scene 3 of act v.--"There is a fellow somewhat near the door; he

should be a brazier by his face, for, o' my conscience, twenty of the dog-days now reign in his nose: all that stand about him are under the line, they need no further penance. That fire-drake."

De Thaun in his "Bestiary" tells us of the Aspis, "a serpent cunning, sly, and aware of evil. When it perceives people who make enchantment, who want to enchant it, 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." De Thaun always endeavours to see a religious meaning in everything, and where the moral declines to fit quite accurately to the facts, by a simple process of reversal the facts are made to fit to the moral. The creature that he had in his mind, and which would naturally occur to him from his familiarity with the Bible, is no doubt identical with the deaf adder that we are told in one of the Psalms stoppeth her ear, and refuseth to hear the voice of the charmer. Though the old author avowedly has no doubt as to the signification he assigns to the creature's obstinate refusal to be charmed, one cannot but feel that his explanation is rather halting. A man who would amass riches has at least as much need of his eyes as of his ears, and his transition from the ear stopped up by sin to the awakened eye at the great day of account is also somewhat lame. The transition should have been not arbitrarily from one faculty to another, but in the sharp contrast between the sense first deliberately blunted and lost through sin, to be then at last terribly restored by the trumpet peal of the dread day of doom. Indeed, if it were not that we are all prepared instinctively to place the worst possible construction upon anything a creature so repellent to us may do, it is evident that the allegory might have been equally developed from quite another point of view. Had the dove shown a similar alacrity to bury one ear in the earth while it stuffed its tail into the other, we should have heard nothing of this wilful blunting of the senses to good counsel, but much, _au contraire_, of its determined resistance to temptation and evil.

The ancients believed in a horrible little brute called the Amphisbena, "a small kind of serpent which moveth backward or forward, and hath two heads, one at either extreme." Galen, Pliny, Nicander, and many other early writers gravely describe this especially objectionable little reptile. Ælian, who was so far in advance of his age as to call the Chimæra and Hydra fables, believed fully in the amphisbena. Some few serpents really have the power of taking a mean advantage of those they assault by springing at them from directions not always "straight to your front," as the drill sergeants express it,[29] but none, of course, have an equal facility for moving either backward or forward; and certainly still more of course, no serpent at present known to science, or likely to be, has a head "at either extreme."

[29] Appendix R.

The Kraken is another notable example of the studies in unnatural history of the ancients. Pliny gravely narrates that one of these monsters--the "mountain fish" of the old Norsemen--haunted the ocean off the coasts of Spain and North Africa, but, owing to its bulk, was unable to penetrate through the Straits of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean. According to some old writers the kraken, when floating on the surface of the sea, stretched to a length of about a mile and a half, and appeared like an island. It is a difficult problem to say which would be the most embarrassing position--for a seaman to find himself stranded on the creature's back on its sudden arrival at the surface, or to be engulfed in the whirlpool that would arise from its sinking again into the depths of ocean. One old writer tells us of a party of sailors that, from the tangled sea-weed on the creature's back, took the kraken for an island, and after fishing for some time with some little success in the pools of water in the hollows of his back, proceeded to light a fire to cook their take, and suddenly found themselves engulfed in the sea when the heat became sufficiently great to awaken their animated island from its nap. Alaus Magnus, archbishop of Upsala, describes this colossus of the deep as the kraken, but he stops short at the length of a mile; while Pontoppidan, bishop of Bergen, adds that a whole regiment of soldiers could manoeuvre on its back; while yet a third ecclesiastic, another bishop, tells us that he did actually erect an altar on the creature's back and celebrate mass. We are told that the kraken submitted to the ceremony without flinching, but no sooner was it over than it plunged into the depths of the sea, to the great astonishment and peril of the divine. It may at first seem curious that so many of these stories should spring from ecclesiastics, but it must be remembered that they were in these early days the great repositories of truth, the laity being steeped in ignorance and superstition.

It has been conjectured that the kraken myth has sprung from stories of gigantic cuttle-fish or octopus, the devil fish described so vividly by Victor Hugo in his "Toilers of the Sea;" but one can hardly fall in quite readily with this notion, since the leading idea, so to speak, in the kraken belief is that of a monstrous and quiescent mass, suggestive more than anything else of an island rising from the sea, while the dominant idea in our minds of the octopus is of a creature armed with far-stretching and numerous arms that enwrap their hapless victim in their pitiless embrace. The kraken would scarcely have been described without any reference to these fearful feelers, armed with double rows of suckers, if the myth had had the origin that has been in several directions claimed for it. The belief in the kraken chiefly springs, probably, from that delight in something tremendously big that has also given us the roc carrying away elephants in its talons, or the serpent that encompasses the world in its folds, so that we need not then too anxiously strive to find any counterpart of it in nature.

"They that sail on the sea tell of the dangers thereof, and when we hear it with our ears we marvel thereat.

"For therein be strange and wondrous works, variety of all kinds of beasts, and whales created."[30]

[30] Ecclesiasticus xliii. vers. 24, 25.

De Thaun describes something very kraken-like, but he bestows upon it the title of Cetus. _Cetus_, we need scarcely remind our readers, is a Latin word applied in a general sense to all kinds of large sea-fish, and though the whale is strictly speaking a mammal and not a fish at all, we find the word reappearing in modern use in the term cetaceous, as applied to all creatures of the whale kind. The author of the "Bestiary" tells us that "Cetus is a very great beast; it lives always in the sea. It takes the sand of the sea, spreads it on its back, raises itself up in the sea, and will be at tranquillity. The seafarer sees it, and thinks that it is an island, and goes to arrive there to prepare his meal. The Cetus feels the fire and the ship and the people; then he will plunge if he can, and drown them. When he wants to eat he begins to gape, and the gaping of his mouth sends forth a smell so sweet, that the little fish will enter into his mouth, and then he will kill them, thus will he swallow them." In a Jewish work entitled "Bara Bathra" we read of a whale so large that a ship was three days in sailing from its head to its tail. Of course this would not be at Cunard liner pace; still it certainly does give one the idea of a very considerable fish. But this monster of the deep sinks into insignificance in its length of but a hundred miles or so when we compare it with the fish Pheg (mentioned in an ancient Chinese book, the Tsi-hiai), that churns up five hundred miles of blue ocean into silvery foam when it starts its stupendous paddles in motion for a cruise. This is indeed, to quote Polonius, "very like a whale." When any one's credulity finds no difficulty in digesting such a tale as that, their powers of absorption must be well nigh as striking as the narration itself.

"The imperious seas breed monsters; for the dish Poor tributary rivers as sweet fish."[31]

[31] "Cymbeline," Act iv. sc. 2.

According to Jewish tradition the Leviathan was a great fish; so great, they taught, that one day it swallowed another fish nearly a thousand miles long. Many of the Jewish legends in the Talmud and elsewhere possess little or nothing of graceful fancy, but simply endeavour to excite wonder by gross exaggeration. There were originally two of these leviathans, a male and a female; but if their numbers had increased beyond this, the world would have been soon destroyed; so the female was killed, and laid up in salt for the great feast to be held at the coming of the Messiah. Such is the Jewish tradition. Leviathan is mentioned in the Bible in several places, notably in the magnificent description that comprises the whole of the forty-first chapter of the book of Job. It is curious that a very similar legend to that we have just referred to was believed by the Jews in connection with the Behemoth mentioned in the preceding chapter of Job. Any one reading the fine description of the creature there given will have little difficulty in agreeing with most commentators that the hippopotamus is intended; but the Jews held that behemoth is a huge animal which has subsisted alone since the creation, and that it is reserved to be fattened for the great rejoicings that are to be held in the days of the advent of the promised Messiah. Every day they believe that he eats up the grass of a thousand hills, and that at each draught, when he is thirsty, he swallows up as much water as the Jordan yields in the course of six months.

It would probably be found that nine out of ten people would at once declare that their idea of the leviathan was that it was a large fish, and the tenth person would have very little doubt either. We do not mean that these typical folk would really believe in its existence as a special monster, but they would be quite prepared to say in an offhand way that the whale was intended under this name. Burton in his "Miracles of Art and of Nature" (A.D. 1678) has a passage that clearly shows this interchange of words, and the evident idea that the two terms, whale and leviathan, are synonymous. He writes, under the description of Norway--"The whales do so terrifie the shores, the Seas being there so deep, and therefore a fit habitation for those great leviathans." He, however, goes on to tell us that "the People of the Sea-coast have found a remedy, which is by casting some water intermixt with Oyle of Castor, the smell whereof forces them immediately to retire, and without this help there were no Fishing on the Coasts." The remedy for the boisterous presence of these great monsters seems at first a feeble one, until we bear in mind how gladly we too in our child-days would have immediately retired, if we could, at the awful odour of the coming castor-oil. "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."

The beautiful description of the wonders of creation in the 104th Psalm, the stretching firmament and the chariots of cloud, the fowls of heaven, and the trees so full of sap and vigour, concludes with a reference to the leviathan that has no doubt done much to associate the name with the whale,[32] and which, in fact, could only apply to some such great creature of the waters; so that we can only conclude that the term was used somewhat vaguely by the different Old Testament writers, as it is now tolerably unanimously held that the leviathan of the book of Job is the crocodile.

[32] "This great and wide sea wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom Thou hast made to play therein" (Ps. civ. 25, 26).

No creature of the whale tribe inhabits the Mediterranean; neither is the whale clothed in coat-of-mail, nor is it fierce in disposition; but if any one will carefully read the description given of the crocodile in the book of Job they will find point after point of appropriate detail, allowance being made partly for the wealth of Oriental and poetic imagery, and partly for the wonderful difference between assailing the crocodile in these later days with a rifle-ball as against the old sling, spear, or arrow. What a modern sportsman might lightly esteem would be a very different creature indeed to attack when the world was in its youth.

"Who can strip off his outer garment? Who can open the doors of his face? Round about his teeth is terror. His strong scales are his pride, Shut up together as with a close seal. They are joined one to another, They stick together that they cannot be sundered. In his neck abideth strength, And terror danceth before him. If one lay at him with the sword it cannot avail, Nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft. He counteth iron as straw, And brass as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee: Sling-stones are turned with him into stubble. He laugheth at the rushing of the javelin. Upon earth there is not his like, That is made without fear."

The poetical ideas that clustered during classic times and the Middle Ages round the Nautilus were, after all, as mythical as they were poetic.

"The tender nautilus who steers his prow, The sea-borne sailor of his shell canoe, The ocean Mab, the fairy of the sea"[33]--

has, alas! no foundation in hard fact; and the lesson that Pope would teach when he bids us--

"Learn of the little nautilus to sail, Spread the thin oar and catch the rising gale"--

is equally impracticable. The sad fiction-dispelling truth is, that in no case does the little argonaut use its arms as sails or as oars. It rises, it is true, occasionally to the surface, as other cuttle-fish forms do, but when there its only means of propulsion are the _jets d'eau_ from its funnel, these jets consisting of the water which has been used in respiration. In Pliny's "Natural History," as translated by Philemon Holland, and published in London in 1601, we find that "among the greatest wonders of nature is that fish which of some is called nautilos, of others pompilos. This fish, for to come aloft upon the water, turneth upon his backe, and raiseth or heaveth himselfe up by little and little; and to the end he might swim with more ease as disburdened of a sinke, he dischargeth all the water within him at a pipe. After this, turning up his two foremost clawes or armes, hee displaieth and stretcheth out betweene them a membrane or skin of a wonderful thinnesse: this serveth him instead of a saile in the aire above water. With the rest of his armes or clawes he roweth and laboureth under water, and with his tail in the midst he directeth his course, and steereth as it were with an helme. Thus holdeth he on and maketh way in the sea, with a fair show of a galley under saile. Now if he be afraide of anything by the way, hee makes no more adoe, but draweth in water to baillise his bodie, and so plungeth himselfe downe and sinketh to the bottome."

[33] Byron.

While the Dolphin, like the nautilus, has a veritable existence, and may be duly found amongst the works of nature, it has also, like the nautilus again, served as the foundation for a considerable amount of mythical lore. Thus Pliny, in his so-called Natural History, from which we have already drawn so many curious extracts, writes--"The swiftest of all other living creatures whatsoever, and not of sea-fish only, is the dolphin; quicker than the flying fowl, swifter than the arrow shot out of a bow." The dolphin, so termed, of the mediæval heralds is a purely conventional form, having no counterpart whatever in Nature. "They are much deceived," wrote an authority on natural history a little more than a hundred years ago, "who imagine Dolphins to be of the Figure they are usually represented on Signs; that Error being more owing to the unbridled License of Statuaries or Painters than to any such Thing found in Fact." A much earlier writer, Gillius, tells us that when he was "in a Ship where many Dolphins were taken, he observed them so to deplore with Groans, Lamentations, and a Flood of Tears their Condition, that he himself, out of Compassion, could not forbear weeping, and so threw one that he observed to groan more than ordinary (the Fisherman being asleep) into the Water again, as choosing rather to damage the Fisherman than not to relieve the Miserable. But this gave him but little Rest, for all the Others increased their Groans, as seeming, by not obscure Signs, to beg the same Deliverance." Another well-known belief in connection with the dolphin is the imaginary brilliancy of its supposititiously changeful colours when, having failed to find any one, like Gillius, compassionate enough to throw it overboard, it presently succumbs to its hard fate. The idea has been a favourite one with poets in all ages, but one example from Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" 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."

According to some of the ancient writers, the eyes of the dolphin were in those most unlikely and unserviceable places, their blade-bones; they were also said to dig graves for their dead on the sandy shores of the sea, and to follow them to their burial in mournful procession. They were, too, an excellent means of travelling when other means of locomotion were not available. Thus the fifty daughters of Nereus travelled in safety on their backs, we are told in classic mythology in the dry-as-dust style of such fountains of knowledge as are available for reference ordinarily; but these statements help us but little to realise the scene that struck the eyes or the imaginations of the ancients when this bevy of charming girls, a good fifty strong, rode hither and thither in happy _abandon_ in the brilliant summer sunlight of the azure Mediterranean Sea, their steeds the willing dolphins; a scene as unlike the frowsy omnibuses, the dreary chariots of moody men and women, that loom through the murk of a London fog, or that fill to suffocation with resentful fellow passengers, when the prolonged drizzle becomes a heavy downpour, as one can possibly imagine.

The dolphin's love of music, again, was a firm article of faith to the ancients, and most of our readers are no doubt acquainted with the story of the sweet singer, Arion, who, forced to leap into the sea to escape the cruelty of the sailors, escaped to land on the back of a dolphin--one of many that had long followed the ship in rapturous appreciation of the sweet melodies of the singer; and how Arion--

"With harmonious strains Requites his hearer for his friendly pains."

Another strange fish believed in by our forefathers was the Acipenser, "a fish of an unnatural making and quality," as an old writer terms him; and indeed he may very well do so, as we are told that "his scales are all turned towards the head." We are not, therefore, much surprised to learn that "he ever swimmeth against the stream," though we might well be still more astonished if we ever found him swimming at all.

The Remora. This was held to affix itself so firmly to a ship that neither wind nor waves could dislodge it, while its presence (even worse than that of the more prosaic barnacles and other sea impedimenta that plague the modern shipowner by fouling the bottom of his good ship, and so retarding her course) brought the voyage to an abrupt conclusion. Pliny indeed only says that "there is a little fish, keeping ordinarily about rockes, named Echeneis. It is thought that if it settle and sticke to the keele of a ship under water, it goeth the slower by that meanes," whereupon it is called the stay-ship. But all these marvels have a wonderful way of growing more and more marvellous, and subsequent writers, not content with merely impeding the vessels in their increasingly wondrous stories, soon accredited the remora with the much more striking power of altogether arresting their progress. We see a relic and survival of this old belief in the following lines of Ben Jonson--

"I say a remora, For it will stay a ship that's under sail."

And again much more elaborately worked out in Spenser's "Visions of the World's Vanity"--

"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 men call Remora, Which stopt her course, and held her by the heel, That wind nor tide could move her thence away. Strange thing me seemeth that so small a thing Should able be so great an one to wring."

We have already seen how Leviathan, according to the Talmud, is to form a feast for the Saints; and on turning to the Koran we find a very similar belief, for the food of Mohammed's Paradise is to consist, we are there told, of the flesh of the ox Balam and of the fish Nun. To allay any apprehension on the part of the faithful that these viands will not "go round," as a schoolboy would say, we are reassured on reading that the liver alone of the fish Nun will supply an adequate portion for seventy thousand hungry souls.

The vastness and mystery of the depths of the sea has naturally led to their being peopled at all ages and amidst almost all peoples with strange and monstrous forms like the Chilon, fish-like in body, but having the head of a man; or the Dies, the creature of a day, whose life's span ran its course in the hours between the rising and the setting of the sun; or more rarely with forms of more poetic beauty, like those sweet water-wagtails, the mermaidens we have already alluded to. Our illustration is a representation of the sea lion as believed in, or at least delineated, by the author of one of the mediæval treatises on more or less natural history that has come under our notice. Ælian describes fish having the heads of lions, rams, and so forth; and it is, of course, sufficiently evident that when a man has once got upon that train of ideas there is nothing to hinder his turning the whole "Zoological Gardens" into the shadowy depths of ocean, and evolving from his inner consciousness not only camel-fish or gazelle-fish, but fifty other equally striking creations. Rondelet, in a book published in the year 1554, gives sufficiently strange illustrations of sea-bishops and sea-monks; and another mediæval writer, Francisci Boussetti, represents in all good faith other forms equally bizarre; but the greatest storehouse by far, so far as our own experience of these old authors goes, is to be found in the "Historia Monstrorum" of Aldrovandus, a book most copiously illustrated, and full of the most extraordinary conglomerations of diverse creatures, or of wild imaginings that find no counterpart in any way in Nature at all. Of these we need give but one example, the very peculiar biped here represented.

