CHAP, iv S Y L V A 257 



What therefore the late traveller Dampier speaks of 

 cedar, which he has seen worm-eaten, could neither 

 be that of Libanus or Bermudas, but haply of Barba- 

 dos, Jamaica, or some other species : note, that the 

 cedar is of so dry a nature, that it does not well 

 endure to be fastened with nails, from which it 

 usually shrinks, and therefore pins of the same wood 

 are better. Whatever other property this noble tree 

 is deservedly famous for, it is said to yield an oyl, 

 which above all other, best preserves the monuments 

 of the learned, books and writings ; whence cedro 

 dignus became one of the highest eulogies : But 

 whether that of the ingenius poet, 



Notandus minio, nee cedro charta notatur^ 



refers not to the colour rather, which was usually 

 red, and perhaps temper'd with this bitter oyl (as 

 some conjecture) let our antiquaries determine : The 

 horns and knobs at the ends of the rolling-staves, on 

 which those sheets of parchment, fc. (before the 

 invention of printing, and compacted covers now in 

 use) as at present our maps and geographical charts 

 (peeping out a little beyond the volume) were 

 likely colour'd with this rutilant mixture. 



Touching the diuternity of this material, 'tis 

 recorded, that in the temple of Apollo Utica, there 

 was found timber of near two thousand years old ; 

 and at Sagunti in Spain, a beam in a certain oratory 

 consecrated to Diana, which has been brought to 

 Zant, two centuries before the destruction of Troy : 

 That great Sesostris King of Egypt had built a vessel 

 of cedar of 280 cubits, all over gilded without and 

 within : And the Goddess in the famous Ephesine 



g 



