Natural history, lore and legend; being some few examples of quaint and by-gone beliefs, gathered in from divers authorities, ancient and mediaeval, of varying degrees of reliability

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NATURAL HISTORY LORE AND LEGEND

"NATURAL HISTORY

LORE AND LEGEND*

BEING SOME FEW EXAMPLES OF GLUAINT AND BY-GONE BELIEFS

GATHERED IN FROM DIVERS AUTHORITIES, ANCIENT AND

MEDIAEVAL, OF VARYING DEGREES OF RELIABILITY

BY

F. EDWARD ^HULME,' F.L.S., F.S.A.

AUTHOR OF

"WAYSIDE SKETCHES," "SUGGESTIONS IN FLORAL DESIGN," "FAMILIAR

WILD FLOWERS," AND DIVERS OTHER BOOKS THAT NEED NOT

HERE BE SET FORTH

"As some delighte moste to beholde

Eche newe devyse and guyse,
So some in workes of fathers olde
Their studies exercise."

" Historicall Expostulation " of John Halle,
Chyrurgeon, A.D. 1565

BERNARD QUARITCH
15 PICCADILLY, LONDON

'895

Hss

LONDON :

0. NORMAN AND SON, PRINTERS, FLOKAL STREET,
COVENT GARDEN.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGES

Mediaeval naturalists honest searchers after truth — Sir
Emerson Tennant thereupon — Recent discoveries
confirm many statements once contested —
" Travellers' tales " — Mediaeval natural history largely
based upon ancient — Difference of aim between
modern and ancient and mediaeval nature-study — The
moral treatment — Illustrations from the ft Speculum
Mundi" — Falsification of natural facts justified by
the ecclesiastics — Ready credulity a mediaeval charac-
teristic— Two examples thereof — The love of the
marvellous — Astrological influences — The mental
equipment of a mediaeval surgeon — Quaint book
titles — The unchanging East — Suttee, Juggernaut,
&c. in the pages of mediaeval writers — The "Mirabilia
descripta " of Bishop Jordanus — The " Voiage and
Travaile" of Maundevile — The coca plant — Burton's
"Miracles of Art and Nature"— The " Historia
Mundi. " of Pliny — English editions of it — Herodotus
— The writings of Aristotle — The sources of infor-
mation in the Middle Ages — The praise of books —
Books of travel — Minister's "Cosmography" — The
interest and beauty of old title-pages — Elephants in
lieu of towns in the old maps — A tale of a tub —
Herbert's " Some Yeares Travels into Africa and
Asia the Great" — The travels of Marco Polo —
Geography of Peter Heylyn — Raleigh's, Hakluyt's,
Purchas', Strays', Acosta's books of travels — Medical
books — Potter's " Booke of Physicke " — Cogan's
" Haven of Health " — Indifference to animal suffering
— "BestiareDivin " of Guillaume — The "Bestiary "
of Philip de Thaun — The Armories of Guillim, Legh,
and Bossewell ..... 1-53

vi Contents.

CHAPTER II.

PAGES

The pygmies — Ancient and modern writers thereon —
Conflicts with the cranes — Counterfeits — Modern
travel, confirming the statements of the ancient geo-
graphers— Pygmy races now existing — The " Mon-
strorum Historia " of Aldrovandus — Crane-headed
men — Men with tails — The Gorilloi — The dog-
headed people — The canine king — The many-eyed
men — The giants of Dondum — The snake-eaters —
The Ipotayne — Mermaids — Syren myth — Storm-
raisers — The mermaids of artists and poets — Shake-
speare thereupon — As heraldic device— The mer-
maids of voyagers — The seal and walrus theory —
Mermaids in captivity — Mermaids as food — Coun-
terfeit mermaids — Mermaid in Chancery — The
"Pseudodoxia Epidemica" of Browne — Cannes or
Dagon — Mermaids and Matrimony — Lycanthropy —
The "Metamorphoses" of Ovid — The fate of
Lykaon — Nine years of wolfdom — Wehr-wolves —
Mewing nuns — Olaus Magnus — The doctrine of
metempsychosis — Influence of enchantment — The
dragon maiden — The power of a kiss — Witchcraft —
Scot and Glanvil, for and against it — The good old
times. ...... 54-114

CHAPTER III.

The lion, king of beasts — Unbelievers in him — Aldro-
vandus on the lion — The lion of the heralds — The
"Blazon of Gentrie" — Guillim as an authority— The
lion's medicine — The lion's antipathies — Why some
lions are maneless — De Thaun's symbolic lion —
Lion's cubs born dead— The theory of Creation held
during the Middle Ages — Degenerate lions of Barbary
— The Leontophonos — Hostility between lion and
unicorn — Literary references to the unicorn— Martin's
"Philosophical Grammar" — How to capture the
unicorn — The value of the horn — The elephant — The
capture thereof — Feud between elephant and dragon
— Use of elephant in war — Performing elephants —
Moon-worshippers — Knowledge of the value of their

Contents. vii

tusks — The first elephant seen in England— Sagacity
of the elephant — Kindliness to lost travellers —
Ethiopian huntresses — Difference between the
creations of Fancy and of Nature — Elephants cold-
blooded—Hippopotamus prescribing himself blood-
letting— The river-horse of Munster — The panther
— Powers of fascination — Beauty of coat — Fragrance
— Red panthers of Cathay — Aromatic spices as diet
— Antipathies between various animals — Antipathetic
medicines — Porta's "Natural Magick" — The hyaena
— Counterfeiting human speech — The wolf — Pro-
ducing speechlessness — The dragon's parentage —
Enmity between wolf and sheep — Value of wolf-
skin garments — The stag- wolf — The bear — Licking-
cubs into shape— Bees and honey — The hare — Cruelty
of many mediaeval remedies— The hedgehog — The
deer — Stories with morals — The boar — Swine-stone
— The ermine — The goat — The malevolent shrew-
mouse — The horse — Why oxen should drink before
horses — The donkey — The sparrow's aversion — The
dog — The cat — Rats and mice. . . 115-199

CHAPTER IV.

The phoenix — Various ancient and mediaeval writers
thereon— The Bird of Paradise — The Museum of
Tradescant — The roc — The barnacle goose — The
eagle — Its power of gazing upon the sun — Its keen-
ness of vision — The pelican — The swan and its
death song — A favourite idea with the poets —
Hostility between the swan and the eagle — The
ostrich — Its digestive powers — How its eggs are
hatched — The cock — Antipathy between lion and
cock — Cock-broth and cock-ale for invalids — Incor-
poration in man of various valued animal charac-
teristics— The stone alectorius — Animals haled before
the judges for offence against man — The deadly cock-
atrice— Cock-crow — The " Armonye of Byrdes " —
The raven — How it became black — The ravenstone
—The owl— The swallow— Sight to the blind— Oil
of swallows as a remedy — The robin and the wren —

viii Contents.

PAGES

Their pious care of the dead — The nightingale —
The doctrine of signatures — Thorn-pierced breast —
Philomela — The cuckoo — His voice-restorer — The
peacock — Its pride and its shame — The kingfisher —
As a weathercock — Sir Thomas Browne thereon —
Halcyone — Halcyone days — The filial stork — The
cautious cranes .... 200-263

CHAPTER V.

Forms reptilian and piscine — The basilisk — Shakespeare
and Spenser thereupon — King of serpents — The
dragon — Aldrovandus thereon — The dragon-stone —
The griffin — The scorpion — The " Newe Jewell of
Healthe " — Toads — Antipathy between toad and
spider — The toadstone — How to procure it — The
weeping crocodile — Cockeram's Dictionary — The
treacherous seal — The salamander — Its potent
venom — Its home in fire — Prester John and his
kingdom — Pyragones— The chamseleon — Its chang-
ing colour — Serpents from air — The gift of invisi-
bility— The serpent-stone — Theriaca — Viper-Broth
—Antidotal herbs — The soil of Malta— The deaf
adder — The two-headed Amphisbsena — Aldrovandus
on serpents — Hairy serpents — The deadly asp —
Monstrous snails — Snail and spider remedies —
Bees — Virgil on their production — Glowworm ink —
Marine forms the counterparts of those on land —
The sea-monk — The sea-bishop — The sus marinus
— The brewers of the storm — The hog-fish — The
sea-elephant — The sea-horse — The sea-unicorn —
The remora — The dolphin, its special fondness for
man — Its love of music — Its changeful colouring —
The acipenser — The loving ray — The sargon — The
friendship between the oyster and the prawn — The
voracious swam-fish — Leviathan — Cause of the
crooked mouth of the flounder— The healing tench —
Fish medicaments — The vain cuttle-fish — The fish
that came to be eaten — Conclusion . . 264-339

INDEX ... . 341-350

NATURAL HISTORY

LORE AND LEGEND

CHAPTER I.

MEDIAEVAL naturalists honest searchers after truth — Sir
Emerson Tennant thereupon — Recent discoveries confirm
many statements once contested — " Travellers' tales " —
Mediaeval natural history largely based upon ancient —
Difference of aim between modern and ancient and
mediaeval nature-study — The moral treatment — Illustra-
tions from the " Speculum Mundi " — Falsification of
natural facts justified by the ecclesiastics — Ready credulity
a mediaeval characteristic — Two examples thereof — The
love of the marvellous — Astrological influences — The
mental equipment of a mediaeval surgeon — Quaint book
titles — The unchanging East — Suttee, Juggernaut, &c.
in the pages of mediaeval writers — The " Mirabilia de-
scripta " of Bishop Jordanus — The " Voiage and Travaile "
of Maundevile — The coca plant — Burton's " Miracles of
Art and Nature "-—The " Historia Mundi " of Pliny —
English editions of it — Herodotus — The writings of
Aristotle — The sources of information in the Middle Ages
— The praise of books — Books of travel — Munster's
" Cosmography " — The interest and beauty of old title-
pages — Elephants in lieu of towns in the old maps — A
tale of a tub — Herbert's " Some Yeares Travels into Africa
and Asia the Great" — The travels of Marco Polo — Geo-
graphy of Peter Heylyn — Raleigh's, Hakluyt's, Purchas',
Struys', Acosta's books of travels — Medical books —
Potter's " Booke of Physicke " — Cogan's " Haven of
Health" — Indifference to animal suffering — " Bestiare
Divin " of Guillaume— The "Bestiary" of Philip de Thaun
— The Armories of Guillim, Legh, and Bossewell.

In the following pages we propose to consider at
some little length the state of zoological know-

2 Natural History Lore and Legend.

ledge in the Middle Ages, and in so doing we
shall, we doubt not, discover much of interest.
While we shall undoubtedly find from time to
time strange errors that greater opportunity of
observation has in these latter days rectified, and
encounter many things that may provoke a smile,
we must in the forefront of our remarks very
definitely assert that much of the literary work
of our ancestors in this branch of study is
worthy of high commendation, and that anything
approaching scorn or sneer is entirely out of
place. Strange, indeed, would it be if the modern
man of science, with all the advantages of travel
now so freely available, with the microscope,
with the great facilities for the interchange of
ideas or of specimens with kindred spirits, had
not made a marked advance, but we can never
look upon the works of the greater writers of
the mediaeval period without the utmost respect.
The common people of that day were eagerly
searching after knowledge and the huge folios
and encyclopaedias that were freely published
are a monument of the diligence and painstaking
zeal, of the courage and enthusiasm of their
teachers. That they made mistakes goes without
saying, but to the full extent of their light they
were honest seekers after truth.

While the statements of these early writers
have been too frequently dismissed as fabulous
and unreliable, it is only just to them to recall
the fact that some of the details that have come
into reproach have after all been found authentic.
Sir Emerson Tennant in his work on Ceylon

Modern Confirmation of Ancient Lore. 3

very justly observes that " we ought not to be
too hasty in casting ridicule upon the narratives
of ancient travellers. In a geographical point of
view they possess great value, and if sometimes
they contain statements which appear marvellous,
the mystery is often explained away by a more
minute and careful enquiry." The Troglodytes
mentioned by Pliny, Aristotle and Herodotus
yet exist in the Bosjesmen of to-day and still
preserve many of the peculiarities and customs
that those early writers described. Du Chaillu
rediscovered the gorillas that Hanno, the ancient
Carthaginian, endeavoured to capture, andStanley
encountered the pigmy tribes that are mentioned
by travellers of a thousand years before. We
accept in full faith the statements of such men
as Captain Cook and Dr. Livingstone, and we may
reasonably conclude that there have been many
other and earlier travellers as scrupulously truth-
ful. There have, undoubtedly, been travellers who
have too credulously accepted mere hearsay in
place of actual observation, and these, whether
ancient, mediaeval, or modern, are responsible
for the stigma that has at times attached to
( Travellers' tales " : all that we are at present
careful to assert is that the great bulk of travellers
and authors in the Middle Ages — as in all other
ages — were neither the fools nor the knaves that
the malicious or the hypercritical would some-
times fain represent them.

We speedily find, on opening any of the books
on natural history that were issued in the Middle
Ages, that such ancient writers as Pliny, Aristotle,

4 Natural History Lore and Legend.

or Herodotus, and other venerable authorities are
held in great reverence, and that the prefatory
"as Pliny saith " gives at once dignity and
authenticity to any statement advanced. Mediaeval
zoology is no more independent of the gatherings
I of previous centuries than the dogmas of nine-
teenth century Christianity are independent of
kjhe writings of Isaiah.

In comparing ancient or mediaeval zoology
with modern, we are conscious of a difference
of aim and treatment. The study of the present
day is largely devoted to the life-history of the
creatures themselves, their structure, and so forth;
while in former times the writer strove ordinarily
after an entirely different aim, thinking much less
of these external facts, but dwelling upon the
value of the animal to mankind in one of two
directions. While we occasionally in books of
travels have the more modern and descriptive
treatment, the main bulk of the writings on
animals in mediaeval days had ordinarily one of
two objects : the healing of the body, or the
saving of the soul. Hence the medical writers
sought anxiously for " the vertues " that indicated
their value to suffering humanity, and the theo-
logians sought with equal zeal to implant a moral,
and if the facts in this latter case did not lend
themselves very happily to this treatment so much
the worse for the facts.

As an illustration of this moral -pointing
treatment we find in one of these old writers that
" polypus is a fish with many feet, and a rounde
head neare unto them : it is a great enemy to the

Zoology the Vehicle of a Moral. 5

lobster, and they can often change their colour,
and by that project devoure other fishes. Their
use and custom is to be lurking closely by the
sides and roots of rocks, changing themselves into
the colour of the same thing unto which they
cleave : insomuch that they seem as a part of
the rock ; whither when the foolish fish swim
they fall into danger, for whilst they dread
nothing these polypodes suddenly prey upon them
and devoure them. And indeede this is the
constancie and unfeared treacherie which is often
found in many men, who will be anything for
their own ends. And nothing without them :
sparing none for their own purposes, nor loving any
but to effect them. Their heads, indeed, may well
be neare their feet ; for they prize the trash we
trample on farre above the joyes of heaven ; else
they would never work their fond purposes by
deceitfull meanes and damage others to help
themselves." Another illustration of the same
kind states that " although the mole be blinde
all her lifetime, yet she beginneth to open
her eyes in dying : whiche is a prettie embleme.
This serveth to decypher the state of a worldly
man, who neither seeth heaven nor thinketh of
hell in his lifetime, untill he be dying : and then
beginning to feel that which before he either not
believed or not regarded, he looketh up and
seeth. For even against his will he is then
compelled to open his eyes and acknowledge his
sinnes, although before he could not see them."
We have taken these two passages from the
" Speculum Mundi, or a Glasse representing the

6 Natural History Lore and Legend.

Face of the World, whereimto is added a
Discourse of the Creation, together with a
Consideration of such things as are pertinent to
each dayes Worke." It was written by one
John Swan, and the copy before us as we write
bears date 1635.* It is a good typical example
of the theological treatment of natural history
that was long so much in vogue. Many parables
and fables in like manner deal with animals as so
much raw material to be shaped to such moral
end as the narrator or writer pleases.

The idea that it was permissible to sacrifice a
lower truth to gain a higher one, and to make
whatever modification was needed to turn a good
moral into one still better was very frankly held,
as the goodness of the intention was considered
ample justification for any aberration from the
actual facts. Thus Hippeau writes : a N'oublions
pas que les p&res de FEglise se preoccup&rent
toujours beaucoup plus de la purete des doctrines
qu'ils avaient a developper, que de 1' exactitude
scientifique des notions sur lesquelles ils les

* The title pages of these old books should by no means be
overlooked, as they are often full of interest and meaning. In
the one before us we have at the top the Hebrew name for
Jehovah within an equilateral triangle, and this again within a
circle of rays. On one side is the sun shining in full splendour,
on the other the moon and stars. From the triangle issues a
narrow track that broadens as it goes, and finally returns to the
triangle, its point of emergence being marked Alpha and the point
of re-entry Omega. In the centre of this track is the world being
rolled along by the foot of Time. On one side is a sitting figure,
Theologia, book on knee, and having the tables of the law in one
hand, and in the other a lantern, and on the other we find
" Philosophia " with globe and compasses.

The Credulity of Mediceval Writers. 7

appuyaient. L'objet important pour nous, dit
Saint Augustin, apropos de 1'aigle, qui disait on
brise contre la pierre I'extr&nite de son bee
devenue trop long, est de considerer la significa-
tion d'un fait et non d'en discuter 1'authenticite."
This simple principle runs through the whole
series of " Bestiaries " published under ecclesi-
astical influence, and, while it gives them a
special interest of their own, deprives them of
any scientific value.

The zoological lore of the mediaeval writers
was based, to some degree, upon actual observa-
tion, but was still more often largely borrowed
from earlier writers, and was greatly influenced
by various external influences, such as astrology.
It was, moreover, a very credulous age, and men
in all good faith wrrote or read statements of
wild improbability or of absolute impossibility ;
statements, too, that could so readily be brought
to the test of experiment that one would have
thought it impossible to gain a week's credence
for them, and yet which are gravely transferred
from one book to another for centuries.
Numerous examples of such statements will
necessarily crop up throughout our pages, but
we may by way of immediate illustration quote a
couple. These are both taken from a work
entitled " Alberti Parvi Lucii Libellus de
Mirabilibus Naturae Arcanis," which was once
very popular, was translated into French and
English, and held in high repute. We merely
quote these instances as we find them in the
first book that comes to our hand ; it would be

8 Natural History Lore and Legend.

easy from a score of other books to give a
hundred of like character. The first of these
would be invaluable to athletes if only it would
bear the test of experience. u Gather some of
the herb called motherwort, when the sun is
entering the first degree of the sign of Capricorn :
let it dry a little in the shade, and make some
garters of the skin of a young hare ; that is to
say, having cut the skin of the hare into strips
two inches wide, double them, sew the before-
mentioned herb between, and wear them on
your legs. No horse can long keep up with a
man on foot who is furnished with those garters."
There is evidently here an idea that the speed of
the hare can be somehow bestowed on the man
who wrears its skin, and this notion of transfer
crops up repeatedly in these old recipes. Our
next extract points to a time of some little peril,
and gives welcome means of avoiding the evils
that might befall the traveller. " Gather, on the
morrow of All Saints, a strong branch of willow,
of which you will make a staff, fashioned to your
liking. Hollow it out, by removing the pith
from within, after having furnished the lower end
with an iron ferrule. Put into the bottom of the
staff the two eyes of a young wolf, the tongue
and heart of a dog, three green lizards, and the
hearts of two young swallows. These must all
be dried in the sun between two papers, having
been first sprinkled with finely ground saltpetre.
Besides all these, put into the staff seven leaves
of vervain, gathered on the eve of St. John the
Baptist, with a stone of divers colours, which you

Ingredients of a Mediceval Prescription. 9

find in the nest of the lapwing, and stop the
end of the staff with a panel of box, or of any
other material you please, and be assured that
this staff will preserve you from the perils which
befall the traveller, either from robbers, wild
beasts, mad dogs, or venomous animals. It will
also procure you the goodwill of those with
whom you lodge." The dread of mad dogs, of
scorpions and other venomous creatures seems
to have been extreme in the Middle Ages, every
medical book and herbal abounding in preserva-
tives from, and antidotes for, such perils to the
traveller. It will be noted in these and such
like receipts that no little amount of trouble was
necessarily entailed in providing the necessary
ingredients, and in providing them at the special
season that increased their efficacy. The
necessary items in the foregoing receipt, a
calendar to tell when the Saints' days come round,
a willow stick, a wolf, two swallows, and a dog to
be slain, lizards to be captured, paper, saltpetre,
iron ferrule and plug of box to be procured,
vervain leaves to be gathered, and lapwing's
nest to be found and ransacked, are really few
in number and easy of attainment compared to
those required in many preparations. In the
famous vermifuge and antidote to all animal
poisons that was known as " Venice treacle,"
there were seventy-three ingredients. This was
retained in the London Pharmacopeia up to
little more than a century ago. The fourteenth-
century equivalent of the well-known legend of
the nineteenth-century chemist, " prescriptions

io Natural History Lore and Legend.

carefully prepared," must have carried with it a
tremendous responsibility in mediaeval days.

Another potent influence with the older
writers was the delight in what is abnormal and
wonderful, and here again a ready credulity
found ample material. The love of the mar-
vellous is deeply engraved in human nature. We
may see abundant proof of this in such classic
myths as the Sirens, in the monstrous forms
carved or depicted in the temples of Egypt or
Mexico, in the popularity of such books as the
Arabian Nights' Tales, or the adventures of
Gulliver or Munchausen down to the fearful joy
of the youngsters in the nursery in the sanguinary
giant whose food was the blood of Englishmen.

" Far away in the twilight time
Of every people., in every clime,
Dragons and griffins and monsters dire,
Born of water, or air, or fire,
Crawl and wriggle and foam with rage,
Through dark tradition and ballad age."

The fell harpies, the monstrous roc, the death-
dealing basilisk, the phoenix, the chimaera, the
monstrous kraken, the deadly cockatrice, the
fire-drake, dragon, half-man half-fish, the vulture-
headed Nisroch, the treacherous Lorelei, sweet
Queen Mab of Fairyland, fiery dragons, ghastly
wehr-wolves, mermaids, centaurs, together with
the great sea-serpent, the toad embedded for
countless centuries in the rock, and other
wonders that still turn up from time to time
during the dull season in the newspapers, are
but a few examples that at once occur to one's
thoughts. Ovid and Pliny in their day went to

Astrological Influences. 1 1

very considerable lengths to satisfy this love of
the marvellous ; in the Middle Ages writers not
a few discoursed of dog-headed men, of pigmies,
of " the anthropophagi, and men whose heads
do grow beneath their shoulders," while no,
country fair in this present year of grace would
be considered by its patrons at all up to date
unless it included a giant and a dwarf, to-
gether with a two-headed calf, or some such
monstrosity.

The writings of Chaucer, Shakespeare, and
other poets abound in allusions to the folk-lore
of the time. Thus in the lines —

" When beggars die there are no comets seen,
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes,' *

we have an interesting reference to the old
belief that all things, terrestrial or celestial, were
created for the service of man and were profit-
able in some way or other to him. Much of the
early medical treatment was a strange mixture of
astrological, zoological and botanical lore. Thus,
Chaucer tells us of his Doctour of Phisik that —

" In al this world ne was ther non him lyk
To speke of phisik and of surgerye :
For he was grounded in astronomy e."

Not only did he put his trust in " drugges and
letuaries," but —

" He kepte his pacient wonderfully wel
In houres by his magik naturel.
Wel coude be fortunen the ascendent
Of his ymages for his pacient."

We have seen that it was a necessary condition

12 Natural History Lore and Legend.

in the preparation of the receipt that we have
given that the sun should be in a particular
position in the heavens prior to gathering one of
the ingredients, and the saturnine, jovial, martial,
or mercurial qualities of various substances
employed in the healing art owed their potency to
a due regard to the starry influences.

In a quaint old book " Imprinted in London
at Flete Streate, nyghe unto Saint Dunstones
Churche," by one Thomas Marshe, and published
by him in the year 1565, we have " goodlye
Doctrine and Instruction necessarye to be marked
and folowed of all true chirurgeons, gathered
and diligently set forth by John Halle, Chyrur-
.geon," under the title of "An Historicall Ex-
postulation against the Beastlye Abuses, both of
Chyrurgerie and Physicke in oure tyme."4 He
sums up the requirements of the " chyrurgeon "
properly equipped for his work in the following
lines —

" Not onlye in chirurgery
Thou onghtest to be experte,
But also in astronomye
Bothe prevye and aperte.

* The titles of many of these old books are sufficiently
quaint and striking. Sometimes a spade is called a spade with
the most startling directness ; while at others the title is a
mystical conceit that needs interpretation. The following are
some few that we have come across : — " The flaming sword of
Justice unsheathed," " Matches lighted at the Divine Fire,"
"The shop of the Spiritual Apothecary," " The Scraper of
Vanity, a Spiritual Pillow necessary to exterpate Vice and to plant
Virtue." There would appear to be here some little confusion
of metaphor : anyone desiring to plant anything would scarcely
-find a pillow a serviceable tool for the purpose.

Outfit of the Mediaeval Medicine-man. 13,

In naturall philosophye

Thy studye shoulde be bente :

To knowe eche herbe, shrubbe, root, and tree,

Muste be thy good intente.

Eche beaste and foule, wyth worme and fishe,
And all that beareth lyfe :
Their vertues and their natures bothe
With thee oughte to be rife."

The acquisition of this varied fund of knowledge
shall prove itself enjoyable, helpful, and profitable,,
for—

" Whereby of knowledge and greate skill
Thou shalt obteine the fruit :
And men to thee in generall,
For helpe shall make their sute."

One interesting result of searching in these
old tomes is that amidst much that the world has.
i now outlived one often finds interesting refer-
ences that show how unchanging some customs,
are, and how some of the things that we have:
regarded as recent discoveries were, after all,
well known centuries ago. It is somewhat
startling, for instance, to see the great African
lakes — the Victoria and Albert Nyanza, and
others that have only comparatively lately been
re-discovered — quite clearly marked in some
ancient maps ; and the whole course of the Nile,
from source to sea, as definitely given as that of
Thames or Tiber.

We speak of the " unchanging East," and
adopt the phrase with more or less of thoughtful
acquiescence, but it is distinctly interesting in
the pages of Jordanus, for example, to find the
Parsee funeral customs and the Tower of Silence

14 Natural History Lore and Legend.

thus referred to : — " There be pagan folk in this
India who worship fire ; they bury not their
dead, neither do they burn them, but cast them
into the midst of a certain roofless tower, and
there expose them totally uncovered to the fowls
of heaven." He was present also at Suttee, for
he says : — " I have sometimes seen for one dead
man who was burnt, five living women take their
places on the fire with their dead, and for the
love of their husbands and for eternal life burn
along with them, with as much joy as if they
were going to be wedded."

This Jordanus was a missionary bishop in
India. He was appointed to the bishopric of
Columbum by Pope John XXII., by a Bull
bearing date April 5th, 1330. There are indica-
tions that there was at that time a considerable
body of Christians at Columbum, but the locality
is now entirely unknown. Many conflicting
theories have been held, and each one demolished
as hopeless by the holders of the others. His
book, entitled " Mirabilia descripta," was wrritten
in Latin. "Like many other old writers," very
justly observes Colonel Henry Yule, who pub-
lished an English translation of his book from
which we quote, " whilst endeavouring to speak
only truth of what he had seen, Jordanus retails
fables enough from hearsay. What he did see
in his travels was so marvellous to him that he
was quite ready to accept what was told him of
regions more remote from Christendom, when it
seemed but in reasonable proportion more
marvellous." Of the truth of this we sha]

The Unchanging East. 15

doubtless find illustration in subsequent references
to his book.

Maundevile in like manner in his " Voiage and
Travaile " gives us another insight into the un-
changeable nature of the customs of the East.
We recognize at once the sacrifice made to
Juggernaut when we read that "at the thronynge
of the Ydole all the Contree aboute meten there
to gidere : and thei setten this Ydole upon a
Chare with gret reverence, wel arranged with
Clothes of gold, of riche Clothes of Tartarye and
other precyous Clothes : and thei leden him
aboute the Cytee with gret solempnytee. And
before the Chare gon first in processioun alle the
Maydennes of the Contree two and two to
gidere, fulle ordynately. Aftre the Maydennes
gon the Pilgrymes. And sume of hem falle down
undre the Wheles of the Chare and let the
Chare gon over hem, so that thei ben dede anon.
And sume hav here Armes or here Lymes alle
to broken and sume the sydes : and alle this
done thei for love of hire God, in gret Dovocioun.
And he thinkethe that the more peyne, and the
more tribulacioun that thei suffren for love of
here God the more ioye thei schulle have in
an other World." We read also of the snake
charmers, of the small misshapen feet of the
Chinese ladies, the talon-like nails of their lords
and masters. He tells us too of the incubation
by artificial means, " withouten Henne, Goos or
Doke or ony other Foul," of eggs " at Cayre,"
which our readers will readily recognize as
Cairo. It will no doubt be remembered by many

1 6 Natural History Lore and Legend.

who may scan these pages, how large a use
the French made of pigeons, when, during the
siege of Paris in the Franco-German war, they
desired to communicate with the outside world,
and this is clearly no new thing under the sun,
for Maundevile tells us that " in Judaea and
other Contrees beyonde thei hav a Custom,
whan thei schulle usen Werre, and whan men
holden Sege abouten Cytee or Castelle, and thei
with innen dur not senden out Messagers with
Letters for to aske Sokour thei bynden here
Lettres to the Nekke of a Colver* and leten the
Colver flee, and the Colveren ben so taughte
that thei fleen with the Lettres to the verry
place that Men wolde sende hem to."

As we shall from time to time have occasion to
refer to Maundevile's book, we may, on this first
mention of it, very advantageously introduce
some few details respecting it. The " Voiage
and Travaile " of Sir John Maundevile was pro-
fessedly a book for the guidance of pilgrims and
travellers journeying to Jerusalem, but on the
same principle that it has been asserted that all
roads lead to Rome so all seemed to have
centred in the capital of Judaea ; hence his book
is comprehensive enough to include the " Mar-
vayles of Inde," and a very full description of
China. The book was one of the most popular

* Culver is derived from the Anglo-Saxon culfre, a pigeon.
The Culver cliffs in the Isle of Wight are so called from the
great numbers of wild pigeons that nest there, while the Colum-
bine, Lat. Columba, a pigeon, so named from the resemblance
of its flowers to a ring of birds, is also known as the Culverwort.

The"Voiage and Travaile" of Maundevile. 17

works of the Middle Ages, and passed through
many editions both in England and on the con- „
tinent,* first in manuscript form and afterwards
as a printed book. Of no book, with the
exception of the Scriptures, can more MSS.
be found of the end of the fourteenth and
beginning of the fifteenth century. Nineteen
manuscript copies of it, four being in Latin and
nine in French, are in the library of the
British Museum, and others at Oxford, Cam-
bridge, and in various other libraries. In one of
the copies in the British Museum, a small
vellum folio of the fourteenth century, its raison
d'etre is thus defined — " Here bygynneth the
book of John Maundevile, Knyght of Inglelond,
that was y-bore in the toun of Seynt Albons,

i and travelide aboute in the worlde in manye
diverse countreis to se mervailes and customes

i of countreis and diversiteis of folkys and diverse
shap of men and of beistis, and all the mervaill
that he say he wrot and tellitte in this book."
The book is made up from his personal ex-
periences, supplemented by gossip and hearsay,
while at times he appropriated freely from the
works of other authors. Much of what he tells
of China and India is markedly similar, for
instance, to the narrative of Friar Odoric, the
narration of whose travels in those lands was
given to the world in the year 1331. When
Maundevile has an exceptionallyimprobable story

* Thus we find a Strasburg copy dated 1484 ; Bologna, 1488 :
Venice, 1491; Florence, 1492; Antwerp, 1494; Venice again,
14965 Milan, 1497 ; another Bologna edition, 1497 '•> anc^ so on-

2

1 8 Natural History Lore and Legend.

to narrate he evades personal responsibility b;
prefacing it with the formula, " thei seyn."
set out on his travels on Michaelmas day in 13:
and was absent from England for tnirty-foi
years, being " ravished with a mightie desire
see the greater part of the world," and in th;
lengthened period of absence going far towan
the attainment of his ideal.

As regards the mention by various old auth<
of divers things that we have a way of considi
ing quite recent discoveries we may give as
illustration the coca plant. This has been wit]
the last few years brought to the front
highly commended as a stimulant, from its
doubted power of enabling one to sust<
strength and endurance during any exceptional
bodily exertion, but on taking down Burton's
" Miracles of Art and Nature " from our book-
shelf, we find that over two hundred years ago
(our copy is dated 1678) all this was as
thoroughly known as it is to-day. After
mentioning in his description of Peru, divers
curious animals, he goes on to say — " Some as
deservedly account the coca for a wonder, the
leaves whereof being dried and formed into
Lozenges, or little pellets, are exceedingly useful
in a Journey: for melting in the mouth, they
satisfie both hunger and thirst, and preserve a
man in his strength and his Spirits in vigour: and
are generally esteemed of such Soveraign use
that it is thought no less than 100,000 Baskets
full of the leaves of this tree are sold yearly
at the Mines of Potosi only, each of which at

Burton's "Miracles of Art and Nature" 19

some other places would yield lid or i8d
apiece,"

Burton's book, " Miracles of Art and Nature,
or a Brief Description of the several varieties of
Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Plants, and Fruits of other
Countreys, Together with Severall Remarkable
Things in the World," contains much curious
and interesting matter, and we shall find occasion
to quote from it from time to time in our
subsequent pages. The scope and aim of the
book maybe very well gathered from the follow-
ing extract from the preface — " Candid Reader,
what thou findest herein are Collections out of
feverall Antient Authors, which (with no fmall
trouble) I have carefully and diligently Collected
and Comprifed into this fmall Book at fome
vacant hours, for the divertifement of fuch as
thyfelf, who are difposed to read it : For the
feveral Climates of the World, have not only
influenced the Inhabitants, but the very Beafts,
with Natures different from one another : So haft
thou here, not only a Description of the feveral
Shapes and Natures of Variety of Birds, Beafts,
Fiihes, Plants, and Fruits : but alfo of the Difposi-
tions andCuftoms (though lome of them Barbarous
and Inhuman) of feverall People, who Inhabit
many pleafing and other parts of the World. I
think there is not a Chapter wherein thou wilt not
find various and remarkable things wrorth thy
obfervation : and fuch (take the Book throughout)
that thou canft not have in any one Author, at
leaft Modern, and of this Volume. 'Tis probable
they are not fo Methodically difpoi'd as fome

2 *

2O Natural History Lore and Legend.

hands might have done : Yet for Variety and
Pleasure-fake, they are (I hope) plealingly
enough intermixed. And as I find this accepted
fo I ihall proceed. Farewel." That the disposi-
tion is not altogether methodical is speedily
evident, as opening the book at random we fine
chapters following each other on " Norwe]
Assiria, Quivira in California, Germany,
Zelina."

The influence of Pliny is of immense weigl
with the writers of mediaeval days, and evei
when the well-used formula " as Pliny saith,"
not given, anyone who is familiar with his laboui
will have no difficulty in recognizing the utilize
tion of his material by his successors. Thi
Pliny tells us that many wonderful things whicJ
he specifies are to be found in Ethiopia, henc<
Ethiopia has been discovered by many subsequenl
writers to be a marvellous land, and the wondrous
things they detail of it have strange similarity
with those of the older writer. This need not in
all cases imply plagiarism ; if a writer five
hundred years ago, in describing the Bay of
Naples, introduced a volcano into his descrip-
tion, we do not resent all subsequent writers on
the subject also seeing it, but when an ancient
writer introduces a rank impossibility, and sub-
sequent writers see that too, we may reasonably
assume that they have been borrowing. As an
illustration we may mention that we read in the
pages of Pliny of single-footed men who possess
this solitary feature of so gigantic a size that its
owner utilizes it as a sunshade. Hence these

The Writings of Pliny. 21

people appear from time to time in the pages
of divers travellers. Maundevile, for instance,
without acknowledgment of the source of his
information, which he allows us to think is the
result of his personal observation, tells us that
" in Ethiope ben many dyverse folk," and goes
on to specify that " in that Contree ben folk that
have but on foot : and thei gon so fast that it is
marvayle, and the foot is so large that it schade-
methe all the Body agen the Sonne whanne thei
wole lye and reste hem."

That Pliny was at times imposed upon by
s his informants is sufficiently obvious from the
illustration that we have given, but when all
deductions have been made his work was a very
wonderful and valuable one, and a monument
of painstaking industry, intellectual power and
enormous erudition. The great naturalist Cuvier,
no mean authority, calls it " one of the most
precious monuments that have come down to us
from ancient times." Buffon, no mean authority
either, writes : " It is, so to say, a compilation
from all that had been written before his time :
a record of all that was excellent or useful : but
his record has in it features so grand, this com-
pilation contains matter grouped in a manner so
novel, that it is preferable to most of the original
works that treat upon similar subjects."

Seeing that it is the fons et origo of so much
subsequent work, we may well devote some
little space to its consideration, for mediaeval
natural history is largely Pliny, either frankly
acknowledged, boldly appropriated without ac-

22 Natural History Lore and Legend.

knowledgment, or at least the nucleus around
which other observations of more or less value
are gathered.

Pliny's book is of the most comprehensive
character, and even his table of contents runs
into many pages. This table would appear at
the time of its issue to have been almost a literary
curiosity, as he prefaces it by saying that u as
you* should be spared as far as possible from all
trouble, I have subjoined the contents of the
following books, and have used my best ende;
vours to prevent your being obliged to rea<
them all through. And this, which was don<
for your benefit, will also serve the same purpos<
for others, so that anyone may search for wh;
he wishes, and may know where to find it. This
has been done before amongst us by Valerius
Soranus, in his book which he entitled ( Oi
Mysteries."1

The following shortened list gives a notion o1
the general character of the various sections of
this magnum opus. After the first book, which
is occupied entirely by the elaborate preface to
the Emperor, the author plunges at once into
his subject, and devotes the second book to a
general treatise on the elements and on the world
and the heavenly bodies. The third and fourth
books describe the great bays of Europe, while
the fifth and sixth deal with Africa and Asia
respectively. The seventh book is entirely
devoted to man, and the eighth and ninth are on

* The Emperor Titus Vespasian, to whom the book was
dedicated.

Pliny's "Natural History!' 23

land and aquatic animals. The tenth treats of
birds, and the eleventh of insects. The attention
of the author and reader is then turned to

| matters botanical, and the twelfth book dwells

1 upon odoriferous plants. The thirteenth is
occupied with the consideration of the various
exotic trees then known, while the fourteenth
is devoted entirely to the vine, and the fifteenth
to fruit trees generally. In the next book, the
sixteenth, the author passes to a consideration of
the various kinds of forest trees, and in the
following, the seventeenth, to the plants raised

i in nurseries and gardens. The eighteenth book
deals with the cultivation of corn and the general

i pursuits of the husbandman. The treatise then
turns to economic and medicinal considerations,

! section nineteen taking up flax and other com-
mercial plants, and twenty dealing with the

: herbs cultivated for food or medicine. The
twenty-first and twenty-second are somewhat
aesthetic, and dwell upon the flowers and plants

:i proper for garlands. The twenty-third and

' twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth are devoted to
the medicines made from cultivated trees, forest
trees, and wild plants respectively. The twenty-

< sixth deals with new diseases and their appro-
priate treatment by herbs, and the twenty-
seventh is a continuation and amplification of the
twentieth. The twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth
are devoted to the medicines derived from
animals, and the thirtieth chapter deals with
magic and the proper medicines for various parts

24 Natural History Lore and Legend.

of the body. The thirty-first and thirty-second
sections are given up to the economic uses of
various aquatic animals, one being entirely
devoted to their medicinal value, and the next
to their general commercial adaptability. The
remaining chapters deal with the mineral king-
dom, the thirty-third chapter being given up
wholly to gold and silver, and the thirty-fourth
to lead and copper. The thirty-fifth division is
given up to pictures and colours and the painters
and users thereof. The thirty-sixth chapter is
occupied with marbles and various kinds of
stone, while the concluding section deals wit
gems.

It will thus be seen that the work is of th
most comprehensive character, and however far
the world may since have travelled, and in its
revolutions disproved much that when this book
was written was held to be undoubted, the book
nevertheless remains a noble monument of the
zeal, energy, and thirst after knowledge of its
author.

Caius Plinius Secundus, ordinarily called the
Elder to distinguish him from his nephew, who
was also an eminent man of letters, was born at
Verona or Como, A.D. 23. As the son of a Roman
of noble family, he was early devoted to a
military career, and spent a considerable portion
of his life in the army, where he gained distinction
in various campaigns ; and on his retirement from
actual service, was appointed by the Emperor
Procurator of Spain. Though much occupied in

)i

:

An Ancient Seeker after Truth. 25

public work he was an enthusiastic student, and
devoted all his intervals of relaxation to litera-
ture. During dinner he was either being read to
or was busily engaged in taking notes, and when
travelling his secretary was in constant attendance
upon him. Even while enjoying his bath, he
was busy dictating or imbibing knowledge. He
was a tremendous worker, and besides the
" Natural History," wrote a voluminous treatise
on the German Campaign and various other
books. He fell a victim to his love of science,
as while commanding the fleet he was witness of
the great eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed
Pompeii and Herculaneum, and while making
observations ashore he was overwhelmed in
thick sulphurous vapour.

Pliny had an intense love of nature, and to his
own researches he added those of a great body
of other observers, sifting with infinite patience
from their labours whatever he deemed of value,
and accumulating vast stores of observation.
That he at times drew false conclusions is suffi-
ciently evident, but it is clearly not just to
apply a nineteenth-century standard to his
labours. He gave credence to many stories that
have since been proved erroneous, but he always
honestly strove after truth. When he tells us,
for example, that the appearance of an owl is
a portent of misfortune, he adds, " but I myself
know that it hath perched upon many houses of
private men and yet hath no evil followed."

At the beginning of each book Pliny is careful
to give the names of the authors that he has

26 Natural History Lore and Legend.

consulted for it.* As the subjects that he treat!
of are very varied the total list of authorities
very large. Some of the names, such as Virgil,
Archimedes, and others, are those of men still
held in reverence ; while many are naturally
now but little known, their works having perished.
As an illustration of the thoroughness of Pliny ii
the matter we will give an illustrative list — thai
which precedes his eighth book, dealing wit
land animals. He divides his lists always int<
two sections, and commences with the authors oi
his own country. These in this particul;
instance are Mutianus, Procilius, Verriu!
Flaccus, L. Piso, Cornelius Valerianus, Cato th<
Censor, Fenestella, Trogus, Actius, Columell;
Virgil, Varro, Metellus Scipio, Cornelius Celsus,
Nigidius, Trebius Niger, Pomponius Mela, an<
Manlius Sura. His foreign authorities are con-
siderably more numerous, and are, naturally,
most of them Greek writers : Polybius, Onesi-
critus, Isidorus, Antipater, Aristotle, Demetrius,
Democritus, Theophrastus, Euanthes, Hiero,
Duris, Ctesias, Philistus, Architas, Philarchus,
Amphilochus the Athenian, Anaxipolis the
Thasian, Apollodorus of Lemnos, Aristophanes
the Milesian, Antigonus the Cymaean, and twenty-
three others, whom it is needless to add to the

* " I conceive it," he says, " to be courteous, and to indicate
an ingenious modesty, to acknowledge the source whence we
have derived assistance, and not act as most of those have done
whom I have examined. For I must inform you that in con-
sulting various authors I have discovered that some of the most
grave and of the latest writers, have transcribed word for word
from former works without making any acknowledgment."

An Ancient Seeker after Truth. 27

list, as it is already quite long enough to illustrate
the care with which Pliny fortified his own
knowledge with the best aid that he could
procure.

Though, doubtless, in some cases, the bearers
of these names were travellers and others who
contributed but one or two items to the store of
knowledge, the greater portion of the names are
those of men who, to the best of their ability,
were endeavouring to penetrate the secrets of
nature. It is a striking fact that at this early
period there should be such a body of scientific
opinion to draw upon. Pliny tells us that he has
dealt with twenty thousand subjects and that this
has necessitated the perusal of over two thousand
books.

Though the quaintness of some of the ideas
we encounter in Pliny raises a smile, yet the
real wonder is that he was able to produce a
book so excellent, and the more one reads of
it the more this truth is impressed upon one's
mind. In many of his ideas he appears to have
been far in advance of his age. Thus he
distinctly declares that the world is round, and
gives lucid reasons for his statement, and in an
age of abounding polytheism, when temples
innumerable each enshrined the image of some
deity, he had the courage to declare that " to
seek after any shape of God and to assign a
form or image to him is a proof of man's folly.
For God, wheresoever he be and in what part
soever resident, all sense he is, all sight, all
hearing. He is the whole of the life and of

28 Natural History Lore and Legend.

the soul, and to believe that there be gods
innumerable, and those according to man's
virtues, as chastity, concord, understanding,
hope, honour, clemency, faith, these conceits
render men's negligence the greater."

The unchanging nature of the East that we
have already seen illustrated by extracts from
mediaeval writers is even visible in the work of
this author of nearly two thousand years ago,
for Pliny mentions the people called Seres,
beyond Scythia, who fly the company of other
people and who are famous for the fine silk that
their woods yield. There can be no reasonable
doubt but that these exclusive folk were the
Chinese. He tells us that they collect this silk
from the leaves of the trees, and, having steeped
it in water, card it : it being a very pardonable
error to conclude that this silk was the product
of the tree itself rather than of the silkworm
that spun its cocoon amongst its foliage. The
men have feet of natural size, while the women's
are so small that Pliny's informant described
them as ostrich-footed. Here we can scarcely
doubt that the strange custom of the Chinese in
binding up the feet of the women is referred to,
and granting this it is an interesting proof of the
great antiquity of this barbarous proceeding.

In India, too, it was reported to Pliny that there
were certain philosophers who from sunrise to
sunset persevere in gazing upon the sun without
once removing their eyes, and from morn to
eve stand upon one leg on the burning sand. It
is remarkable to observe how exactly these

English Editions of Pliny. 29

austerities and others of like severity and
uselessness are still practised by the Fakirs of
India. He tells us too of others who had
strange influence over venomous serpents,
doubtless the snake-charmers whose descendants
still exhibit their skill, and refers to the people
of India hunting and taming the elephants and
using them as beasts of burden, as valuable aids
to locomotion and for purposes of war.

Pliny's book has gone through many editions
and translations. Of these we need but mention
that of Dalecamp in 1599 ; De Laet in 1635 r
Gronovius, 1669 ; Pinet, 1566 ; and Poinsinet de
Sivri, 1771. An English version of delightful
quaintness of language and expression is the
translation issued by Dr. Philemon Holland in
the year 1601. He is the only writer who has
given a complete rendering of Pliny's book in
English.* Bostock also, in 1828, began a
translation and issued the first and thirty-third
books as a specimen of a proposed rendering of
the whole work. His death prevented the
accomplishment of the task. The reader in
subsequent passages will readily detect for
himself from which source any quotation we
give is derived, as the diction of Holland is far

* He only used one pen throughout, a circumstance which
he deemed sufficiently remarkable to be celebrated in these
lines which are prefixed to his book : —

" With one sole pen I wrote this book,

Made of a grey goose quill.
A pen it was when I it took,
A pen I leave it still."

he

s

30 Natural History Lore and Legend.

more quaint and old-fashioned than that of the
later translator.

Several other writers of antiquity influenc
the mediaeval authors, but it is scarcely necessa
to detail their labours at any length, since if they
lived before Pliny he borrowed from them, and ''
they lived afterwards they borrowed from hi
so that we practically in Pliny get the pith a
cream of all. Herodotus, the " Historiaru
parens," as Cicero terms him, was, we rea
scarcely a historian, but one finds divers passag
from time to time in his descriptions of Egy
and other lands that throw an interesting sid
light on the natural history of the country unde
consideration, and these have a certain value. A
writer of greater direct importance is Aristotle,
one of the most illustrious naturalists of antiquity.
It will be remembered that his works supplanted
the love of gold, of sumptuous apparel, even
the charms of music in the breast of Chaucer's
philosopher, and formed an all-sufficient solace for
a light cash box, a sparse wardrobe, and the missing
" fidel." The passage is interesting as it indicates
the repute in which the works of the ancient
writer were held in the days of the poet : —

" For him was lever han at his beddes hed
A twenty bokes, clothed in black and red,
Of Aristotle, and his philosophie,
Than robes rich, or fidel, or sautrie,
But all be that he was a philosopher
Yet hadde lie but litel gold in cofre."

Aristotle had very exceptional opportunities
of acquiring knowledge, as his royal patron and

Mediceval Sources of Knowledge. 31

friend, the potent Alexander the Great, was able
and willing to afford him aid that was invaluable
to him. Thousands of men, huntsmen, fishermen,
soldiers in distant garrisons of his far-stretching
realm, by royal command were instructed to keep
a keen outlook, and to forward to Aristotle
anything that was curious or rare, or to procure
him, if possible, any specimen he desired to
possess. His book " De animalibus," though
naturally not free from a certain amount of
error, and the intrusion of second-hand hearsay,
is a mine of industry and research and not
unworthy of the special opportunities that gave
it birth.

In the study of our subject during the Middle
Ages, several sources of information are open to
us. Of books on natural history, pure and simple,

there are none ; their dav was not vet. The love

j j

of nature for its own sake was a later birth, but
the books of travels often detail the zoology and
botany of the lands journeyed through. Then there
are the medical books, containing the most extra-
ordinary remedies, or perhaps it would be safer to
say, prescriptions, for the ills of suffering humanity,
and which more or less fully describe the source
and origin of the various ingredients in their
gruesome pharmacopoeia, and with these we may
class the books on social economics, dealing with
gastronomy, gardening, the distillation of essences,
and so forth, and which necessarily deal in some
degree with the life-history of the materials that
are introduced. In addition to these we have
what are termed bestiaries, books that treat the

32 Natural History Lore and Legend.

animals and plants as so many lay figures to be
clothed upon with any moral that, with often scant
regard to facts, will serve to enforce a dogma. To
these must be added the armories or books on
heraldry, where the lions, elephants, bears, and
other devices of blazonry, are often very quaintly
and graphically described for the benefit of
those, doubtless a considerable majority, to whom
they were little more than a name ; or to whom,
if they had seen them at the Tower of Londoi
in the royal collection, further information 01
creatures so strange was of great interest. L
addition to these sources of instruction of mor<
or less value we may fitly refer to the writing
of the poets, since in the pages of Chaucer,
Shakespeare and the lesser lights of poesy are
abundant allusions to the beliefs of the time, in
this as in other directions, and many of these are
of great interest and value.

" Oh for a booke and a shady nooke
Eyther in doore or out,

With the greene leaves whispering overhead,
Or the streete cryes all about ;
Where I maie reade all at my ease,
Both of the newe and old,
For a jollie goode booke whereon to looke
Is better to me than golde."*

* " I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of
books than a king who did not love reading." — Macaulay. Sir
John Herschell in like manner tells us — "Were I to pay for a
taste that should stand me in stead under every variety of cir-
cumstances, and be a source of happiness and cheerfulness to
me during life, and a shield against its ills, however things
might go amiss and the world frown upon me, it would be a
taste for reading. Give a man this taste and the means of

The praise of good books.

33

It must surely have been of some quaint book
of travel that this old English song-writer was

FIG. I.

thinking when he thus discoursed on the pleasant
debt we owe to books, when in the stirring days

gratifying it, and you can hardly fail of making him a happy
man ; unless, indeed, you put into his hands a most perverse
selection of books. You place him in contact with the best
society in every period of history — with the wisest, the wittiest,
the tenderest, the bravest, and the purest characters who have
adorned humanity. You make him a denizen of all nations, a
contemporary of all ages. The world has been created for him."
But we must bear in mind, while we subscribe to the dictum
of Carlyle, " Of all things which men do or make here below,
by far the most momentous, wonderful, and worthy are the
things we call books," the wise line of Shakespeare :
" Learning is but an adjunct to oneself," lest haply we be
classed with " the bookful blockhead " of Pope — ignorantly read,
" with loads of learned lumber in his head."

34 Natural History Lore and Legend.

of Frobisher, Drake and Raleigh, men's minds
were expanding to all sorts of possibilities, and
they read with avidity of the Eldorado of tl
west, and of the headless men, or those who;
heads do grow beneath their shoulders. Such
were in all good faith held to be fairly represent*
by our illustration (fig. i) from one of these ol
books. The writers of the day described too tl
wondrous creatures that peopled the torrid plaii
of Africa or India, or the lands of Prester Johi
or far Cathay ; where so many things were ne1
and true and wonderful that it seemed as if
things were possible, and a mermaid no more
unreasonable probability than a milkmaid.

Of Maundevile we have already made mei
tion. It would be manifestly undesirable to
dwell at the length that the ample materials to
hand would permit. We will mention but one or
two other books as samples of the bulk.

Munster's " Cosmography " is a book that all
bibliophiles whose tastes incline in this direc-
tion should see. Sebastian Munster, the learned
author, died of the plague at Basel in the year
1552, at the comparatively early age of sixty-
three, almost immediately after he had completed
his book. The copy before us we see was
published at Basel in the year of his death.
Everyone consulting such a book should always
begin at the very beginning, as the old titles, as
we have already indicated, are often full of interest
and beauty. In the instance before us the centre
of the page is filled up with the title, given with
that elaborate fulness that is so characteristic of

The "Cosmography" of Minister. 35

early books. The upper part of the page is
devoted to the secular and spiritual princes of
the Roman Empire, the former crowned, the
latter wearing their mitres, and each having a
shield of arms. Amongst the secular princes we
find those of Cyprus, Ungar, Sicilia, Bohem,
Neapol and Polon. The sides of the page are
taken up with panels containing the rulers of
Turkey, Tartary and such-like outlandish places,
and at the bottom is a very comprehensive
picture indeed. In the foreground, resting
against a tree, is a man in grievous extremity,
naked and forlorn, and to him advances a warlike
savage with bow and arrow and, worse still, a
manifest inclination to use them to the detriment
of the traveller. Behind the prostrate figure is
an elephant, while in rear of the savage are three
trees, marked respectively Piper, Muscata and
Gariofili. In the background is a river, or arm
of the sea, from which dolphins emerge, and on
the further shore are two towns and a range of
mountains.

The book is very freely illustrated with maps,
portraits, pictures of towns, animals, plants, and
so forth. Some of the figures are really very
good ; there is one of the Moufflon, for instance,
that is full of character and truth, while others
are hopelessly wrong. The same pictures come
over and over again at intervals in the text, thus
a man with a great sword going to chop off the
head of a man kneeling before him, stands for
martyrdom or the doom of the traitor, and re-
appears impartially on all occasions where the

36 Natural History Lore and Legend.

text suggests such ideas. The same battle-scen<
often crops up to illustrate the various conflid
described, and there is a standard figure of
bishop with mitre and pastoral crook th;
serves as a portrait of divers ecclesiastics. Th<
same lantern tower that does duty for Lucern<
re-appears for Alexandria. It argues a quail
simplicity all round when the author coul<
gravely furnish and his readers as gravely acce[
these few stock illustrations for all the varyinj
conditions.

It is very interesting to see that in the map
Africa* the Nile takes its rise from three larj
lakes far south of the equator, but the map of tl
world is an extraordinary production, and sho1
sources of the Nile notwithstanding, a strange
ignorance of elementary facts. The South
Atlantic is almost entirely filled up from Brazil
to Africa by a great sea monster. In the map
of Africa a gigantic elephant is introduced, a
proceeding that was rather popular with these

* There are separate maps for the leading countries, giving
towns, rivers, forests, mountains, and other features. The
towns are not only named, but have actual buildings represented.
We notice that in the map of Germany "Holand" and
" Flandria " are at the bottom right-hand corner, but this arises
from the reversal of the whole thing, the north being at the
bottom of the page instead of the top. It is as Germany
would look if we imagine the point of view in Southern
Denmark. Italy in the same way shows Venice at the bottom
of the map and Sicily at the top. In the description of Spain
the so-called pillars of Hercules are treated as two actual pillars
and in the illustration look very like two pawns from a set
of chessmen.

Elephants in lieu of towns. 37

older writers, and which is satirized in the well-
known lines of Swift —

" So geographers, in Afric maps,
With savage pictures fill their gaps,
And o'er inhabitable downs
Place elephants for want of towns."

Even in the days of Plutarch a kindred device
was not unknown, as we find him in the
"Theseus" writing, "as geographers crowd into
the edges of their maps parts of the world which
they do not know about, adding notes in the
margin to the effect that beyond this lies nothing
but sandy deserts full of wild beasts and
unapproachable bogs." Elsewhere in this map
of Africa we see trees with enormous parrots
(miles long if we judge them by the general
scale of the map) perched in their branches, and
the reputed home of the monoculi, the one-eyed
men, is indicated by the introduction of one of
them. In South America in the same way the
home of the Canibali is marked by a hut of tree
trunks and branches from which hang suspended,
as in a larder, a human leg and a man's head.
Many old beliefs obtain curious illustration,
thus in one of the quaint pictures we see a man
using the divining rod to detect subterranean
water. That Swift knew the book seems
probable from his happy allusion to the
elephants in lieu of towns, and this probability
grows almost into a certainty, when we read,
in his "Tale of a Tub," his assertion that
seamen have a custom, when they meet a whale,
of flinging him out an empty tub by way of amuse-

38 Natural History Lore and Legend.

ment, to divert him from doing damage to the
ship. In the " Cosmography " there is the
picture of a ship to which a whale is approaching

FIG. 2.

somewhat too closely for the nerves of the crew,
and they are, therefore, represented as throwing

A monster of the deep. 39

a tub overboard for it to play with. Neither
the substitution of elephants for towns nor the
notion of the ship-preserving tub are, however, the
exclusive copyright of the Munster limners. The
former are seen in various other old maps and
the tub incident is introduced into the " Ship of
Fools" and other old books.