Most of us, even the veriest landsmen, must have heard of "Davy Jones's Locker," though few could give it a "local habitation" as well as "a name." Almost all superstitious people--and certainly sailors as a body may be classed as such--have a great objection to telling their beliefs to those whom they think will not receive their communications in a sympathetic spirit; hence it is often exceedingly difficult in most cases to arrive at all at a satisfactory conclusion, as, even after an explanation has been given, we find that what we were told was a mere putting off of the matter at issue, and their real belief has all the time been concealed from us. The following explanation of the seaman's phrase we give for what it is worth, which in our humble opinion is not much. We are told that Jones is a corruption of Jonah the prophet, while _deva_ or _duffa_ amongst the natives of the West India islands is a spirit or ghost. The sailor's locker, we are all aware, is the one place on board where his private possessions are more or less safe, so that when we hear of an unfortunate having gone to Davy Jones's Locker, we may conclude that he is believed to have gone to some far-down place of safe-keeping in the Spirit-world, as Jonah, by inference, did. It is, however, a decidedly weak point in this explanation that Jonah, whatever may have been his experiences in the depths of the sea, soon exchanged his temporary "locker" for dry land again, and was no doubt ultimately gathered to his fathers in the bosom of mother-earth. Smollett, in his "Peregrine Pickle," ignores all reference to the faithless prophet, and, without seeking out the why or the wherefore of the name, goes, we think, very much more directly to the point when he writes--"This same Davy Jones, according to the mythology of sailors, is the fiend that presides over all the evil spirits of the deep, and is seen in various shapes, warning the devoted wretch of death and woe." Like the Irish Church and many other venerable institutions, Davy is now probably disestablished, or shelved like some fine old admiral on the half-pay list, though it would be interesting to hear the opinion of some navy chaplain on the point, as these old superstitions die very hardly, and at times rather clash with more orthodox theology.

The widespread worship of the serpent is a subject of the greatest interest, though it would take us far away from our present subject if we dwelt at length upon it. The place held by the serpent in ancient mythologies has, however, caused the creature to pass far from the region of commonplace zoological fact into the realm of myth.

One old belief more precise than nice was that the serpent first vomits forth its venom before drinking, in order that it may not poison itself by swallowing it; while another curious belief was, that sleeping children whose ears were licked by serpents thereby received the gift of foretelling future events. Cassandra was said thus, amongst other less famous personages more or less believed in by the ancients, to have received the gift of prophecy.

In Squier's "Serpent Worship in America" many legends are given that admirably illustrate the feelings of the North American aborigines, the Peruvians, Mexicans, and other dwellers on that continent with regard to the great serpent that typifies to them, as to so many other races, the great Evil Power.

One of these, an Ojibiway legend, we must venture on quoting, for, somewhat lengthy as it is, it supplies an excellent illustration of this belief in the malign power of the serpent, and incidentally gives an echo of the widespread belief in a deluge, a belief extending from the legends of the Far West to those of distant China.

The Indian legend runs as follows:--"One day, on returning to his lodge in the wilderness after a long journey, Manabazho, the great teacher, missed from it his young cousin: he called his name aloud, but received no answer. He looked around on the sand for the tracks of his feet, and he there for the first time discovered the trail of Meshekenabek, the Great Serpent. He then knew that his cousin had been seized by his great enemy. He armed himself and followed on his track: he passed the great river and crossed mountains and valleys to the shores of the deep and gloomy lake, now called Manitou Lake, Spirit Lake, or the Lake of Devils. The trail of Meshekenabek led to the edge of the water. At the bottom of this lake was the dwelling of the serpent, and it was filled with evil spirits, his attendants and companions. Their forms were monstrous and terrible, but most, like their master, bore the semblance of serpents. In the centre of this horrible assemblage was Meshekenabek himself, coiling his voluminous folds round the cousin of Manabazho. His head was red as with blood, and his eyes were fierce and glowed like fire: his body was all over armed with hard and glistening scales of every shade and colour. Manabazho looked down upon the writhing spirits of evil, and he vowed deep revenge. He directed the clouds to disappear from the heavens, the winds to be still, and the air to become stagnant over the lake of the Manitous, and bade the sun shine on it with all its fierceness; for thus he sought to drive his enemy forth to seek the cool shadows of the trees that grew upon its banks, so that he might be able to take vengeance upon him.

"Meanwhile Manabazho seized his bow and arrows, and placed himself near the spot where he deemed the serpents would come to enjoy the shade; he then transformed himself into the stump of a withered tree, that his enemies might not discover his presence. The winds became still, the air stagnant, the sun shone hot upon the lake of the evil Manitous. By-and-by the waters became troubled, and bubbles rose to the surface, for the rays of the hot sun penetrated to the horrible brood within its depths. The commotion increased, and a serpent lifted up its head high above the centre of the lake and gazed around the shores. Directly another came to the surface, and they listened for the footsteps of Manabazho; but they heard him nowhere on the face of the earth, and they said one to another, 'Manabazho sleeps,' and then they plunged again beneath the waters, which seemed to hiss as they closed over them. It was not long before the Lake of Manitous became more troubled than before; it boiled from its very depths, and the hot waves dashed wildly against the rocks on its shores. The commotion increased, and soon Meshekenabek, the Great Serpent, emerged slowly to the surface and moved toward the shore. His blood-red crest glowed with a deeper hue, and the reflection from his glancing scales was like the blinding glitter of a snow-covered forest beneath the morning sun of winter. He was followed by all the evil spirits, so great a number that they covered the shores of the lake with their foul and trailing carcases. They saw the broken, blasted stump into which Manabazho had transformed himself, and suspecting it might be one of his disguises, one of them approached and wound his tail around it, and sought to drag it down, but Manabazho stood firm, though he could hardly refrain from crying aloud.

"The Great Serpent wound his vast folds among the trees of the forest, and the rest also sought the shade, while one was left to listen for the steps of Manabazho. When they all slept Manabazho drew an arrow from his quiver; he placed it in his bow, and aimed it where he saw the heart beat against the sides of the Great Serpent. He launched it, and with a howl that shook the mountains and startled the wild beasts in their caves, the monster awoke, and, followed by its frightened companions, uttering mingled sounds of rage and terror, plunged again into the lake. When the Great Serpent knew that he was mortally wounded, both he and the evil spirits around him were rendered tenfold more terrible by their great wrath, and they arose to overwhelm Manabazho. The water of the lake swelled upwards from its dark depths, and with a sound like many thunders it rolled madly on his track, bearing the rocks and trees before it with resistless fury. High on the crest of the foremost wave, black as the midnight, rode the writhing form of the wounded Meshekenabek, and red eyes glared around him, and the hot breaths of the monstrous brood hissed fiercely after the retreating Manabazho. Then thought Manabazho of his Indian children, and he ran by their villages, and in a voice of alarm bade them flee to the mountains, for the Great Serpent was deluging the earth in his expiring wrath, sparing no living thing. The Indians caught up their children, and wildly sought safety where he bade them.

"Manabazho continued his flight along the base of the western hills, and finally took refuge on a high mountain beyond Lake Superior, far to the North. There he found many men and animals who had fled from the flood that already covered the valleys and plains, and even the highest hills. Still the waters continued to rise, and soon all the mountains were overwhelmed, save that on which stood Manabazho. Then he gathered together timber and made a raft, upon which the men and women and the animals that were with him all placed themselves. No sooner had they done so than the rising floods closed over the mountain, and they floated alone on the surface of the waters. And thus they floated many days; and some died, and the rest became sorrowful, and reproached Manabazho that he did not disperse the waters and renew the earth, that they might live. But though he knew that his great enemy was by this time dead, yet could he not renew the world unless he had some earth in his hands wherewith to commence the work. This he explained to those who were with him, and he said that were it ever so little, even a few grains, then could he disperse the waters and renew the world.

"The beaver then volunteered to go to the bottom of the deep and get some earth, and they all applauded her design. She plunged in, and they waited long: when she returned she was dead; they opened her hands, but there was no earth in them. 'Then,' said the otter, 'will I seek the earth,' and the bold swimmer dived from the raft. The otter was gone still longer than the beaver, but when he returned to the surface he too was dead, and there was no earth in his claws.

"'Who shall find the earth?' exclaimed all those on the raft, 'now that the beaver and the otter are dead?' 'That will I,' said the musk-rat, and he quickly disappeared between the logs of the raft. The musk-rat was gone very much longer than the otter, and it was thought that he would never return, when he suddenly rose close by, but he was too weak to speak, and he swam slowly towards the raft. He had hardly got upon it when he too died from his great exertion. They opened his little hands, and there, closely clasped between the fingers, they found a few grains of fresh earth. These Manabazho carefully collected and dried in the sun, and then he rubbed them into fine powder in his palms, and rising up he blew them abroad upon the waters. No sooner was this done than the flood began to subside, and soon the trees on the mountains were seen, and then the mountains and hills emerged from the deep, and the plains and the valleys came into view, and the waters disappeared from the land. Then it was found that the Great Serpent, Meshekenabek, was dead, and that the evil Manitous, his companions, had returned to the depths of the Lake of Spirits, from which, for the fear of Manabazho, they never more dared to come forth. In gratitude to the beaver, the otter, and the musk-rat, these animals were ever after held sacred by the Indians, and they became their brethren; and they were never killed nor molested until the medicine-men of the stranger made them forget their relations and turned their hearts to ingratitude."

As we propose to deal, in conclusion, with some few examples of the fabledom that has grown around various plants, we may fitly usher in this new section of our subject with some little account of the old belief that the barnacle-shells of our shores, or, as some writers held, a tree called the barnacle-tree, developed into Solan-geese,[34] as the transition from the mythical animal kingdom to the fabulous vegetable kingdom will thus be rendered less abrupt.

[34] "From the most refined of saints As naturally grow miscreants, As barnacles turn Solan-geese In the islands of the Orcades." --_Hudibras._

This barnacle-goose tree was a great article of faith with our ancestors in the Middle Ages. Gerarde, for example, in his History of Plants gives an illustration of it in all good faith--a branch bearing barnacles and by its side a barnacle goose. Following, however, the plan we have adopted throughout of going directly to the fountain-head, Gerarde shall give us his own description of this wonder of Nature. We may, however, point out before doing so that the error arose from a near resemblance of two distinct words suggesting that there must be an identity of nature in the things so named. A common kind of shell was in the Middle Ages called pernacula, while the Solan-goose, in France called the barnache, was the bernacula. Both words being popularly corrupted into barnacle, it was natural that the two things should be considered as identical. Gerarde saves this crowning wonder until the end of his book, and then discourses as follows concerning it:--"Hauing trauelled from the grasses growing in the bottom of the fenny waters, the woods, and mountaines, euen vnto Libanus it selfe; and also the sea, and bowels of the same, wee are arriued at the end of our Historie: 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 historie whereof to set forth according to the worthinesse and raritie thereof would not only require a large and peculiar volume, but also a deeper search into the bowels of nature than mine intended purpose wil suffer me to wade into, my sufficience also considered; leauing the historie thereof rough hewen 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 Island adiacient, called Orchades, certain trees whereon do grow certaine shells of a white colour tending to russet, wherein are contained little liuing creatures, which shells in time of maturitie do open, and out of them do grow those little liuing things, which falling in the water do become fowles, which we call Barnakles; in the North of England trant geese, and in Lancashire tree geese; but the other that do fall vpon 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 have seene and hands haue touched we shall declare. There is a small Island in Lancashire called the pile of Foulders, wherein are found the broken pieces of old and bruised ships, some whereof have 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 certain spume or froth that in time breedeth vnto certain shels in shape like those of the Muskle, but sharper pointed and of a whitish colour, wherein is contained a thing in forme like a lace of silke finely wouen as it were together, one end thereof is fastened vnto the belly of a rude masse or lumpe, which in time commeth to the shape and forme of a Birde. When it is perfectly formed the shell 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 shell by degrees til at length it is all come forth and hangeth onely by the bill; in short space after it commeth to full maturitie and falleth into the sea, where it gathereth 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 aforesaid and all those parts adjoining do so much abound thereinth that one of the best is bought for three pence. For the truth hereof, if any doubt, may it please them to repaire unto me, and I shall satisfie them by the testimonie of good witnesses.

"Moreover it would seeme that there is another sort hereof; the historie of which is true and of mine owne knowledge: for trauelling vpon the shore of our English coast betweene Douer and Rumney, I found the trunke of an olde rotten tree, which (with some helpe that I procured by fishermen's wives that were there attending their husbands returne from the sea) we drew out of the water upon dry land: vpon this rotten tree I found growing many thousands of long crimson bladders, in shape like vnto puddings newly filled, which were very clear and shining: at the nether end whereof did grow a shell fish fashioned somewhat like a small Muskle, but much whiter, resembling a shell fish that groweth vpon the rokes about Garnsey and Garsey, called a lympit. Many of these shells I brought with me to London, which after I had opened I found in them liuing things without form or shape: in others which were nearer come to ripeness I found liuing things that were very naked, shaped like a bird: in others the birds couered with soft downe, the shell halfe open and the bird ready to fall out, which no doubt were the fowles called Barnakles. I dare not absolutely avouch euery circumstance of the first part of this history concerning the tree that beareth those buds aforesaid, but will leave it to a further consideration, howbeit that which I have seen with mine eyes and handled with mine hands, I dare confidently avouch and boldly put down for veritie.

"They spawn as it were in March and Aprille: the geese are formed in May and June and come to fulnesse of feathers in the moneth after.

"And thus hauing through God's assistance discoursed somewhat at large of Grasses, Herbes, Shrubs, Trees, and Mosses, and certain Excrescences of the earth, with other things more incident to the historie thereof, we conclude and end our present volume with this wonder of England. For the which God's name be ever honored and praised."

We extract the foregoing from the first edition of "Gerarde's Historie of Plants," published in 1597. After his death Thomas Johnson, "Citizen and Apothecarie of London," brought out another edition in 1633, and he adds the following note to Gerarde's statement:--"The Barnakle, whose fabulous breed my Author here sets downe, and diuers others haue also delieured, were found by some Hollanders to haue another originall, and that by egges, as other birds haue; for they in their third voyage to finde out the North-East passage to China and the Moluccos about the eightieth degree and eleven minutes of Northerly latitude, found two little islands, in the one of which they found abundance of these geese sitting upon their egges, of which they got one goose and tooke away sixty egges."

Parkinson, in his "Theater of Plants," published in 1640, gives a picture of a barnacle-tree growing by the sea-shore, and several geese swimming beneath it, at the end of the description of the 14th tribe of plants, "Marsh Water, and Sea Plants, with Mosses and Mushromes."

Though the insertion of the woodcut, as our readers will see, would give one at a casual glance the impression that he was a believer, his comments are sufficiently indicative of his state of mind:--"To finish this treatise of sea plants let me bring this admirable tale of untruth to your consideration, that whatever hath formerly beene related concerning the breeding of these Barnakles to be from shels growing on trees, &c., is utterly erroneous, their breeding and hatching being found out by the Dutch and others in their navigations to the Northward, as that third of the Dutch in Anno 1536 doth declare." As Gerarde's book was published after the Dutch narrative, we can only conclude that he either had not seen it or that he is one more illustration of the old saying that "A man convinced against his will, remains the same opinion still."

In Munster's Cosmography, a book which was several times reprinted between 1550 and 1570, we find an illustration of the wonderful goose-yielding tree, which we here reproduce in facsimile. Munster discourses as follows on the matter:--"In Scotland are found trees, the fruit of which appears like a ball of leaves. This fruit, falling at its proper time into the water below, becomes animated and turns to a bird which they call the tree-goose. This tree also grows in the island of Pomona, not far distant from Scotland towards the north." Saxo Grammaticus, another old cosmographer, also mentions this tree. Æneas Sylvius notices it too; he says--"We have heard that there was a tree formerly in Scotland, which growing by the margin of a stream produced fruit of the shape of ducks; that such fruit, when nearly ripe, fell, some into the water and some on land. Such as fell on land decayed, but such as fell into the water quickly became animated, swimming below, and then flying into the air with feathers and wings. When in Scotland, having made diligent enquiry concerning this matter of King James, we found that the miracle always kept receding, as this wonderful tree is not found in Scotland but in the Orcadian isles." Æneas Sylvius, afterwards better known to the world as Pope Pius II., visited Scotland in the year 1448. His book is in the Latin tongue. William Turner, one of the earliest writers on Ornithology, describes the Bernacle goose as being produced from "something like a fungus growing from old wood lying in the sea." He quotes Giraldus Cambrensis as his authority for the statement, but says he, "As it seemed not safe to popular report, and as, on account of the singularity of the thing, I could not give entire credit to Giraldus, I, when thinking of the subject of which I now write, asked a certain clergyman, named Octavianus, 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 what Giraldus had written about the generation of this bird was most true; that he had himself seen and handled the young unformed birds, and that if I should remain in London a month or two he would bring me some of the brood." In Lobel and Pena's "Stirpium Adversaria Nova," published in London in 1570, there is a figure of the "Britannica Concha Anatifera" growing on a stem from a rock, while beneath, in the water, ducks are swimming about. In his description the writer refers to the accepted belief in such a bird, but declines expressing an opinion of his own until he shall have had an opportunity of visiting Scotland and judging for himself. Ferrer de Valcebro, a Spanish writer who wrote a book on birds in 1680, tells the story of the production from a tree of a bird he calls the Barliata, and lectures his countrymen soundly at their want of belief, and more than insinuates that it is not really so much a want of faith as a contemptible jealousy because the wonder is not found on Spanish soil.

