STRANGE BEASTS OF CHINA. 231 



Coffee agitateth Choler ; but this Liquor in all Seasons hath one 

 and the same effect. Concerning this Plant, see more in Marti- 

 nius his Atlas Sinicus. 



In the Province of Quantung groweth a Plant call'd Chisung, 

 that is, We otherwise ; for the Manners, as Father Martinius re- 

 lateth, do by the number and distance of the Knots growing there- 

 on, predict how many Tempests shall be throughout the whole 

 Year, and when they shall happen. 



There is said to be a Lake near the City Vuting in the Province 

 of Hunnam, which is call'd Hociniao, on every side beautifully 

 surrounded with Trees ; the Leaves that fall from them are chang'd 

 into small Birds of a black Colour, in such numbers, that the In- 

 habitants suppose them to be Spirits. So Martinius in his Atlas. 

 The like to these are reported to be in Scotland and elsewhere., 

 as Soland Geese, Clack-Geese, and Barnicles. 



The Atlas of China mentions an Herb in the Province of Ha- 

 quang, call'd Pusu, which liveth a thousand years, and hath the 

 vertue of restoring Youth, and changing Gray Hairs into Black ; 

 the truth of which may well be doubted. 



There are such a variety of Fruit-Trees in China, that they 

 answer to all the Products of that nature in every Climate of the 

 World, whether in the Torrid, Temperate or Frozen Zones; but 

 amongst them all she boasts of one Tree that bears no Fruit, as we 

 may say, and yet abounds with delicious Variety ; it is call'd by 

 the Chineses for its thorny and prickly Leaves, Po-lo-mie ; and 

 instead of Buds and Blossoms it thrusts forth Excrescencies of a 

 prodigious size, bigger than our largest Pumpions, and not unlike, 

 some of them as much as a Man can carry ; the Rind is tough 

 and bristly, which opened, affordeth a Store-house of delicious 

 Varieties, enough to satisfy twenty Persons, insomuch that the 

 Chineses call it A Sack full of' Honey Fruit, the meanest of which 

 for taste, as some report, excels the choicest of our Mellons. 



Shortly after becomes poetical in describing the Sea 

 Horse, the Royal Fum, and other " strange beasts ; " 



" I have (saith he) annexed a double Scheme of the true Sea- 

 " Horse, of which when I was at Mozambique, I saw a great Com- 

 " pany wallowing in the Sea in a Creek on the Sands. The judge 

 " of the City Mozambique sent the Head of an Hippopatame unto 

 "the Colledge, that I might peruse it; which measuring, I found 

 " it in length three Cubits from the Mouth to the Shoulders : on 

 " the lower Jaw it had two high bended Teeth, unto which in the 



