plant, but disposed of the best in Paradise, and left the rest without, endowing some with virtues to come forth into the light at their set times. As for their Life, they live by heat in the earth, and die with cold. Theophrastus' l. 2. the Plant. c. 4. testifies, that some of them will spring again; if an Olive Tree be burned to the root, it will grow again: Some will live without the ground, as Onions and Garlic, which being many months from the Earth, grow without any nutriment from thence, being fortified by much gross humour of their own, Marcel. l. 4. histor. medic. mir. c. 12. The forces of Plants are wonderful. It hath been observed, that if men with wands travel where ill Plants grow, the Ulcers will be inflamed, and cured where the Plants are healthful, Mathiol. in Dioscor. Praefat. By touching of Spleenwort, Splenetic people have been helped; and Jaundy-sick, by putting Celandine to their naked feet in their shoes. No man shall be troubled with blear-eyes, so long as he keeps very clean by him the root of the wild sour Dock. He shall not be troubled with the Strangury any more, who quencheth in his urine the burning root of Tamarisk. Physicians do diversely dispose them; the Chemists teach us to know them by their signatures; and Porta of Naples thinks, that it is certain, that what part of Man they resemble that they are good for, Sennert. de cons. Chym. c. 18. But of these, more hereafter if God please. Now let us see Nature prodigal in Plants, and opening her Treasures, let us admire with thanksgiving. CHAP. II. Of Wormwood, Woolfsbane, and Snapdragon. WOrmwood is in many things a wonderful Plant, it is very bitter, yet the distilled water of it is sweet. Hence the Commentators on Mesues think, that the intrinsical parts are sweet: but the matter must be ascribed to the thinness of the outward parts; for these being soluble into a vapour, being more attenuated by heat of the fire, are easily resolved, and abate of their bitterness, Mathiolus in Dioscor. c. 24. The Lie out of which the salt of it is prepared, will so benumb the hands, that they almost lose their feeling, Mathiol. de febrib. pest. It is credible, that if Infants before they be 12 weeks old, be anointed with the juice of Wormwood on their hands and feet, that neither heat nor cold will ever trouble them during their life: and if the whole body be anointed, they shall never be scabby, Guerth. in Append. ad memorab. Mizaldi. Wolfsbane is the quickest of all venomous things; for if it touch but the secrets of a woman, it kills her the same day. This was the poison, that Mar: Coecilius objected, that Calphurnius Bestia killed his Wives with, when they were asleep: hence it is that he so sharply declamed against him, that they died by his hand. Yet experience teacheth, that this may be made use of for man's good, and against the bitings of Scorpions, given in hot wine, the nature of it is to kill Man, unless it find some venom in him to be destroyed. Scorpions are stun'd by the touch of it; and being astonished, show by their paleness that they are subdued. White Hellebore helps them by its resolving touch, and Wolfsbane yields to two evils, to that which is evil to itself, and to all others, Pliny. But Snapdragon is so contrary to them, that the sight of it stuns them: but whilst some by this Amulet hope to procure Prince's favours, they are deceived, Mathiol: in l. 4. Dioscor. c. 128. CHAP. III. Of Aloes, Agallochum, and Camomile. SCaliger had found by above 40 years' trial, that Aloes hurts the Liver, Exerc. 160. Sect. 3. They whose veins swell, or are opened, if they take never so little of it, it will certainly go thither; for it will add something of its own to open these vessels. But Agallo●●um is Aloes wood so excellent, that cast into water, it will not swim at all, but sinks presently; When it is cut from the Tree, the Inhabitants bury it a whole year, that the bark may wither under ground, and the wood lose nothing: and they think it will never be so sweet, unless it first be wormeaten, Simeon Sethi citante Mathi●lo. Camomile is so like to May-weed, that you cannot know them asunder by sight, but only by smell. This stinks, and bound on will presently blister the skin. The flowers of Camomile taken without the leaves, and beat in a Mortar, and made with oil into balls, if they be dissolved in the same oil, and those that have Fevers be anointed therewith from the crown of the head, to the soles of the feet, and be presently covered with blankets to sweat; if they sweat plentifully, it cures them of their Agues. This is Nictessius Aegyptius his receipt, Mathiol. in Dioscorid. l. 3. c. 1 37. CHAP. IU. Of Ammi, Holly, Ceterach, and the Strawberry-Tree. AMmi, if it be the right seed that comes from Alexandria, it cherisheth women's fruitfulness: if you drink of it a dram weight in the morning every other day, 3. hours before meat. Yet in those days they must not lie with their husbands, as Mathiol. in 3. Dioscor. c. 61. With the flowers of Holly, water congealeth; and a stick made of it, thrown at any living creature, though it fell short by the weakness of him that threw it; yet of itself it will fall nearer to him, Plin. l. 22. Ceterach grows in Crete, by the River Potereus, that runs between two Cities Enosa and Cortina: it destroys the Spleen in cattle, that eat it; thence it hath its name Spleenwort▪ In a certain place that lies toward Cortina, this Spleenwort is found in great abundance; but it is otherwise toward Enosa, for there grows none. In the wrong side of the leave of it, there is found a precious powder, which being given one dram weight, with half a dram of the powder of white Amber, in the juice of Purslane, cures the Gonorrhaea. The Strawberry Tree flowers in July; the buds by a singular hanging together, are joined in clusters at the utmost end, each of them like a long formed Myrtil berry, and as great, without leaves; hollow, as an Egg made so, with the mouth open; when it fades, what hindered is perforated, theophra. l. 3. c. 16. de Plantis. CHAP. V. Of the Cane reed, Asserall, and Agnacath. IN Zeilam the Reeds are so large, that they make boats of them severally; also they make Javelius of them: As in the Kingdom of Pegu, they make Masts and Oars of the Myoparones: Certain it is, that they are some of them 7 foot about, Scaliger Exerc. 166. Mathiolus writes, that in India they grow so great, that between every knot, they serve for Boats to sail in Lakes and Rivers, for three Men to sit in them. Mathiol. in Dioscorid. l. 1. c. 97. Between the Reed and the Fern there is a deadly feud, and they say that a Reed tied to the Plough destroys all the Fern that grows there. It agrees with Asparagus; for if they be sowed in Reedy grounds, they increase wonderfully. Mathiol, l. citat. The Turks, going to battle, devour Asseral, and by that they grow merry and bold against dangers. Juggler's use this often on their Scaffolds. They mingle a Medicament with Wine, that will draw their mouths together: and whom they would put a trick upon, they bid him dip his finger in and suck it; he putting this into his mouth, cannot for pain suck it. The Jugglers, as if they pitied him in this case, anoint the arteries of his wrists and temples with some peculiar Ointment. When he is recovered, like one that comes from Sea after Shipwreck, he winds his hair and garments as if they were wet, and wrings them out, he wipes his Arms, blows his Nose. Scaliger. Exerc. 159. Agnacath is a Tree like a Pear Tree, and as great, always with green leaves, and very clear in the outside. It makes men so lusty that it is miraculous. Kin to this, is a root in the Western Hills of Alas, the Inhabitants call that part Surnaga. The eating of it gives wonderful strength for Venus▪ they say if a Man make water on it, he is presently provoked. If Virgins do but sit on them in the fields; or Urine upon them, the Hymen is presently broken, as if they had known a Man. Scalig. Exerc. 175. s. 1. CHAP. VI Of the Scythian Lamb, the bashful Plant, and Amfi●. THe Scythian Lamb is a Plant that come 〈…〉 seed like a Kernel, but not so long. The Tartars call it 〈…〉. It g●●ws like a Lamb about three foot high, and is like a Lamb in his feet, claws, ears, the whole head, except the Horns. For Horns; it hath hair: is is singular like a Horn, and a very thin Horn covers it, the inhabitants take it off, and use it for clothing. It is of a wonderful sweetness; Blood runs forth of the wound. As long as other herbs grow about it, so long it will live. It dies, when these are gone. Wolves desire it, but other beasts that feed on flesh, do not. Scali●●r exerc, 181, sect. 2. The Bashfull-Tree draws back, if you but touch the leaves with your hand. Apollodorus, Scholar to Democritus, discovered that Amfia is a medicament amogst the Iridi, of wonderful use. They that are not used to it from their Childhood, if they eat it afterwards, it kills them: also it kills those that are used to it, and then 〈…〉 it; but hurts not those if they continue it. The women of Cambaya▪ when they would avoid punishment feed of it; and die without pain. The King of Province fed with this from his young years grew so Venomous, that the very flies that but sucked his skin swelled and died with it. It is thought to be Opium, and the Turks Maslach. Tthough Turnheuserus herbar. l. 1. c. 29. saith, that by the secret relation of the Turks, he learned that this was made of the juice of Leopard's bane, yet it is nothing else, but Opum, as Scaliger, Poterius, and Johannes Baptista Sylvagius, interpreter for the Venetians with the Turkish Emperor, do testify. He being demanded by Bucretius, reported that the Turks have two medicaments, to make them merry, Afra and Bongelie; That prepared of Opium: this with Honey, and the leaves and seeds of hemp powdered and used frequently, This will make them undergo any dangers, for it makes them frantic; and if they sleep, they dream of the fight of Giants, and fires, and Cities burning. CHAP. VII. Of Balsam Tree, and Betel. BEfore these times, in Judaea the Balsom Tree yielded great profit, and there was an Orchard of it in two King's dominions, one of 20 Acres, the other not so many; but now there is none to be found. It is probable that the Kings of Egypt transplanted it into their own Gardens, as being jealous of their greatness, Plin. l. 12. c. 25. In grand Cairo there is a Garden of Balsom Trees, the leaf is like Rue leaves always green. The Gum of it is gathered in the Trunk of it, making incision at the upper part, with Iron; When the Sun is hottest, that which remains is not much. For a man can hardly fill a Cockle shell in a whole day. Theophrastus, l. 9 c. 6. de plantis. Pliny writes, if it be cut with an Iron, it presently dies, and therefore they that gather Balsam, use Glass, Stone, and Bone-Knives to cut the Bark, and taking the juice in wool, they collect it in little Horns. That which is Indian or Occidental, is brought out of the West Indies into Spain. It is the liquor of a Tree called Xilon; the bark of it, which is thin being cut, a clammy whitish liquor in small quantity flows forth, which the Inhabitants preserve. Also the boughs and roots cut into pieces, very small like Chips, and boiled in a Cauldron with water, when it is cold, yields the same. From Shellfish they collect an Oil that swims at top, that is red from black, of a most sweet smell, a sharp taste and somewhat bitter. A pound of it in Spain is sold for three Dudats, whereas an ounce was wont to be sold for 10 or 20. Bauhin. in Dioscorid▪ Be●●l a lease called so from the River, which runs not far from Gamba●a, it grows from a Plant that is wrapped with others and wants propping● it hath neither flower nor juice. The Indians feed daily on it, when they are at leisure: for they think when it is green that it promotes venery; It makes their lips red, and their teeth black. Mathiol. l. 4. Dioscorid. c. 2. It troubles their minds if they eat of it too freely, therefore the women of Tarnassarum, to lament for their Husbands, eat it till they grow mad, and so they run into the fire, and are burnt with them. It is sprinkled with water made of lime, from Shells of Fishes, and then they eat it, Scaliger, Exerc. 1.46. s. 2. CHAP. VIII. Of Betonie, Birch and Box. BEtonie is said to defend consecrated places and graves from fearful apparitions; and is so forcible, that it will draw forth broken bones; bruised with a little salt, and put into the nose, it stops the bleeding of it, Mathiol. in 5, Dioscorid, c. 1. Birch loves to grow in a cold and Snowy Country. The stalk pierced with a piercer sends forth abundance of most clear water, it is good to break stones in the Reins and Bladder, if it be long drank. Mathiol. l. 1. c. 93. The Ananii take of the bark of it, and wreath it, and make Candles of it to burn at night, which because they abound with a Pitchy fat, they burn like Torches, and give the colour of Rosin like Pitch. In the Boxwood there is a kind of narcotick force, and a sleepy sulphureous matter. That is apparent from the stinking smell of it, and the ground it delights to grow in. For it bree●● in Mountains and stony grounds, and prospers there, and drinks in a most stinking Brimstone. From the rasping of it, a water is distilled like the spirit of Vitriol. The greatest Toothache is allayed, if you dip a Tooth-picker into it, and thrust it into the root of the a●ing Tooth, and that so suddenly, that by miracle almost, and by way of a Charms, the pain is presently gon● Que●● et. Tetrad. c. 1●. The flowers 〈…〉 said so to purge the blood, that if one drain thereof be giust with field Poppy water, and blood be drawn a● hour after, it will run clear; Petreius in Nosol. Harm. discurs. 14. CHAP. IX. Of Batat, Baxera, Brusathaer, and Baara●. BAtat is a root like a Turnip, with a black rind, it spreads underneath, as it were by Arms; The colour of the 〈…〉, and so it is divided into divers kinds, but the worst is the yellow. It is planted wonderfully, for it is Se●mo● with the root▪ but 〈…〉 the Olive, by a Slip▪ the twig, being cut into several parts, is 〈…〉 yet some of the rind must be left. They set it like the Vine and prop it up, for the fibres of it, run about like hops▪ In the fifth month it is ripe, Scaliger, exerc. 181. s. 17. Baxera● 〈…〉 a Tree in the Kingdom of Belus, which is near to the Tartars of Cathay. The root of it 〈…〉 kills one presently. The fruit of Nira●und is a remedy for the mischief of it. It drives away any Poison whatsoever, Scaliger. Exerc. 153. s. 6. B●u●ath●er are Sea-Trees in the S●●us of China▪ So great are they, that birds of wonderful bigness do lodge in them. They are so vast, saith Scaliger, that the greatest Creatures may be born up by them, and taken above ground. Scalig. exerc. 181. s. 10. Josephus writ of Baaras. In a valley, saith he, where the City is conpassed on the North side, there is a certain Lake called Baaras, where there is a root called by the same name. It is of a flame colour, and about the evening, it shines like the Sun's beams. Those that come to it, and would pull it up, cannot easily do it, but it draws from them; nor will it st●y, until some body pour the urine of the menstrual blood of a woman upon it. Also, then if any one touch it, it is certain death, unless he carry the same root hanging in his hand. It is taken an other way without danger, which is this; They dig round about it, so that very little of the root be covered with the Earth, than they tie a dog to it, and he striving to follow him that tied him, pulls the root out very easily, but the dog always dies, as in place of him, that should take it up: for after that, there is no fear for any man to take it up. It seems to be a Fable, unless there be some other meaning in it. CHAP. X. Of Cachi, Cacavate, Cassia, our Lady's Thistle, and Corallina. CAchi is a prickly Tree in Malabar, they call the fruit of it Ciccara; It is like the Pine-nut; for within, the several divisions are distinguished by Membranes, as in the Pomegranate. The Apples are like figs in shape, and sweetness, without any rind: there are 250, and sometimes 300 upon them; Scalig. exerc. 181, s. 12. Amongst these small fruits, there is another like a Chestnut, and cracks like it, when it is roasted. The fruit grows forth of the stock, as it doth on the Mulberry Figtree, between the prickles and the leaves. Sometimes, which is the greater wonder, it comes forth of the root under ground, and it brings forth but one Apple, but so great that it will load a strong Man, Maiol. col. de Plant. Cacavate is a Tree in the Province of America Nicaragna, which so abhors the Sun, that it must be kept always in the shade, and must be covered with the shadow of some higher Tree: In Woody places that are wet, if it come to the Sun, it perisheth. Libavius de orig. rerum. Cassia oft times is changeed into Cinnamon. Galen saw some boughs that were exceeding good and altogether like it, and some twigs of Cinnamon like to Cassia: hence grew his opinion that for one part of Cinnamon, two parts of choice Cassia might be substituted in physical compositions. Galen de Antid. l. 1. The twigs of it were cut in pieces, and sowed up in green Oxe-hides, lest the wood should grow unprofitable, by Worms that will breed in it. Plin. l. 12. c. 29. Of solutive Cassia men say, that he that shall daily swallow three drams of the pulp of it before dinner, shall never be troubled with the stone nor colic, Mathiol in Dioscor. l. 1. The flowers of the milky Thistle, which they call Carduus Mariae. Platerus de vit. saith, they cured a Soldier of the Strangury, only by looking upon them. Corallina is of so great force against Worms, that it drives them forth the same day it is taken. There was a Boy that took it, and voided 70 Worms. The Ancients known it hot, now they use it all over Greece, Lemn. occult l. 3. c. 9 CHAP. XI. Of Cinnamon and Cedar. CInnamon grows in Zeilam, and in one of the Molucco Islands, Mutir. It bears no fruit. In the heat, the rind cleaus and comes off, it is pulled off twice a year, Scalig. Exerc. 144. First it grows sweet, and the next month it comes to perfection. In Galen's days it was so scarce, that no man had any but the Emperor, Galen l. 1. de Antid. But even at this day there is scarce any such as Galen describes, Scalig. loc. cit. It holds not good for 30 years; for it is false, that others write, that it never grows old. I (saith Galen, loc. cit.) observed some change in Cinnamon, not that was 200 years old, but far younger, in comparison: For at the time that I made Theriac for the Emperor Antoninus, I saw many wooden vessels wherein such Cinnamon was, some were laid up in the time of Trajan; others of Adrian; some in Antoninus his time; and all these in taste and smell did exceed or fall short one of another, so much as they differed in age. Cedar doth bring spongy flesh to putrefaction without pain, because it is dry; and preserves dead bodies from corruption; for it drinks up the superfluous moisture in them, not meddling with what is firm, Mathiol. l▪ 1. Dioscor▪ c. ●9. It kills Nits, Lice; Moths and Worms bred in the ears; ●aid on, it kills the Child that is living, and drives forth the dead, theophra. l. 5. c. 8. It corrupts the seed in copulation, and hinders procreation. It grew formerly abundantly in Libanus; now adays it is very little there, (Rhanwolsius reckoned but 24 Trees). It is wonderful for height and thickness. The body is so great, that three Men cannot fathom it. It is far greater in Orchards, if it be let alone and not cut down. At Utica there was the Temple of Apollo, where the beams of the Numidian Cedars lasted; for they were laid there at the first founding of that City, that was 1188 years, Plin. l. 16. c. 40. CHAP. XII. Of Chamaeleon, Cloves, and Cichory. THe root of black Chamaeleon is venomous in Greece and Pontus: Mathiolus ascribes it to the goodness of the climate, where it is not so. For the Peach Tree was formerly deadly to the Persians, but safe to the Egyptians; and Cuckowpint was so mild amongst them of Cyrene, that they eat it for meat like Rape roots. In Greece and Italy they cannot eat it boiled nor raw. It kills both Dogs and Sows, Dogs, when it is kneaded with barley meal, oil, and water; Sows, with Coleworts. If you would try whether a sick man shall live, some say he must be washed with that root for 3. days; if he can endure it, they think he will not die. The clammy substance growing at the roots of it, is present venom; but taken moderately, it makes sleepy persons wakeful, theophra. l. 9 the Plant. c. 23. Hence the women of Crete, that they may not sleep at their work, eat a little of it after Supper. The Clove-Tree grows in the Indies in some Islands of the Indian Sea, it is like a Bay-Tree, with narrower and most sweet smelling leaves. Cloves proceed from them, that are nothing but the beginning of the fruit. It grows of its own accord when the Cloves fall down, Mathiol. in l. 2. Dioscorid. c. 253. It grows to perfection in 8. years, and lasts a hundred years. It bears fruit only in the Molucco Islands. The keepers of it beat the Tree with Canes, covering the Earth before with Palmtree cover. For 3. years it yields fruit, than it grows barren, and degenerates, Scalig. Exerc. 146. s. 1. Cichory, called Wart-Succory, kills Warts. Many by once eating one Salad of the leaves of it, have been freed. The seed doth the like, taken one dram for three days after Supper, Mathiol. in l. 2. c. 125. CHAP. XIII. Of Saffron and Cherries. SAffron flowers almost for a month; After the flowers, by and by come forth the leaves, that are green all the Winter, not caring for the cold; they grow dry, and fall off in the Spring; they never appear in Summer, Mathiol. ad l. 1. Dioscorid. c. 25. It flowers when the Pleyades set; and presently with the leaf it drives out the flower. The root loves Lime, it comes up by perishing; whence those Verses were made: Saffron that's bruised grows fairer; be not sad, To suffer, for at last 'twill make thee glad. Minder. Aloed. c. 4. It is good for shortness of breath, Cardanus de spirat. diffic. It recovered the Mother in law of Caesar de Comitibus, who for 2. months was so shortwinded, that she was next to deaths-door. Given to women in labour, it presently flies to the Matrix, so that one woman was delivered with a child, died in Saffron, Heurn. l. 2. medic. c. 14. It is hurtful to the brain, and with much using of it, it will cause one to laugh: we have an example of a Merchant who fell into such a laughter after meat, when he had eaten overmuch of it, that he was ready to die. A Mule-driver at Pisanta, sleeping upon two little bags of Saffron, died that night, Lusitan. Com. ad c. 25. l. 1. Dioscor. Cherry-Trees cannot away with dung; if therefore you dung their roots, they degenerate; they prosper well if you cut off the branches of them, and bury them by the roots, that they may corrupt there. They grow without stones, if you cut the Tree off when it is young, about 2. foot from the ground, and pick out the pith of it with an iron, clearing the stock, and bind both parts together again, Mathiol. ad l. 1. Dioscor. c. 129. CHAP. XIV. Of the Dog-Tree, Cypresse-Tree, and Cucumbers. THe Inhabitants of Ida by Troy say, that the male Dog-Tree is barren. In Macedonia they are both fruitful; but the Male brings ripe berries in Summer, the Female in Autumn. These Berries are not so good as those; for they can hardly be eaten. Bees that taste of its flower, die by a dysentery. The Cypresse-Tree grows naturally only in Candie; for in what place soever the earth is digged, unless it be planted as it should be, it will come forth again of itself. In Mount Ida it grows very well and numerous, in ground that is not forced, Plin. l. 16. c. 33. Set in watery grounds it presently decays, and it is killed by laying dung to it. The seed is as small as Atoms. The Pismires desire it, which is the greater wonder, that so small Creatures can devour it all; the leaves are always green, and the substance is never rotten, nor breeds Worms, Rhodigin. l. 25. c. 2. Plin. l. 26. c. 40. The Image of Vejovis made of this wood, remained in the fortress from the year the City was built, 551. even to the days of Rhodiginus. In Arcadia at Phophis there were some so tall, that they overshadowed the Mountain that was next to them, Dalechamp. ad loc. cit. Plin. Cucumbers are sometimes wonderful gr●at, that in India one man cannot carry one of them. Scaliger saw one was 7. foot and a half long. He saith also, Exerc. 171. That he had a dry Gourd, which a man that carried it in sport, seemed to have a great Log on his back; It was 13 hands breadth. Eaten, they remain in the stomach till the next day; for they are of a clammy and cold substance, Plin. l. 19 c. 5. They so hate oil, that if a vessel of oil be put under them when they hang on the stalk▪ they will turn from it, and grow crooked: They grow very tender, if the seed be steeped in milk before they be set. CHAP. XV. Of Onions, Celandine, Hemp, and River Sponge. THe Onions of the Ascalonitae are of a peculiar nature; they only are cleft from the root and barren; nor will they grow from that part, Theophr. l. 7. c. 4. Therefore they are not set, but sowed with their seed, and in the Spring they are transplanted with their branches. In Candie also, there is a kind of them that grows thick in the root, sowed in seed; but set, it spreads into stalks and seed; it is sweet in taste, but hath no head. Seed of Elinus being put into Onions, there will spring up an herb, with leaves like flax, of a sharp taste, they call it Dragons. Yet Scaliger was deceived when he sowed it, and thought to try this miracle, Scalig. Exerc. 169. s. 2. They say of Celandine, that Swallows lay it on the Eyes of their young ones, and restore their lost sight, Dioscor. l. 2. c. 186. Hence, Aristotle 4. de generat. Animal. c. 6. saith, prick the young Swallows eyes, and they will see again: Worn next the soles of the feet, it cures the Jaundice: laid to women's breasts, is will stop the too great abundance of their Terms, Mathiol. ad Dioscor. loc. cit. Garden Hempseed will make Hens lay, and it extinguisheth man's nature eaten too largely, Mathiol. ad l. 3. Dioscor. c. 48. The decoction of new Hemp if you press it out strongly, and pour it on the ground, it will force the Worms out of their holes, and kills Worms in the ears, Plin. l. 20. c. 23. River Sponge is proper especially to the Rivers by the Alps. A pruner of Trees was cured by it, that fell from a Tree, and broke almost all his bones. They laid it round his body, and as oft as it grew dry, they sprinkled it with water. Though they did this but seldom, yet he was quickly restored, Mathiol. ad l. 4. Dioscor. c. 94. CHAP. XVI. Of Hemlock, Ciacompalon, and Cocco. HEmlock is a kind of poison, that makes men mad, and kills them. Franciscus Trapollinus died mad with it, when his Maid had put it into his Pottage instead of Parsley. It hath made some Creatures lie for dead, and when they stood up again, they were astonished a long time, and afterwards they ran wildly up and down. Scaliger writes, he never saw any man that was killed by it. Starlings feed on it. From Plato we collect, that the force of it may be abated, if one be moderately hot before he take the juice of it: Therefore Scaliger, Exerc. 152. s. 1. saith, That the Executioner that was to give this most deadly Poison, warned Crito, that he should not suffer Socrates to dispute too much, because by that agitation of the mind, he would grow hot. Ciocompalon is a kind of Tree in Camalonga, which sends forth only 4, or 5, branches from a long stalk: the leaves are very great, for the inhabitants wear them for a Cloak, against the heat of the Sun and rain. In the top of the Tree it puts forth flowers like Bean flowers, about 200, from whence grow fruit abundantly, as big as one's hand breath. It is a yearly Plant. It withers after it hath brought forth. Coccus is the same with Tenga. It is a Tree with a leaf like the Palmtree: they cover their houses with them, for they make mats of them to serve for six months, (in China and Malabar) Scalig. exerc. 25. s. 13. It brings fruit in clusters, as the Palm Tree doth, each hath ●00 nuts. When its comes forth, there is water bred in it; it is filled with it, when it is perfect. The end of this increase is the beginning of the Pith, for it grows by the thickening of it. The quantity is full three Cyathi. It is very sweet. When the Tree is come to the full growth, in August, they cut some of the boughs of it in the middle▪ and leave the rest; they cut off the top also a little. They hang a cu● to each of them, four great jugs are filled in one day. It brings fruit that continually follow one the other; it lives, 30, or 40, years. CHAP. XVII. Of Doronicum, Dragons, Olive-honey, Vipers, Bugloss, Eryngion, Euphorhium. DOronicum is Poison, that kills dogs suddenly. Matthiolus gave some to his dog, and the dog fawned on him all the time he lived; in seven hours he died, as of a falling sickness. There is a 〈…〉 of Tree in the West Indies near Carthagena, the fruit whereof is perfectly like a Dragon, with a long neck, open mouth, nostrils lifted up, a long tail, standing on its feet, so that who sees it would think it to be a Dragon. Monarel. In Palmyra of Syria there runs forth oil from a stock of a Tree, that tastes sweet; it is called Etaeo-meli, Mathiol. in l. 4. c. 73. It purgeth choler and crudities, exhibited one sextarius of it, with one Hemina of water. They that take it grow stupid, but they receive no harm if they be often roused, that they may not sleep. Dioscor. l. 1. c. 32. Echion or Viper's bugloss, was found by one Alcibius. Sleeping on the ground, a Viper bit him, Mathiol in l. 4. c. 25. When he rose up; he pressed out the juice o● the herb with his teeth▪ and drank it down, the rest he laid to the wound, and it cured him. Nature hath made the herb with hairs like Vipers, that Men might know the use of it. Eryngion, if a Goat take it in the mouth, the whole herd will stand still, and cannot move till you take it out. Plutarch in lib. quod maxin● cum princip. disp. si philos. The smell of it passeth so quick, that it spreads like fire to what is next, and exerciseth its force upon it. Suphorbium, if we believe the Africans, is a prickly Plant, out of the root of it the fruit comes forth of a long form like to Cucumbers, sometimes two foot long, when it is ripe it is pricked with an Iron, and a clammy white liquour comes forth of it, which they let run into a bottle, and they keep that. Scalig, exer. 181. s. 2. It purgeth the belly, but the patient will faint and sweat with a cold sweat. Given, the weight of two O●boli, it cures the dropsy; it kills one if he take three drams weight. For in 3, days it will corrode the Stomach and the Guts. Mathiol. in l. 3. c. 80. CHAP. XVIII. Of Elaterium, Hellebour, Eupatorium, Emitum and Fennel. ELaterium lasts longest of all Physics. One had of it that was 200 years old. The moisture is said to be the cause of it. For though it be cut moist and laid in the ashes, yet for 50 years it will put out a Candle, if it be put to it. Theophil, l. 9 c. 14. With the infusion of Hellebour in the midst of Winter, when the cold is greatest, many have been cured of a Quartane Ague. Matthiolus ad l. 4. c. 146, Never saith he as I remember, did we give our infusion to those had quartane Agues, but at once or twice taking, by God's assistance they were cured. By the smell of dried Eupatorium, venomous Creatures are driven away. Hearts wounded are cured by eating this; Matthiol. ad loc cit, c. 37. Emitus is a Tree in Trachimia; if Serpents come near, and but touch it, they die. Aelian, l. 9 c. 27. Also Strabo saw one l. 15. that I will here mention, it was like a Bay Tree; beasts that taste of it, grow mad, some at the mouth, and fall into an Epilopse. In the Kingdom of Tombut which is the wild of West Aethiopian, Fennel grows so big, that they make bows of it. Scalig. exerc. 166. In Spain, whilst it is green, the Country people mow down the stalks of it for firing. Dalecamp. ad Plin. l. 20 c. ult. CHAP. XIX. Of Fennel Giant and the Figtree. FEnnel Giant grows in hot Countries. Out of the first shoots of it Shepherds take out a little pith, like to the the yolk of an egg that is hard. That wrapped in a wet paper and roasted under the embers and then sprinkled with Salt and Pepper, tastes exceeding well and makes them busy. Mathiol. ad l. 3. c. 76. They are by nature of great antipathy to Lampreyes, for if they but touch them, they die, Plin. l. 20. c. 33. Also they are present Poison to other Beasts; yet very pleasant food for Asses. The Indian Figtree is wonderful great. Scaliger briefly describes it out of Theophrastus. The Figtree, saith he, bears small fruit▪ it plants itself, and is spread forth with vast boughs, by the weight whereof they are so bended to the earth, that in a years space, they stick in and grow up with new branches, round about their parents like to Arbouts: so that seven Shepherds may summer under it, being shaded and fenced about with the fence of the Tree. It is pleasant to behold, and from far it seems, an arched circumference. The upper boughs of it put forth very high, and in abundance like a wood from the huge bulk of the Tree, that many of them make a round of 60 paces, and they will cast a shade two furlongs. The broad leaves are like an Amazonian Target: wherefore covering the fruit, it will not let it grow; It is very rare, and no bigger than a bean. Scalig. exerc. 166. Moreover Carthage was destroyed by the Figtree. For Cato beareing a deadly ●ate against Carthage, and being careful to secure his posperity; when he had cried out at every meeting of the Senate, that Carthage must be destroyed, he brought one day into the Court, a early ripe Fig, that was fetched from Carthage, & showing it to the Son a tours; he asked them, whence they thought that Fig was taken from the Tree▪ And when they all granted it was newly gathered, he replied, 3, days since was this pulled at Carthage; so near to our walls is the enemy. They presently began the 3d▪ Punick War▪ wherein Carthage was rooted out. In Hyrcania there are some that each of them will bear 260 Bushels. Plin. l. 15. c. 18. CHAP. XX. Of the Ash, Mushrooms, and the Beech. THe Ash is an Enemy to Serpents, none of them can ●ndure the shade of it, though it be late at night, Plin. l. 16. c. 13. Pliny saith, he proved it, that if a Serpent be compassed in, with Ashwood and fire, he will leap into the fire, before he will pass over the Ash wood. This is the great bounty of Nature, that it flowers before the Serpents come forth; nor do the leaves fall, till the Serpents be gone to hide themselves. Vessels made of the wood of it for use of meat and drink, help the Spl●●● and the Stone wonderfully, Dom. Zean. l. 1. pract. At the waters 〈…〉 out of which fire breaks forth, it did once prosper, Pliny hist. l. 2. c. 107. Mushrooms gro● so great in Namidia, that they are thicker than Quindes. In the Kingdom of Nanles the crust of the ground is thick, and like Marble, that being covered with earth a span deep, and sprinkled with warm water, in 4. days sends forth Mushrooms, Scalig. Exerc. 181. S. 1. It is of necessity that there be some seminary virtue, out of whose bosom they may proceed; for the water that is sprinkled on affords matter and nutriment, and also a procatarctical cause, Libav. l. 1. Epist. Chym. 30. If they be boiled, or the juice be pressed forth and poured at the roots of Trees, (especially Beech-Trees) Mushrooms will grow from thence in great abundance, Sennert. de cons. et disp. Chym. c. 12. In the Northern parts under the Pole, Beech-Trees are frequent of a magnetic virtue, and the Mushrooms that grow to them are changed into Lodestones, saith Olaus l. 12. c. 1. CHAP. XXI. Of Guaicum and Gentian. GUaicum is of great virtue against the French-Pox; In Italy at first they were fearful to drink it. Bread and Raisins were prescribed with a moderate diet, and to live 40 days in a dark Chamber, and that so curiously, that they admit not of the least Air, Mathiol. in l. 1. c. 3: The error was observed afterwards, and Hen's flesh was allowed, but not a drop of Wine. Mathiolus was the first that tried it with success, and others followed him, Gentian, called also Cruciata, is the herb of S. Ladistaus a King. The report is, that the Tartars drove him out of Hungary, and that he fled to Claudiopolis a City of Da●ia▪ There he grew acquainted with a rich man, and became his Godfather. He helped him to drive out the Tartars. They as they fled, threw down moneys of Gold that they had plundered in the field of Aradium, as a means to hinder those that pursued them. The King prayed unto God, that they might be changed into stones; and it was so. Hence it is, that there are so many stones there. After this Hungary being afflicted with a grievous Plague, He obtained of God, that what plant an Arrow shot into the Air should fall down upon, might be a remedy for that disease. It fell upon Cruciata, and by the use of that the Plague was driven out of that Country, Camerar. Centur. 3. Memorab: s. 23. CHAP. XXII. Of Broom, Ginger, and St. Johns-wort. IN stony and sandy grounds, 3. foot from Broom, one month before and after the Calends of June, there is a kind of Broomrape found that is a cubit high; if this be bruised, and the juice pressed forth, which is like to clear wine, and be kept in a glass bottle stopped all the year, it is an excellent remedy against the Plague. Ginger is a root that creeps along with knots and joints, the leaves are like reed leaves that wax green anew twice or thrice a year, Mathiol. l. 2. c. 154. There is some difference in the taste when it is dug forth before its time to be ripe. The fit time to gather it is, when the root grows dry, otherwise it is subject to Worms and rottenness. St. Johns-Wort both feed and flower is wonderful to heal all wounds; besides those in the head. Some write, that the Devils hate it so much, that the very smell of it drives them away. I think this superstitious. The same is reported of Pellitary, especially for green wounds. If it be bruised green and bound to a wound, and taken off the third day, there will need no other Medicament, Mathiol. in l. 4. c. 81. CHAP. XXIII. Of Elecampane, Turnsole, and Hivoa. ELecampane is a yearly Plant, that grows higher than a man▪ Sometimes 24 foot in height: it grows up in 6. months after the seed is sown; on the top of the stalk there grows a head like an Artichoke, but it is rounder and broader, and it extends itself with a flower as big as a great Dish, Bauhin. ad lib. 4. Dioscor. c. 182. Sometimes the diameter of the dish is more than a foot and half; and it is compassed about with long leaves of a golden colour, or as it were Sunbeams, and the plain of it in the middle is purple colour. The seed is disposed of in the holes of the dish; it hath a black rind and sweet substance within: so great is the abundance of it, that sometimes you shall find above a thousand in one dish: Some there are, that take the tender stalks of the leaves; and scraping away the Down, they boil them on a grid-iron, and season them with Salt, Oil, and Spices, and they are better tasted than Artichokes. It is a wonder, that it turns with the Sun East and West; for when the Sun riseth, as if it did adore the Sun, it bows down the head, and it riseth with it, always pointing toward the Sun, and opening itself very much at the root of it, till the Sun sets. Turnsole kills Pismires, if you stop their holes with it. If a Scorpion's hole be compassed about with the juice of it, he will never come forth; but if you put in the herb, he dies, Mathiol. ad l. 4. c. 186. Hiuca is as great as a man's thigh, it goes about with the Sun, though it be a cloudy day, and at night it is contracted as sad for the Sun's absence, Plin. l. 22. c. 21. They break it into fine meal by rubbing it with Pumex stones or whetstones; then they put it into an Hippocras bag, and pour water to it, and press forth the juice: The Liquor is deadly, but the meal that is left, is set in the Sun, as they do Sugar-Candy; when the meal is dry they temper it with water, and make bread of it, Scalig. Ex●rc. 153. l. 8. CHAP. XXIV. Of Impia, Juniper. and Glassewort. IMpia is thought to be a plant that no Creature will taste of, and from thence it hath its name: yet bruised between two stones, it will grow hot; and the juice of it mingled with Wine and milk, is excellent against the Quinsy, Mathiol. in l. 3. c. 115. They that shall taste of it will never be troubled with that disease. Some think that part of this herb is put into birds nests, and that keeps their young ones from being strangled when they eat so greedily. Juniper is hard; hence it is, that the wood will not corrupt in an hudnred years. Therefore Annibal commanded to build the Temple of Diana at Ephesus with Juniper beams, Plin. l. 15. c. 40. A light coal of it covered with its own ashes, will keep fire a whole year, if we will credit the Chemists. An admirable Bath is made of it for the Gout thus: Take 12. pound of Juniper wood cut in pieces, boil it in water in a great Cauldron, till but a third part remain; then pour forth the decoction with the wood into a Fat: let the sick go into it, and sit there up to the navel▪ and bathe his limbs, but he must first purge, Mathiol▪ l. 1. Dioscor. c. 87. Many Gouty people have been made whole by this Bath, that were forced to keep their beds before. The pith of it in Numidia is white; in Aethiopia, black; in Lybia, purple coloured, Scalig. Exerc. 181. s. 9 Also the African Physicians raspir and use it successfully for Guaicum, against the Indian disease. I say by the by, that this disease was carried by the Jews out of Spain into Africa, and cannot there be cured without a remedy. But if the Patients go into Numidia, or Aethiopia by Nigris, there the Climate only will cure them. Of the Ashes of Kaly, Salt is made this is dissolved, with powder of stones, and a kind of clammy substance swims a top to make glass: when it is cold, it grows hard, and is called commonly Axungia Vitri; being powdered, it makes the teeth wonderful clean, Plater. l. 2. de Vit. CHAP. XXV. Of the Bay-Tree, Mastick-Tree, and Flax. THe Bay-Tree will yield fire of itself; and if you rub the dried boughs often together, strewing powder of brimstone thereon, it will take fire, Mathiol. in l. 1. c. 90. It is always with green leaves▪ and so great is the force of it, that but stick some of the boughs in the fields, and the corn will never be hurt with smut, which is the plague of Corn; for it will take hold of the leaves. At Rome they held antienly, that Jupiter sent it from heaven, Plin. l. 15. c. 30. For an Eagle from aloft let fall a white hen, into the lap of Livia Drusilla, (who afterwards was called Augusta, being married to Caesar, whom she was espoused to) she wondered at it, but was not afraid; the miracle was, that she had in her beak a Bay●bough that was full of Bay-berries. The Soothsayers commanded to keep the Hen, and her Chickens, and to set the Bay bough, and take care of it, which was done in the Manor of the Caesars, that was by the River Tibur, about 9 miles from Rome, in the way Flaminia; and therefore is called, ad Gallinas, and it grew into a great wood. Caesar afterward in triumph held a Bay-bough in his hand, and had a Crown of bays on his head. Amongst all Trees this only is never stricken with thunder, unless it be for a sign of future calamity; no houses are thunder-stricken, as they say, where the boughs are; Therefore Tiberius fearing thunder, when it did thunder, put on his Laurel Crown. Theophrastus writes, 4. the Plant. c. 8. that they are stony in the red Sea. The Mastick-Tree beats little bladders bowed in like to horns, wherein there is contained a clear liquor, which with age is turned into little Creatures, like to those that fly out of Elm and Turpentine bladders. In the Island Chios, of the Egean Sea, from the Mastic Tree cut, runs forth Mastic: it grows in ground that is ramed fast together, and paved, Mathiol. l. 1. c. 45. If you ofttimes distil Linseed oil, saith Bapt. Porta. l. 10. mag. c. 9 it will be so ready to take fire, that you can scarce shut it up in a Vessel, but it will draw fire to it, and if the vessel be open, it is so thin, that it will fly into the Air and evaporate, and if the light of a candle or fire touch it, the air will kindle, and the oil will flame so violently at a great distance, that it is almost impossible to put it out. In the Deserts of India it grows red, that will endure the fire, and be purified by it. It grows out of stones, springing, and rising upward, the hair is short; and is therefore hard to be spun, Libav. l. 2. c. 7. de Bomby●. CHAP. XXVI. Of the Larch-Tree, Lily, Loostrife, and the Lote-Tree. SOme of the best Writers say, That the Larch-Tree will not burn, and we alleged it before out of Lemnius; but that is found to be false. In the Mountains of Trent Iron is made, and the Furnaces are heat with Larch-wood; and no wood will better melt metals. And if stones will burn that have a Bituminous matter in them, what shall we conclude of a Rosinous kind of wood? Lilies will hold green all the year, if when they are shut, and have not opened themselves, they be crop●, and put into new unglased pots, and kept close covered, Mathiol. ex Anatolio in l. 3. Dioscor. c. 99 When in the mean time you take them out for your use, bring them to the Sun, and by warmth of it they will open themselves. Loosstrife is a notable remedy against the Plague; the Country people found this Plant amongst the Coenomani; bound something high upon a man, it will drive the poison of the plague downwards, and keeping it there, will not let it rise up any more, Ruel de nature. stirp. l. 3. c. 78. If Oxen disagree, lay this on their yokes, and they will be quiet. The Lote-Tree is a va●t spreading Tree full of large boughs. Domitius valued 6. of them at a thousand Sestertia, Plin. l. 17. c. 1. They lasted until such time as Nero burned the City, 180 years. There is also an herb in Egypt called by ●●i' Name, that when the waters of Nilus go back that watered the ground, it comes up like a bean, Plin. l. 13. c. 17. The fruit of it is like a Poppy head dented in, and the seeds are in it. The Inhabitants putrefy the heads in heaps, than they wash them apart; when they are dry, they bruise them, and eat them for bread. When the Sun sets, these Poppy heads close and are covered in leaves▪ when the Sun riseth they open, till they grow ripe, and the white flower fall off; That bread is Physical, Plin. l. 22. c. 21. They that feed on it are never troubled with a Dysentery nor Tenasmus, nor any diseases of the belly. When it is hot, it is the most easy of digestion; but cold, it is harder for the stomach. CHAP. XXVII. Of Malabathrum, Punic and Assyrian Apples, and the Tree called Mangueis. MAlabathrum is a leaf of its own kind that the Lakes of India produce, swimming like Duckweed on the waters without any root: they gather it and stitch it through, and hang it up to dry, Diosc. l. 1. c. 11. They say, that when the Summer heat dries up the waters, the dry sprigs do burn on the ground, and if this come not to pass, it grows there no more. Dioscor. divides Pomegranates into 3. heads, some are sweet, some sharp and sour; others are between both. They say that sharp ones will grow sweet, if hogs or man's dung be laid to the roots of the Trees, and to water them oft with old urine, Mathiol. l. 1. Dioscor. c. 127. They are kept from corrupting a whole year, if when they are almost ripe, the branches they hang by, be wound about the Tree; or after that they are gathered, they be smeered all over with Clay resolved in water, and laid some days in the Sun. Also they are dipped into scalding water, and are presently taken forth again, and laid 8. days in the Sun to dry. The Assyrian Appletree bears fruit always, some fall off, others coming in their places, ripening one after the other. Pliny, l. 12. c. 3. saith, That people tried to transport them for themselves, because they are so good for health, and to carry them in earthen vessels, giving place for their roots to take air by holes in the vessels, as all such things that must be carried far to be set and transplanted must be used, which you must remember that we may not say one thing twice. But they will not grow but amongst the Medes and Persians. Do●dius writes, as Libav. de orig. rerum. reports, than an Assyrian Apple, when it was cut, was found great with a young one in it, that lay in it as in the Womb, and was fastened to its stalk. The question was how it grew so, and it seems there were may Apples on that twig placed close together; and the first growing but slowly, that which grew over it by abundance of matter coming to it, grew faster, and pressing with its weight on the lesser, took it into it, and so grew about it. Mangueis is a Tree in the Country Temistitan; out of whose stock pierced, there flows a watery juice. If any Man drink too much of it, he grows drunk and stupid. The bark is good for thread, the wood for niedles, the leaves to cure diseases, and to cover houses. Matol. in Colloqu. de Plant. CHAP. XXVIII. Of Musk and Moss. MUsk is bred in the Navel of a certain Creature; two kinds of this Creature are described: one is like a Goat with one Horn; and a great body. This when it is prone to venery, with the vehemence of Lust, the Navel swells, and the imposthume grows great by the thicker blood heaped together, R●ell. ex Aetio. Then it will neither eat nor drink, and rolls itself often on the ground, by which rolling it presseth forth the blood that swells in the Navel; The matter pressed out, in a short time grows wonderful sweet. Scaliger writes of the other, that is in the Kingdom of Pegu, like a roe busk, white, from whose lower Mandible, the teeth put forth equally on both sides. Under the belly of it (I set down the story out of Scaliger Exerc. 21) the Navel swells. They catch the beast, and cut off that part with the skin: and all the drops of blood that run out, when it is cut, and fall down, they are either catcht, or gathered up for good Musk. When they have cut it, they set leeches on, so many and so long, till they kill it by drawing blood from it: that blood so drawn forth, being dried and made into powder, they mingle with the former in small quantities, that is very strong. One hundred part is sufficient. The sophistication is discovered, if you smell to it. That which is unmixed, will draw blood from your nose if you put it near. There is another kind of Musk called Civet, it is bred in a little Bladder in the testicles of a certain Creature. Mathiol ad l. 5. c. 20. And growing like sweat in the testicles, is of quality moist and hot: that put into the Navel hole wonderfully cures the strangling of the Matrix. There is one kind of Cranesbill that smells like Musk; especially Evening and morning. The hairy Moss of the Larch-Tree, if it be set on fire, burns so violently, that it exceeds Gunpowder. Mathiol loc. cit. For they flame with a World of sparks in a darknight, and fly up toward the Stars, leaving a sweet smell behind them. Gathered new, and steeped with Oil of Roses, it wonderfully abates pains of the head that come from a hot cause; it stops blood, laid upon wounds. CHAP. XXIX. Of Mandragora, Mallows, and the Mulberry-Tree. MAndragora is a sleepy medicament, as experience proves, Lemnius in explic. herb. biblic. c. 2. For when as he had negligently laid the fair and amiable fruit of it in his study, he was oppressed with drowsiness; but when he removed it, he grew wakeful again. The same thing happened to the Afcicans in their War against the Carthagenians. For Hamilcar corrupted the Wine in the Vessels, and let the Africans take it for spoil: when they had drank, they all fell asleep, and the Carthagenians became Conquerors. Potyan, l. 5. Phythagoras calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, For the roots from the middle to the bottom come forth with two forks, that it seems to have legs like Men. The fruit is like an Apple, not far from the root, upon the leaves lying on the ground. Heidfeld. in sphing. Philosoph. Wherefore if it be dug up at that time, that it bears fruit, it represents a Man without Arms. There are also some Counterfeits made of reeds, Mandragora, and Bryonie roots. Matthiol l. 4. Dioscor. c. 7. showeth the way an impostor used to make one. They carve (saith he) in these the Images of both men and women, sticking the grains of Barley and millet in the places, where they will have hair come forth; then making a hole in the ground, they cover it with thin sand, so long till those grains shoot forth, which will be in 20 days at least. Then they take them up again, and cut the roots where the grains grow to them, with a very sharp Knife, and they sit them so, that they may represent the hair of the head, the beard, and other parts that are hairy. Mallows are so venereous, that the seed of that which hath but one stalk strewed on the privities, is said by Xenocrates to increase lust infinitely in women. Also three roots bound together are thrust up with great success for the tenesmus and the Dysentery. But it is a wonder, that water should in the open air grow thick by it, and white as Milk. Plin. l. 10. c. 21. The Mulberry Tree will not bud till the cold be over, yet it brings forth fruit with the first; when it begins to bud, it buds so violently, that in one night it buds all over with a noise, so that the whole Tree will be covered with flowers. Pliny, l. 16. c. 25. CHAP. XXX. Of Napellus: NApellus kills with every part, but chiefly the root. For held in the hand till it wax hot, it will destroy you. It is certain, that some shepherds that used the stalk for a spit to roast birds, died of it. Mathiolus. (Com. in l. 4. Dioscor. c. 73.) confirms this venomous quality of it by many examples. I shall add one. One dram of Napellus was given to a Thief that was 27 years old: He drank it down, and said it tasted like pepper. Most grievous symptoms followed: for he vomited often something green, as Leeks. He felt a thing like a ball about his Navel, it came upwards, and sent a cold vapour to his head: then he became stupefied as if he had a palsy that laid hold on his left arm, and leg, that he could scarce stir the top of his hand, all motion being lost in the other parts. By and by, this force of the disease forsook his left side, which became sound, and seized on his right side, and wrought the like effects there. He said, That all the veins of his body were grown cold. He had giddiness in his head, and his brain was so often disturbed, that he said it seemed to him like boiling water. He had Convulsions in his Eyes and Mouth, and a very sharp pain in his Mandibles; wherefore he often held those parts with his hands, fearing they would fall off. His eyes appeared outwardly swollen, his face wan, lips black, and his belly was seen to swell, like a Tympany: His Arteries beat strongly, and his mind was diversely troubled, as the symptoms increased. For sometimes he thought he should die, and presently he hoped to live; sometimes he spoke rationally, and sometimes he doted; sometimes he wept, and sometimes he sang. He affirmed, that in all this time he was thrice blind, and thrice in an agony of death, but his tongue was firm, never troubled with any symptom. Thus far Mathiolus. But all these symptoms by giving him Bezoar's stone, vanished in seven hours. CHAP. XXXI. Of Nyctegretum, Granum Nubiae, Nutmegs, and Olive Trees. NYctegretum was admired by Democritus, amongst a few things; it is hot as fire, and hath thorny leaves, nor doth it rise from the ground. It must be dug up after the vernal Equinoctial, and dried by the Moonlight for 30 days, and then it will shine in the night, Plin. l. 21. c. 11. It is also called Chenomychon, because Geese are afraid at the sight of it. In Nubia, which is Aethiopia by Egypt, there is a grain that swallowed will kill living Creatures. A tenth part of it will kill them in a quarter of an hour, Scalig. Exerc. 153. s. 11. In Banda an Island of the Molucco's the Nutmeg grows, and it is covered with a cup for a shell, when 'tis ripe it is all covered over. Under the first covering the shell is not presently that covers the kernel, but a thick skin which the Arabians call Macin. The Olive-Tree if it be cropped at the first budding by a Goat, grows so barren, that it will never bear by any means; but if there be any other cause, the certain cure is, to lay open their roots to the Winter cold, Plin. l. 7. c. 14. The Olive and the Oak so disagree, that one planted by the other will shortly die. The Lees of oil mingled with Lime, if walls be plastered with it, and the roofs, they not only drop down all adventitious humours that they contract, but neither Moth nor Spiders will endure them, Mathiol. in Dioscor. It flowereth in July, the flowers coming forth by clusters. From whence grow first green berries, and they are pale as they grow ripe; then they become a full purple colour, and lastly black. They are pulled in November and December, then are they laid in pavements till they become wrinkled, then are they put in under a millstone, and are pressed out with presses, pouring scalding water on, and so they yield their oil. The wood of the Tree burns as well green as dry. At Megoris a wild Olive Tree stood long in the Marketplace, to which they had fastened the Arms of a valiant man; but the bark grew over it, and hid them for many years. That Tree was fatal to the City's ruin, as the Oracle foretold, when a Tree should bear arms: for it so fell out when the Tree was cut down, spurs and helmets being found within it, Plin. l. 16. c. 29. The Olive Tree lasts 200 years, Plin. l. 16. c. 44. CHAP. XXXII. Of the Palmtree. THey say that the female Palm-Trees will bring forth nothing without the Males, which is confirmed when a wood grows up of its own accord; so about the Males, many females will grow inclining toward them, and wagging their boughs. But the male with branches standing up as it were hairy, doth marry them, by the blowing on them, and by standing near them on the same ground, Plin. l. 13. c. 4. When the Male is cut up, the females are in widowhood, and are barren. Hence in Egypt they so plant them, that the wind may carry the dust from the Male to the Female, but if they be far off, they bind them together with a cord Pontanus reports, that two Palm-Trees, one set at Brundisium, the other at Hydruntum were barren, till they were grown up to look one upon the other, and though it were so great a distance, yet they both did bear fruit. Dalechamp. ad lib. cit. Poets write thus of them: A Tree there grew in large Brundisium Land, A Tree in Idumaea much desired, And in Hydruntum Woods one rare did stand, Like Male and Female, 'tis to be admired: On the same ground they did not grow, but wide Asunder, and they both unfruitful stood. They many leaves did bear, nothing beside; At last they grew so high, above the wood, That of each other they enjoyed the light. Then they grew fruitful, like to Man and Wife, Each in the other seemed to take delight, And to be partners each of th'others life. Cardanus reports, that in Data a City of Numidia, there was a Palmtree, the fruit whereof, unless the boughs of the flourishing male were mingled with the boughs of the female, the fruit was never ripe, but were lean with a great stone in them, and by no help could they be kept from consuming; but if any leaf or rind of the male were present, than they would grow ripe. Philo. l. 1. de vita Mosis saith, that the vital force of it is not in the roots, but in the top of the stock, as in the heart, and in the middle of the boughs, that it is guarded about with all, as with Halberdiers. There is a kind of Palmtree grows in India, out of the stock whereof, the boughs being for that purpose cut in the month of August, a liquor like wine runs forth, that the Inhabitants receive in vessels: unless it be boiled, it grows sour after 3. days, Mathiol. ad l. 1. c. 126. Boiled, it is converted into most sweet honey, which afterwards is resolved in water, in 20 days it is strained forth artificially, and so clarified it will last. But the Palm-Trees which Dioscorides calls Thebaicae, in time grow so dry in the Sun, that they are ground to make bread of them. Thevet speaks of a Palmtree that yields wine in the promontory of Aethiopia, which is the fairest sort of Palm-Trees for height, and for being always green. They cut it 2. foot above the ground to draw forth the juice. They let it run into Earthen vessels for their daily drink; and to make it keep, they cast in a little salt. It is like white Wine of Campania in colour and substance. Linschottus l. 4. America novae c. 26. reports; That in a place of the West-Indies, called St. John de portu divite, there grows a Palmtree that every month brings new leaves, and is loaded with Cocker-nuts. Pierius in Hieroglyph. saith it is an Emblem of the year, because this Tree alone at every new Moon sends forth several branches. CHAP. XXXIII. Of the Planetree, Appletrees, and the Tree called Paternoster. OF old they gave so much honour to the Planetree at Rome, that they infused the roots in Wine a long time to preserve them. In the Island of Candie there is one that never loseth its leaves, Plin. l. 1. c. 1. But there is a noted one in Lycia, by the way side, that is hollow like a house, the hollow cave in it is 81 foot wide, it hath a woody top, and vast boughs, like great Trees; it overshadowes the fields with its far casting shadow; and that nothing may be wanting to the likeness of a Cave, there is a stony circumference within, that is full of mossy Pumex stones: the miracle is so great, that L. Matianus that was thrice Consul, thought fit to divulge it to posterity, that he and 18. more feasted in it. If Apples in winter be kept amongst Grapes, they so corrupt the Grapes, that they presently wither and corrupt. It is reported, that if a woman with Child eat Quinces, she shall be delivered of an industrious and witty child. Citron Apples keep garments from Moths and Worms; how good they are against poison, you may know by examples out of Athenaeus. A Citron Apple hath cured some that were stung by Vipers. They keep longer uncorrupted, if they be put into a heap of Barley or Millet. They cure Scabs, if they be cut in the middle, and powder of Brimstone be finely strewed upon them, and they be roasted in hot Embers, and so the Patient be rubbed therewith. Apples of Sodom are fair to sight; but touched, they fall to ashes, Solin. c. 36. In Hispaniola there is a Tree called Pater noster, the fruit is as great as a Hazel nut: put this in boiling water, and dip a linen or woollen Cloth in it, it will be died gallantly with diversity of spots, but it corrodes with its overgreat force, Ovetan. l. 9 c. 1. CHAP. XXXIV. Of Pepper, Plantain, Pimpernel, wild tansy, herb Paris, and Paper. ROund black Pepper grows upon some weak branches like tendrels, that creep up to the tops of Trees by them, clinging about them. It grows like the fruit of the wild Vine in clusters, flourishing close together of a green colour till it become dry; which when it doth, (as it doth in October) it is gathered, and laid upon Palmtree coverlids in the open Sun to torrify, and so it becomes black and shriveled, Mathiol. l. 2. Diosc. c. 153. The root of the greater Plantain put in a little bag and bound with a thread near the Region of the heart, preserveth a man from the Plague. Scholtius relates it for a certain remedy out of Monavius, Epist. 268. Pimpernel was found out by Prince Chaba, for with this alone were cured 5000 wounded Hungarians, after the battle, Clus in Nomen. Pannon. steeped in hot water it is approved for to cure a continual Fever. It hath so great force against the disease called Hydrophobia, that whosoever shall use it betimes in the morning for some days, in Salads, or otherwise, after he hath been bitten, shall find no harm, Fernelius. Wild Tansey applied to the palms of the hands, and soles of the feet, abates the heat of any Feavert, Mathiol. in l. 5. c. 37. In the berries of Herb Paris, there is found seed, that hath great virtue against Witchcraft. Some grow sottish by Chronicle diseases; others by Witchcraft. If these drink the seed, one dram, for 20. days they are cured. Paper reed grows in the Lakes of Egypt, or where the waters of Nilus have run over, and stand still, and are not above two Cubits high: the crooked root is as thick as ones arm, it hath triangular sides, it is not above ten Cubits in length, it runs up spire wise, like a Javelin. Plin. l. 13. c. 12. The Egyptians made matter to join their Ships together with the inside of this bulrush, cutting off the tops of the reed; also they made Sails and shoes of it. Herodot, l. 2. Only the Priests wore those shoes, as Arist. writes. They were wont to sell, and to eat the lower part, of about a Cubit in length, and they were exceeding sweet, when they were torrified in an Oven. This was the chief meat of the Egyptians, hence was the original of Paper. Dalechamp. ad l. 13. Plin. c. 11. CHAP. XXXV. Of the Oak, Rhubarb, Rape-root, and Rosa-solis. IN Maritania, Oaks bear a long Acorn that tastes sweeter and more delicate than Chestnuts. Scaliger Exerc. 181. s. 26. The land of the shore of Sinus Pucicus is Rocky, and the Clods of Earth are bituminous: there grow upon them pale shrubs, scarce a foot high. They have a kind of Okes, and Box-Trees, but they have no root. Scaliger saw one that was without knots and strait, 75, foot long. There were 30 Crowns offered for it. Scalig. Exerc. 166. A little above the Cauchi, Pliny, lib. 16. c. 1. writes that there were mighty ones, by the banks of two Lakes, which being either undermined by the waters, or blown down with the wind, pulled up great Islands with them that they grew upon with their roots, and so standing equally balanced, they sailed, being furnished with huge boughs. They oft terrified the Roman Navy, when as they were driven by the Waves as it were of purpose, and seen by those that kept watch on the decks. There was one in the Country of Thurirum that never cast its leaves, yet never budded till midsummer. Rheubarb grows only in China, and is brought by Usebech into Turkey, and so to Venice; The virtues of it are said to be notable, and they bring an example of an hydropic person, who having been in exceeding great danger, by the use of Rhubarb he was cured, and lived to be a very old man. Adolph. Occo in Scholtii Epist. The same man received a mortal wound by his Servant, after his disease, and the Chyrurgians expected he would die in four days, or seven at farthest: he recovered, by Rhubarb, next under God. One writes thus of it, Camerar. Cent. 8. in 51. Rhubarb is hot and dry; the belly binds; And opens Children, Women great with Child May safely use it, 'tis good for all kinds. Opens Obstructions, and gives purges mild, Both Phlegm and Choler, 'tis forth' stomach good, And helps the Liver, serves to cleanse the blood. Stops spitting blood, and ruptures, and we prize This root for weak folk, and dysenteries. From the small seed of Rhubarb in 3● months, so great a root grows that in some places it weighs 100 pound weight, Mathiol. in l. 2. c. 104. Mathiolus saw Turnips in the Country of Anamum, that one of them weighed 30 pounds. Those that are sowed in Summer, are free from Worms, mingling sutt with the seed when 'tis sowed; or else steep the seed a night in the juice of the greater housleek. It hath been proved, Columella. By Harlem, Anno 1585. there was one dug up like a Man's hand with nails and fingers exactly. I saw the picture of it at Leyden with Cl. Bundarcius. Ros solis, or Sun dew, which shines under the Sun like a Star with his beams, hath its name from its admirable nature for, though the Sun in summer shine long and hot upon it, yet the leaves of it are almost always wet, and the down of them is always full of drops. And which is admirable, that moisture that is contained in the cups of the leaves, so soon as you touch it with your fingers, while it yet grows on the ground, or else is pulled up presently, and held in the Sun beams, is drawn forth by and by into white threads like Silk, which harden immediately, and so continue ever after, Camerar. cent. 8. memorab. 98. CHAP. XXXVI. Of Crowfoot, Rue, Rosemary, Rose-root and rosetree. CRowfoot, if Men eat it, will cause Convulsions, and draw their mouths awry. They seem to laugh that dye with it, Pausan. Also Salustius speaks of it: In Sardinia, saith he, there grows an herb called Sardea, like wild Smallage: this contracts the Mouths and Jaws of Men with pain, and kills them, as it were, laughing. Rue resists Venom, therefore a Weasel will carry it, when he fights with a Serpent. It is of a mighty greatness at Macheruntum, Joseph. l. 7. the bell, Juddic. c. 25. It was as high as any Figtree, and had remained from the time of Herod. It is a singular remedy for the Epilepsy, as a Country man found by accident. Camerar, Cent. 3. Memorab. 36. He bruised it; and with the smell of the Rue he stopped the nose of this Epileptic person fallen, and presently he rose up. Rosemary grows so plentifully in France that they burn it, so thick that they make Tables of it. It flowers both spring and fall▪ Mathiol. l. 3. c. 37. Barclay, in his Icon animarum. c. 4. writes thus of it in England: Rosemary in many Countries is costly ●y the very pains is used about it to cherish it; here it is common, and sometimes serves to make hedges for Gardens. Rhodium root is the most lively of all roots; for dug out of the earth, unless it be laid up in very dry places, if it be planted again after many Months, it will grow. It grows on the highest Rocks where it hath scarce so much earth as to stick by. Mathiol. l. 4. c. 41. The Rosebush at Carthage in Spain is always full of Roses in Winter, and was always honoured by the Romans; for they were wont to strew the leaves on their dishes of meat, and to besmear their Citron Tables with the juice of them, that they might by reason of their bitterness be free from Worms. Heliogabalus commanded to throw Roses on his Banqueting guests from the top of the Room, as if it rained Roses. Dalechamp in l. 21. c. 4. That is wonderful that is related concerning revification. There was a famous Physician at Cracovia, who could so curiously prepare the ashes of every part of a Plant, that he would exactly preserve all the Spirits of them. The ashes waxing a little hot by putting a Candle to the Glass, represented a Rose wide open, which you might behold growing by degrees▪ to augment, and to be like a stalk, with leaves, flowers, and at last a double Rose appeared in its full proportion; when the Candle was taken away it fell again to ashes. Rosenberg Rhodolog, c. ult. The same thing almost was done with a Nettle, as Quercetan testifieth in his History of the Plague. For when one would appoint a remedy against the stone, at the end of Autumn he pulled a great many Nettles up by the roots, of these Nettles he made a lie the common way with hot water, and by straining and filtering, he purified this lixivium, that he might at last produce salt artificially as he intended: but when he had set the lixivium all night to cool in an Earthen Vessel, the next day when he thought to Evaporate to extract the Salt; it happened that night, that the air was so cold, that all the Lixivium was over frozen. When therefore in the Morning he purposed to cast that Lixivium out at the Window, besides his expectation he saw that all the water of the Lixivium was frozen, and a thousand figures there of Nettles were in it, so perfect with roots leaves and stocks, and showing so exactly, that no Painter could paint them better. CHAP. XXXVII. Of Scorzonera, Squills, Sage, and Scordium. SCorzonera is no ancient Plant, Mathiolus first described it, l. ●. c. 137. It was found in Catalonia by an African servant: he that found it, showed that it was a present remedy against the bitings of Adders; he that will escape, must drink the juice. Of Squills, vinegar is made, of an admirable quality, saith Mathiolus, if one daily drink a little; his jaws and Mouth will never be ill, his stomach will be well, he will breathe well, see well, he will be troubled with no wind in his belly, and will be well coloured and long wound. He that useth this vinegar will digest his meat well, though he eat much: There will be no crudities in his body, not wind, nor choler, no dr●gs, nor will the urine or ordure pass away with over looseness, Mathiol. in l. 2. c. 168. Of Sage they say, that it stops the flowing of the courses, if one smell to it; and eaten by one with Child, it will retain the child, and keep it lusty, Mathiol. in l. 3. c. 34. Hence it is that Agrippa calls it, sacred. If a woman drink a Hemina of the juice of it with a little salt the fourth day she hath abstained, and lain alone, and then lie with her husband, she will conceive. It is reported, that in Coptus of Egypt, after a great plague, that the women drank it, and did bear many children. In many places of Asia they bear Apples; In Calabria of Consentia, Scaliger saith, Exerc, 168, that one did bring forth a gall of an Ash-colour, and that he saw it. Dead bodies are preserved by touching Scordium, Galen. l. 1. Antidote. For the dead bodies of those that fell upon the Scordium of Crete after they were slain in the War, did corrupt least, especially on that part whence the Scordium had touched them. It if it be boiled in wine, it is good to drink against stinging of Serpents, Const. de Febr. pest. c. 18. CHAP. XXXVIII. Of Nightshade. THere are many kinds of Nightshade: amongst these are Winter Cherries, the sleepy Nightshade, the greater and the spongy Nightshade; they seem to have some strange things in them. Halicacabum is such an enemy to Vipers, that if the root be near them they die with deep sleep. Vesicarium hath long leaves, white flowers, out of which come forth green round bladders, with six divisions long ways, the seed within is murry colour, as great as Orobus; in the side of it is the figure as it were of a man's heart, with a white colour. Nature framed it so, that we might know it was good for the diseases of it. Sleepy Nightshade, tasted causeth sleep: the Danes found that, by their example. For when by Sueno King of Norway besieged Duncanus King of Scotland in the Town of Perth; He calling forth Maccabaeus his Cousin-german, began to treat of surrendering up the place, and provision, Hector. Boet. l. 12. Scot hist. The Danes accepted the conditions, and took what provision they had; but so soon as they had tasted of it, they were all so oppressed with sleep, (for their wine and beer were infected with Nightshade) that Macchabaeus vanquished them. Ten of them suspecting the gifts of Enemies were safe. These carried King Sueno like one that was dead, in a Fisher's Boat to the mouth of Thais, and so home. The root of the greater Nightshade dried, if half a dram of it be steeped in wine seven days, it will so infect it, that if any one shall drink it strained, he can eat nothing; let him drink vinegar and it is presently gone, but if you take it too largely, it will strangle you. Franciscus Calce●larius of Verona was the first discovered this secret, and revealed it to others, Mathiol. in l. 4. c. cit. Of the tuberous Nightshade, the root is spongy, sometimes as great as ones fist, as long as ones hand; where the stalk riseth, many fibrous roots come forth, that are spread on the ground; from these at the beginnining of the Spring, come up other stalks, and other bulbous roots grow with them; and it will propagate so many roots, that for one plant dug up in the Winter time, Bauhinus (ad loc. cit. Dioscor.) observed, that there were above 40 bunches belonging to it. CHAP. XXXIX. Of Mustard, Satyrium, and the greater Saxifrage. MUstard seed covered with Sugar, or eat with honey for junckates is a safe experiment; for stupidity proceeding from moisture, Horst. l. 2. de sanit. tenend. c. 1. Where the Uuula is fallen, this sauce will draw it up presently. Pythagoras' esteemed of it, because besides preserving one's health, it ascends high, into the closet of reason where the mind resides. Pansa. Theor. spu. de pror. vit. c. 51. saith thus; I commend the infusion of this in sweet wine to all Scholars, chiefly in winter time. For it heats all the body, opens the mesaraick veins, and promotes the Chylus toward the Liver: For there is nothing better than to have a loose belly, and that helps itself. Satyrion is very good for venery, only touched. Theophrastus saith, it was proved 70 times in an Indian that brought it, and 12 times in others that touched it. Cynosorchis is like to this, whose greater root is full of flatulent matter, and causeth lust, the lesser restrains it. Great Saxifrage grows in Mount Baldus coming forth of a firm hard stone, and old walls of Cities, Mathiol. ad l. 4. c. 15. The root sticks so fast in rocks, that it cannot be pulled out but by sharp Irons: It is good to drive out stones; by the drinking thereof abundance of stones were driven forth at once, and they were as great as Beans. CHAP. XL. Of the Turpentine, and Frankincense Trees. TUrpentine Trees, are one male, the other female, theophra. l. 3. c. 25. The Male is barren, the female brings forth a red fruit, as big as a Lentil, which cannot be digested; Another kind of female brings forth green fruit, and it grows red afterwards; And last of all, like the grape, as it grows ripe, it becomes black, and is as great as a Bean. Egisippus l. 4. c. 3. the excid. Hierosol. writes, that in Memphis there was a Turpentine-Tree, that was set at the making of the World; and it was there in his days. Frankincense is bred in Arabia in a private place almost in the middle of the Country, beyond the Aramites in the Land of the Sabaeans. The Minaei were the first that found it out; and it is reported, that only 300 Families have interest in it, and they keep it by succession. The people that are their Neighbours call them sacred. For when they cut the Tree, where the liquor runs forth, or when they gather it, they neither come at Funerals nor their Wives. They were wont to gather it, by cutting the bark of the Tree, at the rising of the Dog-star, because than it was most full of humours; that which dropped out of the Tree was received in a Palmtree covering, Scaliger Exerc. 