The great value of these monsters, terrestrial or
marine, in filling up bare spaces, and in giving an
additional interest and reality, may be very well
seen in the accompanying illustration (fig. 2)
—a view of the Azores, where the strange water-
monster fills up very adequately indeed a space
where Nature failed to deposit an island. It is
impossible to decide its species ; at first sight it
suggests the notion of a sawfish or water-unicorn.
The old draughtsman was unwilling that any of
it should be lost to us, so instead of placing it in
the water, it, with perhaps the exception of the
missing lower jaw, is entirely on the surface.
The mysterious something that crosses it suggests
the idea that the creature is going bathing, and
has thrown its towel, schoolboy-fashion, over its
back ; but on fuller reflection we take it that
that is meant to indicate the wave and turmoil
that the creature makes in the otherwise placid
sea as it rushes through it, or rather over it.

The figure is a facsimile of a drawing of a
portion of the Azores, St. George and Flores
being omitted by us. It is extracted from Sir
Thomas Herbert's book, " Some Yeares Travels
nto Africa and Asia the Great, especially the
:amous Empires of Persia and Industant." The

40 Natural History Lore and Legend.

edition we consult was printed in London in the
year 1677. After the usual dedicatory letter we
find the following appeal to the reader : —

" Here thou at greater ease than he
Mayst behold what he did see ;
Thou participat'st his gains,
But he alone reserves the pains.
He travell'd not with lucre sotted,
He went for knowledge, and he got it.
Then thank the Author : thanks is light,
Who hath presented to thy sight
Seas, Lands, Men, Beasts, Fishes, and Birds,
The rarest that the world affords."

Personally we have much pleasure in payii
the suggested tribute of courteous thanks, ai
we think that any of our readers who ma]
encounter the book will in like manner confess
their obligations to the old writer for his labours.
We would fain hope that the trip had many
brighter spots in it than he seems quite willing
to allow.

It has been the custom with many writers to
depreciate the labours of Marco Polo,* and to
impute to him a lack of trustworthiness , but it
appears to us, after a careful perusal of his book,
that such censure is scarcely deserved. He made

* His accounts were at the time considered so incredible,
that the Venetians gave him the sobriquet of " Millioni," from
the frequent recurrence of millions in his statements j and
amongst other traducers Herbert says that " Geographers have
filled their maps and globes with the names of Tenduc, Tan-
gutt, Tamfur, Cando, Camul, and other hobgobling words
obtruded upon the World by those three arrant Monks, Haython,
Marc Pare the Venetian, and Vartoman, who fearing no im-
putations make strange discoveries as well as descriptions of
places." This from the sea-monsterist of the Azores !

The Travels of Marco Polo. 41

mistakes, but he is poles asunder from such
writers as Maundevile or Pinto.* His travels
in the east are narrated with much fidelity,
and are almost entirely free from the gross
misstatements that are met with so freely in
many books of travel, not only at this early date
but for centuries afterwards. The original was
probably written in the Venetian dialect, but the
earliest manuscript now known, that of 1320, is
in Latin. A copy of this is in the magnificent
library of the British Museum, another is in the
Royal Berlin Library, another in the Paris
Library, and some few others are in private
collections. Other MSS. of it exist, and it was
also freely printed on the advent of the printing
press, as for instance, at Basle in 1522 ; in Venice
in 1496, 1508, 1597, and 1611; in Brescia in
1500; Paris, 1556; Nuremberg, 1477; Stras-
burg, 1534; Leipzig, 1611; Lisbon, 1502;
Seville, 1520; London, 1597, 1625; Amster-
dam, 1664, As these various editions were in
the languages of the respective places of publica-
tion it indicates a widespread interest, and it
may be taken as a proof, too, that the book was
held to possess solid value : no book of the
Munchausen type can show such a record as

* Ferdinand Mendez Pinto was a celebrated Portuguese
navigator, who published a description of his travels of so
marvellous a nature that his name became a synonym for
extravagant fiction. We meet with him, for instance, in
Congreve's play of "Love for Love," where the passage occurs :
" Ferdinand Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee, thou liar of
the first magnitude."

42 Natural History Lore and Legend.

this. An excellent English edition, very freely
illustrated by notes, is that of William Marsden,
published in 1818 : to this the editor prefixes a
very complete biography of the old author.

Master Peter Heylyn, geographer, who
flourished during the reigns of Charles I.,
Cromwell, and Charles II., tells us of many
marvellous journeys in his volume, and introduces
much that is curious in his notes of the natural
history of the countries visited. India was in
those days an inscrutable and little-known land,
where the wildest imagination had full play and
was in but little danger of being dispossessed by
cold reality. Wonderful, however, as the tales
were that came to Heylyn's ears he found some
of them almost beyond credit, and after telling
us of " men with dogges heads : of men with one
legge onely, of such as live by sent ; of men that
had but one eye, and that in their foreheads ;
and of others whose eares did reach unto the
ground," he is careful to add — "But of these
relations and the rest of this straine I doubt not
but the understanding reader knoweth how to
judge and what to believe." He tells us, too, of
an Indian people that by eating dragon's heart
and liver attain to the understanding of the
languages of beasts, who can make themselves,
when they will, invisible, and who have "two
tubbes, whereof the one opened yields winde,
and the other raine," but here, too, he hesitates
to take the responsibility of these tales and
leaves their credence or rejection to the faith or
scepticism of his readers./ In the Moluccas, too,

The Writings of Heylyn. 43

he hears of many wonders : a river, for instance,,
that is plentifully stored with fish, yet the water
so hot that it immediately scalds the skin oft
any beast that is thrown into it; of men with
"tayles" ; of fruit that whosoever eateth shall
for the space of twelve hours be out of his writs ;
of " a tree which all the day-time hath not a
floure on it, but within half an hour after sunne-
set is full of them." These, however, and several
other wonders of the land, he concludes by
embracing in one simple category — "All huge
and monstrous lies." He tells of a people of
Libya, the Psylli, so venomous in themselves
that they could poison a snake ! One can fancy
the immense disgust of some poisonous reptile of
death-dealing powers when he found that he had
at length met more than his match, and that his
attempt on the life of one of these very objection-
able Libyans was recoiling with fatal effect upon
himself.

The America of those days was a very different
place from the America of to-day. Primeval
forest covered much of the land, the red man and
the buffalo were in full possession, and the pilgrim
fathers had but. lately landed on its shores from
the little " Mayflower." As the remote is always
associated with the wonderful, and monstrosities
and marvels flourish in such congenial soil,
Heylyn finds in America no less than in Asia
and Africa a rich crop of marvels. Into these we
need not, however, go ; those who care to seek
out this old author will find much of quaint
interest, tradition blending with solid history and
fable with fact in his pages.

44 Natural History Lore and Legend.

Sir Walter Raleigh's book on Guiana — " The
discoverie of the large, rich and bewtiful Empire
of Gviana, with a relation of the great and golden
City of Manoa, which the Spaniards call El
Dorado, performed in the year 1595," gives much
curious information, and should not be over-
looked. We may read in it of the Amazons, the
Cannibals, the headless people, and other strange
creatures of this wondrous land. Hakluyt's black-
letter folio, " The Principal Navigations, Voiages
and Discoveries of the English Nation, made by
Sea or over Land to the most remote and
farthest distant Quarters of the earth at any time
within the compasse of these fifteen hundred
yeeres," published in 1589, and " Purchas his
Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World, Asia,
Africa, and America, and the Hands adiacent,"
published in London in the year 1614, are
both quaint and interesting old books. Struys'
" Perillous and most Unhappy Voiages through
Moscovia, Tartary, Italy, Greece, Persia, and
Japan," is another delightful old volume. It
was published in the year 1638, and is illustrated
by divers curious plates. To this list we need
only add the " Natvrall and Morall Historic of
the East and West Indies," by Joseph Acosta,
published in 1604, and " Intreating of the Re-
markable things of Heaven, of the Elements,
Mettalls, Plants, and Beasts which are proper to
that Country." Where we have given a date it
is simply that of the copy that has come under
our own cognisance ; many of those works were
of sufficient popularity to run through several
editions, sometimes several years apart ; still the

Potter on the Art of Plagiarism. 45

dates we give will afford an approximate notion
of the age of the books in question. This
slight sketch of mediaeval books of travel might
very readily be extended ; we do but introduce
them as illustrations and samples of the mass,
of material available.

The medical treatises of our forefathers were
very numerous. Such books as Potter's " Booke
of Phisicke and Chirurgery," orCogan's " Haven
of Health," may advantageously be consulted.
The copy of the first of these that lies open
before us as we write is dated " the yeare of our
Lorde God, 1610," and like almost all these old
books is more or less of a compilation, full of
divers interesting matters " necessary to be
knowne and collected out of sundry olde written
bookes." Cogan is very frank on this point.
He says, "Yet one thing I desire of all them
that shall reade this booke ; if they finde whole
sentences taken out of Master Eliot his Castle of
Heath, or out of Schola Salerni, or any other
author whatsoever, that they will not condemne
me of vaine glorie, as if I meant to set forth for
mine owne workes that which other men have
devised ; for I confess that I have taken verbatim
out of other wher it served for my purpose, but
I have so interlaced it with mine owne, that (as
I think) it may be the better perceived, and
therefore seeing all my travaile tendeth to com-
mon commodity I trust every man will interpret
all to the best." His statement that his ingenious
interweaving of other men's work with his own
makes the plagiarism and appropriation the

46 Natural History Lore and Legend.

more readily detected, is somewhat difficult to
follow.

Cogan did, however, plagiarism notwithstanding,
take up a somewhat special ground that supplied
the raison d'etre of his book, since he tells us
that "it was chiefly gathered for the comfort of
students, and consequently of all those that have
a care for their health." There are repeat<
references to the Oxford scholars : thus, und<
the head of quinces he gives a receipt fc
marmalade, " because the making of marmala<
is a pretty conceit, and may perhaps deligl
some painefull student that will be his o1
Apothecarie." Elsewhere we are told
" Cinamon-water " that " it hath innumerabl
vertues, wherefore I reckon it a great treasure
for a student to have by him in his closet, to take
now and then a spoonfull." One gets some
interesting side-light thrown on the University
life of that day — Cogan's book we may mention
was published in 1636, — as for instance when we
are told that " when foure houres bee past after
breakefast a man may safely take his dinner, and
the most convenient time for dinner is aboute
eleaven of the clocke before noone. At Oxford
in my time they used commonly at dinner boyled
beefe* with pottage, bread, and beere and no

* Beefe is a good meate for an Englysshe man, so be it the
"beest be yonge, and that it be not kowe-flesshe : for olde beefe
and kowe-flesshe doth ingender melancholye and leperouse
humoures. Yf it be moderatly powderyd, that the groose blode
by salte may be exhaustyd it doth make an Englysshe man
stronge." — Andrew Boordes "Dyetary"

The Materia Medica of our forefathers. 47

more. The quantitie of beefe was in value one
halfepenny for one man, and sometimes if hunger
constrained they would double their commons."
Judging by the " battels " we have had the
felicity of paying we may take it that this tariff
has undergone considerable alteration since
1636.

The working and superintendence of the
printing press has up to comparatively recent
years been considered such essentially masculine
labour that it is rather curious to find on the
title-page of Cogan's book that it was " printed
by Anna Griffin for Roger Ball, and are to be
sold at his shop without Temple-Barre at the
Golden Anchor."

As the ingredients used as remedies by our
ancestors came largely from the animal and
vegetable kingdoms, we get in these medical
works a good deal, indirectly, of natural history
lore. Thus Cogan strongly commends the eating
of cabbage leaves as a " preservative of the
stomache from surfetting and the head from
drunkennesse." " Raw Cabage with Vinegar so
much as he list." The philosophy of the thing is
that "the Vine and the Cole worts be so contrarie
by Nature that if you plant Coleworts neare to the
rootes of the Vine of it selfe it will flee from
them, therefore it is no maruaile if Coleworts be of
such force against drunkennesse." Macer tells
of the virtue of fennel as a restorative of youth,
and bases his treatment on the assertion that
" Serpentis whan thei are olde and willing to
wexe stronge, myghty, and yongly agean thei

48 Natural History Lore and Legend.

gon and eten ofte fenel and thei become
yongliche and myghty." Coles, in his " Adam
in "Eden," commends the Eyebright as a remedy
for weak eyes, on the all-sufficient ground that
goldfinches, linnets, and other birds eat of tl "
plant to strengthen their sight.

Many of these prescriptions of our gran<
fathers' great-grandfathers would have supplie<
ample justification for action on the part cf th<
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
had so invaluable a society been extant
those good old times of bull-baiting, cod
throwing brutality. Thus, in one remedy, th<
first step is to " take a red cock, pluck him aliv<
and bruise him in a mortar," in another we mu<
take a cat, cut off her ears and tail and mix th<
blood thereof with a little new milk, while the
victim to tight boots must find relief for his
blistered heel by skinning a mouse alive and
laying the skin, while still warm, upon the
injured spot. Scores of such instances of selfish
indifference to suffering could readily be
adduced.

We need scarcely pause to dwell on books
dealing with cookery, distillation, gardening, and
such like household economics, though it will be
readily seen how in these again the natural history
knowledge — or want of it — of our ancestors finds
room for its display, but pass on to the books
that deal with animals and the works of nature
generally, from the theological point of view.

The "Bestiare Divin" of Guillaume, a Norman
priest, is a very good example of the attempts

Theologians'1 View of Natural Science. 49

that were made by the ecclesiastics to show
that all the works of Nature were symbols and
teachers of great Divine truths. The MS. of
Guillaume dates from the thirteenth century,
and is at present preserved in the National
Library in Paris. The work has been very well
reproduced in a French dress by Hippeau, a
compatriot of the author of it. The statements of
the compiler of such a book as the one under con-
sideration are essentially unreliable, since it was
very difficult for him to ascertain the truth, and
he had in addition no great desire to be literally
exact, and was at any moment prepared to
sacrifice the actual facts for what he would con-
sider a higher stratum of truth. He could not be
accurate if he would, and would not if he could.
Hence Hippeau, in estimating the value of the
book, very justly says : " N'oublions pas que les
peres de 1'Eglise se preoccuperent toujours
beaucoup plus de la purete des doctrines qu'ils
avaient a developper, que de 1'exactitude scienti-
fique des notions sur lesquelles ils les appuy-
aient ;" and we have already seen that Augustine
considered the significance that could be wrung
out of a statement of very much more impor-
tance than any adherence to the facts of the
case. " Dans la vaste etendue des Cieux, au sien
des mers profondes, sur tons les points du globe
terrestre, il n'est par un phenomene, pas une
etoile, pas un quadrupede, pas un oiseau, pas une
plante, pas une pierre, qui n'eveille quelque
souvenir biblique, qui ne fournisse la matiere
d'un enseignement moral, qui ne donne lieu a

4

50 Natural History Lore and Legend.

quelqu' effusion du cceur, qui n'ait a reveler
quelque secret de Dieu." It is evident that
whatever of value or interest may be evolved on
the strength of such sentiments, the result can
hardly be called natural history — a decision th;
we have already arrived at in our considerati<
of the "Speculum Mundi."

The " Bestiary" of De Thaun is a book
like nature. Only one copy of the MS. is knovvi
that in the Cottonian collection. Of another
his books, the " Livre des Creatures," sev(
copies are extant. The author had as his gre;
patron Adelaide of Louvain, the second queen
Henry I. of England, and to her he dedicat<
his books. The language in which they ai
written is very archaic, but an excellent repn
duction of the book for English readers has been
made by Thomas Wright, F.S.A. We give six
lines as an illustration of the original MS., and of
its rendering into the rugged English that best
gives its character : —

" En iin livre divin, que apelum Genesim,
Hoc lisant truvum que Des fist par raisun
Le soleil e la lime, e estoile chescune.
Pur eel me plaist a dire, d'ico est ma materie,
due demusterai e a clers e a lai,
Chi grant busuin en nnt, e pur mei perierunt."

41 In a divine book, which is called Genesis,
There reading, we find that God made by reason
The sun and the moon, and every star.
On this account it pleases me to speak, of this is my matter,
Which I will show both to clerks and to laics,
Who have great need of it, and will perish without it."

As an example of moral-making we may

All Creation a Moral Text-book. 51

instance " the ylio, a little beast made like a
lizard," and which we imagine must be the
salamander. De Thaun says that u it is of such
a nature that if it come by chance where there
shall be burning fire it will immediately extinguish
it. The beast is so cold and of such a quality that
fire will not be able to burn where it shall enter,
nor will trouble happen in the place where it
shall be. A beast of such quality signifies such
men as was Ananias, as was Azarias, as was
Misael : these three issued from the fire praising
God. He who has faith only will never have
hurt from fire." Of the Aspis he tells us that
" it is a serpent cunning, sly and aware of evil.
When it perceives people who make enchant-
ment, who want to take and snare it, it will stop
very well the ears it has. It will press one
against the earth : in the other it will stuff its
tail firmly, so that it hears nothing. In this
manner do the rich people of the world : one ear
they have on earth to obtain riches, the other
Sin stops up : yet they will see a day, the day of
Judgment. This is the signification of the Aspis
without doubt." In like manner a moral is
tacked on to every creature, and all creation is
shown to be a text-book wherein man may read
to some little degree of the mercy, but much
more fully of the penal judgments, of the God
the writer thus blindly professes to honour.

The old Armories are a very happy hunting
ground for the student who would learn some-
what of the beliefs of our ancestors on matters
zoological and botanical, as the writers while

4*

52 Natural History Lore and Legend.

introducing the various creatures and plants as
charges often take the opportunity to add a fe1
explanatory details for the benefit of those
whom they were unknown. Guillim's book, '
Display of Heraldrie, manifesting a more easi
accesse to the knowledge thereof than has beei
hitherto published by any," is a mine of weali
on this score. The original edition appeared
the year 1611, but it was a very popular woi
for a long time, and other copies bear the dat<
1632, 1638, 1660, 1679, and 1724. Anotln
interesting book of the same class was tl
" Accedence of Armorie " of Legh, a considerabl
earlier work, as it first appeared in 1562. Ti
also was a very favourite book and was vei
frequently reprinted, as for instance in 156!
J576, 1591, 1597, &c. It is nevertheless now :
rare book. Bossewell's " Works of Armorie,"
and many other quaint old volumes of this
character might readily be dwelt on, but our aim
is but to mention some few books in each
section, and we care not to make our list either
exhaustive or exhausting.

Having then dwelt at some little length upon
various books from which we shall have occasion
later on to draw illustrations, we propose now to
deal with some few of the creatures more or less
familiar to these old writers, commencing with
mankind and touching successively upon beasts,
birds, fishes, and, finally, reptiles. Guillim in his
book before mentioned greatly prides himself
upon his " method." For this he claims credit
over and over again. " Whosoever," he says, for

The Praise of Method. 53

example, " shall address himself to write of
Matters of Instruction, or of any other Argument
of Importance, it behoveth him that he should
resolutely determine with himself in what Order
he will handle the same, so shall he best accom-
plish that he hath undertaken, and inform the
Understanding and help the Memory of the
Reader." In the spirit of this teaching we would
humbly desire to walk, and having quite re-
solutely determined the order of our going we
will endeavour so far as in us lies to make our
labour a profit to those who honour us with
their perusal.

CHAPTER II.

THE pygmies — Ancient and modern writers thereon — Conflicts
with the cranes— Counterfeits — Modern travel, confirming
the statements of the ancient geographers — Pygmy races
now existing — The " Monstrorum Historia " of Aldro-
vandus — Crane-headed men — Men with tails— The Gorilloi
— The dog-headed people — The canine king — The many-
eyed men — The giants of Dondum — The snake-eaters —
The Ipotayne — Mermaids — Syren myth — Storm-raisers —
The mermaids of artists and poets — Shakespeare thereupon
— As heraldic device — The mermaids of voyagers — The
seal and walrus theory — Mermaids in captivity — Mermaids
as food — Counterfeit mermaids — Mermaid in Chancery —
The " Pseudodoxia Epidemica " of Browne — Oannes or
Dagon — Mermaids and Matrimony — Lycanthropy — The
''Metamorphoses" of Ovid — The fate of Lykaon — Nine
years of wolf do m — Wehr-wolves — Mewing nuns — Olaus
Magnus — The doctrine of metempsychosis — Influence of
enchantment - The dragon maiden — The power of a kiss —
Witchcraft — Scot and Glanvil, for and against it — The good
old times.

Shakespeare, whose writings form a mine of
wisdom from which one can dig an appropriate
wisdom-chip for every occasion, avers truly
enough in the u Merchant of Venice," that
" Nature hath fram'd strange fellows in her
time," while the credulity of mankind has added
to this goodly company many others too im-
possible even for the wildest freaks of nature to
be held responsible for.

Of some of these abnormal forms we propose
now to treat, and commence our chapter with
some short reference to the pygmies. References

TJic Conflict of Authorities. 55

to these are to be found in the works of many
of the ancient writers, such as Homer, Pliny,
Herodotus, Philostratus, Oppian, Juvenal and
Aristotle. Strabo mentions them in his geo-
graphy, but regards the belief in them as a mere
fable, while some of the older authors suggest
that very possibly exceptionally large monkeys*
might have been mistaken for exceptionally small
men. While most writers affirmed that such a
race was to be met with in Africa — Aristotle, for
instance, locating them at the head of the Nile
—some authors placed them in the extreme
north, where the rigour of the climate was held a
sufficient explanation of their stunted growth.
Philostratus assigned them a home on the banks of
the Ganges, and Pliny gave them local habitation
in Scythia. Shakespeare, not only the fount of
countless stores of quotation, but also the store-
house of ancient and mediaeval lore, mentions
the pygmies, though he gives us no hint as to
their home. "Will your Grace command me
any service to the world's end ? I will go on
the slightest errand now to the Antipodes that
you can devise to send me on : I will fetch you a
toothpicker now from the furthest inch of Asia ;
bring you the length of Prester John's foot ;
fetch you a hair off the great Cham's beard ; do
you any embassage to the Pygmies ! "

Homer, in the third book of the Iliad, refers

* There can be little question but that the ancient fictions of
satyrs, cynocephali and other supposed monstrous forms of
humanity arose in vague accounts of different species of apes.

56 Natural History Lore and Legend.

to the conflicts between the pygmies and the
cranes :—

" When inclement winters vex the plain
With piercing frosts, or thick-descending rain,
To warmer seas the cranes embodied fly,
With noise and order,* through the midway sky :
To pygmy nations wounds and death they bring."

Our readers may possibly wonder, as we have
done, why the cranes should bear the pygmies
such ill-will, but Pliny in his seventh book
supplies the justification for the feud, as it
appears that in the springtime the pygmies sally
forth in great troops, riding upon goats, search-
ing for and devouring the eggs of the cranes, a
state of things that no creature of proper parental
instincts could be expected to submit quietly to.

Sir Thomas Browne, in his excellent book
on vulgar errors, says that " Homer, using
often similes as well to delight the ear as
to illustrate his matter, compareth the Trojanes
unto Cranes when they descend against the
Pigmies ;t which was more largely set out
by Oppian, Juvenall and many Poets since ; and
being only a pleasant figment in the fountain,
became a solemn story in the stream and current
still among us.'' He declines to give credence
to the pygmies and the tales that appertain to

* " Marking the tracts of air, the clamorous cranes
Wheel their due flight in varied ranks descried ;
And each with outstretched neck his rank maintains
In marshalled order through the ethereal void."
f The word is spelt sometimes as pigmy, and at others as
pygmy ; the latter is the more correct, as the word is from the
Greek name for them, the pygmaioi.

Maundevile on the Pygmies. 57

them and says that " Julius Scaliger, a diligent en-
quirer, accounts thereof but as a poeticall fiction.
Ulysses Aldrovandus, a most careful zoographer,
in an expresse discourse thereon, concludes the
story fabulous. Albertus Magnus, a man ofttimes
too credulous, was herein more than dubious,"
and though he quotes the statement of Pigafeta
that pygmies were found in the Moluccas, and that
of Olaus Magnus as to their being encountered
in Greenland, he declares that "yet wanting
confirmation in a matter so confirmable, their
affirmation carrieth but slow perswation."

Maundevile, of course, is as fully prepared to
believe in the existence of pygmies as of most
other things, provided they be sufficiently outside
ordinary experience. In his book he takes us
" throghe the Lond of Pigmaus, wher that the
folk ben of lytylle Stature, that ben but three
span long; and thei ben right faire and gentylle.
Thei maryen hem whan thei ben half Yere of
Age, and thei lyven not but six veer or seven at the
moste, and he that lyvethe eight yeer men holden
him there righte passynge olde. Thei han often
times Werre with the Briddes of the Contree
that thei taken and eten. This litylle folk
nouther labouren in Londes ne in Vynes, but
thei han grete men amonges hem, of one Stature,
that tylen the Lond and labouren amonges the
Vynes for hem. And of the men of our Stature
han thei as grete skorne and wondre as we
wolde have among us of Geauntes if thei weren
among us. And alle be it that the Pygmeyes
ben Ivtylle vet thei ben full resonable aftre

58 Natural History Lore and Legend.

here Age : connen bothen Wytt and gode and
malice." Another people of somewhat similar
character that Maundevile professed to have met
with in his travels were still more remarkable,
for they " ne tyle not3 ne labouren not the Erthe
for thei eten no manere thing, and thei ben of
gode colour and of faire schap aftre hire gretnesse,
but the be smale as Dwerghes, but not so lytylle
as ben the Pigmeyes. These men lyven be the
smelle of wylde Apples, and whan thei gon ony
far weve thei beren the Apples with hem. For
if thei hadde lost the savour of the Apples thei
scholde dyen anon." Unfortunately he can
only say of these interesting people that u thei
ne ben not full resonable, but thei ben symple
and bestyalle."

Bishop Jordanus, in his " Mirabilia descripta,"
tells of pygmies in " an exceeding great island
what is called Jaua," which our readers who are
at all used to the substitution of the letter u for
v, will at once recognize as Java, "where are
many world's winders. Among which, beside
the finest aromatic spices, this is one, to wit, that
there be found pygmy men of the size of a boy
of three or four years old, all shaggy like a goat."
He adds that they dwell in the woods, and we
may not unreasonably conclude that these hirsute
arboreals were a species of ape.

In the conflict of testimony, some affirming
and some denying the existence of such a people,
Marco Polo, writing it will be remembered in
the thirteenth century, warns us that we must
beware of counterfeits that are palmed off on

1 he Manufacture of Sham Pygmies. 59

the unwary as the real thing. " It should be
known," says he, " that what is reported respect-
ing the dried bodies of diminutive human
creatures or pigmies, brought from India, is an

FIG. 3.

idle tale, such pretended men being manufactured
in the following manner. The country produces
a species of monkey of a tolerable size, and

60 Natural History Lore and Legend.

having a countenance resembling that of a man.
Those persons who make it their business to
catch them shave, off the hair, leaving it only
about the chin and those other parts where it
naturally grows on the human body. They then
dry and preserve them with camphor and other
drugs, and having prepared them in such a mode
that they have exactly the appearance of little
men, they put them into wooden boxes and sell
them to trading people, who carry them to all
parts of the world. But this is an imposition,
and neither in India nor in any other country,
however wild or little known, have pigmies been
found of a form so diminutive as these exhibited."
It will be noted that the very fact of a counter-
feit implies a something to be counterfeited, and
Marco Polo is clearly quite prepared to give in
his adhesion to the affirmative side.

The belief in a pygmy race, first declared
centuries before the Christian era, was held most
fully in mediaeval days ; and modern travel and
research has amply proved that — various elements
of the marvellous stripped away — the belief was
a sound one. Du Chaillu in Western Equatorial
Africa met with a diminutive race of which the
average height of the individuals who would
submit to measurement was four feet five inches;
and readers of Stanley's books will recall his
experiences with a similar people. On the
authority of Dr. Parke, the Mikaba average four
feet one inch, the Batwas four feet three inches,
and the Akkas four feet six inches. Related to
them in shortness of stature are the Bushmen of

Ancient Pygmy -stories confirmed. 61

Southern Africa, averaging about four feet seven
inches in height ; and elsewhere, the Lapps, the
Fuegians, the Ainos of Japan, and the Veddahs
— all people of notoriously short stature.

Probably the Bushmen, or Bosjesmen, are the
modern representatives of the Pygmaioi, for in
their cave-dwelling, reptile-eating, and other
peculiarities they agree entirely with the descrip-
tions given by Herodotus, Pliny, and other
ancient writers. The Bosjesmen are found, with
all the peculiarities of their dwarfish race intact,
as far north as Guinea. Winwood Reade, in his
" Savage Africa," gives many interesting details
concerning them, and holds the view that they
were the aboriginal race in Africa. Dr. Stuhl-
mann, Emin Pacha's companion in many of his
wanderings, succeeded for the first time in
bringing pygmies alive to Europe, some members
of the Akka tribe being brought to Berlin,
where they were regarded with immense interest
by the professors of anthropology.

The truthfulness of the ancient geographers
being thus confirmed, it is quite possible that the
tales of the conflicts of the pygmies with great
birds may have a more solid foundation of fact
than we are quite prepared to admit. The
Maori traditions tell of the contests with the
moa and other gigantic birds which formerly
inhabited the islands of New Zealand ; while the
Jesuit missionaries give accounts of enormous
birds once found in Abyssinia and Madagascar.
All these are now extinct, but it may well be
that to a dwarf race, armed only with bows and

62 Natural History Lore and Legend.

arrows, such birds would be foes by no means t<
be despised. One finds the trustworthiness of th<
old writers often so curiously confirmed that on<
hesitates in the case of many of them to assunn
too readily either gross credulity or a wilful
misstatement.

Amidst the millions of births in the animal
creation there is scarcely any conceivable mal-
formation, excess, or defect of parts, that has nol
at some time or other occurred ; anyone turning
to the medical and surgical journals will fin<
many strange illustrations of this, or our reader
may find much interesting information on thij
subject, and given in a less technical form, in the
" Histoire Generale des Anomalies" of GeofFroi
de St. Hilaire. But such malformations occur
singly and at comparatively remote intervals ;
the anomalous departure from the type, the
eccentricity of structure, is not hereditarily
produced, does not become the starting-point of
a new species. No natural malformation, allow-
ance being made for the very restricted influence
of hybridism, ever passes outside the species in
which it is found or combines with it the character
of any other creature, while even the limited
possibilities of hybridism have a tendency to die
out, owing to the sterility that is so marked a
characteristic. Such monsters as Aldrovandus
figures are utterly impossible, such as the body
of a man conjoined to the head of an ass, and
having one foot that of an eagle, and the other
that of an elephant.

Abundant illustrations of the most un-natural

Aldrovandus on Monsters. 63

history may be found in the works of Aldro-
vandus ; his voluminous works on animals are
very curious and interesting, and are richly
illustrated with engravings at least as quaint
in character as the text. His "Monstrorum
Historia," published in folio at Bologna in 1642,
is a perfect treasure-house of rank impossibilities.
Another book of very similar character is Boias-
tuau's "Histoires Prodigeuses," published in Paris
in the year 1561, a strange assemblage of curious
and monstrous figures.

The wondrous creatures of Aldrovandus, and
it must be borne in mind that these are given in
the most perfect good faith as contributions
towards a better knowledge of natural history,
are divisible into three classes : — creatures that
are absolute impossibilities, such as fig. 3, a man
having the head and neck of a crane ; secondly,
various species of malformation and abnormal
growth, which do undoubtedly occur from time
to time ; and thirdly, other forms suggested by this
second class, but carried to altogether impossible
excess.

It is of course easy, having realized that a
lizard with a forked tail is somewhat of a
curiositv, to make a much greater wonder bv

„/ / O j

representing, as he does, a ten-tailed lizard ; and
while a boy born without arms is a painful
possibility, the wonder is undoubtedly greatly-
increased by also cutting off his legs, as Aldro-
vandus does, and replacing them with the tail of
a fish.

The creature he calls hippopos, having the head,

64 Natural History Lore and Legend.

arms, and body of a man, but terminating below
in the legs and hoofs of a horse, was (thougl
here only two-legged,) probably suggested by thi
centaur myth. Amongst the other impossibilitie:
which we must nevertheless again remind oui
readers the old writer brings forward in th<
most perfect sincerity as valuable aids to a bette:

knowledge of the wonders of creation, is a mai
of normal growth, except that he has the head o1
a wolf, the lady, fig. 4, who is distinctly of harp1
type, a ram-headed individual, and a boy with th<
head of an elephant.

This notion of the substitution of heads has a
great charm for Aldrovandus. He gives us, else-

Aldrovandine Monstrosities. 65

where, a bird-headed boy, and horses, goats, pigs,
and lions, all with human heads ; while the
"monstrum triceps capite vulpis, draconis et
aquilse " is, we venture to think, a creature that
neither Aldrovandus, nor anyone else, ever did
see or ever will see. According to the picture it
had a human body and legs, differing however from
those of ordinary humanity in being clothed with
large scales. One arm was like that of a man,
the other was the wing of an eagle, and a horse's
tail in rear was another distinctly abnormal
growth, while surmounting all were three heads,
those of a wolf, a dragon, and an eagle. There
are many other such atrocities ; while they are
curious as showing the depth of credulity our
forefathers could reach, it will readily be seen
that they are the dullest things possible. Anyone
with a slight knowledge of zoology could create
them by the score, placing, for instance, on the
neck of a giraffe the head of an elephant, giving
it the body of an alligator, and finishing off all
neatly with the tail of a peacock.

The multiplication, or suppression, or distor-
tion of various parts is a very strong point with
Aldrovandus. He illustrates for our benefit
four-legged ducks and pigeons, and two-headed
pigs, sheep, cows, and fishes ; calves, dogs, hares,
each walking erect on their hind legs and having
no front ones, and pigs, cats, dogs, chickens,
double-bodied but single-headed. He also tells
us of headless men, and gives us a drawing of
one, neckless, having the ears rising from the
shoulders, mouthless, the nose a proboscis a

5

66 Natural History Lore and Legend.

foot or so in length; this and the eyes are on
the back of the figure. Fig. 5 we may fairly

FIG. 5.

include as an example of distortion, while fig. 6
is a monstrosity produced by suppression. In

another place he gives a drawing of a man
having two eyes in their natural position, and

Shaggy Men and tailed withal. 67

beyond each of these another, so that we have
four in a row.

One quaint picture shows us two men wearing
large ruffs and habited in quite the costume of
"the upper ten" of the seventeenth century, but
their faces are covered with thickly matted hair,
their eyes peeping out like those of a skye-
terrier. This idea was too grotesque not to
utilize to the uttermost, so the next picture
in the book is that of a young lady in the same
plight.

The notion of hairy men, tailed men, and
the like has no doubt arisen from the first
introduction of the early writers and voyagers to
various species of monkeys. Duris, one of the
ancients, professed to know of the existence of
an Indian tribe of shaggy, tailed men, while
Ctesias, not to fall short in this pursuit of the
marvellous, tells us of a certain Indian valley, or
more probably a very uncertain one and exceed-
ingly difficult to locate, where the inhabitants
lived two hundred years, having in their youth
white hair, which, with the ravages of time,
gradually became quite black. In the " Peri-
plus " of Hanno, about five hundred years before
the Christian era, we have an unquestionable
reference to the apes. " For three days," says
the Carthaginian admiral, " we passed along a
burning coast, and at length reached a bay called
the Southern Horn. In the bottom of this bay
we found an island which was inhabited by wild
men. The greater number of those we saw were
females ; they were covered with hair, and our

5 *

68 Natural History Lore and Legend.

interpreters called them Gorilloi.* We were
unable to secure any of the men, as they fled to the
mountains, and defended themselves with stones.
As to the women we caught three of them, but
they so bit and scratched us that we found it
impossible to bring them along : we therefore
killed and flayed them, and carried their hides
to Carthage." Rather a cool proceeding this,
granting either that they were really human or
that the Carthaginians regarded them as such.
We should at all events so regard it nowadays if,
for instance, the crew of a whaler flayed some
Eskimo ladies and brought their hides to Dundee.
Burton and other early English writers thor-
oughly believe in the existence of tailed men,
and it has long been an article of belief that
divers men even in this realm of England were
born with tails. The Devonshire men stoutly
contended that their Cornish neighbours were
thus distinguished. According to Polydore
Vergil, some at least of the men of Kent shared
this peculiarity, and he very definitely asserts
that it was a Divine judgment upon them for
insulting one of His servants, Thomas a Becket.
He tells us that when that prelate fell into
disgrace with his sovereign, many people treated
him with but little respect, and in Rochester he
met with such contempt that amongst other
marks of contumely the tail of the horse on
which he was riding was cut off. By this profane

* These great anthropoid apes are found in the forests that
extend southward for a thousand miles or so from the gulf of
Guinea. The gorilla is not found beyond this limit.

The Distinguished Men of Kent. 69

inhospitality they reaped deserved reproach, for
all the offspring of the men who did or connived
at this thing were born with tails like horses.
This mark of infamy we are told only disappeared
with the gradual extinction of those whose fore-
fathers had incurred this notorious and shameful
penalty. In the " Loyal Scot" of Andrew
Marvel we find the line, " For Becket's sake,
Kent always shall have tails." As a line or two
before this he has written " Deliver us from a
Bishop's wrath," it is sufficiently evident that the
passage alludes to the legend referred to.
,/j ohn Bale, the writer of the " Actes of English
Votaries," is righteously indignant on the point.
He writes as follows in his book, " John Cap-
grave and Alexander of Esseby sayth that for
castynge of fyshe tayles at thys Augustyne,
Dorsettshyre men had tayles ever after, but
Polydorus applieth it unto Kentish men at
Strood by Rochester, for cuttynge of Thomas
Becket's horse's tail. Thus hath England in all
other land a perpetual infamy of tayles by these
wrytten legendes of lyes. An Englyshman cannot
now travayle in another land by way of mar-
chandyse or any other honest occupynge, but it
is most contumeliously thrown in his teethe that
all Englyshmen have tayles^7 That uncomely
note and report hath the nation gotten, without
recover, by these laisy and idle lubbers, the
monkes and the priestes, which could find no
matters to advance their gaines by, or their
saintes, as they call them, but manifest lies and
knaveries." John Bale was a post-Reformation

jo Natural History Lore and Legend.

Bishop, holding the see of Ossory during the
reign of Edward VI, and was especially notable
for his zeal in spreading the principles of the
Reformed Church.

John Struys, a Dutchman, who visited Formosa
in the year 1677, gives a description of a tailed man
that is strongly suggestive of the monkey theory,
except that he endows him with intelligible
speech. He tells us that before he visited this
island he had often heard of men therein who
had long tails, but that he i had never been able
to credit it. Seeing, however, is proverbially
believing. " I should now have difficulty in
accepting it," he wTrites, "if my own senses had
not removed from me every pretence for doubting
the fact, by the following strange adventure.
The inhabitants of Formosa, being used to see us,
were in the habit of receiving us on terms which
left nothing to apprehend on either side ; so that,
although mere foreigners, we always believed
ourselves to be in safety, and had grown familiar
enough to ramble at large without an escort,
when grave experience taught us that in so doing
we were hazarding too much. As some of our
party were one day taking a stroll, one of them
had occasion to withdraw about a stone's-throw
from the rest, who being at the moment engaged
in an eager conversation, proceeded without
heeding the disappearance of their companion.
After awhile, however, his absence was observed,
and the party paused, thinking he would rejoin
them. They waited some time, but at last, tired
of the delay, they returned in the direction of

Effects of Climate on Tail- growth. 71

the spot where they remembered to have seen
him last. Arriving there, they were horrified to
find his mangled body lying on the ground.
While some remained to watch the dead body,
others went off in search of the murderer, and
these had not gone far when they came upon a
man of peculiar appearance, who, finding himself
enclosed by the exploring party, so as to make
escape from them impossible, began to foam with
rage, and by cries and wild gesticulations to
intimate that he would make anyone repent the
attempt who should venture to meddle with him,
The fierceness of his desperation, for a time,
kept our people at bay ; but as his fury gradually
subsided they gathered more closely around him,
and at length seized him. As the crime was so
atrocious, and if allowed to pass with impunity
might entail even more serious consequences,
it was determined to burn the man. He was
tied up to a stake, where he was kept for some
hours before the time of execution arrived. It
was then that I beheld what I had never
thought to see. He had a tail more than a foot
long, covered with red hair, and very much like
that of a cow. When he saw the surprise that
this discovery created amongst the European
spectators, he informed us that his tail was the
effect of climate, for that all the inhabitants of
the southern side of the island, where they then
were, were provided with like appendages." The
measure of burning the man to avoid any future
unpleasantness, seems a somewhat strong one,
and attended with a very considerable element

72 Natural History Lore and Legend.

of risk to themselves, besides the grave personal
inconvenience to the victim. The account is a
very circumstantial one; how is it to be explained?
One cannot accept the tail — or the tale ; and yet
it is painful to feel that the alternative is to
brand John Struys as deliberately errant from
the truth ; and brave men who take their lives
in their hands are above the meanness of
vapouring or lying. In such a case one agrees
entirely with Dr. Johnson : " Of a standing fact,
sir, there ought to be no controversy. If there
are men with tails, catch a homo caudatus."

Africa and India, the two great wonder-lands
of our forefathers, were the home of many
strange specimens of humanity. Far away
towards the sources of the Nile were the Nigriae,
ruled by a king who had but one eye, and that
in the midst of his forehead. There, too, were
found the Agriophagi, a people who lived on the
flesh of lions and panthers : the Anthropophagi
that fed on the flesh of men, and the Pomphagi
that, like the modern schoolboy, eat all things.
In that mysterious land too dwelt the Cynamolgi,
whose heads were those of dogs. One old writer
tells us that there was a tribe of one hundred and
twenty thousand of these dog-headed men : they
wore the skins of wild animals as their clothing,
and carried on conversation in true canine style
by yelps and barks. Sir John .Maundevile, of
course, knew all about these folk, since he found a
great and fair island somewhere, called Nacumera,
that was more than a thousand miles in circuit, and
which had no other population. He tells us that

The Wondrous Land of Ethiopia. 73

they were a very reasonable people and of good
understanding, the only fault that he finds with
them being that they worship an ox as their god.
/Jordanus, Burton and others locate these
peculiar people in India. Jordanus says that
there are many different islands in which the
men have the heads of dogs, but the »women are
purely human, and, moreover, very beautiful,
whereat he very justly observes, " I cease not to
marvel." Ibn Bakuta, describing the people of
Barah-nakar, says " their men are of the same
form as ourselves, except that their mouths are
like those of dogs, but the women have mouths
like other folks._'V Aldrovandus naturally does
not miss such a chance as the dog-headed people
afford him. Vicentius places them in Tartary,
and Marco Polo heard of them in the island of
Angaman. In Ethiopia we hear of a tribe of
men that elected a dog as their king, and judged
as best they might by his actions and barking the
royal commands.

Ethiopia was a land of marvels, the focus and
centre of all the wonders of Africa. It was held
that the strange and monstrous forms there pro-
duced arose from " the agility of the fiery heat
to frame bodies and to carve them into strange
shapes." It was reported by some that far
within the interior of the country were to be
found whole nations of noseless men, and that
others were without the upper lip, while others
again were without speech, and only made com-
munication by signs. It is easy to see how the
notion of a noseless people originated, since the

74 Natural History Lore and Legend.

negro physiognomy often has the nose a very
flattened feature, while the people who could
only make signs to the strangers that came
amongst them evidently did so from a full
realization of the hopelessness of speech. The
negro lip is ordinarily a very conspicuous feature,
so that the lipless people were a legitimate
object of wonder. In one district all the four-
footed beasts were without ears, even the
elephants, the old author is careful to add, being
in the same plight. Our readers will doubtless
remember that the ears of the African elephant,
outside this district, are of enormous size, and
form one marked difference between him and his
Asiatic brother. Elsewhere in this wondrous
land we hear of men having three and four eyes,
but the old traveller carefully explains that this
tale merely arose — " not because they are thus
furnished, but because they are excellent
archers." The " because " is not very evident,
as the keenness and excellence of sight that
would be of such value to an archer is scarcely
to be obtained by the multiplication of eyes : it
is quality rather than quantity that is needed
here, and the old writer is careful to add, "thus
much must I advertise my readers, that I will not
pawn my credit for many things that I shall
deliver." What he saw for himself he could
vouch for, and these things were themselves so
strange that he could scarcely refuse to credit
some of the wonders that were by hearsay, but
he very justly declines responsibility.

Another old writer, Burton, in the same way

The Marvellous Isle of Dondum. 75

cautiously evades fathering all the wonderful tales
he tells of the men who live by scent alone,*
of those who by eating the heart and liver of a
dragon attain to the understanding of the language
of beasts, of those who have the power of making
themselves " invisible, and so forth," " but of
these I doubt not but that the understanding
reader knoweth how to judge and what to
believe."

On the isle called Dondum, an island that
Maundevile seems to have discovered, or
developed from his inner consciousness, are
" folk of gret stature, as Geauntes : and thei
ben hidouse for to loke upon : and thei ban but
on eye, and that is in the myddylle of the Front,
and thei eten no thing but raw Flessche and raw
Fyssche. And in another yle towards the
Southe duellen folk of foule Stature and of
cursed kynde that han no Hedes : and here
Eyen ben in here Scholdres." These are both
mentioned by Pliny, but this passage of
Maundevile must not be considered as con-
firmatory of Pliny's wonders, as it is considerably

* Burton probably got this notion from Megasthenes, an old
writer who, not to be outdone in the introduction of the
marvellous, tells us of a nation in the extreme East of India that
are wholly mouthless, and that live only by the smells that they
draw in at their nostrils, partaking of no food whatever, but
flourishing on the pleasant odours given off by various roots,
blossoms, and fruits that they are careful to carry about with
them when travelling. Unfortunately, if the scent be too strong
it deprives them of life and they die as effectually of a surfeit of
good things as the famous British sovereign who overdid his
devotion to lamprey stew.

76 Natural History Lore and Legend.

less probable that the mediaeval writer had seen
these monsters than that he had seen the olden
book, and transferred its wonders to his own
pages. He, in fact, distinctly tells us that his
nerves would not stand an interview with these
giants, " sume of forty-five Fote or fifty Fote long.
I saghe none of tho, for I had no lust to go" !
He tells us, however, of the " Geauntes Scheep
als gret as Oxen here, and thei beren gret Wolle
and roughe. Of these Scheep I have seyn many
tymes." These we may reasonably conclude to
have been Yak. As he tells us that men have
often seen " the Geauntes taken men in the Sea
out of hire Schippes and broughte hem to lond,
two in one hond and two in another, etynge hem
goynge alle rawe and alle quyk," we can readily
understand his reluctance to visit them. Else-
where he professes to have found " wylde men
hidouse to loken on for thei ben horned, and
thei speken nought, but thei gronten as Pygges."
In yet " another Yle ben folk," — so at least
Maundevile tells us, though it may be but a
traveller's tale, — that are " of such fasceon and
Schapp, that han the Lippe above the Mouthe
so gret that whan thei slepen in the Sonne thei
kovoren alle the face with that Lippe." This
story again is probably less a personal experience
than a proof of scholarship, as Strabo describes
such a people in his writings.

These great-lipped people have as neighbours
"lytylle folk that han no Mouthe, but in stede
therof thei han a lytylle round hole : and whan
thei schalle eten or drynken thei taken throughe

Monstrous Men of Maundevile. 77

a Pipe or a Penne or suche a thing and sowken
it in. Thei ban no Tonge and therefor thei
speke not but thei maken a manner of hyssynge,
as a Neddre dothe."

Pliny, Isidore, Strabo and other ancient
authorities on the subject, tell of a tribe that
have ears so long and pendulous that they reach
to their knees, and therefore Maundevile knew
of them too, and as Pliny knew of the Hippo-
podes so the mediaeval writer tells us of " folk
that ban Hors Feet." These, thanks we may
assume to this peculiarity, are a nation of very
swift runners, easily beating the record of any of
our modern athletes, hence they are able to
capture " wylde Bestes with rennyng " and add
them to their bill of fare.

Amongst other strange specimens of humanity
that we encounter in the pages of Maundevile, if
not in the flesh, are the peculiarly strange "folkthat
gon upon hire Hondes and hire Feet as Bestes,*
and thei ben all skynned and fedred, and thei
lepen als lightly in to Trees and fro Tree to Tree
as it were Squyrelles." In one district the people
subsist chiefly on adders, partly because there is
" gret plentee " of them, but more especially from
appreciation. " Thei etenthem at gret sollemp-
nytees, and he that makethe there a Feste, be it
nevere so costifous, and he han no Neddres, he
hathe no thanke for his travaylle." It would in

* These doubtless would be some of the larger apes, that,
sufficiently human in general form to suggest the notion of a
man, drop upon their fore-paws and travel across the open spaces
of the forest as quadrupeds.

7 8 Natural History Lore and Legend.

fact be a parallel atrocity to a gathering of the
City Fathers at the Mansion House and no turtL
soup provided.

The long-headed people that formed part o1
the strange African fraternity we may reasonably
conclude to have owed their peculiarity to the
habit of employing pressure to mould the head
into the compressed and elongated form, in just
the same way that in recent times the heads of
some of the tribes of North American Indians
were manipulated. We may not unreasonably
conclude, too, that some at least of the various
•curious people referred to by the ancient and
mediaeval writers were but accidental monstrosi-
ties, malformations of rare or casual occurrence.
Such an one appearing amongst strangers would
be regarded with great curiosity, and it would be
but a short step farther to the lover of the mar-
vellous to assume that somewhere or other in the
region from whence he sprang, was a whole tribe
or nation of such. The accidental resemblances,
too, that we sometimes see in the human physiog-
nomy to animals would be suggestive material to
those in search of the wonderful. Porta's book,
" De Humana Physiognomonica," gives many
illustrations of heads, animal and human, showing
resemblance of the men's heads to those of the
owl, lion, ox, and other creatures. Some of these
are very clever, while others are absurdly forced
and exaggerated.

Munster, under the section De mirabilibus et
monstrosis creaturis quae in interioribus Africae
inueniuntur, gives a picture in his book, where

The Centaur in Mediaeval Guise. 79

our old friend the man with the single immense
foot, the one-eyed man, a two-headed fellow,
the headless man with his eyes and other features
in his chest,* whose acquaintance we have made
in fig. i, and a wolf-headed man, are all grouped
together as a matter of course, leaving the
observer to conclude that anyone strolling
through Central Africa would any day expect
tocoine across such a gathering.

The classic myth of the centuar crops up again
in the mediaeval Ipotayne. These " dwellen
somtymes in the Watre and somtyme on the
Lond, and thei ben half Man and half Hors, and
thei eten ment whan thei may take hem.'/' Pliny
writes of the ^Egipanae, half beasts, " shaped as
you see them commonly painted," a terse descrip-
tion that may have been amply sufficient for his
original readers, but which leaves later generations
considerably in the dark.

The belief in the mermaid was to our ancestors
as real as the belief in the mackerel ; and though

* " Who would believe that there were mountaineers,

Dewlapped like bulls, whose throats had hanging at them
Wallets of flesh ? Or that there were such men
Whose heads stood in their breasts ?"

GONZALE in the " Tempest."

t Robertson, in his " History of America," Vol. II., p. 525,
says of the Spaniards, " that they and their horses were objects
of the greatest astonishment to all the people of New Spain.
At first they imagined the horse and his rider, like the
centaurs of the ancients, to be some monstrous animal of a
terrible form. Even after they had discovered the mistake they
believed the horses devoured men in battle, and when they
neighed, thought that they were demanding their prey."

8o Natural History Lore and Legend.

we have in these later days surrounded all with
an air of romance, the mermaid was to them no
myth or poetic fancy, but as genuine an article oi
credence as any other creature of earth, or air, 01
sea. Phisiologus simply calls it " a beast of the
sea," which is a very unpoetic definition indeed ;
while Boswell in like manner calls it "a sea beast
wonderfully shapen." Nowadays one's notion
of a mermaid is of a fair creature, half woman
half fish, basking amongst the rocks or rocking on
the waves, and engaged in nothing more arduous
than alternately combing her flowing golden
tresses in the sunlight, and gazing in her constant
travelling companion, her mirror, to study the
effect of her work. The mediaeval mermaid was
of sterner temper ; one old writer says that
" they please shipmen greatly with their song
that they draw them to peril and shipwreck ;"
while another affirms that " this beast is glad and
merry in tempest, and heavy and sad in faire
weather." Bcewulf, the Saxon poet, styles the
mermaid —

" The sea-wolf of the abyss,
The mighty sea- woman."

The syren myth of the ancients is clearly the
origin of this belief in the malevolence of the
mermaid. These syrens, to quote Spencer's
" Fairie Queen,"

" Were faire ladies, till they fondly strived
With th' Heliconian Maides for mastery :
Of whom they overcomen were depriv'd
Of their proud beautie, and th' one moyity

Mermaids as Storm-raisers. 81

Transform'd to fish, for their bold surquedry :

But th' upper half their hew retayned still,

And their sweet skill in wonted melody

Which ever after they abused to ill,*

T' allure weake travellers whom gotten they did kill."

The writer of the " Speculum Mundi" believed
in mermaids as firmly as his contemporaries did,
but he departs somewhat from the traditional
lines of belief, and instead of making his mermaids
brewers of the storms, sees in them merely
rather exceptionally weather-wise and gifted
prophets of the coming tempest. He says of
them : " The mermaids and men-fish seem to me
the most strange fish in the waters. Some have
supposed them to be devils or spirits, in regard
of their whooping noise that they make. For (as
if they had power to raise extraordinary storms
and tempests) the windes blow, seas rage, and
clouds drop presently after they seem to call."
This was the popular belief, but he explains
matters as follows : — "Questionlesse that Nature's
instinct makes in them a quicker insight and more
sudden feeling and foresight of those things than
is in man, which we see even in other creatures
upon earth, as fowles, who feeling the alteration
of the aire in their feathers and quills, do plainly
prognosticate a change of weather before it
appeareth to us." So that really the bellowing of
these maidens is brought down to the level of

* In the " Eastern Travels of John of Hesse," amongst perils
of voyage, we read : — "We came to a stony mountain, where we
heard syrens singing, meermaids who draw ships into danger by
their songs. We saw there many horrible monsters and were
in great fear."

6

82 Natural History Lore and Legend.

cock-crowing, the braying of the ass,* or the
scream of the peacock, as indications of weather-
changes.

The classic writers limited the number of their
syrens to three ordinarily, though they were not
quite unanimous as to the exact number, while
the mediaeval mermaids were simply as unnum-
bered and as un-named denizens of the deep as
the cod-fish. In mediaeval times the mermaidens
were not ordinarily credited with any particular
musical gifts, though we remember seeing a
Gothic carving of one playing on a violin. It
will be remembered that with their antique
prototypes the musical part of the entertainment
was a very conspicuous feature :—

" Withe pleasaunte tunes the syrenes did allure,
Vlisses wise, to listen to theire songe :
But nothinge could his manlie harte procure,
He sailde awaie, and scaped their charming stronge,
The face he likde ; the nether parte did loathe,
For woman's shape, and fishes, had they bothe.
Which showes to us, when Bewtie seeks to snare
The carelesse man, who dothe no daunger dreede,
That he should flie, and should in time beware,
And not on lookes his fickle fancie feeder

Such Mairemaides line, that promise onelie ioyes,
But he that yeldes at lengthe him selffe distroies." f

We will consider first the mermaid of the
artist and the poet, and then see how the poetic

* As the old adage hath it : —

" When that the ass begins to bray,

Be sure we shall have rain that day."
f " A maiden strangely fair, but strangely formed,
Rises from out the pool, and by her songs
And heavenly beauty lures to shameful death
The luckless wright who hears her melodies." — Kirke*

77/6' Mermaid of Shakespeare. 83

and artistic type tallies with, or differs from, the
mermaid as the ancient voyager vouches for her
from ocular demonstration. Naturally the poets
were unwilling to surrender the sweet song of
the mermaid, and the bellowing and whooping
of the matter-of-fact naturalists becomes with the
poets a " dulcet and harmonious breath." All
our readers must be familiar with the beautiful
passage in the "Midsummer Night's Dream" : —

" I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude sea grew civil at her song;
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres
To hear the sea-maid's music."*

Several other allusions to the mermaid will be
found in the writings of Shakespeare and many
others of our poets, though it would be some-
what foreign to our purpose to quote them at
any length, fascinating as the subject would be.
Our present prosaic intent is but to introduce
the poets as witnesses to the widespread belief
in such a creature as the mermaid and to show
their sympathy with it.

In mediaeval heraldry the mermaid frequently
appears as a charge upon the shield, as a sup-
porter of the arms, and as the surmounting crest.
Any book upon heraldry will supply illustrations

* Allusive to Mary Queen of Scots and to the Duke of
Norfolk, and the Earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland,
who fell from their allegiance to Elizabeth by the witchery of
Mary. She was celebrated for the melody of her singing.
The reference to the dolphin alludes to her marriage with the
Dauphin of France.

6 *

84 Natural History Lore and Legend.

of this. We need only now refer to the allusive
use of the charge in the arms of the ancient
family of De La Mere, and to its occurrence as
one of the badges adopted by the Black Prince.
By his will in 1376 the Prince left to his son
some hangings " de worstede embroidery avec
mermyns de mier." The mermaid is found, too,
sometimes on paving tiles, bells, and in Gothic
stone and wood-carving. It may be seen, for
example, in a boss at Exeter Cathedral. In
Winchester Cathedral the mermaid holds the
accustomed comb, while her companion merman
grasps a captured fish. In Lyons Cathedral a
mermaid, or we may perhaps more justly say a
mer-matron, nurses a mer-baby. A mermaid will
be found carved on one of the misereres of
Henry VII. 's chapel. Another may be seen at
Exeter Cathedral, and a very good one again
on a bench end at Sherringham church.* It is
also well known as a tavern sign, and the first
literary club ever founded in England, including
amongst its members Shakespeare, Ben Jonson,
Beaumont, Fletcher, Selden and Carew, was
established in 1603 at the Mermaid in Bread
Street, Cheapside.

Scoresby in his account of the arctic regions
says that the head of the young walrus is very
human in appearance ; the creature has a way too
of rearing itself well out of water to gaze at
ships and other objects in a way that proves very
suggestive of the mermaid idea. " I have myself,"

* See some good figures, too, in the " Book of Emblems "
of Alciatus, 1551.

