Chapter V (3)

“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.”

[15] 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.

[16] 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.

[17] 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.

[18] 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.

[19]

“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.”_

[20] 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.”

[21] 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.”

[22] As the old adage hath it:—

“When that the ass begins to bray,
Be sure we shall have rain that day.”

[23]

“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 wight who hears her melodies.”—_Kirke._

[24] 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.

[25] See some good figures, too, in the “Book of Emblems” of Alciatus, 1551.

[26] A writer in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_, in the year 1771, 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 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.

[27] “There is scarce any tradition or popular error but stands also delivered by some good authors, who though excellent and usefull, 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 dixit_, 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._

[28] “Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward man, and downward, fish.”—_Milton._

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

[30] 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.

[31] 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.

[32] “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._

[33] The first edition of Scot’s book was published in the year 1584.

[34] “The Lion is not so fierce as painted.”—_Thos. Fuller._

“The Lion is not so fierce as they paint him.”—_Herbert._

[35] “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._

[36] 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 hyæna and lioness; 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.

[37] “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 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.”—_André._

[38] “De leonibus, quaram copia est in Africa.” The illustration is a facsimile of the one given in this section of Munster’s book.

[39] 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.”

[40] Ctesias says that its flesh is so bitter that it cannot be eaten.

[41] “Topsell nameth two kingdomes in India (the one called Niem, the other Lamber), which he likewise stored with them.”—_Speculum Mundi._

[42] As for example: Bacci’s book “Discorso dell’ Alicorno,” published at Florence in 1573, and the “De Unicornu Observationes novæ” of Thomas Bartholinus, bearing date 1645. Caspar Bartholinus had already, in 1628, written “De Unicornu ejusque affinibus.” Then we have Bereus’ “De Monoceroti,” 11667; Catelan’s “Histoire de la Licorne,” 1624; Frenzel, “De Unicornu,” 1675; Stolbergk’s “Exercitatio de Unicornu,” 1652; Sachs’ “Monocerologia,” 1676; and the “Notice en refutation de la non-existence de la Licorne” of Laterrade, bearing the very recent date of 1826.

[43] 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.

[44] “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; 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._

[45] “And to the end they might provoke the elephants to fight they shewed them the blood of grapes and mulberries.”—1 _Maccabees_ 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.”—1 _Macc._ vi. 37.

[46] 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 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.”

[47] 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.

[48] 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.”

[49] It is dated 1658. The author was a Neapolitan.

[50] 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.”

[51] 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.

[52] 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.

[53] “Wherefore, studious Readers, accept my long Labours, that cost me much Study, Travel, Expense, and much Inconvenience, with the same Mind that I publish them; 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.”_

[54] 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.”

[55] The scientific name of the hare is _Lepus timidus_. Dryden, in the “Hind and Panther,” places “amongst the timerous kind the quaking hare.”

[56] 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 hazelnutful of mole’s fat, and calcined human hair, strongly recommended by the learned author.

[57] 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.

[58] In another popular remedy for “fitts” one has to “take the furr of a living Bear’s belly, boil it in Aqua Vitæ, take it out, squeeze it, and wrap it upon ye soales of ye Feete.”

[59] 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.

[60] The “Lusiad”; Camoens.

[61] Published therefore in the reign of Charles II., “Our most undoubted and lawful King.” We have most of us formed an 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.”

[62] Gay’s Fables.

[63] “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_.

[64] The butter made from the milk of a cow fed in a churchyard was held to be a potent remedy for consumption.

[65] As this led to vigorous protests from the cat, and very possibly a good scratching, a gold ring or coin was often substituted, and found to be equally beneficial.

[66] “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.

[67] The skin of the cat is the only portion of the animal that can be turned to any use. According to mediæval 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.

[68] 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.

[69] 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.

[70] A.U.C. 787, equivalent to A.D. 34.

[71] Heliopolis.

[72] Even so comparatively recently as the time of Maundevile 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 Lord aroos fro Dethe to Lyve the thridde Day.”

[73] “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 swordfish; and not only other incredible fish, but you may there see the salamander, 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 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 Archbishop 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 17th, 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 15th transferred to Elias Ashmole. The botanical genus, _Tradescantia_, is so called in honour of John Tradescant.

[74] Madagascar.

[75] 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; 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 were 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 arithmetical possibilities open to him, he was but a poor bungler at his business after all.

[76] “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.”—_Job_ xxxix. 28, 29.

[77] “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_.

[78]

“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.

[79] Dryden.

[80] 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.”

[81] Byron.

[82] It is curious that until this species was discovered at the Antipodes a black swan was regarded both by ancient and mediæval 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.

[83] In “Camden” we read that the device of Anne, queen of Richard II., was “an ostrich with a nayle in his beake.”

