CURIOUS CREATURES. 163 



" When an elephant has happened to devour a chame- 

 leon, which is of the same colour with the herbage, 

 it counteracts this poison by means of the wild olive. 

 Bears, when they have eaten of the fruit of the Man- 

 drake, lick up numbers of Ants. The Stag counteracts 

 the effect of poisonous plants by eating the artichoke. 

 Wood pigeons, jackdaws, blackbirds, and partridges, 

 purge themselves once a year by eating bay leaves ; 

 pigeons, turtle-doves, and poultry, with wall pellitory, or 

 helxine; ducks, geese, and other aquatic birds of a similar 

 nature, with the bulrush. The raven, when it has killed 

 a chameleon, a contest in which even the conqueror 

 suffers, counteracts the poison by means of laurel." 



THE Su. 



Topsell mentions a fearful beast called the Su. 

 " There is a region in the new-found world, called 

 Gigantes, and the inhabitants thereof, are called Patagones; 

 now, because their country is cold, being far in the South, 

 they cloath themselves with the skins of a beast called 

 in their owne toong Su, for by reason that this beast liveth 

 for the most part neere the waters, therefore they cal it 

 by the name of Su, which signifieth water. The true image 

 thereof, as it was taken by Thenestus, I have heere in- 

 serted, for it is of a very deformed shape, and monstrous 

 presence, a great ravener, and an untamable wilde beast. 



" When the hunters that desire her skinne, set upon 

 her, she flyeth very swift, carrying her yong ones upon 

 her back, and covering them with her broad taile ; now, 

 for so much as no dogge or man dareth to approach 

 neere unto her, (because such is the wrath thereof, that 

 in the pursuit she killeth all that commeth near her :) 

 The hunters digge severall pittes or great holes in the 



