CURIOUS CREATURES. 131 



would fly out at a tangent, right into the thick of his black 

 tormentors, and, as a rule, bag a brace, right and left." 



Topsell gives some curious particulars of the Fox, and, 

 speaking of their earths, he says : " These dens have 

 many caves in them, and passages in and out, that when 

 the Terrars shall set upon him in the earth, he may go 

 forth some other way, and forasmuch as the Wolfe is an 

 enemy to the Foxe, he layeth in the mouth of his den, 

 an Herbe (called Sea-onyon) which is so contrary to the 

 nature of a Wolfe, and he so greatly terrified therewith, 

 that hee will never come neere the place where it groweth, 

 or lyeth ; the same is affirmed of the Turtle to save her 

 young ones, but I have not read that Wolves will prey 

 upon Turtles, and therefore we reject that as a fable. . . . 

 If a Foxe eat any meat wherein are bitter Almondes, they 

 die thereof, if they drinke not presently : and the same 

 thing do Aloes in their meate worke uppon them, as 

 Scaliger affirmeth upon his owne sighte or knowledge. 

 Apocynon or Bear-foot given to dogs, wolves, Foxes, and 

 all other beasts which are littered blind, in fat, or any 

 other meat, killeth them, if vomit helpe them not, which 

 falleth out very seldome, and the seeds of this hearbe 

 have the same operation. It is reported by Democritus, 

 that, if wilde rue be secretly hunge under a Hen's wing, 

 no Fox will meddle with her, and the same writer also 

 declareth for approoved, that, if you mingle the gal of a 

 Fox, or a Cat, with their ordinary foode, they shall re- 

 maine free from the danger of these beasts. 



" The medicinall uses of this beast are these : first, (as 

 Pliny, and Marcel/us affirme) a Fox sod in water until 

 nothing of the Foxe be left whole except the bones, and 

 the Legges, or other parts of a gouty body, washed, and 

 daily bathed therein, it shall drive away all paine and 