A still more wonderful tree must be the Kalpa-Tarou mentioned in the Hindu mythology, since from this can be gathered not only Solan-geese, but what else may be desired. Whether so multitudinous an array of articles as may be included in the idea of whatever any one and every one, no matter how diverse their tastes may be, could desire, all hung exposed to the view, like the varied display on a Christmas-tree, or whether they sprang into existence as called for, we are unable to say. In either case the tree would be a most valuable possession; the housewife would no longer have to wait for the plums or raspberries to ripen for jam-making, but could at once, even in midwinter, replenish her waning stores with an abundant supply all ready-made; while the connoisseur of choice old etchings, the collectors of rare coins, or the schoolboy earnestly desiring a six-bladed knife could all equally go away with their varied requirements met. The tree is also called the tree of the imagination; and it might, we fear, be equally called the imaginary tree, as all the resources of science are strained in vain to tell us anything more definite about it.

Mohammed tells us in the Koran that a Lote-tree stands in the seventh heaven on the right hand of the throne of Allah, an idea derived, no doubt, from that Tree of Life that bloomed a while in earthly Eden, and that shall be found again in the celestial Paradise of God. The mystical tree that passes out of sight in the earliest chapters of the Bible as the woe descends upon mankind, and reappears at its close, is the welcome symbol that the weary ages of sin and sorrow are at an end for ever, that all tears shall be wiped from off all faces, that there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying: for all the bitter past is over, and the former things are now for ever passed away.

The sacred tree of the Assyrians, so often seen in the sculptures from Nineveh and Kyonjik, the idolatrous groves of the Israelites, the Hindu tree worship, all point to a most interesting symbolism that would be out of place in our present pages, but that will afford matter of the deepest interest to those who care to work the subject out.

Our readers will no doubt remember the reference in Homer's Odyssey to the Lotophagi, the people who eat of the lotus-tree, and in so doing forgot their friends and homes in their far-off land, losing all desire to return to their native shores, and caring for nought but to rest in ease in the benumbing pleasures of Lotus-land.

The immortal Amaranth, "a flower which once in Paradise, fast by the tree of life, began to bloom, but soon for man's offence to Heaven removed," must not be omitted from our pages. Clement of Alexandria refers to it as the _Amarantus flos, symbolum immortalitatis_, and it was thus received for centuries. The name is from the Greek word for immortal, and was bestowed upon it from its never-withering flowers of ruby red. Felicia Hemans, amongst others, refers to it in her fine poem on "Elysium:"--

"Fair wert thou, in the dreams Of elder time, thou land of glorious flowers, And summer winds, and low-toned silvery streams Dim with the shadows of thy laurel bowers! Where, as they passed, bright hours Left no faint sense of parting, such as clings To earthly love, and joy in loveliest things."

We could not forbear quoting the opening lines, but the reference we seek occurs a few verses farther on, in allusion to those--

"Who, called and severed from the countless dead, Amidst the shadowy Amaranth-bowers might dwell And listen to the swell Of those majestic hymn notes, and inhale The spirit wandering in th' immortal gale."

The passage in our New Testament translated "A crown of glory that fadeth not away" is in the original Greek "The amaranthine crown of glory." Milton is frequently found to use the word; it occurs several times in the "Paradise Lost." The following fine passage from the third book of that poem will sufficiently well illustrate his application of it--

"The multitude of angels, with a shout Loud as from numbers without number, sweet As from blest voices, uttering joy. Heaven rang With jubilee, and loud hosannas filled The eternal regions. Lowly reverent Towards either throne they bow, and to the ground With solemn adoration, down they cast Their crowns inwove with amaranth and gold-- Immortal amaranth."

This plant Milton represents as "shading the fount of life," and with its blood-red flowers--

"With these, that never fade, the spirits elect Bind their resplendent locks."

The Egyptians wreathed their dead in chaplets of the sacred lotus to prepare their spirits for entrance into the presence of the great Osiris. Several other plants, however, were also employed, but whether their employment was symbolic or not we have no means of ascertaining.

Amongst the various vegetable curiosities and treasures,--seeds, gums, wood-sections, and the like--preserved in the large Museum at Kew, will be found--though thousands tramp by them unknowingly--what we may almost venture to call some of the most wonderful things in the world. They are but chaplets, wreaths, and garlands of dried leaves and flowers, until presently we realise that we are gazing on memorials of the dead that were buried with them more than a thousand years before the Christian era. The imagination is then awed as our thoughts attempt to bridge over the interval of two thousand years between these present days and that far-off morning in the childhood of the world when the beautiful fresh flowers of the blue lotus of the Nile were placed in the coffin of Rameses II. Almost all the history of the world has been made since those fragile emblems of passing beauty were laid in the tomb. Empires and monarchies have risen, flourished, and decayed in the interval, and yet this very day, within a mile of where we write these lines, remain, with all their solemn teaching, these wreaths of flowers gathered in the sunshine of old Egypt twenty centuries ago.

"The past is but a gorgeous dream, And time glides by us like a stream, While musing on thy story, And sorrow prompts a deep alas! That like a pageant thus should pass To wreck all human glory."

Changeless in the midst of mighty changes, these delicate petals are far more wonderful even than the great monuments of Egypt, its pyramids, temples, and obelisks, wonderful as these are, for on those Time has worked with its corroding tooth, while on these it has had but little power. Changeless, again, in all their pristine and God-given beauty, while all the fashions of earth have passed through their kaleidoscope changes, "to one thing constant never," these beautiful lilies of the Nile yet expand their petals every year at Kew within a short distance of these dried flowers of the same species that sprang into existence in the far-off river of Egypt in the dim centuries of the mighty past.[35]

[35] Appendix S.

The Asphodel, referred to by Homer and many later poets, was a plant having edible roots that were laid in the tombs of the dead to nourish the departed spirit in its wanderings in the dim world of shadows. Lucian has a very good illustrative passage that we may here quote. The words are put into the mouth of Charon, and are as follows:--"Down here with us there is nothing to be had but asphodel, and libations and oblations, and that in the midst of mist and darkness; but up in heaven it is all bright and clear, and plenty of ambrosia there, and nectar without stint." The plant referred to by the classic poets was supposed to be the narcissus, but in mediæval days the wild daffodil was intended, at least by the poets, while the herbalists were all at sea in the matter, and applied the name to several different plants.

Gerarde, in his "Historie of Plants," refers to Galen as an authority, quoting from his "Faculties of Nourishments" in defence of the plant he selects, but does not seem to have heard of the old belief in its forming a food for the immortals, and can indeed give it no higher effect in staying the ravages of time and decay than that "the ashes of this Bulbe mixed with oile and hens grease cureth the falling of the haire." Parkinson, in his "Theatrum Botanicum," brings the plant down to a still lower level, and not only sees no poetry in it, but rather more than hints at a fraud, for he says--"The countrey people know no other name thereof or propertie appropriate unto it but knavery, which, whether they named it so in knavery, or knew any use of knavery in it, I neither can learn nor am much inquisitive thereafter."

We may here remark parenthetically that the old herbals are full of the most delightfully quaint reading, and are often freely illustrated with pictures at least as curious, the frontispieces especially being of the most elaborate and allegorical nature. The "Rariorum Plantarum Historia" of Clusius is now before us as we write, and we learn from its title-page that it was published at Antwerp in the year 1601. We have Adam on one side, in the simplicity of costume of Eden's earliest days, and on the other Solomon, with crown and royal robes and sceptre, bearing in his hands a book. Adam is claimed by the mediæval herbalists as not only a tiller of the ground, but also as a student of botanical science, while Solomon, we all remember, wrote a treatise that dealt with plants, from the lordly cedar to the lowly hyssop of the wall. Above Adam, in a pot, is a Turk's-cap lily, and by his side is the fritillary, while Solomon has associated with him the cyclamen and the crown imperial. The illustrations in the body of the book are very numerous and quaint, and, though the book, it will be remembered, is a history of rare plants, include such common things as the marsh marigold, the bindweed, and the yellow loosestrife. Clusius, or Charles d'Ecluse, to give him his true name, was a Dutch botanist, born 1526, died 1609. He was for some time the director of the Botanical Garden at Vienna, and afterwards the Professor of Botany at Leyden University, where he died.

The Herbal published by Matthiolus at Venice in the year 1633 is a particularly fine book. The illustrations are very large, very numerous, and very good. Another interesting book to see is that of Dodoens, translated by Henry Lyte, "Armigeri, Somersetensis, Angli." The title-page of our copy of the work runs as follows:--"A Nievve Herball, or Historie of Plantes: vvherein is contayned the vvhole discourse and perfect description of all sortes of Herbes and Plantes: their diuers and sundry kindes: their straunge Figures, Fashions, and Shapes: their Names, Natures, Operations, and Vertues: and that not onely of those whiche are here growyng in this our Countrie of Englande but of all others also of forrayne Realmes commonly vsed in Physicke. First set foorth in the Doutche or Almaigne tongue, by that learned D. Rembert Dodoens, Physition to the Emperour, and nowe first translated out of French into English, by Henry Lyte, Esquyer. At London by me Gerard Dewes, dwelling in Pawles Churchyarde at the signe of the Swanne, 1578."

Still earlier in time is "The Vertuose Boke of Distyllacyon of the waters of all maner of Herbes, first compyled by Jherom Bruynswyke, and now newly translated out of Duyche, by Lawrence Andrew," the edition before us being published in London in the year 1527.

In 1551 we find the first appearance of Turner's Herbal, a book that was for a long time a standard authority. It is divided into three sections--

(1.) "A New Herball, wherein are conteyned the names of Herbes in Greke, Latin, Englysh, Duch, Frenche, and in the Potecaries and Herbaries Latin, with the properties, degrees, and naturall places of the same, gathered and made by Wylliam Turner, Physicion unto the Duke of Somersettes Grace, imprinted at London, by Steven Mierdman, Anno 1551.

(2.) A Book of the natures and properties as well as of the bathes of England as of other bathes in Germany and Italy, etc., by William Turner, Doctor of Physik, imprinted at Collen, by Arnold Birckman, in the year of our Lorde, MDLXII.

(3.) A most excellent and perfecte homish apothecarye, etc., translated out of the Almaine Speche into English, by John Hollybush, imprinted at Collen by Arnold Birckman, MDLXI."

The latter part of this "homely physick booke for all the grefes and diseases of the bodye" was really the work, so far at least as translation went, of Miles Coverdale, the notable divine and translator of the Bible, Hollybush being merely a pseudonym.

The only other quaint old tome that we need here refer to, though, of course, it must be clearly understood that we have named but a few of the delightful old books on plant-lore that have come down to us, is the somewhat specialised work of Newton. Its title is as follows:--

"An Herbal for the Bible, containing a plaine and familiar exposition of such Similitudes, Parables, and Metaphors, both in the Olde Testament and the Newe, as are borrowed and taken from Herbs, Plants, Trees, Fruits, and Simples, by observation of their vertues, qualities, natures, properties, operations and effects: and by the Holie Prophets, Sacred Writers, Christ Himselfe, and His blessed Apostles usually alledged, and into their heauenly Oracles, for the better beautifieng and plainer opening of the same, profitably inserted. Drawen into English by Thomas Newton, imprinted at London by Edmund Bollifant, 1587."

The Ambrosia often referred to by the old writers and by more modern poets was originally the food of the gods, nectar being the drink. It is in this sense referred to by Homer and Ovid, though afterwards the two ingredients of the Olympian bill of fare became a good deal confused together; thus in the beautiful fable of Cupid and Psyche, in the "Golden Ass" of Apuleius, we find Jupiter conferred on Psyche the gift of immortality by giving her a cup of ambrosia to drink. The term was also sometimes used as descriptive of anything delicious to the taste, fragrant in perfume, or welcome to the eye, from the idea that whatever was used by the immortals, associated with them as an attribute, or that would be grateful in any way to them must be surpassingly excellent. Thus we read in the Iliad of the "ambrosial curls" of Zeus, a somewhat extreme case of departure from the ordinarily limited sense in which the word was most commonly used.[36] As the word ambrosia means literally "not mortal," it could evidently in this more extended sense be applied by Homer with perfect propriety to the curls or aught else that pertained to the ruler of Olympus.

[36] "He spoke, and awful bends his sable brows, Shakes his ambrosial curls, and gives the nod, The stamp of fate and sanction of the god: High heaven with trembling the dread signal took, And all Olympus to the centre shook." --_Iliad_, Book I. lines 683-87.

In the South Kensington Museum may be seen a picture by Francis Danby, bearing the title of "The Upas-tree of the Island of Java." The whole picture is exceedingly dark, but one can just discern in the centre of it the form of a tree, and around this are human bodies and skeletons. The myth of the upas has been created on the very smallest data, and furnishes a striking example of how great a structure of error, not to say gross and wilful exaggeration, can be reared on a basis of truth. The neighbourhood of the tree is unhealthy, not on account of anything in the tree itself, but because it grows in the hot and humid valleys of Java, rank with malaria and fever. A Dutch physician, named Foersch, published in 1783 a narrative of his visit to the island, and amongst his wild statements we find that where the upas grows "not a tree or blade of grass is to be found in the valley or the surrounding mountains, not a bird, beast, reptile, or living thing lives in its neighbourhood." He adds that "on one occasion 1600 refugees encamped within fourteen miles of it, and all but 300 died within two months:" this might easily arise from the malarial vapours, but his picture of the tree standing in the midst of the desolation it had itself created is utterly at variance with the facts. So entirely do the actual facts belie the legend that nothing prospers in its neighbourhood, it is found in the midst of the rich vegetation of the tropics, while the birds perch in its ample branches, and the wild beasts prowl beneath them. So far is it from being the case, to quote one of our own poets, that "Fierce in dead silence on the blasted heath fell upas sits, the hydra tree of death,"--the last relic of the marvellous is gone, when we recall the fact that thousands of holiday-makers have passed harmlessly through the hothouses at Kew, where a specimen of the plant may be seen, and that the refugees from London more or less permanently encamped within a mile or two of it have so far escaped damage from its proximity. The Upas belongs to the same family as the invaluable bread-fruit and cow-tree, but, instead of possessing their beneficent properties, yields, when wounded, a thick milky fluid of a very poisonous nature, and which is employed by the natives on their arrows and spear-heads with deadly effect.

The first published account of the Upas-tree will be found in De Brys "India Orientalis," but the scanty particulars of the earlier author become considerably amplified in Sir Thomas Herbert's book of travels, published in London in the year 1634, and entitled "Relations of some yeares Travaile." A little later on, in 1688, we find the tree again referred to in the "Description historique du Royaume de Macaçar" of Father Gervaise. The author, who had really resided in Macassar for several years, affirms that the mere touch or smell of some of the poisons produced by the natives is sufficient to produce death, and one of the most deadly of these was said by him to be produced from the sap of the Upas. He tells us that arrows dipped in this juice were as fatal in their effects twenty years afterwards as at their first preparation. In Koempfer's book, published in the year 1712, we have the plant again described; a large mixture of fable is at once apparent, but much of this he gives on the authority of the natives, and he takes occasion to express his strong doubts of their veracity. According to him, or them, the collection of the sap is attended with imminent peril, for not only must the seeker after the tree penetrate far into places infested with wild beasts, but he must, when he has found the object of his search, be careful to pierce it on the side from whence the wind blows, or he would quickly be suffocated by the noxious effluvia given forth when the tree is wounded.

"Lo! from one root, the envenomed soil below, A thousand vegetative serpents grow; In shining rays the scaly monster spreads O'er ten square leagues his far-diverging heads; Or in one trunk entwists his tangled form, Looks o'er the clouds and hisses in the storm. Steeped in fell poison, as his sharp teeth part, A thousand tongues in quick vibration dart; Snatch the proud eagle towering o'er the heath, Or pounce the lion, as he stalks beneath; Or strew, as marshall'd hosts contend in vain, With human skeletons the whitened plain."

Apart from the evil influence exerted on Europeans by climatic and miasmatic drawbacks, the mountain of mystery that has been reared around the dread name of Upas has but little foundation in fact. Its juice is very plentifully yielded, and is of a virulently poisonous character, and even its smell is injurious. In clearing ground near the Upas the natives dread to approach it on this account; but unless the trunk is severely wounded or the tree felled the injurious effects are in the imagination only, and the tree may be approached or ascended with impunity. The Upas is one of the largest of the forest trees of Java, and it is surrounded as other trees are with the usual sturdy vegetation of the tropical wilderness.

The Rev. Dr. Parker, a well-known missionary in Madagascar, gives a description of two trees that recall in their detail much that has hitherto in an especial degree been ascribed to the Upas. In both these species the leaf is spear-head shaped, dark green in colour, very glossy in surface, and very hard and brittle to the touch, and both exude a thick milky juice, while the fruit is like a long black pod, the end being red. One species is a tree with large leaves and a somewhat peculiar stem, as the bark hangs down in long flakes and shows a fresh growth of bark forming beneath and preparing to take the place of the old bark as it falls. The other species is a shrub, with smaller leaves, and the bark not peeling off the stem. Both species are said to possess the power of poisoning any living creatures that approach them, the symptoms of poisoning being severe headache, bloodshot eyes, and a delirium that is presently hushed in death. These trees are natives of Zululand, and only a few persons are believed to have the power of collecting the fruits of the Umdhlebi, and these dare not approach the tree except from the windward side. They also sacrifice a goat or sheep to the demon of the tree. The fruit is collected for the purpose of being used as an antidote to the poisonous effects of the tree from whence they fall, for only the fallen fruit may be collected. As regards habitat, these trees grow on all kinds of soil, but the tree-like species prefers barren and rocky ground. In consequence of the fears of the natives the country around one of these trees is always uninhabited, although in other respects fertile and desirable.

In Persia, we are told, there is a plant, the Kerzereh flower, that loads the air with deathly odour, and that if a man inhales the hot south wind that passes over these flowers during June and July it kills him. Moore, in his Poem of "The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan," alludes to this belief in the lines--

"With her hands clasp'd, her lips apart and pale, The maid had stood, gazing upon the veil From whence these words, like south winds through a fence Of Kerzrah flowers, came filled with pestilence."