A Mermaid Story. 85

he remarks, " seen one in such a position and
under such circumstances, that it required very
little stretch of imagination to mistake it for a
human being. So like, indeed, was it, that the
surgeon of the ship actually reported to me his
having seen a man with his head just appearing
above the water." It is probable that the various
species of seals, too, are responsible for many
of the mermaid and triton stories, as at a little
distance, and amidst the spray dashing over the
rocks, they are very human - looking — at all
events, perhaps sufficiently so to satisfy the cre-
dulity of those whose superstition made them
susceptible to such ideas. On the other hand, a
whaler or other old salt who has seen thousands
of seals should scarcely be imposed upon in this
way under any possible circumstances. Let us
turn, however, to some of the experiences of those
who profess to have seen the real thing in the way
of mermaids, and see what they can tell us.

Hudson, the great navigator, whose narrative
is strikingly free from any touch of imagination,
and may in fact almost without fear of libel be
called dry and tedious, tells us, in the following
words, of a curious incident that happened to
them while forcing a passage through the ice
near Xova Zembla : u This morning one of our
company, looking overboard, saw a mermaid, and
calling up some of the company to see her, one
more came up, and by that time she was come
close to the ship's side, looking earnestly on the
men. A little while after a sea came and over-
turned her. From the navel upward her back

86 Natural History Lore and Legend.

and breast were like a woman's, as they say that
saw her ; her body as big as one of ours ; her
skin very white, and long hair hanging down
behind, of colour black. In her going down they
saw her tail, which was like the tail of a porpoise,
and speckled like a mackerel. Their names
that saw her were Thomas Hilles and Robert
Rayney." " Whatever explanation," says Gosse,
in commenting on this story of the old
voyager in his " Romance of Natural History,"
" may be attempted of this apparition, the ordi-
nary resource of seal and walrus will not avail
here. Seals and walruses must have been as
familiar to these polar mariners as cows to a
milkmaid. Unless the whole story was a con-
cocted lie between the two men, reasonless and
objectless, and the worthy old navigator doubtless
knew the character of his men, they must have
seen some form of being as yet unrecognized."

In the " Speculum Regale," an Icelandic work
of the twelfth century, we read of a creature
that was to be found off the shores of Greenland
— " like a woman as far down as her waist, long
hands, and soft hair, the neck and head in all
respects like those of a human being. The
hands seem to be long, and the fingers not
to be pointed, but united into a web like that
on the feet of water birds. From the waist
downwards this monster resembles a fish, with
scales, tail, and fins. This shows itself, especially
before heavy storms. The habit of this creature
is to dive frequently and rise again to the surface
with fishes in its hands. When sailors see it

Mermaids and Mariners. 87

playing with the fish, or throwing them towards
the ship, they fear that they are doomed to lose
several of the crew ; but when it casts the fish
from the vessel, then the sailors take it as a good
omen that they will not suffer loss in the im-
pending storm. This monster has a very horrible
face, with broad brow and piercing eyes, a wide
mouth and double chin." This is clearly a crea-
ture to be dreaded : we may, in fact, lay down the
broad principle that the attractive and fascinating
mermaid is the creation of the landsman and poet,
while the sterner type is that of the mariner.

Pontoppidan, in his " Natural History of Nor-
way," has his mermaid story, but it is too long to
quote, and it is, moreover, needless to do so, as
all these narratives follow much the same general
lines. Captain John Snith, too, in his account
of his expedition to America in 1614, has a
similar experience to relate, and many narratives
of like tenour might be found in various old
writers, but we will now turn to one or two that
not merely describe a mermaid and merman
seen, but the creature actually captured.

The following news item, from the Scots
Magazine for the year 1739, refers to a creature
less piscine than the typical form, but coming
sufficiently near it for inclusion. " They write
from Vigo, in Spain, that some fishermen
lately took on that coast a sort of monster,
or merman, five feet and a half long from
its foot to its head, which is like that of a
goat. It has a long beard and moustachios, and
black skin somewhat hairy, a very long neck,

88 Natural History Lore and Legend.

short arms, and hands longer than they ought to
be in proportion to the rest of the body : long
fingers like those of a man, with nails like claws ;
very long toes, joined like the feet of a duck,
and the heels furnished with fins resembling
the winged feet with which painters represent
Mercury." We get considerably nearer the
ideal in the seven mermaids that were said to
be entrapped by some fishermen in their nets
off Ceylon in the year 1560. Of these, several
Jesuits, and the physician to the Viceroy of Goa,
professed to be eye-witnesses, and the latter having
dissected them with great care asserts that both
the internal and external structure resembled
that of human beings. Of the piscine moiety he
appears to make no mention.

In the "Speculum Mundi" we have a very
circumstantial account indeed of a mermaid who
drifted inland through a broken dyke on the
Dutch coast during a heavy storm, " and floating
up and down and not finding a passage out againe
(by reason that the breach was stopped after the
flood), was espied by certain women and their
servants as they went to milke their kine in the
neighbouring pastures, who at the first were
afraide of her, but seeing her often, they resolved
to take her, which they did, and bringing her
home, she suffered herself to be clothed and
fed with bread and milk and other meats, and
would often strive to steal again into the sea,
but being carefully watched, she could not :
moreover, she learned to spinne and perform
other pettie offices of women, but at the first

Mermaid Veal. 89

they cleansed her of her sea-mosse, which did
sticke about her. She never spake, but lived
dumbe, and continued alive fifteene yeares ; then
she died. They tooke her in the yeare of our
Lord, 1403." One can scarcely wonder at the
poor sea-maid endeavouring to escape ; the
scraping down to get off the seaweed and
barnacles prior to the introduction to the rough
dress of a Dutch peasant and the homely lessons in
spinning, bread-making, and other domestic cares,
were a sad contrast to the life of wild freedom
of yore amidst the rolling billows of the wild
North Sea. We read, too, that she was taught
to kneel before a crucifix — a task in itself, we
should imagine, of considerable difficulty to a
mermaid. When we read in another old author
that "in the island Mauritius they eat of the
mermaid, its taste is not unlike veal," the last
vestige of the poetry of the belief vanishes, while
the added detail that "when they are first taken
they cry and grieve with great sensibility" seems
to bring the indulgence in such diet almost to
cannibalism.

From veal to the " maiden clothed alone in
loveliness," of whom the poet sings, is a contrast
indeed, and even the scraped mermaid turned
Dutch vrouw is a very different creature to her
whose —

" Golden hair fell o'er her shoulders white
And curled in amorous ringlets round her breasts ;
Her eyes were melting into love, her lips
Had made the very roses envious -,
Withal a voice so full and yet so clear,
So tender, made for loving dialoges.

90 Natural History Lore and Legend.

And then she sang — sang of undying love
That waited them within her coral groves
Beneath the deep blue sea, and all the bliss
That mortals made immortal could enjoy,
Who lived with her in sweet community."

In an advertisement in the London Daily
Post, of January 23rd, 1738, we read that there
is " To be Seen, next door to the Crown Tavern
in Threadneedle Street, behind the Royal
Exchange, at One Shilling each, the Surprising
Fish or Maremaid, taken by eight Fishermen on
Friday the 9th of September last, at Topsham
Bar, near Exeter, and has been shewn to several
Gentlemen, and those of the Faculty, in the
Cities of Exeter, Bath, and Bristol, who declare
never to have seen the like, so remarkable is
this Curiosity amongst the Wonders of Creation.
This uncommon Species of Nature represents
from the Collarbone down the Body what the
Antients called a Maremaid, has a Wing to each
Shoulder like those of a Cherubim mentioned in
History, with regular Ribs, Breasts, Thighs, and
Feet, the Joints thereto having their proper
Motions, and to each Thigh a Fin ; the Tail
resembles a Dolphin's, which turns up to the
Shoulders, the forepart of the Body very smooth,
but the skin of the Back rough ; the back part
of the Head like a Lyon, has a large Mouth,
sharp Teeth, two Eyes, Spout holes, Nostrils,
and a thick Neck." This we may not uncharit-
ably assume was less a mermaid than a swindle.
While the advertisement tells us that the
creature in question has been seen by several of

Mermaid 'Man itfacture. 9 1

the faculty, it does not tell us what the faculty
said when they saw it ! This is a very serious
omission. This "Maremaid" does not altogether
conform to the accepted type, feet, spout-holes,
and cherubic wings being all abnormal develop-
ments.

There are, of course, at all times plenty of
skilful knaves and unprincipled adventurers
ready in divers ways to take advantage of the
credulity of the public, and a belief in many
absurdities has been maintained by the apparent
evidence which the conniving of such persons has
from time to time furnished. To say nothing of
the impostures constantly practised at fairs and
by travelling show-people, it was announced in
the earlier days of the century that a party had
arrived from abroad \vith a mermaid, and that it
was to be exhibited in one of the leading streets
in the West End of London. A good round fee
was demanded for admission, and the dupes
were shown a strange-looking object in a glass
case, which was unblushingly declared to be a
mermaid. But the imposture was too gross to
last long ; it was ascertained to be the dried
skin of the head and shoulders of a monkey
attached to the skin of a fish of the salmon kind,
with the head cut off, the whole being stuffed
and highly varnished. This grotesque object
was taken by a Dutch vessel from on board a
native Malacca boat, and from the reverence
shown it by the sailors it was probably an idol
or fetish, the incarnation of some river-god of
their mythology. Repulsive as the creature was,
we have an illustration of it before us in a

92 Natural History Lore and Legend.

newspaper of the year 1836. It achieved a great
popularity, and the profits that accrued from
the exhibition were, for some time, considerable,
but the owners presently quarrelled amongst
themselves, and the unpoetic ending of this
monkey mermaiden was that she became the
subject of a suit in Chancery. When one
remembers the success that Barnum achieved
amongst the credulous in very much more recent
times with a stuffed mermaid, we can only feel
that Carlyle was right in his liberal percentage of
fools, and though in this case it wras the cute
Yankee and not the unsuspecting Britisher that
succumbed, the truth of Southey's assertion that
a man is a dupeable animal " holds equally good,
and is of far-reaching application.

The " Pseudodoxia Epidemica, or Enquiries
into very many received Tenents and commonly
Presumed Truths, by Thomas Browne, Doctor of
Physick," is a book far in advance of its time, and
very interesting in showing \vhat extraordinary
beliefs were held at the time it wras written.
The copy open before us is the second edition, and
is dated 1650. Some of the ideas combatted are
" that Crystall is nothing else but Ice strongly
congealed ; the legend of the Wandering Je\v ;
that a diamond is made soft by the blood of a
goat ; that an elephant hath no joynts ; that a
salamander lives in the fire ; that storks will
only live in republics." To these fancies many
others might be added, and some fewr of them that
deal w7ith the animal kingdom we shall have occa-
sion to touch upon in the course of our book.

We naturally turn to Browne's remarks upon

Browne on the Subject of Mermaids. 93

mermaids, but we scarcely gather from them
any definite idea as to his belief in the matter.
Before quoting his remarks we must premise
that his style of composition is somewhat stilted
and pedantic. u Few eyes," saith he, "have
escaped the Picture of Mermaids ; that is,
according to Horace, his monster, with \voman's
head above and fishing extremity below ; and
this is conceived to answer the shape of the
ancient Syrens that attempted upon Ulysses.
Which notwithstanding were of another de-
scription, containing no fishy composure, but
made up of Man and Bird ; the human mediety
being variously placed not only above but also
below. These pieces so common among us doe
rather derive their original!, and are indeed the
very description of Dagon ; which was made
with humane figure above and fishy shape below,
of the shape of Atergates or Derceto with
the Phoenicians, in whose fishy and feminine
mixture as some conceive, were implied the Moon
and the Sun, or the Deity of the waters, from
whence were probably occasioned the pictures of
Nereides and Tritons among the Grecians."^

* A writer in the Gentleman s Magazine, in the year i//r,
says of Browne's book on " Vulgar Errors," " Of all the books
recommended to our youth after their academical studies, I do
not know a better than this of Sir Thomas's to excite their
curiosity, to put them upon thinking and inquiring, and
to guard them against taking anything upon trust from
opinion and authority. His language has, indeed, a little air of
affectation which is apt to disgust young persons, and it would
be doing a very great service to that class if some gentlemen of
learning would take the pains to smooth and adapt it a little

94 Natural History Lore and Legend.

Browne had the wisdom at a period when
immense faith was attached to tradition to in-
vestigate matters for himself whenever it was
possible, and the courage to declare the result
whether it fell in with the statements of previous
authorities or not. Thus he tells us that " the
Antipathy between a Toad and a Spider — and
that they poisonously destroy each other — is
very famous, and Solemne Stories have been
written of their combats, wherin most com-
monly the Victory is given unto the Spider."
This definite statement of antipathy would appear
to be an assertion very capable of proof or
disproof, but it never seems to have occurred to
the philosophers to bring the matter to test, it
being so much simpler to copy throughout the
centuries from each other.* " But what we have
observed herein," quoth Browne, " we cannot in
reason conceale ; who having in a glasse included
a Toad with severall Spiders, we beheld the
Spiders without resistance to sit upon his head
and passe over all his body, which at last upon
advantage he swallowed down, and that in a few

more to modern ears," — a comment which we do not at all
endorse, as the individual style of the old writer has a quaint
charm of its own.

* " There is scarce any tradition or popular error but stands
also delivered by some good authors, who though excellent and
useful 1, yet being merely transcriptive, or following common
relations, their accounts are not to be swallowed at large, or
entertained without a prudent circumspection. In whome the
ipse dliit, though it be no powerfull argument in any, is yet
lesse authentick than in many others, because they deliver not
their own experiences, but others' affirmations." — Browne.

Browne on Ancient Writers. 95

houres unto the number of seven." Thus in ten
minutes of practical observation collapsed a
legend that had held its ground for over a
thousand years.

Such results gave him full right to speak out,
and he analyses the works of the ancients very
freely, yet withal very justly and temperately.
Thus he terms Dioscorides " an Author of good
Antiquity, preferred by Galen before all that
attempted the like before him : yet all he
delivered therin is not to be conceived
oraculous." Concerning ^Elianus he tells us
that he was " an elegant Author, he hath left
two books which are in the hands of every one—
his ( History of Animals ' and his ' Varia Historia,'
wherein are contained many things suspicious,
not a few false, some impossible.'' Of Pliny
himself, the great holdfast and sheet-anchor of
all previous writers on natural history, he writes :
UA man of great elegance and industry in-
defatigable, as may appear by his writings, which
are never like to perish, not even with learning
itself. Now what is very strange, there is scarce
a popular error passant in our daies which is not
either directly expressed or diductively contained
in his ' Natural History/ which being in the
hands of most men, hath proved a powerful
occasion of their propagation.'' The labours of
Browne should ever be held in great esteem, as
he had the true scientific spirit, and, regardless
of all minor considerations, sought eagerly for
the truth.

In fig. 7 we have a representation of the

96 Natural History Lore and Legend.

Cannes of the Chaldeans, the Philistine Dagon,*
the fish On, as shown on one of the slabs from
the Palace of Khorsabad. While one may
readilv admit that the mediaeval mermaid is a

FIG.

direct descendant from the tritons and sea-
nymphs of classic mythology and fancy, and that
these in turn may have descended from the yet
older civilizations and creeds of Egypt and
Assyria, we can hardly ascribe any close associa-

* " Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward man, and down-
ward, fish." — Milton.

Solar and Lunar Deities. 97

tion between the Chaldean Cannes and the
popular notion as to mermaids. The former is
divine, and is necessarily but one, while the
latter claim no divinity and no individuality,
but are both numerous and nameless. The
work of Oannes was moreover wholly bene-
ficent ; he taught men the arts of life — to
construct cities, to found temples, to compile
laws. He was a solar deity equivalent to Osiris
and Apollo, bringing light and life to all. He
was fabled to visit earth each morning, and at
evening to plunge into the sea ; a poetic descrip-
tion of the rising and setting of the sun. Hence
his semi-piscine form was an expression of the
belief that half his time wras spent on earth
and half below the waves. Hence, too, the
moon-goddess, Derceto, that Browne refers to as
at times manifesting herself to the eyes of men,
at times plunged beneath the waves, was repre-
sented as half-woman, half-fish, and may be thus
still seen on the coins of Ascalon. The kindly
influence of solar and lunar deities — in other
words, the beneficent influence of Nature and of
the times and seasons — on the works of men is
an altogether nobler idea than belief in classic
syren or mediaeval Lorelei, who charm but to
destroy.

Fig. 8 is a curious variant from the accepted
notion of a mermaid. We have extracted it
from one of the maps in Munster's Cosmography.
It is placed where in more modern charts
Australia would be found, south of the islands
of "laua" and " Porne," names which the dis-

7

98 Natural History Lore and Legend.

crimination of our readers, who are at all
accustomed to the transposition and substitution
of letters in these old records, will no doubt
readily resolve into Java and Borneo. One can
easily 'imagine that the double tail, like the twin
screws of an ironclad or ocean liner, might be of
great assistance in steering, though some few
millions of the lowlier inhabitants of the deep

have nevertheless for ages got along very fairly
without this special development.*

We are told in mediaeval story that a young
man wandering along the rocky beach suddenly
encountered a mermaid and seized her before
she was able to reach the water. Her personal
charms so worked upon his ardent temperament
that he then and there proposed matrimony, and
his suit was successful. Would that we could

* A very similar figure may be seen amongst the designs of
the mosaic pavements at the Roman villa discovered at Brading.

Mermaids and Matrimony. 99

conclude in true story-book style, and declare
that they lived happy ever after ! After years of
wedded bliss, a great longing came over her to
see her own people once more, and, on the
distinct understanding that the parting was to be
a very short one, she embraced her husband and
children and plunged into the sea and never
reappeared, it being charitably assumed by those
responsible for the story that the waters, like
those of Lethe, washed away all remembrance of
the past, and buried in oblivion the years she
had spent so happily on earth.

The power that this story and the next one
we propose to tell presupposes — the power of
being able to change one's nature — is respon-
sible for some of the most terrible beliefs,
notably those where men and women were
changed into animals, such as dragons or the
wehr-wolf. In the following story, though the
outcome was lamentable, the weird horror of so
many of these tales is absent. Like the previous
story, it deals with the tender passion, and the
ardent lover and the charming damsel reappear
on our page. The lady, before acceding to the
wishes of her suitor, stipulated that she should
have, without question, the whole of every
Saturday to herself, and the request was acceded
to and honourably observed for some years. At
last one day, stung by the remarks of some
mischief-makers, he intruded upon his wife's
privacy, and found her in mermaid form disport-
ing herself in her bath. She gave one piercing
shriek, and then vanished for ever. In fig. 9

ioo Natural History Lore and Legend.

we see in the foreground the astonished husband,
and to the left of the picture the meddlesome
neighbour riding off, while, with the quaint naivete

The Terror of Lycanthropy. 101

of Gothic art, all that intervenes between us and
the chamber of mystery is removed, and there is
unmistakable evidence that the fatal and final
Saturday, after years of wedded bliss, has dawned.
The tempting peep-hole that facilitated the
tragedy will be seen by the side of the man's
head, and it speaks well for the honourable
feeling of the promise-giver that so easy a means
of clearing up the weekly mystery was for years
unused. It is difficult now to realize that such a
story could ever be seriously believed, and that
the possibility of some such incident might befall
oneself, or occur, quite as a matter of course, in
the circle of one's friends.

The terrible belief in lycanthropy, the trans-
mutation of men into wolves, was one of the
most widely spread of the weird fancies of the
Middle Ages. The idea of the changing of
men into various animals is a very ancient one.
Herodotus tells us that the Scythians affirm that
the whole nation of the Neuri change them-
selves once a year into wolves, and our readers
will readily recall the transformation of the
companions of Ulysses into swine, of Actaeon
into a stag, and divers other gruesome stories
of like nature. Ovid, for example, in the
:< Metamorphoses " tells how Zeus visited
Lykaon, the King of Arcadia, and how the
king placed a dish of roasted human flesh before
his guest to test his omniscience. The daring
experiment was promptly detected, and the
monarch as a punishment was changed into a
wolf by the offended deity in order that hence-

IO2 Natural History Lore and Legend.

forth he should himself feed on the flesh he had
so impiously offered.

" In vain he attempted to speak ; from that very instant
His jaws were bespluttered with foam, and only he thirsted
For blood, as he ranged amongst flocks and panted for

slaughter.

His vesture was changed into hair, his limbs became crooked,
A wolf — he retains yet large trace of his ancient expression,
Hoary he is as afore, his countenance rabid,
His eyes glitter savagely still, the picture of fury." *

Euanthes, an early Greek writer, tells a very
circumstantial story indeed of a certain tribe
where one of its members must each year be
chosen by lot to become a wolf. Why this
should be at all necessary he does not stop to
explain. The conditions are very precise. The
day and the man having been selected he is
taken to the border of a large lake, and his
clothes removed, and hung upon an oak tree.
He then swims across the lake and disappears
into the gloomy woods that come down on the
further side to the water's edge, and then and
there changes into a wolf. Should he forbear
for nine years to eat the flesh of man he may
return to the lake and recross it, changing back,
as he lands, into his manhood again, and only
differing from his former self in the fact that he
will look nine years older. Should he, on the

* Agriopas tells a gruesome story of a man who, at the
sacrifice of a human being to the gods, surreptitiously tasted a
piece of the flesh and was turned into a wolf. Whether as a
punishment for his cannibalism, or because by abstracting a
portion of the victim he was sacrilegiously robbing the altar, we
are not informed.

Vulpine and Human Natures in Combination. 103

general principle of doing at Rome as the Romans
do, share with his vulpine companions in any
feast of human flesh, a wolf he must remain to
the end of his day§y As very probably, however,
he would find amongst his comrades some few
who, like himself, were human beings under-
going this temporary metamorphosis, he would
be encouraged to persevere in this restriction of
his diet by their example and encouragement,
and also escape the painful singularity that his
genuinely wolf associates would very possibly
resent.

One Fabius, having an inquiring mind and
fired with curiosity as to why the man should
carefully suspend his clothes in an oak tree, is
able to add as the result of his inquiries, that
those are the clothes that the man resumes when
he emerges from the lake. Whether they had
been miraculously preserved or whether they
had undergone such deterioration as would
otherwise arise from their suspension in a tree
exposed to all weathers for nine years he
does not inform us. The point is a distinctly
interesting one, and especially to the man
reclaiming his wardrobe.

One great feature of terror in the belief in
lycanthropy and such like metamorphosis is
that the man still retains his human reason,
memory, and knowledge of himself and his
surroundings, and is, in addition, imbued with
the fierce animal instincts of the ravenous brute
into which he has been transformed.

The wrolf is the prominent animal in the

IO4 Natural History Lore and Legend.

history of this belief in Europe, since in this
part of the world it was the creature that
caused the greatest devastation, but in India
the transformation is to the tiger or the serpent,
in South America to the jaguar, in Africa to the
lion, the leopard, or the hyaena. In some cases
this change would appear to be a terrible punish-
ment for wrong done, in others a transformation
at pleasure by wicked men seeking in the new
guise to inflict terror, loss, and death. Amongst
some peoples it was believed that brave and noble
men became lions and eagles, while mean and
treacherous ones changed to snakes, jackals, or
hyaenas. The belief in one form or another re-
appears in endless fables in circulation amongst
the natives of almost every country the wide
world over.

Insanity, monomania, bodily disease, hydro-
phobia, are doubtless responsible for much in
this matter. In many cases, we can scarcely
doubt, the people charged with being wehr-
wolves were entirely innocent of offence, the
charge, like that of witchcraft, being brought
against them by those who either in blind terror
and supc "stition or some motive of craft or greed
were de; i. ous to get them removed out of the way.
In some cases fierce lunatics, not as now confined
in asylums, but roaming the country at large,
in homicidal mania destroyed human life and
became invested in the eyes of men with strange
and terrible powers. Often, too, the reputed
wehr-wolves under pressure of torture would in
their agony confess to anything their tormentors

Epidemic of Lycanthropy. 105

suggested, simply as a means of obtaining some
temporary respite for their sufferings, or in the
ravings of delirium utter things that superstition
could readily distort into admission and con-
fession. We must remember, too, that many of
the most horrible stories are narrated by writers
whose veracity is by no means on a par with
their credulity, and while their statements, out-
rageous as they are, were no doubt in most cases
honestly intended, the reader must by no means
suspend the right of private judgment.

It is historic fact that in the year 1600
multitudes of men were seized with the hallu-
cination that they were changed into wolves,
and retreating into caves and dark recesses of
the forests, issued thence howling and foaming
in mad lust of blood.* Many helpless men,
women, and children were destroyed by them
during this frightful epidemic, and many hun-
dreds of those possessed were executed on
their own confession or on the testimony of the
panic-stricken.

" In those that are possess'd with't there o'erflows
Such melancholy humour they imagine
Themselves to be transform'd into woolves ;
Steale forth to churchyards in the dead of night,

* Such hallucinations are often very contagious. A nun in
a large convent got the idea into her head that she was a cat,
and began to mew. Shortly afterwards other nuns also mewed,
until at last the great majority of them were mewing for hours
at a time. The matter got to the ears of the town authorities,
and on the removal of the monomaniac and the promise of a
good whipping to anyone who mewed again, the concert at
once died out.

io6 Natural History Lore and Legend.

And dig dead bodies up ; as, two nights since
One met the Duke 'bout midnight, in a lane
Behind St. Markes Church, with the leg of a man
Upon his shoulder; and he howl'd fearfully j
Said he was a woolfe; only the difference
Was, a woolfes skinne is hairy on the outside,
His on the inside, bade them take their swords,
Rip up his flesh and try. Straight I was sent for ;
And, having ministered unto him, found his Grace
Very well recover 'd."

Some commentators have held that Nebuchad-
nezzar, when driven from the presence of man
was suffering from a like form of madness, an
fancying himself to be a beast.
/xit was a common belief in ancient times that
the wehr-wolf simply effected the change from
man to beast by turning his skin inside out,
hence he was sometimes called Versipellis, a
term equivalent to skin-turner. In mediaeval
days it was thought that the wolfs skin was
beneath the human, and any unfortunate indi-
vidual who was suspected of lycanthropy was
very likely to find himself being hacked at by
seekers after truth in search of this inner hairy
covering^/

Olaus Magnus,* in the early part of the six-
teenth century, tells us a story of a nobleman
and his retinue who lost their way in journeying

* " There is a book, De Mirabilibus narrationibus, written by
Antigonus, another also of the same title by Trallianus, which
make good the promise of their titles, and may be read with
caution, which if any man shall likewise observe in the Lecture
of Philostratus, or not only in ancient Writers but shall carry a
wary eye on Paulus Venetus, Olaus Magnus, and many another,
I think his circumspection laudable, and he may hereby decline
occasion of Error." — Browne.

\

The Doctrine of Metempsychosis. 107

through a wild forest and presently found them-
selves hopelessly foodless and shelterless. In
the urgency of their need, one of his servants
disclosed to him in confidence that he had the
power of turning himself at will into a wolf, and
doubted not but that, if his master would kindly
excuse him awhile, he would be able to find the
party some provision. Permission being given,
the man disappeared into the forest under
semblance of a wolf, and very quickly returned
with a lamb in his mouth, and then, having
fulfilled his mission, resumed his human shape.
The forest would provide unlimited fuel, while
their knives would supply the cutlery. Some
member of the party, it is to be hoped, had
a tinder-box, or the repast after all would have
to consist of cold raw lamb. As hunger is
proverbially said to be the best sauce, the
absence of mint would be of little moment at
this vulpine banquet.

The belief in man's power thus to change his
form and nature is obviously derived from the
widely-spread doctrine of metempsychosis, the
passing of the soul after the human life is ended
into an animal, or a series of animals. This
change is ordinarily in harmony with the
character of the deceased, the timid nervous
folk reappearing on earth as hares and such-like
creatures, the gluttonous as swine or vultures and
other foul-feeders. Thus the soul, the eternal
principle, in the words of the poet :

" Fills with fresh energy another form,
And towers an elephant or glides a worm

io8 Natural History Lore and Legend.

Swims as an eagle in the eye of noon

Or wails a screech-owl to the deaf cold moon,

Or haunts the brakes where serpents hiss and glare,

Or hums, a glittering insect, in the air."

John of Nuremberg relates, in his book " De
Miraculis," how a man, lost at night in a strange
country, directed his steps towards a fire that he
saw before him. On reaching it he found a wolf
sitting enjoying its warmth, and was informed b]
him that he was really as human as himself, but
that he was compelled for a certain number o1
years, like all his countrymen, to assume the
shape of a wolf. A strange country, indeed,
where wolves when the evenings grow chilly
light a fire, and in the comfort of its ruddy glow
are found quite ready to entertain the passing
traveller with their conversation.

In the year 1 573 one Gamier, a native of Lyons,
who had led a very secluded life, excited the sus-
picions of his neighbours, and was dragged before
the tribunals on the charge of being a loiip-garou,
the French equivalent term for wehr-wolf. It was
affirmed that he prowled about at night and in
vulpine form devoured infants. He was arrested,
and put to the torture, confessed everything that
was charged against him, and was burnt at the
stake. It was no joke in mediaeval days to be a
little retiring in disposition : the worst construc-
tion was put upon it, and one's neighbours, at
short notice, were able to report having seen a
black cat about the place, or some equally con-
vincing proof of evil possession, and from thence
it was a short passage to the river or the fire.

The Belief in Enchantment. 109

Within a few years afterwards a man named
Roulet was tried at Angers on the charge of
having slain and partially devoured a boy.
Evidence was given that he was seen in wolf
form tearing the body, and on being pursued, he
took refuge in a thicket. Here he was sur-
rounded and captured, but when caught he had
resumed the human form. He was condemned
to death, but the sentence was afterwards
changed to life-long confinement.

In Auvergne in 1588, a nobleman, in returning
from the chase, was stopped by a stranger, who
told him that he had been furiously attacked by
a savage wolf, but had been fortunate enough to
save himself by slashing off one of its fore-paws.
This he produced as a trophy, when, to the
astonishment of both, it was found to have
become the delicate hand of a lady. The noble
felt so sure that he recognized a ring upon it,
that he hurried to the castle, and there found
his wife sitting with her arm tied up, and on
removing the wrappers the hand was missing.
She had to stand her trial as a loup-garon, and
being convicted, perished at the stake. Stories of
the type of those given might readily be multi-
plied indefinitely.

A belief in enchantment introduced a new
complication. Things we are taught are not
always what they seem, and certainly in the
writings of the Middle Ages we find many
illustrations of the truth of this adage, since the
pages of those authors abound with examples
of the transformation of men and women into

no Natural History Lore and Legend.

various uncanny creatures by mystic spells.
The story of Beauty and the Beast is a sur-
vival of these. Sir John Maundevile, to give
but one illustration, tells us, in his very wonderful
travels, of a dragon that was to be seen in the
island of Cos, a creature which the people
of the island called the Lady of the Land,
being in fact " the Doughtre of Ypocras
in forme and lykenesse of a gret Dragoun,
that is an hundred Fadme of lengthe. Sche
lyethe in an old Castelle, in a Cave, and
schewethe twyse or thryes in the yeer. Sche
was thus chaunged and transformed from a fayre
Damysele in to lykenesse of a Dragoun be a
Goddesse that was clept Deane." This Deane
our readers may perhaps scarcely recognize as
Diana. How it was that Damysele and Deane
had between them brought about such a state of
things the history does not tell us. Centuries
after Deane was an exploded myth we find this
evidence of a bygone feud still in existence,
testifying to the virulence of the goddess's
temper and the power of enchantment. "Men
seyn that sche schalle so endure in that forme of
a Dragoun unto the tyme that a Knyghte come
that is so hardy that dare come to hir and kisse
hir on the mouthe, and then schalle sche turne
agen to hire owne Kynde and ben a Woman
agen. It is not long sith then that a Knyghte
of Rodes that was hardy and doughtie in Armes
seyde that he wolde kyssen hire, and whan he
entred into the Cave the Dragoun lifte up hire
Had agenst him, and whan the Knyghte saw

The Enchanted Lady. 1 1 1

hire in that Forme so hidous and so horrible he
fleyghe awey." The dragon-maiden naturally
resented this slight upon her charms, and pursued
and killed him. Presently, a young man who
knew nothing of all this, for tl he wente out of a
Schippe " and was a stranger in those parts,
came to the cave, and there found a charming
" Damysele that Kembed hire Hede and lokede
in a Myrour." She asked him if he were a
knight, and when he answered her that he was
but a poor mariner, she told him to go and get
knighted, and come again on the morrow, " and
kysse hir on the Mouthe and have no Drede,
for I schalle do the no maner harm, alle beit
that thou see me in Lykenesse of a Dragoun."
She went on to assure him that she was the
victim of enchantment, and that if he would free
her from this he should be her lord, and have
in addition much treasure. How his " Felowes
in the Schippe J; \vere able to dub him knight
does not appear ; but he, at all events, presented
himself on the morrow "for to kysse this
Damysele." But his nerve failed him at the
critical moment, for "whan he saughe hir comen
out of the Cave so hidouse and so horrible, he
hadde so gret dred that he flyhte agen to
the Schippe," For anything we learn to the
contrary, the charm was never broken, for all
that Maundevile can tell us more is that " whan
a Knyghte comethe that is so hardy as to kysse
hir he schalle not dye, but he schalle turne the
Damysele in to hir righte Forme and Kyndely
Schapp, and he schal be Lord of alle the

112 Natural History Lore and Legend.

Contreye and Isles." In our illustration, fig. 10,
we see the newly-made knight making his way
back again to his vessel with all convenient
speed, his courage having entirely failed him at
the critical moment.

A belief in witches, fairies, and divers other
uncanny folk was a strong article of faith with

FIG. JO.

our ancestors, but to go at any just length into
these points would lead us further afield than
our title would perhaps justify. As we have
already referred to the suspicion that attached
itself to anyone who led a life somewhat outside
the ordinary groove, we append an excellent

The Discoverie of Witchcraft. 113

illustrative passage from Spenser's " Faerie
Queene," as it admirably conveys the popular
idea. There in a gloomy hollow glen she
found : —

"A little cottage built of sticks and reedes
In homely wise, and walled with sod around,
In which a Witch did dwell, in loathly weedes
And wilful want, all careless of her needes ;
So choosing solitarie to abide
Far from all neighbours, that her devilish deedes
And hellish arts from people she might hide,
And hurt far off unknowne whom ever she divide."

Those who care to look the subject up may
turn to Reginald Scot's " Discoverie of Witch-
craft," " wherein the lewde dealing of Witches
and Witchmongers is notablie detected, the
knauerie of coniurors, the Curiositie of figure-
casters, and many other things are opened which
have long lien hidden;"* or perhaps, better still,
to the book entitled "Saducismus Triumphatus,
or full and plain Evidence concerning Witches
and Apparitions, proving partly by Holy Scrip-
ture, partly by a choice Collection of modern
Relations, the Real Existence of Apparitions,
Spirits and Witches, by Jos. Glanvil, late Chap-
lain to His Majesty, and Fellow of the Royal
Society." The copy before us is dated 1658,
and is full of tales of familiar spirits in the forms
of toads, rabbits, hares, dogs, £c., diver incanta-
tions to provoke evil or to shield from it, and the
like, all gravely narrated. The author, in fact,
holds it rank atheism to doubt such tales, since

* The first edition of Scot's book was published in the
year 1584.

8

114 Natural History Lore and Legend.

witches are moved by evil spirits, and if people
do not believe in one they do not in the other,
and therefore not in spirits at all, and therefore
not in God !

In the days of our forefathers the ideas held
were of a very primitive and unscientific charac-
ter, and what knowledge there was was largely
mixed up with mysticism, gross superstition,
rank credulity, sheer guesswork. The common
people saw in everything outside their common
experience some grave portent, some prophecy
of coming evil, and filled the forest glades, the
wild moorland, the dark recesses of the mine,
the air, the waters, with strange forms of life,
sometimes in sympathy with mankind, but more
frequently hostile. We may, on the whole, be
very thankful that our lot was not cast in the
" good old times."

CHAPTER III.

THE lion, king of beasts — Unbelievers in him — Aldrovandus on
the lion — The lion of the heralds — The " Blazon of Gentrie "
— Guillim as an authority — The lion's medicine — The
lion's antipathies — Why some lions are maneless — De
Thaun's symbolic lion — Lion's cubs born dead — The theory
of Creation held during the Middle Ages — Degenerate
lions of Barbary — The Leontophonos — Hostility between
lion and unicorn — Literary references to the unicorn —
Martin's " Philosophical Grammar " — How to capture the
unicorn — The value of the horn — The elephant — The capture
thereof — Feud between elephantand dragon — Use of elephant
in war — Performingelephants — Moon-worshippers — Know-
ledge of the value of their tusks — The first elephant seen
in England — Sagacity of the elephant — Kindliness to lost
travellers — Ethiopian huntresses — Difference between the
creations of Fancy and of Nature — Elephants cold-blooded
• — Hippopotamus prescribing himself blood-letting — The
river-horse of Minister — The panther — Powers of fascina-
tion— Beauty of coat — Fragrance — Red panthers of Cathay
— Aromatic spices as diet — Antipathies between various
animals — Antipathetic medicines — Porta's " Natural
Magick " — The hyaena — Counterfeiting human speech —
The wolf — Producing speechlessness — The dragon's
parentage — Enmity between wolf and sheep — Value of
wolf-skin garments — The stag-wolf — The bear — Licking
cubs into shape — Bees and honey — The hare — Cruelty of
many mediaeval remedies — The hedgehog — The deer —
Stories with morals — The boar — Swine-stone — The
ermine — The goat — The malevolent shrew-mouse — The
horse — Why oxen should drink before horses — The
donkey — The sparrow's aversion — The dog — The cat —
Rats and mice.

Having in the preceding chapters dealt with
some few of the abnormal forms of humanity,
we propose now to give some little consideration
to the ideas that have clustered round various

8 *'

n6 Natural History Lore and Legend.

animals, dealing first with the beasts, the royal
lion, the elephant, and various others ; then
passing through the various stages of birds,
fishes, and reptiles, to the conclusion of our
labours.

The lion claims our first regard, since he
has, by the naturalists, poets, moralists, fable-
writers, been unanimously crowned the King
of Beasts, and has been duly accredited with
every royal virtue, such as magnanimity, courage,
generosity ; while in art he has always taken
the same exalted position, crowning the gates of
Mycenae, flanking the entrances of the palaces of
Nineveh, enhancing the dignity of the Pharaohs,
guarding the steps of the throne of Solomon,
typifying in the lion of Lucerne undaunted
bravery, and around the column of Nelson in
Trafalgar Square, or on the Royal Standard of
England, symbolising all that Britons associate
with the grandeur and might of their country.

The lion alone of all wild beasts, we are told,
is gentle to those that humble themselves to
him, and even when his wrath is awakened,
and the pangs of hunger call for relief, his
chivalrous nature is such that he will not attack
a woman without the greatest provocation or
necessity. Another interesting fact that the
ancient writers ascertained is that the blood of
the lion is black. That he is not in any deroga-
tory sense black-hearted, is one of the most
heartily accepted articles of belief since the
magnanimity of the lion is the trait in his
character that is most fully dwelt upon.

Unbelievers in the Lions Virtues. 117

There have, nevertheless, arisen unbelievers
in these latter days who have endeavoured to
belittle the royal beast, and to make out that
he is, after all, not much better than a sneaking
coward, that his courage springs from a know-
ledge of his superior power, arid that his forbear-
ance and generosity are but indications that the
creature at the time he displayed these estimable
qualities had lately dined. Even in the following
passage from an early writer we get some little
hint of this feeling : " He despiseth the darts
and defendeth himself by his terror only, and, as
if bearing witness that he is forced to his own
defence, he riseth up in fury, not as at last com-
pelled by the peril, but is made angry by their
folly. But this more noble display of courage
is shown in that, however great may be the
strength of hounds and hunters, while in the
open plains, and where he may be seen, he
retireth only by degrees, and \vith scorn ; but
when he hath got amongst the thickets and
woods, then he hurrieth away, as if the place
concealed his shame." Perhaps, however, we
should assign this strategic movement to the
rear to the discretion that we are proverbially
told is such an excellent supplement to mere
valour, or a wise acquiescence in the dictum :
" He that fights and runs away will live to fight
another day."' The ideal lion, however, is a
very noble beast indeed, and very few of the
early writers do aught but sing his praises.

* "The Lion is not so fierce as painted." — Thos. Fuller.
" The Lion is not so fierce as they paint him." — Herbert.

Ii8 Natural History Lore and Legend.

Aldrovandus in his book on animals — not the
" Monstrorum Historia," but the volume that
treats of matter-of-fact creatures — deals very fully
with his subject. The Lion stands first, and our
readers will gather some notion of the fulness of
the treatment when we state that the royal beast
takes up sixty-three folio pages. The book is
written wholly in Latin, and the various details
are arranged in sections. Amongst these we
find "Descriptio, Anatomica, Differentiae, Locvs,
Natvra, Mores, Magnanimitas, Vox, Sympathia
et Antipathia, Historica, Mystica et allegorica,
Hieroglyphica, Moralia, Nvmismata, Insignia
Gentilitia et Militaria, Simvlacra statvae, Fabv-
losa, Proverbia, Vsvs in Medicina, Vsvs in Lvdis
et Trivmphis, Vsvs in Venatione et in Bello."
Even this does not exhaust the exceedingly com-
prehensive treatment, though amply sufficient to
illustrate it. The leopard, lynx, dog, and other
beasts are in proportion as fully treated of,
though the subjects of the sections of course
vary ; thus in the dog we find much information
under the heading Fidelitas and Amor, sections
that would be entirely out of place in the
description of the wolf.

The Aldrovandus picture of the lion is rather
a poor one, while the tiger is very fairly good,
and the wolf is capital. It is rather curious too
that the hippopotamus, the first living specimen
of which, as far as we know, came to Europe
over two hundred years after the publication of
the book in question, is represented by very fair
figures, by which it can readily be identified.

Aldrov audits on Animals. 119

There are three of these altogether, and one of
them has seized a crocodile by the tail. Several
of the beasts are also given in skeleton form,
thus we have the osteology of the wolf, squirrel,
mole, and many others carefully rendered. The
effect is sometimes rather quaint, thus, for instance,
the skeleton of the hare is given, and the creature
in this osseous condition is represented as gnaw-
ing a plant. The mole is figured with very
conspicuous eyes. Any plant that can be at all
associated with an animal is always introduced,
thus we have a very good drawing of the
rabbit nibbling clover, and the legend appended
" cuniculus cinereus cum trifolio pratensi, quo
maxim e delectatus," a statement that many a
luckless farmer would very heartily endorse ;
then we have the weasel standing by a
plant of rue, and the legend " qua omnes
mustelae adversus serpentes se defendant," in
allusion to the old belief that a weasel well
fortified with rue was able to wage successful
war against venomous serpents. Many kinds
of dogs are shown, the greyhound, the water
spaniel, the poodle with his collar, and so
forth ; one, to show his fidelity to his master,
carries two keys in his mouth, while another is
termed u cam's bellicosus," and certainly looks the
character.

" The Lyon," says Ferae, in his " Blazon of
Gentrie, 1586," " is the most worthiest of all
beastes ; yea, he standeth as the king, and is
feared above all the beastes of the fielde. So
that by the Lyon is signified principallitie,

I2O Natural History Lore and Legend.

dominion, and rule. Fortitude and magnanimity
is denoted in the Lyon." Coats, another heraldic
authority of somewhat later date, affirms that " the
lion is the most magnanimous, the most generous,
the most bold and fierce of all the four-footed
race, and therefore he has been chosen to repre-
sent the greatest heroes. This noble creature
represents also Command and Monarchical
Dominion, as likewise the Magnanimity of
Majesty, at once exercising Awe and Clemency,
subduing those that resist, and sparing those that
humble themselves." In the "Indice Armorial "
of Geliot, published in Paris in the year 1635,
we read : " Si ca est auec raison que les anciens
ont donne a 1'aigle la qualite de Roy des oyseaux
et au dauphin celuy des poissons, il y a plus de
sujet de qualifier du nom de Roy le lyon, non
seulement pour estre plus fort et le plus genereux
des animaux terrestres, mais principalement a
cause des qualitez royales qui sont en luy. Le
lyon ne dort iamais, ou bien s'il dort c'est auec
si pen de repos qu'il rie laisse pas d'auoir les
yeux ouverts. C'est ce que Ton remarque de
genereux au lyon que iamais il n'offence ceux
qui s'humilient deuant luy, qu'il ne touche point
aux petits enfants et porta qu'entre les homines et
les femmes il s'addresse plutost aux hommes, et
entre ceux qui les prouoquent il choisira
tousiours celuy qui 1'aura blesse, comme mes-
priant les autres." Guillim, in his " Display of
Heraldry," a most popular book, running through
many editions, scarcely gives so exalted an idea
of the king of beasts, since he tells us that " the

Tlie Lion of the Heralds. 121

lion, when he mindeth to assail his enemy,
stirreth up himself by often beating of his back
and sides with his tail, and thereby stirreth up
his courage to the end to do nothing faintly or
cowardly. The lion, when he is hunted, care-
fully provideth for his safety, labouring to
frustrate the pursuit of the hunters by sweeping
out his footsteps with his tail as he goeth, that
no appearance of his track may be discovered.
When he hunteth after his prey he roareth
vehemently, whereat the beasts, being astonished,
do make a stand, while he with his tail makes a
circuit around them in the sand, which circle
they dare not transgress, which done, out of
them he maketh choice of prey at his leisure."
Thus the lion's tail is at once a stimulus to
valour, an aid to concealment when the valour
has oozed away, and a ring-fence for the
enclosure of his prey.

Gerard Legh, author of the "Accedens of
Armorie," a book originally published in 1562,
and so popular that within half a century five
editions were called for, tells us that when lions
are born " they sleepe continually three long
Egyptian daies. Whereat the Lyonesse, making
such terrible roring as the erth trembleth there-
with, raiseth them by force thereof out of that
deadlie sleepe, ministering foode, which of sleepe
before they could not take. Aristotle writeth
that in his marching he setteth foorth his right
pawe first, and beareth in himselfe a princelie
port. When he pursueth aunie beast he rampeth
on them, for then he is in most force. In

122 Natural History Lore and Legend.

nothing so much appeareth the princelie minde
of the haughtie Lyon as in this, that where other
foeastes do herd and rowte together the Lyon
will not do so, neither will hee haue any
soueraigne, such is the haughtie courage of his
high stomache that he accomteth himselfe
without peere ; when he is sicke he healeth
himselfe with the bloud of an Ape.* In age
when his strength faileth him he becommeth
eneinie to man, and not before, but neuer to
children. There is little marrow in his bones,
for when they are smitten together fier flieth out
of them as from a flint stone. Therefore in the
olde time they made shields for horsemen of
Lyon's bones." Another old writer tells us that
" the lion is never sick but of loathing." This we
may presume is a kind of biliousness or sick
headache, and a general disinclination for food.
Whatever it may be, the Faculty are equal to
the occasion, as the simple " way to cure him
is to tie to him the apes, which with their
wanton mocking drive him to madness, and
then when he hath tasted their blood it acts as
a remedy." Legh's remedy and this one do not
quite agree, but this latter is clearly intended
for the lion in a state of captivity, when his
unnatural surroundings necessitate severer treat-
ment.

When a lion is wounded we are told that he

* " A lion being sick of a quartane Ague eats and devours
Apes, and so is healed ; hence we know that Apes' blood is
good against an ague." — Porta.

Lions in the Arena. 123

has a remarkable quickness of observation in
detecting which amongst the hunters is to be
held responsible for the injury, and, "no matter
what the size of the hunting party, he singles
out this particular individual for his attack, but
if a man has merely thrown a dart at him with-
out wounding him it is sufficient punishment
for his audacity to be struck down and well
shaken. Lions, Pliny tells us, are destitute of
craft and suspicion; "they never look aslant,
and they love not to be looked at in that
manner." The lion was believed by the an-
cients to be afraid at the turning of a wheel,
and more especially at the crowing of a cock.
These ancient naturalists had excellent oppor-
tunities of studying the lion. For one thing
he wTas found in Greece, Palestine, and many
other districts where he is now never seen,
and then, too, the sports and combats of the
amphitheatre and the desire of the rulers to
gain popularity by pleasing the multitude with
various shows led to their free introduction.
Thus we read that Pompey the Great caused
six hundred lions to be exhibited together to
the Roman people, while Caesar the Dictator
exhibited four hundred, and many others in
authority had smaller collections gathered to-
gether for the gratification of the populace.

That there were maneless lions was a fact
known to the ancient writers, as they are men-
tioned by Pliny, Aristotle, and others, but the
reason they give for this peculiarity, that they had

would probably be one or both of these varieties
that had come tinder the notice of the ancient

124 Natural History Lore and Legend.

panthers as their sires, is erroneous.* The lions
found in Persia and Arabia are almost maneless,
and the lions of Gujerat have simply on the
middle line of the back of the neck some hairs
that stand erect like the mane of a quagga. It

authors. Amongst other mixed breeds that these
writers believed in was the camelopardilis, the
reputed offspring of the camel and the leopard
or panther, and the hartebeest, springing from
the union of the antelope and the buffalo.

In the "Livre des Creatures," the quaint old
MS. of Philip de Thaun, the lion is treated
symbolically, and as this tone of thought greatly
influenced the art and literature of the period we
may very legitimately quote the passage. "The
lion," writes our old author, " in many ways
rules over many beasts, therefore is the lion
king. He has a frightful face, the neck great
and hairy ; he has the breast before square,
hardy and pugnacious ; his shape behind is
slender, his tail of large fashion, and he has flat
legs, and haired down to the feet ; he has the
feet large and cloven, the claws long and curved.
When he is hungry or ill-disposed he devours

* A much later writer, Porta, includes some strange animals
in his treatise : thus the leopard is the offspring, according to
him, of the panther and lioness : the crocuta of the hyaena and
lioness j the thoes of the panther and the wolf ; the jumar of
the bull and ass ; the musinus of the goat and ram ; the cinirus
of the he-goat and ewe. The figures of these are sufficiently

curious.

The Lion of the Symbolist. 125

animals without discrimination, as he does the
ass which resists and brays. Now hear, without
doubt, the significance of this. The lion signifies
the Son of Mary. He is King of all people
without any gainsay. He is powerful by nature
over every creature, and fierce in appearance,
and with fierce look He will appear to the Jews,
when He shall judge them. The square breast
shows strength of the Deity. The shape which
he has behind, of very slender make, shows
humanity, which He had with the Deity. By
the foot, which is cloven, is demonstrance of
God, who will clasp the world and hold it in His
fist." It is needless to follow De Thaun any
further in his laboured mysticism ; the passage
quoted suffices to show the method adopted.
The idea that the lion's cubs were brought to
life three days after their birth was a belief that
very readily became transformed into a symbolism
of the Resurrection of Christ from the sleep of
death,* while the notion that the lion always

* " However erroneous it may now be considered, the theory
of creation held during the Middle Ages, was both beautiful and
noble, and in a fairly accurate manner may be summarized as
follows : On the fall of the tenth legion of the citizens of
heaven, God resolved to create man to take the place of the
fallen angels. He evolved this world for the home of the new
creation, and all things that He then made. The celestial bodies,
the vegetable and animal kingdoms were formed solely and
entirely for man alone, as the centre round which the whole of
creation revolved. There was no idea then that the world in
which man was placed formed only one of many such inhabited
homes, and that our sphere was simply an insignificant fragment
of a vast universe. The celestial bodies, it was held, were
created not only to give light and heat to generate metals and

126 Natural History Lore and Legend.

FIG. II.

precious stones, but to govern the affairs of men, and enable
them to foretell events. The vegetable kingdom was to furnish
food and medicine not only for man's body but likewise for his
mind. Lastly, the animal creation provided him with servants,
with food for his bodily wants, and with moral lessons and
examples for those of his soul. This I venture to advance as a
tolerably accurate summary of the theory of creation held during
the Middle Ages and until nearly the close of the seventeenth
century, and, if correct, it will appear from it that each part of
creation was viewed not only in an outward and material
manner, but also in an interior and spiritual one." — Andre.

Burton's "Miracles of Art and Nature'' 127

slept with its eyes open made it a symbol of
watchfulness, and led to its introduction in the
sculptures of early Christian churches, and
especially those under Lombard influence, where
it is not infrequently found as a sentinel at the
doors, as the base to pillars, or at the foot of
the pulpits.

According to Burton, in his u Miracles of Art
and Nature," in Barbary " 'tis said they have
Lyons so tame that they will gather up Bones in
the Street like Dogs, without hurting any Body ;
and other Lyons that are of so cowardly a
Nature that they will run away at. the Voice
of the least child." Minister's notion of the
African lion, fig. u, is impressive, though it is
perhaps less nearly allied to the lion of real life
than to the lion of the herald, of which fig. 12,
from the effigy of Prince John of Eltham,
brother of Edward III, in Westminster Abbey,
may be taken as a characteristic example.
Munster's lion* would satisfy even the country
heraldic painter, who was so irate when shown
a lion in a travelling menagerie. " What ! "
cried he, " tell me that's a lion ! Why I've
painted lions rampant, lions passant, and all sorts
of lions these five-and-twenty years, and for sure
I ought to know what a lion is like better than
that ! " This lion of Munster is a very different
beast to the degenerate lions of Barbary that find
a precarious sustenance in collecting discarded

* " De leonibus, quaram copia est in Africa." The illustra-
tion is a facsimile of the one given in this section of Munster's
book.

128 Natural History Lore and Legend.

bones from the gutter, and slink away at the
chiding of some Arab brat who is inclined to
break in upon their sordid repast.

Nature, when not interfered with by man,
ever keeps the balance true : hence " the Leon-
tophonos is only bred where lions are found,"
and if the old writers may be trusted (and there

FIG. 12.

is much virtue in an "if"), we have in this an
excellent antidote to the bane that a plague of
lions would undoubtedly be. The king of beasts,
we are told, regards the leontophonos with deadly
hatred and crushes the life out of it with its paw, as
the smallest portion of its flesh is immediate death
to him. To checkmate this decisive action of

Feud between Lion and Unicorn. 129

the lion, we learn from our ancient author that
in districts that have a plague of lions the people
of the place burn the leontophonos and sprinkle
the ashes on other pieces of flesh, and these they
lay about as a bait with fatal effect. By this
happy arrangement they are free at once of Leo
and Leontophonos.

One of the greatest enemies of the lion would
appear to be the unicorn; for though the two
appear to get on amicably enough as supporters of
the royal arms, appearances, it is well known, are
often deceptive, and they are really deadly foes.
/Gesner, in his " History of Animals," gives the
whole story in a nutshell, for he tells us that
" the Unicorn and the Lion being enemies by
nature, as soon as the lion sees the unicorn he
betakes himself to a tree." This strikes one as
being a rather feeble performance on the part of
the king of beasts — in fact, decidedly infra dig. ;
but the end is considered to justify the means,
for u the unicorn in his fury, and with all the
swiftness of his course, running at him, sticks
his horn fast in the tree, and then the lion falls
upon him and kills him." The indiscreet valour
of the unicorn seems distinctly a nobler thing
than the calculating craft of the lion. , Spenser,
in the " Faerie Queene," introduces the story
as evidently a well-known fact in natural
history : —

" Like as a Lyon whose imperial powre
A proud rebellious unicorn defyes,
T'avoid the rash assault and wrathful stowre
Of his fiers foe, him to a tree applyes,

9

130 Natural History Lore and Legend.

And when him ronning in full course he spyes
He slips aside : the whiles that furious beast

His precious home, sought of his enemyes*
Strikes in the stocke, ne thence can be releast,
But to the mighty victor yields a bounteous feast ' ' f

In " Timon of Athens " Shakespeare writes :
" Wert thou the Unicorn pride and wrath would
confound thee, and make thine own self the
conquest of thy fury ; " and in " Julius Caesar "
we find the line : " Unicorns may be betray'd
with trees," both passages evidently referring to
this legend.

Most furious of all beasts was the Monoceros ;
or, as ^Elian calls it, the Cartazonos, a creature
still having literary and heraldic existence as
the unicorn ; though in some few points the
beast, as described by Pliny and others, does not
altogether resemble in form the creature of the
heralds that is so well known to us as joint
supporter with the lion of our national arms.
The ancient monoceros had the body of a horse,
the head of a stag, the feet of an elephant, and
the tail of a boar, and from the middle of his
forehead projected a single horn.

The Monoceros, Unicornu, or Einhorn is de-
scribed in Jonston's " Historia Naturalis," pub-
lished in 1657, and Munster, in his description of

* Bussy D'Amboise, 1607, writes —

" An angry unicorne in his full career
Charged with too swift a foot a jeweller
That watch'd him for the treasure of his brow,
And ere he could get shelter of a tree
Nail'd him with his rich antler to the earth."
t Ctesias says that its flesh is so bitter that it cannot be
eaten.

Authorities on Unicorn-lore. 131

Asia,* gives a picture of the unicorn, a beast in
all respects like a horse, save that it has one
tremendous horn. Barrow, in his " Travels in
Southern Africa," gives the figure of a head of a
unicorn which he saw drawn on the side of a
cavern, and appears to entertain no doubt that
such an animal exists, while Burton tells us that
in Ethiopia " some Kine there are which have
Horns like Stags, others but one Horn only, and
that in the Forehead, about a foot and a half
long, but bending backwards," a departure this
from the recognized type.

Figures of the unicorn are found on the
archaic cylinder seals of Assyria and Babylonia,
and throughout the whole course of ancient and
mediaeval history we find belief in the creature
as much a matter of course as belief in horse
or elephant, and it would not be difficult to
bring forward a score or more of authors who
have written even in comparatively recent times
on the existence of the unicorn.t

In a curious old book on our shelf, the

* " Topsell nameth two kingdomes in India (the one called
Niem, the other Lamber), which he likewise stored with them."
: — Speculum Mundi.

t As for example : Bacci's book " Discorso dell' Alicorno,"
published at Florence in 1573, and the " De Unicornu Obser-
vationes novse " of Thomas Bartholinus, bearing date 1645.
Caspar Bartholinus had already, in [628, written " De Unicornu
ejusque affinibus." Then we have Bereus' " De Monoceroti,"
1667 5 Catelan's "Histoire de la Licorne," 16245 Frenzel, " De
Unicornu," 1675; Stolbergk's " Exercitatio de Unicornu,"
1652 j Sachs' " Monocerologia," 1676 5 and the " Notice en refu-
tation de la non-existence de la Licorne " of Laterrade, bearing
the very recent date of 1826.