49. It is there so cheap, that they carine ships with it instead of Pitch. But of Frankincense is made the best Medicament for blear and red eyes. It is said to cure in one night, Mathiol. ad l. 1. c. 73. Dioscor. A piece of Frankincense is put on a sharp point and burned, in a wax candle, than it is quenched in 4. ounces of Rose water; this is often done even to 30 times, than the water must be strained with a clean cloth, and the corners of the eyes must be anointed with a feather dipped in it, when the sick go to bed. If redness and tears increase with great pain, breast-milk will cure them, if you wash them therewith. CHAP. XLI. Of Wheat and Thyme. THere is nothing more fruitful than Wheat; for of one bushel if the ground be good, as in the Country of Bizacum in Africa, there will come 150 bushels, Plin. l. 18. c. 7. saith, That the Provider sent to Augustus, that grew from one grain ('tis hardly credible) 400 ears near upon: also he sent to Nero 340 straws that sprang from one corn. The Fields of Leontini in Sicily yield 100 increase. In the Country of the Senones by the Sea side, one root hath born 24 ears, and one bushel hath sometimes afforded an hundred, Mathiol. in l. 1. Dioscor. c. 78. In Asia beyond Bactra, in a certain place Theophrastus writes it grows so great, that every grain is as great as an Olive stone, theophra. l. 8. c. 4. But he adds, that in Pissoris it is so strong, that he that eats too much will burst. The Indian Wheat hath a stalk like a Cane, that hath a white pith in it, like to Sugarcanes, in the top whereof it puts forth branches divided and empty. The fruit wherein the Corn is shut up in thin covers, come forth of the sides of the stalk. The Ear is as great as the apple of the Pitch-Tree, there are round about it, clear white grains within as great as Pease, disposed of in 8. or 10. right lines on all sides. From the Top of the Cod, hang long shoots of the same colour with the corn, the Indians call it Malitz. It is steeped 2 days in water before they sow it; nor do they trust it, until it be wet with rain. They reap it in 4 months: but that which grows in Eubaea is ripe in 40 days, theophra. lib. cit. Thyme begins about the Summer Solstice; and honey from thence is successful for Bees and Bee-masters, theophra. l. 6. c. ●. If it put forth, its flowers; otherwise, the making of honey doth not succeed well, the flower perisheth if a shower fall. There runs oil from it of a golden colour, when the herb is distilled through a bath of hot water, when it is green. It tastes like a pome Citron, Mathiol. in l. 3. Dioscor. c. 37. CHAP. XLII. Of Tobacco. TObacco, or Nicotiana from the finder of it, is called also the holy Herb, the Queen's herb; the herb of the holy Cross, and Petum. It is well known to them that know the Indian Merchandise, and those that have smelled the fume of it in Brittany, France, and the Low-Countries. It is sowed when the Moon increaseth, and cut down when she decreaseth. There is one kind called the Male, with a broad leaf; and another called the female, with a narrower leaf, but a longer stalk. The least seed of it falling of its own accord, lies safe in the coldest winter; and the next Summer, being carried into many grounds with the wind, cometh up of itself, Camerar. in hort. Nea●der in Tobaccolog. From the seed of the male, they say the female will spring, if it fall into a ground where Tobacco grew before, and that so fruitfully, that it will yearly grow up of itself. But it will not endure the cold; but if it be well preserved, it will like Citron Trees continue all the year, and remain 4 years without damage, Monardus de simple. medicam. As for the forces of it, it will cause thirst, hath an acrimonious taste, it troubles the mind, and makes headache, Neander. They that drink it too greedily, have fallen down dead, and stupefied for a whole day, Benzon. l. 1. c. 26. hist. nov. orb. Hence it was that King James of famous memory King of England writ Misocapnos. For he supposed it weakened the bodies of his Subjects. Yet many famous men have written high commendations of it. The Spaniards say, it resists poison. For when the Cannibals had wounded them with poisoned darts, they cured themselves with the juice of Tobacco, laying on the bruised leaves, Monard. loc. cit. The Catholic King made trial of it on a Dog, wounded with a venom●● weapon, and it cured him. Heurnius writes, that it ours perfectly the pain of the teeth, and takes away all the dolour. His words are; When I was vehemently pained with toothache about a year since, I boiled Tobacco in water with some Camomile flowers, and I held a spoonful of the warm decoction in my mouth. I spit it forth, and used this for two hours▪ the pain abated: The next day (saith he) I went to my Garden in the Suburbs as I was wont to do, and bending down with my head to pull up some grass, there ran a moisture out of my nostrils; yellow as Saffron, it smelled like Tobacco, and all the pain of my teeth was gone. Never did blood, nor any thing but a phlegmatic matter run forth of my nose in all my life, and I never saw any deeper yellow, than what ran now out of my nostrils. That it restores the sight, see Wiburgius ad Schnitz. Epist. 209. A certain Maid had the pupil of her eye covered; he with the juice of the best Tobacco boiled to an unguent with May butter, and anointing the Eye outwardly with it, the eye being shut, effected so much, that none could discern it but those that stood close by. Clusius saith, That the Indians use to make pills with the juice of it and Cockle-shells bruised, that will stop their hunger for 3. days. It is no wonder; for by resolving of slime that falls upon the stomaches mouth, it abates the appetite. Castor Durantes in an Epigram describes the virtues of it, thus: An herb called Holy Cross doth help the sight, It cures both Wounds and Scabs, and hath great might Against Scrofulous and Cancerous tumors, Burnings, and Wildfires, repressing humours; It heats, it binds, resolves, and also dries, Assuages pains, diseases mundisies. Pains of the Belly, Head or Teeth with ease It helps, old Coughs, and many a sad disease Of Spleen and Reins, and Stomach, and more parts, As Womb, sore Gums, and Wounds with venomed darts Are cured thereby, with sleep it doth refresh, And covers naked bones with perfect flesh: For Breast and Lungs, when that we stand in need, All other herbs Tobacco doth exceed. CHAP. XLIII. Of Trifoly, Teucrium, Thelyphonon, Yew, Thapsia, and Thauzargent. TRifoly foreshews a tempest at hand, for when it is coming it will rise up against it. It hath been observed that when this herb hath plenty of flowers, it portends many showers and frequent inundations that year; and a few flowers, show dryness. Fuchs. in herb. It is called Cuckoo bread, either because she feeds of it, or because it comes forth about the time the Cuckoo sings; seven times in a day it hath a sweet smell, and seven times in the day it loseth it But pulled up it always holds it, and when a shower is coming, it will smell so sweet that it will fill all the houses. Teucrion otherwise Hermion neither bear's flowers nor seed. It cures the Spleen, and they say it was so found out Plin. l. 25. c. 5. when the entrails were thrown upon it, they report, it stuck to the Spleen, and drew it empty, It is said that swine that feed on the root of it, die without a Spleen. Thelyphonum hath a root like to a Scorpion, and put to them it kills them; but if you strew white Hellebour upon them, they will revive again; it is scarce credible. theophra, l. 9 c. 19 The Yew brings forth berries that are red, and like red Wine; they that eat them fall into Fevers and Dysenteries. cattle will die if they eat the leaves of it, and do drivel. Theophrastus writes it l. 3. c. 10. but Pliny confutes it, l. 16. c. 10. It is so Venomous in Arcadia, that it kills such as sleep under its shadows, Ovetan. Sum, c. 78. In India it makes the eyes and mouth of such as sleep under it to swell. Thapsia grows in the Athenian land▪ Cattle bred there will not touch it, but strange Cattle will feed on it, and there follows either a scouring or death. Theophrastus, l. 9 c. 22. It grew famous by Nero: For he, when he had his face bruised by his revel in the night, he anointed it with Thapsia, wax, and Frankincense, and beyond expectation it was whole the next day. For it wonderfully takes away bruised marks. Plin. l. 13. c. 22. Thauzangent is a root in the Western Mauritania of so good smell, that a small quantity hanged about the roof of the house will make a gallant perfume. Scalig. Exerc. 142. s. 6. CHAP. XLIV. Of the Vine. Vine's are sometimes infinite great. For in Campania, those that grow near the tall Poplar Trees, run up by the boughs of them, with their joints, till they come to the top, so that he that is bound to gather their grapes, is in danger of his life. Plin. l. 4. c. 1. Pliny saith, they will not easily corrupt. For the Image of Jupiter in the City Populonia, remained there many years uncorrupted, and the Temple of Diana of Ephesus, had stairs to go up to the top, made of one Vine of Cyprus. Some of them do yield fruit thrice a year. Dalechampius saw it in many places; at Lions especially, in the Garden of Guilet Caulius. They are called mad Vines. Dalechamp, ad c. 27. s. 16. Plin. At the end of the Spring they send forth small flowers like Stars, set about with round scrape like Silver, of a subspiceous colour; These being fallen off like to a little Star, presently appear the clusters of Grapes, Lemnius in herb. bibls. c. 2 The smell of them drives away Venomous Beasts; the water that runs from the Vine, when it is pruned, heals Scabs. Some catch it in a glass bottle, and set it in the Sun a whole year, in the open air free from rain. At last a honey substance congeles, which is of as great virtue as balsam. For it cleanseth, fills with flesh, conglutinates, takes away spots. Water distilled from the tender leaves of the Vine in May, is good for women that long; They suffer no harm, though they want it. Sennert. l. 4. p. 2. c. 2. From Grapes, Wine is pressed that we drink. The virtues of it are divers as the Wines are; Lemn. de occult. l. 1. c. 16. The Wines of Poictou make men peevish and froward (for the Vapours of it prick the brain) but your Rhenish Wines are more gentle. In the Country of Goritium the Wine is highly commended, and next to that, is the Wine of Pucinum and Vipacum. Mathiolus, when he had a long time pains of the Stomach, by experience found the force of it. Livia Augusta, owed her 82 years of her life to the Wine at Pucinum. Plin. l. 14. c. 6. The Country people that inhabit Japidia, because they drink Wines near Pucinum are seldom sick. Galen de Theriaca, saith, that the best never grows sour; and Pliny writes that some have lasted 200 years: when it is corrupted it becomes Vinegar, the natural heat being resolved. It is of an excellent virtue. For it hinders tempests, and the ruin of Sailors, and dissipates the ●aul●y air, suffering no humours to corrupt, Plin. l. 2. c. 48. Pearls are tu●●'d into Powder by it, as we have an example from Cleopatra, who objected to Antony that she alone would spend at one supper a hundred thousand Sestertii: and she took a Pearl out of her ear, the like was not found in the East Indies, and put it into a saw●●r of Vinegar, and when it was dissolved she drank it up; Plin. l. 9 c. 35. Aqua vitae is also made of it, which is otherwise called Elixir, the Golden water, the Heaven of the Philosophers, the quintessence, the Soul of Wine, the Divine water, and the Philosopher's Key. Canonher. de admirand. vini. l. 1. c. 5. Physicians write wonders of it, which are impossible for ignorant people. It is thin, and the best part of it will fly into the air, that you would wonder at it. For the heat of it, kept inwardly by help of the motion of the Air, resolves the thin substance into a Vapour. Cardan. de Aethere. Things steeped in it, in 24 hours lose their virtues, Heurn. l. 1. prax. Medic. It is an Antidote for all things, Mathiol. in Dioscor. l. 6. and not only drank but spurted out of one's mouth into another's face, it recalls Epileptic and hysterical persons, restoring lost speech, Antonius della Scarparia, when he was 80 years old, said, O Aquavitae for 22 years I owe my life to thee. Savanarola of the art of making Aquavitae simple and compound. Francis the first, Duke of Mantua was much delighted with it: for having a cold Stomach he was troubled with wind. His words are these, That he had tried all remedies, and found none so good as Aquavitae, Canonher loc. cit. Quercetan shows an unusual way of trying Wine, in Diaetetica in these words: All the Gascony Wines that must be transported by Sea, are brought to Bordeaux, there they are laid in Wine-Cellers for public use, that are wonderful long and broad, so that they may be truly called the Wine-Market, without the City a little way: and there they are set in close order, only a place is left between the ranks to draw Wine at. The Merchants that come to buy Wines and are cunning, care not so much to taste the Wines that are good, but they will go over all the Wine-Vessels, and so they can tell by treading on them which are the most spiritful Wines, and lightest, and those they seal▪ For they go lighter and nimbler on the best Wines, than on the grosser and more earthly Wines, for they make their passage more heavy. There be wonders of it in Pliny l. 14. c. 18. In Arcadia it makes women barren, and men mad. theophra. l. 6. c. 19 In Achaia it causeth abortion; if Bitch's, eat Grapes they cast their whelps, Victor l. 7. c. 23. They that drink Traezenium, lose their generative faculty. In Thasias one kind causeth sleep, another makes men wake. In Egypt, the Grape is sweet and purgeth the belly, in Lycia it binds it. CHAP. XLV. Of Xaqua and Zuccarum, or Sugar. XAqua is a Tree in Hispaniola; The fruit is like to Poppy, and a clear white water runs forth of it, and whatsoever is sprinkled with it, grows like black, so that no washing will make it clean. In 20 days it parts from the rind, of itself. Ovetan Summ. c. 77. There are two kinds of Zuccarum, one from Canes, another from an herb; There is another kind from an Indian Tree, called Haeoscer, Scalig. Exerc. 164. But this is scarce Sugar, but the thinner part of milk compacted by heat, which falling forth of the buds and roots of the leaves, thickneth into a gum. They say the fruit is like to Camels Testicles; Out of any part of the Tree cut, Milk runs forth so hot, that it is held for the best means to take off hair. The Inhabitants make their skins smooth with this. There are two kinds of the true one is got out of Canes two ways, for either it is pressed out and boiled to the whiteness of Sugar; or it comes forth of itself from the reeds, like tears. From the Indies formerly they sent it, so gathered with their other Merchandise. That which is called Sugar-Candy was carried about, in reeds. Histories testify, it was made naturally. For at Dathecala in the Indies, it is sold for Merchandise. In St. Thomas Island, the reeds yield it every Month. In the fifth Month they are ripe, and are cut down, and are grund and pressed for the juice: what remains is given to Fowl and Hogs, and it will fat them wonderfully, and it will make them so tender and delicate, that no hen's flesh can be better, for those that are sick, to feed on. Another kind of Sugar, sweats-out wonderful strangely. The Arabians and Egyptians call it Tigala. They say a little Worm doth eat the herb; whence Sugar swells forth, and grows together in little pieces. It quencheth thirst, is good for the Chest, and takes away a Cough. CHAP. XLVI. Of other Miracles of some Trees. NAture is rich; and her riches are so various, that they not only delight our understanding but exercise our industry. Truly besides what we have said, there are many wonderful things. In the Island Tylos, there are Trees that bear Wool, and their fruit is guords, as big as Quinces: these breaking when they are ripe, show balls of Down or Cotton, of which they make precious linen garments, Plin. l. 12. c. 10 In great Java they say there is a rare Tree, whose pith is Iron: it is very small, yet runs from the top to the bottom of the Plant. The fruit that grows on it, is not to be pierced with Iron. Scaliger calls it, Exerc. 181. s. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, In the Island Cimbubon there is another whose leaves, fallen down upon the earth, do move and creep. It hath leaves like the Mulberry-Tree. They have on both sides like two little feet; pressed, they yield no liquor. If you touch them, they fly from you. One of them kept 8, days in a dish lived, and moved so oft as one touched it; Scalig. Exerc. 112, in Malavar there is a plant that contracts itself, if any one puts his hand to it; and if you pull back your hand, it recovers itself again. Garzias ab horto. That which he described from Costa, under the name of Mimosa hortensis, put your hand to it, it withers; take it away, it grows green again. The same Author says that there is a certain Tree that is full of fair sweet flowers all night, but so soon as the Sun riseth, it withers: yet whatsoever this is, it may be ascribed to the tenuity of the Spirits of it. But Linschot saith, there is one that is contrary to this. In Virginia there is an herb that the leaves are good Silk, and they take it off like a thin shining Membrane. It is two foot and a half high, the leaves are two foot long, and half a foot broad. In England, there was made a trial of this in weaving. For of this plant the whole Web made, was silk and approved for good. Arioth. in Virginia, In America there is the flower of Granadilla, in which may be seen the instruments of Christ's passion, the Nails, the Rod, the Pillar, the Crown, the Wounds. Mejer de Annat. Scoticis. That Libav. l. 4. the orig. rer. ascribes to Imagination, And, saith he, a friend of mine hath a Cherry-stone, upon which may be seen 120 faces. In the Northern Island there are Rocks of Loadstone. If Beeches grow upon them, they are turned into Loadstone, Olaus, l. 2. c. 1. There is also in Musicanum an Indian Tree extreme high, the boughs of it are above 12 Cubits long, and it not only grows downwards of itself, but it fasteneth in the ground of its own accord, and roots anew, and from thence arise new Trees; the boughs do thus bow down also, and cause more Trees, and thus they will grow in ranks, that they will make an Arbour for 400 men to walk under. Not far from Malacca there is another, that hath many roots, and as they divide severally into parts, so are they of different virtues. For those parts that look toward the East are an Antidote against poison, but the parts toward the West are poison. Senar, res, p. 4. c. 17. A certain fiery root cut in pieces, if it be set right over against a burning Candle, at first it makes it blink, and at last it puts it out, and that hath been often proved. Biker in. proph. s. 2. There was a fir Tree very admirable, seen in a Ship, which brought it from Egypt by the command of Caius the Emperor. There was a foursquare obelisk set up in the Vatican, and he brought four blocks of the same stone to support it. The thickness of that Tree was as much as four men could fathom. Plin. l. 16. c. 40. The root of the herb Aproxis takes fire a great way off, Plin. l. 24. c. 17. From Trees in India, as high as Cedars or Cypress Trees, and with leaves broader than Palmtree leaves, (they are called Carpi●n) an oil distils that is taken with wool pressed against the Trees, and you may smell it five furlongs off. In the same Author we read of the Tree Parebo that grows only in King's Gardens; it is as great as an Olive Tree, without flower or fruit; but under the earth the roots are as thick as a man's arm. Nine inches of it will draw Gold, Silver, Brass, Stones, or any thing but Amber; but an ell of it will draw Sheep and Lambs. The weight of an Obolus cast into water, will make it congeal; and wine also, that you may work it in your hands like wax, yet the day after it will resolve again, Libav. l. 2. debitum c. 6. this seems to be a stinking lie, if it be not well interpreted; but surely a Philosopher cannot want that interpretation: you shall find it loc. cit. CHAP. XLVII. Of Wonders of Trees. SOme are found that bear no leaves; And Pliny l. 17. c. 25. tells us of a Vine and Pomegranate Tree, that did bear fruit on the body or stem, not on the branches or boughs; and of a Vine that had fruit without leaves; and of Olive Trees, that the berries remained when the leaves were fallen. We said, that an Olive Tree burned down quite, will grow again; and in Boeotia Figtrees eaten with Worms will bud again, At Pausania in Arcadia, the Oak and Olive Tree will grow both upon one root, Dalechamp. ad loc. cit. The same at Corinth, called Hercules Club, from a wild Olive Tree, took root and grew again: When Xerxes came to Laodicea, a Planetree became an Olive Tree. A Tree sank into the ground at Cumanum, a strange thing, a little before the Civil Wars of Pompey; only a few boughs were to be seen. At Cyzicum before Mithridate's siege, a Figtree grew out of a Bay-Tree, when he with 100000 men, and many horse; fought against that City, Strabo l. 12. A green Palmtree was seen to grow up amongst the Tralles in the Temple of Victory under Caesar's Statue, where the stones joined, and it was of a great bigness, Valer. l. 1. c. 6. Also at Rome, in the Capitol, in the head, (some explain that to be the top of the house) twice in the War with Perseus did a Palmtree spring forth, presaging Victory and Triumph. When this was thrown down with Tempests, in the same place a Figtree grew up. When M. Messalus, and C. Cassius were Censors, A. P. Sulpicius being Proconsul, Letters were brought from Macedonia with news, That a Bay-Tree grew up in the stern of a Galley. Lastly, the year before this, in Silesia a little Tree in the battlements of the walls of the Church was changed into a Palmtree: Religion was changed after that. Not without being revenged; for the change of the Species gives us hope of it. The End of the Fifth Classis. OF Miracles of Nature. The Sixth Classis. In which are contained the Wonders of Birds. Seneca Natur. quaest. l. 2. c. 32. ALso those things are not out of our power, which are immovable, or for their swiftness, equal to all the World, are like to things without motion. CHAP. 1. Of the Eagle. THe Eagle challengeth the first place; nor that it is the best dish at the Table, for none will eat it; but because it is the King of Birds. It is of the kind of birds of prey. The right foot of it is greater than the left; the brain is so hot, that mingled with Hemlock juice, and drank in powder, it will make one mad. It drinks not, because it seems the blood of what it preys upon, sufficeth it. But in old age, when the Beak is crooked with dryness, it preserves itself by drinking, Aelian. They have been seen a cubit in largeness, and some young one, whose wings stretched out would reach 7. else. The Claws were bigger than a great man's fingers, and the thighs greater than a Lions. Gesner saith, that was seen at a place between Dreson and Mysnia: when it lieth down it takes a stone called Aetites, which because they grow so hot as if they boiled, doth temper their heat. When the young ones are hatched, she holds them in her Talons against the Sun; and having proved them to be legitimate, she takes them on her wings and carries them; the strongest of them, when she hath them aloft, she lets them fall, and then she flies and meets them, and takes them up again. When they are old enough, she drives them forth of her nest and quarter. The female is so fallacious, that being trod 30 times in a day, if the male come to her again, she will run to him. It is so quicksighted, that flying over the Sea, out of man's view, it will discern the smallest fish: And as for its smell, it will fly to carcases 500 miles distant. It roars like a Bull; but the young ones are mute, because their tongue is hindered by moisture. It is an enemy to the Cranes: therefore when they fly over Mount Taurus from Cilicia, they take stones in their mouths, and stop their clarying, and fly over it in the night. When the sight, bill, and wings fail her, she flies above the Clouds, and there by the Sun's heat she recovers her sight. She when she is become extreme hot, plunges into the water, than she flies to her nest, grows feavorish, casts her feathers, is fed by her young ones, and renews herself; but sooner, if she can find Serpents to feed on. CHAP. II. Of the Hawk. THe Hawk is of divers magnitudes according to its Sex and Country. The females are the greater, because their heat is less, Calent. in Epist. It hath a great heart that inclines toward the breast with a blunt point; the Milt is so small, that it can hardly be seen, Aristot. de part. animal. c. 38. It is full of feathers, which when it is young it casts 4. times. It is not very generative, for the over great heat thickneth the seed; also the moisture of it is sent to the feathers, the Tallens, and legs: yet it is so venereous, that the female will return 30 times a day, if she be required, Alb. l. 10. c. 8. She flies from Carrion, and if it come to a man's carcase, it will not feed thereon. She drinks, when she can light on no prey for blood. She flies sometimes so high, that she cannot be seen. In the Air she will turn on her back, and stretches out her tail, back, and wings, and lies upon them, Aelian. It hath wonderful ingenuity; The bird she takes in the Evening she holds under her feet, and when the Sun riseth she lets it fly away, and if she meets it again, she will never pursue it. When her eyes grow dim, she seeks for Hawkwort, and rubs it, and with the juice of it she anoints her eyes, Aelian l. 2. de anim. c. 43. She seems to lament the death of Man, and will cast the earth on his eyes, and if he be not buried, she will throw Earth to bury him. The thigh bone of it put toward gold, doth draw it to it with delight, Aelian. l. 4. c. 43. Pigeons so soon as they hear its noise fly away; hens eggs, if they sit, will be spoilt; small birds are so frighted at the sight of her, that you may take them off the hedges with your hands. The chief disease she hath is the molting of her feathers. It happens, before Nilus overflows the fields, that is, in August. When the South wind blows they stretch forth their wings, and grow hot with the heat of the wind; when this is wanting, they fan themselves with their wings in the warm Sun. By this warmth the pores are opened, the old feathers fall, and new grow up. The Egyptians thought they lived 700 years. CHAP. III. Of the Assalon and Heron. ASsalon, is called Smerillus and Merillus. It will so pursue Larks, that it will follow them into a hot Furnace, or pit of water, or to men's clothes, Cressent. l. 10. c. 13. It fights with the Crows and Foxes, breaking the eggs of the one, and killing the Cubs of the other. To kill Herons, in England is a capital Crime, wherefore there are many of them in that place. They are so continent, that they are sad 40 days when they are upon venereous actions, Glycas l. 1. Animal. If they dung upon a Hawk, they corrupt and burn its feathers. When a showering is coming, they fly above the Clouds. They swallow shellfish, shells and all; but when they think their heat hath opened them, they cast them up again, and eat the fish. They lie in wait for fish very cunningly; for they stand so against the Sun's beams, that their shadow may not be seen to drive them away: But the Country men of Colen say they have such force, that if they put but a foot into the water, they will draw the fish to them as with a bait. Gesner writes, that he read in a Germane Manuscript, that if their feet be distilled by descent, and a man's hands be anointed with the oil, they will come to ones hands that they may be taken. Franciscus Vallesius the first, King of France kept them so tame, that though they be wild by nature, they would come home of themselves; some say, they sweat blood in Treading, but Albertus confutes that. CHAP. IU. Of the Horn-Owl and Aluco. A Sin, or Otus, and a Night-Crow, makes such a noise, as a man doth that is chilled with cold; they cry hu, hu. With his cry; and the bird Cyncramus, he leads the Quails when they depart hence. He imitates those things he sees men do: Also they watch fowlers standing over against them; wherefore they seem to anoint their eyes with a kind of birdlime, than they depart and leave it in the holes; the Otus or Do●rill comes and glews his eyes together, and so is he taken. There are two kinds of Aluco's, the greater, and the less. The greater Aluco hath this property, that he winks with his eyelid; he hath no little ears like horns, but in place of them he hath a kind of Crown-circle made of feathers that covers his whole face; small feathers rising above his eyes; like a high ridge of a hair above the eyelids; and on both sides they go about by the temples, and meet under the chin, like a woman's ketcher. The lesser is found in the cliffs of Oaks that the Worms have eaten hollow. If he take any living creature he swallows it whole; for his throat is so wide, that he will swallow bits bigger than eggs; nor doth he eat any meat till he have plumed the feathers and hairs, and cast away the bones. CHAP. V. Of a Goose. GEese in the Kingdom of Senega, are of divers colours. Whiter than Swans, and with red heads, are bred in Hispaniola, Cadamust. And Odoricus à foro Julii saith, That in the Kingdom of Mancum in India the superior, they have a bone above their head as big as an Egg, of a blood red colour, and a skin hanging half way under the throat. Aldrovandus thinks, it is of the kinds of Onocrotalus. Strabo l. 6. Geograph. saith, there are none in the South part of Arabia. They live many years, Albertus saith 60, Gratalorus 200 years. But Aldrovandus writes, he should not take his oath for it. Gardanus thinks it not fabulous, because their flesh is so sound. For it is known, that a Wild-Goose hung up for 3. days continually, would not grow tender, and cast to the dogs they would not eat it. But amongst all kind of Geese, that is the most wonderful, which in Scotland they call the Soland Goose. In Descriptione Scotiae, Boetius writes thus of it; Above other Islands, Maya of D. Hadrian is noble, for the relics of him and his fellows, who suffered Martyrdom for Christ's sake. A Fountain of most sweet water runs forth of a very high rock in the midst of the Sea, a wonderful miracle of Nature. The Fort Bass that is invincible to man's forces stands upon it, and exceeds all the rest in strangeness. Also there is a Rock situate in an arm of the Sea, that hath a narrow entrance, a Fisherman's Boat can scarce pass into it; that hath no houses made in it by art of man; yet is it hollow, and hath habitations as convenient in it, as if men had built them. But they are by this means the more forcible; whatsoever is in it, is full of wonderful things; For those Birds which in our Mother-Tongue we call Soland Geese, not unlike to those which Pliny calls Water-Eagles, dwell here in abundance, and hardly any where else. These so soon as they come at the beginning of the Spring, they do bring so much wood with them to build their nests, that the Inhabitants that dwell there (nor do they repine at it) carry away as much as serves them for fuel a whole year. They feed their young ones with the most choice fish. For if they have caught one, and they see a better swimming at the bottom of the Sea, they let that fall and plunge themselves violently into the waters to catch the other. When they have brought 〈…〉 fish to their young ones, they let men take away what they please ●●llingly, and fly again to catch more. Also they let the people 〈…〉 their young ones without resistance; whence there accrues to 〈…〉 Governor of the Castle a mighty revenue yearly: for pulling off their skins with the fat, they make an oil of them of great worth. Also they have a small gut that is full of oil of great virtue, for it cures the hip and joint Gouts; so that this Bird serving for all men's use, is inferior to none, but that he is not common to be had: So far Boetius. When I was in Scotland, I smelled of them, and they smelled like Herrings. CHAP. VI Of the King's Fisher, of Ducks, and the Bird Emme. IT is reported, that the Kings-Fishers build their nests of the hardest fish bones, and the sharpest thorns, and are seldom seen but at Sea, where the waters are salt. They breed about the middle of winter. Wherefore when it is a calm Winter, they call it Halcyon days, 7. days before the midst of winter, and 7. days after the midst of winter. In the first he makes his nest, in these last he breeds, Plin. l. 5. c. 8. The nest is made like a Pineapple, or a glass with a long neck, Albert. It is so artificially made, that it cannot be easily cut with a sword. But Aristotle saith, that if you break and bruise it with your hands, and then break it with an Iron, you may easily destroy it: That the Sea may not enter into it, she makes her hole of a spongy matter that will swell, and the swelling shuts up the entrance; Those that go in, do press against it, and so press out the water and find passage. The She of them so loves the He, that she is always with him, and in old age carrieth him on her back; and they both die in copulation, Plutarch. de solert. animal. House Ducks are known almost to all men; those of Lybia are of a middle stature, between a Goose and a Duck. Their genital member is so great as a finger is thick, and five times as long, and is red as blood, Bellon. Look on their eyes by the Sun, and you shall see a black spot on the top, which is in the Beaks of them, Scalig. They make no noise, though they have both Lungs and Windpipe. When our Countrypeople would keep abundance of them, let them keep two of our Ducks for each of those Drakes, and so they will lay abundance of Eggs. But the young Ducks so bred, will never procreate again, as other living Creatures that are bred of divers kinds. In Ancyra there are some that blow like a Horn, as those that sound when horsemen march in orders, Auger. They love their liberty so well, that being kept 3. years in a Cage, and fed, if they can find opportunity they will fly away. There is such plenty of the wild ones, that they cover all the waters; but they live no where but in warm Countries. In the Winter, that they may not be Frozen in, by an instinct of nature, they swim circularly and on one side, they keep the waters open, and cry so loud that they may be heard. When the cold grows too violent they fly aloft to the Sea, Olaus, l. 19 c. 6. The Hollanders brought the Bird Emme from Java; it is twice as great as a Swan, black and with black wings. But out of two originals there proceed two more, as it is with the Ostrich. It wants wings and a tongue; on the top of the head, it hath a buckler as hard as a Tortesse-shell, like a Target. It would swallow Apples as big as one's fist, and lumps of Ice; also burning Coals, and all without any hurt. Aldrovand. CHAP. VII. Of Barnacles. THere is a bird in Britanny that the English call, Barnacles, and Brant Geese, the Scotch call them Clakguse; It is less than a wild Goose, the breast is somewhat black, the rest Ash-colour. It flies as wild Geese do, cries, and haunts Lakes, and spoils the Corne. The learned question the original of it very much. For some say it breeds from rotten wood, some from Apples, some of fruit that is like to heaps of leaves; which when, at the time appointed, it falls into the water that is under it, it revives and becomes a living Creature. It grows in the Isle Pomonia in Scotland toward the North. And of this opinion is Isidore, Alexander ab Alexandro, Olaus Magnus, Gesner, Boetius, and others; contrarily Albertus, and those that are of his mind, hold that they breed by copulation. The Hollanders from their own experience in Greenland, affirm they found some Barnacles sitting on eggs, and had young ones. But these things may agree together, for things bred of corruption may have eggs, and that seems also most clear that Boetius hath written concerning them. That every man may perceive they are not fabulous, I shall set it down. Now it remains that we speak of those Geese which they call Clak-geeses; and which commonly they think amiss, to be bred upon Trees in these Islands, of which we were for a long time very inquisitive, and have found by experience. For I think the Sea between, is the greater cause of their generation than any thing else. For things are bred in the Sea variously; as we have observed. For if you throw wood into the Sea, in time Worms breed in it, that by degrees have a head, feet, wings; and lastly, feathers. Lastly they are as great as Geese, when they are full grown, they fly upward as other birds do, using their wings to carry them through the air, which is as clear as day, and was seen in the year from the Virgin's conception, 1490, Many looking on. For when some of this wood was carried by the Waves to the Castle, Pethschl●ge, in great quantity; they that first espied it, wondered, and ran to the Governor and tell him this strange news. The Governor came, and bid them Saw the Log in sunder; then they saw an infinite sort of living Creatures that were partly Worms, some not form, others were, and were partly birds; and some of them were callow, some had feathers. Wondering at the miracle, at the Governors' command, they carried that Log into the Church of St. Andrew at Tira where it yet remains full of Worm holes as it was. The like to this two years after, was brought into Tham by the tide, to Bruthe Castle; many ran to see it, which again, two years after at Leith in the Harbour, all Edinburgh came to see. For a great ship, that had the name and the ensign of Christopher, when it had been 3 whole years at Anchor in one of the Hebrides▪ was brought back hither, and drawn on land: that part of it that was always under the Sea, had the beams eaten through, and was full of Worms of this kind, partly unformed, not yet like birds, and partly those that were perfect Birds. But it may be some man will cavil at it, and say, that there is such a virtue in the boughs and stocks of Trees that grow in those Islands; and that the Christopher itself was made of the wood, growing in those Hebrides: wherefore I shall willingly declare what I saw 7, years since. Alexander Gallovidianus Pastor of the Church of Kil●y (a man besides his great integrity; incomparable for his care in study of wonders) when he had pulled forth some Sea weeds, from the stalks and boughs, and likewise from the root, that grew up to the top where they joined, he perceived some shell fish-breed: he frighted with the novelty of the matter; presently opened them to know farther, and then he wondered far more than before. For, he saw no flesh shut up in the shells, but (which is wonderful) a bird: Wherefore he ran presently to me whom he a long time knew, desirous to know such new things, and showed it me, who was not more astonished at the sight of it as I rejoiced at the occasion to see a thing so rare, and unheard of. By this, I think it is evident enough, that these are not the seeds of breeding of Birds in fruits of roots of Trees, but in the Sea itself, which Virgil and Homer rightly term the Father of all things. But because they saw that come to pass when the Apples fell from the Trees that grew on the shore into the waters, that by continuance of time Birds appeared in them, they were of that opinion, that they believed the Apples were turned into Birds, etc. Thus far Boetius. Reader thou may'st judge of it: for my part I admire at God's providence, and at the end of this Classis by way of Appendix, I shall add some thing out of the discourse of Majerus concerning the Tree-Bird. CHAP. VIII. Of the Owl and Catarrhacta. THe Owl builds in the highest Rocks, that sometimes it is hard to find her eggs; for its young, Pliny saith, comes forth by the tail out of the egg, because the eggs being reversed by weight of their heads, brings the hinder part to be fostered by the dam. It is said, That in Churches she drinks up the oil; she not only kills Birds, but Hares also. A Duck hath been found in one cut open. The brain of it with Goose-grease doth wonderfully join wounds. The Catarrhacta hath a wonderful way of sitting on her eggs, if that be true that Oppianus hath written. She lays Seaweed upon her eggs on a rock, and so leaves them open to the winds. Hence the male catcheth those eggs he thinks sit to breed the males, and the female doth the like for the females; then they carry them up on high with their Talons, and so let them fall into the Sea; doing this often, they grow hot by motion, and the young ones are hatched. CHAP. IX. Of the Feldifare and Goat-Sucker. THe Feldifare makes her nest in the thickets; the walls are moss, wool, downy herbs; the groundwork is heath. They have six young ones, and they are so unlike their old ones, that they have scarce any mark like them; Because he flies, he doth a little imitate the other Birds notes, he catcheth those that fly to him, and is easily taken himself; for when he sees a bird shut up in a cage, he flies upon it to invade it. The Caprimulgus goes into the folds of shepherds, and sucks the Goat's teats for milk; the udder loseth its force by this injury, and the Goats that are so sucked grow blind, Pliny l. 10. c. 40. He sees little in the day, but is quick-sighted at night, Arist. histor. l. 9 c. 30. In Candie it makes such an horrible noise, that it will fright the Inhabitants, Bellonius. CHAP. X. Of the Cuckoo. THe Cuckoo is a Bird of a very cold constitution of body, whence she is so fearful, that all the birds offend her, Plin. l. 10. c. 9 she breeds in other birds nests; especially, the Woodculver's, the hedge-Sparrow's, the Lark, the Redbreast and the Nightingale. If their nests be empty, she will not turn in there, but if there be eggs, she breaks some and sucks them, and lays her own in the room; in some nests they say she breaks them all, Arist. l. 6. c. 7. The young ones hatched and known by the bird, are said to be beaten, and to fly away to their own dam. Note the goodness of nature! they say she lays in those Birds nests that feed on common meats; she feeds on Worms, Infects, and Corn. The Grasshoppers before the dog-days when they hear the Cuckoo sing, run upon her in troops, and they get under her wings and kill her, Isidor. l. 12. c. 8. They are said to be bred of Cuckoo spittle. In winter she casts her feathers, and changeth her colour, Arist. 9 histor. c. 43. In a Mountain of Greece where many Cuckoo's breed, it is said that a Holly Tree grows there, that what living Creature soever sits upon it, is glued fast as with birdlime, except the Cuckoo, Plin. l. 30. c. 10. In what place soever you first hear the Cuckoo sing, if you make a circle about your right foot, and dig up that compass of earth, no fleas will breed, wheresoever that is spread. CHAP. XI. Of the Crow. IT is certain, that in the New World the Crows are white; and Alphonsus King of Sicily had one. They say they grow white if the eyes be anointed with the brain or fat of a Cat, and be put under a white 〈…〉 in a cold place. They flock together to a fruitful field; but two at once, where the field is not fruitful. He hath many notes, they say 64, the proper note is ●roking, which he makes, being changed with no passion or variety of weather. He longs for raw flesh, and corrupt, and that died of itself; if he refuse this, it is an ill omen, as Thucydides observed in the Plague at Athens. Julius Caesar Moderatus Ariminensis, learned by experience, that he vomits up again the bones and the small feet. Hyginus denies, that he can drink when he eath eaten figs, because than his throat is pierced thorough. He casts off his young ones if they be white; though they write, that seven days after they are hatched, they become black. Cassiodorus thinks out of the Psalmist, that they then live upon dew. A tame Crow at Erfurd took money off of the Table and kept it, and did so exactly call Conrade the Cook when he was hungry, that you would believe it were a man's voice; then he pricked holes in a Musick-book that he found, as if he understood Music, Scalig. E●erc. ●37. Barbarus observed, that he carried fire in his mouth when Lightning fell. Some think he catcheth sparks of fire, instead of pieces of flesh▪ when exhalations take fire in Lightning. He is said to live 180 years. Indeed in a City of France, Corvatum, one lived 100 years, Albertus' 9 hist. c. 10. A certain Physician that was famous in Pliny his days, burned two Crows to ashes taken out of the nest in the month of March, and being made into fine powder, gave them to people for the Epilepsy; one dram weight twice or thrice in a day, with water of the decoction of Castorium. CHAP. XII. Of the Rook, and Chrysaethos. IN Brittany there is abundance of Rooks, because the Sea washeth it on all sides; and in the grounds that are moist there breed abundance of Worms for their food, Cardanus. Ludovicus Rhodiginus saw a white one, with a black head, not far from the walls of Rhodigium, l. 17. Antiq. lect. c. 11. He loves Nuts chiefly, which if he cannot break, he lets them fall upon stones, Aelian l. 3. c. 9 They do not inconsiderately couple; for when one dyeth, the other lives single always after. When Storks fly beyond Sea, this leads them. It is so industrious, that Merthes King of Egypt had one that would carry letters whither he sent him, Porphyr. de abstin. ab animal. When she is slain and remains dead till she stinks, she draws mice, if you lay her in a place where you may kill them, Gesner. The Chrysaethus hath a tongue like a man's, armed on both sides toward the roots with two horny hooked appendices. The length is sometimes from the beak to the claws four hands breadth and a half, the breadth is eight when the wings are stretched out. It lays but one egg; if it lay two, one is rotten. CHAP. XIII. Of the Pigeon. THe Pigeon when she lays two eggs, the one egg will bring a male, the other a female; but because the heat is greater in the male, he is said to be first hatched, Paul. à Castro. When the young ones are brought forth, she thrusts the salt Earth into their mouths, which she hath first fitted in her own, to prepare them to receive some meat, and to implant fruitfulness into them, and to raise their appetite, Athen. 9 hist. c. 24. Many things prove them to be apt to learn. One of them pecked corn out of Mahomet's ear. When Leyden was besieged, some of them carried Letters, Lipsius. The same was done at the siege of the Buss. Divers men use divers remedies to keep them in the Dove-houses, and to allure others thither. Some stir Man's blood up and down in an earthen vessel for a quarter of an hour, with Pease, and then anoint Pigeons with it, and cast the pease to them to eat, Gesner. Some hang the skull of an old man in the Dove-house, Albertus. Some hang a piece of the halter that a man was hanged with, on rheir windows, Pallad. l. 3. c. 44. Pliny (l. 11. c. 37,) writes, That there is poison in man's teeth that will kill young unfeathered Pigeons. We have it from the secrets of the Egyptians, that such as feed on Pigeons flesh will never be infected with the Plague. Hence in times of pestilence only Princes feed on them. Cardanus prescribes them with their broth. Their dung is so hot, that being fired by the Sun, it hath fired houses, saith Galen. The same Author useth it for a hearing remedy; and being bruised dry with the seed of Cresses, some apply instead of Mustard for a rubisicative. Anno 1550. there was one taken in Germany with 4. feet, and 2. bellies; It was brought to the Emperor, and Electors; who all wondered at it. CHAP. XIV. Of the Swan. THere are abundance of Swans in many places. In Moravia a Province of Scotland there is a Lake called Spina, it is noted for multitudes of Swans. For therein there grows a certain herb whose seed they feed greedily on; and therefore it is called Swans meat. The nature of that herb is, that cast into water it will never putrify. Hence it is, that though the Lake be extended about five miles, and was wont, as men remember, to abound with Fish and Salmon; since that began to spring up, it hath increased by degrees, and hath made that Lake fordable, and that men cannot swim in it; nor is there any more any great Fish therein, Boetius in descript. Scotiae. The internal constitution of Swans is wonderful, Aldrovandus dissected them. The Intestines were 14. spans and a hand breadth long; and many of them were covered with fat inwardly, as thick as ones thumb, which served instead of a cawl; which being not intricate with many windings and turnings, but only by a single revolution are turned back into themselves inwardly, with a middle rundle, perchance some of the nutriment might pass by nor distributed; but nature, to help this inconvenience, hath fastened two blind guts; a hands breadth between the anus and their beginning: the right intestine passing between, which should make amends for the windings of the guts that are deficient. The gullet is of a wonderful structure. For the sharp artery that accompanies the weasand under it, descending to the throat, when it comes there, doth not tend directly to the Lungs as in other Creatures, but is elevated above the channel bones, and is inserted into a rib of the breastbone, or Sternon. And this rib is not made of one single bone, but of two side ones, and a third from above, made for a covering to lie upon these; and it is like a scabbard or sheath, and serves for the same use. When the Artery comes to the end of it, it is bend backwards beneath like a Serpent in fashion of the letter S; and by and by it goes forth again beneath the foresaid part of this covering that was placed above it, and ascending to the middle of the channel bones, it leans upon their coupling as on a prop; and being so upheld, it is again bend backwards like a Trumpet, and going under the hollow of the Thorax, before it comes to the lungs, it makes as it were another Larynx, cut athwart, and with a little bone as long as this is broad, and which is covered with a thin membrane; it represents a hollow pipe, or an Organ pipe, in figure and composition, which are open in the nether part of them with the like fissure. Under this Larynx the artery is parted into two channels, each of which in the middle are stretched out wider, and stick forth, and are distributed, going directly to the very small Lungs, that are wholly fastened to the sides behind. This is a wonderful composition, and it serves for the breathing and voice. For when in the bottom of Lakes she seeks for her food, she needed a long neck, lest by long continuance she should be in danger to be suffocated by such an Artery. And indeed whilst for half an hour almost she thrusts down her head into the water, she takes breath by that part of the Artery which is open in the sheath we spoke of in the breast. As for its singing, some say she sings before her death, and some deny it. Oppianus saith, she sings early before Sun rising; but as she is very near her death, she sings on the Seashores, but not so loud in her old age. The West wind, he adds, is observed by them when they sing, when they are feeble and their strength is spent. The fashion of their sharp artery seems to make good this opinion. CHAP. XV. Of the Stork. THe Storks of old time about Fidena, neither made any nests, nor fed their young ones. Also at the Lake Larius in Italy beyond Poe, a pleasant place with small Trees, they are hardly seen, Pliny, The Author of the book of Nature writes, that they neither come into, nor will inhabit a City in Germany where no tithes are paid. They are travelling birds; but it is a question whether all or not. Many as if they were dead, were drawn forth in Fisher's nets, and these were joined together, and had their bills thrust into their anus, together, and being hot in Mineral waters they lived again. In Lorenge it is certain, that it so happened, Anno 1467, as Campofulgosus reports, l. 1. memorab. when they depart, they meet all at a set place of rendevouz, and will leave none of their company behind. It is observed, that they are seldom seen after the Ides in August; when they are costive they thrust their bills into their Anus, and give themselves a Clyster, that brings forth the faeces, and thence Surgeons learned that art. They are very chaste and grateful. One of them in upper Vesalia bade his Host farewel when he departed, and when he returned, he saluted him again. And not content with a vocal gratitude, he brought him a root of green Ginger. Another picked out the Eyes of one that lay with his Hostess when his Host was abroad. Another finding out the adultery of his mate in his absence, brought more company and tore her to pieces. The Stork carries his aged Parents upon his shoulders, and feeds them out of his mouth▪ Whence the word of gratitude is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Gesner. By the example of 〈…〉 it is apparent, that she foreshews things future; for he, as Aeneas Silvius writes, unless he had seen Storks from the high Towers in Aquileia, would have departed thence; and supposing that to be a token of taking the City, he held on his purpose, and shortly wal● it, when he had besieged it 3. years. There are none in England as Cl: Bandarcius saith. CHAP. XVI. Of the Falcon. A Falcon is so strong, that when he strikes a bird, he will ●ut him in two, from head to tail. A Sea-Swallow called Drepanis, a little Bird about Lakes, when she hears the Castrel, will rather let men stone her, than she will rise. She is wont to be sick of a disease the Falconers call the Filandre. That is, a kind of worms not far from their reins, near to which they are wrapped up in a thin and proper membrane: they are as small as hairs, and half an ell long, it may be from their first original; unless you prevent them, they will eat up the principal parts and the heart. The Gyrsaulcons are of divers kinds; They are some white found in Moscovy, Norway, Ireland. They are bold: If one of them be let fly at five Cranes, he will follow them all till he have killed them. The food of it reserved in its Cave, it will take in order. She never wets herself with water, but only with sand. She loves the cold so well, that she will always delight to stand upon ice, or upon a cold stone: sometimes untaught she is sold for 50 Nobles. There is a Falcon called Ru●eus, because the spots, that are white in the rest, are red and black in this kind; yet they seem not to be so, but when she stretcheth forth her wings. The cause of this redness is a feeble colour infused into the superficies of the body, and inflaming the smoky moisture, which is put forth to breed the feathers. CHAP. XVII. Of a Hen and Cock. Hen's in the Kingdom of Senega are thrice greater than ours; there are many near to Thessalonica; some lay two eggs, that is with two yolks, which are parted by a partition, that they may not be confounded. Aristot. in mirabil. reports, that some have laid ●● double ones, and to have hatched them; one chicken was greater than another, and at last it became a Monster. In Macedonia there was one Hen which once laid 18 eggs, and hatched two young chickens at once, saith Pierius l. 24. Hieroglyph. But their eggs▪ as also d●uer▪ birds eggs, are first conceived above, where the partition is, where first it is seen to be faint and white, as Aristot. writes; than red and bloody; and as it increaseth, it becomes all yellow; but as it more increaseth, it is distinguished, so that the yellow part is inward, and the white goes outwardly about it; when it is perfect, it is finished and comes forth of the shell, soft at first hatching, but presently it grows hard. The place of its perfection is the Matrix itself into which they fall, Aldrovand. l. 14. Ornithol. Some report also, that a Cock lays an egg when he is 9 or 14. years old; and they suppose it proceeds from seed putrified, or ill humours concurring together. It is thought to be round, and to be laid about the rising of the Dog-star. For the expulsive faculty being then weak, is helped in an aged Cock by the outward heat. With Ferrans Imperatus an Apothecary, one was seen that was long fashioned, Aldrovand. The Cocks are wonderful fallacious, for they will tread the Hens 50 times a day, and they have been seen to ejaculate their seed when they but saw the Hen, or heard her note, Aelian. There was an old Law, as Plutarch saith, in Libro, Num bruta ratione careant, That if one Cock trod another, he should be burnt alive. When he finds he is too full of blood, he will scratch his comb till he fetch blood. All men know he Crows in the morning. Some say the cause is, the Love he hath to the Sun; some, to his venery; others to his desire of meat. The mahometans say, they answer a Cock that crows in heaven, Keckerm: in Physicis. The first reason seems something; for he will crow when he is full also, and after copulation; also he crows when the Hen is present; but when he is gelt he crows no more, Plin. Yet l. 29. c. 4. he saith, That, a circle of Vine-twigs tied about his neck, he will not sing; Albertus saith, if his head and forehead be anointed with oil. He is at great Amity with the Kings-Fisher, that if they be both in the same house, and the Kings-Fisher die, the Cock will die with hunger. They that have fed on Fox flesh boiled, are free for two months from their Treachery, Boetius. As for a Dunghill Cock, Gesner saith, he found it in a Germane Manuscript; that a Nobleman having tried all remedies for pains of the Colic, and finding none; at length he drank a small cup of Capons-grease unsalted, boiled in water. But (saith he) you must drink the fat that swims on the top, as hot as you can. CHAP. XVIII. Of the Crane and the Woodwall. THe Cranes travel all over the World. Yet Aldrovandus saith, he scarce believes that they will live willingly in all Countries, l. 20. The Aspera arteria of them is set into the flesh on both sides, at the Breastbone: whence you may hear a Crane afar off. They travel, but no time is set; yet how swiftly they fly, is manifest by the example of Cyrus, who was said so to have disposed of his Posts at certain stages, that when one was weary, another should proceed night and day, that they outwent the Cranes that flew. When they fly, they keep a triangular sharp angled figure, that they may the easier pierce through the Air that is against them. That Crane that gathers the rest together, will correct them, as Isidorus saith. When one is hoarse, another succeeds. When they light upon the Earth to feed, the Captain of them holds up his head to keep watch for the rest, and they feed securely. Before they take rest, they appoint another Sentinel, who may stand and ward with his neck stretched forth, whilst the rest are asleep, with their heads under their wings, and standing upon one leg. The Captain goes about the Camp, and if there be any danger, he ●laries. Lest they should sleep too sound, they stand upon one foot, and hold a stone in the other above ground, that if at any time being weary they should be oppressed with sleep, the stone falling might awaken them. They love their young ones so much, that they will fight whether shall give them their breeding. Albertus saw a male●Crane cast down a female and kill her, giving her eleven wounds with his bill, because she had drawn away his young ones from following of him. This fell out at Colen, where tame Cranes use to breed. Those are fables that men relate of the Battles between the Pigmies and the Cranes. The Woodwall hangs up her nest on the boughs like a Cup, that no fourfooted beast can come at it. The nest is like to the fashion of a Rams-stones, Albert. Magn. Some say there is Silk ●ound in it, and that the nest is built not far from the water, made of moss, and the cords it hangs by are horse hairs. She leaves Italy, when Arcturus ariseth. As she hangs down, she sleeps upon her feet, hoping for more safety thereby, Plin. l. 10. c. 32. When she comes into Germany, there is great hopes that Winter for Snow and Frost is gone. CHAP. XIX. Of the Chough. IT is thought that the Choughs feed on Locusts besides Corn, because the Inhabitants of the Island Lemnos were reported to worship these birds, because they flew to destroy the Locusts, Plin. l. 10. c. 29. The males will rather lose their lives than part with their females. They fly at the eyes of him that holds them. The reason is rendered by Nicolaus Leonicus, because the eyes are shining and very movable: and these birds are bred to allure and draw things to them. For Birds are wont to pick and scratch at ones finger that is often moved about their bills, or because the eyes are such perfect Looking-glasses, that the pupil that is so small will represent their image standing over against it: now when the Birds see their own shape in our eyes, they, it is likely peck at them, as desirous to come to what they delight. CHAP. XX. Of the Swallow. Swallows are found almost in all Countries. Yet Pliny saith, they will not fly right to Thebes, because they are often taken there▪ Nor are they found in Bizia in Thracia, by reason of the wickedness of Tereus. They can endure no cold. Hence Claudian writes, As when cold Snow and Frost, like feathers, fall On Trees, the Winter-Swallowes die withal. Where they live in Winter, is diversely described. It is certain, that in hollow Trees lying many close together, they preserve themselves by mutual heat. But Olaus Mag. Episcop. Upsalensis, saith, That in the Northern parts where men die of cold in winter, the Swallows live in the water. Though, saith he, many Writers of Natural Histories affirm, that Swallows change their stations, that is, do go to hotter Countries in Winter; yet in the Northern parts, Swallows are often drawn forth by Fishermen by accident, like a congealed Mass, and they have united themselves together, bill to bill, foot to foot, wing to wing; after the beginning of Autumn, to go amongst the reeds, etc. When that mass is drawn forth and put into a hothouse, the Swallows are thawed by heat coming to them, and so begin to fly; but they last but a very short time, because they are not made free, but captives, by being taken too soon. In Egypt their wonderful Industry is seen: For in the mouth of Heraclia in Egypt they make such an impregnable Mount with their nests continued together against the overflowing of wand'ring Nilus, for a furlong in length, that it is thought no man could do as much, Pliny. In the same Egypt near the Town Coptus, they say there is an Island consecrated to Isis; which that the same River may not demolish, they fence by labour, in Springtime, making firm the mouth of it with straw and stubble, for 3. nights together, labouring so hard, that many die of it. Their young ones are bred blind, if we believe the Philosopher, and Pliny: when they receive their sight but slowly, they hasten it by putting Celandine upon it. Their copulation is wonderful: For when the rest of Birds are trod by the old ones, Swallows▪ couple a contrary way, Gesner. Jacobus Olivarius saith, he heard from Hieronymus Montuus an excellent Physician, that Swallows hearts being taken with Cinnamon, and Species of Pills Elephanginae, they will help memory. Hence Johannes Ursinus writes, — with amomum eat their heart; And wit and memory will gain their part. CHAP. XXI. Of the Osprey, the Ibis, and the Loxias. OF Ospreys, or Sea-Eagles, some are said to have one foot like an Eagle, and hooked; the other, plain like a Goose, to swim withal; that it hath also costly Fat in the tail, and that he flies in the Air, and hangs there as it were, and le's drop some of this fat into the water, whereby the fish are astonished; that they turn upon their backs, and so he catcheth them, as some say. Ibis is a Bird so loving to Egypt, that it will live no where else; so soon as it is hatched, if it be weighed, it weighs two drams. Plutarch. de avib. l. 4. c. 9 The heart is greater than is proportionable to the body. The Gut is 96 cubits long; and that in the wain of the Moon is pressed together, till the light of it increaseth again, saith Gaudentius Merula. The Lakes in Arabia send forth such multitudes of winged Serpents that are of so sudden a venomous nature, that when they by't, they kill before the wound can be perceived; these birds by a kind of foresight, are stirred up, and fly forth in Troops and meet these pestilent multitudes in the Air, before they wast their Coasts, Marcel. Loxias, in respect of its bill, it differs from all other Birds. Whence Aristotle thinks it is not known. It is wont to have a red breast, neck and belly, but in winter it changeth its colour. It delights in Hempseed, dead carcases and kernels of the Firtree, and it builds in such Trees in January and February. In Winter when all things are frozen, it sings, but forbears in Summer. CHAP. XXII. Of the Kite. KItes live almost every where, but they change their quarters, especially if they be near. For otherwhiles they are found in hollow Okes, cherishing themselves with the rotten dust. About Pontus near the Sea Euxinum, they are seen in such abundance in Winter, that if for 15, days so many should fly thither, as Bellonius saw in one day, they would be more than all Mankind. They bring the Cuckoo with them on their backs, because he cannot fly so far▪ Isidore. The scripture ascribes to them the knowledge of the change of times. Jerem. c. 8. About the Dog-days, she flies up to the middle region of the Air, because it is cold, and sits there till the evening. Herodot. l. 2. Yet in Lybia and the Island of St. Dominick, they are always; also at London, because it is not lawful to kill them. Hence amongst multitudes of people they will catch up their prey, (any filth that the Inhabitants cast forth into the City, or into the Thames) Clus, l. 2. c. 36. in observat. Bellon. They will take meat out of the Shambles, bread out of children's hands, and hats off of men's heads, especially when they make their nests. Aelian, l. 2. c. 47. In the first year they pursue great birds; when they grow older, little birds; and in the third year, gnats and flies. Ap●leius speaks much of their sight. Aristophanes calls them all-eys. They fly so high that sometimes they are out of sight, so far that they pass through the Air every where, and they fly so swift that they will catch any garbage thrown forth before it touch the ground. Bellonius, l. 2. de Avib, c. 26. Sometimes they will balance themselves in the Air, not stirring their wings in an hour; for, lifting up their wings a little in part, where the Air goes under them, they receive the Airs motion with their whole body, and so they are held up. It never sits on a Pomegranate Tree, nor can it endure the sight of it; and it delights to behold an Owl. Burnt alive in a pot it is said to cure the falling sickness. CHAP. XXIII. Of Manucodiata and the Cormorant. ALdrovandus observed five kinds of the Manucodiatae; none of their bodies was much bigger than a Swallow, and their heads were like to them. They are said to live always in the Air, and to rest firm without any, but a tonic motion; for they want feet, and never come to the ground, but when they are dead. This is a fable; for they could hardly sleep there, when their senses are bound up; For all their exercise is a tonic motion. It is like to that, That there is a hole in their back in the muscles, where the Female that hath a hollow belly lays her eggs. Aldrovandus, who saw these Manucodiatae, never found any such thing. And that is like this, that they feed on dew; because they fly so high, that they cannot always meet with Dew. But that must always be restored, that always wastes. Bellonius saith that the Janissari, people of India, deck themselves with their feathers. They think that under their protection they shall be out of danger in the head of the battle. The mahometans Marmin persuaded their Kings that they came from Paradise, as tokens of the delights of that place. The Cormorants are taken in the East to catch fish with. In a certain City, saith Odoricus à Foro Julii, situate by the great River in the East, we went to see our host fish. I saw in his little ships, Cormorants tied upon a perch, and he had tied their throat with a string, that they should not swallow the fish they took. In every bark, they set three great panniers, one in the middle, and at each end one; then they let lose their Cormorants, who presently caught abundance of fish, which they put into the Panniers, so that in a short time they filled them all. Then mine ●ost took off the straps from their necks, and let them fish for themselves: when they were ful●▪ they came back to their pearches and were tied up again, Scaliger writes that the same was done at Venice. They put their heads deep into the water, and perceive the change of the Air under the waves; and when they perceive any tempest, they fly to the land, making a 〈…〉, Isidore, l. 12. c. 7▪ Mizaldus' saith, that Vapours rise up from the waters that cause rainy Clouds, and they cunningly observe it. The liver of them boiled, and eaten with Oil and a little Salt, is so present a remedy against the biting of a mad dog; that the sick will presently desire water, Aetius. The same continued with Salt, and drank with Hydromel two spoonfuls, will drive forth the Second 〈…〉▪ Dioscorides. CHAP. XXIV. Of the Owl and Musket. OWls were formerly plentiful in Athens; in Gandie, they neither breed, nor will live, brought thither. Also in Mountain Countries of Helvetia there are none. They sit close 60 days in Winter. They are not hurt by fasting 9, days. Plin. l. 10. c. 17. Eustatius says they see in the dark, when the Moon is hid▪ but hardly for want of a Medium. Crescent, l. 10. c. 16. yet they cannot see in the day by reason of too dry and thin substance of the humour which ●s dissipated by the fiery substance of the light. He makes a double noise, the one is Tou, Tou, the other noise they call Howling. She is at great enmity with Crows. Pausanias' reports, that the Crows snatched away the picture of an Owl that was to be sold, and earings of Gold out of one's hand, that were made like Dates. It is commonly observed that if the Owl forsake the Woods, it signifies a barren year. Owls' eggs given for three days in Wine to drunkards, will make them loathe it. Plin. The Musket, in Winter sits in Woods that use to be lopped, and comes not to her place till Sun set. When she looks upon any thing, the black of the pupil of her eye grows greater than ordinary. We read of this bird in the Salic laws, that he who should steal ou●, if he be taken, must pay 120 denarii. CHAP. XXV. Of Onocrotalus, and Rhinoceros. ONocrotalus is from the tip of his bill, to the bottom of his feet, ten spans and more in magnitude, Aldrovandus. His wings stretched forth make ten spans; under his lower mandibule, there is a receptacle like a bladder, as long as it, that hangs down at length. And that is so great that a very great man thrust in his leg as far as his knee, with a boot on, into his Jaws, and pulled it out again, without harm. Perottus Sanctius reports that a little Blackmore was found in one. At Mechlin there was one of 80, years old, and for some years he went before the camp of the Emperor Maximilian, as if he would determine the place for them. Afterwards he was fed by an old woman at the King's cost, who was allowed for him 4, Stivers the day, she fed him 56, years, when he was young he would sometimes fly so high into the Air, that he seemed no greater than a Swallow, Gesner. Also the cubit bones of his wings were covered with a membrane, out of which there arose 24, Tendons, that were so firmly set into them, that there was no way to part them. Gesner writes that he heard, he was wont to come once a year about Lausanna by the Lake Lemannus. Rhinoceros is a bird whereof one was killed in the Air flying, at what time the Christians conquered the Turk in a Sea fight. The head was about two spans, adorned with black tufts of feathers, very long, and that hung downwards. The Beack is almost a span long, bend backward like a bow. A horn grows out of its forehead, and sticks to the upper part of his Bill, of a great magnitude. For about the forehead it was a hands breadth. Aldrovandus thinks it is, Pliny his Tragopanada. CHAP. XXVI. Of the Parrot. THe Ancients knew but one kind of Parrots; but those that have seen the Indies, have found above a hundred kinds, different in colour and magnitude. Vesputius writes that in a Country above the promontory of good hope, that hath its name from Parrots, they are so high that they are a cubit and half long. Scalig. exerc. 