The Mandrake, a plant belonging to the same natural order as the deadly nightshade, henbane, and thorn-apple, had in the Middle Ages many mystic properties assigned to it. The roots are often forked, and when either by nature or art they could be supposed to roughly resemble a man it was looked upon as a talisman securing good fortune to its possessor. The belief in the narcotic and stupefying properties of the plant is referred to in Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra," in the lines--

"Give me to drink mandragora That I might sleep out this great gap of time My Antony is away"--

and again in "Othello"--

"Not poppy, not mandragora, Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep."

The victories of the Maid of Orleans over the English were ascribed to her possession of a mandrake root. Gerarde, writing in the year 1633, says that the root is long and thick, and divided into two or three parts; but as to its resemblance to a man, "it is no otherwise than in the roots of carrots, parsnips and such like forked or divided into two or more parts, which nature taketh no account of. There hath been many ridiculous tales brought up of this plant, whether of old wiues or some runnagate Surgeons or physicke-mongers I know not, but sure some one or more that sought to make themselves famous and skilful aboue others were the first broachers of that error. They adde further, that it is never or very seldome to be found growing naturally but under a gallows.[37] They fable further and affirme that he who would take vp a plant thereof must tie a dog there unto to pull it up, which will giue a great shreeke at the digging vp, otherwise if a man should do it he should surely die in short space after. All of which dreames and old wiues fables you shall from henceforth cast out from your books and memory, knowing this that they are all and euery part of them false and most untrue, for I my selfe and my seruants also have digged up, planted and replanted very many and yet could neuer perceiue shape of man. But the idle drones that have little or nothing to do but to eat and drink have bestowed some of their time in carving the roots of Brionie, which falsifying practice had confirmed the errour amongst the simple and unlearned people who haue taken them upon their report to be the true Mandrakes."[38] Parkinson in like manner, in his "Theater of Plants," published in 1640, writes, after describing the plant:--"Those idle forms of the mandrakes which have beene exposed to view publikely both in ours and other lands and countries are utterly deceitful, being the work of cuning knaves, onely to get money by their forgery: do not misdoubt of this relation no more than you would of any other plant set downe in this booke, for it is the plaine truth whereon everyone may relie." The cry of the mandrake is several times referred to by Shakespeare and others of our poets; thus in "Romeo and Juliet" we get the line--

"Shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth"--

and in the second part of "King Henry VI." Suffolk exclaims--

"Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake's groan."

[37] "It is supposed to be a creature having life, engendered under the earth of some dead person, put to death for murder."--Thomas Newton, "Herball to the Bible."

[38] "Like a man made after supper of a cheese paring; when he was naked he was for all the world like a forked radish, with a head fantastically carved upon it with a knife."--Second part of "King Henry IV.," Act iii. scene 2.

It was believed that a small dose of the mandrake made persons proud of their beauty, but that a larger quantity deprived them of their senses still more completely, and made them yet more effectually idiots.

Dr. Browne, in his gallant crusade against popular errors, says that the resemblance of the mandrake to the human form "is a conceit not to be made out by ordinary inspection, or any other eyes than such as regarding the clouds behold them in shapes conformable to pre-apprehension;" and as to the danger of gathering the plant, he justly holds it "a conceit not only injurious unto truth and confutable by daily experience, but somewhat derogatory to the providence of God: That is, not only to impose so destructive a quality on any plant, but conceive a vegetable whose parts are useful unto many should in the only taking up prove mortall unto any. To think he suffereth the poison of Nubia to be gathered, yet not this to be moved! That he permitteth arsenick and minerall poisons to be forced from the bowells of the earth, yet not this from the surface thereof! This were to introduce a second forbidden fruit and inhance the first malediction; making it not only mortal for Adam to taste the one, but capitall unto his posterity to eradicate the other."

The orthodox way of plucking up the mandrake was to stand to the windward of it and, after drawing three circles round it with a naked sword to dig it up with one's face looking to the west; the shrieks that would follow were in any case a trial to weak nerves, and at an earlier period were held to be fatal to the hearer. Philip de Thaun gives the following stratagem as the only available way of becoming the possessor of it:--"The man who is to gather it must fly round about it, must take great care that he does not touch it, then let him take a dog and let it be tied to it, which has been close shut up, and has fasted for three days, and let it be shewn bread and called from afar. The dog will draw it to him, the root will break, it will send forth a cry, and the dog will fall down dead at the cry which he will hear. Such vertue this herb has that no one can hear it but he must always die, and if the man heard it he would directly die. Therefore he must stop his ears, and take care that he hear not the cry lest he die, as the dog will do which shall hear it. When one has this root it is of great value for medicine, for it cures of every infirmity except only death, where there is no help." The office of the herbalist was no sinecure when such a task could be expected of him, as great care had to be exercised not to touch the plant. The tying-up of the dog to it must have been particularly risky, and the consequences of the dog making a premature rush for the bread before the man had time to stop his ears were especially alarming. The writings of De Thaun are full of interesting matter, but his great object was to see in nature figures and symbols of religious truths, hence his narratives have often a somewhat forced character. Thus he tells us that "in India there is a tree of which the fruit is so sweet that the doves of the earth go seeking it above all things, they eat the fruit of it, seat themselves in the tree, they are in repose as long as they are sheltered by it. There is a dragon in the earth which makes war on the birds; the dragon fears so much the tree, that on no acconnt dare it approach it or touch the shadow, but it goes round at a distance, and, if it can, does them injury. If the shadow is to the right then it goes to the left, if it is to the left the dragon goes to the right. The doves have so much understanding which are above in the tree when they see the dragon go all around, which goes watching them, but it does them no harm, nor will they ever have any harm as long as they are in the tree, but when they leave the tree and depart, and the dragon shall come then, it will kill them. This is a great meaning, have it in remembrance." This Indian tree stands not obscurely for the Saviour of the world, while the doves are His faithful ones sheltered in Him from the wiles of the Evil One. When we read story after story all equally _apropos_, we cannot help feeling that a pious fraud has now and then been indulged in, and the comely whole has been attained by a little judicious pruning in one direction, and a little forcing in another, and thus we lose faith in them, at least as examples of the current beliefs of our forefathers.

The Arabs call the mandrake the devil's candle, from a belief that the leaves give out at night a phosphorescent light; and Moore, with his usual felicity, has introduced the idea in his poem of the "Fire-Worshippers:"--

"How shall she dare to lift her head, Or meet those eyes, whose scorching glare Not Yeman's boldest sons can bear? In whose red beam, the Moslem tells, Such rank and deadly lustre dwells, As in those hellish fires that light The Mandrake's charnel leaves at night."

Another old name for the plant was the Enchanter's nightshade, though that very suggestive and rather awe-inspiring title has in these later days become somehow transferred to a very insignificant weed that is common enough in some old gardens and on waste ground, but which is all too small to bear so formidable a title.

The Hebrew word _Dudaim_ has, in Genesis and in the Song of Solomon, been translated in the Authorised English Version of the Bible as the mandrake, but this would appear to be nothing more than a guess, various commentators, Calmet, Hasselquist, and others who have written on the subject, not being by any means unanimous. Some tell us that the term is a general one for flowers, while others translate it as lilies, violets, or jessamine, or as figs, mushrooms, bananas, citrons, or melons. Whence we may fairly conclude that no one really knows, and that the whole matter resolves itself into a guess, fortified more or less by dogmatic assertion as a make-weight for the missing knowledge.

One of the most interesting of the old books on our shelves is the "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 several other Remarkable Things in the World, By R. B. Gent." The author's name thus modestly veiled is Burton, and the date of the book is 1678. In his preface he says--"I think there is not a chapter wherein thou wilt not find various and remarkable things worth thy observation," and this observation of his is strictly within the truth. He arranges his short chapters geographically, but in the most arbitrary way--not alphabetically, not according to the natural grouping together of the countries of which he treats, nor indeed according to any settled method. In fact, he is sufficiently conscious of this, for, to quote his preface again, he says--"'Tis probable they are _not_ so Methodically disposed as some hands might have done, yet for Variety and pleasure sake they are pleasingly enough intermixed." We open the book at random and find "Chap. XX., Castile in Spain; XXI., Norway; XXII., Zisca of Bohemia; XXIII., Assiria; XXIV., Quivira in California." Adopting his own random and haphazard way of going to work, we will pluck from his quaint pages some few of his botanical facts and fancies. His opening chapter deals with Egypt, and in his description of the palm-tree he refers to a very old belief that we may allow him to set forth in his own words:--"It is the nature of this tree though never so ponderous a weight were put upon it not to yield to the burthen, but still to resist the heaviness, and endeavour to raise itself the more upward. For this cause planted in Churchyards in the Eastern Countrys as an Emblem of the Resurrection." A little further on, in his description of Sumatra, we read of "a tree whose Western part is said to be rank poyson and the Eastern part an excellent preservative against it," and of "a sort of Fruit that whosoever eateth of it, is for the space of twelve hours out of his Wits." Travellers' tales have sometimes proverbially been difficult of belief, and it must have been some such as these that procured them their evil report, for we read too that in this same island "there is a river plentifully stored with Fish, whose Water is so hot that it scalds the skin," and that "the cocks have a hole in their backs, wherein the Hen lays her Eggs and hatches her young ones." A few pages further on we read of a tree in Peru, "the North part whereof looking towards the Mountains, brings forth its Fruits in the Summer only; the Southern part looking towards the Sea, fruitful only in Winter." Our old author evidently delights in sharp contrasts. It is curious, however, that the Coca-leaf, which has within the last few years been highly commended for those who have exhausting exercise, is in this book of over 200 years old fully referred to:--"The leaves whereof being dried and formed into 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 sovereign 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 Potosia only. Another plant they tell us of, though there is no name found for it, which if put into the hands of a sick person will instantly discover whether he be like to live or dye. For if on the pressing it in his hand he look merry and cheerful it is an assured sign of his recovery, as on the other side of Death, if sad and troubled." A few pages further on we find ourselves at Sodom and the Dead Sea:--"If but an Aple grow near it, it is by Nature such that it speaks the Anger of God: for without 'tis beautiful and Red, but within nothing but dusty Smoak and Cinders." This belief is a very ancient one. We find it, for instance, in the writings of Tacitus, and it has supplied moralists in all ages with an illustration. In "The Merchant of Venice," for instance, we find the lines--

"A goodly apple rotten at the heart. O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!"--

and again in "Childe Harold"--

"Like to the apples on the Dead Sea's shore, all ashes to the taste."

The apple has indeed entered largely into history and legend. According to some writers the forbidden fruit of Eden was a kind of apple, and the _pomum Adami_ in one's throat may be accepted as a record of the old belief. "The fruit of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste brought death into the world, and all our woe." Our readers, too, will recall the golden apple of discord that created strife alike on high Olympus and amongst the sons of men, and that led to the fall of Troy. On the other hand, we read of the apple of perpetual youth in Scandinavian mythology, the food of the gods; and in the "Arabian Nights" of the apples of Samarkand that would cure all diseases. The apples of Istkahar were all sweetness on one side, all bitterness on the other; while Sir John Mandeville tells us that the pigmies were fed with the odour alone of the apples of Pyban. Amidst this maze of fancy and legend it would perhaps be scarcely fair to even mention the more historic apple that fell at Woolsthorpe at the feet of Newton, and set his mind thinking on the problem of gravitation.[39]

[39] We remember some time ago an interesting article by Dr. Adolf Dux, entitled "La tombe du Savant" appearing in the "Pester Lloyd." The savant was Bolyai, professor of mathematics and physics at Maros-Vásárhely. No statue, no marble mausoleum with sides covered with laudatory inscriptions, marks the place where he lies, but the tomb, by its occupant's strict direction, is overshadowed by the boughs of an apple-tree--"En souvenir des trois pommes qui out joué un rôle si important dans l'histoire de l'humanité, et il désignait ainsi la pomme d'Ève, et celle de Pâris qui réduisirent la terre à l'esclavage, et la pomme de Newton, qui la replaça au rang des astres." Strangely enough, when Dr. Dux visited the tomb there hung on the tree just three apples--"ni plus ni moins."

At Crete our old author, Burton, finds a plant called Alimos, which it is only necessary to chew to take away all sense of hunger for a whole day; but this wonder pales before those of the flora of Nova Hispania, the country we now call Mexico. "Amongst the Rarities of Nova Hispania, though there be many Plants in it of Singuler Nature, is mentioned that which they call Eagney or Meto, said to be one of the principal: a Tree which they both Plant and Dress as we do our Vines; it hath on it 40 kinds of leaves, fit for several uses; for when they be tender they make of them Conserves, Paper, Flax, Mantles, Mats, Shoes, Girdles and Cordage, upon them they grow divers prickles so strong and sharp that the people use them instead of Staws." What Staws may be we cannot say, so we must be content to know that Meto thorns make a very efficient substitute, and are for all practical purposes as good as having the real thing. "From the top of the Tree cometh a Juice like Syrrup, which if you Seeth it will become Honey; if purified, Sugar; the Bark of it maketh a good plaister and from the highest of the Boughs comes a kind of Gum, a Soveraigne Antidote against poysons." The tree furnishes at once costume and confection, antidote and rope, and we can hardly wonder at the people of New Spain setting considerable store by it.

It would be curious to see the forms of the forty leaves; we can well imagine that a plant suggesting about equally by its foliage the rose, palm, bullrush, buttercup, cactus, horse-chestnut, and thirty-four other plants would give our botanists some little difficulty before it got definitely assigned its just place.

Brazil, like Mexico, is a very large place, and a very long way off, and two hundred years ago the Royal Mail Steam-Packet Company was a thing of the far future; there was therefore abundant room for play of the imagination; thus we read of a kind of corn "which is continually growing and always ripe; nor never wholly ripe, because always growing;" and of another plant that yields so sovereign a balm that "the very beasts being bitten by venomous Serpents resort to it for their cure." It is interesting, amongst the other strange wonders, animal and vegetable, that are duly set forth, to come across a plant that must be very familiar to most persons, the sensitive plant, the _Mimosa sensitiva_ of Brazil, though in his description of it our author cannot resist an added touch of the marvellous, imputing to it a power of observation that later writers would hesitate to confirm, for he says--"The herb Viva when roughly touched will close the leaves, and not open them again until the man that had offended it had got out of sight." We must not, however, devote more attention to "R. B. Gent," great as the temptation to do so may be, for his book is a perfect mine of the marvellous. Another curious old book to ponder over awhile is the English Dictionary of Henry Cockeram, as he certainly produces some extraordinary illustrations of unnatural history. The book was published in the year 1655, and did not profess to deal with scientific matters alone, but was, to use the author's own language, "an interpreter of hard English words, enabling as well ladies and gentlewomen, young scholars, clerks, merchants, as also strangers of any nation, to the understanding of the more difficult authors already printed in our language, and the more speedy attaining of an elegant perfection of the English tongue." Amongst these hard English words sadly needing an interpretation we will select but five as a sample of the whole:--"Achemedis, an herb which being cast into an army in time of battle causeth the soldiers to be in fear." This probably would be some kind of runner. "Anacramseros, an herb, the touch thereof causeth love to grow betwixt man and man." "Hippice, an herb borne in one's mouth, keeps one from hunger and thirst." "Ophyasta, an herb dangerous to look on, and being drunke it doth terrifie the inside with a sight of dreadful serpents, that condemned persons for fear thereof do kill themselves." "Gelotaphilois, an herb drunk with wine and myrrh, causeth much laughter."

Amidst the mist of error some few men declined to believe quite all that they were told, but exercised for themselves the right of individual judgment. The book we have just referred to was published, as we have seen, in the year 1655, and abounds in strange imaginings; yet five years before this we find a still better-known book, "the Pseudodoxia Epidemica, or Enquiries into very many Received Tenants and commonly Presumed Truths" of Dr. Browne. The list of commonly presumed truths he ventures to dispute is a very long one, and includes such items of faith as that a diamond is made soft if placed in the blood of a goat, that a pailful of ashes will contain as much water as it would without them, that the two legs on one side of a badger are shorter than the two on the other side, and so on. As he approaches the vegetable kingdom he prefaces his remarks as follows:--"We omit to recite the many vertues and endlesse faculties ascribed unto plants which sometimes occurre in grave and serious authors, and we shall make a bad transaction for Truth to concede a verity in half. Swarms of others there are, some whereof our future endeavours may discover; common reason I hope will save us a labour in many whose absurdities stand naked in every eye, errors not able to deceive the Emblem of Justice and need no Argus to descry them. Herein there surely wants expurgatory animadversions whereby we might strike out great numbers of hidden qualities, and having once a serious and conceded list we might with more encouragement and safety attempt their Reasons." On turning to the list of "vertues" in any old Herbal, we find, as Browne says, "endlesse faculties ascribed, and many of them of a character that woulde we should have imagined have been, during even the darkest ages, difficult or impossible of credence." Thus in Gerarde's herbal published in 1633, we find amongst our British plants one available "against the biting of the Sea-dragon," two more "a remedy against the poyson of the Sea-hare," one "against vaine imaginations," another "an especial remedy against the nightmare," and no less than thirty-eight preservatives "against the bitings of serpents." We will, however, confine ourselves to three illustrative instances of the way in which the author of these inquiries into various received beliefs proceeds to demolish them. He says, in the first place, that "many things are delivered and believed of plants wherein at least we cannot but suspend. That there is a property in Basil to propagate scorpions and that by the smell thereof they are bred in the brains of men is a belief much advanced by Hollerius, who found this insect in the brains of a man that delighted much in this smell. Wherein besides that we finde no way to conjoin the effect unto the cause assigned herein the moderns speak but timorously, and some of the Ancients quite contrarily. For according unto Oribasius, physitian unto Julian, the Africans, men best experienced in poisons, affirm whosoever hath eaten Basil although he be stung with a Scorpion shall feel no pain thereby; which is a very different effect, and rather antidotally destroying than promoting its production." Pliny and other ancient writers mention the old belief that the bay-tree, the tree of Apollo, was a preservative against thunder, or rather against lightning; hence Tiberius and some other of the Roman Emperors wore a wreath of bay as an amulet; and in an old English play we find the lines--

"Reach the bays, I'll tie a garland here about his head, 'Twill keep my boy from lightning."