[84] Thalaba.

[85] 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.

[86] In another book we consulted, “Notes for Cookerie, gathered from experienced Cookes,” published in 1593, it is equally emphatic that “a Cock to be stewed to renew the weake” must be a red one. There is naturally here a connection suggested between the colour of the bird and the ruddy hue of health that is to be hoped for after such a dietary.

[87] MS. No. 10,074 in the Royal Library, Brussels.

[88] In the Middle Ages animals were frequently haled before the judges for various offences. In 1266 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.

[89] 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.”

[90]

“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 Mundi._

“O chanticleer,
Your clarion blow, the day is near.”

LONGFELLOW, _Daybreak_.

[91] Spenser.

[92] Macbeth.

[93] 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.

[94] A fourteenth-century MS., the “Cursor Mundi,” says of the raven’s exit from the ark:—

“Than opin Noe his windowe
Let ut 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 fless was he so fain
To schip came he neuer again.”

[95] This notion of the sightlessness of the young swallow 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 eyebright; while the hawks strengthened their vision, we are told, by means of the plant that was hence called the hawkweed, and still retains that name.

[96] “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.

[97] 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.”

[98] 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.

[99] 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.

[100] Ammianus Marcellinus has 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.

[101] 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.

[102] “This creature is in thicknesse as big as a man’s wrist, and of length proportionable to that thicknesse.”—_Speculum Mundi._

[103] The “Annals of Winchester,” for the year 1177, 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.”

[104] In the “Magick of Kirani,” a Persian book that appeared in an English dress in 1685, we find the representation of a dragon employed as a charm. “If therefore any man engrave a woodpecker on the stone dentrites, and a sea-dragon under its feet, every gate will open unto him; savage beasts will also obey him and come to tameness; he shall also be loved and observed of all, and whatever he hath a mind to, he shall perform.”

[105] On its noble title-page we see on either side of the title of the book a powerful dragon, beneath one is inscribed Dominium, and below the other Vigilantia. At the base a third dragon supports two shields. On one is represented the serpent twining round a staff, the well-known symbol of Æsculapius, inscribed Salus, and on the other the equally familiar symbol of eternity, the serpent with its tail in its mouth, inscribed Immortalitatis.

[106] Thus Lyte tells us that in his day, 1578, it had “none other knowen name than this.”

[107] “Wherein is contained the most excellent Secretes of Phisicke and Philosophie 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.”

[108] The “holy” has, of course, no reference to the sacred character of the mess in question: it is merely the free and easy mediæval way of spelling the word wholly.

[109] 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.

[110] 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 11th, 1651, 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.

[111] Another of these ancient authorities affirmed that mud engendered frogs that lack feet. In other words, he made acquaintance with tadpoles!

[112] 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.

[113] It will be seen from this that the state of things involved in the too familiar legend, “Made in Germany,” is of ancient date.

[114] Act iii., sc. 9.

[115] Book I., Canto V.

[116] 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.”

[117] 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, weep over the head.”

[118] Readers of Shakespeare will recall how Falstaff rails at Bardolph, 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 fire any time this two-and-thirty years.”

[119] 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.

[120] 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.

[121] “Andromachus a voulu changer le nom de Mithridate en celuy de Theriaque, à cause des vipères, auxquelles il a attribué le nom, et lesquelles il a ajouté pour la base principale de cette composition.” (Chares, “l’histoire des Animaux etc. qui entrent dans la Theriaque,” Paris, 1868.) See also Heberden’s “Antitheriaca.”

[122] 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 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.

[123] Spenser.

[124] 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 Herbwoman with her six maids, strewing the way with Herbs.”

[125] 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.”

[126] 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 choking the patient. In Norfolk, they had greater faith in giving the child milk to drink that a ferret had previously lapped at.

[127] “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.”—_Lyte’s translation of Dodœns_, A.D. 1586.

[128] Judges, chap. xiv.

[129] Dryden’s Translation.

[130] 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, “I cannot tell. For sometimes it is a worm, sometimes a flie, and sometimes neither worm nor flie, but a little seed which the dying flies leave behinde them.”

[131] 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.

[132] “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.

[133] In the travels of Boullaye le Gouz, published in 1657, we find a reference to this notion. He says, “I had among my baggage the hand of a Syren, or fisherwoman, which I threw, on the sly, into the sea, because the captain, seeing that we could not make way, asked me if I had not got some mummy 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 Provençals 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.”

[134] “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 Lævinus 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 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 swimme 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 Hieroglyphic of Celerity, and swifter than other animalls, men best expressed their velocity by incurvity, and under some figure of a bowe, and in this sense probably do Heralds also receive it.”—_Browne._

[135] In Sussex no better remedy could be found for tooth-ache than the application of a paw cut from a living mole.