236, saith, he saw one so great, that he almost filled up the space of the lattice of a Window: Some are no bigger than a Thrush, or Pigeon, or Sparrow. No man could hitherto paint sufficiently all its colours, they are so many. In burning Aethiopia, and the farthest Indies, they are all white; in Brasil, red, in Calcutta, they are all Leek green, Watchet, or Purple coloured. Scalig. Exerc. 59 s. 2. The Ancients esteemed the Green best. The head and beck of it are extreme hard: wherefore, when they teach him to speak, it feels not, unless you strike i● with a wand of Iron, wooden rods will do no good, and it is dangerous to do it with Iron ones. The Parrot alone with the Crocodile, moves his upper mandible; also his Beck, which is common to no other, where it is joined to his neck, is open beneath under his chaps. His tongue is broad like to a man's, and represents the form of a gourd seed, the feet are like Woodpickers feet. In the deserts of Presbyter John, they are found with two Claws. He puts his meat in his mouth like as men do. He not only cuts in sunder the Almonds, but by rolling them in the hollow of his Beck, and pressing and moving it with his tongue, he breaks them, and chews them as it were, and then swallows them. Nature gave this bird a crooked bill like half a circle, it is very strong; Because she is of a clambering disposition, and hath not feathers in her tail that she can fasten into a Tree, she had need of a strong beck, that she might first cast it in like a hook, and by that she might raise her body, and then take hold with her feet. They live in hot Countries. In the Country of Parrots they are so cheap, that one may be bought for two pence: They always fly by couples, and lest they should hurt their weak feet when they light upon the ground, they trust to their strong beck, and break the fall with lighting upon that. They imitate a man, they learn his words and will pronounce all almost with an articulate voice. One was taught that would say the Creed to a Cardinal. Scalig. exerc. 238. He will answer questions. Henry the eight, King of England had one that fell into the Sea, and cried for help, promising 20, pounds, but when he was pulled forth, he bade, Give a Groat. If you struck her gently, she will kiss you, Scalig. exerc. 236. Amongst mourners she will lament also. Tiraquel saith, that the females do never or very seldom speak like to Men. They are so simple that when a Parrot cries in a Tree, and the fowler sits close in the boughs of the same Tree, great multitudes of them will fly thither, and suffer themselves to be easily taken. Pet. Martyr in Decad. Oceani. They are fed and grow fat on wild saffron seed, that is a purgative to men. They will hang by the heels with their heads down toward the water, and their tails upwards. They build in a high Tree. They bind a branch that hangs down, with small twigs to the top, and they hang their nest upon it as round as a ball, with a little hole in it. They lay eggs fit for their bigness. They die by much rain. They are sacred amongst the Indians, but not so in Columbus days. CHAP. XXVII. Of the Phoenix and Woodpecker. CLaudian describes the Phoenix, thus. A fiery mouth with sparkling eyes, A glittering crest like Sun it'h Skies; The legs are of a Tyrian dye, Lightning the Air as she doth fly. She is reported to inhabit Arabia, and chiefly Heliopolis a City of Egypt, where she was seen. Her nest is made of spices, namely Cinnamon, and Cassia near to Nilus; she sits in it, and by waving her wings she kindles a fire, from her ashes a Worm breeds, from that a young Phoenix. Oppian doth not so much as speak of the Worm. Men write diversely of her age. The common opinion is 500 years; some say, she lives 1461 years. But all this is false. The Woodpickers have a sharp bill, that is hard round and strong, to pick holes in Trees with. They have a long tongue that is extended to the hinder part of their head, and is wrapped up over all the crown of the head like a clue of yarn, it is exceeding sharp, and the end of it is gristly. They feed on Worms, and when they seek for them, they will so exceedingly make Trees hollow, that they will throw them down. Arist. l. 9 hist. c. 9 Their nest is made so artificially, that the sticks put together they make it of, are better to pull a sunder with ones hands than to cut in pieces with a sword. Pliny reports that the young ones come forth of their eggs with the tail first, because the weight of their heads turns the eggs upside down, and so the dam sits on their tails. They never sit on stones for fear of hurting their sharp claws. They climb unto the top like Cats, and that backwards. In what Tree soever they breed, no nail nor wedge can stick in it, but when it is fastened, it will fall out with a cracking of the Tree, Plin. l. 10. c. 18. Men suppose that she hath the greater Moonlight, an herb, that increaseth and diminisheth. CHAP XXVIII. Of the Pie. THe Pie almost every hour changeth her note; she learns and loves to speak as men do. One at Rome hearing the Trumpet sound, at first was astonished, but came to herself, and did perfectly imitate the same, Plutarch. If she be catcht in a Snare, she will move nothing but her beck; lest, moving her body, she should be more ensnared: when rapes are sowed, then is the time for her to moult her feathers. Her feathers being pulled off, and her guts taken out, if she be boiled in White Wine till the Wine be consumed, and the flesh part from the bones, and then she be brayed with the broth, and so set for three days in the Sun, and then applied to the eyes with a fine rag, it will cure the roughness, darkness, and redness of the eyes, The Pie that feeds on moss, hath blue overthwart marks on the sides of her wings, you shall seldom see the like in any other bird, she hath a throat so wide, that she will swallow Chestnuts. The Pie in Brasil hath a bill two hands breadth long, and one almost in breadth, measured from the bottom of the lower part, to the top of the upper part. The substance of it is very thin like a parchment; yet bony, shining, hollow, and most capacious as the Ear; also it is dented and made up as it were with certain scales; she feeds on pepper, but she presently casts it up again raw, and indigested. CHAP. XXIX. Of the Peacock. OF old Peacocks were rare in Europe; when Alexander saw one in India, he forbade to kill it on pain of death; but afterwards in Athenaeus his time they grew so common, that they were as ordinary as Quails. In the Land Temistana, they lay sometimes 20 or 30 eggs, Martyr. They are so cleanly, that when they are young, they will die if they be wet; Albert. When they want cooling, they spread their wings, and bending them forward, they cover their bodies with them, and so drive off the force of heat: but if the wind blow on their backparts, they will open their wings a little, and so are they cooled by the wind blowing between. They are said to know when any venomous medicament is prepared, and they will fly thither and cry. Aelian reports, that a Peacock will seek out the root of flax as a natural Amulet against Witchcraft, and will carry it thrust close under one of its wings. The Peacock suffers such languishing pains as children are wont to suffer when their teeth first come forth, and they are in great danger when their crest first grows out, Palladius l. 1. de re rustica c. 20. When in the night they double their clanging note, it foreshews rains at hand. The cause is said to be, that by doubling of that troublesome noise, is showed, that with heat that sharp vocal spirit breaks forth, Mizaldus. Their flesh will not corrupt easily. After a whole year it will not stink, only it appears drier. Antonius Gigas gave a piece of the boiled flesh to Aldrovandus in 1598.; it was boiled Anno 1592.; and it was full of round holes quite through, like a sieve, out of which, if it were a little shaked, dust did fall, as rotten powder doth out of some Trees; it was salt in taste, and somewhat bitter, Aldrovand. CHAP. XXX. Of the Pheasant and Sparrow. IN the Country of Curium, Pheasants were so common, that the Christians coming thither, bought them for two little pins apiece, Martyr. l. 8. Decad. Frederick Duke of Saxony let fly 200 in Saxony, and forbade any man to catch them. In the places of Scandinavia, they lie under the Snow without meat, Olaus. When they grow fat they lose their feathers. The Sparrow doth so fear the Hawk, that one that was pursued flew into Xenocrates' arms. It is the lust fullest almost of all Birds; for it hath been seen to tread 20 times in half an hour, Scalig. It will devour venomous seeds without any hurt. Some ascribe that to the smallness of its veins. An herb, the name whereof is not known, being put under ground in 4. corners of a Cornfield, will drive them from the Corn, Pliny. Others bid carry a red Toad through the field by night, before it be sowed, and to be buried under ground in the middle of the field, shut up in an earthen vessel. Yet, lest the corn should grow bitter, it must be dug up again before harvest. Those of Taprobana, when they are in the deep Sea, let fly Sparrows they brought with them for that end; and by their conduct, because they know not the use of the Loadstone, they find the way home, Acosta. CHAP. XXXI. Of the Partridge. IN that part of the World that is called the Continent, Partridges have a double flesh, so apparent, that it may be discerned; so great, that the greatest glutton cannot eat one at a meal, Gonsal Oviedus. Their testicles in venery increase wonderfully, but there appear none in Winter, Aristotle, l. 3. hist. c. 21. They are so salacious, that when the females are wanting, they will couple amongst themselves, and with their young ones: when they are present, they are filled by the males with wind they send forth, also by their cry and flying upward, Plin. l. 10. c. 33. Aristot. l. 5. c. 5. Their fruitful spirit is thought to perform that, which Ephesius interprets to be a vapour; which carries the heat arising from the generative seed of the male, and which being received through the pores of the Partridge, penetrates as far as the menstruum of her. Their young ones are impatient of delay, and break forth of themselves before the eggs be opened; and making a passage in the Eggs, so soon as they can put forth their heads and feet, they run away with the shell on their backs, and seek for food. Odoricus de foro Julii, shows us their docilenesse, and saith, That in the Countries about Trapezunda, which was formerly called Pontus, he saw a man that drove 4000 Partridges and more: he traveled by Land, and they flew in the Air, he brought them to a certain Castle called Thanega, that is 3. day's Journey from Trapezunda. These Partridges when the man rested, would all rest about him, as Chickens about a Hen; and then he took of them as many as he pleased, and the rest he brought home again. CHAP. XXXII. Of the Ostrich. THe Ostrich, hath a small head like a Goose, not covered with feathers, with cloven feet, Aristot. 4. hist. He is too big to fly, yet sometimes he runs swiftly, the wind entering under his wings, and extending them like sails. It is certain he will outrun a man on horseback. He is a fruit-eater. He will swallow small pieces of bones and stones greedily, but he casts them out again; also pieces of Iron. How should he digest them, for a Lion that is hotter cannot? He makes a nest of sand, that is low and hollow, and fenceth it against the rain. She lays above 80 eggs: yet the young ones are not all hatched at the same time; The eggs are very great, as big as a young Child's head, weighing about 15 pounds, they are extreme hard, and the shell is like stone. The young are bred of them by heat of the Sun; some, because they saw this Bird looking on them, thought the young ones to be hatched by her eye: She is wonderful simple; when she hides her neck in a bush, she thinks she is all hid. CHAP. XXXIII. Of the Scythian Bird, and the Castrel. OF the Scythian Bird, Aristotle writes thus: There is (saith he) a Bird that inhabits the Scythian Land, as great as a Bustard, which produceth two young ones; and the eggs she lays, she doth not sit upon them, but leaves them wrapped up in a Hare's or Forced skin, and so lays them up on a high Tree. When she hunts no●, she stays and keeps and defends them. A Kestrel is most loving to Pigeons; wherefore Country men put the young Castrels in Earthen pots, and fence them with putting on the Cover, and fastening them with Gip, they place them in some corners of their Dovecoats; this makes Pigeons love the place: He so frights Hawks, that they fly from the sight and cry of him, Columel. CHAP. XXXIV. Of the Thrush, and Torquilla. THrushes were amongst the Romans formerly great dainties; for at Rome they were sold for 3 denarii; that is, 12 pieces of money apiece. Varro, a very copious Author, saith, That out of one Cage 5000 Thrushes were sold at the said price; saith he, In a Farm of my Aunts, in Sabini 24 miles from Rome, there is a house for to keep Birds, out of which alone I have known 5000 Thrushes sold for 3. denarii apiece, that that part of the Farm yielded one year 6000 Sestertia, twice as much, saith he, (speaking to Axius) as thy ground of 200 Acres yields really. The Thrush of Agrippina shows they will learn; for this would imitate all men's speeches. It is a wonder, if it be true, that Thrushes should be so deaf. Scaliger hath a delicate Copy of Verses of the singing Thrush. We will here set them down: Sweet little Thrush, little Throat, Abating cares with thy small note, With thy melody be so kind, To pacify my troubled mind. And let thy warmbling breast With thousand tunes at least Free me from gulfs of cares, O Prince of happy Airs. Little Bird, King of voice, That makes thy Lord for to rejoice When he awakes, with thy clear note, Sweet little Thrush, little Throat. CHAP. XXXV. Of Urogallus. URogallus is found in the highest Mountain tops; in Germany, and the Northern parts, he most delights. Encelius l. 3. the lapid. c. 54. writes of his wonderful copulation. For the Cock of this kind doth spit and vomit out his seed in the Spring when they couple, and with a loud noise calls the hens, who gather up the seed was cast forth of his mouth; and they swallow it down, and so they conceive. Then the Cock treads them, and ratifies as it were the seed eaten. Those hens that he treads not, do bring eggs that are windy. Olaus Magnus writes, that in the Winter, in the North, the lesser Urogalli will lie hard under the Snow two or three months. But in Pontus they say in Winter some Birds are found, that neither boult their feathers, nor do they feel when their feathers are plucked out, nor when they are thrust through with a spit, but only then when they wax hot at the fire. It is hardly true. The greater Grygallus is so deaf, that he cannot hear the noise of a great Gun. CHAP. XXXVI. Of the Bat. PLato calls the Bat, a bird and no bird. Valla, half a Mouse. He loves Caves and holes in the earth. In the hollow place● of Apenni●u●, there were some thousands that lodged. It brings forth the young ones ready form; when they are bred, they are first like young Mice, smooth and naked as young children: She suckles her young ones with her milk, and she casts them especially between the hollow places in Tiles or roofs of houses. They stick so fast to her Teats, that they cannot be pulled off when she is dead. She, the second day after she hath disburdened herself of them, flies to find food; but in the mean time she devours the secondines. Sometimes she is bred of putrid matter. Frisius saith, she proceeds from a sickly excretion of the Air; she flies with leather wings; or, as Isidore saith, born up with the membranes of her arms, flying winding up and down, and not far from the earth. When she is weary she hangs by her claws, the rudiments whereof they have in the middle of their wings: she will fly also with two young ones in her bosom. They eat Gnats, Flies, Bacon. They will so eat a flitch that hangs by a beam, that they will lie in the hollow place. In hot Countries they will fly at men's faces. In Dariene a Province of the New World, they troubled the Spaniards in the night: One of them fell upon a Cock and Hen, and bit the Cock dead, Martyr. Pompilius Azalius saith, That in the East-Indies some are so great, that they will strike men, passing by, down with their wings. The Argument of this, is their carcases that lie all over the Vale. The Storks eggs grow barren, if a Bat touch them, unless she take ●eed by laying Planetree leaves in her nest: It is killed by the smell and smoke of Ivy, Aelian de animal. Locusts will not fly over the place, where Bats are hanged on the Trees that lie open. The biting of it is cured with Sea-water, or other hot water, or with hot ashes, as hot as one can suffer it. Strabo saith, That in Borsippa a City of Babylon, where they are greater than in other places, they are pickled up for food. So in St. John's Island they are skinned with hot water, and they are made like chickens with their feathers pulled off with us; for their flesh is very white. The Inhabitants of the Isle of Catigan in the Sea del Zur, do eat them. They are as great as Eagles, and as good meat as Hens, Scalig. Exerc. 236. s. 3. CHAP. XXXVII. Of the Vulture. THe Vulture hath filthy and terrible eyes, and a space under his throat as broad as one's hand, set about with hairs like Calves hairs, Bellonius l. 2. observ. c. 1. He hunts after cattle in Chyla a Province of the West-Indies, and that not from Sunrising till Noon, but from Noon till Night, Monard. de Arom. Some say, that the males are not bred, but the females conceive by the wind; which is false: for they have been seen between Worms and Augusta of Trevirs ●o couple, and to lay eggs; Alb. Mag. They are so libidinous, that when they are kindled, if the male be absent, they will tread one the other, and conceive by a mutual Imagination of lust; or else drawing dust by force of desire, they will lay eggs. When he wants his prey, he will draw blood from his thighs to feed on. Simocatta writes, that they are great with eggs 3. years. He hath an excellent sight, for he will see when the Sun riseth from East to West; and when the Sun sets from West to East. He will smell Carrion 500 miles, Aldrovand. Avicenna saith, That he sees the carcases from aloft; but Aldrovandu● writes, That the wind carries the sent of them to him. He hath an exquisite sense to perceive. He lives a hundred years. If you pick your teeth with his quill, it will make your breath sour. A kernel of a Pomegranate will kill him, Plin. l. 30. c. 4. Aelian. l. 6. c. 46. The End of the Sixth Classis. AN APPENDIX TO The Sixth Classis: Wherein some things are taken out of a Treatise of Michael Maierus, a most famous Physician, concerning the Bird that grows on Trees. WHen one shall read; that there is a place in the World, where Geese grow on Trees like Apples; perchance he will be doubtful concerning the truth of it, and question the Author. And if any man shall say, that living Creatures are bred, not only of one, but of divers kinds, from Trees and vegetables, that part will fly; and part will not fly; h● will have enough to do to make good what he says, if he would not be accounted a Lyar. Yet I think, it may be easily proved by what we have said already, where we have asserted, from experience, that Gnats are bred in Okes, and moss of Okes; and Worms are bred in other Trees and Vegetables; which, though they be small creatures, yet are they reckoned in the number of living creatures, because they feel and move: Yet I should not affirm the first as the words sound. For Birds make their nests sometimes in Trees, hedges, briars and other vegetables; but that they grow there like pears, is incredible. There is one of the Canary Islands called Ferro, where is a Fountain of sweet water concealed (and there is none besides in the whole Island) in some Trees by a wonderful Indulgence of Nature; the leaves do draw abundantly water out of the Earth or Air: which they drop down for the Inhabitants to drink. For should they want this boon, no men nor cattle could live there; for there are no Fountains; but the Ocean or salt-water runs round about it. The great bounty of God hath afforded water to those, to whom it is denied in other considerations. As in Egypt where there never falls any rain, Nilus overflows to supply that defect; and other Countries have other gifts given them. So also is this bird afforded to the Isles of the Orcadeses, and other neighbouring places, which is found no where else. Yet should any man look to find him growing on the Trees, he might wander all the Woods over and find none, nor yet do Pirates amongst the Ferrenses find water, but are forced to leave the Country for want of it, nor can they find it in the Trees Concerning this bird that is no Fable, that very learned Authors have written, making mention of it also in their other works, as Hieron. Card. de varietat. rer. c. 36. Du Bartas, in his Weeks, the 6 th' day, and 1 day of his 2 week. But they all do not agree of the places and manner of its generation. Munster saith, the Orcadeses are full of these birds, Gyraldus speaks of Ireland, Dubartus of Scotland which he calls Luturnen, as also Mela writes. Hector Boetius, relates the same things of the Hebrides. A French man understands it▪ concerning any part of the Hesperian Sea. He saith, a certain bird i● bred without Cock or Hen, but only from some vegetable, namely in Scotland from the Trees of that Country. Also ships made of the same Trees, when they are in the middle of the Sea, produce the same fowls. The French call them Marquerolle; it is good to eat. Plutarch makes mention of the same bird, in a Treatise that begins, Whether an Egg were first or a Hen? The Scotch call them Klekgues. Others write of them thus. In the Orcadeses Island, and Scotland, there is a Tree by the Sea side, and on the banks of Rivers, that bears fruit not unlike to Ducks, and when it is ripe it falls down into the water, and swims away alive, and becomes a bird; if it fall on the the ground it corrupts. Others call them Barnacles. As also in the ●ittle Theatre of the World, they are ascribed to Ireland, and are thus deciphered. There are also here Birds called Barnacles growing by nature contrary to Nature's order, not unlike to Ducks, but only they are less. For from wood of Masts for Ships, first comes forth some kind of Gum, then with weed (or Sea grass callded Wier) some shellfish sticks to those kinds of wood together with the pitch, which in time get wings and become Birds, and fly or fall into the waters, and swim. I have often seen (saith Silvester) abundance of these Tree-Ducks hanging on the Wood, enclosed in shells till they could fly. They lay no eggs as other Birds do, nor are they bred of eggs. In some places they eat these Birds for Fish, and not for Flesh. Hector Boetius tells the same History of a Bird, he calls Cla●is. For, saith he, if you cast Wood into the Sea, about the Hebrides, in time Worms will breed in it, that eat that Woodhollow, and afterwards become Birds, and are like to Geese, flying. He ascribes the generation of them to the Sea, called by Homer and Virgil, the Father of all things. But these different descriptions of Authors do neither agree amongst themselves, nor in all things with the truth itself. For the place, some say it is the Orchades; others Ireland; others the Hebrides, others Scotland, and all this may be true, since in the Ocean between Scotland and the Orcadeses, and Ireland, and the Hebrides, they are said to breed in both places. For it is no small extent of place where they are, but all that compass of the Sea in the outmost bounds of Scotland and Ireland. For the name, there is no difference; for divers Nations use divers names. But whether that faculty be to be ascribed to the Woods or Trees of those Countries, or to Worms that breed from those Trees, and are changed into Shellfish, is worth Enquiry▪ since the forementioned Authors were of so various opinions. But we shall consent with none of them. For were this virtue in the Wood, why should not the same kind of Wood, used for Masts, have the same faculty in all places; yet that is not so, nor do Ships made of that Woo● produce such fowl in the middle of the Sea. For who ever heard any such thing done in France, Germany, or England, yet are all their Havens frequented by Scotch Merchants, and Ships from the Orcadeses▪ No● can this be referred to the Trees, for they bear not birds but fruit of their own kind. If they be cut down and turned to other uses, and cast into the Sea, to corrupt and grow rotten, that is, that they may die as it were, as to their first being, and be turned into the common matter of Wood; then begins this new generation of living Creatures by the influence of the Heavens, and the Sun's heat cooperating. For how should a vegetable, produce a flying Creature like a Goose? Is not every Tree known by its specifical fruit, whether it be good or bad▪ Again doth not every kind of fruit, testify what Tree it was bred on ● Trees do not bear fish; nor the Sea, Trees. Hares use to be found in Woods, and merry conceits in words, and not the contrary. A vegetable doth not couple with an animal, nor an animal with a vegetable, each keeps its own rank, and doth not exceed it, unless Nature using the help of putrefaction, do produce some small living Creatures in vegetables▪ as I said before. They that think that Worms may become fowls, do not in my Judgement, speak what is probable. For how should a shellfish come of a Worm, yet understand me so, that what I deny of each by themselves, I would grant of all together. But because I know this not by hearsay, but I have seen above 50, (almost hundreds) of these shellfish, and when they were opened, I have seen little young Birds coming forth as out of a●● egg, with all their parts necessary for flight, and I have had them in my hands, I must not omit here to set down an exact description of them, and this it is. If perhaps some pieces of Masts of Ships smeered with pitch fall into those Seas in the outmost parts of Scotland, nor far from the Orcadeses or Hebrides, and lie there a long time; they not only grow rotten and full of Worms, but are covered all over with Sea weeds, for of such grass there is abundance there, which cleaves to any Wood easily, especially if it send forth a pitchy fatness as Masts that are fi●re or pitch Trees, and are full of pitchy Rosin; and then for Ships occasions are again besmeerd with the same, namely that the sails may suddenly be noised up and pulled down, and stay no where. Now the Sea breeds those weeds at the bottom near the shore, that are longer or shorter, and these at certain times swim on the top of the water, being moved or pulled up, as it were, by the waves. This, bred in the water, doth not easily corrupt, having much of a salt nature in it: wherefore in North Holland, and many other places they make of those weeds a strong fence against the violence of the Sea, so that they fetch a remedy from the disease, wherefore these weeds hanging round about the said pieces of Masts insinuate themselves into the rotten places; and in time on the other side of each grass will grow small shellfish, which are whitish or of the colour of a Man's nails, and in form, hollowness, and long fashion, like to the nail of a man's little finger; whereof if two be joined together that they may stick well, the upper parts being the sharpest, they take hold of the ends of the weeds, and are fast shut in the broader parts, which afterwards open, that the fruit may come out to fly. Thus a thousand at least of these shell fish are fastened to the weeds at the ends, which as I said are fastened to the pitched Wood, with the other end, in such plenty, that the Wood can hardly be seen: yet those weeds do hardly exceed 12 fingers breadth in length, and are so strong as thongs of leather: sometimes they are longer, and are some-feet-long. This is the whole external description; For you can see nothing but a piece of a Mast full of rotten holes, and Sea Weeds thrust into them, having at the other end shellfish, like to the nail of a Man's little finger. But if these shells be opened, those small Birds appear, like chickens in eggs, with a beck, eyes, feet, wings, down of their feathers beginning, and all the other parts of callow Birds. As the young Birds grow, so do the shells or covers of them, as they do in all other Oysters, Muscles, shellfish, snails, and the like carriers of their houses. It may be asked how they get their food? I answer as other Z●ophyta do; partly from the sweeter part of the water, or else as shell fish that breed pearls, and Oysters do, from the dew, and rain; partly, from the pitchy fat of the rotten Wood, or the resinous substance of Pitch or Rosin. For these by the intermediant grass, as by umbilical Veins, do yield nutriment to these Creatures, so long as that Wood is carried by the ebbing and flowing of the Sea, hither and thither. For were it on the dry land, it would never bring forth the said shell fish. An example of this, we have in places near the Sea, where those shell fish are taken always with black shells, sticking to Wood put into the water, as also to the wooden foundations of bridges, and to Ships that have been sunk. And they stick either to the wood, by some threads like to hairs, or Moss, or else by Sea Weeds; whence it is evident that some clammy moisture is afforded to shellfish sticking to any Wood whatsoever, though it be Oak, but much more to fir Wood, full of Rosin, whereof Masts of Ships are made: For this Wood is hotter than Oak, and hath much aerial clamminess, and therefore takes fire suddenly and when it is wounded, while it is green, it sends forth an oily Rosin, but when it is dry, it will easily corrupt under water; but the Oak will not, because it is of a cold and dry nature. It longer resists corruption, and under water grows almost as hard as a stone. If any man will consider the abundance and diversity of fish and living Creatures which are bred in the Seas every where, he cannot but confess that the Element of water is wonderful ferrill, which breeds, not only the greatest living Creatures, (as Whales, whereof some, as Pliny writes, l. 32. entered into a River of Arabia, that were 600 foot long, and 300 foot broad) and that in such abundance and variety that the same Author reckons up 176. kinds of fish in the Sea only, besides th●se bred in Rivers. But one would chiefly admire the great diversity and beauty of Sea shellfish; for I remember that I saw a● ●e●terdam, Anno 1611, with Peter Carpenter a very famous man, above a thousand several kinds of them, in such plenty that he had a whole Chamber full of them, which he kept as the precious treasures and miracles of nature. No doubt but these are the Ensigns of Nature's bounty; for they rather serve for the ornament of the world, than for man's use, wherein you may see a kind of an affected curiosity in the variety of the forms of them. Hence we may conclude the great fruitfulness of the Sea, which doth exceed the Land in breeding of living Creatures, and vegetable animals▪ which the Ancients observing, they ascribed to Neptune, who was god of the Sea, great multitudes of Children begotten from divers Concubines▪ called Sea-Nymphs; amongst these, were Tryton and Protheus▪ whereof he, sounding a shellfish, is his Father Neptune's Trumpeter; but this, is changed into various forms, as into fire, a Serpent, and such like; clearly teaching, that the Sea breeds divers forms. These causes seemed to move them who ascribed the generation of these Birds in the Orcadeses to the Sea alone, as being the Author of fruitfulness, and of diversity of Creatures. But how rightly they did that, shall be seen. We deny not, but that many pretty shell-fish are bred of the Sea, only from the influence of omnipotent nature; so that the Ocean affords the place and matter of them, but not the form and the cause efficient. All the fish, except a few, are bred of the seed of other fish, naturally; and here can be no question of these. Yet we may doubt whether so many kinds of shellfish do breed from the seed of other shellfish. It is manifest of the foresaid Bird, that it breeds neither from an egg▪ as other birds do, nor yet from seed. Whence then? From the Ocean? or must the cause be imputed to the Ocean? Not at all. For though the place be said to generate the thing placed, yet that is understood of the matrices that are the cause of generation, sine quâ non: but not the efficient cause, much less the formal material and final, and not concerning every general thing containing. But to search out more exactly the nature of this wonderful Bird, we will run over those four kinds of causes, not doubting, but having searched out these as we ought▪ what, why, and from whence it is, will easily be resolved. The Efficient cause therefore of this generation, is external heat, such as the Sun sends forth into sublunary bodies; as also in the internal hea●▪ in the matter corrupting. For without heat nature produceth no generation, but useth heat as her chief Instrument, whereby homogeneous things are congregated, and heterogeneous are parted; the parts and bowels are form in living Creatures, and are disposed in their orders and figures. In Artificial things that men make, they use divers Instruments, as their Hands, which may be called the Instrument of Instruments, Hammers, Anvils, Files, Saws, Wimbles, and the like. In natural things, there is only Heat as the efficient cause▪ and Nature moves it as the Artificer doth them▪ The outward heat brings the internal into Action: Without which, this would be uneffectual, and shut up in the matter as dead; as it appears in some living creatures, which when Winter comes, and the outward heat fails, they are as it were asleep, and lie as dead, as Swallows, Frogs, Flies, and such like: But so soon as the Sun beams heat the water and the earth, presently these little Creatures revive; as owing their lives to the Sun's heat. And as the heat is greater, so is the efficacy thereof, and their flying about and crying; as we see in Flies and Frogs. As for heat, the Sun, the great light of the World, is the Father of it; which it sends upon all earthly creatures, enlightening and enlivening them. Hence men say, that the Sun and Man beget a man; namely, by the intermediate seed. Otherwise it proceeds of another fashion, when without those mediums, in things are bred of putrefaction, as we said before. For when the solar or elemental heat encloseth any mixed body, wherein natural heat is included; this is raised up by that, is moved and stirred to perform its operations; as appears in the hatching of eggs by artificial heat of Furnaces, or natural heat of the hens. For in the yolks there is a hidden natural heat, that is stirred by the external heat; so that, by circulation of the Elements, Water is turned to Air; Air into Fire; Fire into Earth; Earth into Water, and the Chickens limbs and entrails are form and made by natural heat, which is the principal internal Agent. The Material cause in the generation of this Tree-Goose, is that clammy matter of the wood of Fir, or the Rosin and Pitchy substance of it, upon which the outward Sun's heat doth work; and the internal heat increased in the corrupt matter. This matter though it be small, yet may well afford the first rudiments to this Embryo, which is afterwards nourished by the clammy substance of the Ocean, as Oysters and other shellfish grow and increase; for neither the hard substance of the wood, nor yet the weeds affords any matter for it; for the one is observed to be the container, and the other the conveyer of the true matter. For as in the generation of Man, neither the Matrix, nor the umbilical vein do afford any matter, but are required as necessary instruments; so must we judge here, of the wood, and the Seaweeds. Some will have it, that from the worm bred in the rotten wood, there should be made some transmutation, and that the worm doth afford the first matter for this generation; yet that opinion is false, for that Worm cannot come ●orth to the end of the weeds, nor can it make shellfish, but that must breed at the end of the weeds; nor doth it come thither from any other place, that it can go from place to place by an animal motion, before it receive its essential form. Pliny writes, that the Fish Pinnothe● is so cunning, that he will hide himself in the Oyster; and as he grows, he will go into such as are greater; but to imagine any such thing of that Worm that eats into the wood, is against the nature of it. But it is no doubt, but that the rosinous and pitchy matter may communicate something to the end of the weeds, which yet nature must do by a way we cannot perceive; as nature useth in all other generations such ways and means that we can better think and judge of by reason, than see with our eyes. For who can see how the heart in the generation of living Creatures is first form? What fibres and veins nature useth there for her Instruments; how and by what means this is done; and when it is done, how she disposeth of the other bowels, and makes them of a seminal and menstrual matter: There was never man yet found so quicksighted, that he could see these things whilst they were doing; but when they are done, reason can discern them. So no man could yet say, how this matter, that was first radical moisture in the wood, could pass to the ends of those Sea weeds, and should be form there; yet it is plain afterwards, that so it was made. Nor will that be so hard, for the matter to pass through the grass to the end of them, as to pass without any medium. But the greater difficulty is, and most worthy to know, the Formal or seminal cause of this wonderful birth; which since it is nor contained in seeds; for here are none to be found; it must needs enter into the matter, otherwise than in other kinds of generations. For the seeds of both Sexes in living Creatures which are mixed together in copulation, are as it were the sheaths and cases of the forming spermaticall faculty; which forms the preaexistent matter of the seed or blood into an essential form fit for that kind, that the seeds belong unto, howsoever they are mingled or drawn forth into act. That force of nature is a blessing given to her in the creation, in the word increase; which word was never idle, nor shall be whilst the world endures: God spoke, and all that God said were made very good, containing in themselves principles to multiply their own kinds by; because individuals must perish. The Heaven with its Stars shall last from the beginning to the end, and the entire Elements, Air, Water, and Earth. But things compounded of them, as they ●y, so they are restored again by multiplication of seed, not the same in number, but in kind; not by external form, but by that form which is internal and essential. But since that God gave this Commission for propagation to the sublunary World, and this always proceeds by mediums; though in the production of these Barnacles there are no visible seeds, whereby the matter may receive its form; wherefore it is consonant to Reason and to Nature, that the form must come from some other place into the matter, lest any thing should seem since the Creation to be made of nothing, contrary to Gods will. For nothing is the cause of itself, or forms itself, but only the eternal and infinite God. All other things indeed were made by him of nothing, but not by themselves, nor are they propagated of nothing, nor from themselves, but from means appointed by Nature. Plato sets universal Ideas of every species of things subject to generation, fixed in a certain place from whence a formative force descends, to beget and make all individuals to be made. This opinion is pleasant but not true. For there can be no universal substances (save in the conceptions of men's minds) but only individuals, that cannot give what they have not, and what they do give, they cannot always hold themselves. Nature is in all things as in individuals, dispersed all over, which yet operates in each individual according to the condition that every one of them requires, which is true in all things that have seeds, for those are the very subjects and vessels that nature works upon. But the question now is, how that faculty is imprinted on the seeds, and from whence? whether from nature? If this be true, then of every matter she makes what she will, when as she can imprint what form she please on any matter. And then, how can nature in this Barnacle, that hath no seed visible presupposed, proceed to generation; and in other such like things bred of mere putrefaction. As in man there is an imagination and cogitative force, which is performed by a subtle Artifice of Images conceived in the brai●▪ arising first from the outward senses, and so proceeding to the inward parts of the brain, by a local motion; yet without any changing of the place, only by calling to remembrance things at the greatest distance, which were seen long before, or were done, or thought of▪ So in the Sun, the Heavens, the fixed Stars, there is a kind of imaginative virtue; not passive as in animals, but purely active, which by local motion comes thence into sublutary bodies, and is communicated to certain subjects, as to seeds of individuals. And this is the form that first begins and increaseth all generation, communicating the essence to every thing, that it shall be such a thing, and not another. This force is the first movable, frameing its subject, as an Architect, and one that frames herself a house, where to dwell, that she governs to that end that Nature the artificer assigns it. That is the spermatick faculty, that resides in the body of the seed, without which this is barren and vain, nor doth promote any generation. If this by time vanish, or by breaking the Container of it; there follows no fructification, as appears in Corn, which if it grow old, or be ground to meal, it can propagate no more. Or why doth this power reside in that body rather than in another, and perisheth presently afterwards? I answer, there is no other reason to be given, than that Nature rejoiceth in such means, and hath included that virtue that it cannot fly away, if it be obedient unto nature, which if she would, she could have put into other subjects. It is admirable, that the animal spirits in men are contained in the nerves 〈…〉 do they fly out of them into the Air; and when those nerves are pressed their passage is stopped, whence astonishment or a palsy for a time seizeth on the foot or arm, which is by and by removed by the Spirits succeeding into the nerves. After the same manner, that imaginative virtue of the heavenly bodies, especially of the Sun, if it pass into the individual subjects or seeds of things▪ it naturally remains in them at the will and pleasure of nature. But where there are no seeds, there the same virtue of the Heavens is communicated to some certain matter immediately: as, in this generation, to this fat and clammy subject, of which we spoke before, as to the material cause. For there are two things in all seeds, the Elementary matter, and the celestial form, the latter whereof may perish, the matter and external form remaining entire, but nothing of that was generated out of the matter, when the celestial form is lost. Matter in this generation is in time before the form, and receives it by influence, though it be not deprived of any form it had. I speak of the first matter, but the subsequent form, if it do not take away the first form, yet it perfects it. But it is a question, Wherefore this formal force (as for example▪ in making a bird) is not sent into every matter, or into any whatsomever, when as it is received without certain vessels, or bodies of seeds? I answer; that matter, so prepared in such wood and not in another, and in such a place and not in another, supplies the place of a seminal body; whose qualities not being in another, therefore no other subject is capable of that formal and determinate virtue. There are examples every where of this Imagination, or celestial Influence, namely in some places of the County of Mansfield, where Mines of Brass in a stone that may be cut, do show forth all kinds of Fishes; and the forms of such as are in the next Lake, as we may see Teeth; Horns; and Lions to perfection, form by nature under ground in hollow Caves and other places. In Amber also, which by the Sea Waves is cast on the shores of the Island, now called Sudovia in Borussa; divers forms of flies gnats, spiders, butterflies, frogs, lizards, and other Creatures appear; not really, but only from the imaginative faculty of the Heavens imprinted in it. For if you should cut the Amber or break it to find them, the places would be empty, which nature hath so sported herself upon; yet are all their parts and particles so shadowed to the life, that a man would swear, that such Creatures are really included in that matter, perchance wrapped in when the gum was moist. But it is no such matter: for there is no earthly matter, and which is not transparent, that is contained in those concave figures, which yet ought to be otherwise, since a corporal substance cannot vanish away, and only the form of it remain. Moreover if any such living Creatures had fallen into the gummy substance of it▪ as into Rosin or Turpentine, their wings or feet that are besmeer'd would be seen so, and not extended entire, and direct, which is not so here; but all seem entire as through a Crystal glass. Farther, if that should fall from Trees into the water, those Trees would be known. Pliny l. 37. c. 2. & 3, writes of Amber thus, Pitheus (saith he) discovered to the Guttones, borderers on Germany, an arm of the Sea called Mentonomon, for the space of 6000 furlongs; from this the Island Abulus is a days sailing; from thence Amber is carried by the Waves of the Sea, and it is the purging of the Sea congealed. The inhabitants use it for wood to burn, and sell it to the Germans their neighbours. Timoeus believed this, but he called the Island Baltia. Mithridates saith, there is an Island in the shores of Germany, and it is called Osericta that is full of a kind of Cedar Trees, from thence it runs to the Rocks. But certain it is, that it breeds in some Islands of the North Sea, and the Germans call it Glessum; and therefore our Country men call one of those Islands, Glessaria; When Germanicus Caesar was there with his Navy, the Barbarians called it Austravia. It is brought by the Germans, especially into the Country of Pannonia: Thence the Venetians first, whom the Geeeks call Heneti, spread the fame of it, they receiving that from Pannonia about the Adriatic Sea. That shore of Germany is about 600 miles from Carnuntum of Panonia, from whence it is brought, being but lately discovered. A Roman Knight, sent by Julian to traffic for this, who took care of the fencing sports of Nero Caesar, passed over all those shores, where these Merchandises were, and saw such abundance brought in, that the nets that were set to keep off wild beasts from the Galleries, were full of knots of Amber, but the weapons, and buyers, and the whole provision for one day was made of Amber. He brought a great weight or clot of it, that weighed 13, pounds. Pliny. In Amber, as it is transparent, that incorporeal figure doth easily appear; but not so in other dark bodies. Nor yet in the matter of the wood we speak of; In which not only the figure of a bird, but also a spermatick natural force to form it, nourish, and augment it, and to preserve it in its vital functions, is implanted, as in other birds. But since it is not propagated, ex traduce, from an egg or seed, it neither leaves egg nor seed, nor gives more to another than nature gave to it. For if it laid eggs, that chickens might proceed from, the Barnacle had been so bred herself; but neither of these is so. For as a Mule is not bred of a Mule, but from the mingling of an Ass and Mare together, so it doth not generate a Mule, but continues always Barren, as this bird doth. Bees are bred of Worms, the Worms in the honey combs from honey, by a wonderful operation of nature, though without any sensible body of seed, yet not without virtual seed imprinted on the Honey-Combs by the Bees, which they first had from Heaven. Nor is it possible, that these effectual and spiritual qualities should proceed from the pure Elements, or only by propagation; since the matter of the seed, which is made of nutriment and blood, could be extended in infinitum without diminution of itself. For we observe, that the Elements are but like dead and material receptacles of the formal virtues, and that the matter of the seed is daily supplied, and heaped up by the Elements. And therefore it is necessary that the formative force, should daily flow into the form seeds; or, where they are wanting, into a matter prepared by Nature from corruption, or other operations. From whence the form of this wonderful Creature is easily drawn, namely, that it is an imaginative virtue of the Heavens, or of the Sun, actively infused into a viscous matter of that wood in those places, so disposed by corruption, that it may enliven it, and promote it to be a new kind of living plant, or bird included in a shell; which so soon as it falls into the waters may swim, and when the wings are grown, fly about. The final cause is the common ornament of the World, the variety and wonderful works of Nature, the profit of those that dwell near, and especially the providence, omnipotence, and clemency of our good and great God, all whose attributes do appear to mankind as well from this creature, as from the rest, whilst he crowns the year with his free gifts, and the whole earth with variety of Creatures. So that he is far more mighty in creating and making different kinds of living Creatures, than we are able to express them, to nominate or to know them. Let it suffice us, that we have seen some part of the wonderful works of God, and taken a view of them▪ for it is not possible for a mortal Man to be capable to apprehend them all; yet to consider of none of them, were brutish; and we should, so, be more like unto Beasts than Men. OF Natural Wonders. The Seventh Classis. Wherein are set down the Wonders of fourfooted Creatures. Seneca l. 3. de ira. c. 30. WE are troubled with frivolous and vain matters. A red colour makes a Bull angry, and a viper is stirred by a shadow. A picture will make Bears and Lions fiercer. All things that are cruel and ravening by nature are moved with vain things. The same things happen to unquiet and foolish spirits; they are stricken with jealousy and suspicion of things. CHAP. I. Of the Elk, and the Ram. THe Elk is a fourfooted beast commonly found in Scandinavia; in Summer of an Ash-colour almost; in Winter it turns toward black. The horns are fit for footstools, each of them is 12 pound weight, and two foot long. His upper lip hangs out so long, that he cannot eat but going backwards. Men write, that he is subject to the falling sickness; and that the remedy he hath is to lift up the right claw of the hinder foot, and put it to his left Ear. It holds the same virtue, if you cut it off when he goes to rut in August or September. He is commended for his swiftness, for he will run as much ground in one day as a horse shall in three. He is very strong; for a strong blow with his foot will kill the hunter. The Ram for six Winter months sleeps on his left side; but after the vernal equinoctial, he rests on his right. Aelianus hath discovered this, but the Butchers deny it. In Camandu a Country of Tartary, they are as big as Asses, their tails weigh 30 pound weight. One was seen in the Court of the King of the Arabians, whose tail weighed 40 pound, Vartom. Cardanus ascribes that to its cold temperament, when the rest of the bones will no more be extended. Lest he should be choked with his own fat, he sends down the humour unto his tail. CHAP. II. Of the Ass. IN the Kingdom of Persia, Asses are so esteemed, that one of them is sold for 30 pound of gold; amongst the Pigmies they are as big as our Ram's, Paul Venet. In Egypt they amble so swiftly, that one will go 40 miles a day without any hurt, Scalig. Exerc. 217. s. 1. She doth sparingly dip-in her mouth when she drinks. She is afraid, saith Cardanus. For when she beholds the great shadow of her ears in the water, she is fearful they will be wet. There are some found in Africa that do not drink: She staleth when she seeth another stale▪ or upon a dunghill. For Nature doth stir them up being slothful, by the acrimony of the smell. Cardan. l. 10. subtle. Observation proves, that where an Ass hath cropped a vine branch, the vine will grow more fruitful. The monument of this matter was seen at Nauplia, where an Ass of stone was set up in thankful remembrance for posterity. Vadimonius writes, that there is a fruitful Orchard, in the middle whereof she was buried, Aldrovand. l. 1. de quadr. c. 2. In Hetruria when they have eaten Hemlock they fall asleep, that they seem to be dead. The Countrymen are deceived by it, for ofttimes they rise up and fright them when they have pulled off their skins almost, Mathiol. in Dioscorid. Sheep will run into the fold, if you pen them in an Ass' stall. If one be stung by a Scorpion, if he sit upon on Ass with his face toward the tail, the Ass will endure the pain, and not he. It is a sign of it, because she will die farting, Merula. Ass' milk is commended. Poppaea, the Wife of Domitius Nero, that conceived in all 500 times, did wash her body in a Bath of Ass' milk, thinking to stretch her skin thereby, Plin. l. 15. c. 40. 〈…〉 of crete, being in a Consumption, recovered by feeding on Ass' flesh. Moreover, there are some in Scythia whose horn contains Stygian water, for it will pierce through iron vessels. Some in 〈…〉 have one horn in their forehead: Who drinks out of that, is preserved from a disease; but if any venomous matter be drank, it is ca●t forth. They are so strong, that they will kill a horse to travel with them. Also that was a wonderful one, that was sent as a present with other gifts by the King of Assyria, to Ferdinand of Naples▪ for the hair was wonderful, the body was full of streaks, of divers colours and equal lines, Pontan. d● Magnificent. CHAP. III. Of the Boar, and the Archopitecus. IN Crete there are no Boars. In a great part of the New World there are some that are less than ours. Their tails were so short, that the Spaniards thought they were cut off. The fore-feets are whole, the hinder feet cloven. In some parts of Scandinavia they are 12 foot long. Scaliger writes, that the petty King of Salvimons, had a huge one, which would at the sound of the horn go forth to hunt with his Lord and the dogs. Archopitecus is a creature in America that is wonderful ill-favoured. The Inhabitants call it Ha●●t; He is as great as a Monkey, his belly toucheth the ground, he hath a head and a face like a child; and when he is taken, he sighs like to a child. Three claws hang to his hinder feet, and four long ones to his fore-feets, like the great prickly bones of a Carp, and with these he creeps up upon Trees. His tail is 3. foot long. He was never found to eat man's flesh, whilst he is alive; and they think he lives upon nothing but leaves, which in their language they call Amohut. When he is tame, he will love a man, and run up upon his shoulders. Thevet left him in the open Air, yet was he never wet. CHAP. IU. Of the Ox. IN one of the outermost Provinces of Asia, between the outmost Mountains of India and Cathay, Oxen are bred white and black, with a horses tail, but more full of hairs, and reaching down to their feet. The hairs of them are most fine, like feathers, and as dear, Venet. Brought into Hispaniola they will grow so much, that they are greater than Elephants, Petr. Martyr in Decad. In these parts where we write these things, Guickardinus testifieth that one of them weighed above 1600 weight: we saw one at Leyden that weighed 2970, pound But Ptolomaeus 11, had the horn of one that held 27, gallons. When the Cows are great with young, men say they carry their young ones on their right side, though they be great with two. But they that drink of the River Charadrus, not far from the City of the Patrenses, conceive for the most part only Males: the same will come to pass if in time of copulation you bind the left testicle of the male with a band; or let them couple when the North wind blows, Pausan. in Achaicis: and if the right, or when the South wind blows, the Cows will conceive a female. The Cows if they be more fruitful in summer, are a Token of a rainy Winter. For a fruitful Creature cannot abound with generative humour, unless it be moved by a celestial influence, Albert. Sometimes they are very fierce. In the year 1551 in Rhoetia, between Duria and Velcuria, some of them, brought into the fields from two Villages, fought so violently that 24, were killed before the combat could be ended. Gesner de quadrup. Sometimes they are puffed up with fullness, for the cure whereof they use a Charm, nameing the swelling, In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy-Ghost. Men say that Pythagoras, by whispering some words at Tarentum, tamed an Ox, so that he forsook bean straw, and followed a Country Man, and lived to be very Old at Tarentum, eating out of men's hands, Coelius. The smoke of Oxe-dung will preserve Bee-hives free from Flies, and Spiders. Bullocks blood poured into a wound, will stop the bleeding. Also the dry dung burnt, drunk three spoonfuls, will cure the dropsy. CHAP. V. Of the Buff and Bonasus. A Buff is a Creature greater than an Ox with a bunch on his back, (two or three men may sit between his Horns) for it hath a very large forehead, and curled with hair that smells like Musk. The flesh of it is most fat in Summer, but it tastes of Garlic that it feeds on. It is wonderful strong, for he will take up a Horse and his Rider. The blood of it is redder than purple, so hot that it will make Iron on the Hunter's Spear turn every way, and in the greatest could it will corrupt in two hours. In the Scotch woods, they so abhor the company of men, that they will not touch the shrubs that men have touched, after many days; and being taken by art, they will die for grief, Cambd. in Scotia. Gesner makes the Bonasus to be a kind of Bugle, of whom men write that he dungs extreme hot when the Hunter follows him; but that happens to living Creatures by running so fast. The intestines grow hot thereby, and heat raiseth winds, which being shut in, they break forth violently through a narrow place, chiefly if there fall out to be any pressing of the places by motion. Also the Cuttle fish gives an example, that fear will cause her to cast out her inky juice. Philip King of Macedon, killed one with a Dart at the foot of Mount Orbelus, the Horns were 16, handfuls, which were consecrated to Hercules. CHAP. VI Of the Camel. THe Camel hath a manifold belly, either because he hath a great body: or, because he eats Thorny and Woody substances, God hath provided for the concoction. Puddle water is sweet to him▪ nor will he drink River water, till he have troubled it with his foot. In Africa when they have fasted 50, days, they will not eat at night, but when they have their burdens taken off, they will feed on leaves in the fields. Leo Afric. L. 3. He lives a hundred years, unless the Air agree not with him. Plin. They serve the Indians to travel with, if we credit Philostratus; nor is it beyond his force, to go a thousand furlongs in one day. But that kind of Camel, the Africans call Ragnail, will go a hundred miles a day for 8, days together, with a very little meat. They never couple with their dams. When as his keeper had admitted him to the dam vailed▪ when she was discovered, he was so enraged, that she trampled on him, and threw herself headlong. Arist. in admirand. Examples show that they are very docile: when they are longer on their journey than ordinary between Aethiopia and Barbary, they do not whip them forward, but they sing to them, whereby they will run so fast that men can hardly follow them. One at Alcair danced at the sound of a Taber, being taught by a strange art. For when he is young, he is brought into a stove, the pavement being very hot. One plays on a Tabret at the door, he because of the heat lifts up one foot: they continue this exercise, and use him to it a whole year, that coming in public remembering the hot pavement, when one plays on the Tabret he will lift up his feet, and seem to dance Leo. Aphric. In the Land of Giants there is a Creature that hath a head, ears, and neck like to a Mule, a body like a Camel, a tail like a Horse, he is 6, foot high, and five foot long, his neck is as white as a Swan. There was one brought to Middleburg in Zealand, Anno. 1558. It was called an Indian Sheep. Scalig. in exerc, calls it Allo. Camelus. CHAP. VII. Of the Shee-Goat. THe report is that Goats see as well by night as by day, wherefore if those that are blind in the night, eat a Goat's Liver they will be cured. They breathe out of their ears and nostrils, if we will credit the Shepherds. Phizes gives the reason, because when their nostrils are stopped, they are not hurt, Aelian. When the Sun sets, they lie backwards in the fields, and so they do at other times, but one with another. A Goat's horn laid under a sick man's head, will bring him to rest; scraped with honey, it stops the belly flux; burnt, it will raise people in a Lethargy. In Egypt they are said to bring 5, young ones. The cause is the water of Nilus that is drank by such as are Barren and want milk. They show the revolution of Syrius. For as often as he riseth with the Sun, they turn to the East and gaze upon it, Plutarch. In some part of Africa, they sheer them, and make Cabels of their hair. Those of Lybia show when rain comes, for so soon as they come forth of their stalls, they run to feed, and presently come back to their stalls again, Ael●an. Those of Giman●a do not drink in six months; but, turning toward the Sea, they receive the vapours with open mouth, and so they quench their thirst. The Goat of Mambrey will endure a saddle and bridle, and a rider; he hath ears that hang down to the ground, and horns twisted below his mouth, Gesner. l. 1. de quadrup. The wild ones in L●bia are as great as Oxen; so active, that they will leap upon the highest Mountain tops; and their limbs are so hard, that if they fall, they neither break their horns, nor hurt their heads, Aelian. l. 14. c. 16. CHAP. VIII. Of the Beaver and Colus. THe Beaver is a most strong Creature to bite, he will never let go his teeth that meet, before he makes the bones crack, Plin. His hinder feet are like a Goose's, and his fore-feets like an Apes. His fat tail is covered with a scaly skin, and he useth it for a rudder when he pursues fish. He comes forth of his holes in the night; and biting off boughs of Trees about the Rivers, he makes his houses with an upper loft, and when the water riseth, he lies there, Albert. When they are cut asunder, they are very delightsome to see; for one lies on his back, and hath the boughs between his legs, he holds them fast that they may not fall down, and the others draw him by the tail to their Cottage. Colus is a fourfooted wild Beast, amongst the Scythians and Sarmatians, he is for greatness between a Stag and a Ram. He is white, and very swift. He draws his drink by his nostrils into his head, and holds it for some days; so that he will feed well enough in Pastures where there is no water, Strabo l. 7. Sometimes they will be 500 together; but about Easter you may see 2000 In March they dig up an herb, by the sent whereof they stir up venery; when that is spent, for a day they lie as half dead, but when they taste of it once more, they are restored, Gesn. CHAP. IX. Of the Cat and C●ney. THe Cat's eyes are so good, that she will see any thing in the dark, Albert. The Cat by the Egyptian Sea is observed to change the pupils of his eye, as the Sun doth alter. They are long in the morning, round at noon; when the Sun sets they are obscured, Gellius. He commonly plays on his back, that he may look round about. Cut off his ears, he will stay at home more, for he cannot endure the drops that fall into his ears. If a Cat's hair fall into a man's mouth, it will stick there. Hence matter is heaped together, that causes a Scrofulous diseases. Scaliger saith, That in the Province of Malabar, there are wild-Cats dwelling in Trees, they leap as though they flew, having no wings. They have a membrane stretched out from their fore-feets to their hinder-feets, when they rest they contract it up to their belly; when they begin to fly, by moving their feet and thighs, they are carried and born up by stretching out and gathering in this membrane, and it is wonderful to see them run as if they ran in the Ayr. Coneys are abundant in the Baleares, where they do the Corn and the fields great harm, Solin. They breed every month, nor are their young ones blind. They presently take Buck again, so soon as they have bred, though the young ones do suck, Plin. l. 10. The female hath not milk presently so soon as she hath brought forth, before she hath been six hours with the Buck, and they have eaten some Oats, Gesner de quadrup. CHAP. X. Of the Stag. IT is certain, that there are white Stags, and Does that have horns. Apollonius saw them as he passed beyond Paraca a City of the Indies, Philostrat. l. 3. Sertorius led one about, which he feigned to have received from Diana, that he took counsel with, that so he might keep his Soldiers in obedience, Gellius. Lewis King of France took one, and when Anna of Britanny asked what that was, he said, That they were all such at first, and that God took them from them for their pride. Their blood hath no fibres, as other creatures have, and therefore it will never grow thick. The Gall is not upon the Liver, but upon the Intestines, or in the Tail. Hence it is so bitter, that dogs will not eat it, Plin. In their heads they have live Worms; sometimes 20, and they are parted, so great as Maggots in flesh. They are said to breed under the hollow of their tongue, near the Vertebra, where the head joins to the neck. If you pierce the scull bone in such as are of years, under the eye, you shall see Wasps fly out, bred of the superfluous humour, if you will credit Hunters; and then he can live no longer unless he eat a Serpent to renew himself. Gesner writes, That in the basis of the heart between the lap of the greater ventricle, and the urinal vein, there is a bone found. He adds, That it is reddish from the heart blood, and melancholic; some add, that from a dry vapour it is turned into a bony substance. Some add further, that it is found at no other time, than between the two Feasts of the blessed Virgin, that is, from the middle of August to the I●es of September. The do breeds near the pathways, for she thinks that she is safe from wild beasts, by reason of men passing up and down. So soon as she is delivered, she first ea●e the gleaning▪ hence it is, that the herb Seseli is her medicament in bringing forth, Arist. in hist. animal. They swim over the Sea like Ships, the Master Buck leads, the rest follow. They lean their heads one upon the others back; then the first brings up the rear, when he is weary, and would refresh himself. By nature they conquer Serpents. For by strong sucking in their breath, they will draw them out of their holes, and then devour them. After this Banquet they bathe themselves, and eat Crevish. Then they weep, and their tears are turned to Bezoar stones. They die, if they drink before they have done this, Gesner. CHAP. XI. Of the Dog. THere are many wonderful things in a Dog, his manner of birth▪ quick scent, biting, docile nature, fidelity and the like. The puppies are borne blind; the more they suck, the slower they are to see, but commonly in 7; days, if they see quickly; but 20, days is the longest time. Some say, if one Whelp be littered, he will see in 9, days; if two in ten, and so it is if there be more▪ each addeth a day of blindness to the time. Lastly, one bred of the first litter of a Bitch will see soon. The best of the puppies is that which sees last, or which is first puppyed. Albertus writes, that he saw a Mastiff that first littered 19, than 18, than 13, at one time. He hath a sent so quick that he will never eat Doggs-flesh, be it never so well seasoned to deceive him. In Scotland there is a kind of them that will pursue a thief, and if he pass over a River, they will swim over after him, and when they come on the other side▪ they will hunt about to find his footsteps, and still follow him, Gesner. A mad Dogs biting is wonderful Venomous and deadly. (He runs mad about the Dog days with the Toothache; he is cured if he eat Hellebour with Barley flower, and Vomit it up again) the piss of a mad Dog trod upon hurts extremely those rhat have an Ulcer, and it is observed that their wounds will increase by treading on it, that were ever bitten by any Dog. They will cause Hens eggs to grow addle, and cattle to miscarry. A man had a wound in his Arm: that, after 12 years that he was bitten, became sore again, and he died in two days. Albert. Fear of water first troubles such as are bitten, and, which is the greater wonder, after 7, years it may show itself; One thought, that he was cured, being washed with Sea water, yet after some months by touching of the Dogg-Tree-Wood he fell into a relapse. Gesner. Also in their Urine, Dog's heads are said to appear. As for their docilenesse and fidelity, there are many examples. The Dog of Francis, Marquis of Mantua, would call his servants. They will draw Coaches, carry burdens in Ibissibur a Country of Tartary. Lipsius' Cent. 1. had a Dog at Louvain that would carry letters so far as Brussels, ad Belg. Epist. 