9*

132 Natural History Lore and Legend.

"Philosophical Grammar" of Benjamin Martin,
published in 1753, the author raises the question
as to whether such creatures as the phcenix,
syrens, dragons, mermaids, fairies, and many
others that he mentions really exist, and in the
matter of the unicorn he evidently suspends
judgment. " Most naturalists," he says, " have
affirmed that there have been such creatures
and give descriptions of them ; but the sight
of the creatures or credible relations of them
having been so rare, has occasioned many to
believe there never were any such animals in
nature ; at least it has made the history of them
very doubtful. In all such ambiguous pieces of
history 'tis better not to be positive, and
sometimes to suspend our belief rather than
credulously embrace every current report." In
another book, however, published in 1786,
and therefore not much more than a century
ago, the unicorn is described in all sober
seriousness as having equine body, a voice
like the lowing of an ox, and his horn " as
hard as iron and as rough as any file " to the
touch.

Guillim declares that the unicorn cannot be
taken alive, "the greatness of his mind is such
that he chuseth rather to die," while De Thaun
gives full directions for its capture. It would
appear that the animal is of a particularly
impressionable nature, and is always prepared
to pay homage to maiden beauty and innocence,
hence fierce as it is the wily hunter by taking
advantage of this amiable trait in its character

The Capture of the Unicorn. 133

effects its capture, for "when a man intends
to hunt and ensnare it he goes to the forest
where is its repair, and there places a virgin.
Then it comes to the virgin, falls asleep on
her lap, and so comes to its death. The man
arrives immediately and kills it in its sleep, or
takes it alive, and does as he will with it."
As this must be rather a trying experience for
the young lady, " the Indian and Ethiopians,"
says a later writer, " catch of these unicornes
which be in their country after the following
manner. They take a goodly-strong and beau-
tifull young man, whom they clothe in the
apparell of a woman, besetting him with divers
flowers and odoriferous spices, setting him where
the Unicornes use to come, and when they see
this young man they come very lovingly and
lay their heads down in his lap (for above all
creatures they do great reverence to young
maids), and then the hunters having notice
given them, suddenly come, and finding him
asleep, they will deal so with him, as that
before he goeth he must leave his horn behind
him " and fall a victim to his guileful foes.
Spenser speaks of " the maiden Unicorne," and
Dallaway, too, refers to " their inviolable attach-
ment to virginity," and many other writers speak
in the same sense, or shall we rather say lack
of it !

The horn was in great demand as it was made
into drinking vessels that were held to possess
the invaluable gift of detecting poison. Thus in
the " Speculum Mundi " we read of it that <( it

134 Natural History Lore and Legend.

hath many soveraigne virtues, insomuch that,
being put upon a table furnished with many
junkets and banqueting dishes, it will quickly
descrie whether there be any poyson or venime
among them, for if there be, the home is
presently covered with a kinde of sweat or
dew." This belief in the efficacy of the horn
of the unicorn as a test for poisons is seen
by the frequent appearance of it in mediaeval
inventories. We gather from these no clue, no
alternative name, for instance, to guide us, as to
what the material so valued really was. In a
book of travels by one Hentzner, a foreigner
who visited England in the year 1598, mention
is made of a horn of the unicorn that he was
shown at Windsor Castle, and which he says was
valued at over ^1000, as indeed it very well
might be, if Decker's line, " the unicorn whose
horn is worth a city," written in 1609, gives
anything like a fair estimate of its worth. In
the " Comptes Royaux " of France for 1391 we
iind the entry : " Une manche d'or d'un essay
de lincourne pour attoucher aux viandes de
Monseigneur le Dauphin," and in the year 1536
in the inventory of the treasures of Charles V.,
we have : " Une touche de licorne, garnie d'or,
pour faire essay." Many other examples of a
similar nature might readily be brought forward.
(It seems strange that a belief in the efficacy of
the horn of the unicorn to detect the presence
of poisons should have endured for hundreds of
years, when practical experiment would in half
an hour have convicted the thing, whatever

The Elephant. 135

it was, of being a mockery, a delusion, and a
snare, ^y

Many curious beliefs have clustered around
the elephant, his sagacity, great strength, and
association with the wonderful countries of Africa
and India giving occasion for much that is mar-
vellous. One old writer tells that "the elephant
is a beast of great strength, but greater wit, and
greatest ambition ; insomuch that some have
written of them that if you praise them they
will kill themselves with labour, and if you
command another before them they will break
their hearts with emulation. The beast is so
proud of his strength that he never bows himself
to any, and when he is once down (as it usually
is with proud great ones) he cannot rise up
again." The female elephant was supposed to
rear her young one in deep water, for fear lest
the dragon should find and devour it. Phy-
siologus says that when the bone of an elephant
shall be burnt, or his hair singed, the smell of it
shall drive away serpents and all poison. Isidore
informs us that the elephant is beyond measure
great, and that it has the form of a goat, a state-
ment that leads us to imagine that he writes
rather from hearsay than from personal know-
ledge. He further tells us that the creature
cannot lie down, a statement that is entirely
opposed to fact, as they may be seen rolling to
and fro with the greatest ease when bathing, and
after their ablutions recovering their feet with
great readiness. This supposed inability to lie
down necessitated the elephant's leaning against

136 Natural History Lore and Legend.

a wall or tree while sleeping, and the people of
the land, when they desired to capture one, had
only to fell the tree or undermine the wall,
while the elephant was in happy unconsciousness
of the rude awakening that they were preparing
for him.

The elephant so huge and strong to see

No perill fear'd but thought a sleepe to gaine ;

But foes before had underminde the tree,

And down he falls, and so by them was slaine.

First trye, then truste ; like goulde the copper showes ;

And Nero oft in Numa's clothinge goes."

WHITNEY'S Emllems.

They are provoked to madness at the sight
of blood or of the juice of the mulberry
tree. They eat both leaves and stones, but if
by inadvertence they swallow a chameleon the
result is fatal, unless they can immediately after-
wards eat some olives. As no elephant, being a
vegetarian, would eat a chameleon knowingly,
we are reduced to the alternative that he must
eat him unconsciously, and would therefore feel
nothing of the need of a prompt administration
of antidote until the olives came too late.

In the family feud which was held to exist
between the elephant and the dragon the reptile
endeavoured to twist himself round the ponderous
beast's feet and so bring him to the ground, but
the sagacity of the elephant here stood him in
good stead, and when he saw that his fall was
inevitable, he also saw the great advantage of
flattening the life out of his foe by falling with

Use of the Elephant in War. 137

all his huge bulk upon him. The blood pro-
duced by these sanguinary combats soaked into
the earth and thus yielded the cinnabar of com-
merce. Possibly some early observer may have
seen a deadly struggle in the jungle between an
elephant and some huge python or boa, and
being content to view from some little distance,
may have filled in the details from imagination
and thus set the story afloat. When a tale of
this nature once gained credence, one old writer
after another inserted it in his work without
further question. The elephant was said to be
afraid of a mouse, though the ancient authors
unfortunately fail to satisfy our very legitimate
curiosity as to why this should be so ; in an old
romance, dealing with the wars of the great
Alexander, the elephants of the enemy are put
to rout by the squeaking of a herd of swine
brought for the nonce on to the tented field.

The elephant was first used in war by Pyrrhus,
who, B.C. 280, employed these animals in the war
with Tarentum against the Romans. We learn
also that the Carthaginians, in the time of
Hannibal, B.C. 210, employed them in their wars ;
and we have modern illustrations of the like
service amongst the various princes of India.
When the Romans in Leucania first saw
the elephants in the battle array of Pyrrhus,
they called them Leucanian oxen. " Next
the Poeni taught the horrible Leucanian oxen,
with lowered body and snake-like head, to
endure the wounds of war, and to throw into
confusion the mighty ranks of Mars." Later on

138 Natural History Lore and Legend.

the Romans introduced them into their own
service, and in one of the triumphal entries
of Caesar into Rome his chariot was drawn by
forty elephants.

A little later on we read of their appearance in
the arena, dancing and wrestling with each other,
walking on stretched ropes, four of them carry-
ing a fifth on their shoulders reposing on a litter
or couch, and generally going through those per-
formances that from the earliest times to the
travelling show of to-day have been received by
the vulgar with such favour. Both Pliny and
Plutarch tell us that if any one elephant in such
a gathering for any reason fails to do what is
required of him he will study by night, in what
a workman would call " his own time," to achieve
success, and go through the performance of his
own accord when the rest of the world is
sleeping, until he has mastered it.

Sir John Maundevile, in his " Voiage and Tra-
vaile," gives an interesting mediaeval reference
to an Eastern potentate having " 14,000 Oli-
fauntz or mo. In cas that he had ony Werre
agenst ony other Kynge aboute him than he
makethe certyn men of Annes for to gon up
in to the Castelles of Tree, made for the Werre,
that craftily ben set uppe on the Olifauntes
Bakkes, for to fryghten agen hire Enemyes."
How very craftily these are set up may be
seen in our illustration, fig. 13, from an early
edition of the book. As we may reasonably
assume from the look of the Castelle of tree
that it is built in two storeys, we may judge

Moon-worshipping Elephants. 139

the bulk of the elephant from imagining the
size that the men must be who are quartered
in the upper storey. It will be noticed that
there is no suggestion of any method of fastening
the Castelle to the Olifaunte. Were we amongst
the men of arms who were expected to take up
a position in this fortress, we should regard this
as a peculiarly weak point in the arrangements.
In marked contrast with this massive beast
Munster has a funny picture of a man ploughing
with an elephant, the elephant being, in proportion
to the man, of about the size of a Shetland pony.
The ancient writers believed, or taught, that
the elephant indulged in moon-worship. -^Elian,
amongst others, states that at the increase of the
moon these creatures gathered long branches
of trees in the forest, and held them up in
adoration, with uplifted trunks, to the queen
of night. Pliny, too, writes that " they have
withall religious reverence, with a kind of
devotion ; not only the starres and planets but
the sunne and moone they also worship, and
in very truth, writers there be who report thus
much of them — that when the new moone begin-
neth to appeare fresh and bright,* they come
doune by whole herds to a certaine river named
Amelus in the deserts and forests of Mauritania,
where, after that they are washed and solemnlie
purified by sprinkling and dashing themselves all
over with the water, and have saluted and adored

* Mutianus tells us that when the moon is on the wane the
monkeys are sad, but that they adore the new moon with
liveliest manifestations of delight.

140 Natural History Lore and Legend.

after their manner their planet, they returne
againe unto the woods and chases, carrying
before them their young calves that be wearied
-and tired" — a grand and pious pilgrimage of
pachyderms.

Another strange idea of the ancients was that
the elephant when pursued by the hunters beats
its tusks against the trees until they drop off, as
he has a shrewd suspicion that it is his ivory rather
than himself that they want. The elephant,
sagacious beast, would appear to have as good a
notion of the value of his tusks to the hunter
as his pursuer himself has. We are told that
" when they chance to be environed and com-
passed round with hunters they set foremoste
in the ranke to bee seene those of the heard
that have the least teeth, to the end that their
price might not be thought worth the hazard
and venture in chace for them. But afterwards,
when they see the hunters eager and themselves
over-matched and wearie, they breake them with
running against the hard trees, and, leaving them
behind, escape by this ransome as it were, out
of their hands." Another curious fact is that
" their skin is covered neither with haire nor
bristle, no, not so much as in their taile, which
might serve them in goode steade to driue away
the busie and troublesome flie (for as vast and
huge a beast as he is, the flie haunteth and
stingeth him), but full their skinne is of crosse
wrinckles lattiswise : and besides that, the smell
thereof is able to draw and allure such vermine
to it, and therefore when they are laid stretched

Medieval Sources of Information. 141

along, and perceive the flies by whole swarmes
settled on their skin, sodainly they draw those
cranies and crevices together close, and so crush
them all to death. This serues them instead
of taile, maine and long haire," — one striking
instance the more of the wonderful compensa-
tory powers of Nature !

It is by no means an incurious subject to
trace the sources of information possessed by our

FIG. 13.

ancestors of subjects of natural history'that have
nowbecome so familiar as to create a surprise that
fables respecting them should so long have been
currently received. In regard to the elephant,
the earliest notions the people of the Middle
Ages had of it must have been from the narratives
of pilgrims and other travellers from the East.

142 Natural History Lore and Legend.

The first instance, after classic times, of an
elephant being brought to the West occurred in
the year 807, when one was sent as a present
from the famous Caliph Haroum al Raschid
to the Emperor Charlemagne, and must have
occasioned no small degree of astonishment.
Matthew Prior mentions that the Soldan of
Babylon, Malek el Kamel, sent an elephant as
a choice present to the Emperor Frederic II. in
the year 1229, but it was not till 1255 that
the first specimen was seen in England : this
was a present from the King of France to our
Henry III. The chronicler, John of Oxenedes,
gives full details of the arrival of this animal
in London, and tells us of the enormous crowds
that flocked together to behold it. The writ
is still existing that was sent to the Sheriff of
Kent, dated February 3rd, 1255, directing him
to go in person to Dover, together with John
Gouch, the king's servant, to arrange in what
manner the king's present might most con-
veniently be brought over, and to find for the
said John a ship and all things necessary ; and
if, by the advice of mariners and others, it
could be brought by water, directing it to
be so conveyed. It was, however, eventually
landed at Sandwich, and walked thence to
London. Another writ, dated the 26th of the
same month, ordered the Sheriffs of London t
cause to be built at the Tower a house for it,
forty feet in length and twenty in breadth.
The elephant itself was ten feet in height and
ten years old. It only lived two years. Of

First Elephant seen in England. 143

this elephant Matthew Prior made a very
good representation and his original drawing
may still be seen amongst the Cottonian MSS.
in the British Museum ; this he expressly
tells us was taken from the life ipso elephante
exemplariter assistente. An equally good, but
smaller, drawing occurs at the close of the
chronicle of John de Walingeford, a monk in
the Abbey of St. Albans. This also may be
seen amongst the Cottonian collection. The
historians of the time regarded the new arrival
as a perfect prodigy, as they very well might
do, when we remember how the British public,
comparatively satiated with wild beasts, flocked
in hundreds of thousands some few years ago
to see the first hippopotamus. They gave long
and detailed accounts of the habits of the
elephant in a wild state, details which were
eagerly read by the great multitude seeking
for some information on this strange monster
in their midst ; these more or less trustworthy
facts, though mingled with many obvious absurd-
ities, would seem to show that a fair amount
of knowledge of the creature had penetrated
thus far. Some of the information was at least
curious, as, for instance, that elephants will not
enter a ship to cross the sea until an oath is taken
before them by their conductor that they shall
return, and that if they meet a man in the
desert who has lost his bearings they will very
courteously conduct him to the right path.
Either of these indicate a high degree of
sagacity, and a good knowledge of human

144 Natural History Lore and Legend.

speech. The latter proceeding was probably
a delicate way of conveying to the wandering
botanist or prospecting engineer that he was
a trespasser on their domain, and a gentle hint
to him that he would be on the right path when
he took his leave and left them in undisturbed
possession.*

There is no record in modern times of an
African tribe endeavouring to domesticate the
wild elephant, or to utilize it in warfare, but
Marco Polo mentions that in the South-East of
Africa the people are very warlike, and fight —
having no horses — upon elephants and camels.
Upon the backs of the former he tells us that
they place castles capable of containing from
fifteen to twenty armed men, and that, previous
to the conflict, they give the elephants draughts
of wine to make them more spirited and furious
in the assault. f " There is no creature," saith
the writer of the " Speculum Mundi," " amongst
all the beasts of the world which hath so great

"When trauaylers are out of their way the Oliphaunt will
do all that hee can by familiar tokens to bring them in again.
He is of much vertue and verie seruiceable with loue towardes
man." — Legh. "Even the wilde ones living in deserts will
direct and defend strangers and travellers. For if an Elephant
shall finde a man wandering in his way, first of all that he may
not be affrighted, the Elephant goeth a little wide out of the
path and standeth still, then by little and little going before him,
he shews him the way j and if a Dragon chance to meet this
man thus travelling, the Elephant then opposeth himself to the
Dragon and powerfully defendeth the helplesse man who is not
able to defend himself." — Speculum Mundi.

t " And to the end they might provoke the elephants to

Capture and Training of Elephant. 145

and ample demonstration of the power and
wisdom of Almighty God as the Elephant, both
from proportion of body and disposition of spirit ;
and it is admirable to behold the industrie of our
ancient forefathers, and noble desire to benefit
us their posteritie, by searching into the qualities
of every beast, to discover what benefits and
harms may come by them to mankinde ; having
never been afraid of the wildest, but they tamed
them ; and the greatest, but they also set upon
them : witness this beast of which we now
speak, being like a living mountaine in quantitie
and outward appearance, yet by them so handled
as no little dog could be made more serviceable,
tame, and tractable."

According to the belief of one mediaeval
writer, at least, the capture of the elephant is
not a matter of much difficulty, though, having
caught him, he seems to find no better use for
him than to kill him as so much raw material for
the dyer's vat, instead of utilizing his gigantic
strength and magnificent willingness for work*
in the service of man. Nowadays, the men do

fight they shewed them the blood of grapes and mulberries." —
i Maccalees vi. 34.

" And upon the beasts there were strong towers of wood,
•which covered every one of them, and were girt fast unto them
with devices ; there were also upon every one two and thirty
strong men that fought upon them, besides the Indian that
ruled him." — i Mace. vi. 37.

* Miss Cobbe, in discussing the moral difference between the-
creatures of Fancy and those of Nature, remarks very truly that
" the instincts which man has lent to the offspring of his
imagination are infinitely worse and lower than those which are
to be found in real eagles and tigers, which slay and eat their

10

146 Natural History Lore and Legend.

most of the elephant-catching, but " among the
Ethiopians," says one ancient authority on the
subject, Bartholomew Anglicus, "in some
countries elephants be hunted in this wise.
There go in the desert two maidens, and one of
them beareth a vessel and the other a sword.
And these maidens begin to sing alone ; and the
beast hath liking when he heareth their song, and
cometh to them, and falleth asleep anon for
liking of the song," an explanation of the
drowsiness that would scarcely nowaday be held
satisfactory at any concert or social function of
the kind ; " then the one maid sticketh him in
the throat or in the side with a sword, and the
other taketh his blood in a vessel. And with
that blood the people of the country dye cloth,
and done colour it therewith. '; The writer
prefaces his story by the assertion that it is "full
wonderful ; " and so it is, when regarded from
our modern standpoint, but to anyone who could
believe that unicorns could be captured in a very
similar way, we should have thought that the
narrative would have seemed most matter-of-fact
and prosaic. The ladies of Ethiopia must have
been of considerably stouter heart than some

natural prey to satisfy their hunger, and there make an end.
But the perfidious and cruel Sphinxes, and Harpies, and Gorgons,
and Gnomes, and Dragons, do mischief for mischief's sake, and
are altogether merciless. The brutes of Fancy are merely
brutal, with a spice of human malignity superadded. Man has
created filthy Harpies, and relentless Hydras, and subtle and
vindictive Sphinxes, but he has never, even in thought, created
such an animal as the sagacious and friendly elephant, the
kindly-natured horse, or the affectionate dog."

The Foes of the Elephant. 147

fair maidens of the present day, who dare not
enter where the presence of mouse or cockroach
is suspected.

Great good-natured beast as the elephant is,
he has more than one most merciless and
vindictive foe. " There ben Bestes," or Maun-
devile is in error, "men clepen hem Loerancz,.
and thei han a blak Hed and thre longe Homes
trenchant in the Front, scharpe as a Sword, and
the body is sclender. And he is a fulle felonous
Best, and he chacethe and sleethe the Olifaunt."
What can have ever prompted and suggested the
idea of such a very unpleasant tricorn it is
impossible to say. In real life the elephant
and the rhinoceros are sometimes at feud, but
clearly the massive rhinoceros cannot be this
very slender and objectionable three-horned
beast. We have seen, too, that the dragon
cannot let the elephant alone ; he is to the
full as " felonous " as the Loerancz. Pliny
held that this constant unpleasantness on the
part of the reptile was a " sport of nature." In
other words, that Nature, — personified, as the
Romans personified the winds, the mountain
streams, and so forth, — felt a real delight in seeing
a downright fight between two such doughty
antagonists. As the dragon was always the
aggressor, while the elephant only wished to
be let alone, and merely used his strength in
self-defence when so wantonly attacked, one's
sympathies must necessarily be with the latter.

As this view degraded Nature to the level of
an emperor feasting his eyes on the sanguinary

10 *

148 Natural History Lore and Legend.

horrors of a gladiatorial show, or to that of a bull-
baiter or other member of "the fancy," it was
not altogether acceptable to thinking men, as it
must have been difficult to worship at the shrine
of the Creator and Sustainer of all, and yet
feel that one was in the grasp of a power so
capricious, relentless, and unfair. Nor was the
narration even fair to the dragon, as there was

FIG.

no suggestion in it that the attack was made for
the legitimate purpose of obtaining food ; the
story as it stood pointed to a depth of sheer
vindictiveness that even a dragon with any self-
respect would resent the imputation of. The
theory therefore was started that while during
the great heats of the dry season the dragon's

The Plethoric Hippopotamus. 149

blood was almost at boiling point the blood of
the elephant was singularly and exceptionally
cold, and thus made the creature a most welcome
prey. The dragon, with parched throat and
molten veins, therefore went as naturally for an
elephant as the members of a picnic-party in July
go for the iced lemonade or claret-cup.

Our ancestors had immense faith in blood-
letting, but there is nothing new under the
sun, and Pliny tells us that a hippopotamus,
when good living has told upon him and he is
suffering from plethora, goes ashore to where
he has seen that the river reeds have been newly
cut, and presses one of the sharp edges of a
stem into his leg, and thus vigorously bleeds
himself. When the process has given him the
desired relief, and there is no immediate fear
of gout or apoplexy, he smears the wound
over with the Nile mud and quickly heals it.
Munster's idea of the hippopotamus, as shown
in his book, from which we have made the
facsimile fig. 14, is a much more genuine
notion of a river-horse than the beast as we see
him in the Zoological Gardens. The way he is
dashing up the stream around him as he gallops
through the water is a caution.

The panther was believed to have an especial
power of fascination, a gift ascribed by some to
the beauty of his coat and by others to his odour.
The savour of the larger species of felidae, as we
find it in zoological collections, is malodorous
rather than fascinating, though the creatures
could doubtless plead in their own defence that

150 Natural History Lore and Legend.

they were placed under artificial circumstances.
In one of Spenser's sonnets we find the first
theory upheld in the lines: —

• " The panther knowing that his spotted hide

Doth please all beasts, but that his looks them fray,
Within a bush his dreadful head doth hide

To let them gaze, while he on them may prey."

In the eighth book of Pliny's "Natural History,"
the second theory is maintained. " It is said that
all four-footed beasts are wonderfully delighted
and enticed by the smell of panthers; but their
hideous looke and crabbed countenance, which
they bewray so soone as they show their heads,
skareth them as much againe ; and therefore
their manner is to hide their heads, and when
they have trained other beasts within their reach
by their sweet savour, they flee upon them and
worrie them."* In a MS. presented by Sir
William Segar to King James I. and now No.
6085 in the Harleian collection, we come across
a combination of the theories, the result being
a fascination of the most killing description : — •
<( The panther is admired of all beasts for the
beauty of his skyn, being spotted with variable
colours, and beloued and followed of them for
the sweetnesse of his breath, that streameth

* The panther was one of the beasts that was brought in
great numbers to Rome. Pompey, for instance, exhibited to
the citizens over four hundred of them on one occasion. The
beast is figured in mosaic pavements, in the fresco paintings of
Pompeii, &c., and was evidently so well under observation that
it is remarkable how such erroneous ideas concerning it could
have become current or stood their ground as articles of belief
even for a day.

Concerning the Panther. 151

forth of his nostrils and ears like smoke,
which our paynters mistaking corruptlie, doe
make fire." This detail is given in the manu-
script in explanation of one of the badges of
King Henry VI. — a panther passant guardant
argent, spotted of all colours, with vapour
issuant from his mouth and ears.*

Sir John Maundevile professed to see in the
capital of far Cathay a palace with its halls
" covered with red skins of animals called
panthers, fair beasts and well-smelling ; so that
for the sweet odour of the skins no evil air may
enter into the palace. The skins are as red as
blood and shine so bright against the sun that a
man may scarce look at them. And many people
worship the beasts when they meet them first
in a morning, for their great virtue and for the
good smell that they have ; and the skins they
value more than if they were plates of fine gold."
This is very clearly not a statement springing
from personal observation. Some old writers of
imaginative turn of mind regarded the panther
as the emblem of providence and foresight, the
number of eye-like spots on his coat suggesting the
idea that he was well able to look before, behind,
and around him; while others declared that he
bore on his shoulder one particular spot of the
shape of the moon, and that this passed through

* At a state banquet given by Gaston the Fifth we read that
"there was brought in (for an enter-course) the shape of a
beast called a Tiger, which by cunning art disgorged fire from
his mouth and nostrils."

152 Natural History Lore and Legend.

the various phases of form from crescent to full
circle simultaneously with the moon itself.

The tastes of the panther would appear to
be considerably more refined than those of the
other great carnivorae — an idea that we base on
the statement of the author of the "Speculum
Mundi." "Now, the reason why these beasts
have such a sweet breath is in regard that they
are so much delighted with the kinde of spices
and daintie aromaticall trees ; insomuch that (as
some affirm) they will go many hundred miles in
time of the yeare when these things are in
season, and all for the love they bear to them.
But above all, their chief delight is in the
gumme of camphire, watching that tree very
carefully, to the end they may preserve it for
their owne use." The notion of the panther
prowling round and keeping his eye on the
camphor the while is distinctly quaint.

Porta tells us that the hyaena and the panther
are in continual enmity, and that even the skin
of a dead hyaena makes the panther run away,
though we should ourselves have thought that
the live hyaena, skin and all, would have been no
match for the panther. Nay, this feeling is so
intense, that one old author tells us that even if
one hangs up the two skins together the anti-
pathy outlives death itself, and the panther's skin
will lose all the hair.

This notion of antipathy between various
animals is a very strong point with old writers.
"A lion's skin wasteth and eating out the skins
of other beasts; and so doth the wolves skin eat

Doctrine of Sympathy and Antipathy. 153

up the lambs skin. Likewise the feathers of
other fowles, being put among eagles feathers
do rot and consume of themselves. The beast
Florus and the bird ^Egithus are at such mortal
enmity that when they are dead their blood
cannot be mingled together." Porta is very
learned on this matter, and tells us that an
elephant is afraid of a ram. This must clearly
be from some invincible feeling of antipathy,
for there is little doubt but that in fair fight the
ram would be nowhere ; yet we learn that,
unmanageable as an elephant may be, " as soon
as ever he seeth a ram he waxeth meek, and
his fury ceaseth." One can only wonder, over
and over again, how it comes that such ideas
should gain credence for centuries, when the
whole matter could so readily be brought to the
touchstone of experience.

The doctrine of sympathy and antipathy,
and more especially the latter half of it, was of
immense value in mediaeval medicine. As an
example of sympathy we may instance the affec-
tion that was held to exist between the goat and
the partridge ; hence for whatever one of them
was a remedy the other became equally available.
The prescriptions were interchangeable, and one
used one or the other in full faith that either was
equally valuable, as indeed might very possibly
be the case. As examples of the antipathetic
treatment, one may instance the following : —
" The Ape of all things cannot abide a Snail ;
now the Ape is a drunken beast, for they are
wont to take an Ape by making him drunk

154 Natural History Lore and Legend.

and a Snail well wash'd is a remedy against
drtmkenesse. The Wolf is afraid of the Urchin ;
thence if we wash our mouth and throat with
Urchin's blood it will make our voice shrill,
though before it were hoarse and dull like a
Wolves voice. The Hart and the Serpent are
at continuall enemity ; the Serpent as soon as
he seeth the Hart gets him into his hole, but
the Hart draws him out again with the breath
of his nostrils and devours him ; hence it is
that the fat and the blood of Harts, and the
stones that grow in their eyes, are ministered
as fit remedies against the biting and stinging
of Serpents. Likewise the breath of Elephants
draws Serpents out of their dens, and there-
fore the members of Elephants burned, drive
away Serpents. So also the crowing of a
Cock affrights the Basilisk, and he fights with
Serpents to defend his hens, hence the broth of
a Cock is good remedy against the poison of
Serpents. The Stellion, which is a beast like
a Lyzard, is an enemy to the Scorpions, and
therefore the Oyle of him being purified is
good to anoint the place which is stricken by
the Scorpion. A Swine eats up a Salamander
without danger, and is good against the poison
thereof." All these and many other hints of
like value may be found in the pages of Porta.

The edition of " Natural Magick," by John

Baptist Porta, from which we have made these

extracts, is a somewhat late one,* as the preface

begins: — " Courteous Reader, — If this work

* It is dated 1658. The author was a Neapolitan.

Portcis Estimate of the Value of his Work. 155-

made by me in my youth, when I was hardly
fifteen years old, was so generally received, and
with so great applause, that it was forthwith
translated into many Languages, as Italian,
French, Spanish, Arabick ; and passed through
the hands of incomparable men ; I hope that
now coming forth from me that am fifty years
old, it shall be more dearly entertained, For
when I saw the first fruits of my Labours received
with so great Alacrity of mind, I was moved
by these good Omens, and therefore have
adventured to send it once more forth, but
with an Equipage more Rich and Noble. From
the first time it appeared it is now thirty-
five years, and (without any derogation of my
Modesty be it spoken) if ever any man laboured
earnestly to disclose the secrets of Nature it
was I."* After nearly forty years, therefore, of
reflection, observation, and criticism he feels,
that his medical hints on this subject of anti-

* The " Natural Magick " is divided into what is called
twenty Books, equivalent really to chapters, and they receive
various headings according to their contents, but the twentieth
Porta calls "Chaos," and he explains it by saying: "I
determined from the beginning of my Book to unite
Experiments that are contained in all Natural Sciences, but by
my business that called me off, my mind was hindered, so that
I could not accomplish what I attended. Since, therefore, I
could not do what I would, I must be willing to do what I can.
Therefore, I shut up in this Book those Experiments that could
be included in no Classes, which were so diverse and various,
that they could not make up a Science or a Book ; and, therefore,.,
I have here them altogether confusedly as what I had over-
passed, and, if God please, I will another time give you a more:
perfect Book. Now you must rest content with these."

356 Natural History Lore and Legend.

pathy have borne the test of time, and may
well take their place amongst the other secrets
of Nature divulged for the benefit of humanity.

The hyaena was held to possess the power of
counterfeiting man's speech, and of turning the
igift to profitable account by going up at night
to a shepherd's or woodman's hut and calling
•out the man's name.* Upon the man's going
forth to see who wanted him, he was promptly
torn to pieces. The Manticora also, according
to Juba, possessed this uncanny power of
imitating human speech, and turned its con-
versational powers to the same treacherous
use. It was also held that if a hyaena made a
circuit three times round any animal its victim
lost all power of escape, and could not stir a
foot. According to some ancient writers the
animal had a stone called hyaenia in its eye,
and this being placed under a man's tongue
imparted to him the gift of prophecy. Aristotle
taught that the eyes of this creature could change
colour a thousand times a day, and this is but a
sample of many other curious and absurd stories
concerning the beast. Sir Gardner Wilkinson
mentions a strange fancy believed in by the
Abyssinians that a race of people who inhabited
their country had the power of changing their
form at pleasure, being sometimes men and at
others hyaenas.

* We see this notion so lately as in a book entitled " An
English Expositour," issued in 1680 by John Hayes, Printer to
•the University of Cambridge.

Wolf Causing Dumbness. 157

In the Middle Ages the wolf seems to
have been in decidedly bad odour ; he was
probably too well-known to be respected, and
in the long dreary nights of winter proved
himself a terribly bad neighbour, and a very-
undesirable travelling companion for those who-
had to cross amidst the snows the almost track-
less wastes. Amongst the Scandinavians the
wolf held a conspicuous place in tradition and
mythology. Eclipses of the sun and moon were
held to be caused by two great wolves that
were always pursuing them through the heavens.*
The wolf, too, was the companion of Odin, the
god of war, and at his feet these creatures
crouched while he fed them with the flesh of
his enemies.

'It was an accepted belief that if a man-
encountered a wolf, and the creature caught
sight of him before he saw it, he became dumb.
Scott refers to this old notion in his " Quentin
Durward," where, in the eighteenth chapter,
Lady Hameline exclaims, " Our young com-
panion has seen a wolf, and has lost his tongue-
in consequence." "The ground or occasionall
originall thereof," Browne in his " Exposure of
Vulgar Errors" would endeavour to persuade
us, "was probably the amazement and sudden

* The northern peoples believed also in an enormous wolf,
called Fernris, who was the offspring of Loki, the evil principle;
This creature until the end of the world would be the cause of
unnumbered ills to humanity, but at the crack of doom would,
after a fearful struggle, be vanquished by the Gods, and a reign
of universal peace would succeed his overthrow.

158 Natural History Lore and Legend.

silence the unexpected appearance of wolves doe
often put upon travellers, not by a supposed
vapour or venomous emanation, but a vehement
fear which naturally produceth obmutescence, and
sometimes irrecoverable silence "^/ but it would
appear to be a still simpler procedure, and one
with a good deal to recommend it, to deny that
there is an atom of truth in the story. In another
old natural history before us, we read that "the
wolf when he falls upon a hog or a goat, or such
small beast, does not immediately kill them,
but leads them by the ear, with all the speed he
can, to a crew of ravenous wolves, who instantly
tear them to pieces." We should have thought
that the reverse had been more probable, and
that the wolves that had nothing would have
come with all the speed they could upon their
more successful comrade ; but if the old writer's
story be true, it opens out a fine trait of hitherto
unsuspected unselfishness in the character of
the wolf.

John Leo, in his " History of Africa," declares
that the dragon is the progeny of the eagle and
wolf. Perhaps this may be so, but probably the
conception that most of our readers have of the
dragon is that he was a considerably mor<
formidable beast than such a parentage, fierc<
as it is, quite suggests.

An old heraldic author tells us " how thai
the wolfe procureth all other beasts to fight and
contention. He seeketh to deuour the sheepe,
that beaste which is of all others the most
hurtlesse, simple, and void of guile, thirsting

Vulpine Eccentricities. 159

continually after their blood. Yea, Nature hath
planted so inveterate an hatred atweene the
wolfe and the sheepe, that being dead, yet in
the secrete operation of nature appeareth there
a sufficient trial of their discording natures, so
that the enimity betweene them seemeth not to
dye with their bodies ; for if there be put vpon a
harp or any such like instrument strings made of
the intrailles of a sheepe, and amongst them but
onely one made of the intraills of a wolfe, be the
musician never so cuning in his skil, yet can he
not reconcile them to an vnity and Concorde of
sounds, so discording alwayes is that string of the
wolfe." The inveterate enmity between the two
creatures is scarcely in accordance with the facts,
for the wolf, from its appreciation of mutton as
an article of diet, is really partial to the sheep,
and is always glad to make its acquaintance.

Another old herald tells us that "the wolfe
loveth to plaie with a child, and will not hurt
it till it be extreme hungrie, what time he will
not spare to devour it." He dwells also upon
some of the animal's prejudices, as that " he
watcheth much, and feareth fier and stones to be
wherled at him," a feeling that one finds no
difficulty in sympathizing with, and adds that
" there is nothing that he hateth so much as
the knocking togither of two flint stones, the
which he feareth more than the hunters." He
also mentions the curious physiological fact that
" the wolf may not bend his neck backward in no
moneth of the yere but in May," but gives us no
inkling as to the reason for this.

160 Natural History Lore and Legend.

The wearing of wolfskin was held to be a
valuable preservative against epilepsy, but those
who were unable to procure this, found an equally
serviceable remedy in wearing a small portion of
an ass's hoof in a ring. The wolfskin coat also
was in request as a preservative against hydro-
phobia, and there was nothing better in the good
old times than a wolfs head under the pillow
to secure a good night's rest. Albertus Magnus,
in his work " De Virtutibus Herbarum," tells us
that if we wrap the tooth of a wolf in a bay
leaf and carry it about with us no one will have
the power to vex or annoy us.

According to Porta — and he, we have seen,
professes to have gone into the secrets of nature
as deeply as most men who pose as authorities* —
the rook is killed by eating " the reliques of flesh
the wolf hath fed on." This would appear to be
a discovery of Porta's own : we do not find any
suggestion of it, so far as we are aware, in any
other author.

A creature called the stag-wolf, if we may
credit these ancient authors (and there is much
saving virtue in this if), had the curious peculiarity
that if, while he was devouring his prey, he

* " Wherefore, studious Readers, accept my long Labours,
that cost me much Study, Travel, Expense, and much Incon-
venience, with the same Mind that I publish them j and
remove all Blindness and Malice, which are wont to dazle the
sight of the Minde, and hinder the Truth; weigh these Things
with a right Judgement when you try what I have Written, for
finding both Truth and Profit, you will (it may be) think better
of my Pains." — End of the Preface to Porta's " Natural
Magick."

Licking little Bears into Shape. 161

chanced to look backward, he straightway forgot
that he was already provided with a dinner, and
would at once start off for one with all the
zeal that his supposititious famishing condition
called for.

The bear has not escaped the observation of
the lover of the marvellous, though \ve should
have thought that our forefathers, with their
bear-baiting proclivities, would have had a suffi-
cient knowledge of the creature to protect them
from falling into gross error. One of the most
firmly accepted beliefs in ancient and mediaeval
days was that the cubs were born a merely shape-
less mass, and owed what after-beauty of form they
possessed to the assiduous care of their mother.
Hence, an ancient scribe hath it, " At the firste
they seeme to be a lumpe of white flesh without
any forme, little bigger than rattons, without
eyes, and wanting hair. This rude lumpe, with
licking, they fashion by little and little into some
shape." Shakespeare it will be remembered
compares Gloucester, in King Henry VI.,
to "an unlick'd bear-whelp," while Dryden
writes : —

" The cubs of bears a living lump appear
When whelp'd, and no determined figure wear.
The mother licks them into shape, and gives
As much of form as she herself receives."

The device of the great Venetian painter,
Titian, was a she-bear licking her cubs into shape.*

* In Dryden's poem, " The Hind and Panther," we find the
reference : —

" The bloody bear, an independent beast,
Unlick'd to form, in groans her hate expressed."

II

1 62 Natural History Lore and Legend.

Our readers will probably recall the lines in
"Hudibras":—

" A bear's a savage beast, of all
Most ugly and unnatural j
"Whelp'd without form, until the dam
Has lick'd it into shape and frame."

" Which opinion notwithstanding," quoth Browne
in his assault on the vulgar errors of his day,
" is not only repugnant unto the sense of every-
one that shall enquire into it, but of exact and
deliberate experiment. It is, moreover, injurious
unto reason, and much impugneth the course and
providence of nature to conceive a birth should
be ordained before there is a formation. Besides,
what few take notice of, men do hereby in a
high measure vilifie the works of God, imputing
that unto the tongue of a Beast." Browne's
ideas were, we have already seen, far in advance
of his time, and he took the trouble to do what
many who wrote on the subject before him failed
to do, went to look at some young bears. Though
the belief in the idea has died away, the remem-
brance of the superstition still survives in the
notion of licking youngsters into shape at school
by such appeals to body or mind as may seem
most efficacious and persuasive.

It was held that the bear found no little nutri-
ment in sucking his own paws, and in old books
on natural history he may often be found thus
figured. Beaumont and Fletcher embody the old
belief in their " Bonduca," where we read of
those —

" Just like a brace of bear- whelps, close and crafty,
Sucking their fingers for their food."

Why Bears attack Beehives. 163

It has long been an accepted belief in rural
England, that a child who has had a ride upon a
bear will escape whooping cough, a belief that
has had great pecuniary value to the Savoyards
and others, who take a dancing bear through
the villages, as the rustics gladly fee them for
the privilege of a ride for their children, and
the attendant immunity from one of the most
infectious and distressing of the minor ailments
of childhood.

We have long been familiar with the idea that
bears attacked bee-hives, but we have accepted
the notion that the bears did so from an appre-
ciation of the honey that they found therein. It
appears, however, that the bear does it really as
a kind of stimulant, the stinging of the angry '•'
bees giving him just a welcome titillation, and
arousing him from a certain torpidity that at tf *
times oppresses him, and wrhich he rightly feels
should be fought against. Others tell us that
the outraged bees, justly angry at the overturning
of their home and the pillage of their store,
supply, by the energy of their attack and the
keenness of their stings, just that pleasant piquant
set-off to the epicurean bear that the over-
richness and cloying sweetness of the honey
seems to call for. Yet a third theory is that
"they are many times subject to dimnesse of
sight, for which cause especially they seeke after
honeycombes, that the bees might settle upon
them, and with their stings make them bleed
about the head, and by that meanes discharge
them of that heavinesse which troubleth their

II *

164 Natural History Lore and Legend.

eyes." Possibly three more equally reasonable
theories might be forthcoming on searching for
them in the various old tomes in which the
wisdom of our forefathers is enshrined.

A considerable amount of folk-lore has gathered
round the hare. It was held to be a favourable
omen to meet certain beasts early in the morning,
but it was especially unfortunate to meet a hare.
" Sume Bestes han gode meetynge, that is to
seye for to meete with him first at Morne ; and
sume Bestes wykked meetynge : and that thei
han proved ofte tyne tat the Hare hathe fulle
evylle meetynge, and Swyn, and many othere
Bestes. The Sparhauke and other Foules of
Raveyne whan thei fleen aftre here preye and
take it before men of Armes, it is a gode Signe ;
and if he fayle of takynge his preye it is an evylle
sygne, and also to such folke it is an eville
meetynge of Ravennes." Carew, in his " Survey
of Cornwall," mentions that " to talk of hares or
such uncouth things " was regarded as omnious
of coming ill by the fishermen ; and at some
places on the coast until quite recently — or
possibly even till to-day, for such notions die out
very slowly — if a fisherman going down to his boat
were to see a hare cross his path, he would not
that day go to sea.

" How superstitiously we mind our evils !
The throwing down of salt, or crossing of a hare,
Bleeding at nose, the stumbling of a horse,
Or singing of a cricket, are of power
To daunt whole man in us."

This superstition arose from the belief that

Hares and their Ailments. 165

witches sometimes transformed themselves into
hares. In Ellison's " Trip to Benwell," we fincK
the following congratulatory lines: —

" Nor did we meet, with nimble feet,
One little fearful lepus ;*
That certain sign, as some divine,
Of fortune bad to keep us."

In Aubrey's "Remaines of Gentilisine and
Judaisme," written in the year 1586, it is stated,
as " found by Experience, that when one keepes
a Hare alive and feedeth him till he have occasion
to eat him, if he telles before he killes him that
he will doe so the hare will thereupon be found
dead, having killed himself." One really scarcely
sees what the creature gains by this proceeding.

Old writers tell us that when the hare is
fainting with the heat, a state of things that \
one may hope does not often occur, it recruits
its strength by munching up sowthistle. Top-
sell says that there is no leporine ailment that
this plant will not cure, and that directly the
hare feels a little unwell he seeks sowthistle and
goes in for a course of diet. Askham goes so
far as to say that " yf a hare eate of this herbe
in somer when he is mad he shal be hole,"
but as hares are proverbially held to be specially
non compos mentis in March, the treatment seems
to come a little late. All boys who have kept
rabbits will recall how appreciatively they nibble
up the succulent sowthistle leaves and stems, and

* The scientific name of the hare is Lepus timidus. Dryden,
in the "Hind and Panther," places " amongst the timerous
kind the quaking hare."

1 66 Natural History Lore and Legend.

probably it is just as welcome to the hares, not
as a medicinal herb or a help to sanity, but as a
toothsome item in the daily fare.

It will be remembered that in I Henry IV.
i. 2, Shakespeare uses the expression " Melan-
choly as a hare," and as it was believed in
mediaeval days that those who partook of the
flesh of any animal thereby partook also of its
nature, the flesh of the hare was supposed
to generate melancholia, and was therefore
avoided. Why the hare should be considered of
a desponding temperament no one seemed to
know.

It seems curious in face of such an expression
as " Mad as a March Hare " and such an epithet
as " hare-brained " applied to anything especially
wild and foolhardy, to find the great Bacon in
his " Natural History " recommending the brains
of hares as invaluable for strengthening the
memory* and brightening up the faculties.
Those who have "frekels/'f and would like to
get rid of them, should "take the blonde of an
hare, anoynte them with it, and it will doe them

* Magliabechi, the learned librarian, pinned his faith upon
treacle to make his memory retentive. Grataroli, a famous
physician of the sixteenth century, wrote a Latin treatise, " The
Castle of Memory," wherein, amongst an enormous number of
recipes, we find the internal application of bear's grease, a hazel-
nutful of mole's fat, and calcined human hair, strongly recom-
mended by the learned author.

f It was held by our ancestors that freckles came in the early
part of the year when the birds were laying their eggs, and that
the same mysterious influence of Nature that spotted the eggs
of the chaffinch, wren, robin, thrush, and other birds, freckled
the human skin.

Hares and the Healing Art. 167

awaye." Another eccentric prescription is for
the benefit of sufferers from rheumatism, and if
it were only efficacious, its simplicity would be a
great point in its favour, as it merely consists in
the carrying in the pocket of the right fore-foot
of a hare, the only caution to be exercised being
that in the case of a man it must be the foot of a
female hare, while a male hare must supply the
remedy if the patient be a woman. Cogan, in
his "Haven of Health," declares " thus much
will I say as to the commendation of the hare,
and of the defense of hunters' toyle, that no
beast, be it never so great, is profitable to so
many and so diverse uses in Physicke as the
hare," and he then proceeds to give numerous
prescriptions in which it is the principal feature.
( The knee-bone of an Hare taken out alive and
worne abute the necke is excellent against Con-
vulsion fitts,"* we are told, and perhaps it may
be so, but the point that more especially strikes
us, and it impresses one over and over again in
these mediaeval recipes, is the cold-blooded
cruelty and indifference to animal suffering that is
shown in so many of them. Fried mice were con-
sidered a specific in small-pox, but it was necessary
that they should be fried alive ; while for cataract
a fox should be captured, his tongue cut out, and
the animal released ; the member thus barbar-
ously procured was placed in a bag of red cloth
and hung round the man's neck. For erysipelas

* In another popular remedy for " fitts " one has to " take
the furr of a living Bear's belly, boil it in Aqua Vitae, take it
out, squeeze it, and wrap it upon ye scales of ye Feete."

1 68 Natural History Lore and Legend.

a favourite old remedy was to cut off one-half of
the ear of a cat and let the blood drop on the
part affected, while for fits one popular recipe
was to take a mole alive, cut the tip of his nose
off, and let nine drops of the blood fall on to a
lump of sugar : the swallowing of this was held
to be a certain cure. It would be easy to
multiply these illustrations of atrocious cruelty
by the score, since one comes across such
barbarities in abundance.

Edward Topsell, in his " Historic of Foure-
footed Beastes," published in the year 1607,
discusses thus quaintly and pleasantly of the
Hedgehog : " It is about the bignesse of a Cony,
but more like to a Hogge, being beset and
compassed all ouer with sharpe thorney haires,
as well on the face as on the feete. When she
is angred or gathereth her foode, she striketh
them vp by an admirable instinct of nature, as
sharp as pinnes or needles : these are haire at
the beginning, but afterwards grow to be prickles,
which is the lesse to be maruelled at, because
there be Mise in Egypt which haue haire like
Hedgehogs. His meate is Apples, Wormes, and
Grapes. When he findeth Apples or Grapes on
the earth he rowleth himselfe vppon them, vntill
he haue filled all his prickles, and then carrieth
them home to his den. And if it fortun that one
of them fall off by the way, he likewise shaketh
off all the residue and waloweth vpon them
afresh vntill they all be settled vpon his backe
againe, so foorthe he goeth, makyng a noyse like
a cartwrheele. And if there be any young ones in

The Urcheon a Beaste of Witte. 169

his nest they pull off his load wherewithall he is
loaded, eating thereof what they please, and
laying uppe the residue for the time to come."

In the "Workes of Armorie " of Bossewell,
published some thirty years or so before Topsell's
book, we find an account so similar that we may
conclude that some one or other wrote a sketch
of the hedgehog that was considered so
satisfactory that it became the nucleus for
anybody else who wanted to deal with the
subject. " The little Hiricion, with his sharpe
pykes, is almost the least of all other Beastes.
And of vs Englishmen he is termed an Irchin
or Urcheon, a beast so-called for the roughness
and sharpnesse of his pykes, which nature hath
giuen him in steade of haire. And such hys pykes
couereth his skinne, as the haire doth the other
beaste's, and be his weapon or armour wherewith
he pricketh and greeveth them that take or touch
him. He is a beaste of witte and good puruciance,
for he clymeth vpon a Vine or an Apple tree,
and biteth of their branches and twiggs, and
when they be fallen doune he waloweth on them,
and so they sticke to his prickles, and he beareth
them into a hollow tree, or some other hole, and
keepeth them for meate for himselfe and his
young ones. If after he is so charged there happe
any to fal from his pricks, then for indignation
he throweth from his backe all the other and
eftsoones returneth to the tree to charge him
againe of newe."

These two old authors both refer, too, to the
belief that the hedgehog had distinct gifts as a

170 Natural History Lore and Legend.

wind and weather prophet. Bossewell asserts
that "the Urcheon is witty and wise in his know-
ledge of comming of Winds, North and South,
for he changeth his Denne or hole, when he is
ware that such windes come ; " while Topsell has
it that "when they hide themselves in their den
they haue a naturall vnderstanding of the turning
of the wind. They have two holes in their
eaue, the one North, the other South, obseruing
to stop the mouth against the winde, as the
skilful mariner to stiere and turn the rudder and
sailes, for which some haue held opinion that
they do naturally foreknow the change of
weather."

" The hedgehogge hath a sharp quicke thorned garment,
That on his backe doth serue him for defence ;
He can presage the winds incontinent,
And hath good knowledge in the difference
Between the southerne and the northerne wind.
These virtues are allotted him by kind,
Whereon in Constantinople, that great city,
A merchant in his garden gaue one nourishment ;
By which he kne\v that winds true certainty,
Because the hedgehog gaue him just presagement."

So at all events declares Chester in his
<( Love's Martyr " ; and Bodenham in the
" Belvedere, or Garden of the Muses," A.D.
1600, testifies to the same belief in the lines :— *

" As hedgehogs doe foresee ensuinge stormes,
So wise men are for fortune still prepared."

The author of " Poor Robin's Almanack," at
the much more recent date of 1733, takes what
one may consider quite a professional interest

Hedgehog Remedies. 171

in the hedgehog as a weather prophet, and
exclaims : —

" If by some secret art the hedgehog know,
So long before, which way the winds will blow,
She has an art which many a person lacks,
That thinks himself fit to make almanacks."

A remark that is certainly most true, though
for the honour of the craft we should hardly
have expected a calendar-maker to admit as
much.

The medicinal virtues of the hedgehog were
held to be very considerable in the days of faith,
and some of the preparations were abominably
nasty. " The flesh being stale," says one of
these old authorities, " giuen to a madde man
cureth him." Putrid hedgehog fetched out of a
ditch and given as food or medicine to a man I
The flesh salted, dried, beaten to a powder and
then drank in vinegar was held in high repute as
a remedy for dropsy, and for " Leprosie, the
Crampe, and all sicknesse in the nerves," and
the fat beaten up with honey was deemed an
excellent strengthener for a weak voice.

Topsell states that " the left eie of a Hedgehog
being fried with oyle, yealdeth a liquor which
causeth sleep, if it bee infused into the eares with
a quill. Warts of al sorts are likewise taken
away by the same. If the right eie be fryedwith
the oile of lineseed and put in a vessel! of red
brasse, and afterward anoint his eies therewith,,
as with an eie-salue, he shal see as well in the
darke as in the light." The distinction is often
a very important one in these old recipes

172 Natural History Lore and Legend.

between left or right, hind leg or front, male
or female, and the like, and an error in any of
these details completely upsets all hope of any
benefit being derived ; thus we see in this last
receipt that a man might fry the left eye for ever,
and never get any nearer the gift of nocturnal
vision. In the same way "tenne sprigs of Laurell,
seauen graines of Pepper, and the skin of the
ribs of an hedgehog dryed and beaten, cast into
three cups of water and warmed, so being drunk
of one that hath the Collicke, and let rest, he
shall be in perfect health ; but with this excep-
tion, that for a man it must bee the membrane of
a male hedgehog, and for a woman a female."

Porta declares that the ancients made their
hair growr by using the ashes of a land-hedgehog.
As no one ever heard of a water-hedgehog this
stipulation seems almost needlessly precise. In
another recipe we are told to " take the body of
a hedgehog burnt to powder,* and if you adde
thereto Beares-grease it will restore unto a bald
man his heade of haire againe, if the place be
rubbed vntil it be ready to bleed." Bear's grease
pure and simple has long had a reputation
amongst hair-dressers, and if this be as potent
as they would have us believe, the rest of the

* A mole skinned, dried in the oven, and then powdered, was
held in the fen districts to be a specific for ague. It may still
be in vogue — it certainly was in use twenty years ago. The mole
must be a male. As much of the powder as would lie on a
shilling was to be taken every day, for nine days, in gin. Nine
days were then to be omitted, and then the remedy was to be
resumed for nine days, by which time a cure was supposed to
be effected.

When Venison should be avoided. 173

prescription can scarcely claim much of the
credit. The writer adds that " some mingle red
Snailes," but this is clearly optional, and we
should certainly avail ourselves of the option.

Epilepsy was to be cured by wearing a ring
in which a portion of the hoof of a deer was
enclosed. It may interest anyone with a par-
tiality for venison to know that u Deer's flesh that
is catcht in Summer is poyson ; because then
they feed on Adders and serpents : these are
venemous creatures, and by eating of them they
grow thirsty ; and this they know naturally, for
if they drink before they have digested them
they are killed by them ; wherefore they will
abstain from water, though they burn with thirst.
Wherefore Stag's flesh eaten at that time is
venemous and very dangerous." Shakespeare
refers to the weeping of the deer, and tells
how

" The big round tears

Cours'd one another down his innocent nose
In piteous chace."

It was an old belief that the deer wept every year
for the loss of their horns, " a likeness of those who

frieve for the loss of their worldly possessions,
o, too, should a penitent and watchful sinner not
cease to weep when he is overtaken." This
straining after a moral, as we have already seen,
is a very marked feature amongst the old writers.
Sometimes the moral sentiment flows fairly
naturally, but more often it is terribly laboured.
Thus, for example, we read that " the ferret is a
bold and audacious beast (though little), and an

174 Natural History Lore and Legend.

•enemie to all other, and when they take a prey
their custome and manner is onely to suck the
blond as they bite it, and not to eat the flesh •
and if at any time their prey shall be taken from
them they fall a squeaking and crying. Such are
the rich men of this world, who yell and crie out
when they part with their riches, weeping and
wailing for the losse of such things as they have
hunted after with as much greedinesse as want of
pitie."

In like manner we learn that " when the
Squirrell is hunted she cannot be driven to the
ground, unlesse extremitie of faintnesse cause
her to do so through an unwilling compulsion,
for such is the stately mind of this little beast
that while her limbes and strength lasteth she
tarrieth and saveth herself in the tops of tall
trees, disdaining to come down for every harm
•or hurt which she feeleth ; knowing, indeed, her
greatest danger to rest below amongst the dogs
and busie hunters. From whence maybe gathered
a perfect pattern for us, to be secured from all
the wiles and hungrie chasings of the treacherous
devil : namely, that we keep above in the loftie
palaces of heavenlie meditations, for there is
small securitie in things on earth ; and greatest
ought to be our fear of danger, when we leave
to look and think of heaven."

The fabulists and moralists of ancient and
mediaeval days regarded animals as so much raw
material to be modelled into whatever form best
.suited their ends. They were little, if at all,
concerned in giving a true picture of animal life,

Animals in art and fable. 175

but used the various creatures in such conven-
tional and allegorical way as most readily adapted
itself to the moral or political end in view in their
writings. Art has often pursued much the same
course, and instead of giving us the real animal
nature has introduced an entirely foreign element,
and represented the creatures as swayed by purely
human considerations. ^Esop and La Fontaine
make the animals speak as though they were
influenced by human feelings and motives, while
Landseer, for example, in some of his noble
pictures employs his dogs and other animals to
simulate humanity, as in " Laying Down the
Law," " Alexander and Diogenes," and other
well-known works of the master. The result
is quaint, grotesque, delicious, humorous ; but
these law-givers, philosophers, and so forth, are
canine in form alone, and are but puppets
acting a part that is a good-natured satire on
humanity.

It was a very old belief that when the wild
boar was hunted its tusks grew so hot in its rage
and excitement as to actually burn the dogs if
they came within the terrible sweep of them.
Xenophon tells us in his description of the chase
of the boar that hairs laid upon the tusks shrivel
up even after the brute is slain. This belief has
been handed down from generation to generation
of writers on so-called natural history, and even
in a book in our possession, published in London
in 1786, we find the statement only very slightly
qualified by a preliminary " it is said." " It is
said that when this creature is hunted down his

176 Natural History Lore and Legend.

tusks are so inflamed that they will burn and
singe the hair of the dogs." Shakespeare says
that the "ireful boar" does not even fear the
lion, and Guillim says that " he is counted the
most absolute Champion amongst Beasts, for
that he hath weapons to wound his foe, which
are his strong and sharp Tusks, and also his
Target to defend himself: for which he useth
oft to rub his shoulders and sides against Trees,
wherewith to harden them against the stroke of
his Adversary."

Herbert states in his book of travels that there
are on the African coast, opposite Madagascar,
vast herds of wild swine that are greatly esteemed
by the natives of those parts, not only for their
flesh, but more especially for a stone that is
found often within them, which is "very soveraign
against poison." The Spaniards, he tells us, call
it Pietro del Porco. The virtue of this stone is
supposed to arise from their feeding upon certain
medical herbs.

