382 | Ward, The earliest record of Filaria loa. 7 
druckt zu Franckfurt am Mayn bey Caspar Rôteln. M. D.C. XXV.« 
This repetition demonstrates its attractive and useful character. 
In addition to these editions it is necessary to mention only 
the well known English reprint under the date of 1885 in the 
series of Hakluyt Voyages. This reprint is much more accessible 
than the original of which it is a faithful copy with most valuable 
annotations. From this I may cite verbatim the text pertaining 
to the matters under discussion (p. 46): 
„Ch. VI. Of the Island and Towne of Ormus.“ „And there 
they have a common custome, that he which is King doth pre- 
sently cause al his brethren and his kinsmen of the Male kinde 
to have their eyes put forth?) which done they are all richly 
maintained during their lives for that there is a law in Ormus, 
that no blinde man may bee their king over them.“ 
Later in the same chapter one finds (p. 52), ,, here is im 
Ormus a sicknesse or common Plague of Wormes®), which growe 
in their legges, it is thought that they proceede of the water that 
they drink.“ There is no mention whatever of such worms occur- 
ring in the eyes. 
From the preceeding it appears clear thatthe plate in question 
is taken not from the account of Pigafetta’s voyage to the Congo 
region as Blanchard believed, but first occurs in van Linschoten’s 
voyage to the East Indies. Even here it is not found in the ori- 
ginal edition but is added to the later reprints only. The critics 
already cited incline to regard it purely as a product of the fer- 
tile imagination of the De Brys in spite of the vigorous state- 
ments of these brothers on the title pages of the „Icones“ regar- 
ding the accuracy of their representations. My own study of the 
plate seemed to yield internal evidence of some more extended 
knowledge on the part of the artist while at the same time it 
gave further proof of the impossibility of interpreting the plate 
as suggesting an eye worm. This accords fully with the results 
(Footnote) 2) ,,Teixera (1610) says it is a practice DEE Barbosa mentions 
this pa ps z about 1516: £ pa a The De Bry edition of Lindschoten has an imaginary 
plate, VI, which includes this.“ 
(Footnote) 6) „I. e. the socalled Guinea worms common in the tropics. The 
De Brys give a very imaginary plate to explain this and other matters related of 
Ormuz, viz., the troughs of water in which people were obliged to sleep on account 
of the heat, and the blinding of the King’s relatives. This plate is not in the original 
Dutch edition of 1596," etc. 