44. and he would bring letters back from thence. A Dog at Brussels would carry money to the Shambles, and fetch ●ome meat, ●e fought with other Dogs upon the way, and when he was beaten, he laid hold of a piece. The Dogs at Rhod●s knew Christians from Barbarians, Gabel●n▪ Histor. A certain Mountebank in the time of Justinian the Emperor had a Dog that would take up many Rings, cast down, and restore every man his own; he would tell you by pulling them by the clothes which was a Wife, a Widow, or a Maid. Lastly, in Plutarch, there was one that would represent a Man that was poisoned. We read of the wonderful fidelity of Dog in Scaliger his Exercitations, I will set it down in his own words, and upon his own reputation: A Courtier envying the credit of a certain friend of his, or carried away with some other malice, came suddenly upon him, and killed him, and after buried him in a place besides the way. The party slain had at the same time a Hound with him, who lay a long while upon his Master's grave. Hunger for that time overcoming love, he returns home, and being seen without his Master by some other friends, who thought the dog had been strayed from him, they bade that some meat should be given him. Having let down a few morsels, he returns to the grave: Which course he continued so often, that the friends of the dead began to suspect; and at last believed that the Dog sought for his Master: They follow him, and coming to the place where the earth was cast up, dig into it, find the body, take it away, and cause it to be buried in another place. The solemnities ended, the dog keeps with them whom he had led to this discovery. A good while after, the Murderer comes again to the Court; the Dog knows him, and begins to run at him with great cries, and so earnestly pursueth his point upon him, that suspicion begins to enter into the minds of a great many, that there was some evil in the man. The dog continuing still to vex him, the King was at last advertised of the case, who commanded that the man should be straight examined touching the fact. He affirmeth himself innocent: The dog, when the Murderer denied that he knew what was become of the Dog's Master, never left barking and bawling; insomuch, as all that were present took the same as a disproof, that the dog made against him. Well, the matter proceeded so far, that the King ordered it should be decided by a Combat between the man and the dog. To make short, the dog had the day: and the Combat is painted and finely set forth in the Hall of a certain Castle in France; and the work wearing out with age hath sometimes been renewed by Commandment from the King. It deserveth (saith the Lord de la Scale) to be set forth in pictures of brass, that it may never perish. But to close up this Discourse, we will add hereunto that which James Micyllus a learned Poet hath written in praise of a Dog, in good Latin Verses, expressed thus in our Tongue: Of any Beast, none is more faithful found, Nor yields more pastime in house, plain, or woods; Nor keeps his Master's person, or his goods With greater care, than doth the Dog or Hound. Command: he thee obeys most readily. Strike him: he whines and falls down at thy feet. Call him: he leaves his game and comes to thee With wagging tail, offering his service meek. In Summer's heat, he follows by thy pace: In Winter's cold, he never leaveth thee: In Mountains wild he by thee close doth trace; In all thy fears and dangers true i● he. Thy friends he loves; and in thy presence lives By day: by night he watcheth faithfully That thou in peace mayst sleep: he never gives Good entertainment to thine enemy. Course, hunt, in hills, in valleys, or in plains; He joys to run and stretch out every limb: To please but thee, he spareth for no pains: His hurt (for thee) is greatest good to him. Sometimes he doth present thee with a Hare, Sometimes he hunts the Stag, the Fox, the Boar, Another time he baits the Bull and Bear, And all to make thee sport, and for no more. If so thou wilt, a Collar he will wear; And when thou list to take it off again, Unto thy feet he coucheth down most fair, As if thy will were all his good and gain, In fields abroad he looks unto thy flocks, Keeping them safe from Wolves and other Beasts: And oftentimes he bears away the knocks Of some odd Thief that many a fold infests. And as he is thy faithful bodies guard, So is he good within a Fort or Hold Against a quick surprise, to watch and ward; And all his hire is bread musty and old▪ Canst thou then such a creature hate and spurn? Or bar him from such poor and simple food? Being so fit and faithful for thy turn, As no Beast else can do thee half such good? CHAP. XII. Of the Marmoset and the Catoblepas▪ IN the Country of Prasium, Monkeys are as big as great Dogs. The tail of one is five cubits long; hair hangs down from their foreheads, and they have long beards, and an inbred tameness, Strabo l. 15. There are others wonderful great, like to men. For by their legs, face, privities; they look like Country men, they are elsewhere all-over hairy. They love Children and women, and desire to embrace them, Cardanus. The common ones are well known, they have testicles of a blue and green colour. When they eat up the ears of Corn, one of them lies perdue in the field, and makes an outcry when he spies a Country man, the rest fly. They so hate a Crocodile, that they cannot endure to see his skin at a great distance. Gyllius made trial of it, and he observed, that they being tied in chains, yet trembled and scoured, and would have run away through fire and water to escape. In the borders of Cariai, there is a kind of them that will leap from bough to bough, as if they flew, they are enemies to Boars; for it will leap furiously upon him, and twine about him with the tail. Aelian l. 3. saith, That the Catoblepas is like the Bull, and is very terrible to behold, and fierce, and with bloodshot eyes it looks downwards. It feeds on venomous herbs, and so soon as it looks on them with a countenance like a Bull; it fears, and lifts up the Mane; having lifted up this, with open lips it roars terribly, sending such a steam out of the Throat, that the Air over the head will be infected, and will make others dumb that draw it in, and causeth mortal convulsions. The Soldiers of Marius found it to be so; for they supposing it had been a wild sheep: they ran at it with drawn-swords several times, but when they were killed by it, they found their error. This wild beast was slain afterwards by the Nomads that were horsemen, and they brought it to Marius. CHAP. XIII. Of the Baboon and Chamaeleon. A Baboon is a Creature with a head like a dog, but in shape like a man, he will fish cunningly; for he will dive all day, and bring forth abundance of fish. He takes wonderful delight to wear a garment; he hurts no man. He understands what the Indians say, he will gently feed sheep for their milks sake, Plin. l. 7. c. 7. Strabo, l. 15. Two things are most wonderful in him; that in the two equinoctials, 12 times a day he will make water, once every hour, and doth the same at night, Prec●os. Johan. in Epist. ad R. P. Hence the Egyptians have the picture of a Baboon pissing upon their Dial's. The second is, that when the Moon hath been sometimes in conjunction with the Sun, and loseth her light, the male will not look nor feed, but holds down his face to the Earth; nor will the female move her eyes any way, casting withal her sperm forth. Therefore are they held sacred, and fed until this day, that by them the set time of the Moon's conjunction with the Sun may be known by them. Africa breeds Chamaeleons, but India more frequently▪ He is said to have five toes of his feet, which he stands upon opened, but he draws them in when he lies down upon round young branches. He changeth his colour ofttimes, both in his eyes, his tail, and his whole body; and he changeth like that thing he next toucheth, except red and white; when he is dead he is pale, Plin. It is certain, that sometimes he lives by the Ayr. For he will suffer hunger a whole year, and taking in the Air by gaping, and shutting his chaps, he will show forth his great belly. Some said that he turns to the Sun, and draws in the Sun's beams, and follows them with open mouth. From Zandius we have it, that he will hunt flies: who saith, he dissected the tongue of one that was as long as ones hands breadth; hollow, and empty, in the top was a hole with snivel in it, with which he catcht his prey, Card. de subtle. Alexander Myndius saith, he fenceth himself against the hungry Serpent, after this manner: He holdeth a bro●d and strong stalk, and turning himself under that like a buckler, he encounters the Serpent. The Serpent, because the stalk is broader than he can take in his mouth to bite in sunder, and the rest of the Chamaeleons limbs are too hard for him to do him any harm, he labours in vain. CHAP. XIV. Of the Crocodile. THe Crocodiles are bred in Egypt, but not all so dangerous; the furious ones are towards the Mountains, from Cairo to the Sea they are mild; that is because there is scarcity of fish; but here are men that are rewarded to kill them. For whosoever kills a great Crocodile, and brings it into the City, hath ten crowns out of the Treasury. Also when Nilus runs back to its channel, the Crocodiles will lie hid in the mud, watching to satisfy their hunger; and they strike those that come, and strangle them with their tails. They strike so strongly, that one of them broke the four legs of a great beast at one blow, Martyr. They lay one egg as big as a Goose egg, yet from this small beginning they grow to a vast bigness; sometimes they are more than 18 cubits long. In the time of Psammeticus 25 cubits; in the time of Amasis' 26, Plin. They hold their young one legitimate, if he catch up something so soon as he is hatched, Aelian. Their tongue sticks all fast, the reason is given by Aristot. l. 2. the part. Anim. c. 7. The Trochilus is his guard, and the Tentyritae are his Enemies. He awakes him when Ichneumon is like to do him hurt, and entering into his wide Jaws he pulls out flesh from amongst his rows of teeth with his beak; when he flies away, he is warned to close his upper chap, Plutar. Plin. 8.25. But these swim in the River, and getting upon their backs, as if they rid, they thrust a bough into their mouths, and frighting them with their cry alone, they compel them to vomit up the bodies they had newly devoured, that they may be buried; hence it is that there are none in their Island, and the very smell of a man will make them fly away. How he fights, the history of him will show. CHAP. XV. Of the Horse. IN Portugal they say, the Mares conceive by the wind, Varro, Pliny, and Solinus affirm, that the Birth is fruitless, for their Colts live not above 3, years. Justinus calls these things Fables. In the Island Hispaniola, the foals conceive in ten months after they are born, and oft times they bear twins, Peter Martyr. A Barren Mare will conceive, saith Aldrovandus, if you bruise a little handful of Leeks in a Mortar, and power upon it a little cup of Wine, and shall for two days cast in 12. Spanish flies of divers colours into the Matrix with water by a Syringe: the next day have your Horse to the Mare that is lusty; when he hath leapt her, wash the privities twice. In the Province of Belascia their hoofs are so hard, that they are never shod. Amongst the Ambes they are so swift, that they will run a hundred miles in 24 hours. Ludou. Rom. l. 4. Navig. And Historians relate of such a one that was taken in the Alanick War by Prince Probus. In Artois the Governor of the Fort, Mellomus, had one bred, very large, and with Horns: at this day is to be seen the leap he made, which was 60, foot. Lipsius' Cent. 3. ad Belg. Epist 56. They live very long; some have come to 50, years, and some above 60, years. Albert Solinus and Niptus say 70, years. The same saith, We have observed that, in Opus by name, a Mare lasted to breed on, for 40, years. They so fear a Camel that they cannot endure to see him or smell him, wherefore Cyrus when he was to fight against Croesus, opposed his Camels against the others Horses, Herodot. Pliny writes that if Horses tread where Wolves have passed, they will be benumbed in their legs: and Aelian adds, that if they touch the foot step of a Wolf when they are in a Wagon drawing, they will stop presently as if they were frozen. The Tartars love to eat their flesh, and the rich men had it roasted in their feasts in Persia. The Moscovites, of old time Servants to the Tartars, were wont to pay tribute to them in their journeys, by their Duke when they demanded it, of Mare's milk. Their sweat, causeth women with Child to suffer abortion, and if Knives hot be wet with it, they are so infected that the part they wound, will bleed till they die, Albert. They will weep: Caesar's Horse wept 3, days before he died. Cardan had a Jennet that would weep abundantly, chiefly in Summer. They are so docile, that Alexander's Bucephalus, nor Caesar's Jennet, could be ruled by any man, except his Mr. There have been seen in Olandia an Island of the Gothick Sea, that at the sound of a Tabret would dance. Scalig. writes of one thus, A certain Mountebank led about a little Horse, which would do any thing at his word, or beck; amble, trot, run, leap, on four or two feet, drink Wine, sit on his buttocks, and bring his foreseet to the cup, he would hold a Basin or Dish, with his Legs, as if he were to be barbed, he would lie on the ground at length, and shut his eye lids and nod. He would lift up his head at his Master's beck, turn on his back, and lie to show how women lay: this I saw, saith he, and we also, saith Gaudentius Merula, saw a Horse of a Physician of Pannonia, that stood at the door untied till his Master came forth from visiting the sick, if it were a whole day, etc. CHAP. XVI. Of the Urchin. A Hedg-Hogg or land Urchin, is a Creature with a Hog's snout, he hath most stiff bristles on his skin, that a sword can hardly cut them. Volch●rus Coiter, first observed that he rowls himself up like a ball, by reason of a long and broad Muscle over his whole back that contracts the skin. He opens, if you pour water on his belly. For because he cannot breathe, he opens and cries with a shrill note. Rosenbach in Indice. About the time of the Vintage, he goes under the Vines, and he breaks down clusters of Grapes, and takes them upon his prickles, Plutarch. When he is taken he pisseth on his back, and it corrupts, therefore he never useth that mischievous way, but when he is past hopes, for they hate their imbred Venom, and will not hurt themselves; and will stay till the very last, that they will first be almost taken. CHAP. XVII. Of the Elephant. THe Elephant is a stranger with us, but the Indians and other places have them common. The King of the Palibroti had 90000, of them; of the Siamenses, 12000; and 4000 of them were armed against sudden occasions: The great King of Mogor had 50000 at command. Vartomannus saw herds of them in Mozambica. In Africa there are plenty. For Appianus Alexandrinus writes that there were 300 stalls for them at Carthage. Many strange things are spoken of them, and the most part past belief. Lipsius hath collected them in his Epistle; we shall briefly reduce all to two, that is to their body and soul. As for the first; it is exceeding great, the greatest of all land creatures, wherefore the Hebrews call him in the plural number Behemoth. It is certain that of old time they carried Castles of armed men into the Field, and an Author nameless writes that he saw one of their teeth sold for 36 Ducats, it was 14 spans long, and 4, spans thick: so heavy that he could not take it up from the ground Aldrovandus. In his heart he hath a bone wonderful big, that Aldrovandus writes he saw in one that was killed. Aristotle maintains that he hath three stomaches. There were two found that weighed 225 pounds, Vartomannus. As for its soul, Writers set down great endowments that he hath. Christophorus Acosta, who searched diligently the East Indies writes things that are incredible of them. It is most certain, saith he, that in the Kingdom of Malabar they talk together, and speak with man's voice. There was, saith he, in the City Cochin an Elephant, who carried things to the Haven, and laboured in Seafaring matters: When he was weary the governor of the place did force him to draw a Galley from the Haven which he had begun to draw, into the Sea: the Elephant refused it, the Governor gave him good words, and at last entreated him to do it for the King of Portugal. Hereupon, (it is hardly credible) the Elephant was moved, and reported these two words clearly, Ho, Ho, which in the language of Malabar is, I will, I will, and he presently drew the ship into the Sea. There was another example at Rome; when Tiberius was Emperor, 12, Elephants were brought into the Amphitheatre, in clothes that Players use, and first their Commander divided them into several places of the Circuit, as they went they went easily as if they danced, and again when he spoke, they came together and danced in a round, and they scattered their flowers and Garlands, and according to the music, they gently and in order moved their feet, and performed all things as well as the best sword Players. Then they (which is a mad wonder) as they were taught, sat down at Table, did eat and drink very modestly as if they had been men. The beds to sit on were low, covered with Purple, and embroidered work, the Tables were furnished with divers kinds of provision in abundance, cups of Gold and Silver, great and small; were set upon them, in great dishes were meat, bread, flesh, and fruit. Then came in the Elephants, 6, males, and 6, females, they in men's Gowns these in women's clothes. They lay themselves very decently and reverently on the beds, and so sat at Table. Then, when the Mr. gave the sign, they put forth their snouts to the Table instead of hands, and take the meat very modestly, and taste of it, no greediness or ravening was observed in them, none seemed to covet the greater or the better part, nor did they catch one before the other when boys that waited on them gave them the cup, and then by means of their trunk drank it jovially off, and they did sprinkle the remainder of the Wine upon the standers by, and so made a noise as pot companions do. Lipsius writes this in his own words, and it is the direct opinion of Aelian. And they learn all these things so eagerly, that Plutarch and Pliny say, that an Elephant that was something dull, and was often beat for not learning well, was found acting his part by Moon light, and some say that Elephants will learn to write and read. For Pliny saith plainly from Mucianus, that one of them learned to describe the Greek letters, and did write in the same tongue these words. I myself▪ writ this, and I offered the Celtic spoils. But what we may judge of them may be collected out of Libavius de Intellectu bestiarum. They seem also to hold a sympathy with the Moon, for when the Moon after Conjunction begins to appear again, they crop boughs from Trees, and hold them up, and looking toward the Moon, they shake them. They may 〈…〉 her deity. But I say no more. CHAP. XVIII. Of the Dormouse, and Gulo. THe Dormice sleep all the Winter as round as a ball; when they come to the calm Air they will revive between your hands, by a warm breathing, Gesner. They are strangely taken in the valley of Pelnig: for the Country men go forth in the night with Torches, and coming near them, they blind them with the light, and so take them with their hands. They put Apples on cleft sticks or forks, which the Dormice love to eat the kernels of, so they can the better take them out: Amongst the Rhetians that speak Italian, they salted up their flesh, because it is sweet and fat, and as pleasant as hog's flesh, Gesner. Gulo is a creature in the North parts, he feeds on Carrion, till he be full like a drum; then he goes between narrow Trees, and presses his stretched belly till he unload himself, and then he crams again, Michov. l. 2. descript. Sarmat. Europeae. CHAP. XIX. Of the Hyaena, and the Porcupine. THe Hyaena is a Creature as big as a Wolf, and hath horses hair, but harder, and it goes all over his back, Aristot. in admirand. He seems to have the genitals of both Sexes; but some have only a long line under their Tail, Aristot. If you take hold of the right, when he is at his venery, he becomes stupid; but if by the left, it kills him, Gillius in Aelian. A Portupine is like a Pig at two month's old, he hath a head like a Hare, ears like a man, feet like a Bear, a mane that stands up, and the forepart is hollow. Two little bunches of skin grow on both sides of his mouth; long bristles grow out of them. In Summer he lies hid, but comes forth in Winter: and when it is great with young, it is said to follow the Bear in time, Agricola de subterran. Gisner refers Cardanus Monster to the Porcupine, for he writes thus, l. 10. subtle. There was a Creature (saith he) of a strange kind, which this present year 1530, January 19, we saw at Papia; It was as great as Fox, but the face was sowething longer, and the jaws were like to a Hares, with long hair, and two very long teeth, for they stuck out as long as a man's finger, like to a Squirrels teeth, the eyes were like to Serpent's eyes, black, and without corners. There was a cap on its head like a Goat's beard, but no otherwise than a Peacock's tuft. The hair was like to a Weasels, very fair, only about the neck it appeared like white wool; the forefeet were like a Badgers, the ears and hinder feet like to men's, but that the feet had nails like a Bear. On the back and hinder part, there were about a hundred thorny quills like a Porcupine, some of them were crooked at the point; they stuck forth, but were not movable, as they say the Porcupine can shoot hers; when it moved they made a noise by rustling together. The tail was like a Goose's, but the feathers were pointed like thorns. If you saw nothing else, you would say it were a Goose. He had feathers white and coloured, and a great eye like a Goose. The tone was obscure and hoarse like the barking of a dog. It was an angry creature, yet the Mountebank could easily deal with it. It hated dogs extremely, this was a young one, and a she. It did not drink, but eat bread dipped in water, etc. CHAP. XX. Of the Hee-Goat. A Goat sometimes runs so violently at one, that he will run a hole in a board, or a Target: after he is 7 months old, he begins to couple, Aelian. His blood is a present remedy for the pains of the stone in the Reins or bladder. For it dissolves stones that are bred, and will let no more grow, easing the pains also, Aetius l. 11. c. 12. But great Gesner shows how it must be prepared. When the Grapes begin to grow ripe, take a new pot, and pour water into it, and boil it until the pot have been well cleansed, then take a Hee-goat that is of ripe age, out of the herd, about 4. years old, and kill him, and receive the middlemost blood in the pot, leaving that blood that came first forth, and that which comes last: let the middlemost blood thicken, and as it is in the pot, break it into many pieces with a sharp reed, then expose it to the open Air, covered with a thick net, or thin linen cloth, or a close sieve, that it may be prepared by the Sun, and become dewy; wipe off the dew, and after two of the clock set it in the Sun, taking care that no rain fall upon it. When it is well dried, put it up diligently in a box for use; and when the pain abates, give a spoonful of it with Candie wine. This medicament is called Gods-hand. CHAP. XXI. Of the Goat called the Evick, and the Indiat Rat, Ichneumon. THe Evicks in the Alps are a kind of wild Goats. They naturally require cold, otherwise they would grow blind. They have huge weighty horns that are reclining toward their backs; and the elder they are, so much the greater. The old horns are with 20 knots grown on them, and then two of them weigh above 16 pounds. There is no rock so steep but they will leap upon it, if they can but find place to stand; some say they will climb up a steep wall. Hunter's say, that when they are ready to die they will clamber up a very high rock, and leaning one horn against the rock, they will run round continually, till they have broken it, and fall down dead, Gesner. Ichneumon is a Creature in Egypt with a long tail, like to a Serpents, Oppian. Without the Chin he hath an excrescence beset with hair, when it is hot he openeth that, his mouth being shut. The Country men of Alexandria sell the young ones in the Market; for they bring them up to catch Mice, which they will do like Cats. He is an Enemy to the Crocodile; for when he observes him sleeping, he rolls himself in clay, and goes into his mouth, and so into his belly, and eats his Liver, and then leaps forth again, Gillius in Oppian: but Gesner will not believe it. CHAP. XXII. Of the Lion. THere is plenty of Lions in the Province of Gingui, they are so offensive to the Inhabitants, that they dare not go out of their houses by night, nor come with Ships into the Haven, Gesner. Lion's bones have no marrow in them, and are so hard, that they will strike fire, Aelian. They have teeth like Saws. Their neck is made of one stiff bone, without any vertebrae: they have five claws on their forefeet, and but four on the hinder feet; the balls of their eyes are black, Aristot. They are no gluttons, for they eat but once in two days, and drink in like manner; for when they are cropsick, they will abstain one day; and when they have eaten too much, they will thrust in their claws down their throats, and pull it out again, Aristot. When they have filled themselves with the flesh of any creature, they will breathe on the remainder with open mouth; whence it will stink so, that no Creature will touch it, Aelian. They sleep but little, and when they do sleep, their eyes are half open. They bring forth but once in their life, and that but one, saith Herodot. hist. 3. The Whelps littered, sleep 3. days; The Males roar, and rouse them, Gellius l. 13. c. 7. They love their young ones exceedingly. In Pangeum a Mountain of Thrace, a shee-Bear had killed the Lion's Whelps, when the Lions were absent; and she was gone, and clambered up a Tree. The old Lions followed, but they could not get up, so they could not be revenged. The Shee-Lyon stayed, and the He went into the Mountains, and found a Shepherd with an Axe, the Lion fawned upon him who was sore afraid, and makes him take up his axe: and taking hold of his clothes, brought him to the Tree: which being cut, the Bear fell down, and they tore her in pieces. The Lion is mild to them that yield. He will scarce hurt those that lie down, and when he is not hungry he will seize on men, rather than women, but not upon Children unless he be extreme hungry. Avicenna writes that if any man throw a stone or dart at the Lion, and miss him, or hurt him but little he will rather threaten him than kill him: if he do revenge, he will do no more hurt, than he received; Crantzius in Saxon, l. 8. c. 24. He saith, that formerly in England a Lion could tell noble blood from base. There are tame ones: For in a plain Country of the Kingdom of Fez, they will drive them with a staff, and in another Country of Africa, they gather bones in Villages, Leo African. Lastly those of India are so gentle, that being used to the place they will be led on hunting, Aelian. Marcus Antonius first yoked them, they are frighted with Coach wheels running round, and with the Combs, and Crowing of Cocks, but chiefly by fire, Plin. In Armenia they are killed with the powder of deadly fish, Aelian, and some little Worms that are Venomous to Lions, with the powder whereof they strew flesh for them, Solin. CHAP. XXIII. Of the Hare. THe Country of Ithaca is dangerous for Hares, for bring them thither they will die. But the Baleares is a pleasant place for them: for heretofore they were there in such abundance, that the inhabitants desired Soldiers to assist them against them, from Augustus, Pliny. The young ones are white in the Alps in Winter, Gesn. But Pausanias saw in Arcadia white ones brought from Lybia. He wakes with his eye lids shut, and sleeps with them unmoved, Xenophon. He sees but ill, for the eyes are stretched out, the eyelids are cut short, they do not cover the pupils of the eyes. Albertus denies that there are of both sexes, but Niptus saith, That which Albertus said concerning Hares was always a question with me, for in hunting I observed that a Hare had both a yard and testicles, and had young Hares in her belly, also we observed that a Hare had a Matrix, and young ones in it, and did want both pistol and testicles. Rondeletius thinks, they are little bladders full of sanies; and indeed such do hang down from the beaver, wherein Castoreum is contained. They are said to live with dew, they use superfaetation, and bring young ones every Month. When they go to their forms, they lay their young ones at least, an acre of ground asunder, lest if danger come, they should be all in hazard. Then they, running about many rounds, at last leap out into their form. CHAP. XXIV. Of the Wolf. IN Sardinia, Candie, Olympus, there are no Wolves. In Scandia if they go too far on the frozen Sea, the cold blinds them, Jervand. In the Mountains of Doffrinium they are white, and go in Troops. They eat Moles, Mice, &c, Olaus. Their necks are pressed together, so that they cannot stir it, to look about, but they must move their whole bodies, Aelian. One that is hungry will smell his prey in the night, though the wind be contrary, for half a mile, Stumpfius. When they have fasted very long, and have filled themselves again, their bellies will hang down, their tongues swell, their mouth is stopped, their ravening is abated, but returns again, when they become lank as they were, Aelian. They devour hair, and bones and all, and void them as they eat them, Stumpf. When they are to fight in great herds, they fill their bellies with earth. When they are to pass over Rivers, they join tails; loaded with that weight they are not easily thrown down, and the floods can hardly carry them away, being joined together, Aelian. When they have choice, they will always spare man; they fight also with hogs, very cunningly. One told me, (saith Albertus) that a wolf was seen to take a great piece of wood in his mouth of 30 or 40 pound weight, in a Forest, and did use with that to run over a great stock of a Tree, then when he thought he was skilful enough in that exercise, he hid himself, and a wild hog coming thither by reason of Oats that were sowed there, and many hog's young and old with him; he broke forth, and catched the hog, that was about the bigness of the block, he leapt behind the stock of the Tree and there devoured him. They will not eat Oxen, if you hang his tail at the Cratch, Albert. Horses will tyre under the rider, if they follow on the Wolves footing; if they tread on his heel, they will stand still, Gillius. The skins of sheep slain by Wolves, will breed louse; but their flesh is the sweeter, Aristot. Plutarch ascribes this to his breath. His words are, The flesh of a sheep that is bitten by a Wolf, is made the sweeter, because the biting of the Wolf makes it soft and tender; for the breath of the Wolf is so fiery, that he will melt and consume the hardest bone in his stomach. Examples show, that when he is shut in, he will do no harm: For in Italy, one going into a Countryman's house, the Country man ran away; but the Wolf did his Children no hurt, and falling into the same Cave with a Fox and a Woman, he hurt neither, Gesner. CHAP. XXV. Of the Lizzard. VOlatteranus writes, That there was a Lizzard 8. cubits long brought to Rome from Aethiopia, by the command of a Cardinal of Lisbon, and the mouth of it was so wide, that a Child might be put into it. Lerius c. 10. hist. saw one in Brasil, 7. foot long, as thick as a man's arm. If you strike it on the sole, and cut it in two pieces with a twig, neither part will die, but it parts, and first goes, then joins together, Aelian. The green ones are friends to man, that they will gaze upon him obliquely, and follow him when he goes; they will lick up his spittle, and children's urine, Erasmus in colloq. de amicitia. Put alive into a new earthen vessel, and boiled with 3. Sextaryes of wine to one Cyathus, it is excellent good for one sick of the P●hisick, if he drink of it in the morning fasting, Marcell. Seven of them suffocated in half a measure of oil▪ and set in the Sun for 3. days, will so alter it, that by anointing therewith, it will cure the Rose, Gesn. A water Lizzard, if he be angry, and as it were puffed up, will stand upright on his feet, and look terribly with open mouth on him that hurt him, and will by degrees send forth a venomous white swear, till he become all white, Agricola. When he is old and cannot see, he lies by a hole in the wall, against the East, and looking toward the Sun rising, he regains his sight, Isidor. To conclude, 'tis a wonder that Aelian speaks in his history. There was (saith he) a man that catcht a great Lizzard, and with a brazen point he put out the eyes thereof, than he put it into an Earthen pot full of holes, that it might have breath, yet not come forth; he put in also de●y earth, and an herb, whose name he mentions not: then with an Iron ring, wherein the stone Sogates was set, in which was cut the picture of a Lizzard he made 9 seals, and every day he blotted out one: Lastly, when he took off the 9 th'. seal, and opened the p●t, I saw the Lizzard, and his sight was restored. CHAP. XXVI. Of the Lynx, and Lutra or Otter. THe Lynx is said to see so clearly, that he will pierce through solid bodies; yet too great light offends him. Some say, they only suck the blood of their prey, and never meddle with the flesh. Erasmus saith, he assaults greater fourfooted beasts, leaping upon them from Trees, and catching them by the crown with his ●alo●s, he will tear their heads, and eat their brains, not touching the other parts; but he will eat lesser creatures every bit. In Summer they are weak, in Autumn strong. They hide their piss in heaps of sand, as Theophrastus saith, and it grows as hard as a precious stone. It is like Amber in colour, and draws things to it; it cures pains of the Kidneys, and the King's-evil. We saw one at Lions in the repositary of Cl. Dominus Baudartius. Men say, that in Carpathus they burn their claws, and their skins for to be drunk effectually by men in powder, against all obsceneness, and against too great lust in women, Plin. The flesh eaten with the broth cures quartan Agues, and the bones burned cure Ulcers, Collinus. In the Tower of London there was once a living Creature that Gesner refers to a Lynx; It was always moving, and would never stand still, as John Gaius an Englishman writes; but it would stand still at the voice of a Hickeway▪ Lutra hath a Dog's head, the Beavers ears, a Fox's legs; but these are somewhat thicker, they are more prevalent in Water than on Land. The hinder parts are plain with a membrane to fence them. His Cottage is near the waters, it is made of boughs that it cannot be we●. Sometimes it is so full of Fish, that they stink. It is so quick-sented, that he will smell fish by water that comes forth of a rivulet at some miles distance, and will go to the Fishponds and destroy them. In Scandinavia he is so tame, that he will bring fish out of the water to the Cooks in the Kitchens; but because he is greedy of his prey, and kills too many, he is seldom used. CHAP. XXVII. Of the Mouse. AMongst the Allobroges the Mice are white, and the Inhabitants think they live by Snow, Scaliger. In the Island of Cyprus they will gnaw Iron; and in another Island, Gold; therefore they are cut in pieces for metal, Aristot. in mirab. Their generation is wonderful: If they do but lick salt, some think they will conceive without copulation, Aristot. A she Mouse great with young, staying some time in a vessel of Millet seed; when the vessel came to be opened, there were found 120 Mice, Plin. In a part of Persia, she-mices were opened that had she-mices with young ones in their bellies. They first perceive when a House will fall; Helice is an Example of it; for five days before it happened, the Mice and Serpents were seen to go away in Troops, Aelian ●n variis. When they fall into a vessel of water, and can hardly come forth, they lay hold one by the tail of another, and so clamber forth. Elephant's cannot endure the smell of them, for they will not feed on any thing that Mice have touched. They will ●lye away if one be gelded, or let run away with the skin of his head pulled off. Avicenna, when they cry they foreshow tempests, they cry either because they perceive the Air cold, or because their skin is fine, and they cannot endure to tread on the cold earth, and therefore they leap up, Aratus. Some think they will not be taught, yet Albertus saith in upper Germany, he saw a Mouse hold a Candle at supper time, to give light to those that sat at Table when his Mr. commanded him. If a Mouse fall into new Wine and be drowned, put him into hot ashes, and he will recover, Col●mel. 12.31. There are many kinds of Mice; A rat is four times as big as a Mouse. Agricola saw one taken in the midst of April, that was white, with red eyes sticking out, and it was all hairy, and had a beard with very long hairs. Men say that there are none to be found at Auspurg about the Temple of St. Huldericus, when they are lustful they are furious, so that i● they piss on any naked part of a Man▪ it will rot to the bones, nor will the Ulcer be cured Albert Aquatic. They will hunt fish, and diving under water they will find some holes to come to land another way. The field-mices that breed of putrefaction have one right gut, and no more. A Physician that dissected one, observed that, Gesner. When Nilus runs back again, little Mice are found imperfect, part of their body being alive from the mixture of earth and water, and part dead earth. In some places they come so suddedly in abundance, that they will eat up all the Corn, Pliny. The Wood-mices steep from the ending of Autumn till the Spring begins, Gesnerus. In Norway it is called Citellus, it dwells in the Caves of the earth. There are found sometimes 40, in one hole, with abundance of small nuts. They eat them fresh, or dried in the Chimney, Agricola. The Cricotus, or Hamester, is referred to Mice: his hair sticks so fast to his skin, that the skin will sooner come from the flesh, than the hairs from the skin. He will not easily be drawn out of his hole, but by scalding water. The male is false; for when there is meat enough within, he shuts out the female. But she revengeth his falseness with fraud; for possessing herself of some hole, not far from him, she will gather Corn he knows not of, and live upon that, Agricola. Mice in the Alps are as big as Hares, or else betwixt a Co●ey and a Hare. It will foreshow a tempest with a very shrill voice like a pipe, and that not only in the Mountains, but when he is kept in the House. He hath three holes in his cave, at one he enters and comes out again, in another he rests and dwells, in the third he ●ays his excrements. When Mountains are covered with snow, he hides himself in his Cave, and shuts the holes: he stops in the earth so fast, and rams it in, that it is easier to dig up the earth on either side, than where it is rammed into the holes. CHAP XXVIII. Of the Wesil, and the Sable Wesil. Weesils' carried into Boeotia will run away: in a certain Island they will not be taken out, for if they be, they die, Albertus. There was a man that affirmed he saw a Weesil passing over the River Limagus, constantly leaping; so that he never swum, but leapt upon the surface of it. It is an Egyptian Hieroglyphic, for they say it engenders by the ear, and is delivered by the mouth; this emblem shows the nature of speech. His genitals are bony; and is a special remedy against the stone. Yet, that must not, saith Albertus, be understood as if it were so indeed, but only by proportion that it hath. The Germans call the best sort of them Zobella. This skin is of very great price: for sometimes 2000 Crowns at Constantinople will hardly buy a coat of them. Jovius. But the nature of them is such, that laid in the Sun to dry, they will consume more, than if they be worn a whole year. This creature whilst it lives, always lurks in a shady grove, and watcheth for Coneys; They are nimble and use their tail for a helm, as squirrels do, and will leap from Tree to Tree. CHAP. XXIX. Of the Sheep. SHeep are creatures known to all. The Arabian Sheep have a very broad tail; and the fatter it is, the thicker it will be: Some tails weigh ten pounds, some 20, and it naturally grows fa●. Johannes Africanus saw one above 80 pound weight; some have seen them above 150 pound weight. In Africa, Rams are bred with Horns presently, and also Sheep, as there are some with Horns in England. Albertus saw a Ram that had 4, great Horns growing on his head, and two long ones on his legs, that were like to Goat's Horns: yet in Pontus in the Province of Scythia they have no Horns, Aristot. And they have no gall; But in the Island Naxus they have two, and men say the Pontic Wormwood is the cause of it. Plin. In cold Countries when the snow abounds, they lose it, but recover it again in the Spring, Aelian. Anno, 1547, one was given to the French King that was very fat in Picardy: one of the claws, namely the inward claw of both feet, was eight inches long, the extreme part of it turned upwards, and it had a Horn like to wild Goats, Gesner. In the Country of Prasy, they yield most sweet milk; for it reins liquid honey that they feed on, Aelian. The milk is very fat in the Isle Erythea, for it hath no whey, and to make cheese they temper it with abundance of Fountain water. The cause is the plenty of pasture. It grows so fat and full that in 30 days the Sheep will be choked, if it be not let blood, Pliny. About Calimos a Village of India, they smell like fish, for wanting grass they eat fish▪ and they that feed on fish give them dry fish to eat, Arrian. When the North wind blows, males are chiefly conceived; when the Southwind, females. For such is the force of the North wind, that it will change those that yean none but females, and cause them to bring males, Plin. When a noise is made they flock together; and if, when it thundereth, one that is with lamb be left alone, she will miscarry, Arist. In the Orcadeses Islands they all almost yean twins, and oft times 3, lambs, Boetius. Though their bodies be very soft, yet they are free of the plague, Columella. One was seen to run mad, which a mad Cow had hit with her Horn. In England they rot in their bowels, if in rainy Summers they feed on moist ground, and lick the dew, Gesner. In France if they eat the herb, Duva, they breed black Creatures in their Livers, and this disease is incurable. The French in Normandy call that herb Duva, that is like to the sharp dock, but the leaves are narrower, and stand always upright, and the middle nerve is almost red, and serves for Caustics, Gesner. Meadow water drank, breeds Horseleeches, shut up in bladders in the same place; they are a finger and half long, and almost half as broad. CHAP. XXX. Of the Wild Goat called Oryx, and the Panther or Leopard. PLiny reckons Oryx amongst wild Goats. When the Moon comes to the East, it looks upon it and cries; and men say, that for hate thereof, it will dig up the ground with its forefeet, and will set the very balls of the eyes to the ground, and cast it up. Some think it doth the same when the Sun riseth; what place soever in the desert it finds water in, it will trouble it by drinking at it, and stirs the mud, and throws dust into it, that it may not be fit to drink. The Panther smells so sweet, that it will allure all the wild beasts; but the frowning countenance it hath, frights them; wherefore he hides his head, and so they come and are caught. In the right shoulder they have a mark, like to the Moon; and as that increaseth, this increaseth, and decreaseth, Albert. It breeds but once in the life-time, if we credit the Author of the Book of natural things. When the young ones are grown in the Mother's belly they will not tarry, but tear out their passage: she with pain is delivered of them, and so can never after conceive again, the parts being corrupted where the seed should stay. Demetrius Physicus writes of it, that one of them lay in the way waiting for a man, and suddenly appeared to him: he was frighted▪ and began to run away, but the wild beast came and tumbled before him that was frighted, and was grieved at it. Which also may be understood of a Panther: For she had littered, and her Whelps were fallen into a pit. First therefore he had cause to pity her, and not to be afraid; and next to take care: and he was secure, as he understood the cause of her grief, and followed her, she gently laying her claws and drawing him by the garments; and he had his life for a reward for taking out her whelps; and she having got her young ones again, went along with him, and guarded him out of the desert, and she was jocant and merry, that it might easily appear how grateful she was, and not to wrong him for his good deeds; which is a rare thing in a Man. They love wine, and when they are drunk they are catcht. The Holy Ghost likeneth Alexander the Great, who founded the Grecian Monarchy, to the Leopard. You shall see the application in Cl: Domino Conrado Grasero, our Master, in his Isagogue of Universal History, a Work never can be enough commended. CHAP. XXXI. Of the Frog. FRogs couple in the Spring, and lay their spawn in the spring of the year following; in the middle of it the frog lieth hid, the Frogs being come forth, show their great heads, Albertus. At Lutavia they catch Bees when they come to drink at the water; it is observed, that they will eat a dead mole, Albert. In August their mouth is so shut, that they can neither eat nor drink, nor cry; and you can hardly open it with your hand, or with a stick, lib. de nat. rer. Their young ones are destroyed by the leaves of Mullens, or Nut-leaves cast into the water, Aelian. If a candle lighted be set on the bank, they will leave croaking, African. in Geopont. Their spawn is first found in March, wash your hands in it, and it will cure the Itch. Gesner saith it will cure the worms, whereof a felon is a kind, if you lay it on your fingers. The Egyptian Frogs when they light upon a water-Snake, will take a reed in their mouths, and so they cannot be devoured, Gillius. A Toad burned, will breed again of his own ashes. But in Dariene a Province of the New World, they breed presently from the drops that fall from their slaves hands, whilst they water the pavements. Martyr changeth them in Summer into Fleas; he ascribeth it to the filthy muddy Ayr. If you beat him with a wand, he will first cast forth his venom by his legs, and then he sweats some drops like milk. Frederick Duke of Saxony gave one of them to hold till it grew hot; it was first thrust through with a wooden spit, dried in the shade, and wrapped in Sarsnet; and this was his remedy to st●nch blood. Gesner makes the reason to be, Cold. Borax is a kind of Toad, especially of a brown colour, and in hot Countries is of a cubital magnitude, and sometimes carries its young on its back. In the forehead of this Toad is the stone found, sometimes it is white, sometimes brown, which is best, if it have a yellow spot in the middle. Some say it is only a bone; some say it is bred of that birdlimy froth, which Toads meeting together in Springtime, do breathe into the forehead of one of the chief of them. Gesner l. 2. de Oviparis, he cannot believe that it is a stone. He that would hear more of Frogs, shall ●ind it in the books of Libavius, his Battrachiorum, if he reads them. CHAP. XXXII. Of Rangifer, and Rhinoceros. RAngifer breeds in the North, specially in Norway and Swethland; it is like a Hart, but bigger in body, and exceeding strong. He ●ath three ranks of horns on his head, so that in each there are two, and his head seems to be set about with twigs. Of these two are greater than the rest; when they come to perfection, they are five cubit●, and have 25 branches in them, Albertus. They are milked, and will go 30 miles a day, Olaus. Rhinoceros is a Beast as big as an Elephant, he hath one horn in his nose, and from thence he hath his name. It is moderately bend, and so sharp, that is will pierce stones and Iron, Aelian. His skin is very thick with skaly crusts, in colour and figure like a Tortoisse shell; It is so fast, that a Dart can hardly enter it. He is an Elephant's enemy, when he fights with him, he whets his horn on a stone; then putting his horn under the Elephant's belly, where it is softest, he rends him. He that will see examples, let him read Camerarius in subcisivis horis. CHAP. XXXIII. Of divers Serpents. IN the Province of Caraia, under the King of Tartary, some Serpents are ten yards long, and ten hands broad; some want fore-feets, but have claws in the room of them. Their eyes are as great as two small loaves. They are wonderful good in Physic. For one, bit by a mad dog, if he drink but a penny weight, presently he will be suddenly cured; and a woman in labour, if she taste never so little thereof, will be delivered immediately, Paul Venetus. Americus Vespatius saw some in the Indies that men did eat. They were as big as Kids, and a yard and half long, their feet were long, armed with strong claws; their skin was of divers colours, and nose like a Serpent. From the ears to the end of the tail, a certain bristle went quite through the back, that you would think they were Serpents indeed. Calcutta breeds the like so great as Boars, and sometimes with greater heads, four feet, no venom, yet they by't dangerously, Ludovic. Rom. in Navig. In Hispaniola, called Hivana, of the West-Indies, there are some like to these. Their back is with pricks, their heads crested, they are mute, with four feet, a Lizzards tail, very sharp teeth, they are bigger than Coneys, they live indifferently in Trees, Land, or Water, and will suffer hunger many days. Anno 1543, there appeared fourfooted beasts in the borders of Germany near to Styria, they were like Lizzards, and had wings, their biting was incurable. Anno 1551, about St. Margaret's day in Hungary near Zischa, about the River Theisa, they were found in the bodies of many: They killed about 3000 men. Some came out of men's mouths, but they went in again. It is almost incredible what is reported of those places: That multitudes of them were found in piles or handfuls of wheat: and when the Country men thought to burn them, there came a great many more forth, and charged them with man's voice to forbear, saying, that they were not bred naturally, but sent by God to punish men for their sins. CHAP. XXXIV. Of the Squirrel, and Ape-fox. THe Squirrels have but one blind gut, as great as a stomach, and in dissection it is always found swollen with excrements, Vesalius. They are said to have a bony generative part. They foresee a tempest, and opening their holes on the contrary side, they shut those places where the winds will blow, Albert. When it would pass over the water for to find food, he takes the bark of a Tree that is very light, and sets it on the water, sitting in it, and stears it with his Tail lifted up, and so the wind carries him over, Author. lib. de nature. The Ape-fox is a Creature in Pariana, a Country of the Indies. Before, he is like a Fox; behind, an Ape: he hath man's feet, and Owls ears: under his common belly he hath another belly like a Wallet; she keeps her young in this, and it comes not forth but to suck, Gillius. Peter Martyr Decad. 1. l. 9 saith, he saw one dead, amongst such vast Trees, that 16. men together could not fathom round. CHAP. XXXV. Of the Ape. THere are in some Country's Apes in abundance. Posidonius saw a wood full of them in the borders of Lybia. In a word, Alexander saw Mountains full of them in the Indies. He thought when he espied them by chance, standing upright, that an Army was ready to besiege him, Aelian. Amongst the Troglodytes they have Manes like Lions, and the greatest are as tall as weathers, Scalig. in Exercit. In the Indies Mediterranean, they are huge bodies, and they follow civil Merchandise without any offence. Galen thought them the likest to Mankind, amongst all creatures, for their Bowels, Muscles, Arteries, and Nerves. But Vesalius saith, they are the most unlike in the Muscles of the Thorax, that move the arm, cubit and thigh; and those that move the shoulders and toes; and lastly, for the inward structure of the hand. A Male was seen, whose heart had two points, Albert. Scaliger saw many without tails, as great as a boy of eight years old, and a male and female with their young. If the young desire any thing, the she is admonished by the he clinching his fist, and he will correct her with a fierce look, as being guilty of ill-using her young ones. Mutianus saith, that those which have such tails, are sad when the Moon is decaying, and they rejoice and adore the new Moon. He adds, That some were seen to play at Chess, for they will imitate a man unluckily; for an Ape saw a Midwife wash the Child, and bind him up in swathebands, and lay him in the Cradle, when he spied that the Child was alone, he went in at the window that was open, and took up the Child and unswathed it, and washed it with scalding water till he killed it, Aelian. He is very much afraid of a snail. Erasmus saith, At Rome we had an example of this. A man put a snail on his Child's head, and covered it with a Cap. Then he brought him to the Ape, who was glad and leapt on the boys shoulder to look louse, taking off his Cap he saw the Snail: it was strange to see how he was frighted and leapt back, and how fearfully he looked backward to see if the snail followed him. Another example. We tied a snail to one end of the cord that the Ape was tied with, that he could not get away, but he must look upon it; 'tis wonderful how he was frighted, only he did not die for fear; sometimes he strove to drive away the beast that stuck fast with his hinder feet, at last he pissed and shit all he had in his belly; and of this fright he fell into a fever, that we were forced to let him lose, and to give him Wine mingled with Water to refresh him. CHAP. XXXVI. Of Su and Subus. SO in Patagonia, is a most monstrous beast, she takes her Whelps on her back, and covers them with her tail, when the hunter follows, and so she escapes. Wherefore she is caught in a pit, covered with leaves: when she is taken, she kills her young ones for madness, and cries out so horridly that she frights the Hunters, Thevet. in descript. Americae. Subus is an Amphibion, with two Horns: he follows shoals of fish swimming in the Sea: Lobsters, Pagri, and Oculatae, are fishes that love him; but he cares for none of their love, but makes them all his prey. CHAP. XXXVII. Of the Sow. We shall contract briefly what is said of the Sow. It is a creature we know, but it will not live in Arabia, Pliny. Brought into Hispaniola, it grows as great as a Mule, Martyr. In Aethiopia it hath Horns. In England and Sclavonie, they have none. In Macedonia they are mute, Aelian. A Sow's brain is fat: when the Moon decreaseth, it abateth; the ears are full of a humour like gall. When she looks upward, she is silent; for, looking commonly down ward, when she looks upwards, the light daunts her, and her sharp artery being straightened holds in her voice. Aphrodis. Sometimes, she will grow so fat, that it is miraculous. There were two ribs of a Hogg sent to L. Volumnius being in Spain, they weighed 23, pound; and from the bone to the skin was a foot and 3, fingers, Pliny. And Crescentiensis saith, that the whole hog weighed 570 pound. There was one seen in Arcadia, that the Mice and Rats had eaten into it, and bred there: The same happened at Basil, Gesner. For some Creatures have fat that is insensible: and we read in Pliny, that the fat was taken away from the Son of L. Apronius the Consul, and his body was made lighter, of a burden one man could not carry. As concerning venery, Sows breed often that are homebred; but wild Sows but seldom: For they have plenty of meat, and do not labour much; these must seek for it, and wand'ring over the Mountains, endure trouble, Plutarch. Both of them are so wearied with copulation, that they fall asleep, and will grunt and grow so mad, that they will rend those that come near unto them, Aristotle. They will miscarry. They are friends with the Crocodile, and will come to the banks of Nilus without offence, Calcagn. They mightily hate some kind of Barley in Thrace, for they do not only forbear to eat it, but they refuse all excrements that proceed from it, Aristot. in admirand· The Measils is a common disease amongst them, and there is scarce any Hogg that hath not three kernels. The Druids make mention of a famous remedy, an herb that grows in moist grounds; but because they command us to gather it with the left hand, and that he that gathers it must not look back, and must lay it no where but in their trough that they drink, having first bruised it, it is superstitious. CHAP. XXXVIII. Of the Mole. THere is great store of Moles, in Boeotia in the Country Orchomenia, Arist. In Lebadia that is near unto it, there are none; and brought from other places, they will not earth. Aristotoles saith, they want eyes; but Gesner saith, their eyes are plain, and putting forth, without the skin like black spots, as great as Millet seed, and fastened to their nerves. Also a Learned man in Gesner saith, That he found young ones in one that he dissected, with great heads, and they had eyes: They delight in Toads; and Albertus testifieth it by his own example: but he also knew Frogs and Toads to eat a dead Mole. Johan. averlin. Consul Gedanensis was cured of a Fistula in the corner of his eye, by the powder of a Mole that was burnt, and given him in powder to drink. CHAP. XXXIX. Of Tatus and the Tiger. TAtus is a fourfooted Creature that is a stranger to us. It hath a thick covering, and a scaly shell, so that his flesh may be easily taken forth of it. I first saw this Creature at St. Andrews in Scotland (it is an archiepiscopal City, and there is a famous University in it) in the place for rarities of the most noble and most courteous Gentleman John Arnet, Protonotary for the Office of the Commissary in the Archbishopric of St. Andrews, at whose house I lodged. But because it draws itself into its shell, it is thought to be a kind of Brasilian Urchin. It is like to that which in new Spain is called Avitochli: it is as big as a Cat, having a bill like a Duck, feet like a Hedgehog, a long neck; and men report, that it grunts like a Sow. I have little to say of the Tiger, unless I should set down the history of Peter Martyr, of one in Dariene, an Island of the new World. It did so afflict the whole Island with kill people, that no man could go safe out of his house, afterwards it fell into a Pit that was dug, and stuck upon sharp stakes that were fastened in the bottom, and was yet so strong, that it would break Spears cast upon it, into a thousand pieces; but in the end it was killed with stones. Ledesma a Spaniard saith, they boiled the flesh of it, and he eat part thereof, and it was as good as Ox-flesh: It is a Creature so swift, that Oppianus compares it to the West wind. CHAP. XL. Of the Tortoise. TOrtoises in Taprobana are so great, that one of them will weigh 300 pound, Scalig. Pliny saith, that some are so great, that men may dwell under them. And between the Islands, especially of the red Sea, they row in them for Boats. The Sea- Tortoises have no tongue, nor teeth, they break all things with the edge of their snow. In Hispaniola at what time they are given to venery, they come forth of the Sea▪ Sand being cast into a deep pit, she lays 3. or 400 eggs there; when she hath laid all, she covers her eggs with sand, and returns to the Sea, taking no more care for her young ones. At the time appointed they come forth, as out of an Ant-hill, in great multitudes; only by heat of the Sun, without help of the old ones, Martyr. The eggs are as big as Goose eggs. When the head of one is cut off▪ it doth not die presently, but sees, and will shut its eyes, if you put your hands before them; and if you put them near, it will bite them, Aelian. Bellonius saw a kind of Tortle brought out of Turkey, that the Ancients knew not of. The shell of it is thin and Transparent, like to the colour of a Chrysolite. The Turks make hafts for knives of them, they are so precious, that they adorn them with studs of gold. There is an Island in the Sea found by Jambolus toward the South, that brings forth little Creatures, that are of admirable virtue for their blood and nature. Their bodies are round and like to Tortles, with two overthwart lines cutting one the other in the middle; in the end of each of them there is an ear and an eye, so that they see with four eyes, and hear with as many ears. It hath but one belly without any gut, and what it eats runs into that. They have many feet round about, and walk both ways. The blood is said to be of wonderful virtue. For every body that is wounded will grow together again, if it be smeered with this blood, Johan. Boemus▪ CHAP. XLI. Of the Bear. IN the farthest part of Arabia they devour flesh, Strabo l. 1●. But in Mysia it is otherwise; for when they are hunted, they send forth a breath that will corrupt the flesh of the Hunter; and if they come nearer, they will cast a phlegm out of their mouths; that kills or blinds dogs and men, Aristot. in mirab. Sometimes they are very great, five cubits long. There was one brought to Maximilian that was as great as a large Ox, Vadianus. His head is so weak, that a sound blow will strike him dead, Pliny. He eats his water when he drinks, and having tasted of the Apples of Mandragora, he recovers by licking at an Ant-hill. She is said to bring forth a young one bigger than a Rat, but less than a Cat, that is both naked and unformed in its parts, Gillius: and Pliny, a rude mass. But one that was cut forth in Polonia was sent to Gesner, it was above ones finger long, and as thick as ones thumb; the body had joints, except the hinder feet, Gesnerus. When he is fa●, he creeps into his den upon his back▪ and so takes away his footsteps, that the hunters may not perceive them. In this den he will grow lean in 40 days; and he will keep himself alive, lying still and sneaking his right foot 14 days. When he perceives that his 〈…〉 is grown so empty, that it cleaves almost together, he comes forth and feeds on Cuckow-pint, Aelian. Then there is no show of meat left, but only a little moisture in his belly, and some small drops of blood about his heart. Theophrastus' thought that, during that time, the flesh was digested, and the Bear grew bigger by it. The Males love women. Amongst the A●●obroges one was seen, that caught a Maid and carried her to his den; and wooed her venereously, and fed her with Apples growing in the Woods. Swidrigelus▪ the Prince of Lithuania hath tried it, that they will grow tame. For he bred up a Shee-Bear, which he was wont to feed by hand, and she was wont to run into the Woods and come home again, and would come home into the Prince his bedchamber, Volater. l. 7. CHAP. XLII. Of the Fox. IN Caspia there is such abundance of Foxes, that they will go into Country houses, and come into Cities, Aelian: and will be so tame, that they will fawn like dogs. They are very strong, in Sardinia, for they will kill the fiercest Rams, and young Calves, Munster. They are white in Muscovy; in Arabia they are of an ill-favoured hair, and exceeding bold. At night they rouse one the other by barking, and seeking for their prey, they will snatch away men's very shoes, Scalig. When they are to pass over frozen Rivers in Thracia, they will lay their ears to the Ice, and so judge whether it be thick enough, Plin. When they see a flock of birds flying, they will roll themselves in red clay, that they may appear like blood and they counterfeit themselves dead; but when the birds come to sit upon them, they catch them, and eat them, Herus. When they are troubled with fleas, they will take some soft straw, and dip their hinder parts into the water; the Fleas when they feel the cold water, will creep up toward their heads, and then they put their heads under water, and the Fleas will leap into the straw, the Foxes let go the straw, and run away. CHAP. XLIII. Of the Unicorn. Author's ore of divers opinions concerning the Unicorn. They doubt whether there be such a creature, some affirm it and some deny it. Garzias, ab Horto. Physician to the King's Deputy in India, observed a creature like to the description of an Unicorn. It had a wonderful Horn, that he would turn sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other, and sometimes he would lift it up, and sometimes let it down. Ludovicus Vartomannus saith, that he saw two of them sent to the Sultan at Machae out of Aethiopia, to Mahomet's Tomb, they were shut up in Lattises, and were not fierce. The Horns of this creatures are showed in many places; At the Monastery of St. Denys there is a whole one in a dark vault of the Sanctuary, and the end of it stands in water. The water is given to drink to those that go under that hollow arch; so soon as they have drank that, they suddenly fall into a great sweat. There is one also seen at Venice, in St. Marks Church, and another at Rome covered with a Purple covering. Aldrovandus writes that there was a Jew at Venice that boasted he had a true one, and proved it by a wonderful example: for he laid a Scorpion and Spider on a Table, and compassed the place in with the Unicorns Horn, these creatures were not able to pass out, but were killed either by the shade or the virtue of it. Cardanus describes it, That it is a rare creature as big as a horse, with hair like a Weasil, a head like a Stag, that hath one Horn growing on it, 3 Cubits long; it stands in the middle of the forehead, and is right and straight, it is broad at the bottom; it hath a short neck, a thin mane, lying but on one side, with small feet like a Goat, &c: Pliny saith, that it is a most rough creature▪ and the rest of the body is like to a horse, the head like a Stags, the feet like an Elephants, the tail like a Bor●s, with one black Horn, sticking out of the middle of the forehead two cubit's length; what ever it be, here is cause enough to doubt of it. For first there are many kinds of Unicorns described, and we know not whether they be of the same kind. In India there be Oxen that have their hoofs undivided, and they have but one Horn if we credit Pliny, There are Bulls in Aonia if we believe Aelian and Oppianus. There were some in the Wood Hercynia, if Caesar be to be believed. Ludovicut Barthema saith, that he saw in Zeilam a City of Aethiopia, a kind of Cows that had but one Horn in their forehead, that was but a hand breadth long, and turned backwards. As for the Horns, there is much sophistication in them. There was one found upon the shore of the River Arula, in Helvetia, ne'er to Bruga: who shall certainly make choice of these for the Unicorns Horn. That which Albertus saw was a hand breadth and a half thick, ten foot long, without any spiral lines, and like to a Stag's Horn? And a Horn so thick and long, seems to appertain to a living creature as great as a great Ship. Aldrovandus thinks that the cup which Alvarez Mendosa gave to the great Duke of Hetruria, which he had from the King of Narsinga, was rather made of one of those creatures Horns which are seen in Basma and Macinum, Countries of Tartary, that are as big as Elephants. The Diameter of that cup was as much as both hands could hardly compass. He that would read more of the Unicorn, let him read Andreas Marinus, Andreas Baccius, and Casparus Bartholinus. I for a conclusion will add something, omitted concerning the Mule. The common opinion is that the Mule is barren, and if they do bring forth, it is held for a monstrous thing. Yet in some Countries of Africa they are ordinarily with young and do bring them forth, Varro. It appears by the Monuments of the Athenians that one lived 80, years. And they took pleasure in it, when they built a Temple in the Fort, that this old Mule would encourage their cattle that fell down, with accompanying them, and labouring with them, wherefore they made a decree, that no men that cleansed Corn should drive the Mule from their sieves, Plin. Some write they will not kick if they drink Wine. They have an excellent smell. Hence those Mules that are out of the way will return into the way when they smell it, and they easily are infected with the contagious force of the Air, and fall sick of the Plague, Aldrovandus, l. 4. the Quadrup. There is something in them that is death to Mice; for the fume of the hoof of a Mule will drive them from the house. Columella saith, That the pain of their guts is abated by the sight of swimming Ducks. Cardinal Ponzettus bids us to enclose one that is infected with the Plague, into the belly of a Mule newly slain: and Marantha de simplicibus saith, he must be shut in so long, until all the heat of the Mule be vanished; and this must be done oft times. The End of the Seventh Classis. OF THE DESCRIPTION OF Natural Wonders. The Eighth Classis. Wherein are contained the Wonders of Creatures that want blood. Plin. Histor. Natural. l. 11. c. 2. THe Nature of things, is no where more totally in any Creature, than in the smallest Creatures: And, In the contemplation of it nothing can seem superfluous. CHAP. I. Of Living Creatures without blood, in general. TRuly the nature of bloodless Creatures seems to be contemptible; and not to be compared in the least, with the shoulders of Elephants that carry Castles, or the necks of Bulls, and their fierce casting up of things into the Air; nor to the Manes of Lions: yet is there no where a more remarkable piece of Nature's Workmanship; and Nature is no where total, more than in the least Creatures. For in great bodies there was a sit place to work in, the matter being ductile; but in these that are so small, and almost as nothing, what reason, what force, what unspeakable perfection is there? Where hath Nature placed so many senses in the Gnat? Where hath she set her eyes? where her smelling? Where hath she made that horrid and great Voice, considering its proportion of body? how hath she cunningly fastened the wings? lengthened the legs? hath disposed a hollow place instead of a belly? and made it thirsty after blood, especially man's blood? but by what art hath she whe●●ed the snout of it to make it penetrate into the skin? And since the smallness of it cannot be discerned, in comparison with that is very great, nature hath helped it by a twofold art, that it might be sharp to pierce, and hollow to drink with all. Plin. l. 11. c. 2. Aristotle reckons 4, kinds of bloodless creatures; The soft, the hard crusty, the shell-wearing, and the insect. The soft kinds want scales, and their skin is not rough, nor with a shell, but soft as it is in Men. They have no bones, no bowels. If there be any, they are like to fishes prickles, except only the Polypus. Plin. l. 9 c. 28. Their heads are between their legs, and their bellies, they have no tongues, nature only hath given them something that is fleshy, to discern the pleasure of that they eat. But they have a Brain, and they have that is proportionable to that part which is designed by nature for the principality of feeling. Also they are of both sexes. The parts of the males are all more rough, and distinguished with various lines running between, the tail is sharper, the passage under the throat, comes from the brain to the bottom of the pipe; and the place it is carried to, is like to the teats. It is double that is set above in the females, and reddish little bodies are joined to it in both sexes. They refuse salt water, they can hardly endure cold, for they are naked, and fearful because they want blood. Their eggs when they are laid increase as Worms do, but they must needs have their vital force from the seed of the male, as fishes have. Aristot. de generat. l. 3. c. 8. Of those that are crusty there are two kinds, for they are all either with tails or round. Their tail is evident and stretched forth: the cover of this, as it were, covers the end of their belly, and is so joined to the lower part of their belly that it shows not at all like a tail; Scalig. exercit. 