The ermine was believed to prefer death to
defilement, and if placed within a wall or ring of
mud, would kill itself rather than contaminate its
spotless fur. It is on this account that ermine is
selected as the robe of prince and judge — an
emblem of unspotted purity. Beaumont and
Fletcher, in their " Knight of Malta," refer to
this in the line : —

"Whose honour, ermine-like, can never suffer spot."

In a portrait of Queen Elizabeth at Hatfield,
an ermine is represented as running up her

Instances of Sagacity in Birds. 177

arm, as a delicate compliment to the Virgin
Queen.

It was reported that goats see as well by night
as by day, hence those people who are unable to
see after dark can be cured of their infirmity by
eating the liver of a goat ; while for those who
suffered from insomnia no remedy was held in
better repute than the horn of a goat : this
placed beneath the head of the patient speedily
brought refreshing sleep. Porta affirms that
" goats, when their eyes are blood-shotten, let
out the blood ; the she-goat by the point of a
bullrush, the he-goat by the pricking of a thorn."
Such examples of animal sagacity have a great
attraction for this old author, and he gives many
instances in support of his contention, that
11 living creatures, though they have no under-
standing, yet their senses are quicker than ours,
and by their actions they teach us Physick,
Husbandry, the art of Building, the disposing of
Household Affairs, and almost all Arts and
Sciences. The beasts that have no reason, do by
their nature strangely shun the eyes of witches
and hurtfull things; the Doves, for a preservative
against inchantment, first gather some little
Bay-tree boughs, and then lay them upon their
nests to preserve their young ; so do the Kites
use brambles, the Turtles swordgrasse, the Crows
withy, the Lapwings Venus-hair, the Ravens ivy,
the Herns carrot, the Blackbirds myrtle, the
Larkes grasse, for the same purpose. In lyke
manner they have shewed us preservatives against
poysons ; the Elephant having by chance eaten a

12

178 Natural History Lore and Legend.

Chameleon, against the poyson thereof eats of
the wilde Olive ; the Tortoise, having eaten a
Serpent, dispels the poyson by eating the herb
Origan. There is a kind of Spider which destroy eth
the Harts, except permitting they eat wilde Ivy;
and whensoever they light upon any poysonous
food they cure themselves with the artichoke ;
and against Serpents they prepare and arm them-
selves with wilde Parsneps." We need not
further pursue matters with our author. Suffice
it to say, that he brings forward an enormous
number of examples, and amply proves his case
to his satisfaction, as indeed he should have no
difficulty in doing, when it is once understood
that facts are of secondary importance.

One strange notion of antiquity was that the
blood of the goat wrould dissolve the diamond.
The statement is found in Pliny, Solinus,
Albertus, Cyprian, Isidore, and many other
writers, right away down to comparatively
recent days. Legh, for instance, states, without
hesitation, " The Diamonde, which neither iron
nor fier wil daunt, the blond of the gote softneth
to the breaking." Maundevile, of course, receives
it as an undoubted truth; while even Browne
writes: " We hear it in every mouth, and in many
good Authors reade it, that a Diamond, which is
the hardest of stones, not yeelding unto Steele,
Emery or any other thing, is yet made soft and
broke by the bloud of a Goat."

That things are not always what they seem
must have been a mere truism in the Middle Ages,
Thus Aubrey in his " Remains of Gentilisme an<~

The Treachery of the Shrew-mouse. 179

Judaism," introduces the goat in an entirely new
character. "A conceit there is that ye devil
commonly appeareth with a cloven hoof, wherein
though it seem excessively ridiculous there may
be something of truth, and ye ground at first
might be his frequent appearing in the shape of
a goat, which answers that description. This
was the opinion of ancient Xtians concerning ye
apparition of Fauns and Satyrs. The devil most
often appears in the shape of a goat, nor did he
only assume this shape in olden times, but com-
monly in later times, especially in ye place of his
worship, if there be any truth in the confession of
witches. And therefore a goat is not improperly
made an hieroglyphic of ye devil."

The shrew-mouse, one of the most inoffensive
of creatures, was by our ancestors held to be of
terribly poisonous nature. Its bite was thought to
be most venomous, and even contact with it in any
way was accounted extremely dangerous. Cattle
and horses seized with any malady that appeared
to cause any numbness of the legs were at once
reputed shrew-struck. " It is a ravening beast,"
quoth Topsell, " feigning itself gentle and tame,
but being touched it biteth deep and poysoneth
deadly. It beareth a cruel ininde, desiring to
hunt anything, neither is there any creature that
it loveth." On whatever limb it crept was
11 cruel anguish," often ending in paralysis. These
calumnies have prevailed in many countries and
for many ages, the Romans being as firmly con-
\inced of the deadly nature of the shrew-mouse, as
any British rustic of a century ago. The shrew-

12 *

i8o Natural History Lore and Legend.

mouse, according to the author of the " Speculum
Mundi," "hath a long and sharp snout like a
mole. In Latine it is called Mus araneus,
because it containeth in it poison or venime like
a spider, and if at any time it bite either man or
beast the truth of this will be too apparent. But
commonly it is called a Shrew-mouse, and from
the venimous biting of this beast we have an
English imprecation, I beshrew thee ; in which
words we do, indeed, wish some such evil. And
again, because a curst scold or brawling wife is
esteemed none of the least evils ; we, therefore,
call such a one a Shrew." Hence Shakespeare,
dealing with such a character, entitled one of his
plays the Taming of the Shrew.

Happily there was a certain antidote against the
evil wrought by this malevolent beast. A large
ash-tree being chosen, a deep hole was made in its
trunk, and after certain incantations were made
a shrew-mouse was thrust alive into the opening,
and the hole securely plugged. " A shrew-ash,"
says Gilbert White in his " Natural History of
Selborne," " is an ash whose twigs or branches,
when gently applied to the limbs of cattle, will
immediately relieve the pain which a beast
suffers from the running of a shrew-mouse over
the part affected. Against this accident, to which
they were continually liable, our provident fore-
fathers always kept a shrew-ash at hand, which
when once medicated would maintain its virtue
for ever." One of these shrew-ashes, now but
fragment of what was evidently once a massive
stately tree, may still be seen near the Shee]

Famous horses of Antiquity. 181

Gate in Richmond Park, and there are those still
living who can remember cattle and horses being
brought to it for its healing virtues.

The horse does not seem to have so much un-
natural history associated with him as we might
have anticipated, such stories as that of the
feeding of the horses of Diomed with human
flesh, or of the milk-white steed, Al Borak, of
Mohammed, each of whose strides was equal
to the furthest range of human vision, being
altogether fabulous and mythical. Diomed, the
tyrant of Thrace, seems to have held out very
little encouragement to immigrants or wandering
tourists, if the legend be true that he utilized
them as fodder.

" Here such dire welcome is for thee prepared
As Diomed's unhappy strangers shared ;
His hapless guests at silent midnight bled,
On their torn limbs his snorting coursers fed."*

One meets with many famous steeds in classical
and mediaeval literature, but these, of course, are
individual examples of the race, and anything
told of them can scarcely be considered as
testifying to the general though erroneous
notions entertained on the subject of horses
generally. The horse Bayard, for example, the
property of the four Sons of Aymon, had a most
useful peculiarity in that he grew larger or
smaller in fair proportion to his rider, according
as the big stalwart brother of six feet high, or
the little fellow not yet in his teens got astride
him. One of the horses of Achilles is said to

* The " Lusiad " 5 Camoens.

1 82 Natural History Lore and Legend.

have announced to his master his impending
death. It is sufficiently evident that expanding,
contracting, and talkative horses are altogether
outside the ordinary pale.

According to a small manuscript of the twelfth
century, called "Mappae clavicula," "if oxen drink
first, then there will be enough water for both
oxen and horses : but if the horses drink first
there will not be sufficient either for horses or
oxen." Horses are afraid of elephants until
they get used to them, and there is also some
little antipathy between camels, bears and horses.
Porta declares that " Horses will burst if they
tread upon the Wolf's footing. If Drums be
made of an Elephant, Camel, or Wolves skin,
and one beat them, the Horses will then run
away and dare not stand. By the same reason, if
you will drive away Bears, a Horse hath a capital
hatred with a Bear : he will know his enemy
that he never saw before, and presentlie provide
himself to fight with him, and I have heard that
Bears have been driven away in the Wildernesse
by the sound of a Drum, when it was made of
Horse's skin."

It has for centuries been a belief in many parts
of the country that the hairs from a horse's tail,
when dropped in the water, become endued
with life, and turn into small eels. A horsehair
tied round a wart has been held to be of potent
efficacy for its removal ; and horsehair spread on
bread and butter has been prescribed as a remedy,
even in quite recent times, for worms. Foi
sciatica, according to one Dr. Floyer, once on a

Winstanley* s Book of Knowledge. 183

time one of the shining lights of the medical pro-
fession, the finest preparation is " the marrow of
a horse (kill'd by chance, not dying of any
disease) mixed with some rose-water. Chafe it in
with a warme hand for a quarter of an houre, then
putt on a Scarlett cloth, broad enough to cover
ye part affected, and go into a warme Bed." As
personal experience is so valuable in all such
cases, he adds : u It cured my Aunt Lakes, who
went yearly to the Bath for ye Sciatica, but
never went after she knew and used this
medicine."

In Winstanley's "Book of Knowledge," a book
that went through several editions (our copy we
see is dated 1685),* he deals with many strange
matters, and gives receipts for various extra-
ordinary requirements : to make men seem
headless, to make it that men shall not find the
door, and so forth ; but amongst rather more
reasonable items we find, " to make one dance."
The modus operandi is sufficiently simple, though
perhaps a trifle disgusting ; it is as follows : —
u Cut the Hoof of a Horse in pieces, seethe it
with Oyl and anoint the Table or any other

* Published therefore in the reign of Charles II., " Our most
undoubted and lawful King." We have most of us formed air
opinion on the character of this wearer of the spotless ermine;
and the fulsome verse of Winstanley, written, not when the
reign was commencing and the national hopes were high, but
as it neared its end, is somewhat startling: —

" Long may he live who now doth wear the Crown
To tread all Heresies and Schismes down.
Great God, let not his prayers e'er return empty,
But Crown his Head with Years and Years with plenty/

184 Natural History Lore and Legend.

place, and lay his head thereon, when you would
have him to dance." Such is a sample of the
best that this storehouse of knowledge could
yield to those who sought its help.

Horse-shoes were at one time often nailed on
doors as a protection against witches and malig-
nant spirits, and " The horse-shoe nailed, each
threshold's guard"* may often still be seen on
old country houses. John Aubrey, writing some
two hundred years ago, says : " Most houses at
the West End of London have a horse-shoe on
the threshold." Dwellers in town, however, have
not the same dread of the mysterious as the more
lonely dwellers in the country, though many a
man who is brave enough on the gas-lighted
pavement would feel a little " creepy " when the
shrill scream of a trapped hare, or the wild cry
of the peewit, broke upon the stillness of the
night and found him in some country lane or on
the open downland. It is a firm article of belief,
however, with all who have faith in the efficacy
of the horse-shoe that it must be picked up, not
bought. Whatever virtue may reside in one
that is found is wholly wanting in one that is
purchased.

The humble donkey has its share of quaint
associations. The conspicuous cross upon its
back is popularly supposed to date from the
day that our Saviour rode in Jerusalem upon an
ass. It is, however, more probable that the
ass that brayed and browsed in Eden bore a
similar mark.

* Gay's Fables.

Evil Spirit in Donkey. 185

Amongst the ancient Egyptians the ass was
dedicated to the evil spirit Typho, and once a
year, if we may believe Plutarch, the people
sacrificed an ass to this foul deity by hurling it
over a precipice. The people of Lycopolis carried
their antipathy so far that they excluded the
trumpet from their festivals and military service
from a fancy that its sound was a little too
suggestive of the asinine vocal performances.
The asses of the East are of a more tawny
colour than those with which we are familiar
in England ; as this red tint was associated in
people's minds with a creature devoted to the
Evil One, it was but a step further to ascribe an
evil association to the colour itself ; hence
anyone who was so unfortunate as to have an
especially ruddy countenance, or a more than
usually deep shade of red in the hair, was at
once held to be in an uncomfortably close
relationship with Typho. The dun-colour of
our British specimens gave them their name.
Chaucer, for instance, calls the donkey the dun,
as we may see in the " Canterbury Tales "
"Dun is in the mire."

According to De Thaun, " The wild Ass, when
March in its course has completed twenty-five
days, brays twelve times, and also in the night,
for this reason, that that season is the equinox —
days and nights are of equal length. By the
twelve times that it makes its braying and
crying it shows that night and day have twelve
hours in their circuit. The ass is grieved when
he makes his cry that the night and the day have

1 86 Natural History Lore and Legend.

equal length, for he likes better the length of the
night than of the day." One can only read such
an extract as this with a feeling of utter wonder ;
in the first place, how De Thaun could believe
such a thing himself, and in the second place,
how he could expect anyone else to do so. The
•exact accuracy of the wild ass as to the day of the
month, and his twelvefold bray of regret as each
recurring year brings it round again, are triumphs
of the imaginative faculty. We may probably
infer that when the twenty-ninth day of Sep-
tember has come round again the balance is
redressed, hope springs again, and the twelve
brays this time are of a peculiarly jubilant and
sonorous character.

Asses' hair was in the Middle Ages held to be
a sterling remedy for ague, though one must have
been credulous indeed to try it. It is interesting
more especially perhaps as a foreshadowing of
that doctrine of homoeopathy which deals with
the cure of like by like. Great healing powers
are attributed to the hairs from the cross on the
donkey's back : hairs cut from it and suspended
in a bag round a child's neck were a potent
influence in the prevention of fits and convulsions.
Another famous remedy was the cure of whooping
cough by passing the sufferer three times under
the belly and three times over the back of a
donkey. In Sussex a standard remedy for the
same distressing complaint was procured by cut-
ting some of the hair out of the cross, chopping it
up finely, and spreading it on bread and butter
for the breakfast of the patient ; while in Dorset-

Dog howling an evil Omen. 187

shire prevention was rightly considered better
than cure, and though the rustics may have
doubted the efficacy of vaccination as a remedy
against small-pox, they had no hesitation what-
ever in getting their children astride on the
donkey's back as early as possible as a preventa-
tive to their ever catching whooping cough.
One meets with remedy after remedy of the
same general nature, and all owing their efficacy
to some mysterious connection between this
particular complaint and donkey-hair, but what
this occult influence can be is wholly unknown
to us.

The old herald, Legh, says of the ass — "As-
he is not the wisest so is he the least sumptuous,
especially in his diet, for his feeding is on
Thistles, Nettles, and Briers, and therefore small
birdes hate him, especially the Sparrowe is most
enemie unto him," as they see him stolidly
devouring the plants that they visit for their own
sustenance. The ancient author with ponderous
humour finishes his account of the ass by
saying, " I could write much of this beast, but
that it wolde be thought it were to mine owne
glorie."

The dog, the friend and companion of man, was
said to see ghosts, and their howling at untoward
times portended death or conflagration or some
such grave event, and has, therefore, for many
centuries been held of evil omen, and no doubt
in remote country districts the feeling still remains.
The cries were said to be often in terror of sights
invisible to man. Rabbi Menachem declares in

1 88 Natural History Lore and Legend.

his exposition of the Pentateuch that " when the
Angel of Death enters into a city the dogs do
howl,"* and he records an instance of a dog that
fled in terror from before the angel, and that some-
one kicked it back and it died, but whether from
the effects of a too vigorous kick, or from being
thrust into the path of the destroying angel, he
does not venture to pronounce.

If a child has w^hooping cough some of its
hair must be placed between slices of bread and
given to a dog. Should the dog cough, as he
most probably will, it is an indication that the
disease has passed from the child to the dog.
The same idea may be seen in the old custom of
giving some of the hair of anyone attacked with
scarlet fever to a donkey. Should the animal
swallow it the disease was supposed then and
there to pass from the one ass to the other.

Coles, in his "Art of Simpling," says that "the
herb called Hound's tongue will tye the Tongues
of Houndes, so that they shall not bark at you,
if it be laid under the bottom of your foot." A
little hare's fur somewhere about the person was
held to be equally valuable, and no doubt it was.
One authority hath it that a dog will not bark if
another dog's tongue be carried under the great
toe, and the carryingof a dog's heart in one's pocket
is another capital idea to the same end. "The tail
of a young Wheezel put under your foot is also

* " In the Rabbinical book it saith the dogs howl when with
icy breath Great Sammael, the Angel of Death, takes through the
town his flight." — LONGFELLOW, Golden Legend.

Remedies for Hydrophobia. 189

recommended," and if none of these methods are
available, the dog may be equally well silenced
by giving him a frog to eat, artfully secreted in a
piece of meat.

During the Middle Ages it was held that the
head of a mad dog pounded up and drank in
wine was a specific for jaundice. If, on the
other hand, the head was burnt and the powdered
ashes put to a cancer, it was held a sure remedy,
and, naturally, on the homoeopathic principle of
like to like, these ashes, if given to a man who
had been bitten by a rabid dog, "casteth out all
the venom and the foulness, and healeth the
maddening bites." The liver of the dog was
equally efficacious. A gipsy preventative of
hydrophobia was to take some hairs from the dog
that gave the bite, a very risky operation by the
way, and fry them in oil, applying them with
a little green rosemary to the wound. To eat
churchyard grass* was esteemed also a good
thing in the case of anyone bitten by a rabid
dog. So lately as the year 1866 it came out at
the inquest held on the body of a child that had
died of hydrophobia, that one of the relatives
fished up out of the river the dead body of the
dog that had done the mischief, in order that its
liver might be cooked and eaten by the child.
In spite of this the patient died.

It was held that if a cat were in a cart, a state

of things that need rarely happen one would

.imagine, the horses would soon tire if the wind

T * The batter made from the milk of a cow fed in a church-
yard was held to be a potent remedy for consumption.

190 Natural History Lore and Legend.

blew from Pussy to them, and that in like manner
the steed would soon flag that was ridden by
a man who had any cat's fur in his dress, and that
anyone swallowing the hair of a cat would be
subject to fainting fits. On the other hand, it
was believed that nothing was better as a cure
for whitlow than to put the ailing finger for a
quarter of an hour each day into the ear of a
cat. Anything that touches a cat's ear is received
with such marked disfavour that we imagine this
remedy is simply unworkable, as the cat would
never be a consenting party. Three drops of
blood from a cat's tail were held to be a cure for
epilepsy, while a sovereign remedy for those who
would preserve their sight was to burn the head
of a black cat to ashes, and then blow a little of
the dust three times a day into the eyes. This,
we imagine, should rather be classed amongst
the methods of injuring the sight.

To cure a stye our forefathers had great faith
in rubbing it with hairs from a cat's tail,* two
essential points being that the cat should be a
black one, and that the operation should take
place on the first night of the new moon ; but to
cure warts the hairs must be taken from the tail
of a tortoiseshell cat, and even then the remedy
is only efficacious during the month of May.
Another strange belief was that a cat having
three colours in its fur was a great protection
against fire. It is an old idea that the brains

* As this led to vigorous protests from the cat, and very possi-
bly a good scratching, a gold ring or coin was often substituted,
and found to be equally beneficial.

Cats as Storm-raisers. 191

of cats are of destructive malignity, and that
anyone desiring to quietly get rid of an enemy
has only to invite him to a repast in which some
of the delicacies have an imperceptible fragment
of this poison added.

Cats see well by night, and were often, and
especially black ones, believed to be the witches'
familiars, and therefore regarded with fear and
aversion. It was held that they had power to
raise a gale, and on board ship the malevolent
disposition with which they were credited has
made them in an especial degree unpopular ship-
mates. Pussy was thought to particularly provoke
a storm by playing with any article of wearing
apparel, by rubbing her face, or by licking her
fur the wrong way ; she was sheltered from
rough usage however by the belief that provok-
ing her would bring a gale, while drowning her
would cause a regular tempest. In Germany
there is a belief that anyone who makes a cat his.
enemy will be attended at his funeral by rats,
and heavy rain. As cats see well by night, and
are given to wandering abroad at unholy hours,
they were connected with the baleful influences
of the moon. Freye, the Norse goddess, was
attended by cats, and Friday, her especial day>
was always considered unlucky. The ruffling of
the water by the rising wind is called a cat's paw,
and cats are said to smell a coming gale, while all
must be familiar with that tempestuous state of
affairs known as " raining cats and dogs." In
Cornwall, and on some other parts of the coast,
the people say that a spectral dog, called Shony,

192 Natural History Lore and Legend.

is sometimes seen, and that this always predicts a
storm.

Some persons have a marked antipathy to cats.
Henry III. of France fainted if he caught sight
of one, and Napoleon I. had almost as strong a
feeling and failing. Shylock, in the Merchant
of Venice it will be remembered, says :—

" Some men there are that love not a gaping pig,
Some that are mad if they behold a cat."

It is well known that cats have a wonderful
knack of falling on their feet, and they are so
tenacious of life that they are ordinarily credited
with having nine lives, though it is proverbially
held that care will kill even a cat. Not only
does Shakespeare refer to cat-lore in Macbeth
in " the poor cat i' the adage," but in Romeo and
Juliet this old belief in the strong hold that
Pussy has on life is distinctly referred to in the
first scene of the third act : —

" What would'st thou have with me?
Good king of cats, nothing but one of your nine lives."

The cat again appears in the legend of the
indomitable cats of Kilkenny that fought till a
little fluff was all the record of that sanguinary
struggle, and we have all of us heard of the
special power of facial expression of the cats of
Cheshire.

The Grimalkin of Shakespeare's Macbeth was
one of the witch's familiar spirits, and the cat, the
reputed companion of these unlovely and unloved
personages, often therefore receives this name.

The Cat and his Critic. 193

Vubrey, writing in 1686, tells a story that smacks
strongly of witchcraft and the black cat. " Mrs.
Clarke, a Herefordshire woman, told me," he
says, " to bury the head of a black Catt with a
Jacobus or a piece of gold in it, and put into
the eies two black beanes (what was to be
done with the beanes she hath forgott), but it
must be done on a Tuesday at twelve o'clock at
night, and that time nine nights after the piece
of gold must be taken out, and whatsoever you
buy with it (always reserving some part of the
money) you will have money brought into your
pockett, perhaps the same piece of gold again."
Unfortunately, he does not seem to have tried
it, so we never learn what success might have

.ttended the experiment.

The description of pussy by Bartholomew
-^.nglicus is most graphic, and is an evident study
^rom the life. " He is a full lecherous beast
?.n youth," saith he, " swift, pliant, and merry, and
peth and reseth on everything that is afore
.1, and is led by a straw and played therewith,
and is a right heavy beast in age and full sleepy,
and lieth slyly in wait for mice, and is aware
\vhere they be more by smell than by sight, and
hunteth and reseth on them in privy places, and
when he taketh a mouse he playeth therewith,
and eateth him after the play. In time of love-
is hard fighting for wives, and one scratcheth and
rendeth the other grievously with biting and with
claws ; and he maketh a rueful noyse and ghast-
ful when one proffereth to fight with another,
and hardly is he hurt when he is thrown down

13

194 Natural History Lore and Legend.

off an high place.* And when he hath a fair
skin he is, as it were, proud thereof, and goeth
fast about, and is oft for his fair skin taken of the
skinner and slain and flayed. "f This is clearly
the description of a close and accurate observer.

The description in the " Speculum Mundi,"
though much shorter, is almost equally happy.
" The common or vulgar Cat is a creature well
known, and being young it is very wanton and
sportfull: but wraxing older is very sad and
melancholy. It is called a Cat from the Latine
word signifying wary, for a Cat is a watch-
full and warie beast, seldome overtaken, and
most attendant to her sport and prey." John
Bossewell says of the cat that " he is slie and
wittie and seeth so sharply that he overcommeth
darknesse of the nyghte by the shynynge lyghte
of his eyne. He doth delighte that he enjoyethi
his libertie." Men may come and men may go,.'
but cat-nature is evidently unchanging.

Cats naturally suggest rats and mice. It was'
an ancient belief that these sprang spontaneously
from any mass of putrefaction. " Mice excvil

* " It is also watchful, dextrous, swift, pliable, and has such
good nerves that if it falls from never so high it still lights
upon its feet, and therefore may denote those that have so
much foresight that whatever befalls them they are still upon
their guard." — Coats, A.D. 1747.

f The skin of the cat is the only portion of the animal that
can be turned to any use. According to mediaeval belief,
Satan once thought he could make a man, but only succeeded
in turning out a skinless cat. St. Peter, filled with compassion
for the miserable object, bestowed on it a fur coat, its only
valuable possession, and a queer-tempered beast it has turned out.

Rats deserting the Sinking Ship. 195

all living creatures," writes one of the ancient
authorities, " in the knowledge and experience
of things to come : for when any old house,
habitation, tenement, or other dwelling place
waxeth ruinous and ready to fall, they perceive
it first, and out of that their foresight they make
present avoidance from their holes, and betake
themselves to flight even as fast as their little
legs will give them leave, and so they seek some
other place wherein they may dwell with more
securitie." Our readers will naturally recall the
proverbial belief that rats desert the sinking ship.
Swift, in his epistle to Mr. Nugent, writes of
those that "fly like rats from sinking ships," and
the desertion of the losing side has received the
opprobrious name of " ratting" on this account.

Maundevile, amongst many other wonderful
things that he saw or heard of in his travels,
came to a place where the rats were as large
as dogs ; * requiring great mastiffs for their
capture, as they were altogether beyond the
power of the cats of the place to deal with.
"And ther ben Myse als grete as Houndes,
and yalowe Myse als grete as Ravennes." If
the rats and mice kept the proportion between
their respective sizes that we are familiar with,
and the mice were as big as hounds, we can
readily understand that the rats must have been

* He does not specify what dogs —

" Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel, grim,
Hound, or spaniel, black, or lym,
Or bob-tail tike, or trundle tail,"
though this is clearly not an unimportant detail.

13 *

196 Natural History Lore and Legend.

very formidable creatures indeed, and quite
beyond the power of ordinary terrier or pussy
to cope with.

Jordanus brought home a story of rats in India
as large as foxes. The creatures he saw were
probably bandicoots,* very rat-like animals,
though not quite so big as foxes, even though
the Indian foxes are much smaller than the
species we have in England. A bandicoot is
about twenty-one inches long, full measure,
about five inches of this being tail. According
to Herodotus, it was not the rats that were equal
in size to foxes in India, but the ants. We can
recall an absurd picture of these in one of the
mediaeval natural history books, where a couple
of Europeans stand at a very respectful distance
from a large mound that is covered writh ants as
big as cats, the effect of the ant-form wrhen thus
magnified being very quaint.

It was a very ancient belief that oysters,
mussels, cockles, and all shell fishes grew or
diminished according to the phases of the moon.
" Some have found it out by diligent search that
the fibres in the livers of rats and mice answer
in number to the days of the month's age."
This was really a very curious discovery to
make, or shall we rather say — a very curious
assertion to be responsible for ?

It is impossible to mention a tithe of the
strange facts got together by the industry oJ

* The name is said by Sir E. Tennent, in his <: Natural
History of Ceylon," to be from the Telegu words : Pandi-koku,
the pig-rat.

Wondrous Beasts of Mediceval days. 197

the men of science of the past ; sometimes in-
troducing to our notice the most extraordinary
creatures, at others presenting the most ordinary
creatures in an extraordinary way. What can
we say, for instance, of the Catoblepas, a beast
bred in Lybia, " a fearful and terrible beast to
look upon"? His eyes "very fierie, as it were
of a bloudie colour, and he never useth to look
directly forward, nor upward, but always down
to the earth." He has a long mane and cloven
feet, and his body covered with scales. " As for
his meat, it is deadly and poysonfull herbes, and
he sendeth forth a horrible breath which poy-
soneth the aire over his head and about him,
inasmuch that such creatures as draw in the
breath of that aire are grievously afflicted, and
losing both voice and sight, they fall into deadly
convulsions." What shall we say of the Oryges,
the only beast in creation that has his hair grow-
ing reversed and turning towards the head ? Or
of the Lomie in the forests of Bohemia, "which
hath hanging under its neck a Bladder always
full of scalding water, with which, when she is
hunted, she so tortureth the Dogs that she thereby
maketh her escape " ? Or of the wonderful Bale
of Ethiopia as large as a hippopotamus, and having
horns that he can incline backwards or forwards
at any angle to suit the exigencies of conflict ?
Or of the Manticora, having the face of a man and
the body of a lion, and voice like the blending of
flute and of trumpet ? Or of fifty other creatures
equally extraordinary ? It is painful to think that
such stories were deliberate inventions, and that

198 Natural History Lore and Legend.

knaves devised them and fools accepted them ;
and we must, we believe, conclude that almost
every story had a grain of truth in it, but that
the love of the marvellous, the tendency to ex-
aggeration, the change that took place as the
story travelled, and received almost uncon-
sciously here an additional graphic touch and
there a little more fully developed detail, made
the fully matured statement an entirely different
thing to the modest seed from which it sprang.

We have already encountered many instances
of how the most ordinary creatures are described
in a way that leads one to suppose that the two
great virtues in a naturalist, observation and
experiment, were almost entirely wanting at any
period for the last two thousand years or more.
How else could such a belief as that the badger
has his two legs on one side shorter than the
other two have ever gained credence ? or that
the ram " when he slepeth, from spring-time
till harvest he lyeth on the one side, and from
harvest till spring-time againe on the other
side " ? Or, to travel a little further afield, that
the whiskers of a tiger are mortal poison, causing
men to die mad if given to them in meat ? Or
that the camel is so ashamed of its ugliness that
before drinking in a stream it always fouls the
water so that it may not see the reflection of
itself? Or fifty other statements equally at
variance with the facts ? The respect for those
who by the vigour and uncompromising directness
of their assertions became regarded as great
authorities was so tremendous and all-embracing

Value of Personal Observation. 199

that no one seemed to dare to challenge state-
ments made by them, while the ease and
comfort to subsequent writers of having all
responsibility taken off their own shoulders by
merely copying instead of testing had a fatal
fascination, the result being that many assertions
have had a vigorous vitality for centuries that
could have been readily disproved in a week or
even an hour of honest personal investigation.

CHAPTER IV.

THE phoenix — Various ancient and mediaeval writers thereon —
The Bird of Paradise — The Museum of Tradescant — The
roc — The barnacle goose — The eagle — Its power of gazing
upon the sun — Its keenness of vision — The pelican — The
swan and its death song — A favourite idea with the poets
— Hostility between the swan and the eagle — The ostrich —
Its digestive powers — How its eggs are hatched — The cock
— Antipathy between lion and cock — Cock-broth and cock-
ale for invalids — Incorporation in man of various valued
animal characteristics — The stone alectorius — Animals
haled before the judges for offences against man — The
deadly cockatrice — Cock-crow — The "Armonyeof Byrdes"
— The raven — How it became black — The ravenstone —
The owl — The swallow — Sight to the blind — Oil of swal-
lows as a remedy — The robin and the wren — Their pious
care of the dead — The nightingale — The doctrine of signa-
tures— Thorn-pierced breast — Philomela — The cuckoo —
His voice-restorer — The peacock — Its pride and its shame
— The kingfisher — As a weathercock — Sir Thomas Browne
thereon — Halcyone — Halcyon days — The filial stork — The
cautious cranes.

Though a belief in the phoenix has long since
died away it was for a thousand years or more as
much an article of credence as a swan or an
eagle. As far as we are aware, the first reference
to it is found in the pages of Herodotus, and the
story, as he tells it in the seventy-third chapter
of the second book of his history, was the basis
upon which for centuries a vast superstructure of
fabledom was reared.

Even Tacitus, one of the most cautious and
reliable of authors, seems to have felt no diffi-

The PJ ice nix Myth. 201

culty in believing in the existence of the phoenix.
Erroneous as his account is, we feel at once on
reading it that we have the opinions of one
honestly seeking the truth, a very different sort of
man to such a credulous old fellow, for example,
as Maundevile. Tacitus writes that " in the course
of the year* the miraculous bird known to the
world by the name of the phcenix, after disappear-
ing for a series of ages, revisited Egypt. A
phenomenon so very extraordinary could not fail
to produce abundance of speculation. The facts,
about which there seems to be a concurrence of
opinions, with other circumstances in their nature
doubtful, yet worthy of notice, will not be un-
welcome to the reader. That the phcenix is
sacred to the Sun, and differs from the rest of
the feathered species in the form of its head and
the tincture of its plumage, are points settled by
the naturalist. Of its longevity the accounts are
various. The common persuasion is that it lives
five hundred years, though by some writers the
date is extended to fourteen hundred and sixty-
one. It is the custom of the phcenix when its
course of years is finished, and the approach of
death is felt, to build a nest in its native clime,
Arabia, and there deposit the principles of life,
from which a new progeny arises. The first care
of the young bird, as soon as fledged and able to
trust to its wings, is to perform the obsequies
of its father. But this duty is not undertaken
rashly. He collects a great quantity of myrrh,
and to try his strength, makes frequent excur-

* A.U.C. 787, equivalent to A.D. 34.

2O2 Natural History Lore and Legend.

sions with a load on his back. When he has
made his experiment through a great tract of
air, and gains sufficient confidence in his own
vigour, he takes up the body of his father and
flies with it to the Altar of the Sun, where he
leaves it to be consumed in flames of fragrance.
Such is the account of this wonderful bird. It
has, no doubt, a mixture of fable ; but that the
phoenix from time to time appears in Egypt
seems to be a fact satisfactorily ascertained."

Pliny feels no difficulty in describing the
phoenix, declaring that it is about the size of
an eagle, the neck being of a golden sheen, the
body purple, and the tail of an azure blue, though
he admits feeling a doubt as to whether it can be
true that only one is in existence at one time.
According to Maundevile, " he hathe a Crest of
Fedres upon his Hed more gret than the Poocok
hathe, and his Nekke is yalowe aftre colour of
an Orielle, that is a Ston well schynynge, and his
Bek is coloured Blew, and his Wenges ben of
purpre colour, and the Taylle is yelow and red.
And he is a fulle fair Brid to loken upon, for he
schynethe full nobely." One wonders at first
how this old writer is" able to give such very
precise details, but as he tells us that " this Bryd
men sene often tyme fleen in the Countrees," he
would have no difficulty in getting a full descrip-
tion of it from some of these countrymen to
whom it was a familiar sight.

Maundevile does not fail in his book of
" Voiage and Travaile " to recite the whole
wonderful story. He tells us that " in Egypt is

71ie Phoenix Myth. 203

the Cytee of Elyople,* that is to seyne, the
Cytee of the Sonne. In that Cytee there is a
Temple made round, after the schappe of the
Temple of Jerusalem. The Prestes of that
Temple have alle here Wrytynges, under the
Date of the Foul that is clept Fenix, and there
is non but one in alle the Worlde. And he
comethe to brenne him selfe upon the Awtre of
the Temple at the end of five hundred Yeer :
for so longe he lyvethe. And at the five
hundred Yeres ende the Prestes arrayen here
Awtere honestly and putten there upon Spices
and Vif Sulphur and other thinges that wolm
brenne lightly. And then the Bryd Fenix
comethe and brenneth him self to Ashes. And
the first Day aftre Men fynden in the Ashes a
Worm ; and the seconde Day next aftre Men
finden a Brid quyk and perfyt ; and the thridde
Day next aftre he fleethe his wey. And so there
is no more Briddes of that Kynde in alle the
World but it alone."

This belief in the phoenix is found not only
through heathen and mediaeval literature, but in
the Rabbinical writings, and those of the early
Fathers of the Christian Church. By these latter
it was accepted as a symbol of the resurrection
of the dead, and it may not unfrequently
be found figured in the mosaics that adorn
the basilicas of the primitive Church. The
Rabbins tell us that all the birds, save the
phoenix, shared in the sin of Eve, and eat of the
forbidden fruit ; hence the phoenix, as a reward,

* Heliopolis.

204 Natural History Lore and Legend.

obtained this modified form of immutability.
Philippe de Thaun, in his " Bestiary," writes of
the mystic bird : " Know this is its lot ; it comes
to death of its own will, and from death it comes
to life : hear what it signifies. Phoenix signifies
Jesus, Son of Mary, that he had power to die of
his own will, and from death came to life. Phoenix
signifies that to save his people he chose to suffer
upon the cross." " God knew men's unbelief,"
writes St. Cyril, " and therefore provided this
bird as evidence of the Resurrection." St.
Ambrose says, too, that " the bird of Arabia
teaches us, by its example, to believe in the
Resurrection." Other passages of like tenour
could be quoted from Tertullian and others of
the writers of the early Christian Church, and all
alike show the most unquestionable belief in the
existence of the bird.*

It was suggested by Cuvier that at remote
intervals a golden pheasant from China- might
have strayed as far west as Arabia or Egypt, and
given rise to the legend ; but gorgeous as the
bird is, and fully capable of making a considerable
sensation on its appearance in a land where it
was previously unknown, one feels that such an
appearance goes but a very little way indeed
towards clearing up the mass of myth that still
remains to be some way accounted for.

* Even so comparatively recently as the time of Maundevilt
we meet with the same symbolic significance, as we find this
author declaring that" men may well lykne that Brid unto God
because that there hys no God but on ; and also that oure Loi
aroos fro Dethe to Lyve the thridde Day."

Browne on the Phoenix Story. 205

Browne, in his excellent dissection of the
vulgar errors of his day, approaches the Phoenix
story tenderly, but feels bound to declare against
it, though he rather takes refuge in the Scottish
verdict of " not proven" than slaughters it in
cold blood. " That there is but one Phoenix in
the world," saith he, " which after many hundred
yeares burneth itself, and from the ashes thereof
ariseth up another, is a conceit not new or alto-
gether popular, but of great Antiquity : not only
delivered by humane Authors, but frequently
expressed by holy Writers ; by Cyril, Epiphanius,
and others. All which, notwithstanding, we
cannot presume the existence of this Animall,
nor dare we affirm there is any Phoenix in
Nature. For, first, there \vants herein the
definite test of things uncertain — that is, the
sense of man. For though many writers have
much enlarged hereon, there is not any ocular
describer, or such as presumeth to confirm it
upon aspection. Primitive Authors, from whom
the stream of relations is derivative, deliver
themselves dubiously, and either by a doubtful
parenthesis, or a timorous conclusion, overthrow
the whole relation. As for its unity or conceit
that there should be but one in Nature, it seemeth
not only repugnant unto Philosophy, but also
Holy Scripture, which plainly affirmes there went
of every sort two at least into the Ark of Noah.
Every fowle after his kinde, every bird of every
sort, they went into the Ark, two and two of all
flesh wherein there is the breath of life. It
infringeth the Benediction of God concerning

206 Natural History Lore and Legend.

multiplication. God blessed them, saying Be
fruitfull and multiply and let fowls multiply in
the earth, which terms are not applicable unto
the Phoenix, whereof there is but one in the
world, and no more now living than at the first
benediction. As for longevity that it liveth a
thousand years or more, besides that from im-
perfect observations and rarity of appearance no
confirmation can be made, there may probably
be a mistake in the compute. For the tradition
being very ancient the conceit might have its
originall in times of shorter compute. For if
\ve suppose our present calculation, the Phoenix
no win nature will be the sixtfrom the Creation, and
but in the middle of its years, and, if the Rabbine's
prophecy succeed, it shall conclude its daies not
in its own, but in the last and generall flames."

Some medical enthusiasts held that a bird of
such singular and noble properties must be of
sovereign virtue for the ills of mankind, and did
not hesitate to assign its several healing proper-
ties. On these mistaken individuals Browne
descends heavily. "Surely," quoth he, "they
were not wel-wishers unto Physick or remedies
easily acquired, who derived Medicines from the
Phoenix, as some have done. It is a folly to
finde out remedies that are not recoverable under
a thousand years, or propose the prolonging of
life by that which the twentieth generation may
never behold. More veniable is a dependence
upon the Philosopher's stone, potable gold, or
any of those Arcanas whereby Paracelsus, that
died himself at fourty seven, gloried that he

The Phcenix of the Poets. 207

could make men immortall, which, although
exceedingly difficult, yet they are not impossible :
nor doe they (rightly understood) impose any
violence on Nature. And, therefore, if strictly
taken for the Phcenix, very strange is that which
is delivered by Plutarch, that the brain thereof
is a pleasant morsel, but that it causeth the head-
ach." The amount of headache caused by too
free an indulgence in Phcenix must have been
infinitesimal.

The Phcenix may still be considered to have a
literary existence, and remains part of the stock-
in-trade of the orator and poet as an emblem of
something especially choice and rare. Fletcher
writes of

" That lone bird in fruitful Arable,
When now her strength and waning life decays,
Upon some airy rock or mountain high,
In spicy bed (nr'd by near Phoebus' rays)
Herself and all her crooked age consumes :
Straight from her ashes, and those rich perfumes,
A newborn Phoenix flies, and widow'd place resumes."

Ariosto, in his " Orlando Furioso," refers to
the bird in the Voyage of Astolfo in the follow-
ing lines : —

" Arabia, nam'd the happy, now he gains,
Incense and myrrh perfume her grateful plains :
The Virgin Phoenix there in search of rest
Selects from all the world her balmy nest."

In the two foregoing extracts the Phcenix has
been represented as maiden and as widow, and in
the first line of Ariosto the pronoun is masculine,
and in the fourth line feminine. Ovid, and many

208 Natural History Lore and Legend.

other writers, in describing him, her, or it, select
the masculine as the most appropriate. Thus
Ovid, in the translation of Dryden, sings : —

" All these receive their birth from other things,
But from himself the Phoenix only springs :
Self-born, begotten by the parent flame
In which he burn'd, another and the same."

It is needless to give the rest of the reference,
as the ancient poet naturally follows in the lines
of the recognized tradition : the funeral pyre, the
infant Phoenix rising from the ashes, the dutiful
removal of the paternal remains to Heliopolis,
all taking their proper and accustomed place in
the narrative.

Shakespeare frequently refers to the mythical
bird in his writings, and seems to have thoroughly
mastered all that could be said on the subject.
Some half-dozen passages naturally rise to one's
mind as illustrations of this : thus Rosalind savs
in As You Like It : —

" She calls me proud ; and that she could not love me,
Were man as rare as Phoenix."

And the idea of its unique character is again
brought out in Cyinbeline, in the passage " If
she be furnished with a mind so rare, she is alone
the Arabian bird." The destruction of the bird
on its own funeral pyre, and the resurrection of
its successor therefrom, are several times referred
to. Thus in i Henry VI. we read : " But from
their ashes shall be reared a Phcenix that shall
make all France afeared,"andin3 Henry VI. : "My
ashes, as the Phoenix, may bring forth a bird that
will revenge upon you all." Some little doubt

The Bird of Paradise. 209

of its existence at all is suggested by the words
of Sebastian in the Tempest. Now I will
believe

" That there are unicorns : that in Arabia
There is one tree, the Phoenix throne; one Phoenix
At this time reigning there."

Notwithstanding the doubts as to the reality of
this creature that were freely expressed in the
seventeenth century, two feathers that were said
to be from the tail of a Phcenix were amongst
the treasures of Tradescant's Museum.*

It was held a firm article of belief during the
Middle Ages that the Bird of Paradise fed upon
nothing more gross than the dew of Heaven and
the odours of flowers, and that it had no feet, nor
ever rested on earth at all.

" Thou art still that Bird of Paradise
Which hath no feet, and ever nobly flies."

It is a sadly prosaic explanation of this to
recall that its footless condition simply arose
from the fact that the natives of Molucca in
sending the skins to Europe removed the legs

* " I know," writes Izaak Walton, in his " Complete Angler,"
" we islanders are averse to the belief of wonders, but there be
so many strange creatures to be now seen, collected by John
Tradescant, who keeps them carefully and methodically at his
house near to Lambeth. I will tell you some of the wonders
you may now see, and not till then believe, unless you think fit.
You may see there the hog-fish, the dogfish, the dolphin, the coney
fish, the parrot fish, the shark, the poison fish, the sword-fish; and
not only other incredible fish, but you may there see the salaman-
der, several sorts of barnacles, of Solan geese, and the bird of
paradise; such sorts of snakes, and such birds' nests, and of
so various forms, and so wonderfully made, as may beget

14

210 Natural History Lore and Legend.

and feet as needless additions, seeing that the
beauty of the plumage was the reason for their
export.

Tavernier relates that "the Birds of Paradise
come in flocks during the nutmeg season to the
South of India. The strength of the nutmeg
odour intoxicates them, and while they lie in this
state on the earth, the ants eat off their legs."
Saving the last terrible detail and shocking
instance of what may befall those who stray
from the paths of temperance, Moore evidently
adopts this account in Lalla Rookh in the
lines : —

u Those golden birds that in the spicetime drop
About the gardens, drunk with that sweet fruit
Whose scent hath lured them o'er the summer flood."

Literary allusions to the Bird of Paradise
are not unfrequent, and testify to the general
acceptance of the myth that has grown up around
the prosaic facts of the case. Francis Thynne,
in his " Emblemes and Epigrames," A.D. 1600,

wonder and amazement in any beholder." Walton, as an
enthusiastic angler naturally, it will be noted, dwells most upon
the strange fish. Charles I. and his queen, together with Arch-
bishop Laud, and many others of rank and influence, visited the
museum and assisted by contributing to its stores, and we find in
Evelyn's Diary, September i/th, 1657, that he, too, visited it.
The brothers Tradescant were the first well-known collectors of
natural curiosities in England, and portraits of them may be
seen in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. The Tradescant
collection was on December i^th transferred to Elias Ashmole.
The botanical genus, Tradescantia, is so called in honour of
John Tradescant.

The Roc or Rukh. 211

takes the somewhat exceptional view that the
bird is to be pitied : —

" There is a birde which takes the name of Paradise the fair,
Which allwaies lives beatinge the winde and flienge in the Ayre,
For envious Nature him denies the helpe of resting feete
Wherby hee forced is in th'ayre incessantlie to fleete."

The Roc or Rukh, though associated nowa-
days in our minds with the " Thousand and One
Nights," and regarded as simply an illustration
of the lengths that the Eastern love of the
wonderful can be carried to, was an article of faith
with our ancestors. Marco Polo, in his wonder-
fully interesting book on his travels in Eastern
lands, refers to this remarkable bird ; but it will
be noted that he merely gives the account as
hearsay, and protects himself more than once
from any admission of personal belief in the
creature. He states respecting it as follows :
" The people of the island* report that at a
certain season of the year an extraordinary kind
of bird, which they call a rukh, makes its
appearance from the southern region. In form
it is said to resemble the eagle, but it is incom-
parably greater in size ; being so large and
strong as to seize an elephant with its talons, and
to lift it into the air, from whence it lets it fall
to the ground, in order that when dead it may
prey upon the carcase. Persons who have seen
this bird assert that when the wings are spread
they measure sixteen paces in extent from point
to point, and that the feathers are eight paces in
length and thick in proportion. The Grand

* Madagascar.

212 Natural History Lore and Legend.

Khan, having heard this extraordinary relation,
sent messengers to the island on the pretext of
demanding the release of one of his servants
who had been detained there, but in reality to
examine into the circumstances of the country,
and the truth of the wonderful things told of it.
When they returned to the presence of his
Majesty they brought with them (as I have
heard) a feather of the Rukh, positively affirmed
to have measured ninety spans. This surprising
exhibition afforded his Majesty extreme pleasure,
and upon those to whom it was presented he
bestowed valuable gifts."

The existence of such a bird seems to have
been universally credited in the East. While the
tale passes all belief as it stands, or rather as
it lies, it may possibly be that it is grossly
exaggerated rather than entirely fabulous, as it
may have originated from the occasional sight
of some bird of vast, though not miraculous,
dimensions, such as the albatross, birds of fierce
aspect, measuring many feet from tip to tip of
their wings, though with strength and power of
grip considerably short of transporting elephants
from their umbrageous retreats to mid-air. The
sixteen paces that are given by the informants of
Marco Polo as the measurement of the wings
would be about forty feet, while the wing-
measurement of the albatross would not exceed
fifteen or sixteen feet, thus leaving a handsome
balance to be put to the credit of the love of the
marvellous.

Jordanus brought back from India the storv of

77ie Wondrous Roc. 213

" certain birds which are called Roc, that are so
big that they easily carry an elephant into the
air." He did not himself see one of these, the
nearest he is able to approach to this being,
" I have seen a certain person who said that he
had seen one of these birds." The Roc was said
to lay an egg equal in bulk to one hundred
and forty-eight hen's eggs. The precision of this
estimate should disarm criticism : one feels in
face of it that to have said one hundred and fifty
would have been a fatal yielding to the charm of
round numbers and a palpable exaggeration.

Mr. Lane refers to an Arab, one Ibou el
Wardee, for authority for the statement that
Rocs are found in an island in the Chinese Sea
that have each wing ten thousand fathoms long.*

* The Eastern love of the wonderful may be readily seen
in the well-known " Arabian Nights," in the Koran, and in
Oriental literature generally. Mohammed tells us,, in his sacred
book, that he saw in Heaven infinite companies of angels, each
a thousand times bigger than the globe of the earth : each had
ten thousand heads ; every head threescore and ten thousand
tongues j and every one of those tongues praised God in seven
hundred thousand languages. The throne of Allah was
supported by seven angels, each so great that a falcon, if he
were to fly a thousand years, could not get so far as the distance
from one of their eyes to the other. Gabriel, the doorkeeper of
Paradise, has seventy thousand keys which pertain to his office,
every key being seven thousand miles long. This exaggerated
balderdash is but childish stuff; it contains no element of
grandeur or sublimity ; and, in reading it, one only wonders,
when astonishment and awe wrere to be excited by an artifice so
commonplace, that, while he was about it, all the numbers were
not doubled, quadrupled, multiplied ten or a hundred fold ; so
that we finally come to the conclusion that, with all the arith-
metical possibilities open to him, he was but a poor bungler at
his business after all.

214 Natural History Lore and Legend.

These birds find no difficulty in carrying an eagle
in their beak, plus two others in their talons.
Wardee also knew of a Roc's egg, or said he
did — which is, perhaps, not quite the same thing
— on one of these islands that looked like an
enormous white dome over a hundred cubits
high and as firm as a mountain.

Many of the beliefs of our forefathers had a
refreshing quaintness about them, and one of
the quaintest, perhaps, of these was the notion
that a particular kind of goose sprang from the
barnacles that cluster in salt water on submerged
wood. Butler, in his " Hudibras," tells of those

" Who from the most refined of saints
As naturally turn miscreants
As barnacles turn Soland geese
In the islands of the Orcades."

Gerarde, in 1597, in his " Historic of Plants,"
of which there are many editions — our own copy,
we see, being dated 1633, — gives in all good faith
a description and an illustration of the barnacle-
goose tree. The former Gerarde shall give in
his own words, the latter we have reproduced in
fig. 1 5 in facsimile from his book. We see in it
the branch bearing barnacles, and by its side a
bird, which stands for the resulting goose. This
" wonder of England, for the which God's name
be ever honoured and praised," he thus dis-
courses upon — " Hauing tratielled from the grasses
growing in the bottom of the fenny waters, the
woods and mountaines, euen unto Libanus it
selfe, and also the sea and bowels of the same,
wee are arriued at the end of our Historic ;

The Goose-bearing 7^ree. 215

thinking it not impertinent to the conclusion of
the same, to end with one of the maruells of this
land, we may say of the world. The historic
wherof to set forth according to the worthinesse
and ranke therof would not only require a large
and peculiar volume, but also a deeper search
into the bowels of Nature than mine intended
purpose will suffer me to wade into, my suffi-
cience also considered, leauing the historic therof

FIG.

rough hewn unto some excellent men learned in
the secrets of Nature, to be both fined and
refined ; in the meantime, take it as it falleth
out, the naked and bare truth, though vnpolished.
There are found in the North parts of Scotland
and the islands adiacent, called Orchades,
certaine trees whereon do grow certaine shells of
a wrhite colour tending to russett, wherein are

2i 6 Natural History Lore and Legend.

contained little lining things, which shells in time
of maturitie do open, and out of them do grow
those little lining creatures, which falling in the
water do become fowles, which we call Bar-
nakles, and in Lancashire tree-geese, but the
others that do fall upon the land perish and
come to nothing. Thus much by the writings of
others, and also from the mouths of people of
those parts, which may very well accord with
truth.

" But what our eyes haue seene and hands haue
touched, we shall declare. There is a small
island in Lancashire, called the pile of Foulders,
wherein we find the broken pieces of old and
bruised ships, some wherof haue been cast
thither by shipwracke, and also the trunks and
bodies with the branches of old and rotten trees
cast up there likewise ; whereon is found a
certaine spawne or froth that in time breedeth
unto certain shels, in shape like those of the
muskle, but sharper-pointed, wherein is con-
tained a thing in forme like a lace of silke finely
wouen together as it were. One end thereof is
fastened into a rude masse or lumpe, which in
time commeth to the shape and form of a Birde.
When it is perfectly formed the shel gapeth
open, and the first thing that appeareth is the
foresaid lace or string : next come the legs of
the bird hanging out, and as it groweth greater
it openeth the shel by degrees til at length it is
all come forth and hangeth onely by the bill : in
short space after it commeth to ful maturitie,
and falleth into the sea, when it gathereth

The Wonders of the Shore. 217

feathers and groweth to a Fowle bigger than a
Mallard and lesser than a Goose, hauing blacke
legs and bill and beake, and feathers blacke and
white, spotted in such manner as is our magpie,
which the people of Lancashire call by no other
name than a tree-goose : which place therof
and all those parts adioining doe so much abound
therewith that one of the best is bought for
threepence. For the truth wherof, if any doubt,
may it please them to repair unto me, and I
shall satisfie them by the testimony of good
witnesses."

On reading the foregoing one can only wonder
what the old fellow really did see on this wild
sea shore amidst the wreckage : that he wrote in
the most perfect good faith, and in the strongest
belief in this " Maruell," is perfectly evident.
That he has no desire to practise on our credulity
is patent, but it is equally patent that his own
credulity got the better of his judgment. He
goes on to tell us that on another occasion, near
Dover, he found on the sea shore an old tree-
trunk covered with " thousands of long crimson
bladders, in shape like unto puddings newly filled,
and at the nether end therof did grow a shel-
fish fashioned somewhat like a small muskle."
Many of these shells he brought back with him
to London, and on opening them he tells us
that he found " liuing things that were very
naked, shaped like a bird : in others the birds
couered with a soft doune, the shel halfe open,
and the bird ready to fall out ; which no doubt
were the fowles called Barnakles."

-21 8 Natural History Lore and Legend.

Soon after Gerarde's death, Thomas Johnson,
a Citizen and Apothecarie of London," brought
out another edition of the " Historic of Plants,"
in which he adds the following note to Gerarde's
statement : " The Barnakles, whose fabulous
breed my Author here sets downe and diuers
others have also deliuered, were found by some
Hollanders to haue another originall, and that
by egges, as other birds have : for they in their
third voyage to find out the North-East passage
to China and Mollocos, found little islands, in
the one of which they found an abundance of
these geese sitting upon their egges, of which
they got one goose and tooke away sixty egges."
Here again one can only feel that the explanation
needs explaining, as it hardly seems necessary to
sail for China to find the home of the birds that
were to be had retail in any quantity on the
Lancashire coast, for the by no means extrava-
gant price of sixpence a brace.

In a description of West Connaught by Roderic
O'Flaherty, published in the year 1684, the bar-
nacle is thus mentioned : " There is the bird
engendered by the sea, out of timber long lying
in the sea. Some call these birds Clakes and
Solan'd geese, and some puffins, others bar-
nacles." And in the " Divine Weekes and
Workes " of Du Bartas we find another re-
ference : —

" So Sly Bootes underneath him sees

In y' cycles, those goslings hatcht of trees,
Whose fruitfull leaues falling into the water
Are turn'd, they say, to lining fowles soon after.

The Goose-bearing Tree. 219

So rotten sides of broken ships do change
To barnacles ! O transformation strange !
'T\vas first a greene tree, then a gallant hull,
Lately a mushroom, now a flying gull."

Another version of the barnacle-tree is given
in fig. 1 6. We have extracted it from Parkin-
son's " Theater of Plants," a book that achieved

FIG. l6.

considerable popularity and ran through several
editions. Our own copy, from which we have
reproduced the illustration, is dated 1640. Par-
kinson, we see, classes the barnacle-tree with
" Marsh, Water, and Sea Plants, with Mosses and
Mushrooms." It seems curious that he should
have inserted it at all, as his remarks thereupon
are not at all those of a believer. " To finish

22O Natural History Lore and Legend.

this treatise of sea-plants," he writes, " let me
bring this admirable tale of untruth to your con-
sideration, that whatever hath formerly been re-
lated concerning the breeding of these Barnakles
to be from shels growing on trees is utterly
erroneous, their breeding and hatching being
found out by the Dutch and others, in their
navigations to the Northward." This second
reference to the Dutch shows that the matter
had caused some little stir outside England,
and we may perhaps not too uncharitably
assume that the foreigner did not feel altogether
displeased when so great a British wonder was
reduced to a very commonplace and everyday
affair indeed.

The "Cosmography" of Munster supplies us
with the graceful illustration which we have
reproduced in facsimile in fig. 17. It is a far
more charming representation than either of the
others we have given. In the drawing the whole
process may be clearly traced, from the immature
and unopened fruit to that sufficiently ripe to
give some indication of its strange contents in
the form of the protruding head of the coming-
bird, and then on again to the geese actually
fallen in the water, and more or less freeing
themselves from the encumbering husk, until
finally we see them in all respects fit and proper
subjects for the ornithologist or the salesman of
Leadenhall Market. Munster states in his book
that " in Scotland we find trees, the fruit of
which appears like a ball of leaves. This fruit,
falling at its proper time into the water below,

The Wondrous Goose-Tree.

221

becomes animated, and turns to a bird which
they call the tree-goose.

Aneas Sylvius, afterwards better known to the
world as Pope Pius II. , visited Scotland in the
year 1468, and while there made diligent inquiry
concerning this wonderful tree, but found that
no one could point it out to him. As the

FIG. 17.

general impression that one gathers on reading
his account of his travels is that he appeared
in Scotland rather as a seeker after knowledge
than as the recipient of a wonderful story till
then unknown to him, we must conclude that the
myth had spread considerably beyond the land
of its origin. In fact, as we often find even unto

222 Natural History Lore and Legend.

the present day, in divers matters the intelligent
stranger is often able to enlighten the natives
on matters in which we might reasonably have
expected to find them well informed. Who, for
instance, would ever dream of asking the nearest
resident to a cathedral anything of its history,
or seeking from " the Shepherd of Salisbury
Plain " any light on the mysterious origin of
Stonehenge ?

