The Works of Sir Thomas Browne Volume III Part 51

Vermes marini very large wormes digged a yarde deepe out of the sands at the ebbe for bayt. Tis known where they are to be found by a litle flat ouer them on the surface of the sand; as also vermes in tubulis testacei. Also Tethya or sea dugges some whereof resemble fritters the vesicaria marina also and fanago sometimes very large conceaued to proceed from some testaceous animals, and particularly from the purpura b.u.t.t ours more probably from other testaceous wee hauing not met with any large purpura upon this coast.

Many riuer fishes also and animals. Salmon no common fish in our riuers though many are taken in the Owse, in the Bure or north riuer, in ye Waueney or south riuer, in ye Norwich river b.u.t.t seldome and in the winter b.u.t.t 4 yeares ago 15 were taken at Trowes mill in Xtmas, whose mouths were stuck with small wormes or horsleaches no bigger than fine threads. Some of these I kept in water 3 moneths: if a few drops of blood were putt to the water they would in a litle time looke red. They sensibly grewe bigger then I first found them and were killed by an hard froast freezing the water. Most of our Salmons haue a recurued peece of flesh in the end of the lower iawe which when they shutt there mouths deepely enters the upper, as Scaliger hath noted in some.

The Riuers lakes and broads abound in the Lucius or pikes of very large size where also is found the Brama or Breme large and well tasted the Tinca or Tench the Rubecula Roach as also Rowds and Dare or Dace perca or pearch great and small: whereof such as are in Braden on this side Yarmouth in the mixed water make a dish very dayntie and I think scarce to bee bettered in England. b.u.t.t the Blea[k] the chubbe the barbell to bee found in diuers other Riuers in England I haue not obserued in these. As also fewer mennowes then in many other riuers.

The Trutta or trout the Gammarus or crawfish b.u.t.t scarce in our riuers b.u.t.t frequently taken in the Bure or north riuer and in the seuerall branches thereof, and very remarkable large crawfishes to bee found in the riuer which runnes by Castleaker and Nerford.

The Aspredo perca minor and probably the cernua of Cardan commonly called a Ruffe in great plentie in Norwich Riuers and euen in the streame of the citty, which though Camden appropriates vnto this citty yet they are also found in the riuers of Oxforde and Cambridge.

Lampetra Lampries great and small found plentifully in Norwich riuer and euen in the Citty about May whereof some are very large and well cooked are counted a dayntie bitt collard up b.u.t.t especially in pyes.

Mustela fluuiatilis or eele poult to bee had in Norwich riuer and between it and Yarmouth as also in the riuers of marshland resembling an eele and a cod, a very good dish and the Liuer thereof well answers the commendations of the Ancients.

G.o.dgions or funduli fluuiatiles, many whereof may bee taken within the Riuer in the citty.

Capitones fluuiatilis or millers thumbs, pungitius fluuiatilis or stanticles. Aphia cobites fluuiatilis or Loches. In Norwich riuers in the runnes about Heueningham heath in the north riuer and streames thereof.

Of eeles the common eele and the glot which hath somewhat a different shape in the bignesse of the head and is affirmed to have yong ones often found within it, and wee haue found a vterus in the same somewhat answering the icon thereof in Senesinus.

Carpiones carpes plentifull in ponds and sometimes large ones in broads: 2 the largest I euer beheld were taken in Norwich Riuer.

Though the woods and dryelands abound with adders and vipers yet there are few snakes about our riuers or meadowes, more to bee found in Marsh land; b.u.t.t ponds and plashes abound in Lizards or swifts.

The Gryllotalpa or fencricket common in fenny places b.u.t.t wee haue met with them also in dry places dung-hills and church yards of this citty.

Beside horseleaches and periwinkles in plashes and standing waters we haue met with vermes setacei or hardwormes b.u.t.t could neuer conuert horsehayres into them by laying them in water: as also the great Hydrocantharus or black shining water Beetle the forficula, sqilla, corculum and notonecton that swimmeth on its back.

Camden reports that in former time there haue been Beuers in the Riuer of Cardigan in Wales. This wee are to sure of that the Riuers great Broads and carres afford great store of otters with us, a great destroyer of fish as feeding b.u.t.t from ye vent downewards, not free from being a prey it self for their yong ones haue been found in Buzzards nests. They are accounted no bad dish by many, are to bee made very tame and in some howses haue serued for turnespitts.

