102 CURIOUS CREATURES. 



body by violence ; and being thus emptied, he returns 

 to the carcasse, and fills himself top full ; and then he 

 presseth again through the same narrow passage, and 

 goes back to the carkasse, till he hath devoured it all ; 

 and then he hunts eagerly for another. It is supposed 

 he was created by nature to make men blush, who eat 

 and drink till they spew, and then feed again, eating 

 day and night, as Mechovita thinks in his Sarnmtia. 

 The flesh of this Creature is altogether uselesse for man's 

 food ; but his skin is very commodious and pretious. 

 For it is of a white brown black colour, like a damask 

 cloth wrought with many figures ; and it shews the more 

 beautiful, as by the Industry of the Artist it is joyn'd 

 with other garments in the likenesse or colour. Princes 

 and great men use this habit in Winter, made like 

 Coats ; because it quickly breeds heat, and holds it long ; 

 and that not onely in Swethland, and Gothland, but in 

 Germany, where the rarity of these skins makes them to 

 be more esteemed, when it is prised in ships among 

 other Merchandise. 



"The Inhabitants are not content to let these skins 

 be transported into other Countries, because, in Winter, 

 they use to entertain their more noble guests in these 

 skins ; which is a sufficient argument that they think 

 nothing more comely and glorious, than to magnifie at 

 all times, and in all orders their good guests, and that 

 in the most vehement cold, when amongst other good 

 turns they cover their beds with these skins. 



" And I do not think fit to overpasse, that when men 

 sleep under these skins, they have dreams that agree 

 with the nature of that Creature, and have an insatiable 

 stomach, and lay snares for other Creatures, and prevent 

 them themselves. It may be that it is as they that eat hot 