William Turner, one of the earliest writers on
ornithology, described the barnacle-goose as
being produced from " something like a fungus
growing from old wood lying in the sea," and
quotes Giraldus Cambrensis as his authority.
* 'Having uncomfortable misgivings I asked," he
writes, u a certain clergvman named Octavianus.

Oy

by birth an Irishman, whom I knew to be
worthy of credit, if he thought the account of
Giraldus was to be believed. He, swearing
by the Gospel, declared that which Giraldus had
written about the bird was most true : that he
had himself seen and handled the young un-
formed birds, and that if I would remain in
London a month or two he would bring me
some of the brood." Whether Turner was sat-
isfied by the very unsatisfying proof of the
production of some dubious ducks in London,
or by the solemn declaration and oaths taken
on the Gospels by his reverent informant, we
have no means of knowing, but as he inserts the
wonder in his book, he was evidently relieved
from his previous doubt of the veracity of the story.
In a land even beyond far distant Cathay,

The dubious Goose-Tree. 223

according to Maundevile, "growethe a maner of
Fruyt as thoughe it weren gowrdes, and whan
thei ben rype men kutten hem a to and fynden
with inne a lytylle Best in Flessche, in Bon and
Blode, as though it were a lytylle Lamb with
outen Wolle. And Men eten bothe the Fruyt
and the Best, and that is a gret Marveylle. Of
that Frut I have eten, alle thoughe it were
wondirfulle, but that I knowe wel that God is
marveyllous in his Werkes. And nathles I tolde
hem that in oure Contree weren Trees that beren
a Fruyt that becomen Briddes fleeynge, and tho
that fellen in the Water lyven, and thei that fellen
on the Erthe dyen anon, and thei ben righte gode
to Mannes mete. And here of had thei als gret
marvaylle that sume of hem trowed it were an
impossible thing to be." One would have thought
that people wrho were quite familiar with the sight
of a lamb-tree would have found no great diffi-
culty in believing in a goose-tree. Anyone who
can credit the one should feel no hesitation
in accepting the other.

Saxo Grammaticus, Lobel, Valcetro, and many
other writers, refer to the barnacle-tree, some
with full belief in it, others more dubiously, but it
is, of course, needless to quote a multiplicity ol
authors. Should any of our readers themselves
feel any doubt in the matter, they may very advan-
tageously pay a visit to a good museum, where
probably, even if they fail to find a goose-tree,
they may see much else that will be almost
equally a wonder and a delight to them.

The ancients thoroughly believed that the
eagle proved her young by forcing them to gaze

224 Natural History Lore and Legend.

upon the sun, discarding any that failed to face
the test, and the belief survived well into the
Middle Ages. " Before that her little ones bee
feathered she will beat and strike them with her
wings, and thereby force them to looke full
against the sunne beames. Now if shee see any
one of them to winke or their eies to water at
the raies of the sunne shee turnes it with the
head foremost out of the nest as a bastard and
none of hers, but bringeth up and cherisheth
that whose eie will abide the light of the
sunne as she looketh directly upon him." It
will be remembered that Shakespeare, in King
Henry VI., refers to this old belief when the
Duke of Gloucester addresses the young prince
in the words —

" Nay, if thou be that princely eagle's bird,
Show thy descent* by gazing 'gainst the sun."

In Ariosto, again, we have the same reference,
where he styles the eagle

" The bird
That dares with steadfast eyes Apollo's light."

AndDryden exclaims in his <l Britannia Rediviva,"

" Truth, which is light itself, doth darkness shun,
And the true eaglet safely dares the sun."

The keenness of vision of the eaglet has been

* " She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the
rock, and the strong place. From thence she seeketh the prey
and her eyes behold afar off." — ^ob xxxix. 28, 29.

f " The nature of the Eagle is to bend her eyes full into the
sunne beams. So strong is her sighte that she can even see
into the great and glaring sunne." — FERNE, The Blazon of
Gentrie.

Keen sight of the Eagle, 225

noted in all ages, and its powers sometimes made
even more astonishing than facts can justify. It
has been asserted that when the eagle has soared
into the air to a height that has rendered it
perfectly invisible to human eye, it can discern
the motions of the smaller animals upon the
earth, and swoop down upon them from the
sky, and Homer, in the " Iliad," it will be recalled,
describes Menelaus as

" The field exploring, with an eye
Keen as the eagle's, keenest eyed of all
That wing the air, whom, though he soar aloft,
The lev'ret 'scapes not hid in thickest shades.
But down he swoops, and at a stroke she dies."

The eastern writers, ever given to hyperbole,
have assigned to the eagle powers of vision of a
far more astonishing character than this. One of
them, Damir, quoted by Burckhardt, declares that
the eagle can discern its prey at a distance of
four hundred parasangs — more than a thousand
miles — and poets of all periods have drawn
striking images from the wonderful power of
vision of the king of birds. Mediaeval naturalists
have asserted that this magnificent eyesight was
strengthened even beyond its natural powers by
a diet on the eagle's part of wild lettuce, in the
same way that the linnet cleared its sight by
means of the eyebright, the swallow through use
of the celandine, and divers other birds through
use of some special herb that they had proved to
be of value to them.

Our readers will doubtless remember the fine
passage in the u Areopagitica " of Milton:

15

226 Natural History Lore and Legend.

" Methinks I see in my mind a noble and
puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man
after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks :
methinks I see her as an eagle renewing her
mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at
the full midday beam." It was one of the beliefs
of our forefathers that the eagle had this power of
rejuvenescence. The description of the process
has a very prosaic sound about it, but the result
is highly successful. When the eagle " hathe
darknesse and dimnesse in eien and hevinesse in
wings against this disadvantage she is taught by
kinde to seeke a well of springing water, and
then she flyeth up into the aire as farre as she
may, till she bee full hot by heat of the aire and
by travaile of flight, and so then by heat the
pores be opened, and the feathers chafed, and
she falleth sideinglye into the well, and there the
feathers be chaunged and the dimnesse of her
eien is wiped away and purged, and she taketh
againe her might and strength."4

It was a strange belief of the writers of
antiquity on these natural history topics that the
feathers of the eagle, when placed amongst those
of other birds, in a short space of time entirely
consumed them.

While the king of beasts has been credited
with generosity and other royal virtues, the eagle,
king of birds, seems not to have developed,

* " As eagle fresh out of the ocean wave

Where he hath left his plumes, all hoary grey,
And decks himself with feathers, youthful, gay."

SPENSER.

The Eagle as a Hostess. 227

either in nature or in fable, any such regal
qualities. The most favourable estimate we
have encountered is that of the " Speculum
Mundi," and even that leaves much to be
desired. " The Eagle," writes our authority,
" is commended for her faithfulnesse towards
other birds in some kinde, though sometimes
she show herselfe cruell. They all stand in
awe of her; and when she hath gotten meat
she useth to communicate it unto such fowls
as do accompany with her ; onely this some
affirme, that when she hath no more to make
distribution of, then she will attack some of her
guests, and for lack of food, dismember them."

The eagle is often depicted as bearing the
thunderbolts of Jove, from an ancient belief
that " of all flying fowles the aegle only is
not smitten nor killed with lightening."

" Secure from thunder, and unharm'd by Jove." *

A man clothed in the skins of seals, or crowned
with bay-leaves, enjoyed like immunity.

The pelican has been pressed into the service
of religious symbolism, from a belief that it
nourished its young with its own blood, and
hence it was made the emblem of loving
sacrifice. t "The pelicane, whose sons are
nursed with bloude, stabbeth deep her breast,

* Dry den.

t Hence Dante terms the Saviour of the World " Nostro
pelicano;" and an enthusiastic admirer of Charles I., and an
evident believer in the idea that he shed his blood for his
people, wrote in the year 1649, a book on that king, entitling
him "the Princely Pelican."

15 *

228 Natural History Lore and Legend.

seif-murdresse through fondnesse to hir broode,"
and the Shakespearian student will recall the
lines in Hamlet: —

" To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms,
And, like the kind, life-rendering pelican,
Refresh them with my blood."

The whole myth is based upon a very slender
basis indeed, as it is conjectured that it arose
from the habit of the bird pressing its breast
feathers with its bill, the bill itself having a
crimson spot at its extremity that suggested the
idea of blood. When the bird is represented in
ecclesiastical work, or as a charge in heraldry,
it is always shown in this position, and is known
technically as " a pelican in her piety." Many of
the early writers accept the legend in the most
perfect good faith, and no more doubted that the
young pelicans were reared on the blood of the
mother bird, than that hens would eat barley,
or sparrows come for bread-crumbs. Some
ecclesiastical writers, whom we cannot quite
exonerate from acting on the principle that it
is lawful to do ill if good flows from it, added
the detail that when the young of the pelican
were destroyed by serpents, the mother pelican
shed her blood upon them, and brought them to
life again, and hence became a striking symbol
of the restoration to life of those dead in tres-
passes and sin by the vivifying blood of the
Redeemer of mankind.

It wras for many centuries a belief that the
swan, mute through life, sang melodiously at its
death.

The Death-song of the Swan. 229

" Sweet strains he chaunteth out with's dying tongue,
And is the singer of his funerall song."

" Wherein," writes the author of the " Specu-
lum Mundi," " he is a perfect embleme and
pattern to us, that our death ought to be cheer-
full, and life not so deare unto us as it is."
Martial writes of the swan's " joyful death, and
sweet expiring song," and Virgil, Lucretius,
Horace, Ovid, and other ancient authors all
refer to the belief. Cicero compared the
excellent discourse which Crassus made in the
senate a few days before his death to the
melodious singing of a dying swan, while Socrates
declared that good men ought to imitate swans,
who, perceiving by a secret instinct what gain
there was in death, die singing with joy.

Shakespeare refers frequently to the belief:
thus in the Merchant of Venice Portia says :
" Then if he lose he makes a swan-like end,
fading in music." After King John is poisoned
his son, Prince Henry, is told that in his dying
frenzy he sang ; whereupon the prince replies :—

" 'Tis strange that death should sing,
I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan,
Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death ;
And from the organ-pipes of frailty sings
His soul and body to their lasting rest."

Many similar passages might be quoted from the
poets ; it will suffice to give but one example: —

" Place me on Sunium's marbled steep,

Where nothing, save the waves and I,
May hear our mutual murmurs sweep.
There, swan-like, let me sing and die."*

* Byron.

230 Natural History Lore and Legend.

Though the ordinary swan of our English
lakes and rivers would appear to be without
a grain of music in its composition, the black
swan of Australia,* now naturalized in our
midst, has a really very musical note, and one,

FIG. l8.

too, which it very readily utters, not by any
means reserving it as a paean of approaching
dissolution.

It was a firm article of belief with the older
writers, such as Pliny, Aristotle, and .^Elian, that
the swan was especially exposed to attack from

* It is curious that until this species was discovered at the
Antipodes a black swan was regarded both by ancient and
mediaeval writers as the very emblem and type of extravagant
impossibility, so that those who found no difficulty in believing
in centaurs, mermaids, and fifty other extravagances, felt that
they really must draw the line at this.

Ostrich powers of Digestion. 23 1

the eagle, and that when thus assailed it fought
with extreme determination, and never failed to
come off victor in the fray.

To the ostrich was accredited the power of
digesting iron. How such an idea could have
arisen, it is now impossible to explain. In
allusion to this myth the bird, when introduced
in blazonry, as in fig. 18, from a mediaeval flagon,
ordinarily has a horse-shoe in its mouth.* The
artist who thus represented the bird was evidently
by no means oblivious of the fact that the
plumage of the ostrich was another very charac-
teristic feature. Shakespeare, in his Henry VI.,
makes Jack Cade declare " I'll make thee eat
iron like an ostrich, and swallow my sword like
a great pin ; " while Munster, in his " Cosmo-
graphy," gravely gives a picture of an ostrich with
an immense key in his mouth, and at his feet, as
second course, a horse-shoe. Cogan, the author
of the very popular " Haven of Health," finds
apt simile herein. " The fat of flesh," he says,
<: alone without leane is unwholesome and cloyeth
the stomack and causeth lothsomnes, yet have I
knowne a country man that would feed onely
of the fat of Bacon or Pork, without leane, but
that is not to bee marvelled at, considering that
many of them have stomackes like the bird that
is called an Ostridge, which can digest hard
Iron."

It was held that the ostrich never hatches her

* In " Camden " we read that the device of Anne, queen of
Richard II., was "an ostrich with a nayle in his beake."

232 Natural History Lore and Legend.

eggs by sitting upon them, but by the rays of
warmth and light from her eyes. Southey
alludes, it will be remembered, to this old fancy
in the lines : —

" With such a look as fables say,
The mother ostrich fixes on her eggs,
Till that intense affection
Kindle its light of life."*

A considerable body of folklore is associated
with the cock. One strange notion that crops
up in the books of the mediaeval writers is that
the lion has a strong antipathy to this bird, and
that the crowing of chanticleer will effectually
put to the rout the king of beasts. One can
readily imagine that the lion, prowling in the
darkness round some human habitation, wrould
naturally resent the shrill clarion of the cock,
and that this idea might, with the delight in
mysticism and symbolism of the Middle Ages,
be readily transferred to the roaring lion, seeking
whom he may devour, thwarted by the vigilance
of which the cock is the emblem. Even so
early, however, as the pre-Christian days of
Pliny we find this belief in the antagonism
between the two creatures in full operation, for
this ancient author prescribes the broth from a
stewed cock as an excellent outward application
for those in peril from wild beasts, declaring
confidently that whosoever shall bathe himself in
this shall fear no harm from lion or panther.

Gerard Legh, in his " Accedence of Armorie,"
affirms that "the Cocke is the rovallest birde

J

* Thalaba.

How to become talkative. 233

that is, and of himself a king, for Nature hath
crowned hime with a perpetuall Diademe, to
him and to his posteritie for ever. He is the
valiantest in battle of all birdes, for he will
rather die than yeelde to his aduersarie." And
one old writer goes so far as to declare that the
lion, whom we have always been taught to regard
as generosity itself, feels his royal title somewhat
impaired by the rivalry of the barn-door fowl,
and that the pretension to royalty suggested by
the scarlet crest is distasteful to the king of
beasts, who can brook no idea of a rival.

There was throughout the Middle Ages an
idea that one was able to incorporate* any
desirable quality by looking around for some
creature of which it was a characteristic, and
then promptly making some culinary preparation
of which this creature's flesh should be a leading
ingredient. "If," says one of these sages, "you
would have a man talkative give him tongues,
and seek out for him water-frogs, wilde geese
and ducks, and other such creatures, notorious
for their continual noise-making," and thus the
sturdy self-assertion and valour of the cock
naturally suggested the idea that the weakly and
retiring would find in him valuable nutriment.

* While actual incorporation was doubtless regarded as the
most effectual, mere possession was not by any means to be
despised. Thus Porta tells us that " if you would have a man
become bold and impudent, let him carry about him the skin or
eyes of a Lion or a Cock, and he will be fearlesse of his enemies
— nay, he will be very terrible unto them." Scores of equally
valuable hints may be gathered from these old authors.

234 Natural History Lore and Legend.

In an old cookery book we find "how to still
a cocke for a weak body that is in consumption,
through long sicknesse." The cock selected
must be a red one,* and not too old. Having
cut him into quarters, he must be put into an
earthenware pot with " the rootes of Fennell,
Parcely and Succory, Gorans, whole Mace,.
Annise seeds, and liquorice scraped and slyced."
Half a pint of rosewater and a quart of white
wine are then to be added, together with " two
or three cleane Dates, a few prunes and raysons,"
and then all must stew gently for the space of
twelve hours. Finally, "streine out the broth
into some cleane vessell, and give thereof unto
the weak person morning and evening, warmed
and spiced as pleaseth the patient." Our
ancestors, even when in rude health, quaffed
a beverage known as cock-ale, in order that they
might preserve their vigour. This drink — strong
ale mixed with the broth of a boiled cock — is
mentioned in the old plays, such as " Woman
turned Bully," written in the year 1675 ; in
Digby's book of receipts — " The Closet Open," —
published in 1648, and divers other medical and
culinary works of the Middle Ages.

In these same " good old times," the liver of
a male goat, the tail of a shrew-mouse, the brain

* In another book we consulted, " Notes for Cookerie,
gathered from experienced Cookes," published in 1593, it is
equally emphatic that <fa Cock to be stewed to renew the
weake" must be a red one. There is naturally here a con-
nection suggested between the colour of the bird and the ruddy
hue of health that is to be hoped for after such a dietary.

7 he gift of Invisibility. 235

and comb of a cock, the worm under the tongue
of a mad dog, pounded ants, cuckoo-broth, were
all suggested as remedies for hydrophobia, though,
like the fish-brine of Pliny or the pounded crab
of Galen, they must have been but sorry reeds
to rest upon in the dreadful paroxysms of this
terrible malady.

The ancient Romans believed in the existence
of a crystalline stone which they called alec-
torius, as large as a bean, and to be found in
the gizzard of a cock, though not by any means
discoverable in every fowl cut open. This
stone was held to have the wonderful property
of rendering the human possessor of it invisible.
It may indeed have had the same effect on
the original owner, as there could scarcely be an
authentic instance of a stone of such peculiar
property being found, but if the fowl itself could
not be seen it is scarcely to be wondered at that
the stone within it should be equally invisible.
The belief in some such stone was one of the
numerous articles of faith of the Middle Ages,
but instead of the property of invisibility being
attached to its possessor they sometimes sub-
stituted for it the much more prosaic idea that
its owner could never feel thirsty, while the way
to discover the bird that possessed it was
simplicity itself, it being only necessary to
discover which fowl at feeding time never drank.
The first belief is much the more tenable, and
is in fact impossible of refutation, as the world
may be full of the owners of alectorius, invisible
to us, and therefore unknown.

236 Natural History Lore and Legend.

The cock was at one time supposed to possess
the power of laying eggs from which were reared
the deadly cockatrice. " When the cock is past
seven years old an egg grows within him, where-
at he greatly wonders. He seeks privately a
warm place, and scratches a hole for a nest, to
which he goes ten times daily. A toad privily
watches him, and examines the nest every day to
see if the egg be yet laid. When the toad finds
the egg he rejoices much, and at length hatches
it, bringing forth an animal with the head, neck,
and breast of a cock, and from thence downward
the body of a serpent."* In the year 1474 a
cock at Basle was publicly accused of having
laid one of these very objectionable eggs, and
after a short trialt was sentenced to death and
burnt, together with the egg, in the market
place, amid a great concourse of the towns-folk,
who were right joyfully thankful to feel that a
great peril had been averted by the prompt
action of their rulers, for a cockatrice was
indeed no laughing matter to those who thought
it one of the possibilities of life. In England
the hens have entirely usurped the egg-laying
department, and we are therefore spared the
mortification of finding that our hoped-for

* MS. No. 10,074 in the Royal Library, Brussels.

f In the Middle Ages animals were frequently haled before
the judges for various offences. In 1 266 a pig was burnt at
Fontaney, near Paris, for having killed a child, and in 1386, at
Falaise, a sow was condemned to death for a similar offence.
Horses and cattle were solemnly tried before the magistrates for
manslaughter, and either expiated their offence on the gallows
•or were burned.

The death-dealing Cockatrice. 237

chick has assumed the less welcome form of
a cockatrice.

The poison of a cockatrice was without cure,
and the air was in such a degree affected by it
that no creature could live near it. It killed,
we are assured, not only by its touch, for even
the sight of the cockatrice, like that of the
basilisk, was death. We read, for instance, in
Romeo and Juliet of "the death-darting eye of
cockatrice," and again in King Richard III.,
" a cockatrice hast thou hatched into the world
whose unavoided eye is murtherous ; " while in
Twelfth Night we find the passage, "this will
so fright them both, that they will kill one
another by the look like cockatrices." The
good people of Basle might therefore, believing
all this, very heartily congratulate themselves on
their escape from a fearful peril.

The baleful cockatrice is often referred to in
literature. Thus in the book entitled "Some
Yeares Trauels into Africa and Asia the Great,"
written by Sir Thomas Herbert, and published
in London in the year 1677, the writer says
that Mohamed, on finishing his Koran, was "so
transported, that to Mecca he goes to have it
credited ; but therein his predictions fail him,
for so soon as the Arabs perceived his design
(being formerly acquainted with his birth and
breeding) they banish him, and (but for his
Wives' relations) there had crushed him and
his Cockatrice egg, which was but then hatch-
ing."

Legh, in his " Curiosities of Heraldry," gives
the usual details of the death-dealing cockatrice,

238 Natural History Lore and Legend.

but adds, " Though he be venome withoute
remedye whilest he liueth, yet when he is dead
and burnt to ashes he loseth all his malice, and
the ashes of him are good for alkmnistes in
turnyng and chaungyng of metall." Practically,
therefore all that stands, or shall we say lies,
between ourselves and wealth beyond the
•dreams of avarice is but a cockatrice moribund.
Orthography was not a strong point in these old
writers, and the word which is now established
as cockatrice, may be met with as cocatrice,
cokatrice, kokatrice, kocatrice, cockatryse, coca-
tryse, cocautrice, cockautrice, coccatryse, coca-
tris, kokatrix, chocatrix, and many other forms.

It has long been a belief in many parts of the
country that if a cock crow at midnight the
Angel of Death is passing over the house, and
that if he delays to strike it is but for a short
season. It is evident however that a score or
more of different households may hear the same
cock-crow, and we can scarcely conclude that it
is to be fatal to all, since such wholesale slaughter
would quickly depopulate whole hamlets, and
we might really almost as well have the dread
cockatrice at once.

Cock-crowing in mediaeval days received
mystical importance from a belief that it was
in the dawn of the morning that our Saviour
was born ; it was regarded, too, as a warning
voice telling of the coming of the day of Judg-
ment,* and from its association with St. Peter's

* Aubrey tells us that in his younger days people had " some
pious ejaculation when the cock did crow, which put them in
mind of ye Trumpet at ye Resurrection."

Cock-crow. 239

grievous denial of his Master a warning
against self-sufficiency and base cowardice. It
was thought that during the hours of darkness
evil spirits and the souls of the departed were
abroad and that these fled at daybreak : hence
Shakespeare makes the ghost of Hamlet's father
vanish at this season — " It faded on the crowing
of the cock." To the belief that on Christmas
Eve the night was entirely free from any such
spiritual manifestation he refers in the beautiful
lines : —

<s Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long,
And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad ;
The nights are wholesome ; then no planets strike.
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious in the time."

In the quaint and delightful " Armonye of
Byrdes " with its mingled Latin and English : —

" The Cock dyd say :
I use alway

To crow both first and last.
Lyke a Postle I am,
For I preache to man
And tell him the nyght is past.*

* " The peasants' trusty clock,
True morning watch, Aurora's trumpeter,
The lion's terror, true astronomer,
Who leaves his bed when Sol begins to rise
And when Sunne sets then to his roost he flies."

Speculum Mundl.
" O chanticleer,
Your clarion blow, the day is near."

LONGFELLOW, Daylrcak.

240 Natural History Lore and Legend.

" I bring new tydyngis
That the king of kynges
In tactu profundit chorus :
Then sang he, mellodlous.,
Te Gloriosus,
Apostolorum chorus."

This poem, of which only one ancient copy is
in existence, has been reproduced by the Percy
Society, The author is unknown, but is con-
jectured to be John Skelton. No date appears
on it, but the name of the printer, John Wyght,
shows that it must have been published some-
where about the year 1550. The poem begins :—

" Whan Dame Flora
In die Aurora

Had covered the meadow with flowers,
And all the fylde
Was over dystylde
With lusty Aprell showers,
For my desporte
Me to comforte
Whan the day began to spring
Foorth I went
With a good intent
To hear the byrdes syng."

The poem then goes on to tell us of the birds
all " praisyng Our Lorde without discord, with
goodly armony," the popyngay, the mavys, par-
tryge, pecocke, thrusshe, nyghtyngale, larke,
egle, dove, phenix, wren, the tyrtle trew, the
hawke, the pellycane, the svvalowe, all singing
in quaint blending of Latin and English the praise
of God.

The raven, " the hoarse night-raven, trompe of

How the Raven became black. 241

doleful drere,"* has been at almost all periods
regarded with superstitious awe. Shakespeare,
for instance, writes of the raven " that croaks the
fatal entrance of Duncan," t and again, in Othello,
we find the illustrative passage —

" It comes o'er my memory
As doth the raven o'er the infected house,
Boding to all."

Marlowe, in like spirit, in his " Rich Jew of
Malta," dwells on the sad presaging raven

" That tolls

The sick man's passport in her hollow beak,
And in the shadow of the silent night
Doth shake contagion from her sable wings."

The whole field of literature teems with refer-
ences of the same ominous character. It will
suffice to add but one more illustration, where
Gay, in "The Dirge," notices the evil presage in
the lines —

'* The boding raven on her cottage sat,
And with hoarse croakings warned us of our fate."

The raven is sometimes called the devil's bird.
It is believed that it was originally white, but
that it was changed to black for its disobedience.
What this disobedience was appears to be a very
moot point. The old Greeks believed that
Apollo once sent it to a fountain to fetch water,
and the bird on arrival found a fig-tree with very
nearly ripe fruit, and determined to wait until
they were quite so. As this was a matter of
some few days, it became necessary to invent
some plausible explanation of the delay, so he
took a water-snake out of the fountain and

* Spenser. t Macbeth.

16

242 Natural History Lore and Legend.

brought it in the pitcher to the god, and
explained that this creature had drunk the
reservoir dry. Apollo, declining to accept this
explanation, turned the disobedient raven black,
condemned it to be always plagued with thirst,
and changed its once melodious voice into the
monstrous croak* that it has ever since been
uttering as token of its punishment. Mediaeval
writers do not accept this story at all, but declare
that the real reason that the raven exchanged its,
snow-white plumage for the sable garb was the
consequence of its disobedience when, instead of
returning to the ark to Noah, it stayed to feed on
the bodies of the drowned. t It will be seen that
in each case disobedience was the offence, and
appetite the occasion thereof.

It is rather startling after this to read in
the quaint pages of Legh that " the Rauen
delighteth so much in her owne bewty that when
her birds are hatched she will giue them no
meate vntill she see whether they will bee of her

* An old writer, one Fulgentius, declares that so far from
this croak being monotonous "the Raven hath sixty-four sundry
chaunges of her voice." No other observer seems to have
detected this.

f A fourteenth-century MS., the " Cursor Mundi," says of
the raven's exit from the ark : —

"Than opin Noe his windowe
Let lit a rauen and forth he flow
Dune and vp sought here and thare
A stede to sett upon somequar.
Vpon the water sone he fand
A drinkled best ther flotand.
Of that ness was he so fain
To schip came he neuer again."

The Raven as a Parent. 243

owne colour or no." Guillim, another writer,
like Legh, on matters heraldic, entirely supports
this statement, declaring that " it hath bene an
ancient received opinion, and the same also
grounded vpon the warrant of the Holy Scriptures
that such is the property of the Raven, that from
the time his young ones are hatched or disclosed,
untill he seeth what colour they will be of, he
never careth of them nor ministereth any food
unto them, therefore it is thought that they are
in the meane space nourished writh the heavenly
dew. And so muche also doth the kingly
prophet, David, affirrne, ' which giveth fodder
unto the catell and feedeth the young Ravens
that call upon him.' The Raven is of colour
blacke, and when he perceiveth his young ones
to be pennefeathered and black like himself,
then doth he labour by all means to foster and
cherish them from thence forward."

Surprising as it is to find that the sable
plumage that we regard as the mark of disgrace
is to the bird himself or herself (for Legh refers
to the maternal pride and Guillim to the paternal)
a beauty that no bastard brood can attain to, it is
still more surprising to find that this " devil's
bird " and messenger of woe is really not by any
means so black as he is painted, and is, indeed,
possessed of deep religious feeling. Maundevile
in his pilgrimage to Mount Sinai saw and heard
of many wonderful things, and certainly what he
heard in that sacred spot of the ravens must have
greatly astonished him. He tells us that at the
shrine of St. Catherine he found many lamps

16 *

244 Natural History Lore and legend.

burning, and the monks rejoicing in an abundance
of " Oyle of Olyves both for to brenne in here
Lampes and to ete also, and that plentee have
thei of the Myracle of God, for the Ravennes
and the Crowes and the Choughes and other
Fowles of the Countree assemble hem there ones
every yeer, and fleen thider as in pilgrymage, and
everyche of hem bringethe a Braunche of the
Olyve in here Bekes in stade of offryng and
leven hem there : of the whyche the monkes
maken gret plentee of Oyle, and this is a gret
marvaylle." The monkish moral to the story is
obvious — that if " Foules that han no kyndely
wytt ne Resoun " thus willingly offer to the
maintenance of the church how much more
should the sons of men give of their substance
to so excellent a cause. One can indeed only
feel that it is more probable that the story was
made to fit the moral than the moral to fit the
story.

Like most other things in mediaeval days the
raven found a place in the pharmacopcea, for it
would appear that there was scarely anything
better "for ye Gowte " than raven-broth, but to
make it effectually one or two points that appear
in themselves of little importance had to be
scrupulously observed. For those who care to
make trial of it we append the recipe : " Take
Rauynys bryddys all quyke owte of here neste
and loke yat yei towche not the erth nor yat yei
corny in non hows, and brene hem in a new potte
all to powdir and gif it ye seke man to drynkeyn."

The talisman known as the raven-stone was

Hints as to securing the Raven-stone. 245

held to confer on its holder invisibility, and we
may remark in passing on the curious attraction
that in the Middle Ages this gift of invisibility
possessed, whether used as a means of shielding
one's self from dangers, as a means of inflicting
without detection injuries on others, or the
dishonourable desire of secretly spying upon
their proceedings. It appears to point to a
somewhat unwholesome state of things, too
suggestive of cowardice and treachery to be at
all an object to be sought after. There were
many such kinds of talisman, all doubtless of
equal efficacy, and all of them, naturally, pre-
senting considerable difficulties in acquisition.
The raven - stone was no exception. It was
necessary first to discover a nest, then to climb
the tree and to take from the brood one of the
nestlings and kill it. The victim must be a male
bird and not more than six weeks old. So far,
with reasonable powers of observation, a fair
amount of agility, and sufficient sense to visit the
nest at a time when one might reasonably expect
to find young birds therein, there would appear
to be no great difficulty ; but unless the parent
birds were at least a hundred years old, all this
preliminary trouble was of no avail. Having
descended the tree in safety, the slaughtered
nestling had to be placed at its foot, and watch
kept for the return of the parent raven. On its
return it will be observed to place a stone in the
throat of its offspring, whereupon nothing remains
but to secure the treasure and proceed to
exercise its mystic power. How many persons

246 Natural History Lore and Legend.

actually put the matter to the test it is of course
impossible to say, but full belief in its efficacy
was for generations an article of faith to
thousands.

The owl, like the raven, was regarded by our
forefathers with great awe as an omen of misfor-
tune and death ; thus in Shakespeare we find
several allusions to this superstitious belief —

" Out on ye owls ! nothing but songs of death,"

and the " boding scritch owl," as he is called in
Henry VI., reappears in Macbeth in the passage :—

" It was the owl that shriek'd ; that fatal bellman
Which giv'st the stern'st good night."

The idea dates from time immemorial. Pliny
says, in the tenth book of his " Natural History,"
that "the scritch-owle betokeneth alwaies some
heavie newes, and is most execrable and accursed.
He keepeth ever in the deserts, and loveth not
only such unpeopled places, but also those that are
horrible hard of accesse. In summer, he is the
verie monster of the night, neither crying, nor
singing out cleare, but uttering a certaine heavie
grone of dolefull moning. And, therefore, if he
be seene within citties or otherwise abroad in
any place it is not for good, but prognosticate^
some fearfull misfortune."

Raven-like again, the owl is a specific for the
gout, all that is necessary being to " take an owl,
pull off her feathers, salt her well for a weak,
then put her into a pot and stop it close, and
put her into an oven, that so she may be brought
into a mummy." This has then to be beaten into
a powder and mixed with boar's grease, and "the

Wondrous Stones of mystic virtue. 247

grieved place "well anointed with this preparation.
Owl-broth has in many rural districts of England
been regarded as invaluable in whooping cough.
The notion of stones of mystic virtue being
found in divers animals is a very common one in
ancient and mediaeval lore. We have already
referred to the raven-stone, and many others
were sought after. The interior of a fowl was
said to yield a precious stone called alectorius ;
the chelidonius came from a swallow, geranites
from a crane, and draconites from a dragon ;
while corvia was the name of the stone obtained
from the crow. Anyone who cares to pene-
trate farther into this mass of rubbish will find
plenty of it in the " Mirror of Stones " of
Camillus. A stone from the hoopoe, when laid
upon the breast of a sleeping man, forced him to
reveal any rogueries he might have committed.
The swallow was believed by some people to
have two of these precious stones stow^ed away
somewhere in its interior ; one of these was a
red one, and cured insanity ; while the other, a
black one, brought good fortune. Others said
that the swallow found by some inspiration a
particular kind of stone on the seashore, and
that this stone restored sight to the blind. It
will be remembered that Longfellow, in his
"Evangeline," refers to this fancy in the lines : —

" Seeking with eager eyes that wondrous stone which the

swallow

Brings from the shore of the sea, to restore the sight of
her fledglings."*

* This notion of the sightlessness of the young swallow

248 Natural History Lore and Legend.

Hence people assumed, not unreasonably, that
what the bird found of such value to its young
ones could scarcely fail to be of equal value for
suffering humanity. Sometimes the association
of the swallow with blindness is much more
recondite. Thus Marcellus, writing in the year
of our era, 480 A.D., advises one who fears that
he is going blind to " look out for the first
swallow, then run silently to the nearest spring,
wash your eyes, and pray God that you may be
free from it that year ; " and then, with the
callousness that is so characteristic of so many
of these folk-lore remedies, very needlessly
adds, " and that all the pain may pass into the
swallow."

On referring to our copy of Winstanley's
" Book of Knowledge," edition of 1685, to find
out how far he confirms these wondrous cures
of insanity, impecuniosity, and ophthalmia, we
find that he does not even recognize their
existence, but supplies in their place other facts
equally striking. " Take a Swallow on the
Wednesday," he writes, " and bind him with a
silken thread by the foot, then cut him in the
midst, and thou shalt find three stones, a white,
a red, and a green ; take the white and put it
into thy mouth, and it shall make thee fair ; put

was a very popular one. The chelidonium, or swallow wort,
according to Aristotle and Dioscorides was so called because
the swallows use it to give sight to their young. Goldfinches,
linnets, and other birds, in like manner were believed to use the
eye-bright ; while the hawks strengthened their vision, we are
told, by means of the plant that was hence called the hawk-
weed, and still retains that name.

Remedial value of Swallows. 249

into thy mouth the red, and thou shalt have
favour from her thou lovest ; put the green into
thy mouth, and thou shalt never be in peril." If
none of these inducements prevail or appeal to
the reader, the author can supply another recipe
of equal value. " Take a swallow in the moneth
of August, look in her breast, and you shall find
there a stone of the bignesse of a pease : take it
and put it under your tongue, and you shall have
such eloquence that no man shall have power to
deny thy request." Such a gift would often be
invaluable, and it seems distinctly unfortunate
for the legal profession that it can only be
utilised during the Long Vacation, unless, indeed,
this wondrous stone can be in some way pre-
served without losing its efficacy ; but of this the
recipe gives no hint. In an old receipt book
before us oil of swallows is pronounced "exceed-
ing soveraign " for broken bones, or " any grief
in the sinews." It is procured by pounding the
swallows in a mortar, and adding thereto divers
herbs.

For one that is, or will be, drunken, it is
well to have at hand some preparation that may
be deterrent, and here is the very thing !
" Take swallowes and burne them, and make
a powder of them ; and give the dronken man
thereof to drinke, and he shall never be dronken
hereafter." There is a certain sense of incom-
pleteness here, as one does not quite realize how
this powder becomes drinkable.

The ill-luck that attended those who hurt the
robin or the wren was an article of faith with

250 Natural History Lore and Legend.

our forefathers, and probably still remains so in
rural districts. In the " Six Pastorals," written
in the year 1770, we find the belief very clearly
expressed in the lines : —

" I found a robin's nest within our shed,
And in the barn a wren has young ones bred :
I never take away their nest, nor try
To catch the old ones, lest a friend should die.
Dick took a wren's nest from the cottage side,
And ere a twelvemonth pass'd his mother dy'd."

The belief that they, " with leaves and flowers,
do cover the friendless bodies of unburied men"
has no doubt had much to do with the kindly
feeling extended to them. As Drayton hath
it :—

" Covering with moss the dead's unclosed eye
The little red-breast teacheth charity."

Its fearless confidence, too, in visiting the
habitations of men has begotten a kindly feeling
for it, while one ancient legend tells us that
when our Saviour hung forsaken on the cross
the robin strove to draw out the cruel nails, and
thus imbrued its breast in the Sacred Blood, an
act of piety of which from thenceforth it bore the
token in its ruddy feathers.

Though there are divers quaint beliefs asso-
ciated with the wren which we need not here
particularize, we may perhaps assume that the
main reason for its association with the robin
lies in the love of alliteration, for though the
actual spelling of the words is against this theory,
the sound to the ear favours it, and the two R's of
the Robin and the 'Ren are certainlv not more far-

The Doctrine of Signatures. 251

fetched than the three R's that were once held
to cover the whole field of rustic scholarship,
Reading, Riting and Rithmetic.

" The eyes and heart of a nightingale laid
about men in bed," according to the " Magick of
Kirani," serve to " keep them awake, and to make
one die for sleep. If anyone dissolve them and give
them secretly to anyone in drink, he will never
sleep, but will so die, and it admits of no cure."
It was a belief in the Middle Ages, and termed
the doctrine of signatures, that every plant bore
stamped upon itself, though men's eyes were in
some cases too blind to detect it, an indication
of its value to humanity, thus the spots in the
inside of a foxglove flower were a sign that
this plant was of value for ulcerated sore-throat;
the buds of the forget-me-not bent round in a
spiral somewhat suggestive possibly of the tail of
a scorpion, gave the plant its mediaeval name of
scorpion-grass, and were held a clear indication
that anyone stung by a scorpion would find in
this herb his remedy. In a like spirit we see
that the eyes and heart of the nightingale, a
bird awake when most other creatures are sleep-
ing, were held to be, on application, a cause of
wakefulness to anyone coming within their subtle
influence.

It was a very common and widespread belief
that the nightingale when singing pierced its
breast with a thorn, but whether this was to keep
it awake, or to give its song the sad character
that the poets will insist most wrongfully in
attributing to it, seems an open question. Sir

252 Natural History Lore and Legend.

Philip Sidney in one of his sonnets appears to
reflect the popular belief —

" The nightingale, as soon as April bringeth

Unto her rested sense a perfect waking,
While late bare earth, proud of her clothing, springeth,

Sings out her woes, a thorn her song book making :

And mournfully bewailing
Her throat in times expresseth,
While grief her heart oppresseth."

The author of the " Speculum Mundi " also
refers to " the nightingale sitting all the night
singing upon a bough, with the sharp end of a
thorn against her breast," assigning, as the
reason, "to keep her waking." The bird is a
great favourite with the poets, but in most cases
their invocations are somewhat misplaced : it is
not the " sweet songstress" that so delights us,
for though her notes are sweet, the real flood of
melody wells from the heart of her lord. 'Tis
he, to quote the words of Coleridge —

" That crowds, and hurries, and precipitates
With thick fast warble his delicious notes,
As he were fearful that an April night
Would be too short for him to utter forth
His love-chant, and disburden his full soul
Of all its music."

The error as to sex, and the error as to the
pensive character of the song, have a common
origin and date back from the ancient time
when Ovid declared that Philomela, the daughter
of Pandion, King of Athens, mourning for her
children, was turned into a nightingale : hence
Virgil uses the word " Philomela " when speaking
of the bird, and the mediaeval and modern poets

Mediceval Cuckoo-lore. 253

have continued the usage ; and on this same
account, the song of the nightingale has by
poetic fiction been deemed pensive and melan-
choly. Thus Shelley refers to " the nightingale's
complaint," and Drayton writes of " our mourn-
ful Philomela," while Milton calls the bird
" most musical, most melancholy." Coleridge,
Clare, and others refuse however to follow this
precedent.

When the peasant of mediaeval days heard the
cuckoo for the first time in each year, he rolled
himself vigorously on the grass, and thus secured
himself for the rest of the year from pains in the
back. Much of the virtue of this remedy, we
should imagine, would depend upon how damp
the grass might be. We could easily imagine a
state of things when this rolling process would
be provocative rather than preventative, It was
generally believed that the cuckoo sucked the
eggs of other birds.

" The cuckoo, he sings in the spring of the year,
And he sucks little birds' eggs to make his voice clear."

Hence so soon as the general nesting season is
over, and this selfish ovisuction fails him, the
cuckoo to a great extent loses his song.* It was
a generally accepted belief, too, that the cuckoo
repaid the care of his foster parents, when he
had no further occasion for it, by swallowing
them. This belief dates from very early times.

* " He was but as a cuckoo is in June," says Shakespeare in
reference to Richard II., that is to say, he had lost the power to
attract, his utterances no longer commanded attention.

254 Natural History Lore and Legend.

Aristotle refers to it, for instance, while in later
days it crops up in the various books on so-called
Natural History. On turning again to Shake-
speare, who rarely fails us when any quaint folk-
lore has to be illustrated, we find an interesting
reference to it in King Lear : " The hedge-
sparrow fed the cuckoo so long that it had its
head bit off by its young"-— and again in the first
part of King Henry IV., where Worcester,
reminding the king of his broken word, says : —

" And being fed by us, you used us so,
As that ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird,
Useth the sparrow ; did oppress our nest ;
Grew by our feeding to so great a bulk,
That even our love durst not come near your sight
For fear of swallowing."

Those, it was believed, who turned their money
-over in their pockets when they each year first
heard the cuckoo, \vould have good fortune
throughout the rest of the year, and keep their
pockets well supplied until the recurring spring
necessitated a re-turning of the contents.

It was a curious fancy of many of the old
writers on such matters, that the peacock, though
arrayed in such splendour, was ashamed of his
feet, the mortification at the latter being more
than a set-off to his pride in his plumage. " The
peacock," says, for instance, one of these ancient
authorities, " is a bird well-known and much
admired for his daintie coloured feathers, which,
when he spreads them against the sunne, have
a curious lustre, and look like gemmes. How-
beit his black feet make him ashamed of his fair

71 i e Halcyon or Kingfisher. 255

tail : and therefore when he seeth them, (as
angrie with nature, or grieved for that deformitie)
he hangeth down his starrie plumes, and walketh
slowlyin a discontented fit of solitary sadnesse, like
one possest with dull melancholy." The peacock
was throughout the Middle Ages the symbol of
pride, and doubtless those who started and those
who accepted such a story as this saw in it a
happy illustration of the haughty spirit that goeth
before a fall, and very gladly added it to the great
body of moral teaching that the works of creation
were required to furnish.

A large mass of legend and folk-lore is asso-
ciated with the halcyon or kingfisher. One
curious old superstition is that if a dead king-
fisher is suspended from the roof it will always
turn its breast in the direction from which the
wind blows.* On looking over any old wrorks on
natural history one is repeatedly struck by the
way in which the writers all copy each other,
and reproduce the most outrageous statements,
without ever seeming to care to bring the
matters they deal with to the easy test of actual
proof. It is, therefore, the more refreshing to
find the old writer, Sir Thomas Browne, the
author of the " Enquiry into Vulgar Errors," very
wisely declining to accept the statement without

* Thus Christopher Marlowe enshrines the old belief in the
lines : —

" But how now stands the wind ?

Into what corner peers my halcyon's bill ? "
While Shakespeare, in King Lear, refers to the time-servers
who "turn their halcyon beaks with every gale and vary of their
masters."

256 Natural History Lore and Legend.

proof, but actually getting a kingfisher for him-
self, and seeing what would befall. His reflec-
tions and experience are so graphically and
quaintly given in his book that we make no
apology for transferring them to our own pages.
He says " that a Kingfisher hanged by the bill,
sheweth in what quarter the winde is by an
occult and secret property, converting the breast
to that point of the horizon from whence the
winde doth blow, is a received opinion and very
strange, introducing naturall Weathercocks, and
extending magneticall positions as far as animall
natures : a conceit supported chiefly by present
practice, yet not made out by reason or expe-
rience. Unto reason it seemeth very repugnant
that a carcasse or body disanimated should be so
affected by every winde as to carry a conformable
respect and constant habitude thereto. For
although in sundry animals we deny not a kinde
of naturall Meteorology or innate praesention
bothe of winde and weather, yet that proceeding
from sense receiving impressions from the first
mutations of the air, they cannot in reason retain
their apprehension after death: as being affections
which depend upon life and depart upon dis-
animation. And therefore with more favourable
reason may we draw the same effect or sym-
pathie upon the Hedgehog, whose praesention of
windes is so exact that it stoppeth the North or
Southern hole of its nest, according to prenotion
of these windes ensuing ; which some men
observing, have been able to make predictions
wrhiche way the winde should turn, and been

Kingfisher as a Weather guide. 257

esteemed hereby wise men in point of weather.
Now this proceeding from sense in the creature
alive, it were not reasonable to hang up an
Hedgehog dead and to expect a conformable
motion unto its living conversion. Thus Glowe-
wormes alive project a lustre in the dark, which
fulgour notwithstanding ceaseth after death ; and
thus the Torpedo, which being alive stupifies at
a distance, applied after death produceth no
such result."

11 As for experiment we cannot make it out by
any we have attempted, for if a single Kingfisher
be hanged up with silk in an open room and
where the aire is free, it observes not a constant
respect unto the winde, but vainly converting
doth seldome breast it right. If two be sus-
pended in the same room they will not regularly
conform their breasts, but oftimes respect the
opposite points of heaven. And if we conceive
that for exact exploration they should be sus-
pended where the air is quiet and unmoved, that
clear of impediment they may more freely
convert upon this naturall verticity, we have also
made this way of inquisition, suspending them
in large and spacious glasses closely stopped ;
wherein, neverthelesse, we observed a casual!
station, and that they rested irregularly upon

conversion."

It was formerly held that if the dead bodies
of these birds were put away in chests they
protected garments from the ravages of moths,
and it was believed that the feathers of a dead
kingfisher were renewed in all their splendour

17

258 Natural History Lore and Legend.

every year. It was an article of faith, too, that
the plumage of the kingfisher was injurious to
the eyes of those who gazed too long and too
intently upon it, while the possession of even a
feather was a protection against lightning.

According to the old Greek myth, Halcyone
was the daughter of ^olus. Her husband,
Ceyx, king of Trachyn, was drowned in the
^Egean Sea, and the widowed Halcyone,
wandering on the shore, saw afar the dead body
of her husband. The gods, in pity, turned her
into a bird, which with eager wings bore her
spirit across the waste of waters, and that Ceyx
might be able to return the love she lavished
upon him, he, too, was permitted the same
transformation.

It was an old belief that during the space of
fourteen days, while the young kingfishers were
being hatched, a great calm fell upon all things,
and this period of quietness and security is
referred to by many of our writers.* A very
beautiful illustration may be found in Milton's
" Hymn on the Nativity," where he describes
how : —

" Peaceful was the night
Wherein the Prince of Light

His reign of peace upon the earth began ;

* The idea is at least as old as Pliny, as he mentions it in his
" Natural History " as a recognized fact too well-known to need
any apology or explanation. Theocritus in his seventh idyll
dwells on it, and it is found in the writings of Pliny and many
other ancient authors.

The Myth of Haley one. 259

The winds with wonder whist,
Smoothly the waters kiss'd,

Whispering new joys to the wild ocean,
Which now hath quite forgot to rave,
While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave."

The word halcyon is Greek and signifies
brooding on the sea, as it was formerly believed
that the kingfisher laid its eggs in a floating nest
upon the sea. Drayton writes, for example, of

" The halcyon, whom the sea obeys
When she her nest upon the water lays."

While Dryden, to quote one more instance, says ;

" Amidst our arms as quiet you shall be
As halcyon brooding on a winter's sea."

This exceptional favour fair Halcyone owes to
her close relationship with ^Eolus, since with
him rested the power to lash the waves to fury
or to soothe them to rest. This beautiful Greek
myth doubtless underlies the superstition as to
the dead body of the kingfisher indicating the
direction of the wind, though probably it never
occurs to the rustic meteorologist as he watches
his revolving kingfisher that any idea of the
loving Halcyone turning to greet the coming
^Eolus enters into the philosophy of his test.

It was for centuries a belief that storks fed
with filial care their aged parents. Thus Hey-
wood, writing in the year 1635, asserts in "The
Hierachie of the Blessed Angells " that

fl The indulgent storke, who builds her nest on hye
(Observ'd for her alternat pietie),
Doth cherish her unfeather'd young and feed them,
And looks from them the like, when she should need them.

17 •

260 Natural History Lore and Legend.

(That's when she grows decrepit, old, and weake)
Nor doth her pious Issue cov'nant breeke :
For unto her, being hungry, food she brings,
And being weake, supports her on her wings."

One meets with the same notion again in
Beaumont, where he asserts that

" The stork's an emblem of true piety :
Because, when age has seized and made his dam
Unfit for flight, the grateful young one takes
His mother on his back, provides her food,
Repaying thus her tender care for him,
Ere he was fit to fly."

The extraordinary idea that storks were
found only in countries having a republican
form of government held its ground for a
considerable time, though it would appear as
though nothing could have been simpler than its
prompt disproof.

Cranes, it was believed, bore stones with them
when they were migrating, in order that they
might not be swept out of their course by the
wind. A somewhat parallel notion was that
swallows in their annual migrations carried in
their bills, when about to cross the sea, a piece
of stick, to be laid upon the water from time to
time as a convenient resting place. The idea of
the cranes steadying themselves in flight by a
ballasting of small rock was too quaintly happy
a conception not to bear amplification, so we
find that the bees, the never-failing emblems
of industry and wisdom, were equally ready
to avail themselves of the notion. " Bees that
are emploied in carrying of honie chuse alwaies
to have the wind with them if they can. If

Sagacity of the Crane. 261

haply there do arise a tempest whiles they bee
abroad they catch up some little stonie greet to
ballaise and poise themselves against the wind.
Some say that they take it and lay it upon their
shoulders." How the little stony grit maintains
this latter position the old authors do not stop
to explain. In the Georgics of Virgil we find
a reference to this, which evidently even then
was an old and unchallenged belief, in the
lines : —

" And oft with pebbles, like a balanced boat,
Poised through the air on even pinions float " —

and the idea reappears from time to time as a
fact in natural history. There is so much that
is legitimately wonderful in bee-arrangements
that it is scarcely strange that some of the details
given by ancient and mediaeval naturalists in
praise of their sagacity, and other estimable
qualities, should overreach the possibilities, and
fail in the not unimportant element of truth.*

The sagacious cranes seem to have found
several valuable uses for their pieces of rock.
We are told that while the main body are
resting at night, sentinels are posted to guard
against surprise, so that the flock or covey, or
whatever else may be the proper technical term
to use, rest in full assurance of safety. To

* A quaint little octavo on this subject is that of Dr. Warder,
" The true Amazons or the Monarchy of Bees," being a new
discovery and Improvement of those wonderful creatures. The
book went through several editions. The one that came under
our notice is the third ; it is dated 1716.

262 Natural History Lore and Legend.

insure the necessary vigilance, these sentinels
stand upon one foot, and hold in the other a
large stone.* Should they inadvertently nod,
the muscles relax and the stone drops, and by
the slight noise it makes awakens them to a
proper sense of their duty and their temporary
lapse from it.

A third valuable use that the cranes seem to
have found for stones was to put them in their
mouths when migrating, so that thus gagged
they might not make a noise, and by their cries
bring the eagles and other birds of prey upon
themselves. t In the " Euphues," we find a
passage that admirably illustrates the belief in
these two latter uses of the stone, as the author

* Ammianus Marcellinus lias put it upon record that in
imitation of the ingenuity of the crane in assuring vigilance,
Alexander the Great was accustomed to rest with a silver ball in
his hand, so that on the slightest movement it might fall and
wake him. This is certainly heroic treatment, since even such
an one as Alexander might fairly claim the necessity that other
mortals feel of uninterrupted rest. It reminds one of the
dictum of the great Duke of Wellington in defence of his
camp-bedstead, accommodation so confined that one could
scarcely turn round in it, that directly a man begins to think of
turning round it is time to turn out.

t In "A Mirror for Mathematics, a Golden Gem for
Geometricians, a sure Safety for Saylers, and an auncient
Antiquary for Astronomers and Astrologians," by Robert
Tanner, Gent, Practitioner in Astrologie and Physic, a book
published in the year 1587, we find an "Epistle dedicatourie !>
to Lord Howard of Effingham, commencing : — " The Cranes
when they fly out of Cilicia, over the mountain Taurus, carrie
in their mouths a pebble stone, lest by their chattering they
should be ceased upon by the eagles, which birds, Right
Honourable, might teach me silence," &c., &c.

Much Necessarily left Untouched upon. 263

would naturally not use similes that would be
unfamiliar to his readers. " What I haue done,"
he writes, "was onely to keep myselfe from
sleepe, as the Crane doth the stone in hir foote ;
and I would also, with the same Crane, that I had
been silent, holding a stone in my mouth."

It will be sufficiently evident that the birds
we have mentioned are but few in number. It
would be extremely difficult to make our treat-
ment exhaustive, extremely easy to make it
exhausting ; we would desire in pity to our
readers to avoid either of these alternatives.
We would therefore steer straight for the pro-
verbial third course, and trust that it may be
held that we have found a happy medium in
resting satisfied with the comparatively few
species of birds that are here brought under
notice.

CHAPTER V.

FORMS reptilian and piscine — The basilisk — Shakespeare and
Spenser thereupon — King of serpents — The dragon —
Aldrovandus thereon — The dragon-stone — The griffin —
The scorpion— The " Newe Jewell of Healthe "--Toads
— Antipathy between toad and spider — The toadstone —
How to procure it — The weeping crocodile — Cockeram's
Dictionary — The treacherous seal — The salamander — Its
potent venom — Its home in fire — Prester John and his
kingdom — Pyragones — The chamaeleon — Its changing
colour — Serpents from air — The gift of invisibility — The
serpent-stone — Theriaca — Viper-broth — Antidotal herbs —
The soil of Malta— The deaf adder— The two-headed
Amphisbsena — Aldrovandus on serpents — Hairy serpents
— The deadly asp — Monstrous snails — Snail and spider
remedies — Bees — Virgil on their production — Glowworm
ink — Marine forms the counterparts of those on land —
The sea-monk — The sea-bishop — The sus marinus — The
brewers of the storm — The hog-fish — The sea-elephant —
The sea-horse — The sea-unicorn — The remora — The
dolphin, its special fondness for man — Its love of music —
Its changeful colouring — The acipenser — The loving ray —
The sargon — The friendship between the oyster and the
prawn — The voracious swam- fish — Leviathan — Cause of
the crooked mouth of the flounder — The healing tench —
Fish medicaments — The vain cuttle-fish — The fish that
came to be eaten — Conclusion.

We turn in conclusion to forms reptilian and
piscine, and to u such small deer" as may call
for a parting word or two in drawing our labours
to a close ; and here we find no great amount
of material to deal with, for though our section
includes such fabulous monsters as the basilisk
and the dragon, the general knowledge of reptiles

77ie deadly Basilisk. 265

and fish was naturally by no means so extensive
as that of the more readily visible beasts and
birds.

The basilisk, a wingless dragon, according to
some authorities — a serpent, if we may credit
others — was a peculiarly objectionable creation,
not of nature, but of man. Like all such
creatures, it is extremely difficult to get a very
definite idea of it, since imagination has run
rampant in dealing with it. It was but twelve
fingers' breadth long, according to some writers j
this we may take to mean some eight or nine
inches long,* but, unfortunately, its powers of
mischief were out of all proportion to its size.
It wore a diadem upon its head, as a sign of its
kingship over all other serpents, and its poison
was death without remedy. Pliny, however,
shall be allowed to describe the venomous little
monster in his own wav, as he does so with a

j *

vivid force that it is impossible to surpass : —
" With his hies he driveth away other serpents ;
he moveth his body forward not by multiplied
windings like other serpents, but he goeth with
half his body upright and aloft from the ground ;
he killeth all shrubs not only that he toucheth,
but that he breatheth upon ; he burns up herbs
and breaketh the stones, so great is his power
for mischief. It is received of a truth that one
of them being killed with a lance by a man
on horseback, the poison was so strong that it

* " This creature is in thicknesse as big as a man's wrist,
and of length proportionable to that thicknesse." — Speculum
Mundi.

266 Natural History Lore and Legend.

passed along the staff and destroyed both horse
and man." Its touch caused the flesh to fall
from the bones of the animal with which it
came in contact, and even the glance of its
eye was death upon whomsoever it fell. It
will be remembered that Shakespeare refers to
this belief in the utterance of the Lady Ann in
response to Richard's observation on her eyes—

" Would that they were basilisk's to strike thee dead."

In 2 Henry VI. (act hi. sc. 6) the king exclaims,

" Come, basilisk, and kill the innocent gazer with thy sight,"

— while in Henry V. (act iii. sc. 2) Queen Isabel
says —

" Your eyes, which hitherto have borne in them
Against the French, that met them in their bent
The fatal balls of murthering basilisks."

Suffolk in cursing his enemies invokes against
them the deadly basilisk, while Gloster boasts
that he will " slay more gazers than the basilisk."
Spenser in like manner mentions one who —

" Secretly his enemies did slay
Like as the Basilisk, of serpent's seede
From powerful eyes close venim did convey
Into the looker's hart, and killed farre away."