ON THE OSTRICH.

The ostrich hath a compounded name in Greek and Latin--_Struthio-Camelus_, borrowed from a bird and a beast, as being a feathered and biped animal, yet in some ways like a camel; somewhat in the long neck; somewhat in the foot; and, as some imagine, from a camel-like position in the part of generation.

It is accounted the largest and tallest of any winged and feathered fowl; taller than the gruen or ca.s.sowary. This ostrich, though a female, was about seven feet high, and some of the males were higher, either exceeding or answerable unto the stature of the great porter unto king Charles the First. The weight was a[370] [ ] in grocer's scales.

[370] Undecipherable in the original.

Whosoever shall compare or consider together the ostrich and the tomineio, or humbird, not weighing twelve grains, may easily discover under what compa.s.s or lat.i.tude the creation of birds hath been ordained.

The head is not large, but little in proportion to the whole body. And, therefore, Julius Scaliger, when he mentioned birds of large heads (comparatively unto their bodies), named the sparrow, the owl, and the woodp.e.c.k.e.r; and, reckoning up birds of small heads, instanceth in the hen, the peac.o.c.k, and the ostrich.

The head is looked upon by discerning spectators to resemble that of a goose rather than any kind of st??????, or _pa.s.ser_: and so may be more properly called _cheno-camelus_, or _ansero-camelus_.

There is a handsome figure of an ostrich in Mr. Willoughby's and Ray's _Ornithologia_: another in Aldrovandus and Jonstonus, and Bellonius; but the heads not exactly agreeing. 'Rostrum habet exiguum, sed acutum,'

saith Jonstoun; 'un long bec et poinctu,' saith Bellonius; men describing such as they have an opportunity to see, and perhaps some the ostriches of very different countries, wherein, as in some other birds, there may be some variety.

In Africa, where some eat elephants, it is no wonder that some also feed upon ostriches. They flay them with their feathers on, which they sell, and eat the flesh. But Galen and physicians have condemned that flesh, as hard and indigestible. The emperor Heliogabalus had a fancy for the brains, when he brought six hundred ostriches' heads to one supper, only for the brains' sake; yet Leo Africa.n.u.s saith that he ate of young ostriches among the Numidians with a good gust; and, perhaps, boiled, and well cooked, after the art of Apicius, with peppermint, dates, and other good things, they might go down with some stomachs.

I do not find that the strongest eagles, or best-spirited hawks, will offer at these birds; yet, if there were such gyrfalcons as Julius Scaliger saith the duke of Savoy and Henry, king of Navarre, had, it is like they would strike at them, and, making at the head, would spoil them, or so disable them, that they might be taken.

If these had been brought over in June, it is, perhaps, likely we might have met with eggs in some of their bellies, whereof they lay very many: but they are the worst of eggs for food, yet serviceable unto many other uses in their country; for, being cut transversely, they serve for drinking cups and skull-caps; and, as I have seen, there are large circles of them, and some painted and gilded, which hang up in Turkish mosques, and also in Greek churches. They are preserved with us for rarities; and, as they come to be common, some use will be found of them in physic, even as of other eggsh.e.l.ls and other such substances.

When it first came into my garden, it soon ate up all the gilliflowers, tulip-leaves, and fed greedily upon what was green, as lettuce, endive, sorrell; it would feed on oats, barley, peas, beans; swallow onions; eat sheep's lights and livers.--Then you mention what you know more.

When it took down a large onion, it stuck awhile in the gullet, and did not descend directly, but wound backward behind the neck; whereby I might perceive that the gullet turned much; but this is not peculiar unto the ostrich; but the same hath been observed in the stork, when it swallows down frogs and pretty big bits.

It made sometimes a strange noise; had a very odd note, especially in the morning, and, perhaps, when hungry.

According to Aldrovandus, some hold that there is an antipathy between it and a horse, which an ostrich will not endure to see or be near; but, while I kept it, I could not confirm this opinion; which might, perhaps, be raised because a common way of hunting and taking them is by swift horses.

It is much that Carda.n.u.s should be mistaken with a great part of men, that the coloured and dyed feathers of ostriches were natural; as red, blue, yellow, and green; whereas, the natural colours in this bird were white and greyish. Of the fashion of wearing feathers in battles or wars by men, and women, see Scaliger, _Contra Cardan. Exercitat. 220_.