245. Their parts are as the other parts of bloodless creatures. Their teeth in their mouths are long and round, covered with a double covering, Aristot. de part 4, c. 3. between which such things are placed, as are knit between the teeth of Locusts. They want eyelids, but their eyes are placed above their mouth, they are hard, and apt to move inward and outward, and obliquely. They breathe not, but casting water through a hollow pipe they are refreshed. The males have small passages for their genital parts, the females have membranous matrices cut as far as their intestins, and in them an egg is bred. They copulate after the manner of those creatures that piss backwards. The female brings forth a red egg covered over with a thin shelly membrane: they are otherwise called Conchylia, purple shell fish, that were of old held for great dainties, that they grew into a proverb, to be the widow's delights. Nature hath so sported in the variety of them, in so many figures and colours, that it is hard to number them. Plin. l. 9 c. 33. to explain the variety of them saith thus▪ They are of so many figures, plain, hollow, long, like the half Moon, round cut in half circles, rising in the back, smooth, rugged, dented, streaked, the top wreathed like the Murex, the borders pointed, outward, or folded inward, sometimes distinguished with little lines, hairy, curled, like dogs waved like a comb, a tile, lattice wise, or like net work, stretched out obliquely or right forth, close thickened together, open as when men clap their hands, bended backwards like to a Horn. Moreover, in the red Sea they are of a wonderful greatness, also they are found on the tops of the highest Mountains, and they sometimes lie hid in the inward parts of the earth or in stones, Goropius. Becanus in Aldrovandus saith, he hath seen some in a flint, that we use to pave the streets with, brought from Bethum: there were so many shellfish all of stone, and shut up entire in their cover, that you would judge that flint to have been framed with great care and art of them, joined with some cement. In the fields about the suburbs of Paris, that are fruitful with Corn above, there is underneath a Cave that is under great part of it, where Chariots may pass. I found there a great many shells, like Sea perwinkles, in a delicate order, both twisted and adorned with little knots, and so exact, that there was nothing wanting to their perfection but the living fish. I saw in England a stone cut out of the highest Mountains, that was like a living perch, not the least line was wanting to make it perfect. Infects have incisions either above or beneath, or else on both sides, and though it be bony or fleshy, yet they have something that is between both. The differences of them are many, if you note their place the quality of their body, their quantity, their food, their generation, their motion of their going. As for the place, (we must speak something) reddish hairy Worms are bred in Snow; in the fire, Worms called Pyrausta; in the Sea water, the insect called Micro-rinchotoros, or little nose, the Sea- Scotopendra, and the gnat. In fresh water there ariseth, Leeches, Scrophulae, Strumae, Cherodes; in the earth, Worms, and Juli; in minerals, not a few. In the stumps of Trees, Cossi, and Teredines. The Figtree breeds the Worm Cerastes: if an Olive Tree be planted where an Oak is digged up, there breed Frogs, and little Worms, in the Service-Tree there are breed red hairy ones; in the bladders of Elms, Psennes; in Vines, those that Tully calls Butyri; in the Spindle-Tree, or as Theophrastus calls it, Tetragonia, there is yearly bred some Caterpillars that die so soon as the leaves are wasted. In the apple of a certain shrub called Coccios there breaks forth a little living creature so soon as the fruit is ripe. There are Worms found in the gnats, that tied to the neck will retain the birth, they must be taken off before delivery can be. In the leaves of Nightshade there is a Worm that is of a green and yellow colour, that hath a Horn in the forehead, as long as ones finger. In the Asphodel Worms breed, that become flies, in the fashion of flowers, for when the stalk fades and withers, they eat the cover they are in and fly out: you shall find no fewer infects observable in living creatures. Man's excrements are known sufficiently, especially when the Sun shines on the excrements of beggarly people. We know that in Egypt Worms are presently bred in men's legs. In a Carp the first year a black Worm is bred near his gills. River perches breed as it were 12 pearls, so great as tares, and each of them hath in it a slender long round worm. Lastly, it is said, that in Bee-hives a worm is bred. As for the parts, Flies have open wings, Beetles have sheathe wings; some have their belly joined to their mouth, and the right Intestine revolved from that. Those that leap, have either their hinder legs longer, or else they lean upon their tails bended backwards. As for their generation, some are bred from animals of the same kind; some do generate, but not of their own kind, but only Worms, and those not from living creatures, but from putrefaction of moisture and dryness. Amongst those that couple, the females are commonly the biggest, the males have no feminal passages; nor do they thrust in their member into the females, but the females into them by the lower part. This I have spoken more largely of bloodless creatures, because I know that their external habit hath made them contemptible. Wherefore the mind of man ought to be roused up contemplate their worth, by the majesty of the internal nature of them, and to verse itself therein. CHAP. II. Concerning Bees. IN Lithuani● and Podolia there is an infinite company of Bees, that the hollow parts of the earth that are dry, are filled with honey: Olaus Magnus saith, That great Bears have fallen in and been drowned. The fruitfulness of the fields causeth the plenty of them, the sweet smells, the abundance of flowers, the pleasant taste of them. Add to this the mighty Woods of Pinetrees, which are always green, and keep the place warm, with high tops, and large boughs; in Summer they shade the Bees, and in Winter they hide themselves in the cover of the Pines, Leo. Nolan. in Problem. Solinus saith, That Scotland breeds none; but I know that is false: for I saw some in my Host's Garden at St. Andrews; and sometimes I have been much delighted with them. In Africa they are rare. If you ask the cause, you shall find it is the want of those things that I spoke of in Sarmatia. In some parts of Egypt, if you bury a Bull to his horns, Bees in time will breed from it, from its putrefaction. If therefore you would breed Bees so, read Florentinus. He bids you, as Caesar Constantinus relates, make you a house ten cubits high, and ten cubits broad, and the other sides equal thereunto; let there be but one place of entering, and four windows, on each side one; drive an Ox that is fleshy and 30 months old into this place, he must be very fat; cause many young men to stand round about him, and beat him sorely, and kill him with Clubs, breaking his very horns and bones; yet they must take great heed that no blood follow. For the Bees are not bred of blood: and when they strike him first, let not them run violently upon him; Then presently stop all passages in the Ox, with clean pure napkins, dipped in pitch, as the mouth, the nostrils, the eyes, and all parts Nature hath made for Evacuation. Then laying a great deal of Thyme under, and the Ox upon it, let them come forth of the house, and presently shut the door and the windows, and daub them with Lime, that neither Air nor wind may enter or come forth; but the third week you must set the house wide open, and let in the light and the cold Air, unless it be on that side where the wind blows very strong. For if it fall so out, you must stop that side the wind blows strongly on, and daub it with clay. The eleventh day after, when you open it, you shall find Bees hanging abundantly in clusters together; and of the Ox that is left you shall find nothing but his horns, his bones, and his hair. They say the Kings are bred of his brain, the common Bees of his flesh; Also the King is bred of the spinal marrow; but it is said, that those which breed of the brain, are the best, for strength beauty and magnitude. From hence you shall know the first change and transformation of flesh into living Creatures, and as it were a conception, and generation, thus: For, opening the place, small white creatures, like to one another, and not yet perfect, nor yet living, will appear in great numbers about the Ox, all immovable, but augmenting by degrees. You shall see also the excrescence of their wings, yet unjointed; and you shall see Bees in their proper colour, gathering together and flying about the King, but with small short wings, trembling for want of using to fly, and the weakness of their limbs. They will come continually, flying violently against the windows, for the desire of light. But it is best to open and shut the windows every other day, as we said. For it is to be feared, that they will change the nature of Bees, or else be stifled for want of Ayr. If a wing of them, or the sting be pulled off it can never grow again; for because this is fastened to the Intestine, it pulls that out also, and so they die. They have a King, who is so much honoured by them, that he never goes forth, but they all attend him; if he ●rre in flying, they are quick-sented to find him out; and when he cannot fly, they carry him, Aristotle. They are so chaste, that they will sting those that smell of copulation, and they stall themselves in Virgins Sepulchers, Plutarch. For Augustinus, whose surname was Gallus, saith, That at Verona they crept into the Sepulchre of two sisters that were Virgins, they were the Daughters of that famous Lawyer, Bartholomaeus Vitalis, they went in by the chinks of the wall next an Orchard, they made abundance of combs in the dead bodies of them both. The matter two years after their burial was made manifest, by the fall of thunder, without any hurt to the carcases of the Bees and combs. There were some found also in the Tomb of Hypocrates, and it is constantly avouched, that the honey of them anointed on little blisters of children's mouths by the Sepulchre, did miraculously cure them. The Inhabitants of the Country of Cuma do feed on them. If thou wouldst have thy beard grow quickly, anoint thy chin with the ashes of burnt Bees, and Mice dung, Aldrovandus. CHAP. III. Of Spiders. IN the new world, as Oviedus, l. 15. c. 3, relates, there are green Spiders, and the Web is of a Golden colour, as good as silk. In Cuma they wove it so strong that it will not break, but holds like silk. In Hispaniola they are as big as hand-balls, and as hard as nuts. In Brasil there is a very great kind of them, like to a Crab, yet a fly takes him and draws him into his hold, contrary to what is used in Europe▪ Cardan. l. 9 subtle. saith, that in the West-Indies they are as big as Sparrows. Some write they couple backwards, and do scatter eggs in their Webs, for they leap and so lay them. They are perfected in 28, days. Scaliger, l. 1. de. causis plant. saith, that they breed of filth. When I sometime observed Spiders eggs, I found them to be, many small ones, black and blue with little spots, divided and parted one from the other: they are soft, and clammy, and if by chance any be lost, the Spider diligently inquires, and she carries them back by fastening them on some thing from within, and with her beck also. I have seen also innumerable young ones come forth of one egg, so small that they could hardly be discerned; yet so soon as they were come forth of the egg, they spun such fine Webs that nothing can be more wonderful. Also I have observed under the belly of a Spider that was taken, a mighty heap of eggs, so small as Atoms; they were white, and crushed with the finger, they gave a crack. They have a great faculty of feeling; for sitting in the middle of their Web, they feel a fly that toucheth it in the most remote part. Hence Antonius Ludovicus. l. 1. Problem. s. 5. Problem 13. saith, that for that cause they lie in the middle of their Nets. And being that the lines are equal from the Centre, she sitting in the middle, and holding with her feet the beginnings of the threads she spun, she can easily know from all parts. They make very fine nets, and in them gnats and other little weak creatures are ensnared. This is made from something they have without them, or from their hard skin, which being by degrees kembed and drawn like to a thread, they diminish, and they eat up their threads; or else naturally they have a fruitfulness of drawing threads; or else at a set time, the nature of their belly is corrupted, like an excrement. The woof is fastened within, and from that those fine lengths are drawn forth: we see the first to happen in Silk Worms, for they draw silken threads out of their own excrements, and they change their lives for a silken case, their proper substance being turned into a Fleece, Antonicus Ludovicus, l. 1. s. 5. problem. 52. And Franciscus Bonzella Cardinal. l. 3. c. 14. de Venenis writes, that such as are bitten by a house Spider, fall ill of a Priapism. And Plin. l. 24. c. 9 saith that the same things happen when one is bit by the Spider Phalangium. The nature of the poison is said to be the cause of it. For though it penetrate easily; yet the terrestrial part of it causeth flatulent humours, which being driven to the lower parts, cause erection. When they hurt the young Lizzards, first they wrap them in their Webs, than they by't their lips, which is a sight fit for a Theatre, when it happens, Plin. l. 11. c. 24. Also the same Author, l. 10. c. 74, saith, that the Spider doth balance himself, to come down upon the head of a Serpent that lieth under the shade of a Tree, and he so fiercely bites the Serpent's brain; that he makes him to hiss, yet he can neither break the thread that hangs from aloft, nor yet run away; and there is no end of it, till he kill him. When houses are like to fall, the Spider's first fall down with their Webs. Plin. l. 8. c. 28. When the Rivers are like to rise, they raise their nets higher, and because they wove not in fair weather, but in foul, many Spiders foreshow rain, Plin. l. 11. c. 24. The Thebans, as Pausanias witnesseth, in Baeoticus, were ignorant of that; For when the Spiders had woven white Webs about the doors of the Temple of the Goddess Ceres, about that time that the battle was fought at Leuctra, when the Macedonians assaulted them, the Spiders spun all black Webs, which was a sign that signified something far different from the former. CHAP. IU. Of the Silkworm. Zonoras' saith, that the Italians knew not the Silkworm before the time of Justinian: in his days it was wittily found out and brought thither, Procopius. He adds, that two Monks brought Silkworm eggs from India to Constantinople, and putting them into dung transformed them into Worms. Now Sera whence they came, is a City in the farthest parts of Persia, wherein there is made so much Silk work, that ten thousand pounds of Silk are daily given out to work-folks. Also in Taprobana Silk is gathered from Trees without any labour, as many Navigations have discovered. Nature hath showed so much art in this Insect, that it is impossible to comprehend it all. Much is written, and much more may be. First, it is a Worm; shut up in a bladder, it dies without any form; at length a winged butterfly comes forth of the case: wherefore a creeping Insect is changeed into a fly by a medium that is vegetable void of sense and motion, by a strange metamorphosis. The little Worm first shut out, seeks abundance of nourishment, and eating greedily what she is able, by often lifting up her head, striving as it were with a Lethargy, she sleeps at length 3, or 2, days, and in the mean while casting her skin, she falls to her wont diet again, when she hath fed 4, times, slept 4, times, and 4, times changed her Coat; she will eat no more, but climbs up on high upon the branches, and twigs, having discharged her belly as it should, she begins to spin some rudiments of her Silken work upon the boughs, but in disordered turnings, than she shuts herself into a transparent case, and thrusts forth the fruit of her indefatigable labour, from the centre to the circumference, white Wool, yellow, and green, of an oval figure, striving as it were with her fellows, in 9 days she ends her task, and dies within it. From this case laid under ground, a horned Butterfly comes forth after ten days, but being neither mindful of its wings nor food, being about to repair the loss of its short life by its fruitfulness of young ones, put into a soft fleece for 3. days together, but seldom for 4. days, is the male coupled to the female, and dies; and shortly after the female widow, leaving behind her about a hundred seeds like Millet seeds, she dyeth also. But because Andrea's Libavius, a most deserving Physician, hath most accurately described this from his own observation, I thought fit to join his historical observation, as an Appendix to the end of this Classis, for the benefit of those that search the Secrets of Nature. CHAP. V. Of the Spanish Fly, and the Glow-worm. Cantharideses are bred from a Worm in a spongy substance, especially of the sweet-brier, but most fruitfully in the Ash. If they breed in Figtrees, it is likely that the Tree will die, Plin, l. 29. Their venom is most tart. A Physician called out of Egypt, killed Cossinus a Roman Knight, whom Nero loved, with Cantharideses in drink, when he was sick of a Tetter, which was a peculiar disease in Egypt, Plin▪ l. 1. c. 4. The same thing happened to an Abbot from a whore, Paraeus l. 20. c. 28. A Glow-worm hath a belly with roundles, divided with many segments, in the end whereof there are two spots very light like to fire, tending toward a kind of skye-colour. Then is she most conspicuous, when her belly is pressed, and that transparent humour goes to the end of her belly, and her breast against the light shines like to fire, Aldrovand. de Insect. l. 4. c. 8. There is something spoken of this, in the Second Classis. Adrianus Junius, when he was in the Country of Bononia, drew the liquor of them upon Papers that shined like Stars: what is writ with that in the day, may be read in the night. Many have showed the way to compound it. Baptista Porta doth it thus: We did cut their tails from their bodies, taking care that nothing should mingle with the shining parts; we ground it on a Porphyr stone, and 15 days or longer we buried it in dung, in a glass vessel, and it is best that these parts should not touch the sides, but hang in it: for these days being over, the glass being put into a hot oven, or a bath of hot water▪ and ●itted, you may by degrees receive that clear distilled liquor in a receiver underneath, and so putting it into a fine Crystal glass, you may hang this water that causeth light in your private Chamber; and it will so enlighten the Air, that you may read great letters. Albertus' de sensu et sensato shows, why their light cannot be extinguished by water: For their light cannot be said to be of a celestial body, because a celestial nature comes not into composition of bodies generative and corruptible: But the determination of this question and the like, is fetched from what we determined in our second de Anima; where we show, That the nature of perspicuity is not proper to any Element, but it is common to many, and is participated by them per prius et posterius, which is the more pure, the farther it is from darkness; and this is so, by how much it is more like to the nature of superior bodies; and the proper act of this is light, which hath to do in that nature. Now this falls out in it, as often as the parts of it are very noble and clear: and therefore all such things do shine. Now this composition sometime is in the whole body; sometimes not in the whole, but in some external parts: the cause whereof is, that when such a nature is from the Elements that are light; it proceeds more from the internal parts to the external, because such things will swim. And so it is found in the heads, and sins, and bones of some Fish, and in the shells of some eggs, because such parts are less roasted, and heat hath wrought in them much nature of perspicuous bodies condensed: Sometimes this heat acts in the external parts of some things, when it exhales from them, and that which is subtle brings with it much perspicuity; so the parts of Okes corrupted do shine. But all those things that have but a weak light, are hid when a clearer light appears. CHAP. VI Of the Grasshopper. ISidore writes, that Grasshoppers breed of Cuccow-spit. Plutarch in Sympos. saith, Out of the Earth. Baldangelus saith, they breed out of the earth not tilled, that looks Eastward toward the Sunrising; and that white ones were dug up under Okes, but their form was, as the rest were. Aristotle l. 5. hist. c. 30. saith, they breed by copulation. Pliny sets down the manner: First, there is a Worm bred, then of that Tettigometra, or Mother of the Grasshopper, the shell of it being broken, about the Solstices they fly forth always in the night, being first black and hard; but when he strives to come forth of his Tettigometra; [You may observe, that Grasshoppers and Butterflies breed alike; for what is in these, at first, a Caterpillar, is in them, first a little worm; and that case, called Chrysalis or Aurelia, for the Catterpillar; is called Tettigometra, for the Grasshopper, Yet you shall know that they differ: For a rude Chrysalis is a lump wherein no parts of the body are distinguished, as we can discern; but in the Tettigometra you may see the head, eyes, feet, breast, and all the parts, except the wings; it is whitish in colour, and sprinkled with small lines;] First he gets up a Tree, and sticks to some branch of the Tree; then at the upper end where a cleft is first seen, he comes forth; his whole body is then almost green; shortly, his upper part inclines to Chestnut colour, and that in one day becomes of a black colour; and because his legs and wings are weak at first, he sits upon his cast skin till be can fly. In Cephalenia there is a River where Grasshoppers are on one side, but none on the other, Plin. l. 11. c. 27. And Antigonus writes, that the same thing happeneth in Dulichium, an Island of the Ionian Sea: Ambrose Nolanus writes the same of Nola, and the hill Vesuvius. In the Country of Rhegium they are all mute. In Locris beyond the River, they sing; in Acanthus also they are mute, Pliny l. 12. c. 27. If you ask the reason, Strabo thinks, that at Rhegium the Country is dark and shady; at Locris the heat is great; and therefore he thinks, that the dewy skins of their wings are not there extended; but here he thinks they have dry, and, as it were, horny skins. But because they do that when they fly, and when they stand, which the others are thought not to do, the heat is the cause of it: For being hotter by nature, they need more cooling, and move the Air the stronger: The others do not need so much, either because they are but of a weak heat, they are not heard to do it, therefore it may be thought they are said not to do it, Nicolaus Leonicus. CHAP. VII. Of the Crabfish, and the Shellfish breeding Pearls. CAmmarus, is a River-Crab; in his head, are two little stones: In the full Moon they are seen in figure of a Globe divided into two, Agricola. It is said to eat flesh; It will eat the Pike in a net: And Gesner writes, That in Danubius, when flesh is tied to their ships, and hanged down into the water, multitudes of Crabs will hang about it: Some say, that in June they will go forth to feed in the fields, catch Frogs, and feed on grass. Fed with milk without water, he will live many days. Gesner kept one alive in water 13 days; put into distilled wine, burnt, he presently grows red, and may be set on the Table alive amongst those that are boiled, Georg. Pictorius▪ The Males are easily discerned from the females; For they, where their tail is joined to their body underneath, have four long rods sticking forth, but these have none: Also their tail is rounder, plainer, and thicker. Leonellus Faventinus commends the powder of their eyes drank with water of peach leaves, after opening a vein, against a bastard Pleurisy. The powder of them rubbed on the teeth, cleanseth and whiteneth them. In India a Shellfish that breeds Pearl is sometimes found so great, as they report, that in the Island Borneus in the Sea, there was one taken, that the meat within it weighed 47 pound; yet methinks it is questionable. CHAP. VIII. Of the Snail. THe Snails which Dioscorides calls Garden Snails, are found in abundance in the Mountains of Trent, and they are the best. In Winter they are dug up out of the Earth, and in Gardens, with some iron hooks, near to the roots of herbs, the Earth being dug forth. They are covered with a white shell against the cold, it is like to Gip, so they lie under ground, hid, and afterwards they are more pleasant meat, Matthiolus. They have eyes in the top of their horns, and they pull them in when any thing comes near to them, and put their horns into their heads, their heads into their bodies, Albertus. They lay white eggs, as great as the Pikes eyes; and in May they are found to sit upon them, Gesner. Albertus saith, they are bred of corruption and clammy dew, and that that dew hardeneth into a shell. Porta saith the same. Phytol. l. 5. c. 4. Pliny l. 9 c. 5. saith, they are bred in Winter. Fulvius Hirpinus made Caves of them, in Tarquinis, a little before the War with great Pompey, etc. Pliny, l. 9 c. 56. In the Island Scyathos, the Partridges feed on them; but those that are called Ariones, deceive them: For going out of their shells, they feed, leaving their empty houses to the Herns and Partridges, Aelian l. 10. c. 5. Andrea's Fulnerus Gallus relates, That a Remedy is made of them to multiply hair: Take 300 Snails out of their shells, and boil them in water, and take them out again, and gather the fat that swims a top, and put that into a glazed vessel, and pour a Sextarius of water upon it; wherein Bay leaves have been boiled with three spoonfuls of oil, one spoonful of Honey, Saffron one scruple, and a little Venice Soap, and a spoonful of common Soap moderately stirred; boil them altogether. With this liquor anoint your hair often, and wash it with a Lie made of the Ashes of burnt Colewort stalks, (the place is obscure, or corrupted) and you shall find your hair increase daily. CHAP. IX. Of the Gnat. IN Egypt there are great store of Gnats, whence Herodotus calls it Conopaeam, and Bellonius, observat. l. 2. c. 35, writes that he was so vexed with them the first night, that the next day he seemed to have the Measils. In divers parts of India, there are kinds of Gnats, whereof some in Summer time especially, when the fields are cleansed, do lie in the Woods, others lie about the shores. At Myon a City of Jonia, there was a creek of the Sea not very great, which, when Maeander a River of that Country running into it, that was very muddy, had stopped the mouth of it with mud, brought along with it, so that in time it made a Lake, there bred from thence such abundance of Gnats, that the people of Myon, left their City, and went to Miletus. When the Northern people would hinder their biting, they sprinkle a decoction of Wormwood or Nigella on their heads, and the rest of their body, Olaus. Yet he makes a difference in their bitings. For they that have their blood pure and not corrupted, by't them they not. They meddle not with fruit before they grow sharp by corruption, and they most delight in sour things. Leo●h Ja●hin. But because they chiefly suck man's blood, they are called the spouts of the blood of Man. It is not proved that they will suck things that are sweet. For the sweeter part of the blood that is most pure is consumed for nourishment, and lieth inwardly, that which is rawest comes next to the skin, whence it is that Pushes break forth of the body. CHAP. X. Of the Urchin, the Ephemera, and the Catterpillar. SEa-Hedge-hogs, so often as they are tossed with the flowing water, make themselves heavy with ballast, lest they should be tossed too much being light, or carried away with a tempest; and so they stick fast to the Rocks. Plutarch. l. Utr. Animal. The parts of the live ones covered with their shell, and armed with their prickles, if they be broken and cast into the Sea, they will come together again, and will know the part that is next to them, and being applied they will join, and unite by a natural sympathy, Aldrovandus. As for the Ephemara, the River Hypanis in Cammerius Bosphorus, under the Solstice produceth little bladders greater than grape stones, out of which flying creatures proceed with four feet. This kind of creature lives till the afternoon, the same day; when the Sun departs it decays, and presently dies when the Sun sets, from hence it hath the name of Ephemer, or a creature that lives but one day. Aldrovand. As for Caterpillars; Hieracles testifieth, that if Horses roll themselves upon them, black and blue spots will arise, their skins will grow hot, their eyes will be distorted, and the cure is to bray vitriol one quarter of a pound, Vinegar half a pound. They feed on pot herbs; but if a rocket seed be sowed amongst them, they will not touch them. But that those herbs may breed no noisome creatures, dry all the seeds you mean to se●, in a Tortis shell; or sow mint in many places, especially amongst Coleworts. Prasocurides, saith Cardan, are such living Creatures that use to do hurt in Gardens; Men say, that if you bury the paunch of a Weather with the dung in it, not deep within the earth, in the place where they abound, in two days you shall find them all in heaps in that place; in twice or thrice so doing, you may destroy them all. Paulus Aegineta writes that herb rocket anointed with oil, will preserve men safe from the bitings of Venomous creatures. CHAP. XI. Of the Pismire. IN the Kingdom of Senega there are white Pismires, and naturally they build low houses. For they carry earth in their mouths, and cement it without lime, you would say that they are like Ovens or little Country houses, Scaliger, exerc. 367. In the Province of Mangu, they are red, and they eat them with Pepper. Scalig. exerc. 9.6. Amongst the brahmin's, they are 4, finger's breadth in greatness; in new Spain they are as big as Beetls. Amongst the Dardae, which is a mighty Nation in the Mountains of India, there is said to be a hill of 3000 furlongs in compass, there are Gold Mines under it, that Ants as big as Foxes do dig into, Plin. I think, as Strabo doth, that it is a fable. In Baia Salvatoris there is an infinite company of them, they have in their mouths something like pinsers, and with that they so crop the Plants, that they die with their biting of them. Aldrovand. In the same West-Indies they are called Comixen, half- Pismires, and half-Worms that creep with a white tail. They eat into the Wood, and do great harm to houses. When they creep up a wall or house, they are covered with earth, a finger thick, and they live under this, Ovied. in sum. Ind. occid. c. 52. In Brasil when they are bruised they smell like Cedar. Their head is so small that they have no eyes in it, but above it there are some additionals like two hairs coming forth. It is a sign that these are their eyes because when these are cut off, they mistake their way. Albert. tract. 4. l. 6. c. 1. When this kind grows old, it comes to have wings. They breed eggs that have Worms in them, in white cover; these, being exposed to the Sun, breed Pismires. Alb. l. 2.6. But in the new World it is otherwise; for when the old one is dead, innumerable Worms breed from the body of it, and they living after a wonderful fashion, come forth at last out of their subterraneal habitations in a wonderful manner; Their Ant-hills is made wonderful artificially, no City is made more curiously. Aldrovand. Lud. describes what he saw, thus. It seemed like a City with four square sides, four foot almost in length, and above a fooot broad, and the Ants like Pismires ran up and down about their business in it, as if they had been Citizens, the sides and angles were drawn directly, in the length of the City there was a way in the middle, a finger's breadth and depth, this was cut cross with 3, other ways a finger's breadth and depth as the former, very directly. In the outmost corners of these ways, their eggs were laid together as in narrow turnings of the streets. On the other part of the City were dens filled with Corn, that they abounded so far as the very ways. All the paths were most clean. Lastly in the middle of the length of the City, there was one gate right against the West. CHAP. XII. Of the Horseleech, and Hippocampus. STrabo writes, That in a River of Mauritania, Horsleeches breed seven cubits great: Their throat is hollow, that they breathe through; in all of them there is a little hole in the middle; and from the Mouth to the Belly, there is but one continued passage. In putrid Fevers they are of great use, for being applied to the veins of the fundament, and setting on a cupping glass, that the orifices of the veins may appear, they help much to ease the pains of the head, and to assist concoction. Some have drunk them down in drink, saith Galen: but the smell of Wiglice will drive them forth. The Hippocampus or Sea-horse is a fish not to be eaten, of a singular form; for it hath a head like a horse, and a snout and a Mane; the rest of the body is rough with grisly indentures. On the back, it hath a tail with a sin, that is four square and pliable. It is in length a span; being taken, it shortly dies; and when it is fresh, it shines in the night. CHAP. XIII. Of the Locust, that is an Insect. ABout Brundisium there is an infinite company of Locusts. In the Island Lemnos, there is a certain measure set for men that shall kill them, and they must bring it to the Magistrate. In Cyrene thrice a year they are to be killed; and he that refuseth, is punished for his default, Plin. Amongst the Nigretae every 3. years there are such abundance, that they shadow the sky at least 12 miles. In Hispaniola they want wings, Aloysius Cadamustus. Vincentius reports, that a woman bred up one; when it grew up, it was found to be with young ones of itself. Anno 852, when they wasted France 20 miles in one day, they went as it were in Troops, and pitched their Tents upon the earth. The leaders with a few more went before the whole Army a day's journey, as if they went to take up quarters, the next day at the same hour they all arrived. They did not march till Sunrising; when the Sun arose, they marched by bands. In the sixth year of the Emperor Argyropolus, the Locusts did so much mischief in the Provinces of the East, that the Inhabitants were forced to sell their Children, and to pass away into Thrace. The wind afterwards cast them into Hellespont, but the next year they revived again; and having spoilt the Provinces three years, they perished at Pergamus, Cedrenus. CHAP. XIV. Of the Sea-Hare, the Lobster, with his shell, and the calamary. THe Sea-Hare hath a body all white, you would think it to be a little box, or congealed phlegm. It is seldom taken but in great heat of weather; for then all things are troubled by the extreme heat, even those things that lie at the bottom of the Sea. And though very few water-Creatures are found to be venomous, because they dwell in moisture, which for the general is contrary to venom; and some creatures contain their venom in some part only, as the Spider-fish in its prickles, the Sea-Ray in the radius, yet the Hare is poison all over. Titus the Emperor was reported to be poisoned with this by his Brother Domitian. For when the Oracle was consulted concerning the manner of his death; The answer was, He should perish as Ulysses did, by the Sea. Now Ulysses was killed by the sting of the Ray. They that die by the venom of it, will be so many days in dying, as the Hare lived, Licinius Macer, in Pliny, l. 31. c. 2. Lobsters will not breed in the Sea Euripus, if we credit Aristotle hist. 9 c. 37. but in the Indian Sea, they are 4 cubits long, Pliny l. 9 c. 3. Concerning the Calamaries, Pliny writes out of Trebius Niger, that they fly sometimes in such multitudes, that they will drown Ships. But Albertus l. 24. the animal. saith, That in Sexus a River of Mauritania, a calamary is five cubits long, and near the Sea he will fly like an arrow. Rondeletius thinks, that this is nothing incredible, when as they swim many together, holding one upon the other, and therefore many are taken together. CHAP. XV. Of Pearls. PEarls are in some Shellfish like the upper crust; in others like to the Offspring; in some like hail. There are many in them, and of great weight. In a bosom of the Sea of the New World, there are some as big as a Bean; in the Island Solon, bigger than Turtles Eggs. Martyr writes, he took an Oyster there, that the meat of it weighed above 47 pounds. The King of the Island Eubagna, had one so big as a Walnut, it weighed 31. caracts, and it was sold for 1200 pieces of Castille. Gonzalvus Oviedus saith, that one was sold at Panama, that weighed 26 caracts, it was round, and as big as the knob of a Pillar. It is said that near the Island Borneo, there was one as great a Goose egg; and so round, that laid on a Table, it will hardly stay in one place. Peter Martyr, Decad 1. l. 8. saith, That in his presence, when he was invited to dine with the famous Duke of Medina Sidonia, at Baetica, they brought one to sell unto him, that weighed above a hundred ounces Heaps are cast up of shells in Summer, some of them have Pearls in them that are ready, others not yet perfect, out of a River that runs by the Village of Hussin in Bohemia; These they give their bucks to devour, than they gather up purer, being cleansed in their Bellies, Gesner. Five or six are sound in one. Vesputius saith he found 130, in some Indian Oysters. Sometimes some small ones are found behind, like to small kernels. But the question is how these are bred. Some think they are bred of the dewy air; but this opinion seems to be false. For some lie in the bottom of the deepest waters, and some are black, some yellow, some green, some blue. Oviedus, hist. Ind. l. 9 c. 8. But they say that the white ones are bred of pure dew, the pale ones of that which is troubled. Androstenes in Athenaeus saith that as kernels are bred in hogs, so Pearls breed in shellfish. Juba, as Pliny saith, subscribes to this. The Indians, that inhabit the Island Cabagna, say, they breed as eggs do in them. For the greater of them are next the orifice, and are first thrust forth, but in the more inward parts of the Matrix, the lesser Pearls lie hid. Rondeletius and Alexander Benedictus compare their original to that of stones in some greater living creatures; We saw, saith he, stones voided forth of ones bladder as big as a hen's egg, over which a clammy matter grew by degrees covering them, like to a crust of divers colours sometimes, and they were hardened by a fiery heat, and so they are said to increase by little and little. Pearls in shellfish are reported to grow the same way, and the Jewellers can discover by a turning instrument divers coats in them, as we see in Onions▪ And Rondeletius saith, he thinks that Pearls grow the same manner in shellfish, as kernels do in hogs, and the stone in the Reins and the Bladder. The year we writ this, there was one died that had a Stone in his Reins, that had so many partitions as there were branches of small Veins in his Reins. The little stone with these partitions, was like the outmost knob of a round white marble, or like a great Pearl for its figure and brightness, I think it was compacted of a vitreous phlegm. Therefore it is no wonder if in Oysters and shellfish, when they grow old, Pearls are to be found. They may also be dissolved, the Chemists show how. Cardanus saith, you must first wash them being entire, and strain the juice of Lemons twice or thrice; then put them in, and set them in the Sun; in five or six days they will dissolve. CHAP. XVI. Of Flies. IN Cyrene there are found many kinds of Flies, distinguished by their forms and colours. Some have broad foreheads, like to Weasils', others are like to Vipers. They say that in Sicily and Italy they by't so sharply, that they will kill whom they by't. At Toledo in the shambles sometimes one Fly will appear for a whole year, that is notable for its whiteness. Rhodigin▪ l. 17. lect. antiq. c. 11. In Hispaniola, they are green and painted, especially in the City of St. Domingo; they are as great as Wasps, and dig the earth with their feet, to make themselves houses under ground. Strabo saith, the Spaniards have a fly peculiar to them, in great numbers, and it always comes with the Plague; that in Cantrabia the Romans appointed some, to catch these Flies, and gave them a set reward for it, by number. In Carina a Mountain of Crete, that is 9, miles about, there are none, Plin. l. 21. c. 14. Nor was there ever any seen at Rome in Hercules Temple, nor yet in the Island Paphos in Venus' Temple, Apollonius. Lasty Emma the wife of the Duke of lower Saxony promised a fruitful pasture ground to the Church of Brain, not far from the City, that had this prerogative, that no Flies should molest the cattle there, Crantzius, l. 4. Saxon. l. 29. The Hebrews, saith Tostatus, invent old wives tales concerning them, for they say that David inquired of God why he made Fools, Spiders, Flies, with other things that seem not only to be superfluous, but dangerous; and God promised to make it appear to David that these three things were profitable for some things. For foolishness, it was manifest; for unless he himself had counterfeited the fool's part before King Achis, he had been taken captive, and perhaps perished. And the Fly was useful, when he descended from the hill Hacbilla into Saul's camp, when all were a sleep, and took away Saul's spear; for than he set his feet between Abner his feet who lay about Saul, and when he feared lest he should be taken, if he should violently draw out his foot, God sent a Fly who bit Abners legs, and so Abner gave way, and yet did not wake Abner, so David escaped. Lastly the Spider did him good service, because she hanged her Web on the mouth of the Cave, wherein David hid himself, when Saul searched after him. To drive them away many men have invented divers means. If a piece of an Onion be laid upon flesh, some think the Flies will not come at it; Miraldus cent. 7. Aphor. 72. saith, they will not come into a house, if a Wolf's head be hanged up in it. Dioscorid, l. 4. c. 3. saith that the fume of Loostrife will drive them away. Plin. l. 23. c. 8. saith that white Hellebour bruised with milk, and sprinkled, will drive them away. Those Flies that live on the branches of Napellus, are good against any venomous bitings, if we credit Scaliger Exerc. 85. CHAP. XVII. Of the Boat-fish. BEllonius gives an exact description of the Boat-fish; The shell of it seems to consist of 3. pieces, (namely the Keel and the sides, and yet it is but one entire piece) the sidepieces whereof seem to be joined on both sides as to the Keel. It is commonly as great as we can clasp in both hands, and as broad as the space between the thumb and the forefinger: but they all in thickness do not exceed a piece of parchment, and with ridges drawn to the borders, they are plaited with indentures, ending in a round form; The hole by which the Boat-fish is nourished, is very great at the place he comes forth of his shell; This is very brittle, milk white, shining, polished, altogether representing the form of a round ship; for it swims on the top of the Sea, arising from the bottom, and the shell comes the bottom upwards, that it may ascend the better, and sail with an empty Boat; and when she is come above the water, than she turns her shell. Moreover, there is a membrane that lies between the forelegs of the Boat-fish, as there is between the toes of waterfowl; but this is more thin, like a cobweb, but strong; and by that she sails, when the wind blows; the many tufts she hath on both sides, she useth for rudders; and when she is afraid, than she presently sinks her shell, full of Sea water. Farther, she hath a Parrots bill, and she goes with her tufts as the Polypus doth, and after the same manner she conceives in hollow partitions. CHAP. XVIII. Of Oysters and Muscles. THough Oysters love sweet waters, yet Pliny reports that they are found in stony places; but Aristotle saith, that though they live in water, and cannot live without it, yet they take in no moisture nor Air. When in the time of the War with Mithridates, the earth parted at Apumaea a City of Phrygia, Rivers did suddenly appear, and not only sweet but salt waters broke out of the bowels of the earth, (though the Sea were far distant) so that they filled all that Coast with Oysters. Athen. l. 8. The Oysters are of divers colours. In Spain they are red, in Sclavonie brown, in the red Sea they are so distinguished with flaming Circles, that by mixture of divers colours it is like the Rainbow. Aelian. l. 10. c. 13. At the beginning of Summer they are great and full of milk. At Constantinople they cast this wheish matter into the water, which cleaving to stones, will beget Oysters; Gillius writes it, and it is very probable. For, of the decoction of Mushrooms poured on the ground, it is certain that Mushrooms will grow, the Crabfish doth wonderfully desire the meat of them, but he comes hardly by them because they have a strong shell by nature, wherefore he useth his cunning. For when in places where the wind blows not, he sees them taking pleasure in the Sun, and to open their shells against the Sun's beams, he privately casts in a stone, that they cannot shut again, and so he conquers them. CHAP. XIX. Of the Butterfly, and the Polypus. THe Butterfly's couple after August, & the male dying after copulation, the female lays eggs, and dieth also. How they are preserved in winter, is hardly discovered by any man, except by Aldrovandus de Insectis. But he enquired of Country people, and they hold him, that the leaves were great with the Butterfly's seed; at what time they ploughed the ground, they were hid in the bowels of it, and fostered by its heat, yet he thinks that they only are preserved, that lie hid in the hollow barks of Trees, but what lies on leaves is quickened the same year. And Aldrovandus adds, I saw eggs laid under the leaves of Chamaeficus out of which about the end of August, little Caterpillars naturally came forth. They were wrapped in a thin down, that the air might not hurt them, and these little Caterpillars falling did not fall to the ground, but hung by a small thread like Spiders in the Air. When they lay under leaves, they fold them so that the rain cannot hurt them, and lay them up as under a penthouse. I twice observed one Catterpillar, that I took amongst the Coleworts, first to lay yellow eggs, wrapped up also in fine down, and when they were laid she turned into a Chrysalis, of the same colours that she was, that is, yellow, green, and black: and that which seemed strange to me, out of those eggs, little flying creatures came forth, that I could hardly see them, such as are wont to be found in the bladders of Elms: when they are in great abundance they show contagion of the Air. Anno 1562, they flew at Bannais near the waters, in such multitudes, that they darkened the course of the River, especially after Sun set; then coming hither about night, they wandered through the Villages as in Battle array, little differing from Moths. Cornelius Gemma testifieth that that was a tempestuous year. The Polypus in time grows so great, that it is taken for a kind of Whale. In the bowels of them, there is a strange thing like a Turbane, that you would say it had the nature of the Heart, or of the Liver, but it suddenly dissolves and runs away. They exceedingly love the Olive-Tree. For if a bough on which Olives hang, be let down into the Sea and held there, you may catch abundance of them, hanging about the bough. Sometimes they are taken sticking to Figg-Trees growing by the Seaside, and they eat the fruit of them. They also delight wonderfully in Locusts, of which you shall find a clear Testimony in Petrus Berchorius. I have heard, saith he, that some Fishermen in the Sea of Province, had set Locusts on the shore to boil over burning coals, and a Polypus smelling the Locust, came forth of the Sea, and coming to the fire would with his foot have taken a Locust forth, but he feared the heat of the fire, and so went back to the Sea, and fil●'d a coat which he had on his head, like a Friar's cowl, with water, and went and came so often with it, and cast it on the fire, that he put the fire out; and so taking the Locust, he had carried it to the Sea, unless one of the Fishermen that saw him, had caught him, and broiled him to eat, instead of the Locust. CHAP. XX. Of a Louse, and a Flea. SOme think, that Lice are bred of flesh; others, of blood; but both opinions are false: For first they breed in the skin of the head, and we know they abound in the second and third kind of hectic fevers; when as, there, is little flesh; and, here, they are almost consumed. Again in putrid Fevers they breed not; and things bred do confirm their principles. Their colour shows they proceed not from blood. Wherefore some think they breed from putrid matter that is cold and moist, which abounds in the skin, in places where they cannot be blown away. Experience teacheth, that they will leave those that are dead, either because the blood is cold in the body when the heat is gone; or because the dead body is cold, and they fly from the cold, Nolanus Problem. 225. They that eat figs often are thought to be troubled with them. Nolanus makes the juice of them to be the cause. For, this increasing in the veins heats the blood, and makes it moist and frothy; which because it naturally tends to the skin, and retained under that it putrefies, it turns to louse. Truly they, that feed on figs, have little knots and warts on their skins. A Flea is a small Creature; yet Africanus a cunning Artificer, tied one with a gold chain, and it leapt, Scaliger Exerc. 59, and 326. He most commonly bites under the groins: The tumour begins to grow the fourth day; when it comes to its full growth, it's bigger than a Pease, and it is full of Nits; They are killed with the root of wild bugloss: also with Sage bruised, and mingled with oil and vinegar; anoint with this against them. The best remedy is Silk-yarn put into the bed, for they will gather together in it. Franciscus Georgius Venetus, of Minoritum, saith, they will trouble one more in linen than in woollen. He gives his reason, because they both proceed from the same Northern Fountain; for they are both in Aries and March bred. But Aldrovandus thinks it comes to pass, because linen is more near to the body than woollen. Wherefore you shall find them hungry in your shirts and sheets; but in your breeches full, where they lay their eggs. CHAP. XXI. Of the Beetle and the Cuttle. IN Chalcida of Thracia, which is next to Olynthus, there is a pretty large ground, called Cantharoletron. When any living Creature comes thither, it abhors it, and departs, yet safely; only the Beetle, but going about it, dyeth for hunger, Arist. in admirand. The female Beetle is never bred; but the male, when he hath made a round ball of Ox dung, rolls it with his face backwards, & begets her by sending in his seed, Clem. Alex. l. 5. storm. Yet Aldrovandus saith, That Crabs are begotten by Copulation: for he found, that in May, in two hours' space, the female produced above 40 little white worms, like to Weevells. They were small Caterpillars coming forth like Silkworms, which in five hours began to wove balls of very fine thread white, as big as Pompions seed without the hull, l. 4. de Insectis. Ruellius saith, That the New Moon is known by their breeding, l. 2. the stirp. c. 150. For (saith he) they roll little balls of Ox dung from East to West, and make them as round as a Globe, which they bury in a hole in the ground 28 days, and conceal it so long, till the Moon runs through the Zodiac, and returns to its Conjunction and disappears; then opening the ball that shows the conjunction of the Lights, they let forth the young one, nor hath it any other way of breeding. Cut into two, they will live; but the smell of Roses kills them. The Cuttles lay eggs like to black Myrtil berries. They stick together like a bunch of grapes, and cannot be separated: For the male casts some humour upon them, the clamminess whereof holds them together. They breed all the year, and they continue 15 days to lay eggs, Aristot. histor. 5. c. 12. When she knows that cunning Fisher's fish for her, she casts forth her ink, and being environed with that, the Fishers cannot see her: she hunts small fish with her promuscides: Whence Oppianus writes; The cunning Cuttle when she hunts her prey, With slender branches from her soft head springing, Like to fine cords, small Fish without delay She takes, they hold like hooks, when as they clinging, Lie on the sand, she with her tail makes way. Anaxilaus in Pliny saith, That the ink of her is so strong, that burnt in a lamp, it will make those that stand by, look like blackamoors, the first light being taken away. CHAP. XXII. Of the Scorpion. CEdrenus saith, that in the deserts of the brahmin's there are Scorpions of two cubits. In the place where the Turks sell Christians, Nicolaus à Nicolais, saw some that were yellow, as long as a man's finger. In Egypt they have wings, and two stings. Aelian. l. 16. c. 42. In Scythia, if they sting Man or Beast they kill them. Also hogs, though they feel not other venomous bitings, yet die of these, chiefly if they be black; yet each of them dies suddenly, if he come at the water. Aristot. l. 8. c. 29. In the ancient habitations of the Scaligers, that are in the coasts of the Alps by Noricum; they are all the Country over, without doing hurt; and they are in such multitudes that you can remove no stone, but you shall find one under it. Scalig. Exerc. 189. In barks of Trees also, they breed without a tail. They will turn themselves so fast in a circle, as if they were moved with a pair of Compasses. Exerc. 196. In the Country that lies next to those that feed on Locusts, such abundance of them bred once of immoderate rain, that the inhabitants were so stung they were forced to leave their Country; Diodor. Sicul. l. 3. c. 3. Some say that Scorpions devour their young ones, leaving only one that is most subtle, Pliny, This sits fast within the thighs of its dam, and is free from the biting and tail of it, and this revengeth the death of the rest. Pliny. l. 11. c. 25. Aristotle thinks the contrary, l. 5. c. 26. His sting is most dangerous in a dry Country, and when the Dogg-Starr is up. First the place begins to be inflamed, waxing hard and very red. Sometimes it is very hot, sometimes very cold, sweat follows, shaking and trembling, the outward parts are cold, the groins swell, they break wind backwards, the hairs stand an end, the limbs are pale, Cardan. l. 1. de. venen. c. 23. Many remedies are invented; Those that live in Africa going to sleep, anoint their beds, and their feet with Garlic. Strabo, and Alexandrinus, saith Jovianus Pontanus doth testify, that one was cured presently by drinking beaten Frankincense, wherein the picture of the Scorpion was engraven. Also its sting loseth the force, if it touch Bezoar Stone. Jacob Hollerius, l. 1. c. 1. de morbis internis, writes, that by the frequent smelling of an herb of Brasil, an Italian had a Scorpion that bred in his brain: and Albertus saith that Avicenna had a friend that could of rotten wood make Scorpions when he pleased; and he adds, that from them others did breed. CHAP. XXIII. Of Worms in Wood, and the Tarantula. THe Teredo grows in Wood, and there especially he feeds. And though they are bred in many Trees, except the Oak and the Tyle-Tree, yet there are other Trees that they breed not in. For Theophrastus and Pliny write, that the Firr-Tree, the bark being taken off of the branches, will remain in water without any hurt, That was apparent, saith Theophrastus in Phneum of Arcadia, where the ground was narrow into a Lake, there were bridges made with fir; when the water swollen higher, there were other planks laid one upon another: at last all that stopped being thrust forth, the whole frame was borne away, and was found uncorrupted, so that this was found out by chance. Vincentius ex authore libri de Natura rerum, sets it down for a miracle, that Box and white Thorn which are the hardest Wood will breed Worms: But the nut of Aeubaea will never putrefy. Lastly in Tylus an Island of Arabia, there is Wood that will never corrupt in the water: for it hath been observed to have lasted 200, years in the water uncorrupted. The Phrygians, if we will credit Rhodiginus, made their dainties of white fat Worms with black heads, that bred from rotten Wood, called Xylophagi. Aelian. writes that the King of the Indies used for his second course, a certain Worm breeding in Plants, and it was broiled at the fire. Lastly in an Island called Talacha, there are Worms like to those, that breed in rotten Wood, and are the chiefest dish of the Table, Johannes Mandevil. Tarantulae are a kind of Spiders from the City Tarentum. They are harmless to look upon, but when they by't they cause divers symptoms; For those that are stung with the Tarantula, some always sing, some laugh, some cry, some cry out: for being infected with black Choler, according as their temper is, they have all these symptoms. CHAP. XXIV. Of Worms. Article 1. Of Worms in Brute Beasts. Rottenness is the mother of Worms, which whence it proceeds, is known by the general principles of natural Philosophy. Therefore because in Guiney there are great putrefactions, by the continual distemper of the Air, there are found abundance of worms. Hence it appears, that a hot and moist distemper is fit to breed them; that in Summer Months, and when the blasts are warm, Gardens commonly abound with Snails, and flesh with Worms: They are found in cattle, Plants, and in men. Anno 1562, There was a cruel murrain for Cattle, worms breeding about the region of their Liver, Cornelius Gemma. A worm sticks to the forked hoofs of sheep and Rams, which unless it be taken out when you eat the meat, it causeth loathing and pain of the stomach. The Mullet fish breeds but only thrice in its life-time, and is barren all the rest of the time. For in the matrix of it little Worms breed, that devour the seed. In others, some small ones breed, that hinder procreation. Artic. 2. Of Worms in Men. Worm's are found in Men. For sometimes the active cause is sufficient, and there is matter enough in their bodies; and many examples are found every where in Authors, that confirm this. Anno 1549, There were many men about the River Thaysa, in whose bodies there were found Creatures called Lutrae, and Lizzards. Wierus saw a Country man that voided a Worm 8 foot long, it had a mouth and head like to a Duck, l. 3. c. 15. de praestig. Daemon. A Maid at Louvain (saith Cornelius Gemma) voided many prodigious creatures, amongst the rest a living creature a foot and half long, thicker than a man's thumb, like to an Eagle, but that the tail of it was hairy. A Maid (saith Dodonaeus) cast forth some like to Caterpillars, with many feet, and they were alive. Hollerius l. 1. saith, he saw a Worm that bred in a man's brain. Beniventus c. 100, exemp. medic. writes, That he had a friend that was troubled with great pain in his head, raving, darkness of sight, and other ill symptoms; at last he cast forth a Worm out of his right nostril, longer than his hand; when that was gone, all the pain presently ceased. theophra. hist. Plant. l. 9 c. ult. writes thus of Worms in the belly; Some people have belly worms naturally; for the Egyptians, Arabians, Armenians, Syrians, Cilicians, are in part troubled with them, but the Thracians and Phrygians have none. Amongst the Greeks, we know that the Thebans, that use to live in Schools, and also the Baeotians have a worm bred in them; but the Athenians have none. A woman in Sclavonia cast out a very strange worm, described by Amat. Lusitan. curate. medic. Cent. 6.74. It was four cubits long, but not broad, half so broad as one's nail, of a white colour, of the substance of the guts, having something like an Adder's skin: The Head was warty, and white, out of which the body grew broad, and grew still narrower toward the tail. This Worm was but one body with many divisions; the parts of this broad Worm were like to Gourd seeds, that had nothing contained in them by reason of the compression of its broad body. Artic. 3. Of Worms in Plants. ALl Plants, herbs, shrubs and Trees have their worms: a worm in the root is deadly. For let the Tree be what it will, and flourish, yet this will make it wither, saith Aldrovandus l. 6. the Insect. c. 4. And there are sure witnesses, that in the roots of Okes such venomous Worms will breed, that if you should but tread on them with the sole of your foot, it would fetch off the skin. There are small white ones found in the sponge of the sweet briar, which is outwardly soft and hairy, but inwardly so hard and so solid a substance, that a sharp instrument will hardly pierce it. In the white Daffodil, some are bred, which are changed into another flying and beautiful creature, which when the herb begins to flourish, presently eats through the cover, and flies away. Pliny, l. 20. c. 6. writes, that some think that Basil chewed and laid in the Sun will breed Worms. If you bruise the green shells of walnuts, and put them into the water, and then sprinkle them with earth, Worms will breed in abundance, that are good for Fishers, Carol. Stephan, Agricultur, l. 3. c. 34. But Theophrastus 5, the cause. Plant. saith, that a Worm beed in one Tree, and put into another, will not live. Joachimus Fortius reports that he saw some who affirmed that from a hazel nut that had a Worm in it, there grew a Serpent for magnitude and form. For the nut being opened so far as the Worm, and the Worm not being hurt, they put the nut into milk, and set the vessel of milk in the Sun, yet so that the Worm was not beaten upon by the Sun; wherefore, on that side the Sun shined, they covered the Vessel, and so nourished the Worm many days. Afterward adding more Milk, they set it to the Sun again. The milk must be sheep's milk. Also they report, that a Worm is found in the leaves of Rue, nourished the same way, that lived 20, days. Theophrastus writes of the cause of them, plainly and fully. His words are these. Ill diseases happen to all seeds, from nutriment and distemper of the Air, namely when too much or too little nourishment is afforded, or the Air is immoderately moist or dry, or else when it doth not rain seasonably. For so Worms breed in chiches, vetches, and pease; and in rocket-seeds, when as hot weather falls upon them before they be dried; but in Chiches, when the salt is taken from them, and they become sweet. For nature doth every where breed a living creature, if there be heat and moisture in due proportion. For matter comes from moisture for the heat to work on, and concoct; as we see it happens in Wheat. Worm's will breed in the root of it, when, after seed time, Southern winds blow often. Then the root growing moist, and the Air being hot, the heat corrupting the root, engendereth Worms. And the Worms bred, eat the roots, continually. For nature hath appointed that everything shall feed where it is bred. Another kind of Worm is bred within, when the moisture cannot come forth, shut in by the dryness of the Air about it, than the heat contracts it, when the corruption is made. Then also food is administered to it, from the same thing. The same thing seems to happen to Apples and Trees that are Wormeaten from drought. For the little moisture that remains in the Tree, causeth corruption, whence the Worm proceeds; but when there is plenty of nutriment it is otherwise, for then the juice is sent forth to the upper parts, for it conquers by its quantity, and cannot corrupt. Next to this is that which happens to Vines, for in these especially when the South wind blows, Worms breed, that are called Ipes, that is when they are very moist, and the Air causeth fruitfulness, then do they presently gnaw the matter that is of the same nature with them. Also Carpae breed in Olive Trees the same way, and such as breed in other things, both when they bud, and when they flower, or after that the flowers be over. For the● all proceed from the same cause. But this chiefly happens to Vines because 〈…〉 are moist by nature, and their moisture is without taste and watery. 〈…〉 a moisture, may be easily affected. Sometimes Ipes cannot be bred, because the air it pleasant and not too moist. Artic. 4. Of the Indian Worm, and the March Worm. IN Ganges it is miraculous, they report there are blue Worms with two legs, that are 60 cubits long, and they say they are so strong, that when Elephants come to drink they will catch hold of them, by their trunk and carry them away. Aelian speaks of an Indian Worm of seven cubits long, and so thick that a Child of ten years old can hardly fathom it. It hath one tooth in the upper part of the mouth, and one below; both are four square, and almost a cubit long, and so strong, that what living creature it lays hold of with them, it will easily crush them. Sometimes it lies hid in the bottom of a River; in the mud it delights in. At night it comes on land, and catcheth whatsoever comes in the way. The skin of it is 2, fingers thick. The way to catch it is this, they fasten a strong hook to an iron chain, joining also to it a rope of white broad flax, and they wrap both the hook and rope in wool, that the Worm may not bite them off. Then they put a Lamb or a Kid for a bait upon the hook, and so let it down into the River. Thirty men stand ready with Darts, Leashes, and drawn Swords, and strong pikes well pointed at the ends, if they should have cause to strike. When he is caught with the hook, they draw him forth and kill him. They hang him up against the Sun 30 days, and thick oil distils from it into earthen pots; every worm will yield 5. Sextarii of oil, the rest of the body is good for nothing. The virtue of this oil is such, that without any fire, a measure of this poured on, will fire any stack of wood, Aelian. It is said, that the King of Persia took Cities from his Enemies with this oil; It cannot be put out but with abundance of thick clay. The month of March in Germany is wonderful, that breeds young creatures in stinking filthy waters, that are like to guts, and feed only on sand. If any man go into that water barefoot, where this creature swims on the top of the water, he shall have a circle on his legs, as high as the water came, Card. l. 7. the var. c. 37. CHAP. XXV. Of Wasps. WAsps than breed most, when Wolves kill Horses or Oxen. Sometimes they are found in a Stag's head, sometimes in his nostrils. One brought one of these form Wasps houses that was wonderfully made, to Pierius Valerianus, at Bellunum, from some Wood in a desert: Which he describes thus: There were 7. Concamerations or rounds, one above another, set at two fingers distance, distinguished by little Pillars between, that every one might have space enough to go and come to his house. The diameter of the rounds unto the fifth, was about 12 digits; the others from the fifth, were made narrower, by little and little, so that the last was 5. or 6. digits. The first round, that is, the first Chamber, was hanged to a bough of an old Tree, fenced and guarded with a crust against all injuries of wind and weather; Beneath there were six angled Cells very close together, so that the other Chambers were all overcast with the same crust, and made with the like Cells; and all were held up with their pillars. All these Creatures flew out of the upper stations, and an innumerable multitude filled the middle Concamerations, a thin skin being drawn for a cover upon the hole of every one of them; when I had taken some of them away, I saw the Wasps with their heads downwards, that filled all those houses. But those that were in the lowest rooms seemed like to Embryo's of like imperfect Worms; they were also fenced with the same covering, but very thin, as snails in Winter, kept for a milder time in the Spring. But these all died there, by the extreme cold Winter, yet none corrupted; and after so many years they keep the same form and posture. They are most lively; for, part their belly from their breast, and they will live long, and will sometimes prick one that toucheth their sting, an hour after. Aristotle saith, That if you take a Wasp by the legs, and make him to hum, (not those that have a sting, but those that want one) the rest will fly to help them. If they appear before the end of October, they foreshow a hard Winter. If they go in heaps under ground before the 7. Stars rise in the Evening, they signify the same. A swarm of Wasps is naturally an ill omen. So Livy thought, when at Capua, a great swarm of them flew into the Market place, and settled in Mars his Temple. They were collected carefully, and burnt in the fire. The Decemviri were commanded to their books, and the Nine-days sacrifice was appointed, supplications were made, and the City was purged. If any one touch the skin of a man with the distilled water of the decoction of Hornets or Wasps, the place will so swell, that it will cause men to suspect poison, or a Dropsy, or some great sickness; The remedy is Theriac drank or smeered on it, Mi●aldus Memor. Cent. 7. etc. The End of the Eighth Classis. AN APPENDIX TO The Eighth Classis: Wherein there is contained the Observation of Andreas Libavius, a most famous Physician, concerning Silkworms, a singular History, Anno 1599, at Rotenburgh. SInce it is hard to explain the opinions and experiments of all Authors exactly, and what they observed in divers places and ●imes, to make a history thereof, and to condemn or allow, for this or that man's relation, what every man hath found to be true by his own use and observation: Perhaps it may so fall out, that neither Pliny, nor Pausanias, nor others, who seem to comment otherwise than we have found it, aught to be condemned; I will add a special History of Silkworms bred up at hand, which in the year of Man's Redemption, 1599, at Rotenburg at Tubaris, I, by diligent care and attention looking into their works and natures, set it down into a Calendar. If any thing differing from this, hath been observed in Greece, India, Italy, or elsewhere in other Times, Government and Education, Custom, and the like: though Nature be said to act always the same way, and to vary only by accidents; yet what they observed will help, that by many men's observation, the history of Nature may be augmented and perfected. The Silkworms eggs that were laid in a clean paper the year before, and which in Winter I kept in a warm Chamber, I exposed them to the Sun, shining through the windows, on the 25 day of April. Those which were lead-coloured or black, they did not all in one day become Caterpillars, yet they all were changed before the end of that month, the worms creeping forth especially in the morning, as every one was grown to perfection, leaving an empty shell, or covering of a white colour, the egg being eaten on the side, in which place the ends were blackish, by reason of the biting. The purple or Citron coloured, or clear, or distinguished with a black point, brought forth nothing; either because they were not touched with male seed, or the principle was suffocated in them. These small Caterpillars within the egg obtain their form, and lie wrapped into a Circle; whence the shell being eaten, they first put forth a black shining head; then by degrees, they creep forth, with their little mouths, and little feet, by their striving. Then I observed little threads hanging from their mouths, and they were so small, that they could not be seen, unless it were against the light: by these they balance themselves, and hang from the leaves; or wheresoever they fell from higher places, they creep up by them again; or wheresoever they were hanged, to try what they would do, they involve themselves with manifold turnings, and so mount upward, like ordinary Caterpillars that eat leaves and boughs. There is a black little worm and hairy, with a white circle near the breast and head, and with another where the belly joins to the little breast, and yet by reason of the hairiness, it is not very plain to be seen at the first. At the end of the back, where the belly ends, a little gristle comes forth; and as for the rest of its form, it is the same with the Silkworms, but that the hairiness and blackness, by some changes in the skin, pass into smoothness that shines, and is white; and of a small creature, a worm is made as long as the middle finger of an ordinary man, with the 3. joints, as thick almost as the little finger; yet they are not all of one bigness. You shall find some Caterpillars with a threefold spur in their tails, or a double one; so that the greater of them riseth from the last circle of the back, the lesser ones rise presently from the coat of the tail that is under it. I saw one great one that was on both sides fenced with two lesser ones, in the place whereof there are sometimes only two points that stick forth. Caterpillars go as Silkworms do: For they stick the props of their tails into the ground, and then by degrees they go on by circular motion. First drawing up those parts between their tails and their hinderfeets: then fastening these upon the distance between their breast and their feet, until they come unto their breast and former feet; which being fastened, they lift up their tails again, and underprop their steps. For animal motion is made, when some part stands and underprops the rest. So soon as they were bred, I gave them the tender leaves of Mulberries, I put them upon the leaves with a thin knife; or I let them creep upon them of themselves, and I put them together into a wooden box; They set upon the sides and smooth parts of the leaves, above and beneath. For the appendices of their noses do not hinder them. So I fed them from the end of April, or thereabouts, until the eighth day of May, whereon I found they cast their first skin, which was a little black shining mouth, with a slender black skin. They are wont a little before, to pause on it, and to sleep; it is a renewing sleep, if it be a sleep properly. So soon as their old skin is cast, they appear greater presently, smother, and of a more shining black, for the horny covering of the head that grows under the old, is greater in proportion. When the skin is off, the rest of the body swells, as if the narrowness of the skin hindered it to grow so great before. The same covering or skull of the head, when it is new, is white; but when it is confirmed, it grows black again, until there be many changes. But as, before they put off their skin, they abstain from food, so a little after they seem to grow sluggish. For their mouths are too tender to feed on leaves. Whilst they run over the leaves, ofttimes one goes over another, and they willingly endure it, if they be not hurt too much. For then lifting up their little breast, they will shake their heads, moving them here and there, and the Silkworms do the same. Food is given them once and again, and the multitude of them remains in a narrow place. When they have eat enough, they grow sleepy. Then you shall see them like Statues, or such as are taken with a Catoche, lifting up their mouths and breasts growing stiff upon the leaves. But if you cast in new food, they wake presently and feed again. They seem to perceive the new leaves by smelling them. For before they touch them, they will raise their bodies toward them. Yet you may suppose that is done by some alteration in the feeling quality. The excrement of their belly is then small and black like to Gunpowder. The 16 day of May some of them cast their skins the second time, some slept, and the days following cast off their skins. They break near the head, and they stick to the leaves, the Caterpillars coming forth by circles moved in order. The little mouth also doth not fall away presently, but hangs for a time about the new mouth. Then the black colour changeth into grey, and the Caterpillars grow greater; but the breast is white, and so full of juice, that it is almost transparent. But because they do not all change their skins in one day, if you please you may part the one that doth, from the other that doth not. But I left them together, and only gave the new ones new food, the rest yet sleeping in their old clothes, and waiting for their change. For you cannot then cleanse their stall, but you must defer it till they awake, and can be invited to new leaves. The third change began the 22 of May, when many of them slept, some of them put off their coats. It was no longer so black, but it was white, with the little mouth; and the worms came forth whiter, leaving their old skin: they were more rugged that did not stick to the leaves by threads; and those less, that did. For these skins were long and triangular hanging so high. Downward they rise sharp in the middle, which, I conceive, happeneth, by the top of the tail drawn thither, and lifting up the skin. The last extremity of this cast skin is like to a fishes forked tail. The Caterpillars once more freed, fed till the 25 day, and then I observed them to sleep a renewing sleep, and some new ones of them the same day. More slept on the 26 day, some on the 27; very few on the 28 and 29th days, that now the difference was greater. But those that slept on the 27th day, were changed the next day, and fed again after a little pause. With this fourth change of Caterpillars were made Silk Worms, smooth and white, yet with lead coloured spots, and a mouth like a white horn. This is the first month of their life, and their first age. But since in the third and fourth change of their skin, all things are more easily observed, and known, I shall something more accurately describe them. Caterpillars near their third and fourth change, have their skins something more ill favoured, and stiffer than for the breeding of a Worm. Wherefore a soft skin comes up underneath, and the other falls off by degrees: and because they stick with some nervous bands on both sides, wherein there are some prints of spots, and these are not easily broken, they strive more to cast them off, and therefore sleep two days almost, when therefore they come forth, their old horny mouth is parted from the new that comes up under it. The Worm itself, when the cast skin sticks to the leaves, pulls up his feet and little legs, sometimes pulling them up, sometimes slackening them again, until she hath pulled them out of their old covers. In the mean time the skin on their sides is wrinkled, the skaly divided body being contracted into itself, and extended again. So the old skin is loosened from the whole body. By and by the Worm goes foward, and draws the bands on the sides by degrees, the scales being thrust forward orderly, and then drawn in again, that at first you would doubt whether the Worm would come forth before or behind. But this way are the bands broken. First you shall observe it to move forward near the breast, for there the points depart, and you shall see two in the cast skin, two in the worm. Moreover whilst the scales are drawn, a violet coloured line as it were is in both sides of the cast skin, both by reason of the points and of the bands applied to both sides. In the mean while the tail is wrinkled, the feet are freed, and a new worm creeps forth in half a quarter of an hour, that hath an old mouth joined to its mouth, as a Mule with a headstal, you shall see also a white string that it draws at the end of the tail, whereby the skin stuck to the back of it: when they are fast they strive but easily, but when they are loose, they turn themselves strangely on their backs, sides, bellies, till they can get loose. Some of their skins cast, are round; some long. If you take it by both ends, you may draw it out to its full length, with the points of all the feet and scales, for nothing is wanting but the little mouth. The fourth skin in this change is far whiter than the third, as also the covering of the head. These Worms are now Silkworms, if you take good care to feed them, and govern them rightly; They are fat and white, but some more than others, for some seem yellowish, some almost lead-coloured. The feet and mouth at first are soft, wherefore they stay a while from touching or feeding on leavs. They stick fast to them, and by help of their tails, they can draw themselves in and out. The hinder feet are thicker and blunter, as it were with 3, joints, and in the middle a black spot, which I think to be the instrument