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HARD Wl CKE 'S S CIE NCE - G SSI P. 



but as their descriptions are very vague, he thinks 

 they have mixed up a good deal of fable with them. 

 To leave, therefore, these fables, and come to the 

 true description of the Lamia, we have in hand : — 



"In the foure and thirty chapter of Esay [Isaiah] 

 we do find this beast called Lilith in the Haebrew, 

 and translated by the auncients Lamia, which is there 

 threatned to possesse Babell. Likewise in the fourth 

 chapter of the Lamentations, where it is said in our 

 English translation that the Dragons lay forth their 

 brests. In Hrebrew they are called Eihannm, which 

 by the confession of the best interpreters cannot sig. 

 nify Dragons, but sea calues being a general word for 

 strange wild beasts. How be it, the matter being wel 

 examined, it shall appeare that it must needes be this 

 Lamia, because of her great breastes, which are not 

 competible either to the Dragon or Sea calues, so 

 then we will take it for graunted by the testimony of 

 holy Scripture that there is such a beast as this. 

 Crisostimus Dion also writeth that there are such 

 beasts in some part of Libia, having a womans face 

 and very beautifull, also very large and comely shapes 

 on their breasts, such as cannot be counterfeited by 

 the art of any painter, hauing a very excellent colour 

 in their fore parts, without wings, and no other voice 

 but hissing like dragons. . . . The hinder parts of 

 this beaste are like unto a Goate, his fore legs like a 

 Beares, his vpper parte to a woman, the body scaled 

 all ouer like a Dragon,* as some have affirmed by 

 the obseruation of their bodies, when Probits the 

 Emperor brought them forth in publike spectacle." 



Gesenius in his Commentary" on Isaiah, says : 

 " Lilith is, in the popular belief of the Hebrews, a 

 female spectre in the shape of a finely dressed woman, 

 which in particular lies in wait for and kills children, 

 like the Lamise and Striges of the Romans." 



In his "Anatomy of Melancholy " Burton remarks 

 that "The Talmudists say that Adam had a wife 

 called Lilis before he married Eve, and of her he 

 begat nothing but demons. " 



One of the most remarkable animals figured in this 

 veracious history is the Mantichora. ' ' A beast, or 

 rather monster (as Ctesias writeth), is bred among 

 the Indians, hauing a treble row of teeth below and 

 aboue, whose grealnesse, roughnesse, and feete are 

 like a Lyons, his face and eares like vnto a mans, 

 his eies gray and collour red, hiss taile like the taile 

 of a Scorpion of the earth, armed with a sting, casting 

 forth sharp pointed quils, his voice like the voice of 

 a small trumpet or pipe." 



A long chapter is devoted to the Unicorn, in 

 which he discusses the probabilities of the existence 

 of such a beast, " whereof diuers people in every age 

 of the worlde haue made great question." 



The Rev. E. Topsell, however, is quite satisfied of 

 its existence, and he silences his opponents with the 

 following unanswerable arguments : — 



* It is from this description that the artist has evolved the 

 drawing, of which we gave a copy last month, omitting the 

 well developed avopuov aiColoy. 



" David, in the 92 Psalm, says, ' My horn shall 

 bee lifted vp like the horn of a Vnicorne,' whereupon 

 all Divines that ever wrote have not only collected 

 that there is a Vnicorne, but also affirme the similitude 

 to be betwixt the kingdome of Dauid and the home 

 of the Unicorne, that as the home of the Unicorne 

 is wholesome to all beasts and creatures, so should 

 the kingdom of Dauid be in the generation of Christ. 

 And do we think that Dauid would compare the 

 vertue of his kingdom and the redemption of the 

 world unto a thing that is not, or is vncertain and 

 fantastical. The Lord speaketh in this manner to 

 lob, Will the Vnicorne rest and serue, or tarry beside 

 thy cratches (Mangers, from this word is derived the 

 name of the childs game of scratch cradle, properly 

 cratch cradle or manger-cradle, in allusion to the 

 manger at Bethlehem), canst thou bind the Vnicorne 

 with a halter to thy plough to make furrows, or will 

 he make plaine the clots of the vallies ? Likewise 

 the prophecy of Esay, the 34 chap., and in many 

 other places of Scripture, whereby God himselfe 

 must needs be traduced if there be no Vnicorne in 

 the world." 



Among the varieties of sheep described, he includes 

 one of somewhat doubtful existence, viz. the Musmon 

 or Musimon of Latin authors, and which was sup- 

 posed to be a cross between a ram and a goat. 

 "Pliny makes mention of a beast called Ophion,* 

 and he saith hee found the remembrance of in the 

 Grecian books, but he thinketh that in his time 

 there was none of them to be found in the worlde ; 

 heerein he speaketh like a man that did not knowe 

 God, for it is not to be thought that hee which 

 created so many kindes of beasts at the beginning, 

 and consented of every kind two, male and female, 

 at the generall deluge, would not afterward permit 

 them to be destroyed till the worldes end, nor then 

 neither, for seeing it is apparent by holy scriptures 

 that after the world ended al Creatures and beastes 

 shall remain vpon earth as the monuments of the 

 first six daies worke of Almighty God for the further 

 manifestation of his glory, wisedome, and goodnes, 

 it is unreasonable to imagine that any of them shall 

 perish in general in this world." If this theory be 

 true, naturalists may reasonably hope to find the 

 Dodo and great Auk still existing. 



Many of our readers will, we fear, be inclined to 

 ask the use of rescuing from oblivion the errors and 

 fallacies published centuries ago. From a scientific 

 stand-point the answer must, perhaps, be in the 

 negative ; but may it not be worth our while occa- 

 sionally to take a retrospective glance, if only to 

 ascertain the progress" that has been made ? And it 

 ought also to teach us to avoid dogmatizing — one of 

 the greatest faults a scientific mind can be guilty of, 

 Apart from its scientific merits or demerits, this book 

 is of considerable interest to the student of English, 



* This, Topsell says, is identical with the Musmon. 



