Natural history in Shakespeare's time : being extracts illustrative of the subject as he knew it / Made by H. W. Seager, M. B., &c. Also pictures thereunto belonging.

  • Seager, H. W. (Herbert West), 1848-
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Natural history in Shakespeare's time : being extracts illustrative of the subject as he knew it / Made by H. W. Seager, M. B., &c. Also pictures thereunto belonging. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    [After the account given above of the way in which Indians get the gold from the ants, Sir John Mandeville adds]: AxD in other times when it is not so hot, and that the Pismires [Ants] ne rest them not in the earth, then they get gold by their subtilty. They take mares that have young colts or foals, and lay upon the mares void vessels made therefor; and they be all open above, and hanging low to the earth; and then they send forth the mares for to pasture about those hills, and withhold the foals with them at home. And when the Pismires see those vessels they leap in anon, and they have this kind, that they let nothing be empty among them, but anon they fill it, be it what manner of thing that it be ; and so they fill those vessels with gold. And when that the folk suppose that the vessels be full they put forth anon the young foals, and make them to neigh after their dams ; and then anon the mares return towards their foals, with their charges of gold ; and then men discharge them, and get gold enough by this subtility. For the Pismires will suffer beasts to go and pasture amongst them ; but no man in no wise (chap. XXX.). If you stamp Lupins (which are to be had at the Apothecaries') and therewith rub round about the bottom or lower part of any tree, no Ants or Pismires will go up and touch the same tree. Lupton 5 Notable Things, bk. iv. § 77. If you burn the shells of snails with Styrax, and then sprinkle thereof upon an Ants'-hill, thereby they will be driven forth of the ground or place where they ai^e. Ibid., bk. X. § 77. V. Pismire. Ape. Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 2, 181. Cymbeline, i. 6, 39. Apes have knowledge of elements, and be sorry in the full of the moon, and be merry and glad in the new of the moon. Of Apes be five manner kinds, of whom some have tails ; and some be like to an hound in the face, and in the body like to an Ape. Some be rough and