they hold by, because she can at pleasure pull it in and out, as Cats do their claws. The forefeet do not only serve to go with, but to lay hold on leavs to help their body in passing, to draw the threads, and for other uses. The parts from head to tail in length, on the back are the head, the bunch or wrinkled swelling of the breast, eight semicircular scales, and a three forked tail. The swelling of the breast near the head is white in some, in some it is distinguished with two black and blue spots, which are divided with a yellow line, and in several ones it is severally made. For in some the colour is more remiss and watery, and not so visible, in others it is more deep. But where that bunch riseth up, there are seen 4, knots, and the skin that is by them is wrinkled. The half Circles follow. They are joined with a very thin membrane, as it were by a green line from blue. But the scales are white though in some of them there is something of a lead colour that shines under, and when the Silkworms are ready for their Silkwork, they become of a spiceous colour, and all of them are marked with one spot on each side, with a little circle about it. I said there were bands, which appear also in the Aurelia. Lastly the eighth scale is either distinguished by two black and blue spots, or moonlike semicircles, which two half Moons one respecting the other with their horns are there inscribed. But they are not equal in all, for sometimes they are more conspicuous, sometimes more fading, fine, thin, lead coloured, white. Hence there are two small Circles, and that which follows these, hath two knots, until that which is next the rump, and raiseth the tip or point; In the great ones there are observed bunchings forth in all the scales, but they are more eminent in the third scale. The skull is horny, but it is divided as it were into 3. parts, the right and left, which you would take to be marks of the eyes, and then the setting together of the mouth, which are again distinguished into the appendices and the jaws, wherein stand the saw-like teeth, The throat runs through all the length of the back, as far as the props of the tail, upon which in the last scale is the end of the Belly. Also there are to be seen in the back, as far as the Plectrum of the tail, some nervs movable with a continual pulsation, as the heart and arteries use to move, and these nervs are yellow from white, and when they are drawn asunder, they discover a green throat or intestine. They stick to the plectrum, as if there were some passage for breathing, though they do not breathe. But it is no doubt but there is the Seat of life, though I discovered in the young ones a kind of red part, as I shall show underneath, beating by itself alone like the heart, when that plectrum is cut, a moist yellowish liquor comes forth, and the Worms themselves do not die, but they stir the more violently, and roll and turn themselves that you will judge that they are in great pain, the nervous principle being hurt. The dung of them represents their meat, for it is dry with six corners long, as it were set with eyes, whence one may collect the disposition of the gut or belly. They are green from their food, but because they are hard, and without moisture, they seem black, as those that are more moist seem more green. Here if you mark you may distinguish the males from the females. For the females here, as the Philosopher writes of other females are greater, fatter, moister, softer, whiter than the males, which are more rude, more spotted with wan spots, and more slender. If you handle them you shall find them all to be cold. They use oft to raise themselves on their hinder feet, and to stand so like statues. When they will feed they fasten on the sides and swelling veins of leaves, contrary to Caterpillars. I believe the appendices of their mouths hinder them, yet they afford some help for their former feet to hold their meat with. They eat the leaves round, that they leave a round pit. When they are full they go aside, and they rest many together on a heap; I think they are delighted with mutual heat; you may discern those that sleep, from those that cast their skin, by observing the pulsation in their back. For the motion in those that sleep is equal to those that wake; but when they cast their skins, it is slower and less, that you would then think they were sick. Also those that sleep have but one mouth; but such as cast their skins, show a little mouth besides. But this is not in Silkworms, but whilst they are yet Caterpillars. Some of them being four times renewed, have a filthy dark head, and yet they feed on. Some do not increase much, but continue small. We said before, that from May 25, to May 29, the fourth change is made in divers of them. From this time to June, the 7th, and 8th, 9, 10, 11th, they feed greedily, and grow fat and great; and I was forced three times a day, and about the last days, four times a day to give them meat, or oftener. For when they are almost ripe for Silk work, they eat more greedily, going with great courage to the leaves and biting off the nervs. You shall note that about 13 days pass between their fourth change, and their abstinence from meat, and provision to make their Silk. For the times answer one the other, from the 25, of May to the 7, of June, from 26, to 8, from 27, to 9, from 28, to 10, from 29, to 11, wherein I included the last, except one small male, that fed longer. About the last days, many begin to grow of a spiceous colour, which begins to appear more evidently on the hinder part, and from thence to enlarge and go forward to the bunch of the breast, though others are more, and almost all yellow; some remain white with blue mingled with it. When they must die, they go to the sides of the chest, nor will they bite the leaves, though they creep over them. Some fasten their threads at the corners, as if they were beginning the entry; others creep by the outsides, and seek here and there for a fit place to lie hid in. I shut many of them in, with paper-Coffins, which I disposed of and fastened commodiously in some place, in which by gnawing and rending the sides, they do make a noise for a while, but afterwards by voiding a dry and moist excrement of their belly, (for they void out both) by their hinder parts, they fasten them so fast to the paper, that you would think they were glued. Afterwards for 3, days continually they make a little bladder, which being absolved they lay aside their fifth skin, with their head and tail and are transformed into a nympha again. Some I did not shut up in papers, but disposed them in a wooden chest with boughs, and let them choose a nest for themselves; you shall observe thence, that they seek chiefly for corners and hiding places, and oft times many of them make their Silk in the same place, if it may be; some ordering them, right forward, others obliquely, others broad ways. If the place be too narrow, the wrong end of the skin is pressed together on the side, nor doth it contain perfectly Oval. One of these cases is longer, thicker, larger than another for the greatness and strength of the Silkworm. They differ also in colour; some are Gold, Silver, Citron colours, and they are double. For some are greenish, some more yellow, though others call all these green. The first of them all, as I observed, was white, except some few that send a yellowish tow before. Some of Gold colour have their inward coat white, nor is the yellow colour certain. For when the cases are unfolded in water, the silk grows white; and in die, yellow, etc. But it is worth your labour to contemplate the matter of the silk; and what that is, that yields a thread so long. When therefore I saw a great worm to wander, I put a line about his neck, and dissected him. He lived stoutly when his throat was tied, and felt acutely. For at every incision of his back, the knife scarce touching him, he would toss himself violently, as if he would help himself with his mouth and forefeet. His skin being divided, I saw his long gut, as in a pike, the forepart was swollen and wide, the hinder part narrower. On that gut did the nerves or beating arteries lie, with a continual systole and diastole, and they ended on the plectrum of 〈…〉 tail. When I cut off this, not only a yellow clear humour did break forth, but the heads of the nerves, put themselves forth in the motion, and their stirring grew weaker. The Intestine hath a double coat, one thick outward coat, and another thin one within. The thick coat feels accurately, and it is near the throat covered over with much glutinous matter, which afterwards becomes matter for their wings, and of the hairiness of the Silkworm, as the external excrementitious moisture becomes the Aurelia, or outward shell. When the thick coat is pricked, the intestine comes forth, yet wrapped with a thin coat, and it contains much of the meat they eat the day before of green leaves. Also you may see, when the skin is cut, and the thick coat of the Intestine, that moisture will run forth in abundance, that is transparent, which I think is their blood, and by concoction is changed into silk, and the parts of the Creature. The head cut off, the beginning of the throat swells forth, and doth represent the blunt head of the Nympha. The gut being taken out with the feceses contained in the abdomen, there are seen, like worms, some glutinous clammy concretions, some yellow, some white, two very great, the rest small, so like worms, that nothing wants but a skin and life. They are sharp at both ends. They are so placed in the belly, that both their points are turned toward their tail, and the body of them is doubled; you would say it were their yarn folded together. If they begin to spin from the points, it is necessary that they be drawn from the tail to the mouth. I think that the small whitish pieces make weaker silk and tow; but the greater, the stronger. I took out these worms, and I found that they dried presently on the paper, and became hard and brittle, as Ox glue useth to do, and as the Tendons and Intestines of living creatures. The body of it, is all of one kind and transparent, that no man can draw it into so fine and small thread; but this labour must be left to the Silkworm, as webs to the Spiders. The outward skin was white, mingled with lead colour; but within, it was drawn with a little skin black and blue in part; and partly with a shining gold colour as in a Herring. About the belly where the matter of the silk lay, the substance was pretty thick, consisting of nervous deductions, and a texture containing a white fat, enfolded with nervous coats; the like is found afterwards in the young Nymphs of Silkworms; and they have a matrix and a genital member. Under that substance there are lead-coloured branches let down into their feet like to tendons or chords. This skin, the matrix and genital member remaining, is put oft in weaving their silk, with all the parts that stick forth: so that the Nymph, and Butterfly that riseth from thence, borrow nothing from the Silkworm but the belly and gut, and the nervous parts that are in them. There remains in the gut and genitals a great deal of moisture. From whence afterwards grows the matter of the seed, and excrements of the belly. But the humour that is in the Intestine is yet raw, and is partly green, partly yellow, something thick, and elsewhere thin. If one part the fat from the nervous coats of the genitals, and smeer it on paper, when it is dry it will be like ●ewer, and brittle. You may compare it with milk in fishes. Therefore it is apparent, that in the Silkworm these members are outward; It's threefold feet, the skaly jointing of the belly, the breast, head, mouth, the anus, skin, tail, plectrum: but within is the Intestine, the vital arteries, or the nerves, the white flesh of the breast, the genitals, betwixt which and the Intestine, is contained the matter for Silk; and besides those, the pannicles and nervous membranes, in which the parts are contained. Whether they have any heart, let others seek out: yet there must be some such Principle; and that not in the head, nor any where but near the breast, whence the vital force is sent through the whole body: And this is manifest chiefly by motion of the nerves or arteries (as I may call them) in the back of the belly, not of the breast, so far as the hollow of the tail. I will speak afterwards of the nymphs and young silkworms: Now I will add what I observed in their making of silk. When they abstain from meat, and, as I said, they seek for a place to make their case; they have commonly about the end of their belly a green wan mark, the other part of their body is white with green, or wan, and of a spiceous colour. Then I saw them often make it as they went up and down, and to gape at the mouth, as it were Cows chewing the cud, when as out of their gorge they pull back their meat to chew on. Then it is likely, that the Silkworms strive to turn the matter of the silk toward their mouths, and to draw it out. If you put them into a paper Coffin, you shall hear them gnawing a whole day, and then into the bottom of this Coffin like a Friar's cowl, they put down their excrement, first dry, like a black green pill or yellow. The last pill but one is commonly green, the last is yellow, and sanious. The number of t●is dung is, as their excrements abound. For I found in one paper, sometimes two little knobs, sometimes more, to 12, of divers colours, as black, green, yellow, and those not with bright spots, but round. When the last yellow pill comes forth, watery matter comes forth of divers colours, and a different consistence. For some part is thicker, some thinner, having some red colour with yellow and green; yet some of the sanies is bloody and blackish; such it appears on a clean paper, where you may sometimes see green polluted with yellow; sometime somewhat like chalk. In a glass, it is like to Lye. But that you may not doubt whether she voids it by her mouth or her belly; know, that she makes her silk only out of her mouth, and her excrements by her belly. Yet they send forth moisture also out of their mouth, when they are sick, or strangled, or pressed. I found a Silkworm that was at liberty, that put forth both these excrements behind. Some of them void forth much moisture, others but a little. They that void much seem to be the weaker, and to have gathered less silk. For many of them make small silk cases, but not all. It is doubtful what colour the silk will be. For I was often deceived by observing their heads, backs, bellies and feet. All of them do not make silk of the same colour; and ofttimes the tow and utmost coat is white, but the middle silk is gold-coloured. I thought the Silkworms that were of a spiceous colour would make yellow; and the white ones, white silk; but that was false. For both drew white. Once and again I judged right, that a Citron coloured female would make such a thread: yet such was also drawn by that silkworm, whose belly was Lead-colour with white, and the spot in the forehead yellow. I saw a female also all white, that made white silk. In small and narrow papers, yet according to the Worm's proportion, lesser cases are made, but thicker, with less tow; yet I observed little cases in the larger. They that are not shut up, but choose a place freely, they consume much thread in tow at random: whence the silk is much lost. For their cases are less, and not wrought so thick. If you will observe, you may know exactly the reason of their spinning in these things. For when they have wandered a time, and have begun here and there to make their entrance of their work, (which they do by diligent bending of their bodies, whilst sticking by their hinder feet, they do variously move their head and their whole breast upwards, downwards, backwards, forwards, and on all sides, if there be a fit place to fasten their silk threads, which they do not by sight, but by touching; for they have dull eyes) than they draw forth their threads, and the foundations of their house, and that simple or manifold, as they find need of a strong foundation. If it be near the pavement, they stick to it with their hinder part; and if it be aloft, they hang by the same, or from boughs, or any other place. For they turn their breast and head freely; and if there be need, they change the situation of their hinder parts. Thus the entrance of their first work is made. Now the dry excrements are voided from their belly; the Entrance being finished, so that now the Silkworm is secure and free from outward injuries: she voids the last dung with moisture, of which I spoke before. The tow is oft polluted with this, yet it runs off to the bottom. When her belly is emptied, the spinner ceaseth for a while, and puts forth her anus, as if she had a Tenasmus. Then she calls back the matter of the true silk, and continues that to her last breath, and till her silk work is ended. Then by degrees she thickens her threads from a large to a narrower compass, so that it becomes an oval figure, in the hollow whereof she may turn herself. Her mouth, breast, and forefeet are in a continued motion. The hinder parts stick, yet are they translated to another place, when she makes the bottom or the top. They that make their cases in the ground or pavement, they seem to sit on the naked pavement; but by degrees they wove threads under them, and in all parts they thicken the whole case alike, except in the point, to which in strait places they cannot reach. Therefore the frame of this is made more at first, but the basis more in the end: Though this be not neglected at the beginning. Wherefore when the threads are unfolded, by untwisting them, the point is first made plain, and the inward coat is left, like a fingerhood. So they wove to the third day; and you may see them working the second day, if you hold the case to the Sun. In paper hoods the base is made upwards, the top downwards: and in two days it appears but thin. The third day it is thickened: and then the worm puts off her old skin, and becomes a nymph, which may easily be observed: for when they wove, yet they stick fast; neither is their dull falling down yet perceived. But when it becomes a Nymph, as if it were a stone shut in, shake the case and the Nymph falls down. And this dull falling down endures until it be changed into a young Worm. For then the empty place is filled again, and the Worm sticks to the case, seeking to come forth. There was one Worm I had, that made a case, whose entrance, amongst those were shut in a Paper, was a solid coat: in those that are at liberty, it consists of threads disposed and drawn divers ways to and fro. Some have observed in one case two or three shut in; but when the place would be too narrow, that case cut was common to them three, and the Silkworms found within were become close together, so that they seemed like to 3, fingers joined, when they were all set at liberty, they worked a little, but it was but a little. It is observable, that some Silkworms in paper made no Silk, but presently turned to Nymphs; I think this befell them, because they fed on lettuce, (yet not to them all) or to such as had too little meat given them, or that were sick and could not gather matter of Silk, which I suppose is made of abundant blood like fat, and laid apart. Other strange things happen; whereof in their proper place. All their cases are long and oval. Y●● I saw a white one almost exactly round, that it had a basis spherical on both sides without any point. It was small with its forehouse, but yet thick as it should be. But the silkworm in that did not go to be a Nymph, nor a perfect young worm, as I shall show by and by. It seems a question whether they draw forth the silk out of the end of their belly, or out of their mouth, though they always distribute it with their mouth and their forefeet. It is no small argument, because that near the props of their tail at the bottom of their belly, a chink is seen, and both ends of the silk-matter in the belly lie to that place: Also the voiding of the Excrements at the beginning of their working, confirms this. For as when a woman is to be delivered of a child, what faeces there are in the bladder and the right intestine, that is voided and pressed forth; so we may think the silk matter striving to come forth in the Silkworm doth the like. When she begins to labour, her belly swells more; from the belly begins the maturity, known by the yellowness; That comes first out, as being first ready. Also Caterpillars and Silkworms, stick to the pavement, with a hairy down about their feet. Some are observed to wove on their backs, that the silk may be drawn out of their belly, and may the more easily be ordered by their mouths and feet. This may be alleged for the first opinion. But stronger arguments prove this to be false. For you may see with your eyes, that when the belly rests, threads are drawn out of their mouths, and they sticking by their clamminess, are drawn out by degrees, by turning back their necks. And therefore Silkworms do not only so draw their threads lying on their backs, but lying also on their bellies where yet the whole Worm turns herself freely. Then it cannot come forth by the tail, nor by the chap under the tail. For from the place of the silk to the Intestine, there is no passage: and the chap of the tail, that notes out the genitals of the young worm that shall be, is covered with a skin, Moreover, before the silk comes forth, ofttimes the silkworms do cry and mutter, as if they were r●a●y to vomit, drawing the matter to their throats. Nor do they swell about their tails, but about the middle of their bellies; Also in a Coffin of paper, when no thread appeared on their feet, I saw them draw it forth with their mouth only, and to fasten it; and the 2d. of June, when I earnestly observed one making its case, I drew the beginning of the thread out of the worms mouth, when it was wet, to its full length, the belly and the feet having no silk upon them. So Caterpillars hang by the mouth, their thread coming out there. Nor do Spiders and Palmer-worms on trees make their webs otherwise. And so much for this question. When the Case is made, the Silkworm is changed into a Nymph, and the fleeces are taken, first choosing what males and females you please, for preservation of their kind. Some say you may know their sex by the colour of their case; some by the bigness: And this is some argument. For, because females are commonly the greater, they make also the greater houses. Yet sometimes we are deceived; for a strong male may make a greater case than a weak female. I have seen them both of a bigness, and I have seen females, ●ed in other places, to make far less houses than my males. Wherefore the signs must also concur, observed in the silkworms themselves▪ of which before. The other cases are cast into scalding water, that the worms may die, or they are choked with the heat of an oven, after the bread is taken forth, taking care they burn not. Then taking away the Tow, maidservants or such as can labour, are ready, who may loosen the beginnings of the threads; which being found out, many of them are cast into a basin of cold or warm water, and the servant Maid sitting ready with a drawing instrument, doth continually roll down 30 or 40, or more threads joined together. If the thread break any where, the fellow-labourer must seek for the beginning of it, and give it again to him that unwinds it. That is continued until they come to the inward coat, which being very difficult to untwist, it is dried and pulled into tow and kembed. When the threads are thus untwisted, they send much dust into the Air, and you may see in the bottom of the vessel some filth that fell from the silk. I tried carefully, whether I could with one work unwind a whole case not breaking it, taking away the Tow, which by reason of its various foldings together, weakness, and divers principles, cannot be untwisted at once drawing. I obtained my desire only in the middle of the silk; for that which is before the house is wont to break easily, but the middle holds best. The last coat, by the weight added to it, (for then the Nymph falls down) was unfolded by me with great care to the thin skin, which was scarce equal to the thumbs nail. Those cases are best untwisted, whose basis and top answer diametrically; but those are harder, whose top is bound, and they that are crooked or bunched. For here the thread sticks and is tangled, that it will hardly yield without breaking. First, the point is made bare, and untwisted all to the middle of the case.— The thread of one silk case was as long as this line here drawn, when it was drawn forth 7000 times, and in one it was above 8000 times longer: yet they are not all of one thickness and greatness; which may be seen, by drawing them asunder into little skins. For some fleeces I drew into 12, some into 8, more or less coats. The wild Silkworm hath an entrance, a single coat, and something a thicker case: wherefore the thinner cases easily yield to the fingers pressing them, but the thicker will resist. When the top hath a hole almost to the middle, that the Nympha may easily fall forth; she falls with her cast skin, wherein there is both her head and all her feet. Sometimes commonly the head of this old skin is over against the top of the case, that we may understand that it was cast off, whilst the Worm when the case was perfected, doth bend and turn herself upwards through narrow streets. The Crown of the Nympha is toward the basis, the tail toward the top; and being that the Silkworm is above twice as long, the Nympha is contracted to a small bigness, that it is scarce so long as the middle joint of the second finger of a man. She is alive, and gives tokens that she is so, by the moving of her top or tail when she is touched. If you regard her outward form, you would say she is a scaly Worm, and her head is covered with a bag. The scales are dark coloured, as if they were stained with smoke, and they are eight in number, as far as the confines of the Crown: On the sides of each of them there are two round points, out of which the tendons or bands appertain to the young Silkworm. On the Crown there is a white spot, as if the mouth of the young Silkworm shined through it, with three little black spots. After this on the foremost part there are prints of feet and horns, and on the hinder part toward the sides, are prints of wings, If you will observe the inward parts, the fourth day before it is changed into a young Silkworm, after it hath lain hid, you may open it, you shall see nothing else but a common empty place, and in this only three distinct humours. One of a watery thin substance, of a yellow colour; This is equally diffused through the whole space. The other is red, like blood; This sticks in the upper part, where the head and breast will be; you would judge it to be the rudiment of the heart, because I saw the like afterwards in the young Silkworm, a certain Mass that moved of itself, if a heart may be attributed to this creature. The third humour is white and yellow; and it is like to a hen egg, cast into a hot water and run about; or like cheese-curds, if you add some yellow to them. Where you see the prints of wings and feet outwardly, there lies hid a phlegmatic clammy matter, fit to make the membranes of, you shall see no distinction of parts; I think the life is in the nervous coat, that is next under the outward shell. For the Silkworm in that part was exceeding sensible, and had a motion of the heart and arteries; you would call this a little bladder filled with humours, which yet compared to the Aurelia, after the young Silkworm is crept forth, is far thicker, and you would say it were a shell clothed on the inside with coats and a tenacious glow. After this, is the down of the young Silkworm, the wings, feet, skin, and the other outward parts. So the Silkworm passeth into throat and belly, for whose sake only it was detained there. Yet here appeareth no green colour which was much in the intestine of the Silkworm now ready to spin. Part therefore was voided before the case was made, and part was changed into some other juice. In the tip of the tail there was also some clammy matter like to the raw white of an egg. I thought it to be the rudiment of the genital parts. For with that the matrix & spermatical Vessels were cast off, the beginning whereof is seen also in the belly of the Silkworm. The humours taken on a clean paper and dried, were stained with black, as if you had mingled ink with them, yet the tallowy substance remained white, and in some places a red and yellowish spot appeared with a white spot like chalk: whence we may collect that that blackness was only from a watery yellow humour, which only shined on the paper where it stuck thick, like to shining ink. The rest of the Nymphs, partly deprived of all Silk, and naked partly shut up yet in a single coat, partly safe in the whole Silken case, I handled with no other care, but I only put them up in a box, and set them in my window, yet I distinguished them into divers Cells, such as I thought to be females, and such as I thought to be males, and I was not deceived in more than one only. So from the first shutting them in, until they came forth, there passed 26, or 27, days, setting them in my study to the afternoon▪ Sun in the heat of June, as it was very hot in 99 For the female that was buried on the 11, of June, came forth a young Silkworm on the 8, of July. A male that began to spin on the 9, of June, on the fifth of July became a butterfly. The same day two females came forth out of two greater white cases, and one male from a less yellow case. On the sixth of July in the morning (for they all come forth in the morning) a male came out of a white case, he was dusky coloured and rough; and a white female very tender, with a great belly, and with great wings, came out of a case that was yellow and greenish. Also before on the second of July, a male crept forth of a Gold coloured case, and a female out of a white one. These began their Silken case the tenth of June. When young Silkworms are ready to come forth of whole cases, when you shake it, you shall find no more a dull weight; and then the aurelia opens about the back of the thorax; after that a great deal of clear humour that is white is poured out of the mouth, and the place grows wet, where they will make their passage. This way they came forth with labouring and striving. I saw a female coming forth on the 8th, of July; she sent so much moisture before her, that a great drop fell into the box. Then her head appeared, she striving with her feet within. By degrees, after her head, she put forth these; and presently she stood upon the pavement with them, and by striving by little and little, she drew forth the Circles of her belly; that when the first was drawn forth, and she would draw out the second, she drew up all her foreparts, that so she mi●ht pull forth the next roundle; yet it is very like, that by that contracting of herself, the hole was made wider that her belly at last might come forth with less pain. Her divers turning side ways, helps for this also. In the mean while the thicker young Silkworms and such as have more moisture in their bellies, press something forth when they strive, and they do besmeer the case where the hole is, both inside and outside with a plaister-like clamminess. They that labour less and are slenderer, leave but little. Then you shall see the whole hoary case, something wet by the moisture comes forth of their mouths, and made easy to pass through. Sometimes they are wont to be quiet, and oft times to inflate their bellies, to draw it forth and draw it in again, as if they did set their disjointed limbs, and put them in their true places. And they do so draw forth and loosen the circles, that the joints stick up filled with a yellow humour, as if they were inflated. You shall see the naked Nymphs, when the butterfly is perfect within, two or three days before to move themselves, as if they would break the bands by which the young Silkworm is tied to the Aurelia. I than opened one of them with my knife and nails, that I might see the congruity of the outward with the inward parts. That I did, the fourth of July, when as then about 20, days were passed from the time of their making Silk▪ The first scale being removed, about the beginning of the little breast on the backside I saw the tender upper circle of the belly; it was skinny covered with a moist down, yet so short and made plain that the down could scarce be seen. Under the place of the side wings, which in the Aurelia you may compare to the Shoulder blades, two true wings of the young Silkworm did lie hid, joined together, and one laid upon the other. They were all short and tender, as not being yet perfect in quantity. Between the wings of ●he thorax, the latter knob appeared, fenced on both sides with long hairynesse, but not yet covered over. The wings and this red part being dispatched, I came to the upper lines bending downwards; under these were their horns. But under those that followed, the feet on the breast did lie; being bend obliquely and directed to their belly. Under the white spot on the Crown of the Nympha, the hairy Crown of the young Silkworm, and the hinder part of the head are placed; next to which lies the print of the eyes, like to two black spots, which are divided with a cleft like a Lion's lip, the whole belly is like to white paint. The hairs of it are very wet, and appear smooth. They have roundells, as well as the Silkworm and the Nymph. But I did not open the whole young Silkworm, but he by his striving pulled himself forth of the rest of the Aurelia. I saw with what labour he unloosed the bands of his belly, which like white cords do hang from the points of the circles, and are left in the empty Aurelia. The fundament sticks also fast, wherefore the tip of the Aurelia is contracted toward the breast inwardly. The male was with hairs and wings imperfect. I left him in the box. He lay still, till the next day. Then he grew white by degrees, and the downynesse was seen more exactly. The wings also grew, and then he grew more jocund, and being admitted, the third day he copulated stoutly. What these young Silkworms are, appears by what we now say, and did say before: we must add this; that the belly in the Aurelia is more contracted, and when it comes forth it becomes greater and longer by a third part, by distending and inflating it. In the Aurelia, there is a threefold rupture from the Crown through the back of the thorax, and there the young Silkworm comes forth. The other parts are entire. All the rest of the young Silkworms being come forth before the 14th of July, two cases remained whole, as if they would yield nothing, though they were very thick. One was a small round male; the other a female twice as long, and pretty large, a little about the back the worm was raised with a little bunch. The colour of the Tow of both was white; but in the Citron-coloured, the silk was greenish, though it were a more watery colour in that. When I divided the round Coffin with the edge of my knife, a carcase appeared outwardly, half a Silkworm, half a Nymph. The forepart was a plain Silkworm, the latter a Nymph; for it had not put off the whole skin, but only the latter part, which was next it in the case▪ The carcase lay crooked, so that the forefeet in the breast touched almost the first pair of the hinder feet. For here between the first conjugation of the hinder feet, and the second, the skin was broken; So that the Nymph was covered with her former skin, wherein was her head and breast with 6. feet, and part of her belly with the two first. The skin and the Aurelia being removed, within there lay a perfect male young silkworm, and it had been living, as appeared; for that striving to come forth two days before I made Infection, he had wet the case with his moisture; and the 19 of July, when I perfectly freed him, he showed clear signs of motion in his belly and feet: The cause why he could not clear himself and come forth was found, in the close sticking of the Silk-worm's skull, and of the fore-feets, the coat being fastened to it by nature. Therefore though in the back of the Thorax he had made a gap both in the Aurelia and the cast skin, yet could he not pull forth his head and feet; so he fainted by degrees. Here I observed the policy of Nature: For when in putting off the cast skin the forefeet are plucked off, and the hinder feet depart also; yet there are prints left, under which afterwards others grow up. And the sins of the wings were inserted into the holes of the old silkworm, and the whole head of the new silkworm, with the horns of the head were shut in a covering. This was the male. The Female quite dead, seemed yet more monstrous. The Silk-work being finished (which was a great silk case, and as long as two joints of ones little finger, but the males was thinner a great deal;) The silkworm strove to cast off the skin, that was white, light, and shining within side, but outwardly hairy and yellowish, and he had drawn forth his whole back, that bunched forth extremely, his foreparts being contracted circularly; but he could not free himself of the little mouth that stuck too fast. Wherefore there you might see the head of the cast skin, the crown of the Nympha, and of the Necydalus joined together: which conjunction kept the skin upon the belly, that it could not be totally cast off, and drawn forth. Wherefore it stuck so with the point of the belly, as if it were shut into a sack, and bound about the head; but a hole being made on the backside, it might have drawn forth the back, but it would yet have stuck by the head and fundament, so lying crooked and dead. The cast skin was thus. Out of this also stuck forth the Aurelia, as concerning the upper part. Again, out of the Aurelia almost the entire young Silkworm had wrested itself; breaking the shell on the backside, and in the wont place, but the head stuck fast not to be pulled asunder, as also the outmost parts of the belly. In the belly put forth was seen a great number of yellow eggs. For the female presently within the Aurelia, perfects her Eggs in her matrix, but they are unfruitful till the male besprinkled them. I saw one lay eggs that had coupled with no male. Hence it was clear, how Nature puts off the old skin with the form of it first, and then passeth into a Nymph; the Aurelia whereof being again put off, out comes the Necydalus. This was a triple form Monster, worthy to contemplate of. In this also you might observe the Aurelia, on that part the wings were marked, to be black and dark, as if it had been in hot smoke: then how ●uch the female Necydalus had striven to come forth, was plain by the eyes that stuck out in the distances of the skaly circles. Sometimes the circles of the belly stick together by contiguity, a thin skin coming between them. But in this the circles were so disjointed, that the girdle of the juncture was larger than the circle. The top of the belly of the cast skin, and of the Aurelia were transparent against the light, so that you might exactly discover all about it. The end of the Necydalus came as far as the middle capacity of the Aurelia; the Necydalus was hairy about the back, though imperfectly, as also the wings were not yet of their full bigness. And thus much for Monsters. When the Necydalus is lusty, it is full of life, chiefly in the breast. For when the head and tail are cut off, it will move the wings strongly, and run with its feet, and that till the next day or longer. The female being cut in the belly, shows her matrix full of Eggs; that when 400 are laid, there are more behind. It seemed to be wrapped in a very thin coat. There appeared also some nervous pipes, like the passages of the guts. In the middle of the belly a little bladder was seen, containing an earthy juice, that was yellow or russet colour. This bladder of itself had a continual systole and diastole. I thought the principle of life was there as in the heart. About the neck of the matrix there was a double white nervous knot, like to the bladder of animals; it was hard and shining, and that within the belly. I shall speak of the dug-like processions afterwards. There was one little knot that was bigger, and another that was less. The neck of the matrix is like to a pipe; to which being full of juice, there are joined without on both sides two yellow knots like to breasts. About the neck there is a circle with horny reins, that are broad, and blunter on the top, with which she takes hold of the genital of the male. The breast is fleshy. The head is membranous and horny. The horns triangular, with a white back sticking up, but the wings are let down on both sides, to make the Triangle: If you cut them off whilst they are alive, a kind of transparent juice comes forth of the back, as out of a pin-feather, and there appears a hole within. Thus I found the female, which I opened whilst she was living. When she was dead, there was nothing found in her belly but a notable cavity of her belly near to her breast; and then that vital humour in the bladder, though it now was no longer living; after that, the relics of the matrix that was emptied, which were nervous and membranous. The upper parts of the male agree with the female. If you op●n his belly, you shall find much red matter within; and besides that, a tallow matter full of nerves, to which the genital passage is fastened. He hath a peculiar genital, wanting other things that belong to the female. The History of it is this; Under the tail environed with a long Down, there is a notable hole under a membranous circle, as hard as horn, that is divided as it were into two teeth. In the middle of this compass there is the three forked neck of the genital part, with the extremities of it that are horny. About this there are set reddish prickles (all the horny processes are red going toward black) the two uppermost are like hooks, of bended back like anchors, or like Goats-horns bend backwards. The single one beneath them is straight. These prickles are next the neck of the member. A little beyond in the middle of the compass, there are three other small pricks; with so many bands he lays hold of the matrix of the female, and draws it to him, and holds it so fast, that if you would pull them one from the other, you would sooner believe the joining together of the belly, and the circles should break, than the copulation should unloose, which I often proved. Also from hence you may judge of the constancy of their copulation, for I saw them stick fast together whole Summer days, and at night, I know not at what hour, it is probable about morning, they parted asunder, and in the morning I found many Oval little Worms, and them lying quiet one from the other, yet they will stick together, being cast into cold water. When I sprinkled salt and pickle on the joining of their tails they held fast; nor were they parted with water of vitriol added. I drenched the male into the water, and I let the female stand dry on the brink of it, casting both vitriol and salt into the water, yet he lived and held his copulation. Then I left him so all night in the water, in the morning some hundreds of eggs were in the bottom of the water, and the young Necydali swum alive. I cut off another males head in copulation, yet he parted not. I divided his breast from his belly; he stuck fast till I drew him off by force. The head and breast, as of divided flies, live long, but the breast longest. This male cut asunder in copulation, had in his belly also a yellow reddish matter, with some intestinal substance that is yellowish, and skinny. The male was bred the fourth of July, and died for weakness on the fifth, and being opened he had nothing else in his belly. Otherwise the Necydale will live 7, or 8, or more days. For, as I said, he is constant, so that when I broke with four strokes the beginnings of the wings and the breast, and then the belly sometimes, yet it lived as not hurt, though the Spirit were dissipated at length; the next day for the most part, if they be so dealt withal, they die. The male hotly desires copulation; after a little stay, when he is come forth of the Aurelia, and that when he hath often unburdned his belly, and sometimes also when he hath sent forth no moisture; and this happens also in the female. The male that is lively after the first day's copulation, when he hath rested at night, the next day he seeks for the same female, or any that he can meet with, so that he will couple three or four times. The female also admits of the male as often, though she do not always lay eggs. For she begets no eggs, unless she have some within her, though she copulate with the male. So soon as they uncouple, she presently lays her eggs in order one after another, you shall see them thrust forth with striving and contraction of her belly, and be shut forth from the neck of the matrix put out, so that it will touch the pavement. I reckoned above 400, from one female, and almost 400, out of others; and these being dissected, had yet many more in their matrices. What therefore Vidas writes of hundreds, that may be understood of lean little Necydalls, such as I see proceed from want of nourishment, others were almost three times as great. Some males do void their dung once before copulation, and again after their second copulation. Sometimes the males, loosed and not yet satisfied, will hinder the female that is about to lay eggs, and couple again with her, though the female copulates with him by force, and desires by contracting her belly, and by striving with her hinder legs, to be loose. So one before copulation laid 17, after she had once coupled and was loose again, 194, and then coupling again, after four hours' copulation, she laid 245, than the male having an appetite, she cast moisture as out of a spout, and coupling again, and being freed, she laid above 20, eggs. Those Eggs that were laid on the fourth of July of a Citron-colour, on the 7th grew red, and after that, Lead-coloured. I kept them in a box behind my Window, exposed to the afternoon-Sun. Those that were barren did never change their colour, but only sank down. In the Necydalls that are loose, you shall sometimes observe a trembling motion, like as if they had an Ague. Yet I say not, that they are aguish. But I think, that shaking comes by the alteration and promotion of the seminal matter, the vapour exhaling from thence, and rending the nervous parts. The last Necydale was a small one; and on the 24th of June, weaving a small case between two Mulberry leaves, he came forth the 13th of July, in which besides that, he had made a very small Silk case; This also was observable, That he came not forth of the basis of the case, but made a hole in the top, contrary to all the rest. Yet he was a male that feared not to copulate with a female that had thrice been coupled with a male before, and was almost dead. When he had twice copulated, he afterwards fainted. His wings were painted otherwise than the others were; for whereas the others are distinguished with lines, long and broad ways, as with welts; this had four such Lead-coloured lines broad ways; but between the second and the third, toward the outward borders of the wings, there was a small circle coming between, not exact, but wan, with a white spot in the middle. But indeed Nature is so ingenious in this Insect, that when you have observed and writ many things, you have more to observe still. Therefore I conclude this History; and leave the rest to those that are studious in the Secrets of Nature. OF THE DESCRIPTION Of the Wonders of Nature. The Ninth Classis. Wherein are set down the Wonders of Fishes. Plin. l. 9 Natur. Hist. c. 2. THe common opinion is true, That whatsoever cometh forth in any part of Nature, is to be found in the Sea; and there are many more things, which are to be found no where else. CHAP. I. Of Hornback, Sturgeon or Elops, or the Dace or Groundling. THe Hornback Fish hath a chap under her belly; wherein Rondeletius saith, he saw her eggs lie. For cutting that fish at the beginning of Winter, he found many eggs in that cleft. Yet after she is delivered, it closeth so fast, as if it grew together; which is no wonder, as may be seen in the English Pikes. It is covered in so hard a shell, that a sharp sword can hardly cut it. The Sturgeons when they are taken lament their destiny, and seem to entreat; and leaping in the nets, strive to free themselves. Oviedus and Plutarch say, that with their sharp backs they will cut the line, and free their captive fellows. The Dace of Phalera is so soft and fat a fish, that if it be held long in the hand, it will melt; or if many of them be carried in Ships, they will drop fat, which is gathered to make Candles with. Apitius, as Suidas reports, set the pictures of these Fishes, with Rape roots cut into long and slender pieces, boiled with oil, and strewed with pepper and salt, before Nicomedes the King of Bythinia. CHAP. II. Of the Eel. ALl know, that Eels are found in many fresh Waters; yet Nauclerus writes, That in the Danube there are none; but in the Rhein there are. Albertus makes the cold of Danubius to be the cause thereof; and this proceeds, because it runs before the mouth of the Alps from West to East, and receives the greatest part of its water from thence. These only, contrary to other fishes, do not float, being dead, Pliny. The reason is given by Aristotle, from the small belly it hath, and little fat. The swimming of Lampreys, conger's, and Muraenas, that abound with fat, confirm this to be true. They are so lusty, that being devoured whole by a Cormorant, they will come forth of his guts, nine times one after another; and when they are grown weak, than he retains them, Gesner. Held in a man's bosom, especially great eels, will twist about a man's neck and choke him, Cardanus. On the Land they die, if the Sun shine on them; otherwise very hardly, as you may see them living when their skin is pulled off. Athenaeus, Aelianus, and Plutarch do testify, that in Arethusa of Chalcidon, there are tame ones, adorned with earrings of gold and silver, that will take their meat by hand. Nymphodorus reports the same of the River Elorus. CHAP. III. Of the Whale, and the Barbel. THe Whale is the greatest and chief of all Fishes. Pliny calls this the greatest creature in the Indian Sea, which was four Acres in bigness; Massarius interprets this to be 960 foot long. Nearchus saith, that there are Whales of 23 paces in length, and reports, that in the Island before Euphrates, he saw a Whale cast forth of the Sea, that was 150 cubits. That Whale which was taken in the Scald, ten miles from Antwerp, Anno 1577, on the second day of July, was of a blackish blue colour: he had a spout on his head wherewith he belched up water with great force: he was 58 foot long, and 16 foot high, his tail was 14 foot broad; from his Eye to the top of his nose the distance was 16 foot. His lower chap was 6 foot, of each side, armed with 25 Teeth, and there were as many holes in the upper chap where there were no teeth, yet so many might have stood there. The longest of his Teeth, was not above 6 thumbs long. A Whale not long since was taken at Sceveling, a Village near the Hague in Holland, was 60 foot long. His head was about 3. cubits long, I saw him there. Platina observes, that the Barbels eyes are venomous, chiefly in May. Antonius Gazius found it so. For when he had eaten but two bits thereof, at Supper time his belly was so inflated, that he looked as pale as ashes; he was distempered all over, at last he fell into the choleric passion. Nor did these symptoms abate, ●ill the eyes were voided upward and downward. CHAP. IU. Of the Carp, the Clupaea, and the Conger. THe Carp, saith Gesner, hath a little white hard stone in his head, near his tongue, and in the middle of his head a thick substance like to a heart, that is flexible while it is new; but afterwards it grows hard. Sometimes it is found 20 pound weight. Jovius saith, That there was one found in the River Latium two hundred pound weight. When the Female finds herself great with young, when the time of bringing forth is past, by moving her mouth she rouseth the male, who casts on his milt, and then she bringeth forth. In Polonia, broad Carp being put into a fishpond by one, when the waters were frozen, though he sought them diligently, he could not find them; when the Spring came, and the waters were thawed, they all appeared, Gesner. Clupaea is a great fish. In Sagona a River in France, when the Moon increaseth, it is white; but black when it decreaseth. When the body is but a little augmented, it is destroyed by its own prickles. In the head of it there is found a stone like a barley corn, which when the Moon decreaseth; some think it will cure the quartan Ague, if it be bound to the left side, Calisthenes Sybarita, citante Stobaeo. conger's contain their offspring within them, but it is not equally so in all places, nor doth their increase appear in a fat gross matrix, but it is contained in it, in a long rank, as in Serpents; which is manifest by putting it into the fire: For the fat consumes; but the eggs crackle, and they leap forth, Aristotle 6. Hist. c. 17. CHAP. V. Of the Dogg-fish. THe men of Nicaea, saith Gellius, took a Dogg-fish that weighed 4000 pound; a whole man was found in the belly of it. Those of Massilia found a man in Armour. Rondeletius saw o●e on the shore at Xanton, the mouth and throat were so wide that they would take in a fat man. Bellonius saith, that each side of the mouth had 36, teeth, wherefore some think the Prophet Ionas was swallowed by this fish: and that this is that they call the Whale, it being so vast a creature. The same Bellonius writes, that this Fish at divers times brings forth 6, or 8, young ones, and sometimes more, each of a foot long, perfect with all their parts, and oft times the young one coming forth there are eggs yet raw in the matrix, and some hatched, lying in the upper part toward the midriff; and some of them are contained in the right turning of the matrix some in the left. In her Whelps, this is chiefly wonderful, that they were covered with no secondine, and they are fed from some part of the Navel that hath Veins. For since saith he, she doth not put forth her eggs, and they are tied by certain bands to the matrix, they seem to need no other coat than the Amnios; whereby the Whelp being now form, and by a chink in the sternon, that passeth between the fins that are toward the gills, it receiveth nourishment from the matrix by a band, or the middle of it, that is so slender, as a Lute string; But this nutriment by that slender string is carried into a little bag, which you would say were the stomach, which is always full of it, like to the yolk of an egg: the position of it is in the middle of the belly, and under the two laps of the Liver. And that this is true, if you cut a Whelp taken out of the dams belly, through the belly, you shall find the true stomach of it to be always empty. For it takes and devours nothing by the mouth. But you shall see the right intestine to swell with wan coloured excrements. If you take the young Whelp alive out of the dams belly, and do not hurt him, but cast him into the water, you shall see him to live and swim presently. Rondeletius observed the eggs to stick in the middle of the matrix toward the back bone; and when they increase they are translated into both the Sinus of the matrix. The form of the eggs is like to pillows we sleep upon under our heads; out of the corners there hang long and slender passages which Aristotle calls hairy pores, and they are rolled up like Vine tendrels; if you stretch them out at length, they are two cubits long. When the shell breaks, the young ones come forth. CHAP. VI Of Dracunculus. DRacunculus is a fish with a great head, a compacted nose sticking forth, a little mouth without any teeth, without any opening at the gills; but in the place of this, above the head there is a hole on both sides, wherewith it takes in and puts forth water. It hath great eyes set above the head, the head-bone ends at the prickles that tend to the tail. The Fins are exceeding long, considering the body partly Silver, part Gold coloured. Those about the Gills, are Gold-coloured, and Silver coloured in the root▪ These that are in the lower part, and next to the mouth, are longer than those that are next to the gills. On the back two stand up; the first is small, Gold coloured, distinguished with Siver lines; the latter is very great on the middle of the back, not much unlike to butterflies wings, and is made of five bones like to ears of Barley, and a membrane. The former bones of radii are the longer, the hinder are the shorter, contrary to what it is in the membrane; which being as it were woven between all the distances of those radii, increaseth by degrees. The same also, is divers; for it is distinguished with Silver lines set between two black lines. This is hid in the middle hollow of the back, as in a sheath. There is also another Golden coloured membrane from the tail to the Podex, excepting the fringes that are black. CHAP. VII. Of the Dolphin, Exocaetus and the Fiatola. THe Dolphins see so exactly, that they will see a fish hid, in a hole, Oppianus. They are so swift that Bellonius observed one of them to swim faster than a ship could run under sail, before the wind that blew strongly. Some make their Fins to be the cause of it, others their light body. The famous Baudarcius thinks the membrane between their foreyards being extended, serves them for sails. They love one the other so well, that one being taken at Caria and wounded, a great multitude of them came to the Haven, and departed again when he was set free. When the Mariners whistle, they will stay the longer about the ship but when a tempest riseth, the credulous Greeks say, if any man be in the ship that hath killed a Dolphin, they will all flock thither to be revenged. When then play on the calm Sea, they foreshow which way the wind will blow, and when they cast up water, the Sea being troubled, they foreshow a calm. Plin. l. 8. c. 35. Thomas thinks that exhalations rising from the bottom of the Sea, when a storm is at hand in Winter, is the cause of it; and he thinks that the Dolphins feel heat thereby, and so break forth the oftener. But since more fishes also perceive a tempest coming, Rondeletius thinks that they are affected in the water with the motion of the air, as those that are sick are wont to be, when the South wind begins to blow. Exocaetus lives long on the dry land. The cause is, the plenty of air; which being he doth not draw it in, too largely, he is not choked by it. Hence it is, that an Eel will live a long time under ground, Rondelet. Fiatola is a broad plain fish, with a tail like to a half Moon, a fleshy tongue; contrary to all other fish, he hath no sins under his belly, and he is wholly without them. His Liver hath but one lap, without any Gall, his stomach is made like the Letter V, the lower part of it ends in a point; and there are so many Appendices of hairs unto it, that they cannot be numbered. CHAP. VIII. Of Glanis and Glaucus. WRiters report of Glanis, that it is a mighty and terrible fish, especially in the River Tissa that runs into the Danube. He riseth so boldly that he will not spare a Man. It is publicly said in Hungaria, that there was found in the belly of one, a hand with rings upon it, and pieces of a Boy that swum in the Danube, that was devoured by it, Comes Martinengus. Gesner saith, he heard it of a learned Hungarian, that the same was taken in the River Tissa; it was 7, or 8, cubits long, and was carried in a Cart. This had lain hid in the River 16, years, near the Kitchen of a Noble man; at last it was caught with a hook, when it had young ones to look to: when she found herself taken, she leapt forth; the fishers ran after her two miles, at last they wearied and took her, and carried her to a Town called Nadlac. There was in her belly a Man's head, with his right hand and three Gold Rings upon it. The Glaucus hath a spongy Liver distinguished into two laps, the left is the larger. From the right lap there hangs a little Gall bladder, from a thread three fingers long, so great as a pease; and it hath in the bottom of the stomach a kind of Apophysis, not to be seen almost in other fishes, besides five others in the Pylorus, that fence the stomach about. CHAP. IX. Of the Herring and Huso. THat the Herring lives by water, the Author of the Book of Nature witnesseth; taken out of it, it will not live, as experience testifies. In his belly there is nothing found, for it hath only one hungry gut. They swim together in such great shoals, that they cannot be taken for multitudes. When they see light, they swim in flocks, and so they are caught in the autumnal equinoctial. They shine in the water turning their bellies upward, and they send forth such a light, that the Sea seems to lighten. It is a miracle that some relate concerning the Inhabitants of the Island Terra Sancta of the Germane Ocean, namely, that in the year 1530, after the Virgin's delivery, 2000 men lived by Herring-fishing there; but when they peevishly whipped one of them, they had taken with rods, these fishes did so diminish, that afterwards scarce 100 could live by that labour. The Huson's have a gristle instead of a back bone, that hath a great empty hole, from head to tail as bored with a piercer. What Aelian, l. 14. c. 25. saith of the Autacea, that in time they grow as big as the greatest Tunie fish in the Danube, and their abdomen is so fat, that you would say their paps were as great as a Sows that gave suck, and are covered with a rough skin that Spears are polished with them, with a membrane so tied from the brain to the tail, that dried in the Sun, it will serve for a whip, that must be understood of these Huson's: For Vadianus, in Epitome trium terrae partium, writes, that he saw some of 400 weight: They are so fearful, that the least fish will fright them. They follow the sound of Trumpets, that they will come to the bank over against it. Lastly, they are so strong in the water, that if they strike the fisher with their tail, they will strike him out of the Ship; so soon as they put their heads above water, they grow weak. They will drink strong wine, and live many days, being drunk they are carried to strangers, they will drink 4. Sextarii of Wine. CHAP. X. Of the Pike and Luna. ALbertus writes, that the Pike hath its stomach so joined to the throat, that sometime it will cast it up for greediness of meat; but it hath many appendices wherein the Chylus made is preserved, as Rondeletius observed. There was a very great one seen that had another great one in the belly; and this again had a water-mouse. Another was seen that had two young Geese in it; another had a Moorhen in its stomach. For great hunger it will feed on food at Land. It hath a natural Enmity with a frog. Hence it is that the Frog will oft times dig out his eyes. He cures his wounds by rubbing against a Tench, which he always keeps company with. His jawbones boat into fine powder, given the quantity of an aureus, will break the stone. In England they cut off the belly of it two fingers breadth, and if they cannot find a Chapman, they will sew up the belly and put it into their fishpond again where Tench are. Though the cause may be attributed to friendship; yet it is better to attribute it to the clammy matter the Tench abounds with, by which he may heal his wound. A Pike of Frederick the Emperor was said to have lived 267 years in a Lake, that was found out by a brass ring that he hid under his skin in his gills, when he put him into the lake. It had a Greek Inscription on it; which is to this sense; I am that Fish that was first put into this Lake by Frederick the Second, Emperor of the World, on the fifth of October. Conradus Celtes saith, that ring was found upon that Pike, taken Anno 1497; as Gesner relates in Epistola nuncupatoria. Luna is a fish exceeding beautiful, very small, broad bodied, of a bluish colour; on the back it hath soft fins, which whilst it dilates in swimming, it makes a semicircle like to a half Moon, Aelian. ex Demostrato. Those that fish for Bream say, that at the full of the Moon it will grow dry and die; and, put on herbs, it will make them wither. CHAP. XI. Of Manaty, and the Whiting. MAnaty is a great Fish taken in the Rivers of Hispaniola; His head is like an Ox head, or bigger: His eyes in respect of his body are small; he hath two thick feet, like wings in the place of gills, with which he swims, they are set about his head; he hath a thick skin, and no scales. He is so great that there needs a yoke of Oxen to carry him. Sometimes he is above 14 or 15 foot long, and eight hands thick; near the tail he is narrower, and as it were girt in, from which straightness the tail grows longer and thicker. He hath two stones, or rather bones in his head, so great as little hand-balls, or the bullet of a Crossbow, and sometimes greater, as the fish is. He wants ears, but in place of them he hath small holes, by which he hears. His skin is like the skin of a shrivelled Ox, a finger thick, ash-coloured, and thin set with hairs. The tail from that strait part unto the end of it, is all nervous. From that, cut into pieces, and then set five or six days in the Sun and dried, and then boiled in a Cauldron, or rather fried, much fat comes forth: for it all resolves into fat. It is good to fry eggs in a frying-pan. For it never grows rank, nor unsavoury. He is made tame, and will be taught like a dog; but Franciscus Lopetius saith, he will remember Injuries. The petty King of Caramatexum, in the Island of Hispaniola, fed one of them 26 years in the Lake Guaynabo, and made him so tame, though he were grown great, as great as an old Dolpbin; for he would take meat by hand; and when they called him Mato, which in their Tongue signifies Magnificent, he would come forth of the Lake, and creep to the house for meat, and then go back to the Lake again. Boys and Men going with him, and when they sang, he seemed to be delighted with it: and he would let them sometimes ride on his back; he would easily carry ten at a time from one part of the Lake to the other. But when a certain Spaniard would make trial whether his skin were so hard or no, and threw a dart at him, he grew so angry, that if he saw any clothed in Christians habit, though he were called, he would not come forth of the water. After that, the River Haibon swollen extremely and ran into the Lake Guaynabo: so he found his way to the Sea; and the people were very sorry that he was gone. The Whiting eats nothing, unless he see it is dead, Aelian. The male is very jealous. For he stays at home, and fearing his young ones should be caught, he stays to preserve them. CHAP. XII. Of Mirus, Mola, and Monoceros. THe Fish Mirus is briefly described by Ambrose Pareus. In the Venetian Sea, saith he, between the Venetians and Ravenna, two miles above Clodia, Anno 1550, there was a flying Fish taken, very terrible and monstrous, four feet long; he had a very thick head, and two eyes not set one against the other, with two ears, and a double mouth, a very fleshy nose green coloured, with two wings, and five holes in his throat as Lampreys have; his tail was an ell long, and in the top of it were two little wings. Also Mola is a Fish, that was taken on the calends of March, Anno 1552, not far from Venice; at first sight it seemed rather a piece of Flesh than a Fish. It was round, it had a skin without scales or hairs. The mouth was so strait, that it was miraculous considering the greatness of the Creature. The eyes were large, stretching out, and greater than Ox eyes. The gills were uncovered, fleshy, and beat; the fins on the sides were a span long. It had a very hard knot. The Jaws on both sides were fenced with a solid continued bone, the tongue of it stuck fast to the lower mandible, that he seemed to have no tongue, the tail was about 4, foot long. There were three fins on the tail, so that the tail with the fins, were 9, foot long. The Fish was 8, foot long, 5, foot high and more; and turn which way it would, it was so high: when it was unboweled, the heart, liver, milt, were greater than of an Ox; and it had one gut coming to the passage for excrements placed under the belly. In the bottom of this gut there was a kind of bottom, made as it were of bruised nervs, like fiddle strings bruised. The Flesh of the creature was white as milk, and solid, as in a hog that is 5, or 6, fingers thick with fat, as in Whales. Clusius calls the Monoceros or Unicorn, a Fish; which the Dutch coming from the East-Indies brought along with them. Anno, 1601. A Merchant valued it so high that hardly any money would buy it. From the outmost part of the mouth, unto the fins of the tail it was not much more than three inches, the middle of the body was little above an inch broad; from the top of the head, where a horn stuck forth between the eyes, unto the lowest part of the belly, which also ended in a sharp point, it was an inch and half broad; the body was covered with a dark rough skin, moreover it had a little narrow mouth sticking out half an inch long, set with two bony little teeth, which seemed divided into ten above, but beneath into fewer, unless they were broken out. The eyes that were put out, seemed to have been very great, over which on the head, a little slender Horn stuck forth, that was four square, about an inch long, armed with ten pins like hooks tending downward, on both sides, from which to the fin, which from the middle of the back stretched out to the tail, there was an inch in length, pressed down like to a furrow, into which when he swims, he seems to incline his horn, etc. Clusius, l. 6. exotic. c. 27. CHAP. XIII. Of the Mullet and the Barbel. THe Mugil is a most temperate fish, if he light upon another, he will not touch it, till he move the tail. If it move he leaves it, if it moves not, he preys upon it, Aelian. l. 1. c. 3. It is so salacious, that in Phoenicia, and the province of Narbon, at the time of copulation, that the male being taken out of Fishponds, and with a long line drawn through his mouth and fastened to his gills, cast into the Sea, and drawn back again by the same line, the females will follow him to the shore, and the Males again will follow the Females at the time they bring forth, Plin. l. 9 c. 13. They are so fleet that when they are hungry they will cast themselves over ships in their way. The Mullet was formerly so noted for luxury amongst the Ancients, that it was sold for a mighty price; and private Romans would often buy it for the weight in Silver, saith Jovius, if it were above a foot long. Also Pliny writes that Asinius Cel●r a Consul, was so proud of this Fish, that when Claudius was Emperor, he Merchandised with one of them for 8000 pieces of money, that is about, 400 rich Dollars. Macrobius, l. 3. Saturnal, c. 16. adds more, that the Luxury of that age may be esteemed the greater, because Pliny, saith in his time no Barbel was found, above two pound weight. Scaliger saith, exerc. 