Natural history, lore and legend

"Natural history, lore and legend" by F. Edward Hulme is a historical survey written in the late 19th century. It explores how ancient and medieval writers understood animals and nature—balancing medical uses, moral symbolism, and travellers’ reports—alongside legends of real and mythical creatures. Expect respectful reassessment of “travellers’ tales,” bestiaries, and heraldic lore, with frequent citations from Pliny, Aristotle, Maundevile, and other authorities. The opening of this survey argues that medieval naturalists were honest seekers after truth, even if credulous, and notes how later discoveries have vindicated some disputed reports. Hulme contrasts modern, descriptive zoology with earlier aims—healing the body and saving the soul—illustrated by moral readings of animals from works like the Speculum Mundi (e.g., the crafty polypus, the mole that “opens its eyes” at death). He samples astrological medicine and bizarre recipes (protective staves, “Venice treacle”), then shows the “unchanging East” through Jordanus (Towers of Silence, suttee) and Maundevile (Juggernaut processions, artificial incubation, carrier pigeons, bound feet), and notes Burton’s early account of coca. A substantial survey of Pliny’s Natural History outlines its vast scope, sources, and influence, with Aristotle and other classical writers alongside the medieval reliance on travel books, medical handbooks, bestiaries, armories, and poets. Hulme delights in old cosmographies and maps crammed with monsters (Munster), weighs Marco Polo’s comparative sobriety against more fanciful geographers, and glances at Raleigh, Hakluyt, Purchas, Struys, and Acosta.

Natural history, lore and legend, by F. Edward Hulme. Republished by OpenStories from Project Gutenberg eBook #77830.