Browne discourses on the point as follows:--"That Bayes will protect from the mischief of lightning and thunder is a quality ascribed thereto, common with the fig tree, eagle and skin of a seale. Against so famous a quality Vicomercatus produceth experiments of a Bay-tree blasted in Italy, and therefore although Tiberius for this interest did wear a Laurell about his temples yet did Augustus take a more probable course, who fled under arches and hollow vaults for protection." A most unimperial picture this, great Cæsar deserting his throne and shutting himself up in his wine-cellar when he heard the distant rumbling of the coming storm. "If we consider the three-fold effect of Jupiter's Trisulk, to burn, discusse, and terebrate, and if that be true which is commonly delivered, that it will melt the blade yet passe the scabbard, dry up the wine yet leave the hog's head entire, though it favour the amulet it may not spare us; it will be unwise to rely on any preservative, 'tis no security to be dipped in Styx or clad in the armour of Ceneus."[40]

[40] Appendix T.

There are many curious legends associated with plants in classic mythology, such as the metamorphoses of various lucky or unlucky persons who gained the favour or incurred the wrath of the gods, and were in consequence punished or rewarded by finding themselves laurel-bushes and the like; but all this is duly set forth in any mythological dictionary, and may be there hunted up quite readily by the curious.

Other legends are associated with religious symbolism, such as the belief that the palm-tree cannot be bowed down to earth, but stands erect, no matter how heavily weighted; but if we were once to enter upon this most interesting subject, the preceding pages of our book would be but a small fragment indeed of all that it would be possible to introduce.

A very good illustration of the symbolic use of the palm-tree may be seen on the frontispiece of the "Eikon Basilike," published in the year 1648. The "Royal Martyr" kneels before a table on which is placed a Bible. In his hand he has taken a crown of thorns, marked "Gratia;" at his feet is the royal crown of England, with the inscription "Vanitas," while in the air above him is a starry crown marked "Gloria." Outside the room we see a landscape. Conspicuous in the foreground is a palm-tree standing erect with two heavy weights tied to it, and the legend, "Crescit sub pondere virtus;" while beyond this is a raging sea and a rock rising from its midst, with the legend, "Immota triumphans." The sky is black with rolling clouds, and on either side of the rock we see dark faces in the clouds blowing vehemently against it. Beneath is the "Explanation of the Embleme" in two columns, the one Latin and the other in the vulgar tongue. The English is as follows:--

"Though clogged with weights of miseries Palm-like depressed I higher rise. And as th' immoved Rock outbraves The boist'rous Windes and raging waves, So triumph I. And shine more bright In sad Affliction's Darksom night. That Splendid, but yet toilsom Crown Regardlessly I trample down. With joie I take this Crown of Thorn, Though sharp yet easie to be born. That Heavenlie Crown, already mine, I view with eies of Faith Divine. I slight vain things and do embrace Glorie, the just reward of Grace."

This belief in the impossibility of depriving the palm-tree of its power of upward growth made it a rather popular emblem with those who thought themselves rather "put upon" by fortune or the lack of appreciation from their fellows. Mary Stuart, for example, selected as one of her badges the palm-tree, with the motto, "Ponderibus virtus innata resistit," and other illustrations of the old belief might readily be brought forward.

As these plants, too, whether associated with mythology or religious or other symbolism, are not in themselves fabulous, but are actual laurels, palms, or the like, they need scarcely be dwelt upon at any length in these pages, as our purpose has been rather to deal with forms wholly mythical than to enter with any degree of fulness into the mythical beliefs that have grown round forms in themselves natural.

We cannot, in conclusion, do better, we are sure, than transfer bodily to our book the appeal to the reader that appears on the title-page of a quaint little black-letter treatise published in the year 1548--the "Boke of Husbandry" by one Fitzherbert:--

"Go thou lytell boke, with due reuerence And with an humble hert, recommend me To all those, that of theyr beneuolence Thys lytell treatyse doth rede heare or se Wherewith I praye them contented to be, And to amende it in place behouable Where as I haue fauted or be culpable-- For herde it is, a man to attayne To make a thynge perfyte at the first sighte But whan it is red and well ouer seene Fautes may be founde that neuer came to lyght Though the maker do his diligence and might Praying them to take it as I haue intended And to forgiue me yf I haue offended."

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APPENDIX.

A.

The life and death of St. George, as generally accepted, are so different to the details given by Gibbon in his "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," that we give, as a foil, a sketch of the latter as well. From Gibbon it would appear that George, surnamed the Cappadocian, was born in Cilicia in a fuller's shop, that he raised himself from this obscure origin by his talents as a parasite, and that those whom he so shamelessly flattered and assiduously fawned on repaid their worthless dependent by procuring for him lucrative contracts to supply the army with bacon and other stores. Herein he accumulated, as some other army contractors have done since, a vast sum of money by the basest acts of fraud and corruption, until matters became so bad and his shortcomings so notorious that he absconded with his ill-gotten gains. After the disgrace attached to this had in some measure subsided, we next find him embracing, with real or affected zeal, the doctrines of Arianism, and on the death of the Archbishop Athanasius the prevailing faction promoted the ex-contractor to the vacant chair. He had scarcely been established in this high and responsible office ere he sullied the dignity of his position by acts of the greatest cruelty against those who differed from him, and by the development anew of the keenest avarice. He asserted for himself the right to various important monopolies, and impoverished the State while he enriched himself by alone supplying salt, paper, and various other necessaries. The people at length rose in rebellion, and on the accession of Julian he lost the high support that had hitherto, by aid of the civil and military power of the State, maintained him in his position. He was ignominiously dragged in chains to the public prison, and the mob, impatient of the delays of the law, or apprehensive that he might use his wealth and influence to stifle inquiry, presently forced open the gates and tore him to pieces. The Church was at that time an arena of fierce dissension between the Arians and Athanasians, and his followers, conveniently ignoring the facts of his life, asserted that the rival party in the Church had stirred up the strife against him. He received the just reward of his tyranny, or possibly the saintly crown of the martyr for his faith, in the year 361, and in 494 Pope Gelasius formally and officially admitted his claim to a position amongst the saints of the Church. We find him held in great reverence in the sixth century in Palestine, Armenia, and Rome. His fame was brought home from the East by the Crusaders, and his popularity in England dates from that time. So much party feeling has clustered around the matter, and so many learned authorities have been drawn up on one side or the other, that we can only feel that no real verdict one way or the other is now possible.

B.

As we have already in the body of the text given in full detail the accepted prose version of the conflict of St. George with the dragon, it seemed scarcely advisable to repeat these details in metrical form. As we feel, at the same time, that such old ballads will probably possess interest for some, at least, of our readers, we, instead of banishing the story from our book entirely, dismiss it to the Appendix merely, where it can be equally readily read or ignored in accordance with individual tastes. The ballad, as given in Dr. Percy's "Reliques," is based on ancient black-letter copies in the Pepys Collection. In the original the poem is forty-four verses long, but we content ourselves with those that relate to the combat with the dragon, and leave out those that affect what may be termed the politics of the court, the promise of the maiden to the hero, the subsequent endeavours to evade the bargain, and the various consequences to St. George and others that arose from this breach of faith:--

"Of Hector's deeds did Homer sing, And of the sack of stately Troy, What griefs fair Hélena did bring, Which was Sir Paris' only joy: And by my pen I will recite St. George's deeds, an English knight.

Against the Sarazens so rude Fought he full well and many a day; Where many gyants he subdued, In honour of the Christian way: And after many adventures past To Egypt land he came at last.

Now as the story plain doth tell, Within that countrey there did rest A dreadful dragon fierce and fell, Whereby they were full sore opprest, Who by his poisonous breath each day, Did many of the city slay.

The grief whereof did grow so great Throughout the limits of the land, That they their wise men did entreat To show their cunning out of hand; Which way they might this fiend destroy, That did the country thus annoy.

The wise men all before the king This answer framed incontinent; The dragon none to death might bring By any means they could invent: His skin more hard than brass was found, That sword nor spear could pierce nor wound.

When this the people understood, They cryed out most piteouslye, The dragon's breath infects their blood, That every day in heaps they dye: Among them such a plague it bred, The living scarce could bury the dead.

No means there were, as they could hear, For to appease the dragon's rage, But to present some virgin dear, Whose blood his fury might assuage; Each day he would a maiden eat, For to allay his hunger great.

This thing by art the wise men found, Which truly must observed be; Wherefore throughout the city round A virgin pure of good degree Was by the king's commission still Taken up to serve the dragon's will.

Thus did the dragon every day Untimely crop some virgin flower, Till all the maids were worn away, And none were left him to devour: Saving the king's fair daughter bright, Her father's only heart's delight.

Then came the officers to the king That heavy message to declare, Which did his heart with sorrow sting; She is, quoth he, my kingdom's heir: O let us all be poisoned here, Ere she should die, that is my dear.

Then rose the people presently, And to the king in rage they went; They said his daughter deare should dye, The dragon's fury to prevent: Our daughters all are dead, quoth they, And have been made the dragon's prey:

And by their blood we rescued were, And thou hast saved thy life thereby; And now in sooth it is but faire, For us thy daughter so should die. O save my daughter, said the king; And let ME feel the dragon's sting.

Then fell fair Sabra on her knee, And to her father dear did say, O father strive not thus for me, But let me be the dragon's prey; It may be for my sake alone This plague upon the land was thrown.

'Tis better I should dye, she said, Than all your subjects perish quite; Perhaps the dragon here was laid, For my offence to work his spite: And after he hath sucked my gore Your land shall feel the grief no more.

What hast thou done, my daughter dear, For to deserve this heavy scourge? It is my fault, as may appear, Which makes the gods our state to purge: Then ought I die, to stint the strife, And to preserve thy happy life.

Like madmen, all the people cried, Thy death to us can do no good; Our safety only doth abide In making her the dragon's food. Lo, here I am, I come, quoth she, Therefore do what you will with me.

Nay stay, dear daughter, quoth the queen, And as thou art a virgin bright, Thou hast for vertue famous been, So let me cloath thee all in white; And crown thy head with flowers sweet, An ornament for virgins meet.

And when she was attired so, According to her mother's mind, Unto the stake she then did go; To which her tender limbs they bind: And being bound to stake and thrall She bade farewell unto them all.

Farewell, my father dear, quoth she, And my sweet mother meek and mild; Take you no thought nor weep for me, For you may have another child: Since for my country's good I dye, Death I receive most willinglye.

The king and queen and all their train With weeping eyes went then their way, And let their daughter there remain, To be the hungry dragon's prey; But as she did there weeping lye, Behold St. George came riding by.

And seeing there a lady bright So rudely tyed unto a stake, As well became a valiant knight, He straight to her his way did take: Tell me, sweet maiden, then quoth he, What caitiff thus abuseth thee?

And, lo, by Christ his cross I vow, Which here is figured on my breast, I will revenge it on his brow, And break my lance upon his chest: And speaking thus whereas he stood, The dragon issued from the wood.

The lady that did first espy The dreadful dragon coming so, Unto St. George aloud did cry And willed him away to go; Here comes that cursed fiend, quoth she, That soon will make an end of me.

St. George then looking round about, The fiery dragon soon espied, And like a knight of courage stout, Against him did most fiercely ride; And with such blows he did him greet, He fell beneath his horse's feet.

For with his lance that was so strong, As he came gaping in his face, In at his mouth he thrust along, For he could pierce no other place; And thus within the lady's view This mighty dragon straight he slew.

The favour of his poisoned breath Could do this holy knight no harm; Thus he the lady saved from death, And home he led her by the arm: Which when King Ptolemy did see, There was great mirth and melody."

C.

In Hippeau's comments on the non-reliability of much of the natural history of Guillaume he points out that not only was it difficult for these early writers to ascertain the truth, but that the truth in its lower sense was not really much striven after or valued. He says--"N'oublions pas que les pères de l'Église se préoccupèrent toujours beaucoup plus de la pureté des doctrines qu'ils avaient à développer, que de l'exactitude scientifique des notions sur lesquelles ils les appuyaient. L'object important pour nous, dit Saint Augustin (Ps. cii., àpropos de l'aigle, qui disait-on, brise contre la pierre l'éxtrémité de son bec devenue trop long) est de considérer la signification d'un fait et non d'en discuter l'authenticité.

"Dans la vaste étendue des Cieux, au sien des mers profondes, sur tous les points du globe terrestre, il n'est pas un phénomène, pas une étoile, pas un quadrupède, pas un oiseau, pas une plante, pas une pierre, qui n'éveille quelque souvenir biblique, qui ne fournisse la matière d'un enseignement moral, qui ne donne lieu à quelqu' effusion du coeur, qui n'ait à révéler quelque secret de Dieu."

D.

The palm was by old writers called the phoenix-tree, and in Greek the same word is used to express both the bird and the tree.

"_Sebastian._ Now I will believe That there are unicorns; that in Arabia There is one tree, the phoenix' throne; one phoenix At this hour reigning there.

_Antonio._ I'll believe both; And what does else want credit come to me, And I'll be sworn 'tis true; travellers ne'er did lie, Though fools at home condemn them."--_Tempest._

E.

"The story of Guy is so obscured with fable that it is difficult to ascertain its authenticity. He was the hero of succeeding Earls of Warwick. William Beauchamp called his eldest son after him. Thomas by his last will bequeathed the sword and coat-of-mail of this worthy to his son. Another christened a younger son after him, and dedicated to him a noble tower, whose walls are ten feet thick, the circumference 126, and the height 113 feet from the bottom of the ditch. Another left as an heirloom to his family a suit of arras wrought with his story. His sword and armour, now to be seen in Warwick Castle, were by patent, 1 Henry VIII., granted to William Hoggeson, yeoman of the battery, with a fee of 2d. per day. In the porter's lodge at the castle they still show his porridge-pot, flesh-fork, iron shield, breastplate and sword, horse furniture, walking staff nine feet high, and even a rib of the dun cow which he pretended to have killed on Dunsmore Heath. In short, his fame and spirit seem to have inspired his successors, for from the Conquest to the death of Ambrose Dudley there was scarce a scene of action in which the Earls of Warwick did not make a considerable figure."--_Camden's Britannia_, vol. ii., 1806.

F.

Of the "Bestiary" of Philip de Thaun only one copy of the MS. is known, that in the Cottonian Collection, though of another of his quaint treatises, the "Livre des Créatures," there are seven copies extant. Three of these are in the Vatican Library, and in England one may be seen in the Sloane Library, and another in the Cottonian. The author had as his great patron Adelaide of Louvain, the second queen of King Henry I. He dedicates his "Bestiary" to her in the following lines:--

"Philippe de Thaun into the French language Has translated the Bestiary, a book of science, For the honour of a jewel who is a very handsome woman, Aliz is she named, a queen is she crowned, Queen is she of England, may her soul never have trouble."

His poems are the earliest examples extant of the Anglo-Norman language; we give herewith an illustration of it, the translation being from the excellent reproduction of the book by Thomas Wright, F.S.A.:--

"En un livre divin, que apelum Genesim, Iloc lisant truvum quæ Dés fist par raisum Le soleil e la lune, e esteile chescune. Pur cel me plaist à dire d'ico est ma materie, Que demusterai e à clers e à lai, Chi grant busuin en unt, e pur mei perierunt. Car unc ne fud loée escience celée; Pur ço me plaist à dire, ore i seit li veir Sire!"

"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. For science hidden was never praised; Therefore it pleases me to speak, now may the true Lord be with it."

G.

As the limited space at our disposal prevents anything like an exhaustive account of the wonders narrated by Mandeville and others, we give the titles of some few old works, in case the reader may care to dive into them at greater length than is here at all possible. The first we would mention is Richard Hackluyt's black-letter folio, published in 1589. Its full title runs as follows:--"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 1500 yeeres." Another is "Purchas his Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World, Asia, Africa and America and the Ilands adiacent," published in London in the year 1614; a very quaint and interesting old book. The "Ortus Sanitatis" is another very curious old black-letter volume, dealing with animals, plants, &c., and richly illustrated with very remarkable woodcuts. To these we may add Marco Polo's travels in the thirteenth century, detailing the observations of this early traveller on many remarkable places and things seen or heard of by him, chiefly in the East. Struy's "Perillous and most Unhappy Voyages through Moscovia, Tartary, Italy, Greece, Persia, Japan," &c., is another interesting 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 Historie of the East and West Indies," by Joseph Acosta; 1604. "Intreating of the Remarkable 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 these works were of sufficient popularity to run through several editions, sometimes several years apart; nevertheless the dates we give will give an approximate notion that is decidedly better than nothing. This list might readily be extended tenfold.

H.

The sphinx is described in Bacon's book, "The Wisdom of the Ancients, Written in Latin by the Right Honourable Sir Francis Bacon Knt. Baron of Verulam and Lord Chancellor of England, and done into English by Sir Arthur Gorges Knt." After narrating the story, he expounds it as follows:--"This Fable contains in it no less Wisdom than Elegancy, and it seems to point at Science, especially that which is joyn'd with Practice, for Science may not absurdly be call'd a Monster, as being by the ignorant and rude Multitude always held in Admiration. It is diverse in Shape and Figure by reason of the infinite Variety of Subjects wherein it is conversant. A Maiden Face and Voice is attributed unto it for its gracious Countenance and Volubility of Tongue. Wings are added, because Sciences and their Inventions do pass and fly from one to another, as it were in a Moment, seeing that the Communication of Science is as the kindling of one Light at another. Elegantly also it is feigned to have sharp and hooked Talons, because the Axioms and Arguments of Science do fasten so upon the Mind, and so strongly apprehend and hold it, as that it stir not nor evade, which is noted also by the Divine Philosopher--The Words of the Wise are as Goads and Nails driven far in.