226, s. 15, that the Liver of it, lies next the left side, the milt next the right. But Albertus saith, that lust is extinguished by feeding on them, and it is so strong that it will make a Man that eats of it, to smell like it. Athenaeus saith, that strangled in Wine, it spoils the Wine. Pliny saith, that if it be stale, it will make one vomit. CHAP. XIV. Of the River- Pout, and Lamprey. THe River- Pout is so sweet meat, that in Thuringia, the Wife of one of the Earls of Bichling, is reported to have spent all her Estate, in feeding on them. They are chiefly commended before Christs-Mas day; but they are not good when they are with young, for then in some waters they are meazly. Some Hucksters, cut out their Livers, and turn them into the waters again, having sewed up the wound. Encelius writes that the stomach of it, with the appurtenances hath a wonderful virtue. Let it be, saith he, never so old, in Saxony, the Women give it in drink, and it will draw out the secondine staying behind, after Child birth; and is of great concernment for all defects of the matrix. They say also that oil is collected out of the Liver, hanged in a glassy Vessel against the Sun, or in an Oven: this is thought to be so excellent for suffusions of the eyes, and for spots, that Forestus in observat. saith, it will miraculously make a dark sight clear. Nicander saith that Lampreys are wonderful bold; for often coming forth of fish ponds, they will bite the painful Fishermen, and fly to the Sea, and will cast them headlong from the ships into the Sea; yet that they may be made tame, is apparent by the example of that Lamprey, which Macrobius and Aelian, & others do testify, that L. Crassus who was Censor with Cn. Domitius, did adorn with Gold-earings and Jewels, and a brave necklace. This knew Crassus his voice when he called her, and being called would swim to him; and when he offered him any thing, she would leap with delight, and lay hold of it. Crassus' wept for her when she was dead, and buried her honourably. And when Domitius taunted him sharply, saying, Fool Crassus, thou weptst for a dead Lamprey. He answered, I wept for the death of my Beast, but thou weepst for none, not when thy three Wives died; thou buriedst them, but lamentedst them not. Pliny, l. 9 c. 23. saith, that it will grow mad by tasting Vinegar. But that is a wonder that Aelian writes, l. 1. c. 37, That if you give them one stroke they will endure it, and stand senseless; but if you strike them again, they will be enraged. CHAP. XV. Of the Perch and Sea-Calf. FIshermen in the Lake Lemanus have observed, as Gesner saith, that Perches will send forth a little red bladder that hangs out of their mouth, and they will escape by that means; for it will make them swim over the nets, even against their wills: But it is thought this proceeds from anger, that they fell into the nets. This falls out especially when they drag them. But it is wonderful that this falls out only in Winter. Their young ones do stick so close together, that the Fishermen in that Lake make them up in ●eaps. All of them have a measly Liver: Georgius Mangoldas writes it, and Gesner quotes him for it. Seacalves, when they sleep, s●ort so much, that you would think they lowed. Rondeletius saith, that the clammy humour that sticks in their sharp artery being agitated by breathing in and out, is the cause of it. They love the Sea exceedingly: For when their skins are tanned, if there be any hair left, they will turn as the Sea lies, by a natural instinct. For if the Sea be troubled and toss, they will stand upright; but if the Sea be quiet, they lie flat down. When Pliny would not credit this, he made trial of it in the Indian Sea, and about the Island Hispaniola, he found it to be no fable, as Cardan saith. Rondeletius saith, That by their skin, changes be foreshowed; for when the South winds blow, their hair sticks up; but when the wind is in the North they fall so flat, that you would think they had none. Aldrovandus saw one Calf taught by a Mountebank, who would rejoice at the name of any Christian Prince, and would seem to mutter some words; but he was silent when the Turk or an Heretic was named. CHAP. XVI. Of the Scales, and the Indian Reversus like an Eel. THe Scales do bring forth two or three young ones at one time; but at many times they bring forth more. Their eggs are first seen without a shell, in the upper part of their matrix. Some of them are as big as Hen eggs, some less, some scarce so big as chi●h-peasen. Aldrovandus' counted above a hundred in one of them; those that are next to be laid, are put into the lower part of the matrix, and are covered with a shell, wherein there is contained both the white and the yelk. When he much admired at this, and sought for the cause of it, he boiled hen-eggs, in which appeared no white at all, being but newly form; and he observed the white severed from the yelk by the heat of the fire. Hence he found, that at first they lie confused, but are separated by degrees by heat, and the shell that compasseth them, is made of the grosser part grown hard. Olaus, in tabula Septentrionali, pictures forth a Scale in the Sea, defending a man from a kennel of Dogfish, in a place a little beyond the borders of Denmark. The Indian Reversus like an Eel, is a Fish of an unusual figure, like to a great Eel in body, and it hath on the hinder part of the head a capacious skin, like to a great purse. The Inhabitants hold this fish bound at the side of the ship, with a cord, and only let it down, so far as the fish may stick by the keel of the ship, for it cannot any ways endure the air; and when it sees any fish or Tortoise, which are there greater than a great Target, they let lose the fish; he so soon as he is loose, flies swifter than an arrow on the other fish or Tortoise, and casting that skin purse upon them, lays hold of his prey so fast, that no force can unloose it, unless they draw up the cord a little, and pull him to the brink of the water. For so soon as he sees the light of the air he forsakes his prey, Martyr. Rondeletius ascribes to him the understanding of an Elephant, for he will be tame, and know what is said to him. CHAP. XVII. Of the Remora, and the Sea-Scarus. THe Ancients believed, that the Remora would stay Ships; and it hath been found true by examples of late. Petrus Melaras of Bononia reports, that the ship of Francis Cardinal of Troas, when he went by Sea out of France, was held fast in the swiftness of its course. Many have sought for the cause, but no man hath certainly found it. Some things are always immovable to do their office, as the Poles; some things in respect of their place, as the Centre of the Earth, which naturally never moves. Contrarily some things are to move always to do their office, as the Heavens; some things in regard of their place, as Rivers. So some things have a faculty of moving, as the Loadstone; some to stop motion, as the Remora. But since no reason can be given, why cold is an enemy to heat, so not for these things, why such things that have efficient principles in them of motion, do cause motion; and those that have principles of resting, should cause rest. Keckermannus seems to ascribe this to a cold humour that the Remora sends forth, that he freezeth the water about the rudder, In Disput. Physica. Aristotle, l. 2. Hist. c. 17. saith, That of all Fishes the Scarus only chews the cud. Ovid testifieth, that when it is caught in a net, it breaks not forth with the head foremost, but turns his tail, and breaks his way forth with that, often striking the net. They roast them in Candie, thrusting a spit through their mouth, and there the Fishermen eat greedily their maws, stuffed with more delicate meat. They mash their Livers, that are very great, and without any gall, and their excrements also, together, adding to them salt and vinegar, Bellonius. CHAP. XVIII. Of the Sea-Serpent, and the Sturgeon. IT is most certain, that there are Serpents in the Sea; and Histories show, that they are of divers magnitudes. Aristotle reports, that in Africa they will overthrow their Galleys, and kill Men. Olaus Magnus writes, that about Norwey, when the Sea is calm, Serpents will show themselves that are 100 or 200 foot long, and sometimes they will catch men from the Ships. Schiltbergerus a Hollander, hath described the Combat between the Sea and Land-Serpents. His words are; In the Kingdom of Genyck, there is a City called Samson: at what time I resided with Ureiasita King of the Turks, Water-Snakes, and Land-Serpents innumerable did surround that City for a mile on all sides. These came forth of the Woods that are many in the Country's adjoining, and those forth of the Sea. Whilst these met, for 9 days no man for fear durst stir forth; yet they hurt neither man, nor any other living Creature. On the tenth day, these two kinds of Serpents began to fight early in the morning, and continued till Sunset, and the Water-Serpents yielded to the Land-Serpents; and the next day 8000 of them were found dead. Many suppose that the Sturgeon will pine away in the Albis. Gesner writes, that Johannes Fredericus Elector of Saxony, bought a Sturgeon that weighed above 260 pound weight, for so many Franks. He is so strong with his tail, that he will cut wood in sunder, strike down a strong man, and strike fire out of hard stones; and the same is done by the rubbing of those little bones that are prickly all his body over. CHAP. XIX. Of the Salmon, and the Turdus. A Salmon about Colen is two cubits long, and they are greater amongst the Miseni; and at Dessavia, near the River Albis, from 24, to 36, pounds weight. In Helvetia near Tigurus they are taken sometimes above 36, pound weight. Albertus saith, the intestine of it, is divided into many parts like to fingers. Gesner writes, that he observed two passages from the very throat of one that he dissected: they stretched downward, one to the Maw by the Weazand, and the other was nameless. In the River Mulda near to Dessavia, if the Salmon striving to overcome the precipice of the water, be frustrated at the second or third leap, he swims to the foard, and there he will lie hid under stones and gravel, and pine away: he is full of brass coloured spots, and his beck is bend like a great hook. In Scotland in Autumn they meet in little Rivers or places fordable, where they join bellies, and lay eggs, and cover them in the gravel▪ at which time the male is so spent, spending his milt and seed, and the female with her spawn, that they are nothing but bones and prickels and skin. That leanness is infectious, for they will infect all the Salmon they come near. It is an argument thereof, that oft times they are taken, and one side is consumed, the other not so. From their eyes covered in the sand, little fishes breed the next spring that are so soft, that until they be no bigger than a man's finger, if you press them with your fingers, they will run as from congealed moisture. Then first, as Nature leads them, they hasten to the Sea, and in 20, days, or a little more, it is incredible how great they will grow, when they come from the Sea, against a River that runs thither, they show a wonder. For the Rivers that are straightened with Rocks, and Banks, on every side, and therefore run down swiftly, when they fall with a great fall, the Salmon do not presently swim forth by the Channel, but they fling themselves up crooked by force of the water, and so are carried in the Air, before they fall. That they are lively, is seen by their heart taken forth. Robertus Constantinus testifies that he saw the heart of a Salmon that was unboweled, that was wet with a moist sanies, and it lived after it was taken forth above a day. There are some different kinds of Turdi. Some have as it were some skiny yellowish Apophyses hanging down from their lower chop▪ sometimes they vary, and are all for the most part Gold colour, or colour of the Amethyst or blue. Their eyes are extreme great, and a black circle goes about a Golden Apple▪ a Golden circle about the black, and lastly a black circle goes about them all. The fins by the gills are wholly Gold colour, but of the breast they are all blue, except their nervs that are Gold coloured. The fin that is from the anus, and that which is on the back, and tail, where they are joined to the rump, are Gold coloured, but sprinkled with little red blood spots, the rest are blue. CHAP. XX. Of the Torpedo, and the Tunie. I Have nothing to say of the Torpedo, but that he benumbs the hands; and hence he hath his name. And he doth this, so effectually, that before he is taken, he will do it by the net, or the rod. He useth this cunning, that covering himself with mud and dirt, he will catch little fish very strangely, Plin. l. 1. utr. anim. The Tunies though they be caught in many places, yet chiefly about Constantinople; for when they come to the Islands Cyaneae, and are passed by the shore of Chalcedonia, a certain white rock appears to them, and doth so terrify the Tunies, that immediately they put over to the farther bank; and being taken away with the swift current of the waters, the natural fitness of the place turns the course of the Sea to Constantinople, and the winding thereof, so that being driven thither by force of Nature, it is no wonder, that they fall into snares. They are also engendered in the Lakes of Maeotis; and when they are a little grown, they break forth of the mouth of the Lake in shoals, and run by the Asiatic shore so far as Trapezunda; but because they cannot endure tempests and cold weather, whereby their eyes grow dim; they stay in a very deep place of the Thracian Sea, that harbours them, it is called Melas, and it hath hollow and muddy places fit to cherish fish in, and they grow till the Spring. They seem to understand the blowings of the winds. For Pliny saith, they stay for the North wind, that they may get out of the Pontic Sea, with the flowing of the water to help them. They enter into Pontus one way, and go forth another. For Aristotle, l. 8. Histor. c. 13. saith, they lie on their right side next the Earth when they no in, and come forth on the contrary side; for they turn on the left side; which, saith he, they are therefore said to do, because naturally they see clearest with their right eye, and duller with the left. The old Oracle of the Prophet Amphyllus in Herodotus, proves that they go forth in the night. And this is again confirmed by ancient medals, such as Bellonius writes that he saw at Paris, on one side was an Ear of Corn; and on the other side the Tunie; and above this, the Moon with an Inscription of Phillips. They sleep so sound, that they may be taken napping. CHAP. XXI. Of the Uranoscopus, and the Swordfish. URanoscopus is a fish that swims alone, and eats flesh; so lively, saith Bellonius, that if you take out all his Entrails, yet he will move still: It is the greediest eater of all fish, he hath an apophysis hanging forth of his mouth, and with that he ensnares the fish. This shows he is an insatiable paunch, that if you cast meat to him, he will feed so long, till the meat come up to his throat. The Swordfish hath a beck on both chaps, but the lower of them is short and triangular; the upper is more bony and harder, and far longer, sometimes two cubits long. In the Indian Sea they grow so great, that they will pierce the sides of the strongest Ships, a hand and half in thickness sometimes, Jovius. Gesner writes from the relation of a faithful friend of his, who saw a man when he sailed into Syria, that swum by the Ship side, and he was cut in the middle by the beck of this fish. He fears a Whale, and when he sees one, he claps his sword into the earth, or some place of the Foard that he can, and so forms himself like to a log; and the Whale neglects him, and swims by him. CHAP. XXII. Of some other Wonders concerning Fishes. IN Minerals and Quarreys also fishes are found, especially if the places be moist, though there be no water. Theophrastus' observed this in many places of Pontus; Eudoxus in Paphlagonia; Agricola at Orterantum, beyond the Albis. There is a plain by the River Narbon, by this run the Rivers, Iliberis and Roschinus; there are fossil fish found therein. The earth is tender there, and brings much grass; about two or three cubits under this, runs the water of the Rivers that hath dilated itself. If at any time they overflow, they fill the plain with fish from underground, Polyb. in Histor. There are two sorts of them, some round like to Eels, but they want a tough skin; they are scaly as Gudgeons, their flesh is hard, and not well savoured. The great ones are two fingers thick, the smaller but one. Those are four hands breadth long; these but three: they make a sharp noise. Apothecaries shut them up in glasses, and hang them down from a beam, and feed them with bread for a long time. Sometimes they come forth of Rivers that run in Fenny grounds, and come far into the Land by the veins of the banks, and sometimes into Cellars. Theophrastus writes, That in Caves they feel nothing, because their senses are stupefied; but when they are boiled in a pot, and when they are dug up they will stir. In a certain River of the East-Indies there are fishes called Tuberones; they are so greedy, that one of them catcht at a man standing on the side of the Ship, and first bit off his foot, and next his hand, Linschotten. in Navigat. It is almost incredible, that the same man writes, namely, That a Ship coming from Mozambique, went backward 14 days, though the wind were good for it, and nothing to hinder it, and that was found by every day's observation of the Sun's height. And when the doubtful Mariners enquired for the cause of it, and thought they had been bewitched, at last a fish was found under the Ship, and they collected, that this fish carried the Ship on his back the contrary way against the force of the wind. For so soon as with much ado, they had driven this fish away, they sailed forward very well. The History is painted in the Palace of the Deputy-King of Goanum, with the Name of the Pilot, the Year and the Month. Blefhenius writes, in his description of Islandia, That in the Island Sea there is a Monster, the name he knows not, but they take it to be a kind of Whale; when he puts his head above the Sea, he doth so fright men, that they will fall down almost dead. He hath a head is four square, flaming eyes, and it is fenced about with black horns; His body is black, and set about with black feathers. If he be seen at Night at any time, his eyes seem fiery, that all his head that is thrust above the Sea may be seen by it. Olaus, l. 12. makes mention of it, and saith, it is 12 cubits long. So much for Fish. The End of the Ninth Classis. OF THE DESCRIPTION Of Natural Wonders. The Tenth Classis. Wherein are set down the Wonders of MAN. WHosoever thou art, that dost unjustly determine the condition of Man, consider how great things our Mother Nature hath given unto us; how much more strong Creatures are under our subjection; how we can catch those that are much more swifter than ourselves, that nothing that is mortal is not under our power. We have received so many Virtues, so many Arts, and lastly a Soul, swifter than the Stars; for it will outrun them in their motions, that are to be performed many years after, and in one moment penetrates into whatsoever it is intent about; Seneca. CHAP. I. Of Man in general. HItherto I have described irrational living Creatures; Man follows next, of whom we shall speak in order, according to his actions, natural, vital, animal, and rational. And first of his proportion. This is so excellent and admirable, that it cannot be more. The body of Adam was made out of the Earth, and ours of 3. small drops of seed, and as much blood, poured forth like milk, and framed like to cruddled chief; of the same matter, are so many and so divers parts made. The whole structure consists of above 200 bones to support it, and as many cartilages; all the joints are smeered with, all are joined together with many ligaments, and clothed with innumerable membranes: the vast mass of the members, are watered with above 30, pair of nervs, as with little cords, and all the parts are sprinkled with as many arteries as with water pipes, filled with foaming blood and vital Spirits; the empty places are filled up, and the entrails covered, with almost 400, Muscles, and flesh of divers sorts, as with flocks: and lastly all is covered about with skin. The Image of God is in it (his mind represents the same) and it hath included in it, the forces and temperament of all the creatures. You shall find many men that have an Ostrich stomach, many that have the Lion's Heart, not a few have the heart of a Dog, many of a Sow; and infinite there are, that are like the Ass by nature. Alexander the Great, had such a symmetry of humours, that his spirits, and humours, and also his dead body, smelled as sweet as natural balsom; because in man as in the Centre, as in a knot, or little bundle, the original and seminary cause of all creatures lie bound up. Vegetables are nourished and increased by the balsom-like Spirits of Minerals, animals of vegetables, and by them of minerals; but man, for whom all things were created, is nourished and augmented by the balsamic spirits of animals, vegetables, and minerals; wherefore there is reason that he should consist of all ●hese. Wherefore in man there do flourish, and produce fruit, that are messengers of health or sickness, both the balm, violets, Germander, namely the Spirits of the Heart, Brain, and Liver: the Nettle, Wake-Robin, Crowfoot, as Pushes, Scabs, Creeping sores; Also there are wrought in man mineral separations, that appear in paroxysms, of Vitriol, Alum, Salt, of Gemma, of the Colcothat, Tartar; as the Leprosy, Elephantiasis, Morphew, Cancer, discovering themselves in several Tinctures and Signatures. Nor are aqueal generations wanting, as Gold, Silver, Tin, Copper, Iron, Led; the Heart, Brain, Liver, Reins, Stomach. There are found in our body's Mines, out of which stones are dug, the stones of the Bladder and Kidneys, not to build but to destroy the house. The head is the Fort of man's mind, the seat of reason, the habitation of Wisdom, and the shop of memory, judgement, and cogitations; possessing the highest place doth it not represent the uppermost and angelical part of the World? You have the middle and the Celestial part in the Thorax▪ and in the middle belly, exactly set forth. For as when the Sun riseth, the upper parts are enlightened, and all the lower parts are enlivened; but contrarily, when the Sun departs, they grow cold, and tend to ruin: so by the perpetual motion of the heart, and by the vital heat thereof, all things flourish, and there is a plentiful harvest of rejoicing, to be perceived; but when that is darkened by cares, sorrows, fears, and other Clouds, all the parts are debilitated, and at last die. Who sees not the sublunary part of the World, expressed in the lower belly? In it, are contained the parts that serve for nutrition, concoction, and procreation. Perhaps you will want the Dukedom of the Planets in this little world. Behold, the flowing marrow of the brain represents the moistening power of the Moon, the genital parts serve for Venus, the Instruments of eloquence and comeliness do the office of witty Mercury; the Sun and the Heart hold the greatest proportion. Man's Liver, the fountain of good vapours, is compared to beneficial Jupiter; the bladder of the Gall, contains the fiery fury of Mars; and the loose spongy flesh of the Milt, which is the receptacle of melancholic humours, doth perfectly represent the cold Planet of Saturn. And if you please to proceed farther, I can say boldly, that the Elements, Seas, Winds are here shadowed forth. The spirits of Man's body do set forth Heaven, the quintessence of all things. The four humours express the four Elements; Hot dry choler represents the Fire; blood-hot and moist▪ the Air; phlegm, cold and moist, the Water: melancholy cold and dry, the Earth. So the belly of Man is the Earth, fruitful of all fruits: The hollow vein, is the Mediterranean Sea; the Bladder the Western Sea, into which all the Rivers discharge themselves, and the superfluous salt which is resolved, is collected. He hath the East in his Mouth, the West in his Fundament; the South in his Navel; the North in his Back. Europe, Asia, Africa and America may summarily be described in Man. Wherefore Abdalas the Barbarian said well, that the body of Man is an admirable thing; and Protagoras called Man, The measure of all things. Theophrastus, The pattern of the Universe, and Epitome of the World. Synesius, The horizon of corporeal and incorporeal things. And lastly, we may truly cry out with Zoroastres, O Man! the Workmanship of most powerful Nature; for it is the most artificial Masterpiece of God's hands. CHAP. II. Of Nutrition. Article 1. Of the harmless feeding on venomous things. IF we regard Histories, we can hardly doubt, but that venomous things may by custom become nutrimental: For many learned men having written thus, they ought to be of credit. Avicenna, Rufus, and Gentilis speak of a young Maid, who was fed with poisonous creatures from her tender age; and her breath was venom to those that stood by her. Albertus writes, That at Colonia Agrippina, there was a man that held Spiders for his daintiest meat. One Porus▪ a King of the Indies, used poison every day, that he might kill other men. There was one who killed venomous creatures that bit him▪ Avicenna l. 8. de anim. c. 2. It is a known History of a young Maid fed with poison, with which the Persian Kings killed other men. In Hellespont the Ophyogenes feed on Serpents: One that was delighted with the same food, when he was cast into a vessel filled with Serpents, received no harm. Pliny and Athenagoras of Greece, could never be hurt by Scorpions; and the Aethiopians that are Inhabitants by the River Hyaspis, made brave cheer of Serpents and Vipers. Galen saith, That an old Woman of Athens eat a great quantity of Hemlock, which did her no hurt. Hypoth. the Empirick writes, that another took 30 drams of it, and received no harm; and he saith further, That one Lysis eat 4▪ drams of Opium. The Thracian Dame made gallant victuals of handfuls of Hellebor. Lastly, King Mithridates could not poisoned be, He drinking poison oft, grew poyson-free. If you search the cause of it, you shall find divers. First is, every man's natural property, by reason of which, Stairs feed on Hemlock; Sows on Henbane, with delight. Then there is a certain proportion of poison; for this changeth the power of the poison, and the disposition of the subject. Again, the strength or weakness of the body. Conciliator saith, he saw four men feeding on venomous meats, one died suddenly, two were dangerously sick, and the fourth escaped. To this add the force of the composition, and the quantity; the variety of the time and place wherein they are collected. So Trassius Mantinensis gathered his Hemlock in the coldest places, that he might sooner kill men. Theophrastus' shows, l. 9 hist. Plant. that at Chios there was a certain way to compound it, to make it effectual. One stung by a Scorpion, may live many days; and one stung by Ammodites may live 7 days. Chersydrus kills in 3. days; a Viper in 3. hours; a Basilisk suddenly. Lastly, the history of a woman that sought to poison her husband, proves, that poison grows more effectual by being mingled with poisons of the same kind; and less, by being mingled with poisons of a contrary kind. Also it is certain, that hot poisons cannot be conquered; for Sublimate by its extreme corroding cannot be concocted by nature; and Napellus kills by its extremity of heat. Article 2. Of the eating of other unusual Meats. NAncelius l. 3. Analog. writes of a Maid delighted to feed on dung; and he relates, that a certain Nobleman did greedily sup up the liquid dung of Maids. Fernelius l. 6. Pathol. c. 3. tells of a Maid that eat quicklime as great as a man's Fist. Trincavellus tells of one, l. 7. c. 5. that eat threads out of Garments. Lusitanus c. 3. cur. 86, of one that eat Bombasse and Wool. Marcellus Histor. mirab. l. 4. c. 1. of one that eat Lizards. A woman that was fifty years old eat Tartar, Nicolaus serm. 5. tract. 4. c. 36. Camerarius speaks of another eat hair; This may happen in a particular disease, which in women with Child is called, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in Virgins and others, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. For the cause is a vicious naughty humour, impacted in the coats of the stomach, or bred in the same by ill diet, or coming thither from the matrix. Hence for the three first months especially, it happens to women great with Child, when they vomit, and the Child consumes not much. It troubles maids, when their courses are stopped. But it is hard to say, how such an appetite should proceed from this cause, and it is better to ascribe it to a hidden quality than to commit an absurdity in what is manifest. But what is reported of one Lazarus, that he would eat glass, stones, Wood, Living creatures, and Live-fish; and we were told by the famous Winsemius in praelection. anatomic. that a Country man in Friesland would do the same for money, that seems to proceed from the fault of the nerves. For in him▪ when he was dissected, the fourth conjugation of nervs, that is produced in other men for the benefit of their taste, neither came to his tongue nor palate, but was turned back to the hinder part of his head, as Columbus observed, Anatom. l. 15. Some also think a man may be nourished by smells, and some Histories say, it hath been done. Rondeletius de piscib. saith, that one at Rome lived 40, years only by the Air, and Laertius reports that Democritus the Abderite, a Philosopher lived four days by smelling of bread steeped in Wine, that he might not profane the feasts of Ceres. Cardanus l. 8. de varietate rerum. c. 41, saith, that men may live longer only by contemplation. Lastly, Megasthenes writes that at the farthermost part of the Indies, from the East about the River Ganges, there is a Nation called Astomores, people that have no mouth, their body is all hairy, and they are clothed with the moss of boughs: they live only by the Air and scents that they take in by their nostrils, they take no meat nor drink, but only the diversity of smells from roots and flowers, and wild Apples, that they carry with them in long Voyages, that they may not want sweet smells; and if the scents be too strong a little, they easily are killed thereby, Pliny l. 7. c. 3. Yet surely scents being but qualities can nourish no man; they may out of all question refresh and cherish the brain. Artic. 3. Of prodigious Eaters. THere was a Woman once at Alexandria, as Athenaeus sets it down; he saith, She eat 12 pound of flesh, four chaevice of bread that is more than 12 pound; and she drank a gallon of wine and upward. Maximinus the Emperor would drink often in one day 9 Gallons of Wine of the Capitol measure, he eat 40, pound of flesh, and as Cordus saith, 60 pound, Capitolinus is my Author; now an Amphora is 8, congii, that is about 9, Gallons. One Phagon in Vopiscus, who was in great respect with Aurelianus the Emperor, eat so much in one day, that he devoured a whole Boar, a hundred Loaves, a Weather and a young Hogg; and he drank more than an Orca of Wine with a tunnel put into it: now an Orca was a Vessel of Wine greater than an Amphora. What shall I say of Clodius Albinus the Emperor? He, as Capitolinus writes, devoured so much fruit as is incredible to speak: for Cordus saith, that he eat 500 dried Figs which the Grecians call Callistruas, for a breakfast; and a hundred Peaches of Campania, and ten Melons of Ostia, and 20 pounds of Grapes of Lovinium, and a hundred Gnatsappers, and 400 Oysters. Uguccio Fagiolanus being a banished old man, did glory at the Table before Scaliger at Verona; that when he was a young man, he eat four fat Capons, and so many Partridges, and the roasted hinder parts of a Kid, and the breast of a Calf stuffed, beside salt fish, at one Supper To this appertains that prodigious man, in the time of Caesar Maximilian, who eat a raw Calf, and a Sheep, at one meal. Suidrigellus Duke of Lithuania, sat 6. hours at Supper, and fed on 130 dishes, Sylu. l. 2. Comment. in Pannormit. The Epitaph of Thymocreon Rhodius was this: Here Lies Timocreon Rhodius, who had skill To eat and drink, and rail, and speak much ill. Now overgreat appetite, if it proceed from a preternatural cause, it is called Bulimos; and if it be with vomiting, it is called dogs appetite. And it proceeds from some gnawing humour in the stomach, or from a consumption of the whole body, or by reason of the operation of the cold air; or, lastly, from Worms. Brutus, when he went from Dyrrachium to Apollonia through the Snow, had like to have got this disease; and a woman that cast up a Worm of twelve fingers breadth long, lost her great stomach; and so did another that voided 100 worms. Brasavolus testifies, that this disease was epidemical at Ferrara; and Anno 1535, it was so in Borussia; Leonellus Faventinus writes it. Gemma Frisius speaks of a woman not very aged, that could not live one moment without eating. He gives the cause to be the greatness of her Liver, and the prodigious peculiar temperament of it. For her fat being increased unmeasurably, and her heat choked, her belly was opened, and about 20 pounds of fat were taken out; her Liver was found to be sound, swelling with blood and spirits, but extreme red, and huge great, that by its very weight it pressed the vital parts, Frisius l. 1. c. 6. Cosmocrit. Article 4. Of monstrous drinkers. IT is no hard matter to find men that sail in drink, and row in their cups. You see that drunkenness abates in no part of the World, and as if we were born to consume Wines, and they could not be poured forth, but through the bodies of Men. What Seneca foretold, That a time should come when drunkenness should be honoured; and to drink abundance of Wine, should be esteemed Virtue, is come to pass in our days. He is counted best, not he that can speak knowingly of Philosophy, but he that can drink off many great cups, Galen. And not only wine and waters, but smokes and fumes are introduced to make men mad▪ Yet all go not an equal pace, some will win the garland. In that public drinking for a wager before Alexander, there was one Promachus that drank four Congii, that is, 40 pound. We read the same of Proteus of Macedonia in Athenaeus. Novellius Torquatus of Milan drank 30 pints at one draught, Tiberius the Emperor standing by to see this wonder, Plin. l. 14. hist. Nature; And which is more wonderful in him, they are Pliny his words, He won the glory of it, that is very rare, for he never failed in his speech; nor did he vomit or void any thing any way when he drank; nor did he sleep: he drank most at one draught, and drank many more little draughts: and he was faithful in the business, not to take his breath when he drank, nor to spit any out; nor did he cast away any snuff that could be heard dash on the pavement. Cicero the son, drank two gallons. Bonesus, as the words of Spartianus confirm, drank more than any man. Aurelianus said often of him, He was not born to live, but to drink. Yet he long honoured him for military affairs. For if any Ambassadors of barbarous people came from any Country, he drank with them to make them drunk, and so in their cups he would find out their secrets. He drank what he pleased, and was always sober; and, as Onesimus the writer of Probus his Life, He was wiser in his drink. This was farther admirable in him, that so much as he drank, the like quantity he pissed, and his belly or stomach or bladder were never burdened. A certain man drank 6 gallons at a marriage of a Nobleman, in the days of Lipsius. Nicetas l. 3. Histor. writes of Camaterus Logotheta that drank two gallons. Article 5. Of some Secrets concerning Drunkenness. Drunkard's differ in their manner of their drunkenness; for some are drunk before others. And some when they are drunk fall backwards, some forward, some sing, some quarrel. Writers give many reasons for this: They that are soon drunk, are not accustomed to Wine, or they have drank more than their ability, (for naturally one cannot go from one extreme to another without inconvenience) or they have narrower veins that are too hot, or have a thicker constitution of body, or they prate too much when they drink. For speaking out, augmenteth natural heat that is inflamed by wine, and fills the head with vapours, and heaps up abundance of them; which being corrupted by continual motion, are distributed through the whole body, distending the eyes, inflating the temples, offending the brain. The same reason serves for such who at Feasts eat hot bread, drink strong wine, and eat abundance of meats that are salt, and talk continually. For all these things increase thirst exceedingly, and makes men drink out of measure. Also divers sorts of men eat bread wherein there is contained Nigella seed, Darnell, when they eat brown bread, or mingled with Millet seed. For these cause heaviness, and a passion like to drunkenness by gross vapours, Canonher. l. 3. de admirand. Vini c. 1. Hitherto appertains refined wine, poured from the Lees. For this, though it be weaker to preserve itself, and having no lees, will sooner grow sour, (for the Lees are the root to preserve the Wine) yet because it is moister, and pierceth into all the Veins of those that drink it, it sooner inflames the blood, makes men drunk, and overturns reason. Jason Pratens. de morb. cerebri. But women come not into this consideration, nor such as drink sharp Wine after sweet, or such as delight in new Wine. For women are of a very moist body, are often purged, have very open passages, Macrob. in Saturnal. Yet because they have a weaker brain, and narrower sutures of their skull, it is better to say with Alphonsus Lupeius, that they are seldom so drunk that they rave, but they are often sottish in their drink. Sweet Wine stops the pores, through which the Vapours of sharp Wines, might ascend to the head. Lastly sweetness so resists drunkenness, that Physician's cause such that are too much inflated with Wine, first to vomit much, and then they give them bread with honey to eat, to repel the fumes that remain of the Wine; Macrob. Saturnal: What concerns their divers gestures, that is founded in the diversity of the parts and humours. Fumes from Wine fly to the forepart of the head, and fumes of Beer and Ale to the hinder parts. Those that are drunk with this, fall backwards, but these with Wine fall forwards. Those are clamorus and talkative, these sleepy and forgetful. Lemnius l. 2. de. occult. c. 19 They see things less a far off, because the optic Spirits are made more thick. The sanguine tempers laugh; the choleric prate and are mad; the phlegmatic grow stupid; the melancholic sad. And because all of them have their optics troubled with Vapours, they all see a divers coloured circle about the light of the Candle. Gordon Libro. Medic. part. 2. c. 21. If they weep they delight in so doing. Rhodig. l. 12. c. 4. Moisture makes them stammer; for by this the tongue is extended as a sponge with water, and being swollen and thick cannot speak plain. Jacob Pratens. de natura vini. Moreover experience hath found that Coleworts resist drunkenness exceedingly, chiefly raw, and above all the red Cabbage. Lemnius l. 2. c. 11. the occult. But Galen saith, L. 2. the composit. medicam. c. 5. hot Cabbage macerated, and bound about the head. And so great is the antipathy between it and Wine, that if one pour Wine to it whilst it boils, it will not boil much. If you desire a reason, some say, that by eating of it, gross Vapours ascend, that thicken the Vapours of the Wine. Aristotle saith that it draws the moisture of Wine down to the belly, and cools the body. Weckerus' attributes the same force of the Ivy, and Alexander saith that smallage, nuts, Lupins will do the like. Pumanellus saith, powder of Pumex-stone drank in water will do it. Gratarolus speaks the same of Saffron, de vini natura c. 5. Africanus, of a Goat's Lungs. Amandus de Sancta Sophia. l. 1. de veris secretis, attributes as much to new Milk drank fasting. Platerus prax. medic. Tom. 1. c. 3. prescribes pap made of Milk and Barley meal taken with Vinegar. And he describes a certain powder thus: Take Colewort seeds 1, dram; Coriander seed 5, drams; camphir, 10, grai●s: make a powder, and give one spoonful in sharp Wine. But the dung of swallows powdered and drank, will maka a man sober, Pliny. Rue eaten, Merula. The humour that first drops from the Vines at the beginning of the Spring; bread that is made of darnel, dried and made into powder. But that is superstitiously said, That whosoever shall rehearse this verse, before the first glass of Wine he drinks, Juppiter his alta sonuit clementer ab Ida. shall never be drunk. Artic. 6. Of Bread. THe chief foundation of man's preservation and nutriment▪ and the staff of life, is bread, well ordered. Hence some say, Panis, Bread, comes from pasco to feed: some take it to be so called from Pan, that is, all, because it answers all meat. It is made of divers things. The Aethiopians made it of the seed of Orindium. The Icthyophagi made it of fish dried in the Sun. Plin. l. 7. c. 1. The Egyptian shepherds made it of the Lote-Tree seed. Pliny, l. 22. c. 21. Near the Mountain Vogesus, about the Town Burcken, there is a fine white meal dug forth of a Mountain; the Inhabitants make Bread of it, and all sorts of Cakes, Claudius Diodatus, l. 2. Panther Hygiastici. c. 4. But I say, that can be no true meal, but it must be miraculous. I think it is some thick juice that proceeds out of the earth, and in time is congealed by heat of the Sun, and so becomes fine meal. Divers Medicaments are made of bread. Aquavitae, the most noble treasure of life is thus made. Take the best bread cut into thin sippets, what is sufficient; put them into a hot Furnace, that by degrees they may dry, like red Bisquit: then bruise it grossly, and put it into a wide cauldron, and for every pound of this Bread, put in five pound of Fountain Water; flowers of hops one handful, of anniseeds one ounce: boil them together till one part be consumed, let them cool a little, and then pour them forth, and pass them through a basket or sieve, than power on some leaven, first dissolved in warm water; shut this up in a Vessel, and let it ferment and work like new wine: lastly part it as it grows clear, distil it, and rectify it like Spirit of Wine. Some distil the crumbs of white bread newly taken forth of the Oven, putting it into glass Stills▪ four ounces of it are given successfully against the Epilepsy. See Deodate how the quintessence may be extracted. Artic. 7. Of wonderful fasting. THough nourishment be necessary for our life, yet there have been many, that have lived along time without it. In Saint Augustine his days, one lived 40, days without eating any thing. Another, in the time of Olimpiodorus the Platonist, for so long as he lived, he neither fed nor slept, but only stood in the Sun to refresh himself. The daughter of the Emperor Clotarius fasted eleven years. Petrus Aponus saw one fasted 18 years. Rondeletius saw one fasted ten, and afterwards became a fruitful Mother. Hermolaus knew a Priest who lived in health 40 years without any thing, but by sucking in the Ayr. Lastly, one Nicolaus Helvetius under Waldensis, Anno 1460, after that he had five Children by his Wife, lived a solitary life, and neither ate nor drank in 15 years. Some dare affirm, that he fasted 22 years; and Bocatius saith, that this party, or another, fasted 30 years. Mago Carthaginensis, and Lasyrtas Lasionensis lived without taking any liquid substance all their lives, Athen. l. 2. c. 2. One that Coelius speaks of, that was by Country of Tomos, did the like at Naples; and Aristotle speaks of Andronis of Greece. I will not speak of Conflana and Bernenses, two Maids, in Quercetanus l. 2. Diaetetica c. 6. nor the Maid of Colen, in Albertus l. 7. the animal; nor her of Hay, in Namelius; nor yet of the Aunt of Timon, in Athenaeus l. 2. nor yet of the Frenchman that came from his Pilgrimage from Jerusalem: Yet there is no man, I think, but will say, that all these things are preternatural. The cause is, in what takes away, or augments the appetite; and that is done either when the meseraique veins do not attract the Chylus, and draw it out of the stomach; or when their sucking is not perceived in the orifice of the stomach. That, is caused by stopping of the veins, or by a hot distemper, or want of evacuation of the excrements that abound; or when the orifice of the stomach is beset with phlegmatic humours. This, either from the inhibition of the influence of the animal spirits, and the fainting of them, or from the distraction of the faculty, or from the distemper of the stomach, and stupidity of it. But because death doth not follow this taking away of the appetite, there must be some other cause besides. Some make this to be, the relaxation of the nerves in the orifice of the stomach, as Langius; others think the Air drawn in, feeds the spirits, as Quercetan. But since they do not show the cause of life, and this opinion is yet doubtful; and they, which make the cause to be abundance of phlegmatic humours, confess there are plenty of them in cachectical bodies; Sennertus his Judgement pleaseth me best, who says, that such bodies are almost immortal; and little or nothing exhales from them; because they consist of a tenacious humour well compacted and growing fast together, and that will not yield to the action of heat that feeds on nutriment; and their heat is most mild and gentle, and requires not much nourishment, Instit. l. 2. Part. 3. Sect. c. 2. CHAP. III. Of Concoction. Article 1. Of the Liver and Spleen. NUtrition hath attraction, retention, expulsion, concoction subordinate unto it. Concoction is either in the Stomach, the Liver, or the Spleen, or in other parts. In the first the Chylus is made of the meat, the faeces and watery excrements are cast forth: In the second, blood, yellow choler, whey, and urine are sent forth: in the third, dew, glue, and that which is called Cambium, some thicker, some thinner are thrust forth. As for the Liver, there was none found in Mathias Ortelius, a Merchant of Antwerp. Though it be one entire body in Man, yet in bruit beasts it is divided into many Laps. In one Maid it was found with three laps. In Carolus Sabaudus it ha● four little coats, Francisc. Puteus, l. 5: Apol. In Colet, the outmost fibres of it were adorned with hairy tufts sticking forth, Camerar. When the heat of it grows weak, a Dropsy follows. I will say a few things of the Spleen; There was a woman at Paris was found to have none, Holler. in observe. And Pliny l. 1●. saith, That in Cawnus, men are born without it, Natur. Histor. c. 73. Hence the common people think it may without hurt be cut out of Footmen and Horses. Pallopius observed 3. that lay one upon another. Posthius observes two at Montpelier: Where it increaseth, the body decays. For than it sucks away too much Chylus from the Liver. Hence Trajan called the Spleen the Treasury: For, as this grows rich, the common people grow poor: so, as the Milt increaseth, the body decreaseth. One was seen so great, that it weighed above 20 pounds, C●lumb. l. 15. Anatom. A Mariner had a Milt 23 pound weight, and his Liver eleven pounds. In Jacobus Antonellius it was no bigger than a Pigeons Egg; In one of Spoletum it was empty like a purse. Article 2. Of Humours in general. THere is scarce any question to be made, but that the Humour● cannot he defined by the only force of the Elementary qualities. For Man lives upon Plants, and they contain in them sharp, bitter, and sometimes Mineral juices. They are altered indeed by that internal Archaeus, which is natural heat; but when they are unmingled, unfit, and robustous, they cannot be changed. Hence it is that Urines are made sometimes that will corrode cloth; and sometimes blood fall'n from the nose will do the like. Doring. l. 1: the medicine. et medic. Sometimes things are cast up so hot by vomit, that they will boil in the basin, and die Silver Chargers with a brazen colour, that no washing, nor strong rubbing can take off, Schenk. obs. l. 3. Sometimes things yellow like Saffron are voided, so sweet; that they taste like liccoris, when as they should be bitter. Cardan, contra, 9 l. 2. tract. 5. reports that a woman that had drank Poison, had a vein opened, and no blood would run forth, but a green juice as from herbs, to 9 ounces in quantity; and a man's blood was, like to milk. The humours have wonderful conveyances in the body, and certain periods. The blood doth grow vigorous, saith Soranus Ephesinus, (which like the Evangelists, doth measure the spaces and course of day and night by equal hours) from 9 a clock at night, till 3. a clock in the morning, in which time the blood in Man is concocted and elaborated: Thence is the mind of Man cheerful at Sunrising. Yellow choler is concocted from 3. in the morning, until 9 a clock; in which time the natural faculty separates choler from blood, and sends it to the gall bladder: Thence a man is prone to anger. Black choler is elaborated from 9 a clock of the day, till 3. at night. In this time the Liver is purified, and made clean of gross blood; and this, Nature, as some say, ordains for the Spleen. From hence is the mind of Man darkened. Phlegm is concocted from 3. at night till nine: For then Supper being ended, concoction begins to be made in the stomach, and the meat to be liquified. From hence Phlegm swimming upon the stomach, and carried to the brain, makes a man sleepy. But if they be overmuch, and joined one with another, than they do not keep their times. Moreover, the Persians, by reason of their moderate exercises being children, grew so dry of body, that they neither spit, nor did blow their noses, nor were their bodies puffed up, Varro in fragment. Artic. 3. Of Blood. BLood is stopped by some, wonderfully: Gesner notes, that Frederick Duke of Saxony, gave a Toad that was thrust through with a wooden spit, and well dried in the Sun, and wrapped in Sarsnet, for them that bled at the nose, to hold in their hands till it grew hot, and so the blood was stopped. A hen's chicken will do the same, if the part hurt be thrust into that place where Cocks use to be gelt, a hole being cut open. Platerus l. 2. de vit. c. 5. proved it, and found it so. A noble Matron stayed bleeding at the nose, by holding a bit of white chalk under the ring-finger, on that side the nostril bled, Forest. l. 13. c. 10. Osorius writes also of Nahodaguca, a Prince in the Kingdom of Malacca, who was hurt with many wounds and fell down, yet not one drop of blood came forth; when he was stripped, and a bracelet of gold was taken off, than it began to run. That stone was said to have power to stop blood, that was set in it. It is taken out of beasts which the Sinenses call Cabrisias, Osor. l. 7. the reb. Afric. et Indicis. That it comes forth of a vein cut, the distending of the vessels is the cause. For the continual motion of the arteries added to the veins, doth press the veins: but if the veins be opened, the blood comes forth, because there is nothing to hinder it. Hence when a vein is opened, if one swoon, the blood stops. For the vital spirit doth no longer distend the vessels, Bartholin. Probl. 5. It is observed, that when a man is killed, it will run forth if the murderer be present; but when a man is drowned, it runs forth when friends are present. When you ask the cause, it is either motion and agitation that opens the orifices of the veins, or Sympathy and Antipathy: The revenge of the person is put for an Argument. He that is grievously wounded, becomes the Assailer, saith Rhodigi●. Thought greedily desires revenge; choler burns suddenly for it; the blood is presently inflamed with it, and runs with all its force to the wound, both to foment it, and to revenge. The spirits fly together, and by an inbred lightness do fly about the Author of it, by whose heat they continue, and remain for some time, Rhodig. 3. Antiq. c. 12. It was of old thought to be a remedy for the Falling-sickness, to drink man's blood yet warm. It was the Devil's Invention, who delights in the slaughter of men▪ and to do them mischief. The Wife of Marcus Antonius the Philosopher, fell in love with a Fencer; the Wizards were enquired of, and they gave counsel to kill him, and that Faustina should drink his blood, the next time she lay with Caesar. It was so done, and her love was ended, but the boy born was of a fight disposition, and destroyed the Commonwealth, Jul. Capitolin. Langius reports, that the Son of a certain shepherd was faint-hearted for robberies; but when he had eaten a crust of bread dipped in man's blood, he was fleshed for all villainy. The Carmani had this custom, that at Feasts they would open a vein in their face, and mingle the blood that ran forth with wine, and so drink it, holding it the end of their friendship, to taste one the others blood. (But these things belong to the description of Wonders in Customs) There is compounded a Lamp of life and death with man's blood, whereof Ernestus Burgravius writes thus: This Lamp or Light once lighted, burns continually, so long as that man, of whose blood it was made, doth live, and at the very same moment that he di●s, it will go out. Know also, that if the flame be bright, rising high and quiet, that Man feels nothing that troubles his Mind or Body: But if it be otherwise, and the flame rising, twinkles diversely, or is lower and cloudy and troubled, it gives thee a sign of great sorrow and other passions. For perpetually from the celestial influences bred with the Microcosm, and from the natural inclinations (since that blood is nourished by the blood of that man, and the body of the same from the substance of this very blood, from which blood was as it were mutually taken to prepare it) that flame shines according to the state and habit of that man, in prosperity or adversity, and so shows itself. Sennertus and Deodate, call this Pyromantia. Artic. 4. Of Urine and Reins. MAny things persuade us, that there is something else contained in Urines beside the watery substance. For in diseases they are made plentifully, though men have drank nothing. And it is observed that creatures that drink nothing, will make water. Physicians foretell many things by their colours, thinness, and thickness. And Chemists find salt in Urine resolved. But whatsoever that is, it is called Serum, and it is the superfluous salt matter in meats and drinks, and is not fit for nutriment. Salt is hid in meats, to season them; and that plants are full of salt, you may find by distilling them. It is very well known that divers kinds of salt may be fetched out of Urines. Aegineta saith, that artificial Chrysocolla is made with Urine. Nitre is made of earth, moistened with the Urine and dung of living creatures. Baccius shows the way: His words are. Saltpetre is made now a days by industry of a most sharp Lixivium, that drains forth from old dung, or rotten ordure, from the matter of Churchyards, and some earths that are rotten together, the sane water being often poured on in wooden Vessels. This Lixivium is boiled in great Cauldrons, and Saltpetre is made, long fibres growing hard in the bottom like to salt. Hence Ruffus Ephesmus said; that Urine was a nitrous humour that falls into the bladder. de apple. corp human. c. 36. The Arabians write that in the Urine of those are bit with mad dogs, the pictures of dogs may be seen Abenzoar. But that seems to be attributed to the force of the Venom, because it changeth exceedingly a man's constitution, and makes it like to a dogs. For the humours are so corrupted by it, that some little creatures like to puppies are bred in the body, Sennert. l. 2. p. 2. s. 2. c. 4. Truly we find Worms to breed in the bladder; for a woman voided one a span long; and a noble maid, voided many as great as wiglice, Schenck, l. 3. obs. Also Charles Count of Mansfield, voided one like a Magpie; Duretus, like a Hog-louse. But one that had the stone of the bladder voided two, with a sharp head, with horns; the back and belly were crusty, and they were black, and like Tortoises, but that their belly was red, Pareus l. 19 c. 3. Holler. de morb. intern. Another voided a living Scorpion; another, shellfish, Schenk. observe. All know the urinary passage, yet sometimes other things are voided by it. The Son of Boninus made water a little beneath the glans; and a Maid of a noble family at the Hague, urined her Navel. An old Vine dresser had it coming forth at an Ulcer of his left buttock; a Soldier Voided it by his hip and thigh; others by their belly. Schenk. in obser. Fernel. l. 6. Pathal. c. 13. As for the Kidneys, Gemma saw 3, or 4, Lib. 6, Cyclogn. Wolphius and Columbus, l. 15. Anatom. saw but one. They were seen fastened to the Liver by Holtzapfelius at Auspurg. The fat of them is sometimes found so hard and congealed that it is almost as hard as a stone, Eustach. de Renib. c. 45. Saxonia saw the substance of them resolved into little pieces of flesh. Stones also are bred in them of a feculent matter, mingled with a salt and stony juice. Sometimes they are very great. A Father general of the Carmelites had a stone in one of his Kidneys, which growing from a large root, was divided into eight branches, according to the form of the Channels of the urinary Vessels, and the number of them, this excellently resembled the stock and branches of Coral; moreover the flesh much contracted and diminished, with the Veins, stuck so fast to this stone all about, that it had lost its own form, and seemed to be a thick skin that covered it round. Eustach. ad c. 44. de Renib. Artic. 5. Of Marrow. PLinie writeth, that a Serpent is engendered of the Marrow of the backbone of a man. The truth of this testimony appeareth by experience, and is made manifest by an example that we read in Plutarch. For the King of Egypt having made the dead body of Cleomenes to be hanged up, and they that watched it having spied a great Serpent winding about his head, and covering the face in such sort as no bird that preys upon carrion durst soar thereabouts; the people of Alexandria running thither (saith he) in troops to see this spectacle, called Cleomenes a demigod, and the son of the Gods: until such time as the best in knowledge among them had called to mind, that as of the putrified flesh of a dead Ox, there grow Bees; of a horse, Wasps; and of an Ass, Beetles: so likewise, when the mattery substance which invironneth the Marrow, gathereth together and thickneth, Serpents are engendered thereof. Camerarius saith, he hath oftentimes seen in a well-known place of Germany a young gentleman's tomb, who was buried in a Chapel where his predecessors lay: It is said, that he was the fairest young man of his time; and being troubled with a grievous sickness in the flower of his age, his friends could never get so much of him (no more than Agesilaus friends could get of him) as to suffer himself to be represented in sculpture or picture, to serve for posterity: only this, through their importunity he agreed unto, that after he should be dead and some days in the ground, they should open his grave, and cause him to be represented as they then found him. They kept promise with him, and found that the Worms had half gnawn his face, and that about the midriff and the backbone there were many Serpents. Upon this, they caused the spectacle (such as they found it) to be cut in stone: which is yet at this present to be seen among the armed Statues of the Ancestors of this young gentleman. A notable example of the fragility of man's body, how fair and goodly so ever it be; and that all the splendour and magnifical show that may be seen therein, is nothing else but rottenness and Wormsmeat: as the Author of Ecclesiasticus saith; When a man dieth, he is the heritage of Serpents, Beasts and Worms. Which is confirmed by a certain inscription graven upon a tomb at Rome in Saint Saviour's Church, where are two Latin Verses to this effect. When in my body's prison I was penned, I was compact of shameful filth and ordure: Now to this lower dungeon being sent, To crawling Worms I serve for food and pasture. Saint Bernard aimed at the same when he said, That man was nothing but stinking seed, a sack of excrements, and the food of Worms. Of bodies dead engender Worms, of Worms a rotten stink, And then as horrible a state as mind of man can think: This is our very case, for all our pride and high conceit, Nor can we stay the stroke of death when he our life doth threat. So then, nature engendering of the carrion of our bodies, a Serpent, or a Dragon, it seemeth to show unto us (as it were with the finger) the author of our calamities and corruptions; as also the enemy that hath an unreconcilable war with us: to wit, that old dragon and serpent, who not only layeth traps for the living; but besides never leaveth rending and devouring those that be dead and buried. Article 6. Of Sweat. ARistotle reports, that some have sweat blood. And Fernel. l. 6. the part. morb. c. 4. observed, that sometimes blood will run forth of the ends of the veins that end in the skin, in many places. There was one, that every month about a pound of blood, run forth of a vein opened, by the skin, near the lower part of the Liver▪ when it was voided, none could discern where it came forth, Beneven. Lastly, the Precedent of Mons Marinus, when he was besieged by Augustus the base son of the Prince of Salucia, and was called forth as it were to parley, and then held prisoner, and he was threatened with death, if he yielded not up the place, was so frighted with this undeserved death, that he sweat blood all over his body, Thuan. l. 11▪ Histor. The causes are two, saith Aristotle. The thinness of the blood, the rari●y of the skin, and the opening of the pores. To this may be added, the weakness of the parts that serve for nutrition, if the retentive faculty hold not, and the expulsive cast forth strongly. Anno 1486, there was a kind of disease called the English Sweat; It first fell out in England, and in Germany Anno 1529, it so spread, that it broke off the Treaty of Zwinglius and Luther. The force was so great, that it killed men in 24 hours, or else they recovered if it did breathe forth by sweat, Thuan. lib. 6. Physical observations show, that one recovered who went into a very hot oven, and sweat violently. But as many as eat of the bread was baked in the same oven, were all consumed by a consumption, Riqu. de febre sudor in Epist. And though Sweat, when other signs are good, be a Token of a good Crisis, yet a cold sweat is certainly mortal, for it comes from the decayed heat of the solid parts. When as it breaks forth from a great feavorish heat within, it is cooled in the external parts that are now void of all heat. Whence our Hypocrates, l. 4. Aphor. 37. saith, If cold Sweats come forth upon a hot Fever, they signify Death; but if the Fever be mild, a chronical disease. Article 6. Of insensible Transpiration. AS in the great World, vapours are drawn forth from moist places by the heat of the Sun and the Stars: so in Man, the little world, we must grant the same is caused by force of the inward heat. Yet lest they being united in man's body, should cause distemper, and make Fevers, God made man's body open and full of pores, through which the vapours breathe out, and that so finely, that the senses can scarce perceive them. Yet Sanctor. Sanctorius, did observe and weigh them as fine as they are. Hence grew, that Physic is called Statica, wherein amongst other Aphorisms these are contained: I. Insensible transpiration is far more, than all sensible transpirations put together. II. If the weight of the body begins to increase more than usually, without any greater addition of meat or drink, or retention of sensible excrements, there is a stopping of the pores. III. Perspiration that cures the body of a disease, and of that unprofitable weight, is not that which is made by sweat, but by that invisible breathing forth, which in Winter in one natural day can send forth above 50 ounces. IV. After sleep, before he voids any sensible Excrements, a man feels himself lighter; for he is so, about 3. pounds' weight more than ordinary. V. In one night commonly a man voids 16 ounces of urine, more or less, 4. ounces of excrements by siege, and above 40 ounces by insensible transpiration. VI Many men void more in one natural day by insensible transpiration, than they do by their belly in 15. days. VII. If cold fall upon the Air in Summer, and a man drink hard that day, it will hinder a third part almost of insensible transpiration; and if sensible transpiration do not help, it will easily dispose a man to corrupt humours or Cachexia. VIII. In Summer temperate bodies are lighter than in Winter about three pound weight. IX. In Summer if cold fall upon heat, the same day about one pound of excrements are kept in, and cannot breathe forth. X. From the Autumnal Equinoctial, to the Summer Solstice, we breathe forth above one pound weight less every day; and from thence to the Vernal Aequinox we begin to breathe them forth more freely. XI. The stomach filled with meat, if it perform the first concoction whilst we sleep, the perspiration of that night commonly amounts to 40 ounces; but if it do not end it, it comes to about 18 ounces. XII. Meats that nourish much, except Wether-Mutton, from Supper to Dinner, use not to breathe out above 18. ounces. XIII. Plenty of meats, that nourish but little, in one night may breathe forth above 40 ounces in most men. XIV. Wether-Mutton is easily concocted, and will breathe forth; for in one night it will come forth by insensible transpiration 3. ounces more than other ordinary meats. XV. Unquiet rest hinders at least 3. ounces of ordinary transpiration. XVI. I have found that insensible transpiration in many men will breathe forth in 7. hours 40 ounces, when they sleep; and 20 when they wake, or thereabouts. CHAP. IU. Of Increasing. Article 1. Of Giants. THere are two sorts of Giants. For they are either people of a Country; or else Monsters, by error of the matter, or of the Agent. Goropius Becanus denies that ever there were, or are any of the first kind. But the holy Scripture gives testimony, and there are evident examples, and modern experience confirm it. For the Spies, Numb. 13. v. 33. say expressly, We saw Giants the sons of Anak, which come of the Giants, that we seemed in our eyes like to Grasshoppers, and so we were in their eyes. And what are the names of the Emims, and Zamzummims; but titles of Giants? Procopius testifieth, that Justinian wondered at the Goths of old for their vast bodies. Some think they had their names from Gygas, Bartholin. de Pigmaeis c. 5. Mela. l. 3. c. 4. writes, That amongst the Indians there were men so tall, that they rid on the greatest Elephants instead of horses. The Patagones' in America are certainly known to be 12. spans high. Pigafetta saith, he saw there amongst the Cannibals a Giant that was taller than other men from the girdle upwards. But about the straits of Magellan near the Antarctic Pole, he saw men whose neck was half as long as a man's Arm; and he affirms it exceedingly. We may place Goliath, and such as are spoken of, 2 Sam. 27. in the number of the last kind of Giants. Augustine saw the grinding tooth of one, that, cut into pieces, would make a hundred teeth of ours, Lib. 15. de civitat Dei, c. 9 Some were found in Drepanum in Sicily, each of them weighed 3. pound, Pulgosius l. 1. c. 6. Lucius Flaccus and Metellus in the Cretian War found some of their bodies that were 30 cubits. In the same place the earth opening by an Earthquake cast up one 40 cubits high, Plin. l. 7. c. 26. In another place amongst the waves there was a Maid seen 50 cubits long, and she was 4. cubits broad between the shoulders, she was clothed in a purple garment, Vincentius histor. Natur. l. 31. c. 25. But what saith Bertius of another in his description of Zealand▪ Our Chronicles relate, from Gulielmus Bonus, Earl of Holland, unto the Marriage solemnities of Charles the fair, King of France, a woman was brought, of an unusual stature, born in Zealand, in respect of whom very tall men seemed but dwarves; and she was so strong, that she would carry two barrels full of beer in both hands, each of them weighing 40 Italian pounds; and a beam that 8 men could not lift, she would wield at pleasure. He that desires more, let him read the Book of Johannes Cassio de Gygantibus: I only mention some of the chief, commonly they that feed abundantly do not grow so beautiful. The choking of the natural heat, is the cause, with abundance of moisture. The same happeneth in diseases, Lemnius in occult. Artic. 2. Of Pigmies. PYgmies have their name from their cubital stature. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is the distance from the bending of the elbow to the top of the little finger. The Hebrews call them Gammadim, from Gomed a cubit. There were two sorts of them, some very little ones brought up in Prince's Courts for sport; born by accident as Monsters are. Some are a people that live some where, or else they did formerly. I need not prove the former. Under Theodosius there was one so small in Egypt, that he seemed no bigger than a Partridge; he was very wise, and had a pleasant voice, and spoke clearly, showing the marks of a generous mind, he lived 20, years. Nicephor l. 12. Eccles. histor. c. 37. Johannes Cassinon de Gygant, p. 66, saw two at Lions, one of them had a long beard, and was of a very beautiful countenance, some of our Chamberfellows saw at Falconburg, a mile from Leyds the last year, a female a cubit long, There was a Dwarf at the Marriage of the Duke of Bavaria, who was completely armed, with a short spear, and his sword girt about him, and he was hid in a Pie that one could not see him, and he was set upon the Table, and he broke the crust of the Pie and came forth, and drawing his sword he danced like a Fencer, and made all the people laugh and admire him, Plater. l. 3. Observ. At Dresda in the Castle of the Elector of Saxony there is to be seen the Skeleton of a dwarf, not a cubit high, with so solid and well proportioned bones, that one would think they were the bones of an Embryo. Bartholin de Pigm. c. 6. In Marchia and Lusatia, there was an entire skeleton found, with the skull, 2 foot and 3 fingers long, Leonhardus▪ Turnheuserus in German Pisone memorat. l. 7. c. 84. Now because Coffins of the dead were often dug up in those parts, the people think the Pigmies make them under ground. In Winter they lie 20, foot deep, about Whitsuntide one cubit, it is the opinion of the people. Multitudes of Authors may persuade us to believe that there was a Country of Pigmies: amongst the rest C●esias Indicus writes thus: Middle India hath blackmen, that are called Pigmies, and they speak the same language, the rest of the Indians do; they are very small, for great part of them are but half a cubit high, and the greatest of them is not above two cubits. Their hair hangs as far & sometime below their knees, & they wear their beards longer than any men. And so soon as their long beard is grown, they use no clothing, but they let their hair fall backwards much below their knees, and their beard covers their foreparts. Then when they have covered their whole bodies with hair, they girt themselves about with them instead of garments. Also their Yard is so thick and so great, that it will come down to their ankles. They are also flat nosed and deformed. Their sheep are no bigger than our Lambs, their Oxen and Asses are like our Rams in greatness, their Horses and Mules, and other creatures to carry burdens are no bigger. The King of the Indies hath 3000 of these Pigmies in his company. For they are most cunning Archers. They are very just, & use the same Laws the other Indians do. They hunt Hares & Foxes, not with Dogs, but with Crows, Kites Rooks, & Eagles, There is a lake amongst them that is 800 furlongs about, upon which, when the wind troubles it not, oil swims which some of these men take away from the middle of it in boats, swimming through it with little ships, and this they use. They use also oil of Sesame & nuts, but the best is taken out of that Lake. So far he describes them. Antonius Pigafetta found some of them in an Island of the Moluccas, but Jovius l. 3. de rebus Muscovit. saith, they are in the Island Caphi, beyond the Laplanders▪ Lastly Odericus de reb. Indic. l. 3, saith, he saw some but three hands breadth, and that they begat Children at five years old. CHAP. V. Of Generation. Article 1. Of Seed. THe Seed, the most noble principle in Generation, resists many injuries. That appears even from this, that the essence of many things can remain entire in many changes, & under another form. Let a Goat be fed with many purgative herbs; let the nurse drink the Goats-milk, and it will purge the child that sucks her: yet in the stomach of the Goat those herbs were changed into Chylus, and the Chylus was made blood in the Liver, and from blood milk in the Udder; when the nurse drinks this milk, again Chylus is made of it in the stomach, blood of this Chylus in the Liver, milk of this blood in her breasts. I received it from one, saith Sennertus, worthy of credit, de consens. et dissens. that from the froth of a mad dog that stuck upon a cloth, little creatures were bred like to whelps. It is wont, being retained in Virgins and lusty Widows, to get a venomous quality, by corrupting in the matrix, and it will cause strong symptoms. For a malignant vapour flying up, presseth the Intestines, the Liver, and the 〈…〉▪ and makes the breathing so small, that it can hardly be perceived. When any thing hangs over the parts of the privities or Navel toward the Diaphragma, and ascending to the orifice of the stomach is perceived, there follows presently panting of the heart, aching of the heart, swimming of the head and paleness. Whilst this continues▪ a woman falls suddenly down, and is deprived of breathing, speech, and sight; (many have lain so 3 days; others have been buried, as though they had been dead; Vesalius dissected one to his great dishonour) and sometimes a woman is affected with the Epilepsy, Convulsion sits, and raving; and, as the malignant vapour fall on this or that part, so is she disquieted. Sometimes wonderful voices are heard out of their bellies, crying of frogs, hissing of Serpents, croaking of Crows, crowing of Cocks, barking of dogs; which Gemma Frisius l. 1. c. 6. Cosmocrit. thinks they do vary as the passages and the spirits that break forth are proportioned. The Daughters of the Precedent of Rouen did always laugh, and would not cease from it▪ Holler. de intern. morb. It happens sometimes, that imagination being hurt, they grow sick of melancholy, and think the Devil is present; also they fall into the fury of the womb, and wand'ring melancholy: this principally is of force in February, and is heaped up in winter. When they are so affected, they will speak divers things, and divers wonders in strange tongues. Physicians say, they will desire to lie with those they meet; they will talk in the night, and hide themselves in tombs, Henr. Petreius Nosolog. Harmon. Discourse. 3. We read, that the Virgins of Miletus affected with this disease, offered violence to themselves. The order of formation is this; First of all, the membranes that surround the Infant are made; For in these the nobler part of the seed is included, and the heat of the spirit and seed is covered after: After this all the spermatick parts are delineated; and as their dignity is, so is each of them made in its order. Yet some are perfected sooner, some later. Hence at the first time of conception there appear 3. bubbles, as it were, swelling with spirits, which are the rudiments of the Brain, Heart and Liver, and an innumerable company of threads, that are the beginnings of veins, nerves and arteries, and, as it were, the foundations of the solid parts, Sennert. l. 1. Institut. c. 9 Artic. 2. Of menstruous Blood and Milk. THe coldness of Women, & generation is the cause that all blood is not wasted in them, yet because they are not always with Child, it is then collected in the vessels about the matrix, and is cast forth every month, that they may not feel the burden of it, wherefore Physicians call them monthly terms. They begin to be cast forth, when they are young Maids, the bottom or neck of the matrix determins the manner of the flux. It is observed that a fresh maid, with great breasts hanging down, which had hair under her armpits, and on her privities, had her courses five years together without any hurt Schenk. l. 4. observ. Nature if it cannot find the ordinary way seeks another passage. A Maid of Saxony had her Terms come forth of her eyes. A Nun had them came forth of her ears. Pareus his Wife had them by her nostrils: A Maid at Sturgard vomited them up: A Maid in the Island Chios, spit them up. Amatus speaks of some that voided them by their Teats: A woman of Trent, voided them by her Navel; and which is wonderful, a Nun voided them every month by her little finger, and ring finger of her left hand, Ludovic. Mercat. l. 1. c. 7. de Mulierib. affect. All have not this flux uniform; Those that are of a good habit have them twice a year without hurt, and some not so much as once. And Hortensius saith they have them before they conceive. Institut. medic. l. 1. c. 28. They that are born from Mothers that were long before they had their Terms, are commonly sickly. So it was with Francis the 2 d. King of France, who never had a s●otty nose, and seldom spit, but a great deal of filthy excrements came towards his ear, and purged his brain that way, and at last the corruption grew Mortal. Thuan. l. 23. Histor. And Pliny affirms that there is a venomous quality in it. For l. 7. c. 15. l. 19 c. 1. he writes thus, You shall not easily find any thing that is more monstrous than the terms of women: new Wine will grow sour by them, Corn will wither by touching them, plants will die, the buds of Trees will be burnt by them, and fall; Looking-glasses grow dark by their very looks. The edge of Steel and the brightness of Ivory is mad blunt, swarms of Bees die, Brass and Iron will presently rust, and a stinking smell corrupts the air: Dogs run mad that taste them, and bite deadly with venom incurable. Also it is reported that the Ant, the smallest creature is sensible of this, and will not eat the Corn hath touched them, not come there any more. Milk hath been sometimes found in men's breasts. For Cardan de subtle. testifies that Antonius Benzus, being 34, years old, pale, and with a thin beard, fat of body, had as much Milk in his breasts as would suckle a Child. They that have seen the new World, affirm that all the men almost have abundance of Milk. Aristotle saw a he Goat in Lemnus, that afforded so much milk as would suffice to give a kid suck. l. 3. histor. animal. c. That it will sometimes grow hard as a stone, see Schenkius observat. Mathaeus Medic. quaest, centur. qu. 14▪ denies that Virgins have any. Heurnius ad l. 5. Aphor. 