The writer of the " Speculum Mundi" hath it
that "the Basilisk is the King of Serpents, not
for his magnitude nor greatnesse, but for his
stately pace and magnanimous minde." Of this
magnanimity, however, he gives no illustration
or proof, but simply goes on to give the creature
as black a character as all other writers do.
41 His eyes are red in a kinde of cloudy thicknesse,

The deadly Basilisk. 267

as if fire were mixt with smoke. His poyson is a
very hot and venimous poyson, drying up and
scorching the grasse as if it were burned, in-
fecting the aire round about him, so as no other
creature can live near him. His hissing, likewise,
is said to be as bad, in regard that it blasteth
trees, killeth birds, &c., by poysoning of the
aire, and if anything be slaine by it the same
also proueth venimous to such as touch it,"
—an altogether unloving and unlovely brute. It
must be borne in mind that whilst we in this
nineteenth century simply regard such a creature
as a weird fancy, countless generations of man-
kind have accepted the basilisk as a very grim
reality indeed, that might in all its fearful power
some day cross their paths.

Even Sir Thomas Browne, who demolished in
his book so many common beliefs, is prepared to
accept the Basilisk, for while he declares that
" many opinions are passant concerning the
basilisk, or little King of Serpents, some affirm-
ing, others denying, most doubting the relations
made thereof," he, himself, adds "that such an
animal there is, if we evade not the testimony of
Scripture and humane writers, we cannot safely
deny." For his Scriptural proofs he quotes
Psalm xci. : " Super aspidem et Basilicum
ambulabis," and Jeremiah viii., ver. 17: " For
behold I will send serpents, cockatrices among
you, which will not be charmed, and they shall
bite you." Many of the old writers we may
mention in passing, consider the basilisk and the
cockatrice the same creature. That by death-

268 Natural History Lore and Legend.

dealing glance a basilisk may empoison is not to
Browne a thing impossible, " for eies receive
offensive impressions from their objects, and
may have influences destructive to each other.
For the visible species of things strike not our
senses immaterially, but streaming in corporal!
raies doe carry with them the qualities of the
object from whence they flow. Thus it is not
impossible what is affirmed of this animall ; the
visible raies of their eies carrying forth the
subtilest portion of their poison, which, received
by the eie of man or beast, infecteth first the
brain, and is thence communicated to the heart."
Again he says, " that deleterious it may be at
some distance, and destructive without corporall
contaction, there is no high improbability," and
he proceeds, not by any means without thought
or shrewdness, to give reasons for his belief in
the possibility of such a thing. " For," says he,
"if plagues or pestilential! Atonies have been
conveyed in the air from different Regions, if
men at a distance have infected each other, if
the shaddowes of some trees be noxious, if
Torpedoes deliver their opinion at a distance
and stupifie beyond themselves, we cannot
reasonably deny that (besides our grosse and
restrained poisons requiring contiguity unto their
actions) there may proceed from subtiller seeds
more agile emanations, which contemn those
laws, and invade at distance unexpected."

The belief in the dragon was one of the articles
of faith of our ancestors. In another of our books,
" Symbolism in Christian Art," we have dwelt

The Dragon-myth. 269

at considerable length upon the various legends in
which the dragon figures, and the symbolic use
made of the monster as representative of the
evil principle that all are called upon to combat,
but our forefathers had a very real belief in the
veritable existence of the dragon, not by any
means regarding it as a symbol merely, a figure
of speech or apt allegory, but as one of the quite
definite perils that the adventurous traveller in
distant lands might be called upon to face,*
while preparations of the dragon were a recog-
nized feature in the pharmacopoeia. " Scale of
dragon, tooth of wolf," and many other horrible
ingredients are found in the witches' cauldron in
Macbeth.

In a mediaeval work we are told that " the
turning joint in the chine of a dragon doth
promise an easy and favourable access into the
presence of great lords." One can only wonder
why this should be, all clue and thread of con-
nection between the two things being now so
hopelessly lost. We must not, however, forget
that, smile now as we may at this, there was a
time when our ancestors accepted the statement
with the fullest faith, and many a man who
would fain have pleaded his cause before king
or noble, bewailed with hearty regret his want
of draconic chine, the " turning-point " of the

* The "Annals of Winchester," for the year 11/7, inform us
that "in this yeare Dragons were sene of many in England."
In 1274 it is recorded that there was an earthquake on the Eve
of St. Nicholas' Day, and that there appeared " a fiery dragon
which frightened the English."

270 Natural History Lore and Legend.

dragon and of his own fortunes. Another
valuable recipe runs as follows: "Take the
taile and head of a dragon, the haire growing
upon the forehead of a lion, with a little of his
marrow also, the froth, moreover, that a horse
fomethe at the mouth who hath woon the victorie
in running a race, and the nailes besides of a
dog's feete ; bind all these together with a piece
of leather made of red deer's skin, with the
sinewes partly of a stag, partly of a fallowe
deere, one with another ; carry this about with
you, and it will work wronders."* It seems almost
a pity that the actual benefits to be derived from
the possession of this compound are not more
clearly defined, as there is no doubt that a
considerable amount of trouble would be in-
volved in getting the various materials together,
and the zeal and ardour of the seeker after this
wonder-working composition would be some-
what damped by doubt as to its actual utility.
Mediaeval medicine-men surely must have been
somewhat chary of adopting the now familiar
legend of " prescriptions accurately dispensed"
wThen the onus of making up such a mixture
could be laid upon them.

In spite of the familiarity with the appearance

* In the " Magick of Kirani," a Persian book that appear
in an English dress in 1685, we find the representation of
dragon employed as a charm. " If therefore any man engra\
a woodpecker on the stone dentrites, and a sea-dragon under it
feet, every gate will open unto himj savage beasts will al
obey him and come to tameness ; he shall also be \a\
and observed of all, and whatever he hath a mind to, he si
perform."

Authorities on the Dragon. 271

of the creature that the obtaining of its head and
tail would suggest, the various authorities differ
very widely in describing it. Some writers say
that dragons are of ua yellow fierie colour,,
having sharp backs like saws," and some tell
us that "their scales shine like silver." Some
dragons are said to have wings and no feet, some
again have both feet and wings, others have neither
one nor the other, and are only distinguished
from the common sort of serpents by the combs-
growing upon their heads. Father Pigafetta in
his book declares that " Mont Atlas hath plentie
of dragons, grosse of body, slow of motion, and
in byting or touching incurably venomous. In
Congo is a kind of dragons like in bygnesse unto
rammes with wings, having long tayles and
divers jawes of teeth of blue and greene, painted
like scales, with two feete, and feede on rawe
fleshe." John Leo, in his "History of Africa,"'
says that the dragon is the progeny of the eagle
and wolf. Others affirm that it is generated
by the great heat of India, or springs from the
volcanoes of Ethiopia.

After reading about almost every possible
variation of structure that is open to a dragon,,
winged, serpentine, two-legged, four-legged, and
the like, it is rather quaint to find that Pliny
feels that there is a point after all where one
must draw the line. He says that "in Ethiopia
there are produced as great dragons as in India,
being twenty cubits long. But I chiefly wonder
at one thing": why Juba should think they were
crested." This suggestion of the crass ignorance

272 Natural History Lore and Legend.

of Juba was certainly a little hard on him, as
when so very much was believed a crest was a
very little extra item to credit, besides as a
matter of fact dragons as such, Ethiopian or
otherwise, were often described by ancient
authorities as having this feature. It really
seems like accepting the sheeted spectre of the
country churchyard, and then growing sceptical
because its hollowed turnip head was still
crowned with a little of the foliage that rustic
haste or indifference to the verities had failed
to cut away.

Aldrovandus, in his " History of Serpents and
Dragons," published in 1 640, goes very thoroughly
indeed into the subject.* The work is in
folio size, and the portion devoted to the dragon
extends from pages 312 to 360. It must be
duly noted that Aldrovandus entirely accepts
the dragon as a reality ; that this is so is obvious
from his dealing with it in this volume instead
of placing it in his " Historia Monstrorum."
The book is written in Latin, and amongst the
various sections concerning the dragon we find
Differentiae, Forma et Descriptio, Mores, Locus,
Antipathia (unlike most other creatures treated
by the old author, his vindictive savagery forbi

* On its noble title-page we see on either side of the title
the book a powerful dragon, beneath one is inscribed Dominiu
and below the other Vigilantia. At the base a third drag
supports two shields. On one is represented the serpc
twining round a staff, the well-known symbol of ./Esculapi
inscribed Salus, and on the other the equally familiar symbol
of eternity, the serpent with its tail in its mouth, inscribed
Immortalitatis.

274 Natural History Lore and Legend.

the usual chapter on Sympathia), and Usus in
Medicina. Fig. 19 is one of the draconic
forms illustrated in the book ; the varieties
given are very numerous, and of widely differ-
ing nature.

Our ancestors used always to prescribe divers
kinds of herb-teas to be drunk in the Springtime,
and it is a curious example of instinct in a reptile
that the dragon likewise, whom he feels at this
season of the year a certain loathing of meat,
physics himself into rude health again with the
juice of the wild lettuce. Many animals have, or
at all events had, if we may credit the wisdom
of our forefathers, considerable faith in the
medicinal value of herbs. Thus pigeons and
blackbirds when suffering from loss of appetite
eat bay leaves as a tonic. The bay leaf, too, was
a most valuable thing for internal application
against the poison of the chameleon, though the
elephant when he had inadvertently swallowed
one of these creatures, a mistake that seems to
have not unfrequently happened, probably from
the resemblance in colour of the reptile to the
foliage amongst which he was ensconced, pinned
his faith in the wild olive leaf.

As the toad, ugly and venomous, bore yet
in popular belief a precious jewel in its head,
so we find in the writings of various authorities
a belief that the still uglier and more venomous
dragon bore in like manner the lustrous car-
buncle. Jordanus tells us, for example, that in
India the dragons that there abound are thus
gifted, a fact that the natives turn to their

The Dragon as a Playmate. 275

advantage. " These dragons," he declares,
41 grow exceeding big, and cast forth from the
mouth a most infectious breath, like the thickest
smoke rising from fire. These animals come
together at the destined time, develop wings,
and begin to raise themselves in the air, and
then, by the judgment of God, being too heavy,
they drop into a certain river which issues from
Paradise, and perish there. But all the regions
round about watch for the time of the dragons,
and when they see that one has fallen they wait
for seventy days, and then go down and find the
bare bones of the dragon, and take the carbuncle
which is rooted in the top of his head."

Even the dragon, however, may not be quite
so black as he is painted, for we read in one old
author of a child in Arcadia that had a dragon
for its playmate. There was much affection
between them, but presently a considerable
dread of the dragon's powers gained possession
of the boy, and he compassed the brilliant idea
of beguiling his companion well out into the
desert and then slipping away. In the very
consummation of this plan a new danger arose,
as the stripling found himself in an ambush of
robbers, whereupon he was only too thankful to
call out to his discarded playmate, who imme-
diately came to the rescue and very effectually
scattered his despoilers. At this point the
history unfortunately stops, but we may perhaps
conclude that it follows on the lines of most
stories of the affections, and that " they lived
happy ever after." However this may be, it is a

18 *

276 Natural History Lore and Legend.

charming narrative, and opens out quite a new
trait of dragon disposition.

Amongst the many strange creatures that were
held to inhabit Ethiopia, the griffins were per-
haps the most conspicuous amidst the weird
fauna of that marvellous land. " Some men
seyn," and Maundevile in his quaint book of
travels fully endorses the idea, " that Griffounes
han the Body upward as an Egle and benethe as
a Lyoun and treuly thei ben of that schapp. But
a Griffoun hathe the body more gret and is more
strong thanne eight Lyouns and more gret and
stronger than an hundred Egles such as we han
amonge us. For a Griffoun ther wil bere, fleynge
to his Nest, a gret Hors or two Oxen yoked
togidere as thei gon at the Plowghe."

Chaucer, in the " Canterbury Tales," says of
one of his characters : —

" Blake was his herd, and manly was his face,
The cercles of his eyen in his heel
They gloweden betwixten yelwe and red,
And like a griffon loked he about."

Ctesias describes the griffin in all sober
earnestness as a bird with four feet of the size
of a wolf, and having the legs and claws of
lion, their feathers being red upon the breas
and black on the rest of the body. Glanvil sa
of it : " the claws of a griffin are so large an
ample that he can seize an armed man as easily
by the body as a hawk a little bird." The griffin
is often met with in heraldry past and presen
either as a crest, charge, or supporter of th

ze

:

7A

id

The Sting of the Scorpion. 277

arms. A very familiar example of its employ-
ment in the latter service may be seen in the
arms of the City of London, or exalted on lofty
pedestal, where, in lieu of Temple Bar, it marks
the westward civic boundary. Shakespeare,
Milton, and others of our poets and writers,
refer to the griffin.

Anyone reading the herbals of Gerard, Parkin-
son, and others, or the various medical books of
the Middle Ages, will scarcely have failed to
notice how frequently reference is made to the
scorpion. In these later days a man might well
journey from John o' Groats to the Land's End,
and run no peril of an encounter, but in the
earlier times we have referred to, the sting
of the scorpion was a very present dread, and
numerous remedies for it were devised. The
beautiful blue forget-me-not of our streams is in
all herbals and floras till the beginning of this cen-
tury called the scorpion-grass,* from its supposed
virtue as a cure, a remedy that was supposed to
be sufficiently indicated from its head of flowers
and buds being rolled round into some more or
less satisfactory resemblance to a scorpion's tail.
Cogan, in his " Haven of Health," tells how " a
certaine Italian, by often smelling the Basill, had
a scorpion bred in his braine, and after vehement
and long paines he died therof."

In the " Newe lewell of Health, gathered out
of the best and most approved Authors by that

* Thus Lyte tells us that in his day, 15/8, it had " none
other knowen name than this."

278 Natural History Lore and Legend.

excellent Doctor Gesnerus,"^ we find some
extraordinary preparations. Most of these are
of a botanical nature, but we also have " Oyle
holyf prepared out of dead men's bones, Oyle or
distilled lycour gotten out of the Gray, Oyle
marveylous gotten out of the Beuer, Oyle of
frogges ryght profitable to such as are payned of
ye gout, Oyle of antes egges," and many other
strange remedies for the ills that the flesh is heir
to. Among them, a forerunner of the ideas of
Hahnemann, and the notion of like curing like,
we find " Oyle of Scorpion's distilled against
Poysons." Apropos of the oil from dead men's
bones, we may point out the special charm that
our ancestors seemed to find in anything asso-
ciated with the charnel house — thus one favourite
remedy was the moss that grewr on a dead man's
skull, another was a pill compounded from the
brains of a man that had been hanged ; powder of
mummy in like manner was in high repute, and
to those who found pill or powder too nauseous
a draught of spring water from the skull of a
murdered man was at once refreshing and health-

* " Wherein is contained the most excellent Secretes of
Phisicke and Philosophic deuided into fower Bookes. In the
which are the best approued remedies for the diseases as well
inwarde as outwarde, of all the partes of Man's bodie : treating
very amplie of all Dystillacions of Waters, of Oyles, Balmes,
Quintessences, with the vse and preparation of Antimonie and
Potable Gold."

f The " holy " has, of course, no reference to the sacred
character of the mess in question: it is merely the free and
easy mediaeval way of spelling the word wholly.

The Toad as a Remedy. 279

giving. The following recipe* for the cure of a
wound seems to show that our forefathers had no
great fear of blood poisoning : " Take of the
moss of the skull of a strangled man two ounces,
of the mumia of man's blood one ounce and
a halfe, of earth wormes washed in water or
wine and drved. one ounce and a halfe. of the

j /

fatte of a Boare two drams, of oyle of Turpintine
two drams : pound them and keepe them in a
longe narrow pott, and dippe into the oyntment
the yron or wood, or some sallowe sticke made
wet with blood in opening the wound." The
medicine and surgery of the Middle Ages must
have been a powerful influence in checking
redundance of population.

Toads were in great repute in sickness. " In
time of common contagion," writes Sir Kenelm
Digby in 1660, "men use to carry about with
them the powder of a toad, and sometimes a
living toad or spiderf shut up in a box, which
draws the contagious air, which otherwise would
infect the party," and many other illustrations of
their employment as preventives or remedies

* Extracted from the "Arcana Fairfaxiana," a facsimile
reproduction of a manuscript book of recipes some three
hundred years old, found in an old lumber room at the ancestral
seat of the Fairfax family.

t Our readers will remember the use that Longfellow makes
of this fancy in his " Evangeline : " —

"Only beware of the fever, my friends ! Beware of the

fever !

For it is not like that of our cold Acadian climate,
Cured by wearing a spider hung round one's neck in a

nutshell."
In the diary of Elias Ashmole we find that on May nth,

280 Natural History Lore and Legend.

might be given. The spider and the toad seem
to have been each regarded as most venomous
creatures, and in many of the old remedies one
or other of them at will are recommended, either
alternative being regarded as equally efficacious ;
thus for whooping cough, if one cannot find a
toad to thrust up the chimney, two spiders in a
walnut shell will serve equally well.

There was held to be mortal antipathy between
the toad and the spider, and the result of a
meeting between them was a conflict fatal to
one or both of the antagonists. The Aster
Tripolium, a well-known English wild plant, was
originally called the toad-wort. " When a spider
stings a toad, and the toad is becoming van-
quished, and the spider stings it thickly and
frequently, and the toad cannot avenge itself,
it bursts assunder," at least, the author of the
" Ortus Sanitatis " says it does, but whether this
arises from venom or from vexation he does not
explain. " If such a burst toad be near the
toad-wort, it chews it and becomes sound again ;
but if it happens that the wounded toad cannot
get to the plant, another toad fetches it and gives
it to the wounded one." Topsell, in his "Natural
History," vouches for this having been actually
witnessed.

1 65 1 , he was suffering from ague. He writes : " I took early
in the morning a good dose of elixir, and hung three spiders
about my neck, ague away, Deo Gratias ! " Sometimes a pill
made up of spider web is taken, and in some parts of the south
of England a favourite remedy for jaundice was the living spider
itself rolled up with butter into a pill.

The jfew el-bear ing Toad. 281

That the skin of the toad gives forth an acrid
secretion which serves the creature as a defence is
established beyond doubt, but its hurtful proper-
ties have been greatly exaggerated. Dryden
refers to the lady " who squeezed a toad into
her husband's wine," the inference being she was
in heart murderous. Spenser makes Envy ride
upon a wolf and chew "between his cankred
teeth a venomous tode," while Diodorus declares
that toads were generated by the heat of the
sun from the dead bodies of ducks putrefying in
mud.*

Lily, in his " Euphues," declares that " the
foule toade hath a faire stone in his head," an
idea that Shakespeare has immortalized in the
beautiful lines that remind us how :—

" Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Yet wears a precious jewel in its head."

The crapaudine, or toad-stone, is of a dull
brown colour. It was believed to possess
sovereign virtue against poison from its changing
colour when in the presence of any noxious
thing : hence it was often worn as a protection
in finger rings. Figs. 20 and 2 1 are good examples
of this use. They are both from rings in the
Londesborough collection. The belief in the
virtues of the toad-stone was not only popular in
England, but was one of the fallacies accepted
throughout Europe. Though the stone is well-

* Another of these ancient authorities affirmed that mud
engendered frogs that lack feet. In other words, he made
acquaintance with tadpoles !

282 Natural History Lore and Legend.

known to geologists as a variety of trap-rock,
the accepted belief was that it was found only ii
the head of the toad. Fenton, writing in 1569,
affirms that " there is found in the heads of oli
and great toads a stone which they call borax 01
stelon, and Lupton, some fifty years afterwards,
writes : " the crepaudia or toad-stone is very
valuable, touching any part envenomed by the bite
of a rat, wasp, spider, or other poisonous beast
it ceases the pain and swelling thereof." Ben
Jonson also refers to it in his play of "The Fox."
Albertus Magnus, writing about 1275, adds the
great wonder that this stone when taken out of
the creature's head has the figure of a toad upon

FIG. 21.

it, while others declare that the stone itself is of
the form of a toad. It is a treasure not easily to
be procured, for the toad u envieth much that
man should haue that stone," declares Lupton,
the author of "A Thousand Notable Things,"
hence it was very necessary to bewrare of useless
counterfeits, and this old writer gives us a ready
means of detecting them. " To know," says he,
" whether the toad-stone called crepaudia be the
righte and perfect stone or not, holde the stone
before a toad so that he may see it, and if it be a

How to procure the Toad-stone. 283

right and true stone the toad will leap towards it,,
and make as though he would snatch it from
you," a proceeding that must have required a
considerable amount of nerve on the part of
anvone duly impressed with the fear of the
deadly venom of the creature.

The same ancient authority on the subject
very obligingly gives "a rare good way to get
the stone out of the toad." It suffices to "put
a great or overgrown toad, first bruised in divers
places, into an earthen pot : put the same into
an ant's hillocke, and cover the same with earth,
which toad at length the ants will eat, so that the
bones of the toad and stone will be left in the
pot." This certainly seems simplicity itself, but,
unfortunately, most authorities agree in saying
that the stone, to have any real virtue, should be
obtained while the creature is yet alive. Porta
has his doubts on the whole matter, nevertheless
he gives some hints that might be of value to-
those of greater faith. "There is a stone," he
says, " called Chelonites — the French name it
Crapodina, which they report to be found in the
head of a great old Toad ; and if it can be gotten
from him while he is alive, it is soveraign against
poyson. They say it is taken from living toads,
in a red cloth, in which colour they are much
delighted ; for while they sport themselves upon
the scarlet the stone droppeth out of their head
and falleth through a hole made in the middle
into a box set under for the purpose, else they
will suck it up again. But I never met with a
faithfull person who said that he had found it :

284 Natural History Lore and Legend.

nor could I ever find one, though I have cut up
many. Nevertheless, I will affirm this for truth
that those stones which are pretended to be
taken out of Toads are minerals. But the value
is certain : if any swallow it down with poyson it
will preserve him from the malignity of it, for it
runneth about with the poyson and asswageth
the power of it that it becometh vain and of
no force." Boethius tells us how he watched
throughout a whole night an old toad that he
had placed on a piece of scarlet cloth, but is
obliged to confess that nothing occurred to
" gratify the great pangs of his whole night's
restlessness," as the toad entirely declined to
be lured into any frivolities that might cause
him the loss of his precious jewel.

Browne, in his exposure of the various popular
errors current in his time, presently arrives at
this belief, but finds himself unable to express
any very definite opinion, and takes refuge in
compromise. "As for the stone," quoth he,
"commonly called a Toadstone, which is pre-
sumed to be found in the head of that animall,
we first conceive it not a thing impossible, nor
is there any substantiall reason why in a Toad
there may not be found such hard and lapideous
concretions ; for the like we daily observe in the
heads of Fishes, as Codds, Carps, and Pearches.
Though it be not impossible, yet it is surely very
rare, as we are induced to believe from inquiry
of our own ; from the triall of many who have
been deceived and the frustrated search of
Porta, who, upon the exploremerit of many,

The Toad's power of Fascination. 285

could scarce finde one.* Nor is it only of
rarity, but may be doubted whether it be of
existency, or really any such stone in the head
of a Toad at all. For though Lapidaries and
questonary enquires affirm it, yet the writers of
Mineralls and natural speculators are of another
belief, conceiving the stones which bear this
name to be a Minerall concretion, not to be
found in animalls but in fields. What therefore
best reconcileth these divided determinations
may be a middle opinion ; that of these stones
some are minerall and to be found in the earth ;
some animall, to be met with in Toads, at least
by the induration of their cranies. The first are
many and manifold, to be found in Germany! and
other parts, the last are fewer in number, and in
substance not unlike the stones in Carps' heads.
This is agreeable unto the determination of
Aldrovandus, and is also the judgment of the
learned Spigelius in his Epistle unto Pignorius."
If only a toad with an indurated cranium could
be discovered, everything would fall into its
right place !

Through the Middle Ages men believed that
the toad exercised the power of fascination not
only upon its insect prey, but upon all other

* It will be noted on turning back to our quotation from
Porta, that this "scarce one " is altogether too favourable to the
belief in the jewelled cranium of the toad. Porta, it will be
seen, says, " nor could I finde one," an entirely different state
of things.

f It will be seen from this that the state of things involved
in the too familiar legend, " Made in Germany," is of ancient
date.

-286 Natural History Lore and Legend.

creatures, including man himself, and even s<
far back as the days of the classical writers
was a fully accepted belief that whosoever ha<
the misfortune to be looked squarely in the eye
by a toad would find that, basilisk-like, the ga;
to him meant death.

The belief that the crocodile shed tears ov<
his prey is a very ancient one ; various motiv<
have been assigned for this grief, but th<
generally accepted belief is that the W7hol(
proceeding is a fraud, perpetrated with the
idea of attracting sympathetic passers-by writhin
reach of his formidable jaws; hence he has been
accepted as a symbol of dissimulation. We get
an excellent illustration of this in Shakespeare's
King Henry VIII., where Henry is said by
•Queen Margaret to be —

" Too full of foolish pity ; and Gloster's show
Beguiles him, as the mournful crocodile
With sorrow snares relenting passengers."*

Spenser, in the Faerie Queene,t deals equally
clearly and explicitly with the same fancy in the
lines—

" As when a wearie traveiler, that strayes
By muddy shore of broad seven-mouthed Nile,
Unweeting of the perillous wandring wayes,
Doth meete a cruell craftie Crocodile,
"Which in false grefe hyding his harmefull guile,
Doth weepe full sore, and sheddeth tender teares ;
The foolish man, that pities all this while
His mournful plight, is swallowed up unawares,
Forgetfull of his owne that mindes an other's cares."

" Thereupon," ungallantly adds an old writer,
* Act iii., sc. 9. t Book I., Canto V.

Crocodiles Tears. 287

" came this proverb that is applied unto women
when they weep. Lachrymae Crocodili, the
meaning whereof is, that as the Crocodile when
he crieth goeth about most to deceive, so doth
a woman most commonly when she weepeth."
Thus Othello misanthropically exclaims —

" If that the earth could teem with woman's tears,
Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile."

In the same spirit Barnfield, in his " Cassan-
dra," written in the year 1595, has the following
passage : —

" He, noble lord, fearlesse of hidden treason,
Sweetely salutes this weeping Crocodile ;
Excusing every cause with instant reason
They kept him from her sight so long a while ;
She faintly pardons him ; smiling by art,
For life was in her lookes, death in her hart."

The author of the "Speculum Mundi," who is
ever seeking a moral* or an opportunity of
improving the occasion, declares that " the
crocodile when he hath devoured a man and
eaten all up but the head, will sit and weep

* A. very good illustration of this treatment may be seen in
the statement that "the dogs in Egypt use to lap their water
running when they come to Nilus, for fear of the crocodiles
there, which cannot but be a fit pattern for us in the use of
pleasures; for true it is, we may not stand to take a heartie
draught, for then delights be dangerous, howbeit we may
refresh ourselves with them as we go on our way, and may
take them, but may not be taken by them ; for when they
detain us, and cause us to stand still, then their sweet waters
have fierce Crocodiles ; or if not so, they have strange
Tarantulas, whose sting causeth to die laughing."

288 Natural History Lore and Legend.

over it* as if he expressed a great portion of
sorrow for his cruel feast, but it is nothing sor
for when he weeps it is because his hungrie
paunch wants such another prey. And from
hence the proverb took beginning, viz. Croco-
diles' tears ; which is then verified when one
weeps cunningly without sorrow, dissembling
heaviness out of craftinesse ; like unto many
rich men's heirs who mourn in their gowns
when they laugh in their sleeves ; or like to
other dissemblers of the like nature who have
sorrow in their eyes, but joy and craftiness in
their hearts." However this may be, the sup-
posititious tears of the crocodile have been
turned to abundant literary and moral account.
The tears of the crocodile were supposed,
according to some who were great authorities
in their day and generation, to crystallize into
gems, but as supposititious tears could only pro-
duce supposititious gems the actual value would
be but small.

In an early Bestiary it states that "if a
crocodile comes across a man it kills him, but
it remains inconsolable the rest of its life ; " but
why it suffers this life-long remorse we are not
told. This old writer also tells us of the hydrar
<( a verv wise animal who understands well how

* We meet a like precision of statement in Cockeram's
Dictionary, a quaint old volume, wherein " all such as desire
to know the plenty of the English" will find some very
strange illustrations of it. He says, edition of 1623, that "the
crocodile having eaten the body of a man, will, in fine, we
over the head."

Feud between Dolphins and Crocodiles. 289

to injure the crocodile." The modus operandi
is very simple, and the injury inflicted seems
beyond question: — "When the hydra sees the
crocodile go to sleep it covers itself over with
slimy mud, and wriggles itself into the crocodile's
mouth, penetrates into its stomach, and then
tears it assunder." The dolphin appears to be
another foe to be by no means despised. Pliny
tells us that when these desire to pass up the
Nile the crocodiles, who regard the river as
their peculiar preserve, greatly resent their
presence, and endeavour to drive them back.
As the dolphins fully realize that they are no
match for their foes in fair fight, they take refuge
in their superior activity and craft, and having
a dorsal fin as sharp edged as a knife, they
swim swiftly beneath the crocodiles, and as
the under portion of these creatures is un-
protected by the armour that is so conspicuous
on the upper parts of their bodies, with one
sharp gash they rip the crocodile completely
open.

It was a Greek superstition that beneath the
visible exterior of the seal was concealed a
woman, and that when a swimmer ventured too
far he ran great risk of being seized by a seal
and strangled. The creature then carried the
lifeless body to some desert shore and wept
over it, from which arose the popular saying
that when a woman shed false tears she cried
like a seal. As the desert shore implies absence
of spectators, it seems difficult to tell what
authority there is for the statement as to what

J9

29° Natural History Lore and Legend.

went on there, and even when this initial
difficulty is overcome it seems equally im-
possible to suggest any satisfactory reason for
the gruesome proceedings of this weird woman-
seal or seal-woman, either in the preliminary
murderous attack or the subsequent lamenta-
tion. Whatever strange idea may have originally
started the story, it is a curious parallel to that
of the weeping crocodile.

The salamander received its full mythical
development in mediaeval days, though the
older writers refer to it occasionally, and we
note in the writings of such men as Pliny the
first steps taken towards the erection of that
fabric of fancy and superstition that later on
became so conspicuous. The ancients asserted
that the salamander was never seen in bright

O

weather, but only made its appearance during
heavy rain, and that it was of so frigid a nature
that if it did but touch fire it quenched it as
completely as if ice were piled thereon. It was,
moreover, declared to be so venomous that the
mere climbing of a tree by the animal is amply
sufficient to poison all the fruit, so that those
who afterwards eat thereof perished without
remedy, and that if it entered a river the stream
was so effectually poisoned that all who drank
thereof must die. Glanvil, an English writ<
in the thirteenth century, roundly declares
historic fact that four thousand men and tw<
thousand horses of the army of Alexander the
Great were killed by drinking from a stream th;
had been thus infected.

The Salamander. 291

It was in the Middle Ages an article of faith
that the salamander was bred and nourished in
fire,* hence when the creature is represented it
is always placed in the midst of flames. Our
illustration, fig. 22, from Port a, is a fair typical
example. How the creature should be nourished
in the flames, while its mere contact with them
sivffices to extinguish them, seems a practical
difficulty, but the contradiction of ideas does not
seem to have troubled our forefathers, and the
two mutually destructive statements rest side
by side equally unquestioned in the writings of
all the authorities. Pliny, having his doubts,
thrust a salamander into the fire, and the
unfortunate victim of science was quickly
shrivelled up and consumed. t One would
have thought that this crucial test of actual
experiment would have settled the whole
matter, and reduced the fire-extinguishing theory
to oblivion, but it takes much more than that to
kill an old and well-established belief, as we may
see even in our own day where many super-
stitions still flourish in spite of common sense,
education, and experience arrayed against them.

* Readers of Shakespeare will recall how Falstaff rails at
Iinrdolph, calling him the "Knight of the Burning Lamp," and
other sarcasms inspired by the effects of strong liquor on his
rubicund countenance. " Thou hast saved me a thousand
marks in links and torches, walking with thee in the night.
I have maintained that Salamander of yours with tire any time
this two-and- thirty years."

f Galen, in one of his prescriptions, includes the ashes of a
salamander, an ingredient impossible to obtain if fire had no
power to destroy the creature.

19 *

292 Natural History Lore and Legend.

De Thaun in his " Bestiary " declares that
1 'the Salamander is of such a nature that if it
come by chance where there shall be burning

FIG. 22.

fire it shall at once extinguish it. The beast L
so cold and of such a quality that fire will not
be able to burn where it shall enter, nor will

The Kingdom of Pr ester John. 293

trouble happen where it shall be." This latter
statement is entirely at variance with the
general belief in its deadliness, but all these
statements are dwelt on, exaggerated, or sup-
pressed, as occasion and the moral to be deduced
requires. As in this particular case the pious
writer desired to see in the creature an emblem
of Azarias, Ananias and Misael praising God
without hurt in the fiery furnace, any reference
to its noxious properties was clearly out of
place, and on the strength of this association
it even receives a somewhat negative form of
commendation on its virtues as a peace-producer.
This we are bound to say is the only good word
we have ever seen ascribed by any of the writers
of the past to this unfortunate creature, and it
beyond doubt only receives even this solitary
commendation because the exigencies of what
the old writers thought the greater truth
appeared to call for it.

Asbestos was, from its incombustible property,
long held to be the wool of the salamander. In
the Middle Ages popular imagination was greatly
exercised over a mysterious Ruler in the East
known as Prester John. He was held to be a
Christian, and to bear sway in Asia over a widely-
extended empire, but the stories of returning
travellers showed that the idea had no foundation
in fact, and the scene of the monarchy was then
shifted to Abyssinia. The first reference to this
sovereign would appear to be in the Chronicle of
one Otto of Freisingin, who wrote about the
middle of the twelfth century, and afterwards

294 Natural History Lore and Legend.

allusions to this mysterious monarch frequently
recur. In the Chronicle of Albericus, about a
hundred years later than that of Otto, we read
that " Presbyter Joannes sent his wonderful
letter to various Christian princes, and especially
to Manuel of Constantinople, and Frederic, the
Roman Emperor." In this letter, a very lengthy
one, he claims to be Lord of Lords, and to
receive the tribute and homage of seventy-two
kings. " In the three Indies," saith he, "our
Magnificence rules, and our land extends beyond
India : it reaches toward the sunrise over the
wastes, and it trends towards deserted Babylon,
near the Tower of Babel." Whatever of
credence, much or little, we may give to this
letter, it is at least interesting to us as showing
the set of opinion on, amongst other matters,
things zoological, and therefore comes within the
scope of our book. He gives many details as to
the plants, the gold, and precious stones, and so
forth, and also states that " our land is the home
of elephants, dromedaries, camels, crocodiles,
metacollinarum, cammetennus, tensevetes, white
and red lions, white bears, crickets, griffins,
lamias, wild horses, wild men, men with horns,
one-eyed, men with eyes before and behind,
centaurs, fauns, satyrs, and pygmies ; it is the
home, too, of the phoenix, and of nearly all
living animals. In one of our lands, hight
Zone, are worms called in our tongue salaman-
ders. These worms can only live in fire, and
they build cocoons like silkworms, which are
unwound by the ladies of our palace and spun

Creatures of the Fire. 295

into cloth and dresses, which are worn by our
Exaltedness. These dresses, when we would
wash them and clean, are cast into flames."
Browne, in his exposure of vulgar errors, gravely
denies the existence of wool on a salamander at
all, truly pointing out that " it is a kinde of
Lizard, a quadruped corticated and depilous, that
is, without woolle, furre, or haire," an altogether
hopeless animal to shear.

Porta mentions that some peculiar creatures
called " Pyragones be generated in the fire :
certain little flying beasts so called because they
live and are nourished in the fire, and yet they
fly up and down in the air. This is strange ; but
that is more strange, that as soon as ever they
come out of the fire into any cold air presently
they die." Porta of course uses the word
presently in the older sense of at this present
moment, so that it really is, as he says, a wonder
that these creatures are able to fly about in the
air, when its effect upon them is immediate death.
We have ourselves been gravely told that if the
fires at the great iron-works in the Midland
Counties were not occasionally extinguished an
uncertain but fearful something would be gener-
ated in them, and it seems only natural that after
the imagination has peopled earth and sea with
strange monsters, and placed in the upper regions
of the air the paradise-birds and other creatures
that derived all needful sustenance from that
element alone, that the remaining element, fire,
should also have its peculiar inhabitants and
monsters.

096 Natural History Lore and Legend.

The chamaeleon was for centuries supposedrt<
live only on air, while its property of changinj
colour under the influence of its surrounding
was greatly exaggerated.

Shakespeare, the great storehouse of mediaeval
folk-lore, makes Speed, in the Two Gentlemen
of Verona, exclaim : —

" Tho' the chamseleon Love can live on the air,
I'm one that am nourish'd by my victuals,"

w^hile Gloster, in King Henry VI., boasts that
he could " add colours to the chamaeleon."

Gower, in like manner, asserts that vain-
glory is

" Lich unto the Camelion
Whiche upon every sondry hewe
That he beholt he mote newe
His colour."

Hence, again, other moralists declare that men
and wromen inconstant and fickle are like unto
chamaeleons.

It has been asserted by Avicenna that a
decoction of chamaeleon put into a bath wall
make him green-coloured that stayeth long
therein, but that by degrees this verdant hue
will pass away, and the man recover his natural
colour, while Porta declares that "with the
Gall of a Chamaeleon cut into water Wheezles
will be called together." Why anyone should
want to call a wheezle together he does not
explain, so that the receipt, simple as it is, seems
to be of no great practical value.

It has been rather a disgusting belief that if a
man wrill lick a lizard all over he will not only be

How Serpents arc developed. 297

safe from the personal inconvenience of having a
lizard go down his throat some day when he
might be sleeping in the fields, but that he will
have the power henceforward of healing any sore
to which he applies his tongue.

Our ancestors held many strange beliefs re-
specting serpents and snakes — one of these was
they were created from hair, " women's hairs
especially "-—as one old writer is careful to
emphasize — " because they are naturally longer
than men's." One old authority, our oft-quoted
Porta, hesitates not to say that "we have
experienced also that the hairs of a horse's mane
laid in the waters become serpents, and our
friends have tried the same," and he goes on to
mention as a truism to be almost apologized for
from its self-evident character, that " no man
denies but that serpents are easily gendred of
man's flesh, specially of his marrow." .^Elianus
in like manner declares that a dead man's marrow,
being putrified, becomes a serpent. Florentinus
affirms that basil chewed and laid in the sun will
engender serpents.*

Another strange idea was that serpents con-
ferred the power of invisibility. Thus John
Aubrey, an antiquary and author, and one of the
earliest Fellows of the Royal Society, gives in
full faith the following recipe : "Take on Mid-
summer night at xii, when all the planets are
above the earth, a serpent, and kill him, and
skinne him, and dry him in the shade, and bring

* A parallel idea is that if the body of a crab be laid in the
sunshine while the sun is in Cancer it will generate scorpions.

298 Natural History Lore and Legend.

it to a powder. Hold it in your hand, and you
will be invisible." His book entitled "Remaines
of Gentilisme and Judaisme " is a perfect store-
house of old-world superstitions, an inexhaustible
mine of quaint imaginings.

The " pretious stone " theory that \ve have
already encountered in one or two other cases,
the toad being the most notable, is in full force
.again amongst the various strange notions con-
cerning serpents. The recipe for its possession,
given by Jacobus Hollerius, is simplicity itself, as
it is merely necessary that the "snake be tyed
by the tayle with a corde, and hanged up, and a
vessell full of water set below ; after a certayne
time he will avoyde out of his mouth a stone."
The stone is of great medicinal value ; for instance,
"it fullye and wholelye helpes the partye that
hath the dropsye," by merely being attached to
the body of the sufferer, and in divers other ways
that we need not stay to particularize, proves itself
a stone of price. Jordanus, amongst his other
Indian experiences, came across serpents with
horns, evidently the cerastes or horned viper,
and others with precious stones. Tennant tells
us that the Cingalese believe that the stomach of
the cobra contains a stone of inestimable value,
and this belief, absurd as we deem it, is really
hardly more far-fetched than such a story as pearls
being found in oyster-shells would appear to a
man who heard it for the first time.

Snakes and serpents, like most other repulsive
things, have found their way into the pharma-
copoeia and the menu. Galen tells us that the

The Composition of Venice Treacle. 299

Egyptians used to eat vipers as other people did
eels, and it is a very old-world superstition that
viper's flesh is an antidote to the viper's poison.
In classic and mediaeval days a famous remedy,
originally known as mithridate or theriaca, and
later on as Venice treacle, was held to owe much
of its virtue as a vermifuge and antidote to all
kinds of poison to the vipers that formed one of
its ingredients. It was retained in the London
Pharmacopoeia until about a hundred years ago.
Its constituent parts changed somewhat from time
to time ; at one period we see it contained seventy-
three ingredients. The vipers were added to the
horrible mess by Andromachus, the physician to
the Emperor Nero,* and became a leading element
in the prescription. The name treacle was at one
time applied to any confection or syrup, and it
is only in these latter days that the name has
become associated exclusively with the syrup of
molasses : it is derived from the Greek Therion,
a name given to the viper, so that the schoolboys'
lunch of bread and treacle is the direct etymo-
logical outcome of the abominable adder's broth
of the Roman emperor.t

* " Andromachus a voulu changer le nom de Mithridate en
•celuy de Theriaque, a cause des viperes, auxquelles il a attribue
le nom, et lesquelles il a ajoute pour la base principale de cettc
•composition." (Chares, " 1'histoire des Animaux etc. qui entrent
dans la Theriaque," Paris, 1868.) See also Heberden's " Anti-
theriaca."

f A viper drowned in a bowl of wine gave the draught great
healing virtues for leprosy. This happy discovery, like many
•others of still greater value, was the result of accident. Some
mowers found on going to their provisions that a viper had got

Natural History Lore and Legend.

One often sees in these ancient remedies a
foreshadowing of the homoeopathic notion of like
to like ; thus Porta prescribes " a present
remedy " for the poison of the viper, declaring
that "the viper itself, if you slay her, and strip
off her skin, cut off her head and tail, cast away
all her entrails, boil her like an Eele, and give
her to one that she hath bitten, it will cure him,"
but in another place he says " for serpent's bites
I have found nothing more excellent than the
earth which is brought from the isle of Malta,
for the least dust of it put into their mouths kills
them presently." There is evidently here some
sort of connection endeavoured to be established
between the escape of St. Paul while in Malta
from the evil effects of the poison of a viper and
this present prescription, and it no doubt arose
from the old legend that, like St. Patrick in
Ireland, St. Paul, after his experience of them,
banished all snakes from the island. Once
granted that a serpent cannot live on the soil
of Malta, it follows almost as a matter of course
that a little of this same soil administered to

into the wine, so they, very naturally, "contented themselves
with water ; but when they had finished their day's work, and
were to go out of the field, as it were out of pity they gave a
leprous man the wine wherein the viper was drowned, supposing
it better for him to die than to live on in that misery, but he,
when he had drank it, was miraculously cured," at least, so we
read in the " Miracles of Art and Nature," Galen being referred
to as the original authority for the story. The first essential
in many of these ancient remedies appeared to be that they
should be most improbable and unreasonable, and, secondly,
that they should be as repulsive as possible.

The Strewing of Herbs, 301

it anywhere the wide world over will prove
fatal to it. The recipe is, nevertheless, a little
vague, as it deals exclusively with the destruction
of the serpent, which is not at all the same thing
as the restoration to health of the sufferer from
its poison fangs.

Prevention being better than cure, the hint
that Cogan gives in his " Haven of Health"
should prove of value. I( The setting of Lauen-
der within the house in floure pots must needes
be very wholesome, for it driueth away venemous
wormes, both by strawing and by the sauour of
it," and he adds that " being drunke in wine it is
a remedie against poyson." Tusser, in his book
on Husbandry, gives a long list of "strewing
herbes," their fragrance and remedial value being
held in high esteem by our forefathers : —

" No daintie flowre or herbe that growes on grownd,
No arborett with painted blossoms drest,
And smelling sweete, but there it might be fownd
To bud out faire, and throwe her sweet smels al around."*

The bunches of flowers that are still presented
to the Judges on the opening of the Law Courts
are the graceful and now happily needless de-
velopments of the bunches of herbs that were
once placed on their desks to avert the dangers
of the gaol fever, that with its noxious breath
slew not the hapless prisoners alone, but the
judges on the bench, and administered wild
justice on all alike for the contempt of sanitary

* Spenser.

302 Natural History Lore and Legend.

laws, and for the brutality that was rampant and
supreme.*

Fennel was, according to our forefathers, held
in esteem by the serpents themselves, and one
scarcely wonders that this should be so, if it be
true that " so soone as they taste of it they
become young again, and with the juice thereof
repair their sight." How this juice is applied
externally by the serpent is not explained, but it
very naturally suggested the idea to the medical
men of the Middle Ages that what was so good
for serpents might prove equally valuable to
suffering humanity, hence " to repair a man's
sight that is dim" nothing better than fennel
could be found, though they hesitated to promise
also to the human subject rejuvenescence.

The Syrians, according to one venerable
authority, had a most singular defence for their
country, the land being full of snakes that would
do no harm to the natives even if they trod upon
them, but which eagerly assailed the people of
any other nation and destroyed them. Naturally
therefore the Syrians cherished such a valuable
protection, though such a state of things would
hardly accord with modern notions of free trade
and the intercourse of nations. The discovery
of one wonder frequently leads to knowledge of
others, and Aristotle has a companion story in his
" History of Animals," of scorpions that in Caria

* In " the Ceremonies to be observed at the Coronation of
His most Excellent Majesty King George IV.," the order of
the procession is given, the first item of all being " the King's
Jlerbwoman with her six maids, strewing the way with Herbs."

Deaf as an Adder. 303:

sting to death the natives of the country, but do
no harm to strangers. In like manner, according
to Maundevile, in the island called Silha, where-
ever that may be, " the men of that yle seen
comonely that the Serpentes and the wilde
Bestes of that Countree nee will not don non
hann> ne touchen with evylle, no strange man
that entreth into that Contree, but only to men
that ben born of the same Countree.1' This
differential treatment seems distinctly hard on.
the aborigines.*

"It is observable," quoth the author of the
" Miracles of Art and Nature," that " in Crete
there is bred no Serpents or Venomous Beasts
or Worms, Ravenous or hurtful Creatures, so
their Sheep graze very securely without any
Shepheard ; yet if a Woman happen to bite a
Man anything hard he will hardly be cured of it,"
a statement which brings forth the very natural
conclusion that " if this be true, then the last
part of the Priviledge foregoing (of breeding no
hurtful Creature) must needs be false."

Amongst various familiar country beliefs.

O j

lasting even to the present day is the one
summed up in the well-known expression, " deaf
as an adder." It has for centuries been an
accepted belief that the adder lays one ear upon
the ground, and closes the other with its tail, and
it doubtless has its origin in that passage in the
psalms of David where it states that " the deaf

* In this mysterious isle also " there ben wylde gees that
han two Hedes, and ther ben Lyouns all white and als grete-
as oxen, and many othere dyverse Bestes."

304 Natural History Lore and Legend.

adder stoppeth her ears, and will not heed the
voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely,"
and we meet with this idea over and over again
in our own literature. Thus Shakespeare writes
in King Henry VI. —

" What ! art thou, like the adder, waxen deaf ?
Be poisonous too."

And, again, in his Troilus and Cressida we find
the passage —

" Pleasure and revenge have ears more deaf than adders."

In Orlando Furioso, too, we find an interesting
reference to the old fancy : —

" He flies me now, nor more attends my pain
Than the deaf adder heeds the charmer's strain."

Many varieties of serpents were known to the
ancients, and some of them, as the Cerastes, are
quite recognizable from the descriptions given,
but of others we have no means of identification.
The two-headed Amphisbaena, for example, that
was credited with such venomous malignity that
nothing but twice the normal power of offence
sufficed for its deadly attack. The Amphis-
baena was an article of faith with Nicander, who
was the first to introduce it to the scientific
world of his name, and it is referred to by Galen,
Pliny, yElian, and many other ancient writers,
who gravely describe this especially objectionable
reptile, " a small kind of serpent which moveth
backward and forward, and hath two heads, one
at either extreme." The creature is now entirely
lost to science.

Serpentine Monstrosities.

305

Aldrovandus, in his history of serpents, gives
an illustration of the basilisk, a serpentine form,
but having eight legs, and on its head a crown.
Another of his figures shows us a serpentine
form again, this time with two legs, the modera-
tion in this direction being fully compensated by
the gift of seven heads of human form, while
another has the serpent-like body, but to this
are added two legs and feet like those of a cock,
and the creature has six cocks' heads. All these
creatures are put forth and described in all serious-
ness, so it is evident that the author must either
himself have been excessively credulous, or that
he must have expected to find his readers so. It

FIG.

is manifest that such inventions are of the lamest
possible type. Nothing could be easier or more
fatuous than to fill a folio volume with serpents
having three cats' heads, five lions' heads, seven
bisons' heads, or twenty rats' heads, and distribute
legs in the same liberal and senseless manner.
His drawing, fig. 23, of a two-headed lizard is
the nearest approach we can give our readers to
the Amphisbsena.

Burton tells us that in Samogitia, a small

20

306 Natural History Lore and Legend.

province in Poland, the people nourish amongst
them u a kind of four-footed serpents, above
three handfuls in length, which they worship as
their household gods, and if mischance do happen
to any of their family, it is imputed presently to
some want of due observations of these ugly
creatures." Some old writers tell us of hairy
serpents, and depict a thing something like the
well-known larva of the tiger-moth, the caterpillar
popularly known as the " woolly bear," and
familiar enough to all dwellers in the country,

no. 24.

the only difference, though that a very serious
one, being that the woolly bear is barely three
inches long, while the hairy serpents are stretched
to any number of feet that the credulity of the
narrator will permit.

Fig. 24 is a facsimile from one of the illustra-
tions in Munster's " de Africae regionibus," and
represents the sort of thing that he would have
us believe was to be found in his days in Africa,
that great home of the weird and mysterious.
The perspective effect of the coils of the tipper

The relentless Asp. 307

creature, as they recede in the distance towards
the horizon, suggests a terrific length, some-
thing far exceeding any of the possibilities of the
present day, but this may be only a slip of
draughtmanship, or a polite desire on the part of
the two-headed reptile not to crowd up its
three-headed companion.

The asp, from being freely found in Egypt and
other parts of North Africa, was well known to
the naturalists of Greece and Rome, and its
deadly nature fully understood, though the facts
are perhaps rather against them when they assert
that they are such affectionate creatures that they
are always found in pairs and cannot live without
their mates. We are told that should one of
the pair be killed, this sw^eet connubial bliss is
exchanged for deadly ferocity and instant revenge.
The unhappy man is closely pursued and relent-
lessly tracked, and finds no safety amongst his
fellows, as the avenger knows him from all others,
and will not be turned aside. Distance is no
object, and difficulties no hindrance, and all that
the luckless individual can do is to take to his
heels with all celerity, and at the earliest
opportunity embark in a boat or swim a river,
and thus shake off his relentless pursuer.

Democritus tells us that if we mingle the
blood of certain birds together a serpent will
be engendered. Whoso eateth of this serpent
shall know the language of birds, and be able to
join in the conversation of any or all of the great
feathered host, singing with the lark, cawring
with the rook, hooting with the owl, and being

20 *

308 Natural History Lore and Legend.

thoroughly conversant with all that passes
between them.

Maundevile tells us, in his wonderful " Voiage
and Travaile," of an island where one finds " a
kynde of Snayles that ben so grete that many
persones may loggen hem in hur Schelles, as
men woulde done in a litylle Hous" — a sufficiently
striking feature in the landscape of that now
unknown land.

Snails entered largely into the rustic Materia
Medica, and not only indeed into rural practice
but into the most courtly and exclusive circles, for
we find Sir John Floyer, the physician to Charles
II., prescribing thus for dulness of hearing:
4 'Take a grey snaile, pricke him, and putt ye
water which comes from him into ye eare and stop
it with black woole, and it will cure." He left
behind him a folio volume of such-like valuable
recipes, and the manuscript may yet be seen in
the Cathedral Library at Lichfield. He was a
native of that city.

Spiders were also deemed of great remedial
value. When a child has whooping cough,
one of the parents should catch a spider and
hold it over the head of the patient, repeating
three times, "Spider, as you waste away,
whooping cough no longer stay." The spider
must then be hung up in a bag over the mantel-
piece, and when it has dried up the cough will
have disappeared."^

* There is a notion in Cheshire that this complaint can be
cured by holding a toad or frog for a few minutes within the
child's mouth, at the imminent risk, one would imagine, of

Spiders as channs. 309

Burton, the author of the " Anatomy of Melan-
choly," writes : " Being in the country in the
vacation time, not many years ago, at Lindley in
Leicestershire, my father's house, I first observed
this amulet of a spider in a nutshell wrapped in
silk, so applied for an ague by my mother. This
methought was most absurd and ridiculous. I
could see no warrant for it, till at length, rambling
amongst authors, as I often do, I found this very
medicine in Dioscorides, approved by Matthiolus,
and I began to have a better opinion of it, and to
give more credit to amulets when I saw it in
some parties answer to experience." Gerarde,
in his " Historic of Plants," found that such
a remedy, however good in theory, however
supported by ancient authority, would not bear
the strain of actual use. He shall however
speak for himself in his own refreshingly quaint
way. " It is needlesse," he writes, " here to
alledge those things that are added touching the
little wormes or magots, found in the heades of
the Teasell,* which are to be hanged about the
necke, for they are nothing else but most vaine
and trifling toies, as my selfe haue proved a little
before, hauing a most grieuous ague, and of long
continuance : notwithstanding physicke charmes,

choking the patient. In Norfolk, they had greater faith in giving
the child milk to drink that a ferret had previously lapped at.

* " The knops or heads are holow within, and for the most
part hauing wormes in them, the which you shall find in cleaning
the heads. The small wormes that are founde within the knops
of teasels do cure and heale the quartaine ague, to be worne or
tied about the necke or arme." — Lytes translation of Dodcens,
A.D. 1586.

310 Natural History Lore and Legend.

these wormes hanged about my necke, spiders
put into a nutshell and divers such foolish toies
that I was constrained to take by phantasticke
people's procurement : notwithstanding, I say,
my helpe came from God himselfe, for these
medicines, and all other such things, did me no
good at all." It is passing strange that such
so-called remedies, so easily proved valueless,
should have held their ground for centuries, and
are doubtless even now in the byways of our
land as firmly believed in as they were nigh
two thousand years ago. When one of our own
family was ailing, a woman in the little Wiltshire
village where we were then staying strongly
advised us to drop some peas down the well as
an infallible means of restoration to, health !

Bees were held to be bred out of putrefying
carcases, an idea that doubtless arose in very early
times, as we find it referred to by Virgil and other
ancient authors, and the Biblical story of the
swarm of bees found by Sampson in the carcase
of the lion that he slew would be held as
confirmation, though anyone reading the story*
carefully would see that no such inference could
be drawn from it. Many weeks had elapsed
between the slaying of the lion and the discovery
of the honey, ample time for the birds and beasts
of prey to have cleared away the flesh, and for
the heat of the sun to have dried up all putrefac-
tion and rendered the skeleton a sufficiently
cleanly and suitable place for the wild bees to
form their combs within. Herodotus tells
* Judges, chap. xiv.

Bees generated from dead animals. 311

that when the Amathusians revenged themselves
on Onesilus, by whom they had been besieged,
by cutting off his head and hanging it over one
of their city gates, the skull presently alone
remained, and in this hollow chamber a swarm
of bees settled and filled it with honeycomb.

The fourth Georgic of Virgil, which is devoted
to the subject of bees, gives account of a simple
method whereby the race of bees, if diminished
or lost, might be replenished. He speaks of it
as an art practised in Egypt, and it is easy to see
that it originated in accounts of bees swarming
in the dead bodies of animals. The process was
to kill a young bullock by stopping up his nostrils,
so that the skin should be unbroken by any
wound, and then leaving it for nine days in a
position where it would be undisturbed, when: —

" Behold a prodigy, for from within
The broken bowels and the bloated skin,
A buzzing sound of bees the ear alarms :
Straight issuing through the sides assembling swarms.
Dark as a cloud they make a wheeling flight,
Then on a neighbouring tree descending, light.
Like a large cluster of black grapes they show,
And make a large dependence from the bough."*

In this account we see clearly enough that the
belief in the generation of the bees from the
putrefying body is frankly accepted. The author
of the " Speculum Mundi," hundreds of years after
the Georgics were written, declares that a dead
horse breeds wasps, that from the body of an ass
proceed humble bees, while a mule produces
hornets. Those who would have bees must seek

* Dr) den's Translation.

312 Natural History Lore and Legend.

them in a dead calf, though he adds the curious
limitation, " if the west winde blow." He goes on
to say " whether the bees in Samson's dead lion
were bred anywhere else no man knoweth." As
an Englishman, more familiar with the possibili-
ties of a dead calf than with those of a dead lion,
he declines to commit himself to an opinion as
to what is or is not possible in far distant lands

over sea.*

The strange association of ideas that we have
seen in many other instances may be well seen
again in the notion that if one pounds up those
luminous creatures of the night, glowworms, the
result will be an ink that will render any writing
performed by its aid visible in the dark. Win-
stanley, in his " Pathway to Knowledge," gives a
simple receipt for the manufacture of this useful
ink, and other writers are content to copy him,
or each other, in the laudable desire to spread
abroad the knowledge of this luminous fluid.
One can easily realize that such a preparation
might at times be really very useful.

Turning, in conclusion, our attention to the
creatures of sea and stream, we at once encoun-
ter the favourite mediaeval theory that all
creatures of the land had their marine counter-
parts. "There is nothing," says the comparatively

* This old writer, not being aware of the various stages of
egg, larva, pupa, and imago through which butterflies and moths
pass, is much perplexed over the silkworm, -"whether I may
name it a worme or a flie," he says, " J cannot tell. For some-
times it is a worm, sometimes a flie, and sometimes neither
worm nor flie, but a little seed which the dying flies leave
b eh hide them."