If wearing of feather-fans should come up again, it might much increase the trade of plumage from Barbary. Bellonius saith he saw two hundred skins with the feathers on in one shop of Alexandria.

BOULIMIA CENTENARIA.

There is a woman now living in Yarmouth, named Elizabeth Mich.e.l.l, an hundred and two years old; a person of four feet and half high, very lean, very poor, and living in a mean room with pitiful accommodation.

She had a son after she was past fifty. Though she answers well enough unto ordinary questions, yet she apprehends her eldest daughter to be her mother; but what is most remarkable concerning her is a kind of _boulimia_ or dog-appet.i.te; she greedily eating day and night what her allowance, friends, and charitable persons afford her, drinking beer or water, and making little distinction or refusal of any food, either of broths, flesh, fish, apples, pears, and any coa.r.s.e food, which she eateth in no small quant.i.ty, insomuch that the overseers of the poor have of late been fain to augment her weekly allowance. She sleeps indifferently well, till hunger awakes her; then she must have no ordinary supply whether in the day or night. She vomits not, nor is very laxative. This is the oldest example of the _sal esurinum chymicorum_, which I have taken notice of; though I am ready to afford my charity unto her, yet I should be loth to spend a piece of ambergris I have upon her, and to allow six grains to every dose till I found some effect in moderating her appet.i.te: though that be esteemed a great specific in her condition.

UPON THE DARK THICK MIST HAPPENING ON THE 27TH OF NOVEMBER, 1674.

Though it be not strange to see frequent mists, clouds, and rains, in England, as many ancient describers of this country have noted, yet I could not but take notice of a very great mist which happened upon the 27th of the last November, and from thence have taken this occasion to propose something of mists, clouds, and rains, unto your candid considerations.

Herein mists may well deserve the first place, as being, if not the first in nature, yet the first meteor mentioned in Scripture, and soon after the creation, for it is said, Gen. ii. that 'G.o.d had not yet caused it to rain upon the earth, but a mist went up from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground,' for it might take a longer time for the elevation of vapours sufficient to make a congregation of clouds able to afford any store of showers and rain in so early days of the world.

Thick vapours, not ascending high but hanging about the earth and covering the surface of it, are commonly called mists; if they ascend high they are called clouds. They remain upon the earth till they either fall down or are attenuated, rarified, and scattered.

The great mist was not only observable about London, but in remote parts of England, and as we hear, in Holland, so that it was of larger extent than mists are commonly apprehended to be; most men conceiving that they reach not much beyond the places where they behold them. Mists make an obscure air, but they beget not darkness, for the atoms and particles thereof admit the light, but if the matter thereof be very thick, close, and condensed, the mist grows considerably obscure and like a cloud, so the miraculous and palpable darkness of Egypt is conceived to have been effected by an extraordinary dense and dark mist or a kind of cloud spread over the land of Egypt, and also miraculously restrained from the neighbour land of Goshen.

Mists and fogs, containing commonly vegetable spirits, when they dissolve and return upon the earth, may fecundate and add some fertility unto it, but they may be more unwholesome in great cities than in country habitations: for they consist of vapours not only elevated from simple watery and humid places, but also the exhalations of draughts, common sewers, and ftid places, and decoctions used by unwholesome and sordid manufactures: and also hindering the sea-coal smoke from ascending and pa.s.sing away, it is conjoined with the mist and drawn in by the breath, all which may produce bad effects, inquinate the blood, and produce catarrhs and coughs. Sereins, well known in hot countries, cause headache, toothache, and swelled faces; but they seem to have their original from subtle, invisible, nitrous, and piercing exhalations, caused by a strong heat of the sun, which falling after sunset produce the effects mentioned.

There may be also subterraneous mists, when heat in the bowels of the earth, working upon humid parts, makes an attenuation thereof and consequently nebulous bodies in the cavities of it.

There is a kind of a continued mist in the bodies of animals, especially in the cavous parts, as may be observed in bodies opened presently after death, and some think that in sleep there is a kind of mist in the brain; and upon exceeding motion some animals cast out a mist about them.

When the cuttle fish, polypus, or loligo, make themselves invisible by obscuring the water about them; they do it not by any vaporous emission, but by a black humour ejected, which makes the water black and dark near them: but upon excessive motion some animals are able to afford a mist about them, when the air is cool and fit to condense it, as horses after a race, so that they become scarce visible.