Moreover, all Science seems to be placed in steep and high Mountains, as being thought to be a lofty and high thing, looking down upon Ignorance with a scornful Eye. It may be observed and seen also a great Way, and far in compass, as things set on the Tops of Mountains.

Furthermore, Science may well be feigned to beset the High-way, because which way soever we turn in this Progress and Pilgrimage of Human Life we meet with some Matter or Occasion offered for Contemplation. Sphynx is said to have received from the Muses divers difficult Questions and Riddles, and to propound them unto Men, which remaining with the Muses are free (it may be) from savage Cruelty; for, so long as there is no other end of Study and Meditation than to know, the Understanding is not racked and imprisoned, but enjoys Freedom and Liberty, and even Doubts and Variety find a kind of Pleasure and Delectation. But when once these Enigmas are delivered by the Muses to Sphynx, that is, to Practice, so that it be sollicited and urged by Action and Election and Determination, then they begin to be troublesome and raging, and unless they be resolved and expedited they do wonderfully torment and vex the Minds of Men, distracting, and in a manner rending them into sundry Parts.

Moreover, there is always a twofold Condition propounded with Sphynx her Enigmas. To him that doth not expound them, distraction of Mind, and to him that doth, a Kingdom, for he that knows that which he sought to know hath attain'd the end he aim'd at, and every Artificer also commands over his Work.

Moreover it is added in the Fable, that the Body of Sphynx, when she was overcome, was laid upon an Ass, which indeed is an elegant Fiction, seeing there is nothing so acute and abstruse but, being well understood and divulged, may be well apprehended by a slow Capacity. Neither is it to be omitted that Sphynx was overcome by a Man lame in his Feet; for when Men are too swift of Foot and too speedy of Pace in hasting to Sphynx, her Enigmas, it comes to pass that, she getting the upper Hand, their Wits and Minds are rather distracted by Disputations than that ever they come to command by Works and Effects."

I.

The spaces in the frieze of the Parthenon, known architectively as the metopes, were filled with sculptures illustrating the struggle between the Lapithæ and the Centaurs. Thirty-nine of these slabs remain in their original position in the temple, while seventeen are in the British Museum and one in the Louvre. In their beauty and bold design they are some of the grandest monuments of Greek art. Other very fine examples may be seen in the fragments in our national collection from the frieze of the temple of Apollo Epicurius, near Phigalia, and the Theseum at Athens. There are also two very fine single statues of centaurs in the Capitoline Museum.

J.

Centaury is so called from an old myth that Chiron, the centaur, cured himself from a wound given by a poisoned arrow by using some plant that Pliny, therefore, calls _Centaurium_; but whether it was this plant, or a knapweed, or any plant at all, or whether there even ever was a centaur named Chiron, or a centaur named anything else, are points we must be content to leave. Linnæus called the plant the _Chironia_; its modern generic name merely signifies red, as most of the flowers in the genus have blossoms of some tint of red; but in the specific name _Centaurium_ we recognise that the old myth still finds commemoration. In some parts of England the rustics corrupt centaury into sanctuary, and the Germans call it the _tausend-gulden-kraut_. This strange name is built upon another corruption, some of the old writers having twisted _Centaurea_ into _Centum aurei_, and the Germans have lavishly multiplied by ten the hundred golden coins. The centaury is said to be a good and cheap substitute for the medicinal gentian, and, as a hair-dye, was for a long time held in repute for the production of a rich golden yellow tint.

"My floure is sweet in smell, bitter my iuyce in taste, Which purge choler, and helps liuer, that else would waste."

The centaury still figures largely in rustic medicine and in the prescriptions of the herbalists; we have seen the country agents of these latter with armfuls of centaury as large as they could carry. Into all its accredited virtues in mediæval times we need not here go; in fact, if our readers will make out at random a list of some twenty of the ills of suffering mortality, and boldly assert that such ills need not exist at all in a world that also produces centaury, they will be sufficiently near the mark for practical purposes.

K.

A good illustration of this may be seen in Brathwait's book, published in 1621, and entitled "Nature's Embassie, or the Wilde-Man's Measures danced by twelve Satyres," the dance itself being very quaintly represented on the curious old woodcut title.

L.

An old author whose voluminous works on natural history are very interesting and curious, and richly illustrated with engravings at least as quaint in character as the text. The "Historia Monstrorum," was published in folio at Bologna in 1642, and is full of the most extraordinary animal forms. His various works range in date from 1602 to 1668, and are, with one exception--Venice--published either at Bologna or Frankfort. All are very curious, and will well repay our readers if they can get an opportunity of seeing them.

Another book of very similar character is Boiastuau's "Histoires Prodigeuses," published in Paris in 1561, a strange assemblage of curious and monstrous figures.

M.

Bacon, in his "Wisdom of the Ancients," writes as follows:--"The Fable of the Syrens seems rightly to have been apply'd to the pernicious Allurements of Pleasure, but in a very vulgar and gross manner. And therefore to me it seems that the Wisdom of the Ancients have with a farther reach or insight strained deeper Matter out of them, not unlike the Grapes ill press'd; from which though some Liquor were drawn, yet the best was left behind. This Fable hath relation to Men's Manners, and contains in it a manifest and most excellent Parable. For Pleasures do for the most proceed out of the Abundance and Superfluity of all things, and also out of the Delights and jovial Contentments of the Mind; the which are wont suddenly as it were with winged Inticements to ravish and rap Mortal Men: But Learning and Education brings it so to pass as that it restrains and bridles Man's Mind, making it so to consider the Ends and Events of Things as that it clips the Wings of Pleasure. These Syrens are said to dwell in remote Isles: for that Pleasures love Privacy and retired places, shunning always too much Company of People. The Syren's Songs are so commonly understood, together with the Deceits and Danger of them, as that they need no Exposition. But that of the Bones appearing like white Cliffs, and descry'd afar off, hath more Acuteness in it; for thereby it is signify'd that, albeit the Examples of Afflictions be manifest and eminent, yet do they not sufficiently deter us from the wicked Enticements of Pleasures.

As for the Remainder of this Parable, tho' it be not over mystical, yet it is very grave and excellent: For in it we set out three Remedies for this violent enticing Mischief: to wit, Two from Philosophy, and One from Religion. The first Means to shun these inordinate Pleasures is to withstand and resist them in their Beginnings and seriously to Shun all Occasions to entice the Mind, which is signified in that stopping of the Ears; and that Remedy is properly used by the meaner and baser sort of People, as it were Ulysses Followers or Mariners; whereas more heroick and noble Spirits may boldly converse even in the midst of these seducing Pleasures, if with a resolved Constancy they stand upon their Guard and fortify their Minds; and so take greater Contentment in the Trial and Experience of this their approved Virtue, learning rather thoroughly to understand the Follies and Vanities of those Pleasures by Contemplation, than by Submission. Which Solomon avouched of himself when he reckoned up the Multitude of those Solaces and Pleasures wherein he swam, doth conclude with this sentence--Wisdom also continued with me. Therefore these Heroes, and Spirits of this excellent Temper, even in the midst of these enticing Pleasures, can shew themselves constant and invincible and are able to support their own virtuous Inclination against all heady and forcible Perswasions whatsoever; as by the Example of Ulysses, that so peremptorily interdicted all pestilent Counsel as the most dangerous and pernitious Poysons to captivate the Mind: But of all other Remedies in this Case that of Orpheus is most predominant: For they that chaunt and resound the Praise of the Gods confound and dissipate the Voices and Incantations of the Syrens, for Divine Meditations do not only in Power subdue all sensual Pleasures, but also far exceed them in Swiftness and Delight."

N.

"A Scorneful Image or Monstrous Shape of a Marvellous Strange Fygure called Sileni Alcibiadis presentyng ye state and condio of this present world, and inespeciale of the Spirituallte how farre they be from ye perfite trade and life of Criste, wryte in the later tonge by that famous Clerke Erasmus and lately translated into Englyshe." A rare old black-letter book.

O.

"All those airy shapes you now behold Were human bodies once, and clothed with earthly mould; Our souls, not yet prepared for upper light, Till doom's-day wander in the shades of night." --Dryden, _The Flower and the Leaf_.

P.

Before finally dismissing the Fairies we would just refer our readers to a very curious book amongst the Lansdowne MSS. (No. 231) in the British Museum. It was written by John Aubrey, in the year 1686, and is entitled "Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme." The title, however, is no guide whatever to the character of the book, which seems to be merely a note-book for the writing down, without any apparent system or order, of any curious matters that came before him. Scattered throughout these notes are various references to the Fairies; and though they naturally, to a certain extent, repeat what we have already written, they are perhaps sufficiently interesting to quote, as they were the popular notions current at the time. We can only give them in the disjointed way in which we find them, as they are mixed up with all kinds of other matter.

"Not far from Sr Bennet Hoskyns there was a labouring man that rose up early every day to goe to worke; who for a good while many dayes together found a ninepence in the way that he went. His wife wondering how he came by so much money was afraid he gott it not honestlye; at last he told her, and afterwards he never found any more."

"They were wont to please the Fairies, that they might doe them no shrewd turnes, by sweeping clean the Hearth and setting by it a dish of fair water half sad breade, whereon was sett a messe of milke sopt with white bread. And on the morrow they would find a groat of which if they did speak of it they never had any again. Mrs H. of Hereford had as many groates or 3ds this way as made a little silver cup or bowle of (I thinke) 3lbs value, wh her daughter preserves still."

"In the vestry at Frensham, on the N. side of the chancel, is an extraordinary great kettle or caldron, which the inhabitants say, by tradition, was brought hither by the fairies, time out of mind, from Borough hill, about a mile from hence. To this place, if any one went to borrow a yoke of oxen, money, &c., he might have it for a year or longer, so he kept his word to return it. There is a cave, where some have fancied to hear musick. On this Borough hill is a great stone lying along, of the length of about six feet: they went to this stone and knocked at it, and declared what they would borrow and when they would pay, and a voice would answer when they should come, and that they should find what they desired to borrow at that stone. This caldron, with the trivet, was borrowed here after the manner aforesaid, but not returned according to promise, and though the caldron was afterwards carried to the stone it could not be received, and ever since that time no borrowing there. The people saw a great fire one night not long since, the next day they went to see if any heath was burnt there, but found nothing."

"Some were led away by the Fairies, as was a third riding upon Hackpen with corn led a dance to ye Devises. So was a shepherd of Mr Brown of Winterburn-Basset, but never any afterwards enjoy themselves. He sayd that ye ground opened, and he was brought into strange places underground, where they used musicall Instruments, Viols and Lutes, such (he sayd) as Mr Thomas did play on."

"Virgil speakes somewhere (I think in ye Georgiques) of Voyces heard louder than a Man's. Mr Lancelot Morehouse did averre to me that he did once heare such a loud laugh on the other side of a hedge, and was sure that no Human voice could afford such a laugh."

"In Germany old women tell stories received from their Ancestors that a Water-monster, called the Nickard, doth enter by night the chamber, and stealeth when they are all sleeping the new-born child, and supposeth another in its place, which child growing up is like a monster and commonly dumb. The remedy whereof that the Mother may get her own child again--the mother taketh the Suppositium and whipps it so long with the rod till the sayd Monster, the Nickard, bringes the Mother's own child again, and takes to him the Suppositium, which they call Wexel balg."

In another curious old book on our shelves, the "Philosophical Grammar" of Benjamin Martin, published in 1753, we find another allusion to the belief in Fairies. The book is written in the question and answer style once so popular, and after a long dissertation on the Animal Kingdom, we come at last to the question, "Pray before we leave this survey of the Animal Creation let me ask your opinion of Griffins, the Phoenix, Dragons, Satyrs, Syrens, Unicorns, Mermaids and Fairies. Do you think there really are any such things in Nature?" The answer is so far to the point, and so interesting in itself as showing the state of mind on the whole subject, that we give it in all its fulness.

"The _Phoenix_ is mentioned by _Pliny_, and other Antients, more credulous than skilful; but has long since been rejected as a vulgar Error. The _Griffin_ and _Harpy_ have had a Place given them in Modern Histories of Nature, but not without great Reproach and Ridicule to the Authors. _Satyrs_, _Syrens_, and _Fairies_, are all Poetical Fictions. The _Scripture_ makes mention of the _Dragon_ and the _Unicorn_, and most _Naturalists_ have affirmed that there have been such Creatures, and given Descriptions of them; but the Sight of these Creatures or credible Relations of them, having been so very 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. As to _Mer-men_ and _Mer-maids_, there certainly are such Creatures in the Sea as have some distant Resemblance of some Parts of the Human Shape, Mien, and Members; but not so perfectly like them, 'tis very probable, as has been represented. 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, or vulgar Assertion which may perhaps expose us to Ridicule.

It makes but little for the Credit of the Histories of _Dragons_, _Unicorns_, _Mer-maids_, &c., that their names are not to be found in the Transactions of our celebrated Royal Society, who, 'tis well known, derive their Intelligence at the best Hand from almost all Parts of the World. At least, I can find no mention of any such Creatures in the seven Volumes of Abridgments by _Lowthorp, Eames, and Jones_.

2. The _Histoire Naturelle de l'Universe_ gives an Account of several Persons who have described the _Unicorn_; and particularly Father _Lobos_, in his Voyage to the _Abyssine Empire_, says, that this Animal is of the Shape and Size of a fine-made and well-proportion'd Horse, of a bay Colour with a black Tail and Extremities; he adds, that the Unicorns of _Tuacua_ have very short Tails; and those of _Ninina_ (a Canton in the same Province) have theirs very long, and their Manes hanging over their Heads. _Vol._ IV. _Page_ 3.

3. _Du Mont_ says, he saw the Head of a Dragon which was set up over the _Water-Gate_ in the City of _Rhodes_; this Dragon was 33 Feet long, and wasted all the Country round, 'till it was slain by _Deodate de Gozon_, a Knight of _St. John_. He says, the _Head_ was like that of an Hog, but much larger; its _Ears_ were like a Mule's, but cut off; the _Teeth_ were extraordinary sharp and long; the _Throat_ wide; its _Eyes_ hollow, and burning like two Coals. It had two little Wings on its Back; its _Legs_ and _Tail_ like those of a Lizard, but strong, and arm'd with sharp and venomous Talons. His Body was cover'd with Scales which was Proof against Arms. See the Manner of his being kill'd in the _Atlas Geographicus_, Vol. III. Page 43, 44.

4. _Ludolphus_, in his _Ethiophic_ History, tells us, that in the _Abyssine Empire_, there are voracious scaly Dragons of the largest Size, tho' not venomous or hurtful otherwise than by the Bite, and they look like the Bark of an old Tree. _Atlas Geographicus_, Vol. IV. Page 614.

5. The _Stories_ of _Mer-maids_, _Satyrs_, &c. had undoubtedly their Original from such Animals as have in some Respects a Likeness to the _human Shape_ and _Features_. Among these the _Monkey_ Kind, the _Orang-Outang_, and the _Quoja Morron_ are the chief on Land; and the Fish call'd the _Mermaid_ (tho' it has nothing of the _Human Form_) and some other unusual Animals in the Sea."

Q.

Where several sons are contemporaneous, and all have the right to bear the paternal arms, they are thus distinguished--the eldest son adds to them what is known as a label; the second, a crescent; the third, a five-pointed star; the fourth, a martlet; the fifth, an annulet; the sixth, a fleur-de-lys; the seventh, a rose; and so on. A very good and easily accessible example of this "differencing" of the arms may be seen in those borne by the Prince of Wales, the silver label stretching across the top of the shield, blazoned in all other respects like those of the Queen, marking the relationship.

R.

Bruce tells us, for instance, that the horned viper, or Cerastes, the "worm of Nile" that was the cause of the death of Cleopatra, has a way of creeping until it is alongside its victim, and then making a sudden sidelong spring at the object of its attack. In his book he narrates a curious instance that came under his notice at Cairo, where several of these reptiles had been placed in a box. "I saw one crawl up the side, and there lie still, as if hiding himself, till one of the people who brought them to us came near him and though in a very disadvantageous position, sticking as it were perpendicularly to the side of the box, he leaped near the distance of three feet, and fastened between the man's forefinger and thumb."

S.

Amongst the things displayed in the case are portions of a wreath from the coffin of Rameses II. (1100-1200 B.C.), composed of sepals and petals of _Nymphæa cærulea_ on strips of leaves of the date-palm, and another wreath made from the _N. Lotus_.

Another wreath is from the coffin of Aahmes I. (1700 B.C.), composed of leaves of willow and flowers of the _Acacia Nilotica_.

There are also two garlands from the tomb of the Princess Nzi Khonsou (1000 B.C.), composed in the one case of willow leaves and the flower heads of the _Centauræa depressa_, and in the other of the _Papaver Rhæas_, the common scarlet poppy so familiar to every one who has ever seen an English cornfield or railway embankment in summer.

There are, in addition, leaves of the wild celery and of the olive and vine, all quite clearly distinguishable.

The ancient Egyptians were exceedingly fond of flowers, and even made rare plants a portion of the tribute exacted from dependent or conquered territories. One old writer tells us that "those flowers, which elsewhere were only sparingly produced, even in their proper season, grew profusely in Egypt at all times, so that neither roses, nor any others, were wanting there, even in the middle of winter." Their living rooms were always adorned with bouquets or growing plants, and the stands that served for holding them have been found in the tombs. On the arrival of guests at a banquet servants came forward with garlands of flowers and placed them round their necks, a custom we may see graphically depicted in the mural painting in the tombs, while a single lotus flower was often placed in the hair.

T.