39 affirms it. If Virgins, saith he, abound with this blood, and their terms be stopped, unless this be voided by letting blood, or vomiting, or bleeding at the nose, or emrods, or a bloody dysentery; and if their breasts be hotter and rubbed, it may incline sometimes that way and be turned into milk. Hypocrates in the same Aphoris●m. If a woman have Milk, and be neither great with Child, nor delivered, her courses are stopped. Yet we confess, this happeneth but seldom, since Nature ordained the Milk to suckle the Infant. Artic. 3. Of the Generative parts. I Shall speak but little of these, and with a mind that is modest, and with such a mind they ought to be read. Histories relate, that Sylla had but one testicle; and Philip Landgrave of Hassia had 3. Thuan. l. 41. He adds, he was so full of juice for venery, that when he used only his Wife, and she could not suffer him so often, as he would; he being otherwise a chaste man, by consent of his wife, and relating his mind to the Priests, he was forced to take a Concubine besides. A Prince of Germany who was emasculated by a Cannon bullet, made that member of silver, and with that he got many children, Nancel. Analog. Microcosm. l. 7. A Bull that presently leapt on a Cow, so soon as he was gelt, got her with Calf, Aristotle. And Albertus relates of an Eunuch that used copulation. One was born without a genital member, yet with the Scrotum and testicles; another, without the parts of either Sex, Schenkius in observat▪ It is certain, that Virgins have a virginal Cloister. But there is not a little skin placed a thwart in the middle of the matrix, that makes the neck thereof impassable: but four Caruncles, placed round, with small fibres coming between them, till they are broken by force, and they are circularly shriveled by course, leaving a hole in the middle of them, that the terms may run forth from the matrix, Ludovic. de Gardin. Anatom. c. 99 Avicenna l. 3. sen. 21. makes mention of a part found in the privity of a woman, which he calls the wand, or Albathara. Albucasis l. 2. c. 7. calls it Tentigo; and sometimes this hath grown so big, that women that have it, could copulate with others like men, Fa●lopius. Caesarean births show, that the womb may be cut sometimes without danger. Physical Histories testify, that one had her Matrix cut out for her Lasciviousness, yet without danger of her life. Rhodiginus saith, he saw a Maid foretell future things by her matrix. chrysostom saith, that one of Apollo's Nuns did the like. Article 4. Of the Female Sex. We all know there are two Sexes: the male the superior; and the female, inferior almost in all things. God gave the man the Superiority, and commanded the woman to obey. If we consider her body, she shows by this, her condition is the lowest; chiefly if we consider her temper and excrements. Hence, because they send forth sad vapours, by reason of their courses, they will make Nutmegs and Coral, look foul and black. But if a male carry the first it will grow fatter, the latter will look more red, Lemnius l. 2. c. 12. the occult. They are easily angry, and their choler kindled, soon will boil over; and for want of heat, they are not so ingenious. It is now the common opinion, that this sex is more lustful than men are. Yet no man will deny, but that there are degrees in this. For in pale lean people, the genital parts are filled with a sharp biting humour, and desire to be moistened. Lemnius l. 2. the occult. c. 37. conjectures, that they are more venereous than red fat people. Rue makes men less, women more lustful. Secundus Philosophus, when he was persuaded that all women were naught, and having made trial, found it so in his own Mother, not that he lay with her, but found she would give him leave, being asked by Adrian what a woman was, answered, Man's Confusion; an unsatiable beast; a continual trouble; a battle without end: the shipwreck of an incontinent Man; the slave of mankind. Yet be what it will be; This sex is not so much to be despised: but there are some found above this condition. In the Siege at Brunswick a woman played the Soldier; another did the like formerly in Caesar's Camp, Camer. Hor. subcis. c. 76. Cent. 3. Eudoxia the Wife of Theodosius the younger writ Poems; and there is extant of her making Homer's fragments concerning our Saviour. Proba Falconia did the like out of Virgil's Verses. Jane Grey, understood Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Olympia Fulvia Morata, could make verses Greek or Latin; and when she turned to the Orthodox Religion, she gave herself wholly to Divinity. What shall I say of Elizabeth Queen of England? she by her virtues put all the world into admiration; and she so amazed Pope Sixtus, that he said, That she only with Henry the Fourth of France was fit to give counsel concerning the state of the whole Christian World. Examples testify, that women in time were changed into men. At Antioch a famous Maid being married after she had born a child, became a man; at Maevan, another also became a man. At Rome one, the same day she was married, was transformed, Volat. l. 24. Comm. Urbino. The same happened to Aemilia, after she had been married 12 years. See more examples in Schenkius. Artic. 5. Of the noise of the Womb. SOme have observed, that Children have cried in their mother's wombs, and so loud, that they could be well heard. In Weinrichius of Monsters, you shall find Examples. A Poet writes thus: Wonder it is, a Child did sadly cry, Which was unborn, and in the womb did lie. The cause was this, it grieved, and with its might Strove to come forth, to see the World's great light. Or else perhaps, it showed the earnest care To help its Parents that now weary were. Some think, that this portends some hurt to the child, or to the mother: others think, that this is contrary to reason and experience. To Experience, because there is no certainty that any such thing happened amongst the old Philosophers. To Reason, because there can be no cry heard without drawing the air by the mouth, and without the beating at the air by the sharp artery when we breathe it forth, and without a certain forming of it by the mouth, and the Palate. For being there is no place for a reciprocal course of the air, in the veins and arteries, and the Infants urinary passage, that are filled with other things; nor for so great abundance, that a passage should be made by the heart; it cannot enter by the navel, by reason of the notable danger of heat, nor can it be admitted by the matrix: to say nothing, that all are full of an excrementitious glutinous matter. Libavius supposeth all things required for breathing in the Thorax to be made, and he thinks that the internal aereal breath made of the humours by the active heat, and shut up within the house where the child is, and also contained in the capacity of the Lungs, being pressed forth by the Child, may serve the turn. See disc. de vagitu, etc. Artic. 6. Of numerous Births. IN the single faculty of generation, that man hath, there happens variety, if we consider time and number. Some are born in the fifth month, some in the sixth, some in the 7th, 8th, or 9th, and some in the tenth, 13th. 15th. Paschal. in Biblio. medica saith, one was great with Child 23 months, another 2 years, Aventinus. l. 5. Annal, This Child was born speaking; One was with Child four years, Mercurialus. Yet Physicians set the 9th and tenth months for the time of natural birth, when the Child is grown great and wants plenty of nourishment, and the place where he lies is grown too narrow. Those that are born in the fifth month, are very feeble, as a maid was that Valescus de Philos. sacra c. 18. mentions, who was more slender and thin than womenkind use to be. Those that are born in the 7th month are weak, and suspected, not to be perfect in all things; few live in the 8th month, the striving to be born in the 7th month, hath made them weak as some think. For number some will bring two, three, four, oft times; and some will exceed this, that it is miraculous. An Egyptian, in Gellius l. 10. c. 2. had five at a birth. The Mother of Lamisius King of Lombardy had 7, Sigebert in Chronic. The Countess of Quenfurt had 9 Betraff. l. 4. of the Princess of Anhalt. A woman that Albertus speaks of, miscarried of 22, another of 70, another of a 150. The matter was proved by cutting the little coats they were wrapped in, Caelinus l. 4. c. 25. The Wife of Irmentrud Isenbert, Earl of Altorf, was delivered of 12. Margaret the Wife of the Earl of Viraboslai of 36, Cromer. l. 11. Margaret the daughter of Florentius Earl of Holland had 365, Ludovicus vives in colloquiis. Maude Countess of Henneberg under Frederick the second had 1500. Aventin. l. 7. annal, Cuspinianus saith, 350. But if you take them at several times, you shall find wonderful examples of fruitfulness. Priamus by Hecuba had 19, Children, and 31, by other Women. Artaxerxes had 106, Herotimus, 600. Conradus Duke of Moscovia had 80. The King of Giloto (it is an Island amongst the M●luccas) had 600, Pigafetta of Ziamb, 325. another had 650. Martinus Polus l. 3. c. 6. saith, he saw these living. Ludovicus Vives saw a Country man in Spain, whose Children whilst he lived, had filled a Village of above a hundred households. And in our times an old Wife spoke of her offspring, thus. Ah my daughter, tell thy daughter's daughter to lament for her daughter's daughter. Sphinx. c. 17. Thomas Fazell writeth, that jane Pancica, who in his time was married to Bernard Belluard, Sicilian, of the city of Agrigent, was so fruitful, that in thirty child-beds she was delivered of seventy and three children: which should not seem (saith he) incredible, seeing Aristotle affirms, that one woman at four births brought forth twenty Children; at every one, five. Albertus Magnus writes, That a woman of Germany had two and twenty abortive Children at one time, all having their perfect shapes: and another woman, seventy. And besides, that another woman delivered into a basin a hundred and fifty, every one of the length of ones little finger. Erasmus, Vives, and others, have written of the strange deliverance of the Countess of Henneberg. Lewis Guicciardin in his description of the Low-Countries setteth down the same story, taken out of the ninth book of the Annals of Flanders, composed by Guido Dominicus Petrus: His words are these; A certain poor woman, brought a bed of two Children, prayed the Countess to give her some assistance in her necessity: but the Countess did not only send her away emptyhanded, but charged her that she was of an ill behaviour, saying that it was a thing against nature (in her opinion) for a woman that is honest to conceive by her husband two Children at one birth; and therefore that this her deliverance had bewrayed, that she had lewdly abandoned herself to some others. The poor woman moved with this reproach and ignominious repulse, and of the other side well assured of her honest carriage, made earnest request to God, that for the proof of her innocency, and of the faith which He knew she had kept inviolably to her husband, it would please him to grant that this Countess might have so many Children at one burden, as there were days in the year: which within a while after came to pass. And he addeth, that these Children were as big as Chickens new hatched, all alive, and sound, and died within a little while together with their mother: to whom this Epitaph following was erected in the Monastery of Lodun, where there were Nuns of the order of S. Bernard, and it is hard by the Hague in Holland. THE EPITAPH. The daughter of the right noble Lord Florent Earl of Holland, and of Maud his Wife the daughter of Henry Duke of Brabant, sister of William King of Almain, named Margaret, of the age of forty two years, was brought a bed upon the Friday before Easter, in the year 1276, at nine a Clock in the morning, of three hundred, threescore, and five Children, as well male as female; who after they had been all baptised in a great basin by the reverend Bishop Don William, Suffragan, in the presence of some great Lords and notable persons, the male Children being called by the name of John, the female by the name of Elizabeth, died all of them together with their mother; their souls returning to God, to live eternally, their bodies resting under this Tomb. The like story well near is reported of the beginning of the noble race of the Wolves. Irmentrudes the Wife of Isenbard Earl of Altorf, having given herself the reins so far, as to accuse of adultery a woman that had three Children at one birth, being not able to believe that one man could at one time get so many Children, adding withal, that she deserved to be sowed in a sack and thrown into the water, yea, and accusing her in that regard to her husband: It happened that the next year the Countess felt herself with Child, and the Earl being from home, she was brought a bed of twelve male Children, but all very little. She fearing the reproach of adultery (whereof yet she was not guilty) and the punishment of like-for-like, commanded that eleven of them should be taken and cast into a River that was not far from the house, and that one should be saved to be brought up. It so fell out that Isenbard met the woman that was carrying the little infants to their death, and ask her, whither she went with her pail? he had this answer, that she was going to drown a few baggage whelps in the River of Schere. The Earl came unto her, and (for all the resistance the woman made) would see what was there, and then discovering the Children, pressed her in such wise, that she told him all the matter. Then he caused them to be nourished and educated secretly, and so soon as they were grown great and brought home to him, he set them in an open hall besides him whom his wife had brought up: and then being all known to be brethren by their faces, and their other fashions, their mother moved in conscience confessed all the fact, and obtained pardon for her fault. In remembrance whereof the honourable race of the Wolves got that name, which ever since it hath kept. Article 7. Of monstrous Births. NAture in working intends her own business; but because divers obstacles may happen in respect of the first agent, the seed, the constitution of the Heavens, the formative virtue, imagination, heat, it is no wonder if she err sometimes. And though there be Monsters almost in all mixed bodies, yet those Monsters that happen amongst living creatures are chiefly remarkable. And such fall out either in quantity or quality. A woman of Troas, Anno 1569, brought forth twins joined by the heads, Pareus l. 24. oper. c. 2. Valeriola locor. common. l. 1. c. 8. saw at Avignon one with two bodies all from the neck. Munsterus saw two Maids joined together, with their foreheads one against the other; and when one went forward, the other went backwards. At Florence there were two boys, one was an entire body, the other was fastened by his shoulders to the others stomach, that all his head seemed to be thrust into it; and when the former sucked, he moved as if he sucked also, Benivent. de reb. abdit. Paraeus l. 24. c. 2. Anno 1530, saw the same at Paris, in a man of 40 years. About the end of the Empire of Lotharius, a certain woman bore a child like a man and a dog; their bodies joined entirely, and they were fastened at the ridge of their backs, Lycost. lib. prodigior. In Scotland there was one that was a male for the nether parts, but above the navel it had two members, distinct both for use and in shape. This Monster was taught the Musical Art, and learned many Languages. It held consultation, and when they differed, they would chide and quarrel; it lived 28 years. And when one body died many days before the other, the other that lived pined away, half the body being putrified before, Buchan. in histor. Scotica. Lastly, in former times there was a child born at Cracovia from noble Parents, that was terrible to behold, with flaming shining eyes; the mouth and nostrils were like to an Ox's, it had long horns, and a back hairy like a dogs, and faces of Apes in the breast, where the teats should stand; it had Cats eyes under the navel fastened to the hypogastrium, and they looked hideously, and frightfully, and the heads of dogs of both elbows; and at the whirlbones of each knee, looking forwards; It was splay-footed, and splay-handed; the feet were like Swans feet, and it had a tail turned upwards that was crooked backwards, about half an ell long: It was born and lived four hours, and then spoke thus; Watch, the Lord your God comes; and than it died, Peucer. in Tetratosc. To this may be added, the stony birth at Agendicum of the Senones, that was carried 28 years, and was cut out of the mother's womb, when she was dead. It is seen to this day at Agendicum, for a miracle, and is not corrupted, Thuan. l. 76. Histor. He that would hear more, let him read Bauhinus de hermaphrodite, Weinrichius de monstris, and others. Article 8. Of the recompense Nature makes to Monsters. IT is commonly said, that those that are deficient naturally, are marked for some malignant qualities: and this is sometimes found to be true; but it is most false, that it is always so. For to say nothing of the diversity of parts, which Lemnius adviseth us to take notice of: such is the force of education, that it made Socrates good, that would have been bad. Moreover, Nature is so indulgent, that, as if she were ashamed of her mistake, she largely recompenseth her error with other endowments. Count Mansfeld that failed in sight, could by touching, know white from black, Keckerm. in Physicis. Hamar, a Captain of a Caravan, would know where he was by only smelling the same, Leo African. A Preacher in Germany that was blind from his nativity, chose the fairest of three Sisters, by taking her by the hand, Camer. Hor. subcis. Cent. 3. c. 80. Cicero saith, Homer was blind; we see not him, but his Poetry. His words are, Tusculan. 5. What Country, what place, what Town of Greece, what form, what fight, what Army, what rowing, what motion of men or beasts, is not so represented by him, that what he saw not, he described it so, that we might see it? Didymus Alexandrinus was also blind from his childhood, who professed wisdom divine and humane, which he learned, Ruffian. l. 11. c. 7. Eccles. histor. What shall I say of Thomas Schweikerus? Posthius a Poet, and a famous Physician writes thus of him, Thomas by nature wanting arms, with's feet Performs all things, you'd wonder for to see't; With's feet he eats and drinks, full well; and then, With's foot's he turns his books, or makes a Pen With's feet to write, and paint doth understand, No man can do it better with his hand. Caesar Aemilian, as stories mention, Admired, maintained him, with a Pension. Georgius Pictorius Villinganus l. 4. Sermon Convival. testifies, that he saw a Spaniard born without arms, so cunning with his feet, that he could spin, or use the neidle curiously, as the cunningest woman could with both her hands. He could so wield his arms, that no Soldier could match him; and shoot in a bow, that he would never miss the mark; and with one stroke he would break a thick log. To conclude, Keckerman speaks of a Scholar, l. 1. Physic. c. 4. that had but one little finger on each hand, and his feet were triangular without any toes, and he had more force in one finger, than others had with five; he writ curiously and swiftly, and stood so firm, that in slippery places he would seldom slip. Also Pliny may cease to complain of nature, that is a bountiful mother to all; and recompenseth a defect with more benefit. Camerarius and some others being once at Combourg, in the house of Erasmus Neusteter, a wise and virtuous gentleman of Germany, he entertained us with the greatest kindness that could be devised, and sent to a place not very far from them for one Thomas Schweiker, a young man of one and thirty years of age, descended of a worshipful house, and borne without ever an arm, who did with his feet all that a ready man could do with his hands, so that himself affirmed he was recompensed with one gift in stead of another. Having set himself in a place equal with the height of the table whereon the meat was placed, he took a knife with his feet, begins to cut bread, and to cut meat, which he carried with his feet to his mouth, and likewise the cup, as easily as another would have done with his hands. After dinner, ●e begins to write examples in Latin and Germane letters, so strait and so fair, as every one of us desired to have some of them to keep as a special monument. Being requested, he did with a penknife make penns, very good to write with, which he gave us. While he was thus a doing, I marked diligently the making of his feet, and saw that his toes were long, fit to take hold of things; and to behold them a far off, one would take them for fingers: for his thighs and legs, he kept them mannerly covered with his Cloak. This sight (which we had never seen before) was no less pleasing than strange to us; as it was also at another time to the Emperor Maximilian the second, who passing that way, desired to see the man, and having noted in him (not without wonderment) the strange recompense of Nature, he dismissed him with a rich gift. Of late there hath been seen a man without arms going about in Germany, who had learned by custom turned into art, to handle a sword, and to flourish it about his neck; to fling halberds, and to do other strange things so nimbly, and so surely withal, that he would most commonly hit the mark; and all other duties of the hands, he did them with his feet. But the end of his life showed that he was a deceiver and a wicked person: for he was broken upon the wheel for his robberies and murders. We have at Nuremberg a young Man and a young Maid, borne of one Father and Mother, of a good House, and well known, that are endued with a singular quick conceit: for although they be deaf and dumb by nature, yet can both of them read very well, write, cipher, and cast account. The young man conceiveth at first by signs that are made him, what he is required to do. If his pen be wanting, by his countenance he showeth his thoughts, being the quickest and cunningest at all games both at Cards and Dice, that one can find among the Germans; although there they use great advisement, and be marvellous ready and quick. His sister passeth all other maids for working with her needle all kinds of Seamstrie, Tapestry, Embroidery, etc. But among all the other wonderful recompenses of nature, this is remarkable in them, that most commonly as soon as they see one's lips stir, they understand his meaning. They are oftentimes at Sermons, and a man would say that they draw and conceive with their eyes the words of the Preacher, as others use to do with their ears: for, they will oftentimes (no body ever teaching them, or setting them any Letters or Copies) write the Lord's Prayer and other godly prayers, know by heart the texts of the Gospels that are read upon holidays, and write them readily. When in the Sermons the Preacher maketh mention of the name of Jesus, the young man is ready before any of the hearers, to take off his hat, and to bow his knee with all reverence; So careful is nature, like a good mother, to make amends for a fault, that none should accuse her to be a stepmother: for, what she taketh away in some of the senses, she alloweth in the rest, as appear by Didymus Alexandrinus, of whom ●ussinus writeth, that he being blind, after he had humbly recommended himself to God, spent all his time in hearing, insomuch as by his diligent attention he attained to that which others obtain by reading; and by the direction of the holy Spirit, became so skilful in divine and humane learning, that he was excellent among the Divines of his time. Moreover, our Ancestors have seen john Ferdinand, a blind and poor soul, a Spaniards son, who overcame so happily these two difficulties (very cross to all, especially to learned men) that he became not only a very learned Poet and Philosopher, but also so excellent a Musician, that he played upon divers kinds of Instruments, to the great pleasure of the hearers; and besides, he made good songs and full of music, of many parts. Another, named Nicasius of Werd, borne at Macklin, excelled him: for falling blind when he was three years old, and not being able before 〈…〉 learn any one letter, he so profited in the knowledge of Philosophy, both humane and divine, that all men were ravished with him. Having proceeded Master of Arts at Louvain, and afterwards being made Principal of Macklin College, where he discharged his duty passing well; he ascended a while after to the degree of Licenciat in Theology, and though he were blind, he read, and preached openly. Furthermore, being made Doctor of the Laws in the University of Colen, he read there, and expounded the Civil and Canon Law, repeating by heart the texts which he had never read, and at last died at Colen in the year 1492. We will conclude this Chapter with an example of one borne blind, in whom nature made supply of that defect with a marvellous recompense other ways. The story is mentioned by Antonius de Palermo, thus: I learned (saith he) of King Alphonsus, that there was a Sicilian borne blind, living still at that time in the City Gergento, called in old time Agrigentum, who had followed him oftentimes a hunting, showing to the Huntsmen (who had their sights well enough) the retraits and repairing places of the wild beasts. He added further touching the industry of this blind man, that having by his sparing and scraping, gotten together about five hundred Crowns, which put him to a great deal of care, he resolved (at last) to hide them in a field. As he was making a hole in the ground to that end, a gossip of his being his neighbour, espied him, who so soon as the blind man was gone, searched in the earth, found the money, and carried it clean away. Two or three days after, the blind man returning thither to visit his cash, and finding nought there; like one altogether forlorn, he frets and torments himself, and after much debating and discoursing concludes, that no man but his gossip could have played him such a trick. Whereupon finding him out, he thus began to say unto him; Gossip, I am come to you to have your opinion: I have a thousand Crowns, and the one half of them I have hid in a safe place; and for the other half I know not what to do with them, having not my sight, and being very unfit to keep any such thing, therefore what think you? might I not hide this other half with the rest, in the same place of safety? The gossip approved and commended his resolution, and going speedily to the place, carried back again the five hundred Crowns that he had taken away before, hoping that he should have all the whole thousand together. A while after the blind man goes to his hole, and finding there his Crowns again, took them up, and coming home, calleth for his gossip, saying unto him with a cheerful voice; Gossip, the blind man hath seen better than he that hath two eyes. Article 9 Of Nations of divers forms. WHat I said in the 8th Article of Monstrous Births▪ happens but seldom; yet some thought, that happened commonly amongst some Nations. Not far from the Troglodytes in Aethiopia, there is a people that have no heads, and their eyes are in their breasts. Augustine saw them, Serm. ad Fratr. in Eremo. Solinus confirms it, c. 53. Pliny l. 5. c. 8. In Peru in the Province of Caraqui, Hispalensis says, they want the forepart, and hinder part of the head, Silvius▪ p. 5. c. 35. For he adds, That so soon as they are born, they make their heads levelly with boards. Raleigh in his Navigations to Guiana, speaks of some that are called Epumerocaci. The Circades, a people beyond Taprobana, are long visaged, with horse heads, if we credit Arrianus, Ramus tom. 1. In the Mountains of the Indies they have Dogs heads, and claws, and hides like beasts; they cannot speak, but bark, saith Megastenes, Aelian l. 10. c. 26. saith, they are in Egypt, in the way to Ethiopia, and he describes them, that they are black visaged, having no voice, they make a thrill noise, and their chin is so far beneath their beards, that it is like to a Serpent. They live by hunting Oxen and Does. Augustin de civitate Dei, l. 16. c. 6. thinks, that is not incredible. Amongst the Scythians there are some with such large ears, that they will cover all their bodies, Isidor. l. 11. c. 3. Some have their feet so broad, that they can shadow their whole bodies with them, when they lie down, from the heat. I may here add, that there are Seamen. Anno 1403, a Sea-Woman was taken in the Lake of Holland, and brought to Harlem, she was ready to learn some things that women do, but she could not speak. Anno 1526, in Friesland a Seaman was taken with a beard and hairy, he lived some years, but could never speak, Libav. l. 6. de universitat. rerum. And not long since, when the Denmark Ambassadors sailed into Norway, they saw a man in the Sea, that had a swathband of corn, they took him and put him into the Ship, and he died, they cast him into the Sea again, and he revived. Historians approved do write these things. We will not here add what we think, only the Devil hath many wiles; and great is the force of Imagination; and sometimes beasts are taken for men, if they be but like them. We read in the Scotch History, that the King's Ambassadors were brought by a storm into Norway, and saw hairy beasts in the Mountains wand'ring like to men, they thought they had been men, the Inhabitants told them they were wild beasts. Let every man think what he please. I may have occasion to speak more of this elsewhere. Article 10. Of a wonderful Antipathy between the Father and the Son. THere was a Father that hated his child as much as some men do Cats; for if he were present, though he saw him not, he would swoon. Georgius Mylius, a Divine of Jena, related it. Libavius sought the cause diligently. And if the reason of antipathy in natural things be worth enquiry, that is most worthy to be searched out, that is between children and parents. This is certain, that the cause of this discord cannot be found, nor in the rational nor the sensual part. For he wished his son no harm, nor can sympathy or antipathy be called love or hatred in parents. For they are to be found in things that are not living; and if they be in living creatures, they are not in them as they are living, but as they are natural, things. Yet because he did not abhor his other son, nor hate his offspring, for which cause he married, it is certain that was no hereditary infirmity. It is probable, the son was changed into a disposition the father could not away with; and that might proceed from the seminary body ill disposed from the womb, or by the confluence of impure blood, that had in it some ground for this alteration, or from the blood the Embryo was nourished with. For this grows divers from the matter of the nourishment, or may degenerate from some other inward cause, or from the place: sometimes the spirits that assist the blood and the whole nature, cause a change. Therefore either the mother had a great longing for some meat the father hated; or else she was frighted at something the father could not endure: To say nothing of the Midwife, or of hidden causes. So a Maid at Uratislavian, drank Cat's blood, and became of a Cat's qualities; and Faustina tasting the Fencer's blood, had a son that was most cruel. If any think that a habit cannot be got by one act, he must know that is false of natural powers; for they that of old were once taken into Trophonius his den, were wayward ever after; and a woman that fell into a Wolf's hole, grew hoary the same night. Artic. 11. Of some Wonders concerning Generation. I Add these, though I have said much, that nothing might seem to be wanting. Soranus Ephesinus Isag. 17. writes, that women that are delivered in ships, have still children; not that they cannot speak, but they will not cry when they are born. Ausonius speaks of one thus: Thy Father Geno●es, thy Mother Grecian blood, Born in a Ship at Sea, can that Son ere be good? Ligurians vain, Greeks liars, false Sea, these three Thou dost resemble well, they all do meet in thee. Some are born with marks upon them: Johannes Fredericus, Elector of Saxony had a golden cross on his back, a sign of his future calamity, Buchol. in Chronol. James, King of Great Brittany, had a Lion, a Sword, and a Crown when he was born, Camer. hor. subcis. Cent. 3. c. 42. The Kings of the Corzani have the sign of a black Eagle on their shoulders, Marcus Venetus. It is a report, that the Princes of Austria, (others do not write so) are born with a golden cross, that is, that they have white hairs drawn out in the form of a cross, Foelix Faber histor. Suev. l. 1. c. 15. Some men procreate after 80 years. For Masanissa begot 6. Children after that age; and a Nobleman of Francony had a son and a daughter, after that time, Camerar. Women have born children after 50 years. And some have born children being children themselves. Albertus Magn. l. 4. sentent. writes, that one was with child at 9 years old, and was delivered at ten. And Pliny l. 7. c. 2. saith, that some have born children at 7. years old, and that but once, and they lived not above 40 years, and they were held to be very old. Rhodig. Antiqu. l. 14. c. 18. saith, that a boy of ten years old got a child. Some have been delivered in the second, third, or fourth month after their first child, of another living child. Nancelius l. 8. Analog. writes of one that was brought to bed twice in two months. Others could not be delivered but by a Surgeons opening their wombs. Schenkius reports, that one woman was cut open four times for four several children. Pliny writes, that Proculus Caesar got 100 Maids with child in 15 days, Pliny l. 7. c. 32. In Picenum a child was born with 6 teeth, Bonfin. Decad. 3. l. 8. In Prussia the son of the King of Bythinia, had but▪ one solid bone in place of teeth, Solin. c. 3. Some are born, that can sometimes move their ears. Zoroaster was born laughing. So much for this; we shall proceed to other matters. CHAP. VI Of Vital action. Article 1. Of the Heart. SOme have wanted a Heart, if we credit Avicenna, and if his writings be not corrupted, Rhodig. l. 4. c. 6. When Caesar was Dictator, the same day he went in his purple garment, the Priest found it twice wanting in the bowels, Plin. l. 11. c. 37. Some have been found with two hearts, as the Partridges in Paphlagonia; some have wanted the left ventricle; and the midriff in some hath been like a gristle, Columb. l. 15. Anatom. And Gemma found a bone in it in two men's bodies, l. 2. Cyclog. And Wier. l. ●. de praestig. Daemon. c. 16. found stones as big as pease. Aristomanes Messenius, who killed 300 Lacedæmonians, and was sometimes taken, and sometimes escaped, had a hairy heart, Valer. Max. l. 1. c. 8. The same thing Beniventus reports of a certain thief, c. 33. de abditis. The 〈…〉 or purse wherein the heart lies, may be wanting. Columbus l. 15. Anatom. observed a young man that wanted it, and he was troubled with swoonding fits. A wound may be in the heart that is not mortal; for the Son of Maryllus the writer of obscene matters, had the pericardium cut, that one might see his heart, yet he did not die, Galen. l. 7. administr. Anatom. A history of Groaning tells the same almost that happened upon a wound in the Heart; because but few know it, I shall set it down. A wonderful Accident of a wound in the Heart. Nicol. Malerius wisheth happiness to the Reader. IT hath been thought hitherto that a man could not live a moment almost; if his Heart were wounded. Reason and Experience prove it. For since our life depends upon the safety of the spirits, the shop and making whereof is in the Heart; when the heart is wounded, it is necessary that the generation of the spirits cease. Yet I thought good to set down here a very notable History; a history of a Soldier that lived 15 days after he was wounded in the heart; none of the old or new Physicians mention any such thing. Andrea's Hasevanger, who was of the Lifeguard of the most illustrious Count William of Nassaw, Governor of Frisia, Groaning, and Omland, etc. received a wound in his breast by his fellow-soldier, Anno 1607, on the 22 of August about the Evening, he died September the 8th, at one of the clock after Sunrising, which was the 16 day after he received the wound. The body of the dead Soldier, by command of the General of the Army was opened to search for the wound, by me and two Surgeons, Caspar and Lucas Hultenus; a noble valiant man, Bernard Hoornkens looking on, and some other Soldiers that were of note. When we had opened the cavity of his breast, and a great deal of very stinking matter was run forth; we found, and wondered, that the wound had entered the right cavity of his heart, and all that part of his heart was almost all consumed; the left part being entire, wherein is contained the chief shop of the vital spirits; By the benefit of this, Andrea's lived to the sixteenth day: and left some should not believe this, the most noble and worthy men signed it with their names subscribed, to confirm it, etc. Article 2. Of the Pulse. THe Pulse is the motion of the heart and arteries, consisting of a systole and diastole. Platerus thinks it is felt on the left side, by reason of the great Artery. Yet Cardan saith, some have perceived it only on the right side. There is great inequality in it, from divers accidents that happen, whence comes the diversity of pulses amongst Physicians. No man can deny, but that sometimes it may be intercepted; and not felt when the Arteries lie deep, Balduinus Ronseus. The Player of Andrea's Count of Gorca, had naturally all kind of inequalities of pulse. But Johannes Brosovius of the Order of the Cross of the blessed Virgin had it with intermission all the time he lived. Physicians try the motion of the heart in living creatures. Coiterus observed it in a Cat. Then cutting the Pericardium, he observed a double and contrary motion in the heart, namely unto the ears of it. For whilst the heart beat, the ears sank down; when the heart sank, the ears were lifted up and filled; which in the ears were composed for a diastole: they seemed to be inflated like a bladder; and when they were extended, they were red, and continued so a while, before they came to a systole. The same reason was observed in the space of the diastole. Yet in the systole they grew white, and became loose, and sank down, and by the force of the heart, they were drawn a little toward the basis of the heart, etc. In obs. Anatom. Artic. 3. Of Life and Death. I Have little to say of Life, but that men were long lived before the Flood: after that time none lived to Adam or Methusalems' Age. Yet some have lived very long, Lemnius l. 4. c. 24. Occult. writes, that he saw a Pilot at Stockholm a 100 years old, who married a Wife of 30, years, and had some Children by her. Laurentius Hethlandius in Buchanan was 140 years old, and yet in the coldest Winter went a fishing. An Indian of the Nation of the Gandaridae, they call it now a days, Bengala, lived 335 years, his Son was 90 years old, and though he knew no letters, yet he could by memory report as true as the Chronicles. His teeth shed and grew again, and his hoary beard grew black again. Petrus Maffeius. That is also rare, that Thuan. l. 134 writes. That Emanuel Demetrius, bred obscurely, lived 103, years, his Wife was 99, and was married to him 75 years, the one supervived the other but three hours, and Anno 1603 they were both buried at Delft. The years of Man's age that rise by 7 and 9, are decretory or climacterical, hence Children are endangered about 4, 7, 9, years, etc. Cels. l. 2. c. 1. The 63 year is most dangerous for old men. Whence that proceeds it is hard to conjecture. Lemnius l. 2. c. 32. He thinks that at certain periods of years, a great abundance of humours are heaped up, by the agitation whereof diseases arise. For when nature comes to immoderate repletion, and the receptacles cannot receive the plenty of humours, it must come to a disease. Philo in loc. allegor. l. 1. writes thus of the 7th year. Nature delights in the 7 th' number; there are 7 Planets, the Bear hath 7 Stars; the Moon hath some change every week, and those changes in the air proceed from thence. All humane things, that have a divine principle, are moved healthfully in the 7 th' number; Children born in the 7 th' month are safe; in the 7 th' year a man is perfectly a reasonable creature; at 14 he is able to get his like, at 21 he leavs growing: the part of the brutish soul is divided into 7, into the five senses, the instrument of voice, and the generative force. The motion of the body is 7 fold, six according to the parts, the 7 th' round about. There are 7 inward Bowels, the Stomach, Heart, Milt, Liver, Lungs, the two Kidneys. There are 7 Members of the Body, the Head, Neck, Breast, Hands, Belly, the Groins, the Feet. The principal part of man hath seven holes, two Eyes, two Ears, Nostrils and Mouth. There are 7 excrements, Tears, S●ot, Seed, and what comes forth by the two sinks of the body, and Sweat in every part, etc. What ever it be, live long or little, death is certain to all. Nature at the same moment gave a law of being born, and to die, Valer. Max▪ l. 5. c. 10. Mourning weeds are put upon conquerors doors, Senec. ad Polyb. But the way is unknown, and divers. Baldus was bit by a Cat at Meletum, but lightly, on the lip; he grew mad four months after, fell into Hydrophobia, and died. Magol. in Colloqv. Ladislaus King of Naples, when he dwelled at Perusium, died of the Pox. Colenut. in compend. histor. Neapolitan. Some have died with too much joy, some with grief. When the Janisary was sent to kill the youngest Son of Bajazet by Soliman's command, and he saw the Child laugh at the halter, and to kiss him, and to sport; this cruel man was so moved, that he fell down dead. Thuan l. 24. After death, almost all Carcases corrupt, and are changed into other bodies. Pliny saith, l. 10. c. 66, that Serpents breed of the Marrow, and so they did of the body of Cleomenes who was hanged, Plutarch. The same was done in a young Man Camer. cent. 1 horar. subcis. c. 11. For when he was thought to be the fairest of his time, and fell deadly sick, he could not be persuaded to leave his picture to posterity; only he granted thus much to their request, that many days after he was dead and buried, they should open the Monument, and as they then found his body; so should they picture him. When they opened it, his face was found half eaten up with Worms, and they saw many Serpents about his Diaphragma, and Marrow of his back. The Sepulchre of Carolus Martellus, was found without his body, and a Serpent in the place, Guaguin et Aemil. In Egypt whole Carcases are found, out of which Mumie is taken, that is a cure for many diseases. Nor do those bodies corrupt that are seen near Kijovia by Borystenes. Artic. 4. Of Venomous infection. BEcause Venom's are most pernicious by a hidden quality, I shall add a few things concerning the variety of Infections. First I shall speak of the Air infected. That is seen in the Plague, and might be proved by all in that Cave near to Naples. And the matter is come so far, that the Air may be infected by art, that the enemy coming into it may be killed. That was clear in the Sepulchre of Semiramis, that was placed above the famous gates of the City. For when Darius, hoping to find treasure, opened this, he found a little Coffer, which being opened, such a Venomous blast flew out, that it killed a third part of the men. Some living Creatures kill by sight, and hissing. That was thought true of the Basilisk, that was seen in the treasure of Maximilian the Emperor. And Avicenna writes l. 4. sen. tract. 3. c. 22. that a Soldier wounded a Serpent with his Lance, and by his Lance he and his Horse were poisoned, and died. Bartholin. Phys. special. part. 3. c. ult. saith, that in Cimbria a Shepherd that leaned his arm on a Barn door, had his sense and motion taken suddenly away on that side he leaned, and his beard grew grey on that side, and there was a brood of Serpents, found under the door. Jambolus saith, in Arabia there is an herb, and if any man sleep upon it, they die in a sweet sleep. Diodor. Sicul. l. 2. I add tasting to sight. So in India when those of Europe tasted the beautiful Plants, they died suddenly. Alexander's Army was almost ruined by a new kind of Apple. A Country man in the Valley of Ana, was bit unawares by the head of a Serpent cut off, he put his mouth to the wound and sucked it, to help it; but he grew suddenly speechless and died, Mathiol. What shall we say for touching? The Turks have Poisons that will kill in one day by touching. Cardan. l. 1. de venen. c. 15. Otho the 3, Emperor of Rome was killed by a pair of venomed gloves sent him from the Wife of Crescentius a Roman Consul, who was frustrated of his marriage. Johan Galeacius was killed by Venom put into his stirrup when he rid. Dryinus, if any man tread upon it, it will excoriat his feet, and the hand of the Chirurgeon that dresseth the sore will be excoriated by it. Lastly many dye by venomed smells. For Alexander Magnus his horse-forces in India, died all almost of the smell of a Pestilent shrub: and Franciscus Ordelaphus, a Captain of Forolivium, had a kind of Poison, that, cast upon coals, would kill all came near it. Think not that to be done by the naked quality: some Venomous thing was joined with the smell; for certain it is, that there are many effluxions of things. CHAP. VII. Of the internal and external Sense. Article 1. Of Imaginations of melancholy people. THose that are sick of melancholy have such strange phantasms presented to them that sometimes the wisest men are deceived by them. One man thought he was all Soul; another that he was a Millet seed. One, that he had so great a nose, that no gates were great enough to let him in, Lemnius l. 2. de complex. c. 6. Some thought they had no head; some thought their buttocks were made of glass, Lemnius. One of Sena of noble birth, thought that if he should make water, he should drown the World, Laurent. l. de melanchol. c. 7. A woman, saith Trallianus, tied the middle finger of her hand, as if she carried the whole world upon it; she cried, saying, she feared that should she bend it, the whole World would fall down. A learned man in Quercetan. Diaetet. Polyhist. l. 1. c. ult. thought, that two evil spirits were put into him by his friend that brought them out of Italy, and that they ofttimes talked with him. A Burgundian at Paris in the Temple of St. Julian, said, he was dead, and desired the Physicians to trouble his soul no longer, that was flying out of Purgatory into Heaven. Then he imitated men dying, Scholiogr. ad. c. 17. l. 1. Holler. de morb. intern. A certain man in Montan. consil. 75. thought the world was made of fine glass, and that Serpents lay under it, and that he was in his bed as in an Island; and should he come forth, he should break the glass and fall down amongst the Serpents. I say nothing of a Maid, who supposed she was in Heaven, and that she walked with the sacred Trinity, and Angels, and the Devil persuaded her to think so. Sometimes such people use to speak strange tongues, and foretell future events. So Erasmus in Encom. Medicinae, writes, that one of Spoletum, when he was sick, spoke a strange Language; when he recovered, he forgot it. Guainerius' tract. 15. c. 4. reports, that he saw a Country man that was sick of melancholy, who always when the Moon was combust, would write Latin verses; and after a new Moon, about two days, till the next new Moon, he could not speak one word in Latin. Forestus writes of a melancholy woman that would sing Latin songs that she had never learned. And Johan. Huartus in scrutin. Ingenior. makes mention of a Spanish servant, who imagined himself to be a King, and made learned speeches concerning Government when he was sick. But we must needs confess, that the Devil is the Author of these things, by a just Judgement of God. Nor can this be ascribed to the Stars, as Guainerius thinks; nor to the agreement of the Latin tongue with the rational Soul, as Huartus would have it; nor to the pure overshadowing of the spirits, or to a malignant quality, as others suppose. Whether some modern examples appertain to this matter, I leave it to wise men to judge, and will say no more of it. Article 2. Of the force of Imagination. THe force of Imagination may be known by the former Article; but because melancholic Imaginations are with sickness, they do not so well express it, as fear and conception do. For when a noble Youth who had ravished a Maid, was to die for it, he considered so deeply of it, that his vital heat and spirits were so extinguished, that all his beauty became despicable, and the roots of his hair grew dry, for want of moisture, and turned grey, Camer. memorab. medic. Cent. 2. Mem. 15. The same happened to Franciscus Gonzaga, when he was imprisoned for a Traitor, Scalig. Exer. 312. And to Lodowick. Bavarus the Emperor, when he had slain Helica a Virgin of Prenneberg, cut off his Wife's head, and had cast another Noble woman headlong from a Tower, he fell sick of it by a vision in the night, Avent. l. 7. Innumerable Examples prove, that in conception the same may happen. The Wife of Duke Plumbinus having lain with a Black-moor, was delivered of a Blackmore. Persina an Aethiopian, seeing the Image of a white child when she lay with a man, had a child with a white face, Heliodor. When Charles the fourth was Emperor, the Wife of John Baptista, looking often on a picture, bore a hairy child. A man disguised lying with the Wife of Bolduck, as if he had been the Devil, got her with child, and the boy ran about so soon as he was born. You shall find the like Monster in Lemnius in occult. And he extends Imagination so far, that he thinks, that in more venereous Virgins, their seed being mingled with their blood by imagination of venereous things, may cause the rudiments of a living creature. How that may be, it is hard to explain, nor doth it belong to this place. Artic. 3. Of Sight and Smelling. AUgustus Caesar had such clear eyes, that whom he looked on intentively, he would make them to wink, as at the Sun beams. Suetonius saith, that Tiberius could see in the dark like a Cat. It is certain, that Strabo had such acute eyes, that from Lilybaeum he could discern Ships going forth of the Carthaginian Haven, Val. l. 1. c. 8. and he could number all the Ships. The distance was 135 miles. If this be true, that is true also, That a Spaniard, one Lopes, was in Gades, who from a high Mountain called Calpen, would see over the Sea against it, and discern out of Europe, the banks of Africa, (the passage, as Cleonardus in Epistol. ad Jacob. Labocum saith, is in a calm Sea, 3 or 4 hours over,) yet he could see what was done there, Camer. hor. subcis. l. 3. c. 81. In the West of Africa there are Blackmores with four eyes, Lycosten. Also Isigonus and Nymphodorus report, that Some Families in Africa have eyes that bewitch people: If they praise any things, they perish by it, trees will wither, Children will die: and Isigonus saith, there are such people in Illyria, and the Triballi, that will bewitch any thing with looking on it, and kill those they look upon long, especially with angry eyes, and young men especially are bewitched by them. That is most notable that they have two Apples in each eye. In Albania there are some that have Owls eyes, and are hoary from their childhood, who see better by night than day, Pliny l. 7. c. 2. Anastasius the Emperor had Apples of his eyes of divers colours, the right eye was blacker, the left more grey, Zonar. They that dwell near Lakes cannot endure smells. Strabo l. 16. reports, that such amongst the Sabaeans as are stupefied by sweet smells, are refreshed by the fume of bitumen, and by the beard of a Goat burnt. That stinking smells are good sometimes, women that are cured by them of their hysterical passions, and the plague, thereby removed, do confirm. At Antwerp a Country man coming into a Perfumers shop, swooned, but came to himself by rubbing his nose with horse dung, Lemn. l. 2. occult. c. 9 Article 4. Of the Face. GOd hath set Majesty in some men's Faces, chiefly if you regard Princes: some are of a wonderful form for comeliness; others for ill-favourednesse. They of Bruges were afraid of the Countenance of Caesar Maximilian, being captive, Delf▪ l. 3. in Maximil. vita et Philippi. The Conquerors that beheld the Countenance of Francis the first King of France, who was worthy of everlasting renown, when he was taken at Ticinum, they all strove to do him service, seeing his Kingly Countenance, Forcatul. de Gullor. Imper. l. 3. When the Conspirators thought to have slain Alphonsus Estensis the First, Duke of Ferrara, he frighted them with his looks that they durst not do it. The twins Moenechmi in Plautus were so like, that neither their Nurse nor Mother could know them asunder. Vives observes the same of two sons, John and Peter, of a Senator of Mechlin. Antonius Bithynicus was so fair, that Adrian the Emperor built a Temple to him, in Mantinaea, and a City by Nilus, and engraved his Image on the Coin. The son of Maximinus was so beautiful, that his head that was grown black after he was dead, and soaked with corrupt matter, yet seemed very fair. Democles an Athenian boy was called so for his comeliness, and he had so much care of his chastity, that to decline the force of Demetrius, he cast himself into a Kettle of scalding water, Plutar. in Demetrio. Spurina a young Maid, by her very looks enticed men and women to lust, Vale●. Max. Lastly, Queen Suavilda was so delicate of form, that when she was bound with thongs, and exposed to be trod on by horses, she was a terror to the very beasts, that they durst not tread on her fair limbs, Saxo Gram. l. 3. histor. Danic. Artic. 5. Of Dreams. AS in other things, so Nature sport's herself in dreams: for sad people are merry when they dream sometimes, merry people are sad; Servants are Kings, and Lords become Servants. And though we must confess that many of them, and what is then done be natural, yet scarce any can deny, but many of them are supernatural. God in elder times did teach his Church by dreams, and now adays many dreams come to pass●. When Lucas Iselius the Son in Law of Zwingerus was at Vesontio, he foresaw in his dream the death of Huber, a Physician of Basil. For he seemed to see his bed covered with fresh earth cast upon it, which when removing the blanket, he thought to cast off, he saw Huber the Physician under the bed, and in the twinkling of an eye he was changed into the form of a Child. Nessenus the same day he was drowned in the Albis, dreamt of some hurt came to the boat, and his own falling out of it. Christopher Rhaumbavius a Physician of Uratislavium, followed the counsel he had given him in a dream, concerning the cure of a disease, was to him incurable; and he recovered his patient. The wonder was, that a few years after he met with that receipt in a Book newly printed. Doring. de medic. l. 1. part. 2. s. 1. d. 1. c. 3. Histories report that the same happened to Philip, and to Galen before him. To this may be added the dream of the Mother of Scanderbag, concerning a Serpent, that covered all Epirus, and stretched forth his head into the Turks borders, devouring them with bloody jaws, but the tail was contained amongst the Christians, and the government of the Venetians. Barlet. l. 1. de gest. Scanderbegi, c. 82. That of Scaligers, of a great flame with a mighty noise passing over the Alps, at Noricum, Rhaetia, and Liguria without any hurt. Scalig. in come. l. de insomn. Hippocrat. Apotel. 42. Of Hunnius his, of a Pillar in the Church; These did foreshow the future condition of their Sons, and that certainly. For Scanderbag was a hammer to the Turks Scaliger the bright S●ar of those quarters. And Hunnius a Pillar of the Church he lived in. What shall I say of Gunthram King of the Francs? It is wonderful what he dreamt. For when on a time he went through a Wood a hunting, by chance losing his company, and having but one man left with him, who was more faithful to him than the rest, he came to a brook of cold water. And when he was heavy with sleep he laid his head in that Man's bosom and fell a sleep. This servant there observed a strange thing; For he saw as it were a little Creature creep out of his mouth whilst he slept, and go straight to the River; and when he strove in vain to pass over, the Servant laid his drawn sword over the brook, whereby, when the little beast had easily passed over, he crept into a hole in a Mountain hard by, and coming back an hour after he passed the same way, and crept again into the King's mouth. The King waked and told his Servant, that in a dream he seemed to be brought to the bank of a great River, and to have passed over an iron bridge, and so to come to a Mountain where there was great store of gold hid. When the King had related this to his Servant, and heard again from him what strange thing happened when he slept, they both went to that Mountain, and there they found a mighty mass of Gold concealed. Heidfeld in Sphinge c. 14. Marinus Mersennus in Genesin, calls this a diabolical dream. That is more wonderful, that he dreamt at Schmalcaldium. He that will have the relation, let him read Pencerus de Divinatione. And, in place of that, I will set down the dream of David Pareus, which is thus described by him. I saw a great Ox that was weary, which extended his head to the East, and behold a Ram came from the East with three horns, and he ran upon this Ox, and hurt his hinder legs, and the Ox fastened himself, and stood stronger. And I saw that the weary Ox set his feet firmer. And there came another Ram from the Mountain of the Gentiles, and those ways, and breaking one leg between his horns, he ran upon his fore parts; yet the Ox stood fast again and fell not, but the Rams grieved exceedingly, and those that adored the Rams wept; because God preserved him, and sent him food from India that strengthened him. And behold on the otherside of the River stood an Armenian Tiger, with the Moon upon his Head, and he said, I will pray on both the conqueror, and the conquered; and the Ram with three horns was devoured by the Tiger, and conquered him. The other Ram fled to his Mountain, and the grass withered, but the Ox's horns grew, and the Tiger fled from him; and the Ram did not escape into the Mountain, and I was glad that God preserved the Ox. Artic. 6. Of Walkers in the Night. THere are many examples of Nightwalkers. A certain young man rising out of his bed, putting on his clothes, and his Boots and Spurs, got astride above the window, upon a Wall; and spurred the Wall as if it had been a horse. Another went down into a Well and came not up again till he had touched the water. Horstius tells of a Noble Man that went to the top of a Tower, and robbed a birds nest, and came down again by a rope. It is reported, that one at Paris, girt with his sword, swum over the said, and killed one he was minded to kill before; when he had done this villainy, he returned home, Aleman. comm. ad. libr. Hippocrat. de Aere, etc. As for the cause, many men are of divers minds. The best opinion ascribes it to Imagination: for the sensitive soul in sleep, not only roused by an external object, converts herself to be sensible, and first perceives darkly, afterwards more clearly; but being affected by the inward object represented in a dream, rouzeth the moving faculty. The Imagination is roused by the species of things reserved; about which whilst it acts intentively, it stirs up the moving faculty. That this is so, appears by daily experience. For who knows not but we are troubled in our sleep? That we rise not, is because our fantasy is not altogether so busy about the Images reserved, as in some other men. Yet the stronger motion doth not always proceed from the same cause. For some think the same thing may be caused from diurnal cogitation, especially in younger people, that are more bold, and more lustful. Others suffer this from an internal affection of their body, yet they are not all of the same kind. Some have more cheerful, and more fantastic animal spirits; some seem to do this out of simplicity. That they wake not, is caused by the stiffness of the vapours. For these not suffering them to be easily awaked; and on the other side, the animal spirits being lively, it falls out that they are half awake, half asleep: yet it is not likely, that all are of the same kind. For that boy Libavius speaks of, that went naked to the door, and came home again, observed a Watchman sitting in the streets. Lastly, the cause they do those things in their sleep, they cannot do waking, is their ignorance of the danger; the action of reason is darkened, and they cannot hinder the motions raised by Phantasie, Libav. in Noctambulis. Article 7. Of some things observable concerning the Head and the Senses. THere was one born and grew to be a man, Anno 1516, that put forth another head at the navel, Lycosthen. Anno 1487, there was a boy at Venice that had his mouth cut divers ways, and a genital member growing to his crown. Some of years have had horns grow on their heads. A Virgin had them about the joints of her Feet and Arms, like to Calf's horns, she was cured afterward, Schenk. l. 1. observ. The Egyptians had such hard heads, that you could hardly break them with throwing a stone at them. The Persians heads were so weak, that a little stone would break them, Herodot. The Indians heads in Hispaniola are so hard, that they will break swords. Cardan. l. 12. de variet. rer. Beniventus saith, de abdit. c. 10. that a Monk had his forehead bone eaten naked by a sharp humour. Tyrrhenus Torcon and Cyonus Trojanus, were grey when they were young, Cal. l. 3. c. 27. Antiq. And Ctesias writes, that in a part of the Indies, the women never breed but once, and presently grow grey after the first child. The Miconii are born without hair, Plin. l. 14. c. 37. It is rare for a woman to grow bald; no Eunuches ever do, nor any man before he hath known a woman, Pliny. There was a woman seen at Paris with a black upper beard that began to be hoary, of a great magnitude, her chin also was moderately hairy. Also they report, that in the company of women, that Albertus the Duke of Bavaria kept, one of them had a long beard, Wolsius. There was a child born in Lombardy in the time of Pope Gregory, that had ears big enough to cover the whole body, Thomaius in horto mundi c. 19 Many men could move their ears, and the skin of their heads at pleasure, Dalechamp. Men say, that in the inward parts of the East, there are people without any nose, and their face is flat; others that want their upper lip; others without tongues, Plin. l. 6. c. 30. They write also, that there is a part of Aethiopia, where the Inhabitants are born with a flexible body, that they can wind themselves easily every way they please▪ and they have two tongues, and can use them both, and speak plainly with them a● pleasure, Gem. Fris. l. 1. c. 7. Cosmocrit Mutianus saith, he saw Zanes a Samothracian Citizen, who had his teeth grew again after 104 years, Plin. l. 11. c. 17. Aristotle l. 2. c. 4. the histor. animal▪ makes mention of a woman that had her cheek teeth come forth with pain, in her 80 year. Pliny writes, that some had teeth bred in their palates, Pliny l. 11. c. 37. Moecenae never slept in three whole years, at last he was cured by gentle Music, Seneca de provident. Nizolius, called Ciceronianus, never slept in ten years, Heurn. c. 16. the morb. cap▪ Cardan, when he pleased, could be so taken up in his thoughts, that he would feel no pain in that state. And Augustine l. 14. de Civ. Dei▪ c. 24. reports the same of a Presbyter restored: He lay as though he were dead, and did not feel those that pulled him; nor would he stir, though they burned him with fire: yet he confessed, that he could then hear men speak, if they spoke aloud, as though they were far off from him: And it was confirmed by this Argument, that he did not do it by resisting, but by not feeling, that he moved not his body; for he lay as dead, and drew no breath. The English History relates, that Elizabeth Burton a Maid of Canterbury had contracted the same custom of taking away her senses, from a disease she had. CHAP. VIII. Of the faculty of moving from place to place. Artic. 1. Of the wonderful strength and agility of some people. I Shall speak Wonders; and that there were such Examples, Polydamas may prove: who being unarmed slew a Lion. The same man set upon a herd of Oxen, he caught hold of the hinder foot of one of the greatest Oxen, and would not let it go, though the Ox raged, till he left his hoof in his hand. He held Chariots with four horses back, with his hand, when they went with all their force, Rhodig. l. 7. c. 37. When Milo Crotoniensis held an Apple, no man could wrest it from him. He at the Olympian Games, carried an Ox a furlong, and held his breath all the while; then killed him with a box of his fist, and easily eat him up all the same day. At last, when he thought to pull asunder a cleft Oak, it fell upon him and killed him, Pliny l. 7. c. 20. Maximinus the Emperor had such strong limbs, that he put on his Wife's bracelets, that was a circle set with Jewels, that went about her Arms, for a ring on his thumb. A Cobbler in Sweden carried always 120 pounds of gold hanged about his neck; and he fought with 9 Fencers, and killed them all, Olaus l. 5. c. 2. One Paulus in Bonsinius rer. Ungar. decad. 4. l. 2. was in stature and for limbs like Hercules: He took an armed man in his teeth at a military dance; and though he was in armour himself, yet he carried him with him, and danced. Ubert●s de cruse, of Mill●in, carried a beast laden with Wheat, and standing but upon one foot, no man could thrust him off from the place he stood, Leander in Mediol. Lastly in the Mountain Anchusa, not far from Atlas, every single footman can resist two horsemen in ●ight. Leo African. Philetas Colis was so light, that he tied leaden bullets to his feet, that the wind should not carry him away. There are as wonderful examples of agility of body. In a Western Province of the New World, the Indians are so swift, that they will run a whole day to overtake a Man. Hispal. sylv. p. 5. c. 7. The Scritofinni will out run Wild Beasts. Krant. in Suecia. The same Author writes that Herald a Noble Irish man would out run any horse. l. 5. Norveg. c. 6. In Mexica, Posts in four days will run 70 leagues. Polymnestor Milesius, when he was a boy catcht a hare in sport. Philonides in one day ran 1200 furlongs on foot, that is 75 French leagues. Ladas, so ran over the white sand, that he left no prints of his feet. In Italy there was a Boy born when Fonteius and Vip●anius were Consuls, who at eight years old ran 45, miles from Noon to Night. Solin. But wonderful is the agility of a Country man bred amongst Cattle, who came to the Court of the Prince of Papeberg. Camer. cent. 1. hor. subcis. c. 75. The Prince had in his Court a Dwarf called Martinettus, that got on the back of that nimble man, as upon a horse, and he turned round with him, and ran here and there as he li●ted, but when he pleased, he would at one leap cast his rider, though he sat never so fast. Then he with the Dwarf on his back would fight with the Hounds, and great Mastiffs the English call them Dogs: some of them were very fierce, and yet with his b●rking like a dog, and grinning, and with his hair about his ears, he did fright them, and drive them out of the Chamber, and sometimes he would bite the lesser dogs, when he had driven forth all the dogs he leapt wonderfully up and down, with four feet, and jumped to the highest corners of the room, that an ape could hardly do as much, and yet he with his Country square body did it with ease. I saw him, once and twice, when I dined with the Prince, when he had cast off the Dwarf from his back, and barked away the dogs, he leapt over the shoulders of one that sat at table, then over the Table, not touching the cups nor platters that stood upon it, and then into higher places, and that so nimbly, that he seemed to fly like a Squirrel, or Indian Cat whereof Julius Scaliger writes. He adds, many were of opinion, that he cast a mist before men's eyes, but he knew nothing of that, nor do I think he could do that if he would. Justinus l. 44. writes that Habides Son to Gargor, King of the Curetes was of the like agility. CHAP. IX. Of the rational Soul; and first, of Memory. THe rational Soul is the Form of Man, and giveth man his Being, distinguishing him from other creatures. The faculties of it are two, Understanding and Will, the speaking faculty is given to them both, to interpret. There is scarce any thing to be said of them. For though there are infinite almost considerations of them, if you consider the diversity of inventions, virtues, consultations, tongues, manners of writings, and the rest, yet, should we add them here, it would be a great fault in method, for they are more fitly handled in the Ethics, and therefore I forbear them here. I shall only add one thing of Memory: That some have had an excellent Memory; Esdras the Priest had all the Jews doctrine by heart. Cyrus and Scipio knew every Soldier's name in their Armies. Carmides would say any books that any one asked for in their Libraries, as if he read in them, Plin. Mithridates had learned the Languages of 22 Nations, Gellius. Julius Caesar would dictate to four at the same time; Pliny saith, he was wont to dictate, to read, and to hear. Themistocles had such a Memory, that when Simonides offered to teach him the Art of Memory, he said, He had rather learn the Art to forget; saying, He remembered what he would not, but could not forget what he would, Cic. l. 2. de finib. Seneca repeated in order 2000 names as they were first spoken. He rehearsed 200 verses, and began at the last. Portius Latro never read over again what he was to deliver: For he learned it as he writ it, and he repeated it, and never miss one word. As these had excellent Memories, so others had as bad, either from some disease, or ill constitution by birth. Messala Corvinus forgot his own name. Franciscus Barbarus, a most learned Man at Athens in the Greek Tongue, having a blow on his head with a stone, remembered firmly all things else, only he forgot Learning, that he had spent so much time upon, Valer. Max. l. 1. c. 8. Clusius Sabinus had such a barren Memory, that sometimes he forgot the name of Ulysses, sometimes of Achilles, sometimes of Priamus, Seneca in Epistol. Atticus the son of Herod the Sophister, could never learn the names of the letters. The Thracians could never count above four. But the greatest Wonder is that Thuan. l. 134 writes of Theodore Beza, that before he died, when his mind was grown feeble, he forgot things present, but what was printed in his Memory afore time, when he had his understanding, that he held; and it continued for two years so, when he languished. As for wit, that depends on a certain temperament. And it is wonder, that ofttimes those are stupid in many things, that are held wise in other things. Themistocles could not so well take as catch counsels. There was one could not learn the Rules of Logic, yet other Arts he could quickly learn, Huartus. For the excellency of it; Janus Drusus, the famous Student, had a son so singular, that from 15 years old to 20, when he died, he writ excellent Commentaries on the Proverbs and other Books. Drus. in praef●t. Paralip. in n. 7. Yet the Wit of Man cannot reach many things. The force of the Loadstone; flowing of the Sea; the wonderful effects of humours in Man's body; the constitution of his natural heat; and many more. They have busied many, but no man hath rightly found them out. The vulgar opinion is, God cannot be comprehended by reason of his Excellency; nor materia prima for its worthlessness. Hidden Properties are too loose an Asylum for our Ignorance. I will here stop, for so I intent. My purpose was to set down things most pleasant, to make young Men delight in Natural History, and to help those that teach Nobleman's children privately. I have inserted many things doubtful, and I have alleged their causes from other men's opinions, to show, that Nature requires searching. Nature is fruitful, and I could not set down all. Her bounds are so large, that it is beyond my strength to search over all. If what I have writ be accepted, and I shall have so much ability and opportunity, I shall write an Enchiridion of Natural History, wherein Nature shall be set forth at large, and in short also. I shall leave the scrutiny to others; Whether, and Wherefore, things are. But the Supreme over all will provide for these things. To whom be praise and glory to all Ages. Amen. FINIS. Books Printed for John Streater, and are to be sold by the Booksellers of London. THe Vale-Royall of England; or, The County Palatine of Chester Illustrated. Wherein is contained a Geographical and Historical Description of that Famous County, with all its Hundreds, and Seats of the Nobility, Gentry, and Freeholders; Its Rivers, Towns, Castles, Buildings Ancient and Modern: Adorned with Maps and Prospects, and the Coats of Arms belonging to every individual Family of the whole County. Unto which is added, An excellent Discourse of the Island of Man. The Refinement of Zion: Or, The old Orthodox Protestant Doctrine justified, and defended against several Exceptions of the Antinomians▪ methodically digested into Questions, wherein many weighty and important cases of Conscience are handled, concerning the nature of Faith and Repentance, or Conversion to God. By Anthony Warton. De Morbis Foemineis: The Woman's Counsellor; or, The Feminine Physician. Modestly treating of such occult Accidents, and secret Diseases, as are incident to that Sex. Pharmacopaea: Or, Rhaenodaeus his Dispensatory. Treating of the whole Body of Physic: Performing the Office of an Herbal, as well as an apothecary's Shop. The LIFE of the Renowned Peireskius: Containing his Learned Experiments in all kind of Learning. Written by Gassandus. Now done into English.