CRITICAL NOTICES OP NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



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iiyghe 2000 myle in circuyt. With something of the bearing of a 

 botanist, he speaks of the trees that beren mele, hony, wyn, and ve- 

 nym, and of othere mervayilles and customes used in the yles march- 

 inge thereabouten. This yle, he tells you, is fulle wel inhabyted : 

 there growen alle maner of spicerie, more plentyfous liche than in 

 ony other contree ; as of gyngevere, clowegylofres, canelle, zede- 

 walle, notemuges, and maces. And wytethe wel that the notemuge 

 berethe the maces ; for righte as the note of the haselle bathe an 

 husk with outen, that the note is closed intil it be ripe and aftre fall- 

 ethe out, righte so it is of the notemuge and of the maces. Manye 

 other spices and manye other godes growen in that yle. As Pliny 

 the naturalist had done before him, Sir John avouches the existence 

 of certain extraordinary lacustrine canes found in this island, and he 

 concludes his summary of their uses, with the asseveration — and deme 

 no man that I seye it but for a trufFule, for I have seen of the Cannes, 

 with myn owne eyzen fulle manye times, lyggynge upon the ry vere of 

 that lake, of the whiche 20 of oure felowes ne myghten not liften up ne 

 beren on to the erthe. Among the yles in the See Occean, he con- 

 tinues, there is a gret yle and good and fayr, and men clepen it Na- 

 cumera, and it is in kompass aboute more than a 1000 myle. And 

 alle the men and women han Houndes Hedes, and thei ben clept Cy- 

 nocephali, and thei ben fulle resonable and of gode undirstondynge, 

 saf that thei worschipen an Ox for here god. And also everyche of 

 hem berethe an ox of gold or of sylver in his forhed, in token that 

 thei loven wel here god. And thei gon alle naked saf a lityelle clout 

 that thei coveren with here knees and hire members. Thei ben grete 

 folke and wel fyghtynge, and thei han a gret targe that coverethe 

 alle the bodye, and a spere in here bond to fighte with. And zif thei 

 taken ony man in bataylle, anon thei eten him. Here stands the cy- 



VOL. X., NO. XXVIII 