The Bay enters very largely into the various extraordinary compounds--astrological, medicinal, and the like--of the ancients. Thus--to quote but one instance out of many that might be given--Albertus Magnus, in his treatise "De Virtutibus Herbarum," tells us that if any one gathers some bay leaves and wraps them up with the tooth of a wolf, no one can speak an angry word to the bearer; while, put under the pillow at night, it will bring in a vision before the eyes of a man who has been robbed, the thief and all his belongings. He further goes on to tell us that if set up in a place of worship, none who have broken any contract or agreement will be able to quit the place till this most potent combination be removed. "This last is tried and most true."

[Decoration]

INDEX.

"So essential did I consider an Index to be to every book, that I proposed to bring a Bill into Parliament to deprive an author, who publishes a book without an Index, of the privilege of copyright, and, moreover, to subject him to a pecuniary penalty." --Campbell's _Lives of the Chief-Justices of England_.

Aahmes I., chaplets from coffin of, 233

"Absalom and Achitophel," Dryden, 126

"Abyssinia, Life in," Parkyns, 14

Achemedis, herb, 199

Acipenser, 158

Acosta, "Natvrall and Morall Historie," 219

Adam, earliest botanist, 181

Adder, wilfully deaf, 67, 148

Addison's "Milton Imitated," 99

Adelaide of Louvain, 218

Adissechen, the thousand-headed, 146

Adolf Dux, article by, 197

Ælian on aspis, 147; on basilisk, 49; on lion and ram-headed fish, 160; on unicorn, 9

Æneas Sylvius on barnacle tree, 174

Ætius on basilisk, 49; on dryinus, 49

"Africa, History of," Leo, 30

Agnus Dei, as a badge, 74

Alaus Magnus on kraken, 150

Albertus Magnus, "De Virtutibus Herbarum," 234; dragon, 28; on pigmies, 125

Alchemists and phoenix, 54

Aldrovandus, "Monstrorum Historia," 31, 79, 87, 161

Alimos plant, 197

Amaranth, 177

Amazons, 95

Ambrosia, 183

Amphisbena, 148

Anacramseros plant, 199

Andromeda and Perseus, 19

Annulet as mark of cadency, 232

Anthropophagi, 94

Antipathy between dragon and elephant, 42; between serpent and stag, 15

Antony and Cleopatra, 91, 188

Apples of Hesperides, 40; of Istkahar, 196; of perpetual youth, 196

Apollo Epicurius, temple of, 222

Apuleius, "The Golden Ass," 184

Arabia, home of the phoenix, 50

"Arabian Nights," 7, 40, 69, 132, 140, 196

Archaic pottery, British Museum, 85

Ardoynus on basilisk, 49

Arian _v._ Athanasian, 209

Arimaspian gold, 69

Arimaspians, 98

Arion and the dolphins, 158

Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso," 50, 70

Aristotle on chameleon, 77; on pigmies, 125

Arms of City of London, 70; of Prince of Wales, 234; of William de Valence, 134

Arrowheads or Celts, 108

"Art of Love," King's, 49

Asbestos, 61

Asphodel, 180

Aspis, 147

Assembly of Beaux Esprits, Paris, 10

Ass, Indian, of Ctesias, 7

"As you Like it," 54

"Atlas Geographicus," 231

Aubrey's "Gentilisme and Judaisme," 31, 227

Augustine, St., on the manipulation of facts, 216; on monsters, 41

Avebury stones, 58

Avicen on basilisk, 49

Bacon on the sphinx legend, 83; "Wisdom of the Ancients," 220, 224

Badge of Jane Seymour, 53

Balam, the ox, 159

Ballad of dragon of Wantley, 33; of St. George and dragon, 211

"Bara Bathra," 151

Basil, herb, 200

Basilisk, king of serpents, 48, 91

Barliata, 175

Barnacle goose-tree, 168

Bartolomeo, standard of, 6

Basking shark, 146

Bay tree, 234

Beaumont and Fletcher's "Woman Hater," 48

Beaux Esprits, assembly of, 10

Behemoth legend, 152

Ben Jonson on remora, 159

"Bestiare Divin" of Guillaume, 43

Bestiary of De Thaun, 67, 147, 218

Bewick's books, 2

Bible Herbal of Newton, 183

Bible references to adder, 67; amaranth, 178; cockatrice, 46; dragon, 19; giants, 129; leviathan, 152; mandrake, 193; unicorn, 4

Bird of paradise, 135

Blemmyes, headless men, 97

Boar, 15, 49

Boiastuau, "Histoires Prodigeuses," 224

"Boke of Husbandry," Fitzherbert, 204

Bolyai, tomb of, 197

Bones preserved in churches, 59

Borghese centaur, 85

Borrowing from the fairies, 228

Boussetti on monsters, 161

Brathwait's "Nature's Embassie," 224

Breydenbach's Travels, 62

Briaræus, 94, 99

Bristol, great bone at, 59

"Britannia," Camden, 217

"Britannica Concha Anatifera," 175

British Museum, centaur, 85, 222; Lansdowne MSS., 31; Scythian lamb, 71

Brobdingnag, men of, 99

Browne's "Pseudodoxia Epidemica," 199; "Vulgar Errors," 31, 69, 190

Brownie, 119

Bruce on the horned viper, 232

Bruynswyke's Herbal, 182

Bryony roots carved into human form, 190

Bucca, 121

Buckland's "Curiosities of Natural History," 60

Buffalo, 12

Burton's "Miracles of Art and Nature," 4, 71, 93, 153, 194

Bury Palliser's "Historic Badges," 6

Bushmen, the modern pigmies, 127

Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage,157, 196; on nautilus, 155

Cadency in heraldry, 232

Cader Idris, the giant's seat, 131

Cadwallader, ensign of, 33

Caerleon, great bone at, 59

Camden's "Britannia," 217

"Canterbury Tales," 104

Capitoline Museum sculptures, 222

Cassandra's gift, 163

Catacombs of Rome, 5

Cathay and the vegetable lamb, 71

Catoblepas of Pliny, 49

Caxton and the "Legenda Aurea," 22

Cedric the Victorious, 33

Celtic pen-dragon, 33

Celts or arrow-heads, 108

Centaur, 84

Centaury, 85, 222

Cerastes or horned viper, 232

Cetus of De Thaun, 151

"Ceylon," Tennant, 127

Chameleon, 76, 91

Changeful colours of dolphin, 157

Changelings, 110

Chang, the Chinese giant, 130

Chaplets in Egyptian tombs, 178

Charles II., dedication to, 47

Chaucer on Sir Guy of Warwick, 56

Chesterfield, great bone at, 59

"Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," Byron, 157, 196

Chilon, 160

Chimæra, 84, 149

China, the dragon symbol, 27

Chiron the Centaur, 222

"Chronicles," Holingshead, 113

City of London, arms of, 70

Clawed men of Surinam, 97

Clement of Alexandria, 177

Clusius, "Rariorum Plantarum Historia," 181

Coats, the heraldic chimæra, 84

Coca leaf, 195

Cockatrice, 44

Cockeram's "English Dictionary," 198

Coinage, the unicorn, 6

Colebrand the champion, 55

Coleridge on giants, 132

"Comedy of Errors," 90, 91

Comptes Royaux of France, 6

"Comus," Milton, 119

"Coriolanus," 40

"Corona Dedicatoria" of Sylvester, 53

"Cosmography" of Munster, 173

Cotter, the Irish giant, 130

Cottonian MSS., 218

Coventry, great bone at, 58

Crane and pigmy combats, 125

Crescent as a mark of cadency, 232

Crest of Earl Douglas, 64

Crocodile, reference in Job, 154

Ctesias on griffin, 68; Indian ass, 7; on pigmies, 126

Cupid and Psyche, 184

"Curiosities of Natural History," Buckland, 60

Cuttle fish, 150

Cwm Pwcca, Brecon, 122

Cyclops, 82, 94, 98

"Cymbeline," 39, 54

Cyoeraeth, 121

Dacien and St. George, 25

Danby, picture by, 184

Dart, 44

Darwin on vampyre bat, 76

Davy Jones's locker, 161

Dead as a door nail, 124

Dead Sea apples, 196

Deaf adder, 67, 148

De Bry's "India Orientalis," 185

Decker on the unicorn, 6

"Decline and Fall of Roman Empire," 22, 209

De Ferry and sea-serpent, 144

Democritus on chameleon, 78

"Description Historique de Macaçar," 186

"Description of 300 Animals," 2, 44

De Thaun, 8, 67, 136, 147, 151, 191, 218

Device of Francis I., 61; of Henry VII., 33

Devil fish, 150

Devil's candle, 193

"De Virtutibus Herbarum," 234

Diamond softening, 199

Dies, 160

Diocletian the persecutor, 25

Dioscorides on basilisk, 49

Discourses of Virtuosi of France, 10

"Discoverie of Witchcraft," 103

"Display of Heraldry," Guillim, 7

Dodoens, Herbal of, 182

Dog-headed men, 93, 96

Dolphin, 156

Donatus, St., dragon-slayer, 20

Dragon, 2, 16, 133, 192, 211, 229

Dragonhill, Berkshire, 33

Dragonnades, 39

Dragon overthrown, knighthood of, 27

Druids and fairies, 102

Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, 126; on basilisk, 48; "Flower and the Leaf," 227; translation from Ovid, 52

Dryinus of Ætius, 49

Dudaim, 193

Dugdale on Guy of Warwick, 55

Dugong and Manatee, 91

Du Mont and the dragon of Rhodes, 231

Dun cow legend, 55

Eagle gazing on the sun, 133

Eagney or Meto, 197

Earl Douglas, crest of, 64

Eastern Soudan and Uganda, 7

Echeneis or Remora, 158

Echidna, 40, 88

Eden's "Historie of Travayle," 94

Egede and the sea-serpent, 144

Egg-talisman, 147

Egyptian form of sphinx, 82; love of flowers, 235

Egyptian representations of giraffe, 63

Eikon Basilike, 202

El Dorado and Sir W. Raleigh, 95

Elephant, 15, 79; antipathy between dragon and, 42

Elf-bolts, 109

Elizabeth, Queen, badge of, 53

El Kazwini, Arab writer, 7

"Elysium," Felicia Hemans', 177

Empusa, 14

Enchanter's nightshade, 193

"English Cyclopædia of Natural History," 7

"English Dictionary" of Cockeram, 198

"English Parnassus" of Poole, 103, 120

Enmity between stag and serpent, 15

Epitaph on Gryphius, 70

Erasmus on headless men, 97; Sileni Alcibiadis, 228

Ethiopia, unicorns in, 4

Exodus, reference to unicorn in, 5

"Faculties of Nourishment," Galen, 180

Fairies, 99, 227

Fairy rings, 104

Falstaff, on fairies, 110; the salamander, 64

Fanesii of Scandinavia, 98

Father Pigafetta on dragons, 30

Fauns and satyrs, 86

Featley's recantation, 31

Felicia Hemans' "Elysium," 177

Ferrer de Valcebro on the Barliata, 175

Ferry, Laurent de, on sea-serpent, 144

_Field_, extract from, 65

Field of the cloth of gold, 61

Fire-drake, 147

"Fire-worshippers," Moore, 193

Fish nun, 159

Fitzherbert's "Boke of Husbandry," 204

Fletcher's "Purple Island," 51

Fleur-de-lys as mark of cadency, 232

"Flower and the Leaf," Dryden, 227

Foersch on upas tree, 185

Forty-leaved plant, 197

Four-footed serpents, 71

Francisci Boussetti on sea-monsters, 161

Friar's lantern, 123

Fuller's "Holy State," 132

Galen on aspis, 147; on basilisk, 49; "Faculties of Nourishment," 180

Garcias ab Horto, on unicorn, 9

Gargoyles of draconic form, 28

Ge and Tartaros, rebellion of, 131

Gelasius, Pope, and St. George, 210

Gelotaphilois, herb, 199

Generation of the cockatrice, 44

"Gentilisme and Judaisme" of Aubrey, 31

"Gentleman's Magazine," extract from, 117

Geography of Strabo, 125

George, St., and dragon, 23, 31, 209-211

"Gerania" of Joshua Barnes, 127

Gerarde, "History of Plants," 168, 180; asphodel, 180; barnacle goose-tree, 168; mandrake, 189

Gervaise, "Description de Macaçar," 186

Gervase, on fairies, 102

Ghoul, 75

Giant Colebrand, 55

Giants, 128

Giants' Causeway, 130

Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of Roman Empire," 22, 209

Gillius the compassionate, 156

Giraffe or seraffa, 63

Giraldus Cambrensis on barnacle trees, 175

Glanvil, on griffin, 68; on salamander, 60

Gnomes, 119

Godes-andsacan, 20

"Golden Ass" of Apuleius, 184

Golden fruit of the Hesperides, 40

Graham's "Sketches of Perthshire," 121

Greek form of sphinx, 82

Greene on the apples of the Hesperides, 40

Green, Matthew, "The Spleen," 132

Grevinus on basilisk, 49

Griffin, 2, 68, 229

Groats from Fairyland, 109, 120, 228

Gryphius, device of, 70

Guerino, Meschino, 98

Guild processions in Middle Ages, 86

Guiana, Hartsinck on, 97; Sir W. Raleigh on, 95

Guillaume, "Bestiare Divin," 43

Guillim, "Display of Heraldry," 7, 41, 46, 88, 134

"Gulliver's Travels," 132

Guy of Warwick and the Dun Cow, 55, 217

Hackluyt's "Voyages," 97, 219

Halliwell on anthropophagi, 94

Hameh-bird, 140

"Hamlet," satyr, 86

"Handmayd to Religion," 31

Harpy, 48, 86, 230

Harrington and the sea-serpent, 142

Hartsinck on Guiana, 97

Headless men, 94

Hemans, Felicia, poem by, 177

Heraldic bird-forms, 134; dolphin, 156

"Herball to the Bible" of Newton, 189

Herbert's "Jacula Prudentum," 132; "Relations of some yeares Travaile," 186

Herb Viva, 198

Hercules and the pigmies, 126

"Henry IV.," 74, 112, 123

"Henry VI.," 54, 91

"Henry VIII.," 54, 56, 147

Heraldic cockatrice, 46; dolphin, 156; griffin, 70; Pegasus, 73; phoenix, 53; unicorn, 4

"Heraldry, display of," by Guillim, 7, 41, 46

Herodotus, griffin, 69; phoenix, 50, 52; pigmies, 125

Hesiod, chimæra, 84; harpy, 87

Hesperides, garden of the, 40

Heylin on St. George, 31

Hilary, St., dragon-slayer, 20

Hindu sacred groves, 177

Hippeau on Guillaume, 44, 216

Hippice, 199

"Histoire Naturelle," 231

"Histoires Prodigeuses," Boiastuau, 224

"Historia Monstrorum," 31, 79, 87, 161, 224

"Historic Badges," Palliser, 6

"Historie of Travayle" of Eden, 94

"History of Africa," John Leo, 30

"History of Ethiopia," Ludolphus, 231

"History of Plants," 168, 180

Hog-faced gentlewoman, 92

Holingshead's "Chronicles," 113

Holland's edition of Pliny, 155

Hollerius, 201

Hollybush, Miles Coverdale, 183

"Holy State," Fuller, 132

"Holyday devotions," 31

Home of the pigmies, 126

Homer, ambrosia, 183; asphodel, 180; centaur, 85; harpy, 87; "Iliad," 125, 184; "Odyssey," 177

Hondius and Sir W. Raleigh, 95

"Honour, Titles of," Selden, 32

Hoole's "Orlando Furioso," 50

Horned viper or cerastes, 232

Hudibras, quotation from, 168

"Humana Physiognomonia," of Porta, 93

Humma-bird, 136

Huppe-bird, 136

Hydra, 149

Ibis, 137

Idolatrous groves, 177

Ignis fatuus, 122

Iliad, 125, 184

Indian ass, 7; serpent legend, 163

"India Orientals," of De Bry, 185

Invisibility of fairies, 103

Iormungandur the encircler, 146

Isaiah, reference to cockatrice, 46

Isidore on onocentaur, 85

Jack-o'-Lantern, 122

Jack the Giant-killer, 128

"Jacula Prudentum," by Herbert, 132

Jane Seymour, badge of, 53

Java and its upas trees, 184

Jeremiah, cockatrice, 46; dragon, 41

"Jerusalem Delivered," Tasso, 99

Jewish tradition, 152, 159

Job, leviathan, 152; unicorn, 5

Jodocus Hondius, 95

John Leo, "History of Africa," 30

John of Arragon, salamander device of, 61

Johnson on Gerarde, 172

Joshua Barnes, the "Gerania," 127

Juvenal, pigmy combats, 125

Kadmos, founding of Thebes, 38

Kalli Naga, 20

Kalpa Tarou tree, 176

Kelpies, 102, 121

Kerzereh flowers, 188

Kew, lotus chaplets at, 179, 233; upas tree at, 185

Keymis on Guiana, 96

"King Henry IV.," 74, 112, 123, 190

"King Henry VI.," 54, 91, 190

"King Henry VIII.," 54, 56

"King Lear," 39

"King Richard III.," 40, 45

"King's Art of Love," 49

Knockers, 117

Kobold, 119

Koempfer on upas tree, 186

Koran, the fish nun, 159; the lote tree, 176; the ox Balam, 159

Kraken, 149

Kuchlein's illustrations, 98

Kyonjik sculptures, 177

Label as a mark of cadency, 232

Ladon and the Hesperides, 40

"Lalla Rookh," 107, 135

"L'Allegro" of Milton, 120, 123

Lamia, 13

Lane's "Arabian Nights," 7, 40, 69

Languedoc and its dragon, 21

Lansdowne MSS. in British Museum, 31, 227

Lapithæ and Centaurs, 222

Laurence Keymis on Guiana, 96

Laurent de Ferry and sea-serpent, 144

"Legenda Aurea" of Voraigne, 22

Legends of the Talmud, 152, 159

Leo, "History of Africa," 30

Leviathan, 152, 159

"Life in Abyssinia," Parkyns, 14

Lig-draca, 20

Lilliput, men of, 99, 126

Lion, 3

Lion-headed fish, 160

"Lives of the Saints," 22

Livre des Créatures, De Thaun, 218

Lobel and Pena's book, 175

Lobos, Father, and the unicorn, 231

Lomie, 71

London, arms of City of, 70

Long-eared men or Fanesii, 98

Lote tree of Koran, 176

Lotophagia, 177

Loup-garou or wehr-wolf, 75

Loup, St., dragon-slayer, 20

Louvre, Borghese centaur, 85, 222

Lucian on asphodel, 180

Ludolphus, "History of Ethiopia," 231

Lurlei of the Rhine, 90

Lyte and Dodoens, herbal of, 182

Mab, the fairy queen, 103, 120

"Macaçar; Description Historique du Royaume de," 186

"Macbeth," 39

Magrath, the giant, 130

Maid of Orleans and the mandrake, 189

Mallwyd, great bone at, 59

Manatees and Dugongs, 91

Mandeville on griffin, 68; headless men, 97; pigmies, 196; vegetable lamb, 71

Mandrake, 188

Man-eater and Rompo, 12

Mansfield Parkyns' "Life in Abyssinia," 14

Manticora, 13

Maori traditions, 127

Marcel, St., dragon-slayer, 21

Marco Polo's travels, 219

Marks of abatement and augmentation, 88; of cadency, 134

Martha, St., dragon-slayer, 21

Martial, St., dragon-slayer, 21

Martin, St., dragon-slayer, 20

Martin's "Philosophical Grammar," 229

Martlet, 134, 232

Mary Stuart, badge of, 204

Matthew Green, "The Spleen," 132

Matthiolus, herbal of, 181

McQuahee and the sea-serpent, 143, 145

"Measure for Measure," 131

Mediæval dragon recipes, 29; festivals, 98

"Merchant of Venice," 196

Mermaid, 90, 160, 231

Metamorphoses, 202

Meto or Eagney, 197

Metopes of Parthenon, 222

Michovius on griffin-land, 69

"Midsummer Night's Dream," 39, 90, 120

Miles Coverdale, Hollybush, 183

Milton, amaranth, 178; Arimaspians, 98; chimæra, 84; gorgon, 84; griffin, 69; harpy, 87; hydra, 84; "L'Allegro," 120, 123; "Paradise Lost," 98, 123, 178; Will o' the wisp, 123

