280 Fours-Footed Beastes. 



knowing that the molde, their adversary, dare not 

 followe them into the light, so that their wit in 

 flying their enemy is greater then in turning againe 

 when they are troade upon " ; and finally we com- 

 mend the follow prescription to those who are 

 troubled by these mound-raising little animals : 

 " If you whet a mowing syth in a fielde or meddow 

 upon the feast day of Christ's nativity (commonly 

 called Christmas Day), all the molles that are 

 within the hearing thereof will certainly for ever 

 forsake that fielde, meddow, or garden," though 

 in fairness we must add that Topsell considered 

 this a " superstitious conceite." 



It is not, however, when writing about familiar 

 animals that the author of the " Historic " is at his 

 best, but when he launches out into what, for want 

 of a better term, we must call heroic natural 

 history; for example, he knew all about, and 

 described and figured among the apes, the Satyre, 

 the beast called Pan, the Sphinga or Sphynx, and 

 other wonderful creatures which are certainly not 

 to be found in any modern list of Anthropoidea ; 

 but even these are but commonplace animals when 

 compared with that " fearful and terrible beast " 

 the Gorgon, one of the <( manifold and divers sorts 

 of beasts which are bred in Affricke," which he 

 figures on the title-page, where it appears with 

 cloven hoofs and a curly tail and covered with 

 scales like a Pangolin. The following is its 

 description : " It hath high and thicke eie-lids, 

 eies not very great, but much like an Oxes or 



