128 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[June 1, 1867. 



we shall find, that "the Instruction of Children 

 having been always thought, by wise Men, of great 

 Use, both with regard to the present Age, and to 

 Posterity; and most of the Books, which have been 

 made use of to introduce Children into an Habit of 

 Reading, being such as tend rather to cloy than 

 entertain them." The anonymous author has ex- 

 tracted from "the most considerable Authors," 

 a short account of all the Beasts, Birds, In- 

 sects, and Pishes. He somewhat magniloquently 

 closes the preface by sayiug, " If this brief Essay 

 shall any Ways contribute to the End proposed, let 

 God have the Glory, and the Compiler the Good 

 Wishes and Prayers of Parents." It will be observed 

 that throughout my extracts I carefully followed 

 the somewhat primitive punctuation and typography 

 of the original. Every substantive is commenced 

 with a capital letter, as in modern German. 



There are three of the Animals described which 

 have apparently become extinct in later years ; 

 unless, indeed, some of your readers, who are so 

 widely scattered over the world, can personally 

 testify to having encountered them. Eirst, on page 

 19, we read that "the Manticora (or, according to 

 the Persians, Mantiora), a Devourer, is bred among 

 the Indians ; having a triple Bow of Teeth beneath 

 and above, and in Bigness and Roughness like a 

 Lion's ; as are also his Peet ; Pace and Ears like a 

 Man's ; his Tail like a Scorpion's, armed with a 

 Sting, and sharp-pointed Quills. His Voice is like 

 a small Trumpet or Pipe. He is so wild 'tis very 

 difficult to tame him; and as swift as an Hart. 

 With his Tail he wounds the Hunters, whether they 

 come before or behind him. When the Indians 

 take a Whelp of this Beast, they bruise its Buttocks 

 and Tail, to prevent its bearing the sharp Quills ; 

 then it is tamed without Danger." 



On the next page a still more marvellous creature 

 is described, i. e., " The Lamia, concerning which 

 there are many fictitious Stories, is (according to 

 the Opinion of some Writers) the Creature men- 

 tioned in the 31-th Chapter of Isaiah, called in 

 Hebrew, Liliath ; as also the same which [is men- 

 tioned in the 4th of Lamentations. It is thought 

 to be the swiftest of all four-footed Creatures, so 

 that its Prey can seldom or never escape it ; And 

 by its Praud it destroys Men, (or, when it sees a 

 Man, it lays open its Breast, aud entices him to 

 draw near ; and when it has him within Reach, it 

 falls upon and devours him. It is said to be bred 

 in Libya; and to have a Pace and Breasts like a 

 very beautiful Woman. It has no Voice but that 

 of hissing like a Serpent. Its hinder Parts are like 

 a Goat's, its fore Legs like a Bear's ; its Body is 

 scaled all over. It is said, they sometimes devour 

 their own young." 



It is almost superfluous to add that there appears, 

 in his turn, "The Unicom, a Beast which, tho' 

 doubted of by many Writers, yet it is by others thus 



described : He has but one Horn, and that an 

 exceeding rich one, growing out of the Middle of 

 his Porehead. His head resembles an Hart's, his 

 Peet an Elephant's, his Tail a Boar's, aud the rest 

 of his Body an Horse's. The Horn is about a Poot 

 and a half in Length. His Voice is like the Low- 

 ing of an Ox. His Mane and Hair are of a yellowish 

 Colour. His Horn is as hard as Iron, and as rough 

 as any Pile, twisted or curled like a flaming Sword ; 

 very straight, sharp and everywhere black, excepting 

 the Point. Great Virtues are attributed to it, in 

 expelling of Poison, and curing of several Diseases. 

 He is not a Beast of Prey." 



A picture of the Whale-Fishery, on p. 132, is 

 very curious, the seamen being dressed in long coats 

 resembling a soldier's tunic, and in triangular 

 cocked-hats — rather a different style of dress from 

 that indulged in by modern sailors. On arriving 

 at the Serpents, after a very terrible description of 

 divers Dragons, of which the author very wisely 

 says, "it may be justly questioned whether they 

 exist," we find the Cockatrice described as "Called 

 the King of Serpents, not from his Bigness, for he 

 is much inferior, in this Respect, to a great many 

 Serpents ; but because of his majestic Pace, for he 

 does not creep upon the Ground, like other Serpents, 

 but goes half-upright ; for which Cause all other 

 Serpents avoid him ; and it seems, Nature designed 

 him that Pre-eminence, by the Crown or Coronet 

 upon his Head. Writers differ concerning the 

 Production of this Animal. Some are of Opinion 

 that it is brought forth of a Cock's Egg, and fed 

 upon by a Snake, or Toad, and so becomes a Cocka- 

 trice, &c." 



The last extract I have space for is a story on 

 p. 200, concerning a combat between a spider and 

 toad, which runs as follows: — "A certain Earl 

 travelling near Woburn in Bedfordshire, some of 

 his Company espied a Toad fighting with a Spider, 

 under a Hedge by the High-way Side, whereat they 

 stood still, till the Earl came also to behold the 

 same ; and there he saw how the Spider still kept 

 her Standing, and the Toad divers times went back 

 from the Spider, and did eat a Piece of an Herb like a 

 Plantain ; at last, the Earl having seen the Toad do 

 it often, and still return to the Combat against the 

 Spider, ordered one of his Men to go and cut off 

 that Herb ; which he performed, and brought it 

 away. Presently after the Toad returned to seek it, 

 and, not finding it, according to her Expectation, 

 swelled and burst asunder ; for, having received 

 Poison from the Spider in the Combat, Nature 

 taught her the Value of that Herb, to expel and 

 drive it out ; but wanting the Herb, the Poison did 

 instantly work, and destroy her." Here is valu- 

 able evidence for the correspondents who wrote 

 lately in Science - Gossip about the " Spider's 

 Poison Vessels " ! Of course, in the preceding 

 extracts, I have merely quoted the descriptions 