Inhabitants of the sea-depths. 313

modern writer, Camden, " bred in any part of
Nature, but the same is in the sea;" while Olaus
Magnus affirms that " there be fishes like to dogs,
cows, calves, horses, eagles, dragons, and what
not." These mysterious denizens of the deep
were an unfailing resource in the romances and
poems of the Middle Ages, and an article of
faith with the writers on natural history. On
the Assyrian slabs we see the monster " upward
man and downward fish," while the mermaid we
all recognize as a most familiar instance of the
presence of creatures at least semi-human in the
broad and mysterious expanse of ocean. Bcewulf,
the Saxon poet, writes of " the sea-wolf of the
abyss, the mighty sea- woman." The quotation
is not altogether complimentary in its sentiment :
no lady of one's acquaintance would feel flattered
on being addressed as a sea-wolf. But while a
certain halo of romance has in these later days
gathered round the idea of the mermaid, those
who really believed in her gave her credit for
deeds considerably more heinous than combing
her flowing hair in the sunlight, since her beauty
was a snare and destruction to all who came
within its fatal influence.

Sir Thomas Browne, in his merciless dissection
of the vulgar beliefs of his day, writes, with his
accustomed quaintness and equally accustomed
sound common sense, " that all Animals of the
Land are in their kinde in the Sea, although
received as a Principle, is a tenet very question-
able and that will admit of restraint. For some in
the Sea are not to be matcht by any enquiry at Land

314 Natural History Lore and Legend.

and hold those shapes which terrestrious formes
approach not, as may be observed in the Moon-
fish and the severall sorts of Raias, Torpedos,
Oysters, and many more, and some there are in
the Land which were never mentioned to be in
Sea, as Panthers, Hyaenas, Cammells, Molls, and
others, which carry no name in Ichthology, nor
are to be found in the exact descriptions of
Rondoletius, Gesner, and Aldrovandus. Again,
though many there be which make out their
nominations, as the Sea-serpents and others, yet
there are also very many that bear the names of
Animalls at Land, which hold no resemblance in
corporall configuration, wherein while some are
called the Fox, the Dog, or Frog-fish, and are
known by common names with those at Land,
as their describers attest, they receive not these
appellations from a totall similitude in figure,
but any concurrence in common accidents, in
colour, condition, or single conformation. As
for Sea-Horses, which much confirm this asser-
tion in their common descriptions, they are but
Grotesco delineations which fill up empty spaces
in Maps, and meer pictoriall inventions, not any
Physicall shapes. That which the Ancients
named Hippocampus is a little animall about six
inches long, and not preferred beyond the classis
of Insects. That they termed Hippopotamus,
an amphibious animall about the River Nile, so
little resembleth an horse that, except the feet,
it better makes out a swine. Although it be not
denied that some in the water doe carry a justifi-
able resemblance to some at Land, yet are the

The wondrous Sea-Bishop. 315.

major part which bear their names unlike, nor
doe they otherwise resemble the creatures on

FIG. 25.

earth than they on earth the constellations which
passe under Animall names in heaven : nor the

316 Natural History Lore and Legend.

Dogfish at Sea much more make out the Dog o
the Land than that his cognominall or namesak
in the heavens." He then goes on to show tha
this belief restrains Omnipotence and abridges
the variety of creation, making the creatures of
one element but a counterpart of the other.

This belief in sea-monsters of all kinds
was naturally not a chance that a man like
Aldrovandus could miss. He gives his imagi-
nation full scope, or perhaps we should rather
say his credulity, as he introduces these creatures
to us as things as real as a rabbit ; his sea-monk,
for instance, with tonsured human head, arms
replaced by fins, and legs by fishy tail, being
as matter of fact as one's vicar. Fig. 25 is
given by him in all good faith as the true
presentment of a sea-bishop, though not at all
our notion of a bishop in his see. The right
hand, it will be seen, is giving the benediction.
The dragon of the deep, shown in fig. 26, aims
at being terrible, but merely succeeds in being
feeble. We cannot but feel that the draughts-
man here failed to reach our ideal ; for one has
certainly seen many representations of land-
dragons far more fear-inspiring than this bloated
monster with ears like a King Charles spaniel,
and tail like a rat. This illustration is from
another source, the work of Ambrosinus on the
same subject, published " permissu superiorum "
in the year 1642. While the book is as quaint
and grotesque as any of its rivals, the skill of
the artist has in divers cases not paralleled the
.gifts of description of the author.

The "monstrosus sus marinus," or terrible

\

The Dragon of the Deep.

.318 Natural History Lore and Legend.

sow of the sea, or more especially perhaps of
Aldrovandus (fig. 27), will surely fully come up
to everyone's expectation of what a marine pig
should be like. Catching a weasel asleep should
be a comparatively easy task to circumventing
sus marinus ; it seems such a peculiarly wide-
awake animal. Possibly in the struggle for
existence in the watery depths its toothsome
flesh may place it in jeopardy, and Nature may
have bestowed upon it these numerous eyes
to enable it to evade dragons and other foes
having a penchant for pork ; a rather unexpected
addition to the various better-known examples
of that comfortable doctrine for the well-to-do,
the survival of the fittest.

Purchas tells us of a fish called the Angulo or
Hog-fish. "It hath," he says, " as it were two
hands, and a tail like a target, which eateth
like pork, and whereof they make lard, and it
hath not the savour or taste of fish. It feedeth
on the grasse that groweth on the banks of the
river and never goeth out ; it hath a mouthe like
the mozell of an ox, and there be of them that
weigh five hundred pound a piece." This is
found, he tells us, in the River Congo.

Another of the strange creatures of ocean is
shown in fig. 28. It is somewhat startling to
reflect that our ancestors had at least the
expectation that such a monster might at any
moment rise alongside their vessel and address
them in the peremptory tones that the figure
suggests : and it must be borne in mind that
these illustrations are not a tithe of the strange

The vigilant Sow of the Sea. 319

imaginings that even this one old book sets forth,
though it is needless to multiply examples from it.
We have carefully drawn our figures in fac-
simile from the originals, and have naught
extenuated, nor set down aught in malice.
They are fairly typical examples of the sort of
thing that is encountered on page after page.*

In the excellent book of Rondeletius (doctoris
medici et medicinas in schola monspeliensi

FIG. 2/,

professoris regii), published in the year 1554,
on the subject of marine fishes, the illustrations
are full of spirit and life. Amongst these fish of

* Apart from these various monsters, and the hundreds of
others that bear them company, Aldrovandus seems to have
been always accessible to anyone who would bring him one
wonder the more; hence he also figures a bunch of grapes
terminating in a long beard ; representations of cloud-warriors
in conflict in the sky ; comets like blazing swords, and many
other wonderful things that set our ancestors wondering in fear
and amazement as to what such portents should signify.

320 Natural History Lore and Legend.

the ocean we find the sea-bishop, sea-monk, &c.,
all over again, and such creatures as the sea-lion,
fig. 29 ; this latter, except for his scaly hide, has
nothing very suggestively aquatic about him.
The book, in addition to such impossibilities,
contains very good and life-like representations
of the sun-fish, sturgeon, hammer-headed shark,
ray, and many others.

The author of the "Speculum Mundi" confirms
all these wonders, and adds his quota to the general
store. He affirms that, " In the year 1526 there
was taken in Norway, neare to a seaport called
Elpoch, a certain fish resembling a mitred bishop,
who was kept alive six days after his taking,
and there was, as the author of Du Bartas his
summarie reporteth, one Ferdinand Alvares,
Secretarie to the store-house of the Indians,
who faithfully witnesseth that he had seene not
farre off from the Promontorie of the Moon, a
young Sea-man coming out of the Waters, who
stole fishes from the fishermen and ate them raw.
Neither is Olaus Magnus silent on these things,
for he also saith there be monsters in the sea, as
it were imitating the shape of a man, having a
dolefull kinde of sounde or singing. There be
also sea-men of an absolute proportion in their
whole body ; these are sometimes seene to
climbe up the ships in the night times, and
suddenly to depresse that part upon which
they sit ; and if they abide long the whole ship
sinketh. Yea (saithe he), this I adde from the
faithfull assertions of the Norway fishers, that
when such are taken, if they be not presently let

How Sudden Tempests arise. 321

go again, there ariseth such a fierce tempest, with
an horrid noise of those kinde of creatures and
other sea-monsters there assembled, that a man
would think the verie heaven were falling, and
the vaulted roofe of the world running to ruine,
insomuch that the fishermen have much ado to
escape with their lives ; whereupon they con-

FIG. 28.

firmed it as a law amongst them that if any
chanced to hang such a fish upon his hook he
should suddenly cut the line and let him go on.
But these sudden tempests are very strange, and
how they arise with such violent speed exceeds
the bounds of ordinary admiration. Whereupon
it is again supposed that these monsters are verie
devils, and by their power such strange storms

21

322 Natural History Lore and Legend.

are raised. Howbeit for my part I think oth<
wise, and do much rather affirm that these ston
in my judgment, are thus raised, namely, by tl
thickening and breaking of the aire ; which tl
snortling, rushing, and howling of these beast
assembled in an innumerable companie, causel
For it is certain that sounds will break and alt<
the aire (as I have heard it of a citie freed froi
the plague by the thundering noise of cannons
and also I suppose that the violent rushing
these beasts causeth much water to flie up a]
thicken the aire, and by their howling
snortling under the waters they do blow
and as it were attenuate the waves, and m;
them arise in a thinner substance than at otl
times ; so that Nature, having all these her
in an instant worketh to the amazement of tl
mariners, and often to the danger of their liv<
Besides, shall we think that spirits use to fe<
and will be so foolish as to go and hang thei
selves on an hook for a bait ? They may h
occult properties (as the loadstone hath)
work strange feats, and yet be neither spirits
nor devils ; for experience likewise teacheth
that they die sooner or later after their taking,
neither can a spirit have flesh and bones as
they have."

The monsters of the deep are best seen at the
times of the equinox, " for then," says Pliny,
"by the whirlwinds, rains and tempests which
rush with violence from the rugged mountains,
the seas are turned up from the very bottom, and
thus the billows roll and raise these beasts out of

The Sea- Elephant. 323

the deep parts of the ocean." It certainly seems
a much more reasonable theory that the storms
produce the beasts than that the beasts produce
the storms.

On an antique seal we remember to have seen
a sea-elephant, a creature having the forelegs,
tusks, trunk, and great flapping ears of the

FIG. 29.

African elephant, yet terminating in the body of
a fish, and duly furnished with piscine tail and
fins. This outrageous combination would seem
to indicate the limit possible to absurdity in
this direction. When the ancient writers would
desire to people the vast unknown of air and sea>
their thoughts naturally turned to those creatures

21 *

324 Natural History Lore and Legend.

of the land with which they were more familiar.
Hence, the denizens of the air or ocean are not
really creations at all, but adaptations, wings 01
fins being added to horses, lions and the lil
according to the new element in which thi
were to figure. Of these the sea-horses that
drew the chariot of Neptune through the waves,
or the winged steed Pegasus, are examples that
at once occur to one's mind.

The sea-horse according to some authorities
found floating on the ice between Britain and Noi
way, and is taken by the whalers for the oil he
contains. He is described as having a head like
a horse, and as sometimes neighing, but his hoofs
are said to be cloven like those of a cow, while
his hinder parts are those of a fish. This
creature would appear to be now quite lost
to science. The sea-horse naturally suggests
the idea of the sea-unicorn, depicted as of
equine form, but having the hinder parts piscine
in character. The horn of the sea-unicorn
occasionally brought home by merchants and
mariners was probably the "sword" of the
swordfish or the tusk of the narwhal, as it is
often mentioned that it was able to penetrate the
ribs of ships, and later experience has proved
that an encounter beween swordfish or narwhal
and ships has occasionally taken place. The tusk
of the narwhal is a spiral tapering rod of ivory,
sometimes attaining to the length of eight or ten
feet. Purchas mentions a horn of a sea-unicorn
that was presented byFrobisher to his sovereign,
and preserved at Windsor, and the name of this

The Sea- Unicorn. 325

great arctic voyager naturally suggests that this
horn was the tusk of a narwhal, a creature of the
northern seas. One old writer speaks of the
horn as a " wreathy spire," a description which
admirably accords with the narwhal tusk. The
fact once established that there were creatures in
the sea with horns like unicorns, it was at once
assumed that they had the horse-like form
assigned to the land-unicorn, and in some of the
old authors the sea-unicorn is represented as of
purely equine form, plus the horn.*

In a book published in 1639, entitled "A
Helpe to Memorie and Discourse," we find this
question asked, " Whether doth a dead body in
a shippe cause the shippe to sail slower, and if it
doe, what is thought to be the reason thereof? "
The answer to the query is that " the shippe is as
insensible of the living as the dead, and as the
living make it goe the faster, so the dead make
it not goe the slower ; for the dead are no
Rhemoras to alter the course of her passage,
though some there be that thinke so, and that by

* " To be shewn at the Royal Infirmary of this city, price
sixpence, the largest and most beautiful lion that was ever
seen in this country. Also an Egyptian mummy, lately sent as
a present to the Infirmary by Alexander Drummond, Esq.,
Consul of the Turkey Company at Aleppo. Likewise a very
large horn of a sea unicorn, which all connoisseurs acknowledge
to be a remarkable curiosity.

" N.B. — As the money collected on this occasion is to be
applied solely for the relief of the Indigent Sick in the said
Hospital, therefore if persons of Substance and Distinction shall
give more, it will be thankfully accepted on behalf of the
distressed Patients." — Edinburgh Chronicle, 1758.

326 Natural History Lore and Legend.

a kind of mournful sympathy."* The potent
influence of the remora or sucking-fish to arrest
the progress of a ship by merely adhering to its
keel is a curious fancy that has been handed on
for centuries. Pliny and many other ancient
writers had full belief in this foe to the mariner,
and references to it in much more recent authors
are by no means uncommon. Thus Ben Jorison
alludes to it in the lines —

" I say a remora,
For it will stay a ship that's under sail."

While Spenser in his " Visions of the World's
Vanity," writes —

" Looking far forth into the ocean wide,

A goodly ship, with banners bravely dight,
And flag in her top-gallant I espied,

Through the main sea making her merry flight :
Fair blew the wind into her bosom right,

And th' Heavens looked lovely all the while
That she did seem to dance, as in delight,

And at her own felicity did smile :
All suddenly there clove unto her keel

A little fish that we call remora,
Which stopt her course, and held her by the heel,

That wind nor tide could move her thence away."

We may indeed be thankful that tl
mysterious power, worse even than the moi
prosaic barnacles and other sea impediment
that plague the modern shipowner by foulii

* In the travels of Boullaye le Gouz, published in 1657,
find a reference to this notion. He says, " I had among
baggage the hand of a Syren, or fisher woman, which I thn
on the sly, into the sea, because the captain, seeing that
could not make way, asked me if I had not got some mumi

The all-powerful Remora. 327

the bottom of his good ship, and so retarding her
course, seems to be no longer exercised. The
merchantman speeding home with perishable
cargo, the yachtsman burning to carry off the
challenge cup, the great record-breaking Atlantic
liner, carrying under heavy penalty for delay Her
Majesty's mails, would all be terribly hampered
in their several ambitions in presence of so
potent yet so apparently insignificant a foe.
Well might Spenser add —

" Strange thing meseemeth that so small a thing
Should able be so great an one to wring."

One old writer feeling the impossibility of
giving a satisfactory explanation of the marvel is
content to say " of which there can be no more
reason given than of the loadstone drawing iron ;
neither is it possible to shew the cause of all
secrets in Nature," a statement as true to-day as
the day it was written, though this particular
secret of Nature has in the interval been dis-
established.

That the dolphin was the swiftest of all living
creatures, more rapid than a bird, swifter than an
arrow shot from a bow, will probably be an
entirely new idea to most of our readers, yet
such was the ancient belief. The dolphin occurs

or other in my bags which hindered our progress, in which case
we must return to Egypt to carry it back again. Most of the
Proven9als have the opinion that the vessels which transport the
mummies from Egypt have great difficulty in arriving safe at
port : so that I feared, lest coming to search my goods, they
might take the hand of this fish for a mummy's hand, and
insult me on account of it."

328 Natural History Lore and Legend.

very freely in blazonry, on ancient coinage, and
in classic and renaissance decoration, and it is
almost always represented either as "embowed,"
that is to say, bent round like a bow, such beinj
the significance of the heraldic term, or else it \\
introduced with its lithe body coiled gracefully
round an anchor or trident. In either cas<
the representation suggests an easy-going an<
leisurely state of affairs that is very different
to the picture conjured up by the arrowy rusl
of the creature through the waves, as Plirr
paints it for us.*

It is a very old belief that the dolphin has ai
especial fondness for man. " Of a man he i
nothing afraid, neither avoideth from him as
stranger : but of himselfe meeteth their ships,
plaieth and disporteth himselfe, and fetcheth
thousand friskes, and gambols before them. H<
will swimme along by the mariners, as it were
for a wager, who should make way most speedily,
and alwaies outgoeth them, saile they with never
so good a fore wind." The representation of the

* " That dolphins are crooked is not only affirmed by the
hand of the painter, but commonly conceived their naturall or
proper figure, which is not only the opinion of our times, but
seems the belief of older times before us : for besides the
expressions of Ovid and Pliny, their Portraicts in ancient
Coynes are framed in this figure, as will appear in some
thereof in Gesner, others in Goltzius, and Lsevinus Hulsius in
his description of Coynes. Notwithstanding, to speak strictly,
in their naturall Figure they are streight, nor have they their
spine convexed or more considerably embowed than Sharkes,
Porposes, or Whales, and therefore what is delivered of their
incurvity must either be taken Emphatically, that is, not really,
but in appearance ; which happeneth when they leap above

Friendship of the Dolphin for Man. 329

dolphin with the anchor is not simply a type of
maritime supremacy, but is a distinct "illustration
of this belief in the dolphin's kindly regard for
man. Thus Camerarius asserts that " when tem-
pests arise, and seamen cast their anchor, the
dolphin, from its love to man, twines itself round
it, and directs it, so that it may more safely lay
hold of the ground."

The works of the ancient writers abound with
illustrations of the friendly regard of the dolphin
for mankind. Thus in one wonderful story we
have a schoolboy, the son of a poor man, who
had to travel each day from Baianum to Puteoli,
who used at the water's edge to call a dolphin to
his aid. The dolphin would at once respond to
the call, and the boy used to mount upon his
back and be taken across the sea, and be brought
back again at night. This went on for some
years, and at last, when the boy fell sick and
died, his constitution probably not being able
to stand the constant wetting and exposure, the
dolphin was inconsolable, and promptly died

water or suddenly shoot down again : which is a fallacy of
vision, whereby streight bodies in a sudden motion protruded
obliquely downward appear to the eye crooked, and this is the
construction of Bellonius : or, if it be taken really, it must not
be universally and perpetually, that is, not when they svvimme
and remaine in their proper figures, but only when they leape or
impetuously whirle their bodies anyway : and this is the opinion
of Gesnerus. Or, lastly, it must be taken neither really nor
emphatically, but only emblematically ; for being the Hiero-
glyphic of Celerity, and swifter than other animalls, men best
expressed their velocity by incurvity, and under some figure of
a bo we, and in this sense probably do Heralds also receive it." —
Brou-nc.

33O Natural History Lore and Legend.

of a broken heart. In another story, equally
veracious, the rider was so unfortunate as to
pierce himself with one of the sharp spines of
the dorsal fin, and an artery being severed, he
bled to death. The dolphin, seeing the water
stained with blood, and finding that his rider did
not sit on his back in the light and active way
that had been his wont, concluded that some
catastrophe had happened, and when he realized
the full truth, resolved not to outlive him whom
he had affectionately loved, and therefore ran
himself with all his might upon the shore, and
so perished. Pliny, Mecaenas, Fabianus, Flavins
Alfius, ^Elian, Aulus Gellius, Apion, Egeside-
mus, Theophrastus, and many other old writers,
all give equally surprising illustrations of this
wonderful love of the dolphin for mankind.

The dolphin is also a great lover of music, and
equally wonderful stories are told in illustration
of this taste also. Another well-known belief in
connection with it is the imaginary brilliancy of
its changeful colours when dying. The idea has
been a favourite one with poets in all ages : an
example from Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrim-
age " will suffice as an illustration : —

" Parting day

Dies like the dolphin, whom each pang imbues
With a new colour as it gasps away ;
The last still loveliest, till 'tis gone, and all is gray."

Another strange fish believed in by our fore-
fathers was the Acipenser, " a fish of an unnatural
making and quality," as an old writer terms him ;

How one Catches Sargi. 331

and indeed he may very well do so, as we are
told that "his scales are all turned towards his
head." We are not therefore much surprised
to learn that " he ever swimmeth against the
stream," though we might well be more astonished
if we ever found him swimming at all.

The amiable dolphin stands not alone in its
friendship with man. The ray too, if we may
believe a mediaeval authority, is " a loving fish
to man : for swimming in the waters, and being
greedily pursued by the devouring Sea-dogs, the
Ray defends him, and will not leave him untill he
be out of danger." Sometimes the friendship is
with some other creature ; thus Porta gives an
unfailing recipe for catching a sargon, whatever
that may be, by taking advantage of this kindly
trait in its character. "The Sargi," he declares,
" love Goats unmeasurably : and they are so mad
after them that when so much as the shadow of a
Goat that feeds neer the shore shall appear neer
unto them they presently leap for joy and swim
to it in haste, and they imitate the goats, though
they are not fit to leap, and thus they delight to
come unto them. They are, therefore, catcht by
those things that they so much desire. Where-
upon the Fisher, putting on a Goat's skin with
the horns, lies in wait for them, having the Sunne
behind his back and paste made wet with the
decoction of Goat's flesh : this he casts into the
Sea where the Sargi are to come : and they, as
if they were charmed, run to it, and are much
delighted with the sight of the Goat's skin and
feed on the paste. Thus the Fishermen catcheth

33 2 Natural History Lore and Legend.

abundance of them." Porta gives no suggestion
that this affection is reciprocal.

Another mediaeval writer has a still more
extraordinary story of the kind, and in this case
it is pleasant to know that the loving feeling is
mutual. "Amongst the severall sort of shell
fishes," saith he, " the glistering Pearl- fish
deserves remembrance, not only in respect of
herself but also in regard of the Prawn, another
fish and her companion : for between these two
there is a most firm league of friendship, much
kindnesse, and such familiaritie as cannot but
breed admiration in the reader. They have a
subtill kinde of hunting, which being ended, they
divide their prey in loving manner : for seeing
they one help the other in the getting of it, they
likewise joyn in the equall sharing. And, in few
words, thus it is — when the Pearl-fish gapeth
wide, she hath a curious glistering within her
shell, by which she allureth her small fry to come
-swimming unto her : which when her companion
the Prawn perceiveth, he gives her a secret touch
with one of his prickles, wherupon she shuts her
gaping shell, and so incloseth her wished prey :
then (as I said) they equally share them out and
feed themselves. And thus, day by day, they
get their livings, like a combined knot of cheaters,
who have no other trade than the cunning deceit
of quaint consenage : hooking in the simpler sort
with such subtill tricks, that be their purses stuft
with either more or less, they know a way to sound
the bottome and send them lighter home : lighter
in purse, though heavier in heart." The moral

The too-ingenious Swam-fish. 333

seems perhaps needlessly severe, and we trust
that henceforth our readers, after reading this
romance of the deep, will have a kindlier feeling
for these faithful friends, the artful oyster and
the watchful prawn. The only drawback to the
sentiment of the thing seems to be that this loving
alliance has a somewhat low motive as its basis.
One at least of the partners is capable of a more
tender passion, as we have the authority of
Sheridan for saying that an oyster may be crossed
in love.

Olaus Magnus gives an awful example of
voracity in the swam-lish, one of the most greedy
cravens of the denizens of the sea, and cites
many stories of it that amply justify the bad
character bestowed on it. Another old writer
affirms that wrhen danger threatens " he will so
winde up himselfe and cover his head with the
skinne and substance of his own body that he is
then bent like unto a piece of dead fish, and
nothing like himself. The plan however appears
to have its drawbacks, as the venerable and
veracious author goes on to say that this feat
" he seldom e doth without hurt or damage, for
still fearing that there be those about him who
will prey upon him and devoure him, he is
compelled for lack of meat to feed upon the
substance of his own body, choosing rather to be
devoured in part than to be consumed by other
more strong and powerful fishes " — at best a
most painful alternative.

In the account of the Creation the forming of
the whale is specially dwelt upon: " And God

Natural History Lore and Legend.

created great whales and every living creatum
that moveth, which the waters brought fort!
abundantly after their kind." Luther, com-
menting on this, says that the creation of whales
is specified by name, lest affrighted with their
greatness we should believe them to be only
visions or fancies. Though later commentators
have decided that the leviathan of the Bible is
the crocodile, it was long held to be the whale.
Milton, in the first book of the " Paradise Lost,"
writes of that sea beast —

" Leviathan, which God of all his works
Created hugest that swim the ocean stream,"

and the Jews had a legend that the first whales
were so immense in bulk, so formidable in attack,
so voracious, that there was considerable risk of
their overtoppling the rest of creation ; so while
as yet there were but two of them in existence,
one was destroyed in order that the race might
not be continued and the general balance of
Nature upset.

Our ancestors found apt moral against the
scornful in the reason assigned for the mouth
of the flounder being on one side. It appears
that at one time the flounder's mouth was as fair
to see as any other, but that it lost all its beauty
through contemptuous flouting of the herring, and
it has borne this evil mark of its jealousy ever
since, and will probably so bear it to the end of
time. At the vague date known as once upon
a time we are told that all the fishes of the sea
assembled to choose a king, and that the herring
was elected to this dignified position. The

The Physician Tench. 335

flounder, on account of his red spots and other
features that were evidently more appreciated by
himself than by the main body of electors, had
strong hope that he should himself be chosen,
and the unlovely grimace with which he saluted
his sovereign was, as a judgment upon him, made
a fixture for all time as a punishment to himself
and a warning to others.

The tench was commonly called the physician,
for it was believed by our forefathers that when
the other fish were in any way hurt and required
the aid of surgeon or physician, they healed
themselves by rubbing against the tench, finding
the slime of his body to be a "soveraigne salve"
for their needs. For the sufferings of humanity
the beasts, birds, and plants appear to have
supplied a sufficient materia medica, and the
less accessible creatures of the waters were
but rarely pressed into the mediaeval phar-
macopoeia. The blood of the eel was rubbed
upon unwelcome warts, and a cruel remedy for
bad eyes, the cruelty being, as we have seen
over and over again in those old remedies, by
no means an exceptional feature, was to capture
a crab alive, cut out its eyes and then let it go.*
The eyes were then bound upon the neck of the
man, woman, or child, and a satisfactory result
was speedily anticipated, though very possibly
not so speedily forthcoming.

The Cuttle fish is scarcely one's ideal of beauty,
yet it is by its vanity and belief in its personal

* In Sussex no better remedy could be found for toothache
than the application of a paw cut from a living mole.

336 Natural History Lore and Legend.

attractions that it is most readily captured. Porta
tells us that pieces of looking glass are let down
by the fishermen into the waters, and that the
Cuttle seeing his image reflected, clasps the glass
around, and while he is still enamoured with the
reflection of his charms is drawn to the surface
by the wily fishermen. In the " Pathway to
Knowledge," published in the year 1685, we are
told that if we take the juice of Nettles and
Houseleek, and anoint our hands therewith, the
fish will gather round and "you may take them
out at your pleasure." This seems almost as
simple a method as the catching of birds by
placing a pinch of salt on their tails.

If we may credit Maundevile, and the "if" is
a most important point, in one favoured land
instead of the people going for the fish, the
fish come to the people. In a certain isle, or
we may perhaps more truthfully say an uncertain
isle, called Calonak, many wonderful things were
to be seen, but one of these he especially, and
very justly, calls " a gret Marvayle," and when he
goes on to add that "it is more to speke of than
in ony partie of the World," one is loath to
gainsay his opinion. He tells us that "alle
manere of Fissches that ther ben in the See
abouten hem, comen ones in the Yeer, eche
manere of dyverse Fissches, one maner of
kynde aftre another; and thei casten hemselfeto
the See Banke of that Yle in so gret plentee and
multitude that no man may see but Fissche, and
ther thei abyden thre dayes, and euerie man of
the Countree takethe of hem als many as him

The right-worthy King of Calonak. 337

lykethe, and that maner of Fissche aftre the
thridde day departeth and gothe in to the
See. And aftre hem comen another multitude
of Fissches of anothre kynde and don in the
same maner as the firste diden othre three dayes.
And aftre hem another, tille alle the dyverse
maner of Fissches have ben there, and that men
have taken of hem that hem lykethe. And no
man knowethe the cause wherfore it may ben.
But thei of the Contree seyn that it is for to do
reverence to here Kyng, that is the most worthi
Kyng that is in the World, as thei seyn."
The reason assigned for the king's special
worthiness is a somewhat peculiar one, and
though it is duly set forth at full length by
the old author, other times have brought other
manners and ideas, and one can scarcely insert
in a book of the present day many things, and
this amongst them, that were set forth in the
greatest simplicity and directness of language
in books of earlier date.

At all events this " most worthie Kyng" was
so far under the special care of Providence that
" God sendethe him so the Fissches of dyverse
kyndes, of all that ben in the See, to be taken at
his wille, for him and alle his peple. And ther-
fore all the Fissches of the See comen to make
him homage as the most noble and excellent
Kyng of the World, and that is best beloved of
God as thei seyn." Well may Maundevile say,
as he realized the idea of the various finny tribes
of Ocean thus sacrificing themselves in so orderly
a sequence, that " this me semethe is the most

22

338 Natural History Lore and Legend.

merveylle that evere I saughe. For this mer-
vaylle is agenst kynde, that the Fissches that
have fredom to environe all the Costes of the
See at here owne list comen of hire owne
wille to profren hem to the dethe with outen
constreynynge of man." It must have been
an immense convenience to have known thus
readily what was in season, and even if in this
Hobson's choice of diet one did not happen to
be very partial to plaice or conger, there was
always the happy knowledge that next Tuesday
or possibly Thursday week, soles or turbot
would be " in." We may conclude that a fresh
series of herrings, mackerel, or whatever they
might be, would come ashore on each one of
the three days that they were due, or by the
termination of that period they would certainly
all be smelt.

After this great marvel the cruel pontarf that
beguiled children away to sport with them and
finally to eat them, the silurus that at the rising
of the dog-star is struck insensible, the dead
crabs that turn to scorpions, the eels that rub
themselves against stones, and, in so doing,
scrape off fragments that come to life, and are
the only cause and means of their increase, the
fish that swim in the boiling water of some
tropical stream that is now unknown, all sink
as wonders into insignificance.

The \vhole world has now been so ransacked
that there is little room in these times for the
imagination to play ; but in mediaeval days
travellers brought back such wonderful stories,

Our pages but a gleaning. 339

some of them true, and others, perhaps, a little
wanting in that respect, of the things that they
had seen, that almost anything seemed a possi-
bility. Of this our present pages may be con-
sidered some little indication, though it will be
abundantly evident that we have not used up
one hundredth part of the great store of folk-
lore and ancient and mediaeval science that is
open to investigation.

22

INDEX.

" Accedence of Armorie," 52, 121,

232

Acipenser, 330
Acosta, "travels in the Indies,"

44
Acrid secretion in skin of toad,

281

" Actes of English votaries," 69
"Adam in Eden," 48
Adder, 173. Adder eaters, 77
JElianus, works of, 95
Agriophagi, 72

Ague, specifics for, 172, 186, 309
Ainos of Japan, 61
Albert Nyanza in old maps, 13
Albertus Magnus, 160, 282
Alciatus, Book of Emblems, 84
Aldrovandus, 63, 272, 305, 316
Alectorius, 235, 247
All creation a moral textbook, 51,

125

Ambrosinus, 316
Amphisbcena, 304
" Anatomy of Melancholy," 309
Anchor and Dolphin, 329
Andre on theory of Creation, 125
Andrew Marvel's " Loyal Scot," 69
Andromachus, physician to Nero,

299

Angulo or Hog-fish, 318
Animals in art and fable, 175
" Annals of Winchester," 269
Anthropophagi, u, 72
Antipathies, animal, 94, 153, 182,

187, 230, 232, 280, 289
Antipathy and sympathy, 153
Ant's eggs, oil of, 278
Ants of India, 196

Ape, 122, 153

Apollo and Raven, 241

" Arcana Fairfaxiana, " 279

Arena, lions in the, 123

" Areopagitica," 225

Ariosto, 207, 224

Aristotle, 30, 31, 55, 302

" Armonye of Byrdes," 239

Armories, Natural History in, 32,

51, 119, 120, 121

Arms of the City of London, 277
Art, animals in, 175
" Art of simpling," 188
Asbestos, its supposed nature,

293

Ashmole, diary of, 279
Askham on hare, 165
Asp, 51,307
"As Pliny saith," 4, 20
Assyrian seals, 131
Astrological influences, n
" As you like it," 208
Aubrey, extract from, 165, 179,

184, 238, 297
Augustine on higher and lower

truths, 49

Authors consulted by Pliny, 26
Avicenna on chamaeleon, 296
Azores in old map, 39

Bacci on unicorn, 131

Bacon's " Natural History," 166

Badge, panther, of King Henry

VI., 151
Badger, 198

Bale on scandalous reports, 69
Ballasting of cranes and bees, 260

342

Index.

Bandicoot, 196

Barbary, lions of, 127

Barnacle goose, 214

Barnfield, "Cassandra," 287

Barrow, "Travels in Africa," 131

Bartholinus on unicorn, 131

Basilisk, 265, 286, 305

Bay-leaf as medicine, 274

Bearded grapes, 319

Bear, 161, 167, 182

Beaumont and Fletcher, 162, 176

Beaver, oil from the, 278

Bee, 260, 310

Beef, the praise of, 46

Beehives attacked by bears, 163

" Belvedere " of Bodenham, 170

Berens on unicorn, 131

" Bestiare Divin " of Guillaume, 48

Bestiaries of Middle Ages, 31, 50

Blackbird, Sagacity of, 177

Black Swan, 230

"Blazon of Gentrie," 119, 224

Blood of lion black, 116

Boar, 175

Bcewulf on Mermaid, 80

Boiling river, 43

" Bonduca," extract from, 162

" Book of Emblems," 84

" Book of Knowledge," Win-

stanley, 183, 248
Boorde's " Dyetary," 46
Bosjesmen, ancient Troglodytes,

3- 61
Bossewell's " Armorie," 52, 169,

194

Bostock on Pliny, 29
Browne on Vulgar Errors, 56, 92,

106, 157, 162, 178,205, 255, 267,

284, 313, 328
Buffon on Pliny, 21
Burton, " Miracles of Art and

Nature," 18, 19, 127, 131, 305
Bussy d'Amboise on Unicorn, 130
Butler, Hudibras, extract from,

214
Byron, extract from, 229, 330

Cabbage, the praise of, 47
Camel, 182, 198, 294
Camelopardilis, 124

Camerarius on dolphin, 329

Camillus, mirror of stones," 24;

Cammetennus, 294

Camoens, extract from, 181

Camphor-tree, 152

Cancer, specific for, 189

Canibali, home of the, 37

" Canterbury Tales," 276

Capture of elephant, 145

Carbuncle borne by dragon, 274

Carew, extract from, 164

Carlyle on books, 33

Carrier pigeons, 16

Cartazonos, 130

" Cassandra," extract from, 287

" Castle of Memory," 166

Cat, 168, 189

Catelan on Unicorn, 131

Cathay, palace at, 151

Catoblepas, 197

Centaur, 79, 294

Cerastes or horned viper, 298,

3°4

Ceylon, mermaids of, 88
" Ceylon, Natural History of," 196
Chameleon, 136, 178, 274, 296
Chanticleer, 239
Chares on Theriaca, 299
Chaucer, extract from, u, 30
Chelidonius, 247
Chelonites of Porta, 283
Chester's " Love's Martyr," 170
" Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," 330
Chinese referred to by Pliny, 28
Churchyard grass, remedial vir-
tues of, 189
Cinirius, 124

Cinnabar, how produced, 137
Coats, extract from, 120, 194
Cobbe on the creation of monsters,

*45

Cobra stone, 298
Coca plant, properties of, 18
Cock, 154, 232, 238
Cock-ale, 234
Cockatrice, 236, 267
Cockeram's Dictionary, 288
Cockle, 196
Cogan, "Haven of Health," 45,

167, 231, 277, 301
Coleridge on Nightingale, 252

Index.

343

Cole's "Adam in Eden, "48. "Art

of simpling," 188
Colours of dying dolphin, 330
Comets like blazing swords, 319
Composition of Venice Treacle, 229
Coney-fish, 209

Convulsions, remedy for, 167, 186
Coolness of blood of elephant, 149
Cornishmen tailed, 68
Corvia, 247
Cos, dragon of, no
"Cosmography." Munster's, 34,

97, 127, 130, 139, 149, 220
Crabs' eyes a remedy, 235, 335
Crabs generating scorpions, 297
Crane, 56, 260

Crapaudine, or toad stone, 281
Creatures of the fire, 295
Crippled feet of Chinese ladies,

15

Crocodile, 286, 294
Crocuta, 124

Cross on donkey's back, 184, 186
Crow, sagacity of, 177
Cruelty in preparation of recipes,

48, 248, 335
Ctesias on griffin, 276 ; on unicorn,

130

Cubs of bear a shapeless mass, id
Cuckoo broth, 235
Culverwort, 16

" Curiosities of Heraldry," 237
" Cursor Mundi," extract from,

242

Cuttlefish, 335
Cuvier on phoenix, 204 ; on Pliny,

21

"Cymbeline," extract from, 208
Cynamolgi, 72

Dagon, the fish god, 93

Daily Post, advertisement from, 90

Dallaway on unicorn, 133

Dead animals generating other

creatures, 311

Dead men's bones, oil from, 278
Deaf as an adder, 303
" De Animalibus " of Aristotle, 31
Death song of the swan, 229
Death-dealing cocatrice, 237

Decker on unicorn's horn, 134
Deer, 173, 270

" De Humana Physiognomica," 78
" De Miraculis," story from, 108
Democritus on serpent genera

tion, 307
Derceto, 97
De Thaun, "Bestiary" of, 50,

124, 132, 185, 204, 292
Devil's-bird, 241

" De Virtutibus Herbarum," 160
Diamond dissolving, 178
Differences in aim in zoological

study, 4

Digby, " The Closet Open," 234
" Dirge," extract from Gay's, 241
Dioscorides, writings of, 95
" Discoverie of witchcraft," 113
" Display of Heraldrie," Guillim,

52, 120

Divining rod in use, 37
Doctrine of Signatures, 251
Dodcens, extract from, 309
Dog, 8, 119, 187, 189, 270, 316
Dog-headed men, n, 42, 72
Dog-king, 73
Dolphin, 83, 289, 327
Donkey, 184, 188
Double-bodied animals, 65
Dove, 177, 240
Draconites, 247
Dragon, 268, 274
Dragon-maiden, no
Dragon and elephant, feud

between, 136, 147
Drayton, extract from, 250, 253,

259

Dropsy, remedy for, 298
Drunkenness, to avert, 249
Dryden, extract from, 161, 165,

224, 227, 259, 281
Du Bartas on barnacle-goose, 218
Du Chaillu on gorilla, 3 ; on

pygmies, 60
Dulness of hearing, remedy for,

308

Dust of Malta a remedy, 300
" Dyetary " of Boorde, 46

Eagle, 108, 223, 240, 276

344

Index.

Eale of Ethiopia, 197
Earless animals, 74
Earthworms in medicine, 279
Eastern love of the wonderful, 213
Eastern Travels of John of Hesse,

81

Eel's blood for warts, 335
Eels from hairs, 182
Effects of climate on human tail

growth, 71

Egyptians and the ass, 185
Einhorn, 130
El Dorado of Raleigh, 44
Elephant, 36, 107, 135, 177, 182,

213, 274, 294, 323
Elephant-headed boy, 64
Elizabeth, portrait of Queen, 176
Ellison, " Trip to Ben well," 165
" Emblemes and Epigrames," 210
"Emblems" of Witney, 136
England, first elephant seen in,

142

Epilepsy, cure for, 173, 190
Ermine, the spotless, 176
Ethiopia, land of marvels, 73, 146,

276
" Euphues," extract from, 262,

281
" Evangeline," extract from, 247,

279

Evil spirit in donkey, 185
Eye-bright for the sight, 48, 298

Fable, animals in, 175

" Fairie Queen," extract from, So.

113, 129
Fakirs of India mentioned by

Pliny, 28

Famous horses of antiquity, 181
Fascination, power of, 285
Fennel, value of, 47
Fenton on toad stone, 282
Ferae, " Blazon of Gentrie," 119,

224

Ferret, 173, 309
Feuds, animal, 129, 136
Filial love of storks, 259
Fishes choosing a king, 334
Fletcher on phoenix, 207
Flounder the wry-mouthed, 334

Fondness of dolphin for man, 328
Forget-me-not, 251, 277
Formosa men with tails, 70, 71
Four-eyed men, 74
Four-footed ducks and pigeons,
Four-legged serpents, 306
Fox, 167
Foxglove, 251
Freckles, cure for, 166
Frenzel on Unicorn, 131
Frog, 189, 278, 281, 308
Fulgentius on note of Raven,
Fuller, extracts from, 117

Galen, prescription of, 291
" Garden of the Muses," exti

from, 170

Gamier, the loup-garou, 108
Gay, extract from, 184, 241
Geliot's " Indice Armorial," 120
Gentleman's Magazine, extract from,

93

Geranites, 247

Gerarde, extract from, 214, 309

Gesner's " History of Animals,"
129

Giants, 75

Gift of eloquence, To acquire, 249

Gift of invisibility, 235

Gilbert White's " Selborne," 180

Glanvil, assertions of, 113, 276,
290

Glow-worm, 257

Goat, 177, 234, 331

" Golden Gem for Geometri-
cians," 262

Gonzale on monstrous men, 79

Gorilla mentioned by Hanno, 3,
67

Gosse, " Romance of Natural His-
tory," 86

Gout, remedy for, 244, 246, 278

Gray, oil from the, 278

Great-lipped men, 76

Green lizards in mediaeval recipe,
8

Grimalkin, 192

Guiana of Sir W. Raleigh, 44

Guillaume, " Bestiare Divin " of,

Index.

345

Guillim's " Display of Heraldrie,"

52, 120, 132, 176, 243
Gujerat, lions of, 124

Hairy men, 67. Hairy serpents,

306

Hakluyt's " Voyages," 44
Halcyone, myth of, 258
Halle on knowledge for Chirur-

geons, 12

" Hamlet," extract from, 228
Hanno's pursuit of gorilla, 3, 67,

68

Hare, 8, 164, 165, 184
Harpy, 64, 146
Hartebeest, 124
" Haven of Health," Cogan's, 45,

167, 231, 277, 301
Hawkweed, 248
Headless men, 34, 65, 75
Heber den's " Antitheriaca," 299
Hedgehog, 168, 256
Hentzner on horn of unicorn, 134
Heraldic animals, 83, 127,276, 328
Herbert's book of travels, 39, 176
Herb-tea in the Spring, 274
Herodotus, writings of, 30
Herring, the king of fishes, 334
Herschell on love of books, 32
Heylin, travels of, 42
Heywood on stork, 259
' ' Hind and Panther, ' ' extract from ,

161, 165
Hippeau on theological treatment,

6,49

Hippocampus, 314
Hippopotamus. 118, 143, 149, 314
" Histoire des Anomalies" of St.

Hilaire, 62
" Historia Naturalis " of Jonston,

130

41 Historic of Plants," Gerarde, 214
" History of America," Robertson,

79

" History of Animals, "Gesner. 129

4< History of Serpents and Dra-
gons," Aldrovandus, 272

Hog-fish, 209, 318

Holland, English version of Pliny,
29

Hollerius on snake stone, 298
Homer on eagle, 225 ; on pygmies,

55

Hoopoe, stone from, 247
Horned men, 76, 294
Horned viper, 298
Hornets from dead mule, 311
Horn of unicorn, 133, 324
Horse, 181, 189,236,270,276, 294,

297

Horse- shoe, 184
Hound's-tongue, value of, 188
Howling of dogs an evil omen,

188

How serpents are developed, 297
How tempests may arise, 321
How the raven became black, 241
How to procure toad-stone, 283
Hudibras, quotation from, 162,

214

Hudson on mermaids, 85
Humble bees from dead ass, 311
Hyaena, 152, 156 ; Men turned

into, 104
Hydrophobia, treatment of, 189,

234
" Hymn on the Nativity," Milton,

258

Iliad, extract from, 225
Incubators mentioned byjordanus,

15
Indian customs mentioned by

Pliny, 28

" Indice Armorial," 120
Indifference to animal suffering,

48, 167, 248, 335

: Inhabitants of the sea-depths, 313
i Insomnia, specific for, 177
Instances of sagacity in birds, 177
Invisibility, gift of, 245, 297
Ipotayne, half-man, half-horse, 79
Izaak Walton, extract from, 209

\ Jaguars, men turned to, 104

; Jaundice, specific for, 189

i Java, home of the pygmies, 58

| Jewel-bearing toad, 281

; Job on the eagle, 224

346

Index.

John of Hesse, travels of, 81
JonsonVHistoriaNaturalis," 130
Jordanus, extract from, 13, 58, 73,

196, 213, 274
Juggernaut, 15

" Julius Csesar," extract from, 130
Jumar, 124

Keen sight of eagle, 225
Kentish men tailed, 68, 69
Kingfisher, 255
"King Henry IV.," extract from,

1 66, 254
" King Henry VI.," extract from,

161, 208, 224, 246, 266, 296, 304
"King Henry VIII.," extract

from, 286

" King Lear," extract from, 254
King of beasts ; 116. of birds, 232 ;

of fishes, 334 ; of serpents, 266
Kite, sagacity of, 177
" Knight of Malta," extract from,

176

Lady loup-garou, 109

Lalla Rookh, extract from, 210

Lamia, 294

Lamb-tree, 223

Land of the pygmies, 57

Landseer's animal painting, 175

Language of beasts, to learn, 42

Lapwing, 177

Lark, sagacity of, 177

Larva of tiger-moth, 306

Laterrade on the unicorn, 131

Lavender as a remedy, 301

Legend of the robin, 250

Legh, "Accidence of Armorie,"

52, i2i, 144, 178, 187, 242
Leo, " History of Africa," 158, 271
Leontophonos, 128
Leopards, men turned to, 104
Leviathan, 334

Licking little bears into shape, 161
Lightning, protection against, 258
Like to like, 300
Lily, " Euphues " of, 281
Lion, 116, 232, 270, 276, 294, 303,

310

Lipless men, 73

" Livre des Creatures " of

Thaun, 50, 124
Lizard, 8, 296
Lomie, 197

Long-eared men, 42, 77
Long-headed men, 78
Longfellow, extract from, 247,
Loup-garou, 108
Love of the marvellous, 10
" Love's Martyr " of Chester, i-
" Loyal Scot " of Andrew Man

69

Luminous ink, 312
Lupton, extract from, 282
" Lusiad " of Camoens, 181
Luther on whale, 334
Lycanthropy, 101

" Macbeth," extract from, 192

Macaulay on books, 32

" Maccabees," extract from, 145

Macer on fennel, 47

Mad as a March hare, 165, 166

Mad dog, 9

" Magick of Kirani," 251, 270

Maneless lions, 123

Manticora, 156, 197

Manufacture of mermaids, 91 ; of

pygmies, 58
Maori traditions, 61
" Mappae Clavicula," extract from,

182

Marcellus, cure of blindness, 248
Marco Polo, travels of, 40, 144,

211

Marlowe, extract from, 241, 255
Marmalade for students, 46
Martin's "Philosophical Gram-
mar, 132

Marvellous Isle of Dondum, 75
Matthew Prior, drawing of ele-
phant, 143

Maundevile, extract from, 15, 16,
no, 138, 147, 151, 195,202, 244,
276, 308, 336
Mauritius veal, 89
Medical zoology, 4, 45
Mediaeval theory of creation, 125
Melancholia, its cause, 166

Index.

347

Men who lived on odours, 58,

Mendez Pinto the marvellous,

41

Mermaid, 79, So, 313
Matacollinarum, 294
" Merchant of Venice," extract

from, 54, 192, 229
"Metamorphoses," Ovid, 101
Metempsychosis, 107
Mewing nuns, 105
" Midsummer night's dream,"

extract from, 83
Milton, extract from, 226, 253,

258, 334
"Miracles of Art and Nature,"

extract from, 18, 19
" Mirror for Mathematics," 262
Mirror of stones, 247
Mithridate, 299
Mole, 168, 172, 335
Monoceros, 130
" Monstrorum Historia " of Aldro-

vandus, 63

Moon-worshipping elephants, 139
Moore, Extract of, 210
Moral-pointing treatment of zo-
ology, 4, 6, 173, 244, 287, 293
Moss irom dead man's skull, 278
Moufflon in Munster's book, 35
Mouse, 137, 167, 194
Mouthless men, 75, 76
Munster's " Cosmography," 34,

97, 127, 130, 139, 149, 220, 306

Music, dolphins love of, 330

Musinus, 129

Mussel, 196

Mutianus on monkeys, 139

Narwhal tusk, 324
" Natural History," Bacon's, 166
" Natural History of Norway," 87
" Natural History of Selborne,"

180

"Natural Magick," 154
" New Jewell of Health," 277
Nightingale, 251

Nile represented in old maps, 13,36
Noah and the raven, 242
Noseless men, 73

Cannes the fish-god, 96

Odin's wolf, 157

Oil of swallows, 249

Oils of medicinal repute, 278

Olaus Magnus, writings of, 106,

320, 333

Omens from animals, 164
One-legged men, 42, 294
" Orlando Furioso," extract from,

207, 304
" Ortus Sanitatis," extract <-om>

280

Oryges, 197

Ostrich devouring iron, 231
"Othello, " Extract from, 241, 287
Ovid, the " Metamorphoses " of,

101

Owl, 246

Oxford life in the year 1636, 46
Oyster, the susceptible, 196

Panther, 149, 232

"Paradise lost," extract from,.

334

Parkinson, on barnacle goose, 219

Parrot-fish, 209

Parsee funeral customs, 13

" Pathway to Knowledge, "extract
from, 312, 336

Peacock, 240, 254

Pearl-fish, 332

Pegasus, 324

Pelican, 227, 240

Percy Society Publications, 240

Performing elephants, 138

" Periplus " of Hanno, 67

Philomela, 252

" Philosophical Grammar," Mar-
tin, 132

Philostratus on pygmies, 55

Phisiologus on the mermaid, So

Phoenix, 200, 240, 294

Physician-tench, 335

Pietro del Porco, 176

Pillars of Hercules, 36

Pinto, liar of first magnitude, 41

Plagiarism, 45

Playmate, dragon as a, 275

Pliny's "Natural History," 21,95,.
123, 150, 246

348

Index.

Plutarch, quotation from, 37

Poison fish, 209

Polypus and the significance
thereof, 4, 5

Pomphagi, 72

Pontarf, 338

Pontoppidan, writings of, 87

"Poor Robin's Almanack," ex-
tract from, 170

Pope on learned blockheads, 33

Porta, extract from, 78, 122, 124,
152, 154, 160, 172, 182, 233, 283,
295, 300

Potter's " Booke of Phisicke," 45

Powdered mummy, 278

Praise of method, 53

Prawn, 332

Prester John, kingdom of, 293

" Pseudodoxia Epidemica," 92

" Purchas his Pilgrimage," 44, 318

Pygmies, 54, 294

Pyragones, 295

Quentin Durward," extract
from, 157

Rabbit, 119

Raleigh, Sir Walter, on Guiana,

44

Ram, 198. Ram-headed man, 64
Rat, 194, 196, 282
Raven, 177, 241. Raven-stone, 244
Ray, its love for man, 331
Reginald Scot, " Discoverie of

Witchcraft," 113
Rejuvenescence of the eagle, 226
Relentless asp, 307
" Remaines of Gentilisme and

Judaisme," 165, 298
Remedies for hydrophobia, 189
Remora, 326

Rheumatism, remedy for, 167
"Rich Jew of Malta," extract

from, 241

Rings bearing toad-stone, 281
Robbers checkmated, 9
Robertson, " History of America,"

79
Robin, 249

Rochester rudeness to A Becket,

68, 69

Roc or Rukh, 211
"Romance of Natural History,"

Gosse, 86

Roman mosaic at Brading, 98
" Romeo and Juliet," extract

from, 192

Rondoletius, book of, 319
Roulet, the loup-garou, 109

Sachs on unicorn, 131
"Saducismus Triumphatus," 113
Sagacity of the crane, 261
Salamander, 154, 209, 290
Sargon, 331
' ' Savage Africa, ' ' Win wood Read e,

6r

Sciatica, specific for, 182
Scoresby on mermaids, 84
Scorpion, 9, 277, 278, 302, 338
Scorpion-grass, 251, 277
Scots Magazine, extract from, 87
Screech-owl, 108
Sea elephant, 323
Sea horse, 314

Seal, Greek superstition respect-
ing, 289

Serpent, 173, 178, 236, 267
Serpentine monstrosities, 305
Shakespeare, extract from, n, 32,
54. 55« I3°. J73' ISo, 192, 208,
228, 229, 241, 246, 253, 254, 255,
266, 277, 291, 296, 304
Shakespeare on learning, 33
Sheep as great as oxen, 76
Shelley on nightingale, 253
" Ship of Fools," 39
Shoney, the storm-dog, 191
Shrew-ash, 180
Shrew-mouse, 179, 234
Silkworm, 312
Silurus, 338
Single-footed men, 20
Sir Emerson Tennant on travel-
lers' tales, 2

" Six Pastorals," extract from, 250
Skelton's poem on birds, 240
Sleeplessness, to cause, 251
Snail-shells as houses, 308

Index.

349'

Snake charmers mentioned by

Pliny, 29

Song of the nightingale, 252
Southey, extract from, 232
" Speculum Mundi," extract

from, 5, Si, 88, 131, 133, 144,

180, 194, 227, 229, 252, 265, 266,

287, 320

" Speculum Regale," 86
Speechless men, 73
Spenser, quotation from, So, 113,

129, 150, 226, 240, 281, 286; 301,

326, 327
Sphinx, 146
Spider, 279, 282, 308
Squirrel, 174
Stag- wolf, 1 60
Stanley rediscovering pygmies, 3,

60

Stellion, 154

Stolbergh on unicorn, 131
Stone in lapwing's nest, 8
Stones of magic virtue, 247
Stork, 259
Storm-raisers, 191
Strabo on the pygmies, 55
Strewing herbs, 302
Struy's voyages and travels, 44,

70

Subjects dealt with by Pliny, 22
Sucking fish or remora, 326
"Survey of Cornwall," extract

from, 164
Sus Marinus, 317
Suttee an ancient usage, 14
Swallow, 8, 240, 247, 260
Swallow-wort, 248
Swam-fish, 333
Swan-song, 228
Swift, quotation from, 37
Symbol of resurrection, 203
Sympathy and antipathy, 153
Syrens, 82

Tacitus on phoenix, 201

Tailed men, 43, 68, 69

" Tale of a Tub," Swift, 37

"Taming of the Shrew," extract

from, 1 80
Tavernier on bird of paradise, 210

Tears of the crocodile, 286

Teasel-heads, 309

"Tempest," extract from, 79,

209

Tench, the physician fish, 335
Tennant on works of ancient

travellers, 2
Tensevetes, 294
Ten-tailed lizard, 63
"Theater of plants," 219
Theocritus on halycon calm, 258
Theologians, a study of zoology, 4
i Theriaca, 299
; Thoes, 124

" Thousand notable things," 282
Three-eyed men, 74
Three-headed monster, 65
Thynne's "Book of Emblems,"

210

Tiger, 118, 198. Tiger-men, 104
" Timon of Athens," extract fronv

130

Titian, device of, 161
Title-pages full of interest, old,.

6, 34, 272

Titles of old books, 12
Toad, 236, 274, 279, 308
Toad-stone, 281
Toad-wort, 280, 298
To catch Sargi, 331
Tooth-ache, remedy for, 335
Topsell, extract from, 165, 168

171, 179, 280
Torpedo, 257
Tortoise, sagacity of, 178
Tradescant's museum, 209
Transfer of valuable animal pro-
perties to man, 8
Travellers' tales, 3, 338
"Travels in Africa," Barrow,

Travels of Le Gouz, 326
Treachery of the shrew mouse,

" Trip to Benwell," extract from,

165
Troglodytes mentioned by Pliny

and others, 3
" Troilus and Cressida," extract

from, 304
Tusser's " Husbandry," 301

350

Index.

" Two Gentlemen of Verona,

extract from, 296
Two-headed animals, 65

Unchangeableness of old customs,

13. 28
Urcheon, urchin, or hedgehog,

169
Use of elephant in war, 137

Value of personal observation,

"Varia Historia," extract from,

95

Venice treacle, 9, 299
Venomous men, 43
Versipillis, the skin-turner, 106
Vervain in recipe, 8
Victoria Nyanza in old maps, 13
Viper in medicine, 298, 299
Virgil on bees, 261, 311
" Voiage and Travaile " of Maun-

devile, 15, 16, no, 138, 202, 308

Warder, Dr., on bees, 261
Wart, to cure, 182, 190
Wasps from dead horse, 311

Waters of Lethe, 99

Weasel, 119, 188, 296, 318

Weather prognostics, 82, 170

Weeping of deer, 173

Wehr-wolves, 99, 104

Whales pacified with tubs, 37, 39

When venison should be avoided

Whitney's " Emblems," 136
Whooping cough, remedy f<

163, 186, 188, 308
Why bears attack bee-hives, 163
Winstanley's " Book of Know-

ledge," 183, 248, 312
Wolf, 8, 118, 154, 157, 182
Wolf-headed man, 79
Wondrous beasts of mediaeval

fancy, 197
Woolly bear, 306
Wren, 249
Weight's translation of De Thaun,

50

Xenophon on boar, 175

Ylio of De Thaun, 51
Yule's translation of Jordanus,
14

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" Prophetic Books " and a Memoir, by EDWIN JOHN ELLIS, Author of
"Fate in Arcadia," etc , and WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, Author of the
" Wandering of Oisin," " The Countess Kathleen," etc., 3 vols. large Svo.,
with portraits and 290 Facsimiles of Blake's privately-printed and coloured
works, symbolical cloth binding, £3. 35 1893

The same, Large Paper, 3 vols. 4to.

half bound morocco, gilt top, £4. 145 6d 1893

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