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

Ælianus, 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 text book, 51, 125

Ambrosinus, 316

Amphisbæna, 304

“Anatomy of Melancholy,” 309

Anchor and Dolphin, 329

André 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, 11, 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, 11

“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 chamæleon, 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

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

Bee-hives attacked by bears, 163

“Belvedere” of Bodenham, 170

Bereus 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

Bœwulf on Mermaid, 80

Boiling river, 43

“Bonduca,” extract from, 162

“Book of Emblems,” 84

“Book of Knowledge,” Winstanley, 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,” 247

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, 304

Ceylon, mermaids of, 88

“Ceylon, Natural History of,” 196

Chameleon, 136, 178, 274, 296

Chanticleer, 239

Chares on Theriaca, 299

Chaucer, extract from, 11, 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 virtues of, 189

Cinirus, 124

Cinnabar, how produced, 137

Coats, extract from, 120, 194

Cobbe on the creation of monsters, 145

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

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, 110

“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, 161

Cuckoo broth, 235

Culverwort, 16

“Curiosities of Heraldry,” 237

“Cursor Mundi,” extract from, 242

Cuttle-fish, 335

Cuvier on phœnix, 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 Physiognomonica,” 78

“De Miraculis,” story from, 108

Democritus on serpent generation, 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

Dodœns, extract from, 309

Dog, 8, 119, 187, 189, 270, 316

Dog-headed men, 11, 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, 110

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

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 Benwell,” 165

“Emblemes and Epigrames,” 210

“Emblems” of Whitney, 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

Eyebright for the sight, 48, 298

Fable, animals in, 175

“Fairie Queen,” extract from, 80, 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

Ferne, “Blazon of Gentrie,” 119, 224

Ferret, 173, 309

Feuds, animal, 129, 136

Filial love of storks, 259

Fishes choosing a king, 334

Fletcher on phœnix, 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, 65

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, 242

Fuller, extracts from, 117

Galen, prescription of, 291

“Garden of the Muses,” extract from, 170

Garnier, 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

Glowworm, 257

Goat, 177, 234, 331

“Golden Gem for Geometricians,” 262

Gonzale on monstrous men, 79

Gorilla mentioned by Hanno, 3, 67

Gosse, “Romance of Natural History,” 86

Gout, remedy for, 244, 246, 278

Gray, oil from the, 278

Great-lipped men, 76

Green lizards in mediæval recipe, 8

Grimalkin, 192

Guiana of Sir W. Raleigh, 44

Guillaume, “Bestiare Divin” of, 48

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 Chirurgeons, 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

Heberden’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

Heylyn, 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

“Historie of Plants,” Gerarde, 214

“History of America,” Robertson, 79

“History of Animals,” Gesner, 129

“History of Serpents and Dragons,” 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

Hyæna, 152, 156;
Men turned into, 104

Hydrophobia, treatment of, 189, 234

“Hymn on the Nativity,” Milton, 258

Iliad, extract from, 225

Incubators mentioned by Jordanus, 15

Indian customs mentioned by Pliny, 28

“Indice Armorial,” 120

Indifference to animal suffering, 48, 167, 248, 335

Inhabitants of the sea-depths, 313

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

Java, home of the pygmies, 58

Jewel-bearing toad, 281

Job on the eagle, 224

John of Hesse, travels of, 81

Jonston’s “Historia Naturalis,” 130

Jordanus, extract from, 13, 58, 73, 196, 213, 274

Juggernaut, 15

“Julius Cæsar,” extract from, 130

Jumar, 124

Keen sight of eagle, 225

Kentish men tailed, 68, 69

Kingfisher, 255

“King Henry IV.,” extract from, 166, 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, “Accedence of Armorie,” 52, 121, 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 De Thaun, 50, 124

Lizard, 8, 296

Lomie, 197

Long-eared men, 42, 77

Long-headed men, 78

Longfellow, extract from, 247, 279

Loup-garou, 108

Love of the marvellous, 10

“Love’s Martyr” of Chester, 170

“Loyal Scot” of Andrew Marvel, 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

“Mappæ 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 Grammar,” 132

Marvellous Isle of Dondum, 75

Matthew Prior, drawing of elephant, 143

Maundevile, extract from, 15, 16, 110, 138, 147, 151, 195, 202, 244,
276, 308, 336

Mauritius veal, 89

Medical zoology, 4, 45

Mediæval theory of creation, 125

Melancholia, its cause, 166

Men who lived on odours, 58, 75

Mendez Pinto the marvellous, 41

Mermaid, 79, 80, 313

Metacollinarum, 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 Aldrovandus, 63

Moon-worshipping elephants, 139

Moore, Extract of, 210

Moral-pointing treatment of zoology, 4, 6, 173, 244, 287, 293

Moss from 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