"Milton imitated," Addison, 99

Mimosa sensitiva, 198

Minotaur, 48

"Miracles of Art and Nature," Burton, 4, 71, 93, 153, 194

Monacella, St., bone of, 59

Money, fairy, 109, 120, 227, 228

"Monstrorum Historia" of Aldrovandus, 31, 79, 87, 161, 224

Monuments of Egypt, 63

Moore, "Fire worshippers," 193; Kerzereh flower, 188; "Lalla Rookh," 107, 135; "Paradise and the Peri," 54, 136; "Veiled Prophet of Khorassan," 188

More Hall of Wantley, 34

Mountain fish, 149

Mouse, 16

"Much Ado about Nothing," 87

Munster's "Cosmography," 173

Murphy the Irish giant, 130

Musical tastes of the dolphin, 158

Narcissus, possibly the asphodel, 180

National Library, Paris, 44

"Natural History of Norway," Pontoppidan, 145

"Nature's Embassie," Brathwait, 223

"Natvrall and Morall Historie" of Acosta, 219

Naud the pen-dragon, 33

Nautilus, 155

Nech of Scandinavia, 121

Nectar of the gods, 183

Newton's "Bible Herbal," 183, 189

Newts spitting fire, 64

Nicander on the aspis, 147

Nickard, 229

"Night Thoughts," Young, 126

Nineveh and Persepolis, sculptures at, 19

Ninina, unicorns of, 231

Nis, 119

Nixies, 102

Nova Hispania, flora of, 197

Nun, the fish, 159

"Nuremburg Chronicle," 97

Nymphs, 119

Nzi Khonsou, the princess, 233

Oats, fairy, 100

Oberon, 103

Octavianus the reliable, 175

Octopus, 150

Odysseus, the Lotophagi, 177; the Sirens, 89

Og, the king of Bashan, 129

Ojibiway legend of the serpent, 163

Olaus Magnus and the sea-serpent, 143

Onocentaur, 85

Ophyasta, herb, 199

Oppian, pigmy combats, 125

Order of the dragon, 22; of the dragon overthrown, 27

Oribasius on the basil, 201

Origin of fairies, 101

"Orlando Furioso," of Ariosto, 50, 70

Orpheus and the Sirens, 89

"Ortus sanitatis," 219

Osiris the judge, 178

"Othello," 189

Ovid on ambrosia, 183; phoenix, 52

Owen, Professor, on sea-serpents, 145

Ox Balam, the, 159

Ox, wild, 15

Oyle of castor, 153

Palliser's "Historic Badges," 6

Palm-tree emblem, 194, 202

Pan, 124

Paracelsus on the phoenix, 54

"Paradise Lost," Milton, 98, 123

"Paradise and the Peri," Moore, 54, 136

Parker on poisonous trees, 187

Parkinson's "Theater of Plants," 172, 180, 190

Parkyns' "Life in Abyssinia," 14

Parthenon sculptures, 85, 222

Paulus Venetus on unicorn, 9

Peccata Naturæ, 42

Pedal sunshades, 98

Pegasus, 73

Pelican legend, 133

Pelion on Ossa, 131

Pen-dragon, 33

Pennant Melangell, great bone at, 59

Percy's "Reliques of Antient English Poetry," 34, 56, 211

"Peregrine Pickle" of Smollett, 162

"Pericles," 40, 87

Persepolis, sculptures at, 19

Perseus and Andromeda legend, 19

"Perthshire, Sketches of," 121

Pheg of the Tsi-hiai, 152

Philip de Thaun, 8, 67, 191

Philostratus on the pigmies, 125

"Philosophical Grammar," Martin, 229

Phoca, Pooka, or Pwcca, 121, 133

Phoenix, 50, 134, 217, 229

Phoenix-tree, 217

Pigafetta on dragons, 30

Pigmies, 124

Pink centaury, 85

Pliny on basilisk, 48; bay-tree, 201; chameleon, 78; dolphin, 156; dragon, 29, 42; Echeneis, 158; Fanesii, 98; giant, 130; kraken, 149; nautilus, 155; phoenix, 51; pigmies, 125; salamander, 60; serpent's eggs, 147; sphinx, 82; stag, 15; unicorn, 9; wolf, 11

Plutarch's giant, 130

Poison-detecting cups, 4, 6, 7

Poison of salamander, 62

Polonius and the whale, 152

Polyphemus, the foe of Ulysses, 99

Pomum Adami, 196

Pontoppidan, Kraken, 150; "Natural History of Norway," 145

Poole's "English Parnassus," 103

Pope, nautilus, 155; "Rape of the Lock," 119

Pope Pius II. on barnacle trees, 175

Porpoises as sea-serpents, 144

Porta's "Humana Physiognomonia," 93

Potto, 16

Prester John, 126

Prince of Wales, arms of, 232

Prior on the chameleon, 77

"Proper study of mankind is man," 81

Psalms, reference to adder, 67; leviathan, 154; unicorn, 5

"Pseudodoxia Epidemica," 199

Puck, 102

Purchas Pilgrimage, 219

"Purple Island" of Fletcher, 51

Python, 20

Queen Elizabeth, badge of, 53

Queen Mab, 103, 120

Quentin Durward, Scott, 12

Raleigh, Sir W., voyage to Guiana, 95

Rameses II., 179, 233

Ram-headed fish, 160

"Rape of the Lock," 119; of Lucrece, 70

"Rariorum Plantarum Historia" of Clusius, 181

Red-dragon ensign, 33

Red lion, 3

Reginald Scot on witchcraft, 103

Regulus, 46

"Relations of some yeares Travaile," 186

"Reliques of Antient English Poetry," 34, 56, 211

"Reminiscences," Taylor, 145

Remora, 158

Resurrection, phoenix type of, 50

Rhinoceros horn cups, 7

Rhodes, dragon of, 231

Ribbon fish, 145

Richardson on phoenix, 54

Riddle of the sphinx, 83

Robin Goodfellow, 102, 119

Roc, 69, 137

Romanus, St., dragon-slayer, 20

"Romeo and Juliet," 40, 45, 190

Rompo or man-eater, 12

Rondelet's sea-monsters, 161

Rose as mark of cadency, 232

Royal arms, supporters of, 6

Royal Society, Proceedings of, 10, 71, 230

Rustic beliefs as to newts, &c., 64

Sacred trees, 177

Sagittarius, 85

Saint George and the dragon, 23, 211

Saint Mary Redcliff, large bone at, 59

Saints as dragon-slayers, 20, 21

Salamander, 60

Sanguis huppæ, 137

Satyrs, 86, 229

Saxo Grammaticus on barnacle tree, 174

Saxon martyrology, 32

Scaliger on basilisk, 49

Scoresby's "Voyages," 92

Scot, Reginald, on witchcraft, 103

Scotland and the unicorn, 6

Scott, elf-possession, 113; friar's lantern, 123; wolf, 12

Sketches of Nineveh and Persepolis, 19, 128

Scythian lamb, 71

Sea bishop, 161; elephant, 72, 145; hare, 200; horse, 72; lion, 160; monk, 161; serpent, 48, 141

Selden's "Titles of Honour," 32

Sensitive plant, 198

Seraffa of Breydenbach, 63

Serpent worship, 141, 163

Shakespeare, basilisk, 48; cockatrice, 45; dragon, 39; fire-drake, 147; griffin, 70; harpy, 87; mandrake, 188; Pegasus, 73; phoenix, 53, 218; pigmies, 126; will-o'-the-wisp, 123; unicorn, 217

Sigonius on basilisk, 49

Sileni Alcibiadis, 226

Sindbad the Sailor, 69, 138

Siren, 14, 89, 224, 229

Sirena, 18

Sirenia, 92

Sir Walter Raleigh and Guiana, 95

"Sketches of Perthshire," 121

Skimker, Mistress, 92

Sloane Library, 218

Smollett's "Peregrine Pickle," 162

Solinus on basilisk, 49

Sourd story from the _Field_, 65

South Kensington Museum, 184

Sowing of dragon's teeth, 38

Spenser's "Visions of the World's Vanity," 159

Sphinx, 82, 220

Spirits of the mine, 117

"Spleen," Matthew Green, 132

Squier's "Serpent Worship," 163

Stag, 14

Standard of Bartolomeo d'Alviano, 6

Staple Hill stone ring, 58

Star as mark of cadency, 232

Stephen, arms of King, 85

"Stirpium Adversaria Nova," 175

Strabo on pigmies, 125

Stronsay, sea monster at, 146

Struy's Voyages, 219

Stuttgard anthropophagi, 98

Suchenwirt on battle-cries, 32

Supporters of the Royal Arms, 4, 6

Surinam, clawed men of, 97

Sylene and its dragon, 22

Sylphs, 119

Sylvester's "Corona Dedicatoria," 53

Symbol, dragon as a, 28; stag as a, 15

Symbolism of phoenix, 50, 55

Tacitus, Dead Sea apples, 196; phoenix, 55

Tailed men, 93

Talmud, legends of the, 152, 159

"Taming of the Shrew," 73

Tartarian lamb, 71

Tartaros and Ge, rebellion of, 131

Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered," 99

Tausend-gulden-kraut, 224

Tavernier on birds of paradise, 135

Taylor's "Reminiscences," 145

"Tempest," fairy-rings, 108; harpy, 87; phoenix, 218; unicorn, 218

Templars, device of the, 74

Tennant's "Ceylon," 127

Tertullian on phoenix, 50

"Theater of Plants," Parkinson, 172, 190

"Theatrum Botanicum," 180

Thebes, founding of, by Kadmos, 38

Theocritus, on wolf, 11

Theseum at Athens, 224

Thevet on unicorn, 9

"Three hundred animals," 2, 44

Throne of Tippoo Sultan, 136

"Titles of Honour," Selden, 32

"Toilers of the Sea," Victor Hugo, 150

Tomb of Bolyai, 197

Travellers' tales, 195, 216

"Travels," Breydenbach, 62

Tree of Life, 176

Tree of the Imagination, 176

Trichrug, the giant's chair, 130

Tritons, 90

"Troilus and Cressida," 39

Tsi-hiai and the pheg, 152

Tuacua, unicorns of, 231

Turner, barnacle geese, 175; herbal, 182

"Twelfth Night," 45

Typhon, 20

"Uganda and the Eastern Soudan," 7

Ulysses and Polyphemus, 99

Umdhlebi tree, 187

Unicorn, 3, 62, 217, 229

Upas tree, 184

Upton on the harpy, 88

Vampyre, 14, 74

Vartomannus on unicorn, 9

Vatican Library, 218

Vegetable lamb, 71

"Veiled Prophet of Khorassan," 188

Venetus, Paulus, on unicorn, 9

Veran, St., dragon-slayer, 20

"Vertuose Boke of Distyllacyon," of Bruynswyke, 182

Victor Hugo, "Toilers of the Sea," 150

Victor, St., dragon-slayer, 20

Virgil, centaur, 84; evil eye, 47; harpy, 88; wolf, 11

Virtuosi, discoveries of, 10

Vishnu, 20

"Visions of the World's Vanity," Spenser, 159

Viva, herb, 198

Voraigne's "Legenda Aurea," 22

"Voyages," Hackluyt, 97; Raleigh, 95; Scoresby, 92; Struy, 219

Vulcan and the Cyclops, 99

"Vulgar Errors," Sir Thomas Browne, 31, 69

Wantley, dragon of, 33

"Warwickshire" of Dugdale, 55

Water fairies, 102

Waterton on vampyre bat, 76

Weasel and cockatrice combat, 45

Wehr-wolf or loup-garou, 75

Wexel balg, 229

Whale bones in churches, 60

White Horse Hill, Berkshire, 33

Wild boar, 15; ox, 15

William de Valence, arms of, 134

Will o' the wisp, 122

Winged serpent, 19

"Wisdom of the Ancients," Bacon, 219, 224

Witches, 103

Wolf, 11, 30

"Woman Hater," Beaumont and Fletcher, 48

Wright on De Thaun, 218

Wynkyn de Worde, 22

Xanthus, monument from, 87

Ylio of De Thaun, 68

Young's "Night Thoughts," 126

Zeus, ambrosial locks of, 184; rebellion against, 131

Zodiac, the Sagittarius, 85

Zululand, poisonous trees in, 187

PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINBURGH AND LONDON.

Transcriber's Note

Archaic and variant spelling is preserved as printed.

Minor punctuation errors have been repaired.

Hyphenation has been made consistent in the main body of the text, but is preserved as printed in quoted matter.

Page 132 includes the phrase "... but enough has been quoted to show how valuable these personages have in poesy and general literature." It seems that there is a word missing following 'have,' but as there is no way to determine with certainty what that word should be, it is preserved as printed.

The following amendments have been made on the assumption that the originals were typographic errors:

Page 9--Solimus amended to Solinus--... Pliny, Ælian, Solinus, and Paulus ...

Page 14--Laimæ amended to Lamiæ--The Lamiæ, who took the forms ...

Page 42--aminals amended to animals--... had not happened in the creation of animals ...

Page 62--frigidty amended to frigidity--The story of the extreme frigidity ...

Page 98--Julias amended to Julius--... the counterfeit presentments of Julius Cæsar, ...

Page 103--mischeivous amended to mischievous--... was the sweet but mischievous Mab ...

Page 110--changlings amended to changelings--The references in that play to changelings ...

Page 122--powerfull amended to powerful--... we find the following powerful illustrative passage, ...

Page 126--Liliputians amended to Lilliputians--... as the Lilliputians did Gulliver.

Page 149--Chimera amended to Chimæra--... as to call the Chimæra and Hydra fables, ...

Page 150--sufficienly amended to sufficiently--... when the heat became sufficiently great to awaken ...

Page 171--adoining amended to adjoining--... and all those parts adjoining do so ...

Page 182--my amended to me (confirmed against title page of original publication)--At London by me Gerard Dewes, ...

On page 238, the index entries following Hercules and up to Herodotus are out of order. There are also two entries for Heraldic. This has all been preserved as printed.

Entries in the Table of Contents, List of Illustrations and Index have been made consistent with the main body text as follows:

Page vii--Dragonades amended to Dragonnades--... The Dragonnades ...

Page ix--Gerard's amended to Gerarde's--... from Gerarde's "Herbal," ...

Page 1--Dragonades amended to Dragonnades--... The Dragonnades ...

Page 235--Achmedis amended to Achemedis--Achemedis, herb, 199

Page 235--Achipenser amended to Acipenser--Acipenser, 158

Page 236--Bousetti amended to Boussetti--Boussetti on monsters, 161

Page 236--Brittannica amended to Britannica--"Britannica Concha Anatifera,", 175

Page 237--Cocatrice amended to Cockatrice--Cockatrice, 44

Page 237--Royeaux amended to Royaux--Comptes Royaux of France, 6

Page 238--index entries adjusted so that first mention of Gervase becomes Gervaise.

Page 238--omitted page number added to entry for Heraldic dolphin--Heraldic ... dolphin, 156; griffin, ...

Page 238--Prudentium amended to Prudentum--Herbert's "Jacula Prudentum," 132; ...

Page 239--Pallisir amended to Palliser--"Historic Badges," Palliser, 6

Page 239--Joducus amended to Jodocus--Jodocus Hondius, 95

Page 240--Nixes amended to Nixies--Nixies, 102

Page 240--Nuremberg amended to Nuremburg--"Nuremburg Chronicle," 97

Page 242--Rondolet's amended to Rondelet's--Rondelet's sea-monsters, 161

Page 242--Sinbad amended to Sindbad--Sindbad the Sailor, 69, 138