“~ 
Thetwoand thirtieth Booke ee 
perforce, yea and hold as prifoners our goodly tall and proud thips, fo well armed in the beake- G 
head with yron pikes andbrafen tines ; {0 offenfive and daungerousto bouge and pierce any ene- 
‘mie fhip which they doe encountre, Certes, reported itis, that in the naval] battaile before Ac- 
tiun,wherein Antonis and Cleopatra the queene were defeited by Auguffus,one of thefe fithes 
ftaied the admiral] thipwherein C1. Antonius was, at what time as he made all the haft & means 
he could devife wich helpe of ores,to encourage his people from fhip to thip,and could not pre- 
-vaile, uaull he was forced to abandon the {aid admirall and goe into another galley.Mean-while 
the armada of Augufius Cefar {eeing this diforder, charged with greater violence,andfoone in- 
vetted the fleet of Antonie. Of late daies alfo, and within our remembrance, the like happened 
to theRoiall fhip of the Emperour Caiws Caligula,at what time as he rowed backe,and made faile _ 
from Aftura to Antium ; when and where, this little fith detained his thip, and (as it fell our af- H 
terwatd) prefaged an unfortunat event thereby? for this was the laft time thar ever this Emperor 
made his returne to Rome: and no fooner was hee arrived, buthis owne fouldiours in a mutinie 
fell upon him,and {tabbed him to death. And yet it was not long ere the caufe of this wonderfull 
ftay of his {hip wasknowne: for fofoone as ever the veffell (and a galliace it was, furnithed with 
five banks of ores to.a fide) was perceived alone inthe fleet to ftand ftill, prefently a number of 
tall fellows leapt ont of their fhips into the fea, to fearch about thefaid galley, what the reafon 
might be thar it {tirred not? and found one of thefe fithes {ticking faft to the verie helme: which 
being reported unto Caiws Caligula, he fumed and fared as an Emperour, taking great indigna- 
tion cirac fo fmall a thing as it ,fhould hold him backe perforce,and checke the ftrength of all his _ 
inariners notwithftanding there were no fewer than foure hundred luftie men in his galley that ~4 
laboured atthe ore all that ever they could to the contrarie. But this prince (as itis forcertaine 
knowne) was moft aftonied at this, namely, That the fith {ticking onely tothe {hip, fhould hold 
itfaft; and thefame being brought into the fhip and there laid, not worke the like effec, They. 
who atthat cme and afterward faw the fith,repore,that it refembled for all che worlda {naile ofthe 
ereatelt making: but as touching the forme and fundrie kinds thereof, many have written- die 
verfly, whofe opinions] have fet downein my treatife of living creatures belonging tothe wa- 
ters, and namely in the particular difcourfe of this fith, Neither doe I doubt butall the fort of 
fifhes are able to doe as much: for this wee are to beleeve, that Pourcellans alfo be of the fame 
vertuc, fince it was wellknowne by a notorious example, that one of them did thelike by a fhip 
fent from Periander to the cape of Gnidos: in regard whereof, the inhabitants of Gnidos doe x 
honour and confecratthe faid Porcellane within their temple of Yeas. Some of our Latin wri- 
ters doe call the faid fifth that thus ftaieth a fhip, by the name of Remora. 
As touching the medicinable properties of the faid ftay-fhip Echeneis or Remora (call it 
whether you will) a wondrousmatter it isto{ee the varietie of Greeke writers: for fome of them 
(as I have fhewed before) dae hold, that if a woman have it faftened either about her neck,arme, 
or otherwife, fhe thall goe out her full time if fhe were with child: alfo,that it will reduce her ma- 
trice into the right place, if it were too loofeand readie to hang out of herbodie, Orhers againe 
report the contraric, namely, That if it be keptin falt and bound to any part of a woman great y 
with child and in paine of hard travaile, irwill caufe herto have prefent deliverance; for which 
*iLoofe-  yertue, they call it by another name * Odinolyon, Well,however it be, confidering that mightie 
| a puiffance which this fith is well knowne to have in ftaying fhips,who will ever make doubt here- 
after of any power in Nature her felfe, or of the effectuall operation in Phyficke, which fhe hath 
given to many things that come up by themfelves. But fay wee had no fuch evidence by the ex- 
ainple of this Echeneis 3 the Cramp-fith Torpedo found and taken Jikewife in the fame fea, were 
fufficient alone to proove the mightof Nature in her workes, if there were nothingelfe to fhew 
the fame: for able the isto benum and mortifie the arms of the luftieft and ftrongeft fithers that 
be;yea and to bind their leggs as it were, how {wift and nimble foever they are otherwife in run- 
ning :and how?even by touching onely the end of apole, or any part of ananglerod, which 
they hold in their hands, although they {tand aloftand a great way from her. Nowif wee cannot 
will nor chufe, but muft needs confefle by the evidentinftance of this one fith, thatthereisfome M 
thing in nature fo penetrant and powerfull, that the verie{mell onely ot breath and aire procee- 
ding fromit, is able thus to affe@, or infe@ rather the principal limsand members of ourbo- 
die ; what is it thatwee are notto hope forand expe from the vertue ofall othercreatures that 
Nature (through her bountie) hath-endued with medicinable powerfor the remedie of — 
uae : n 
