68 The Animal-Lore of Shakspeares Time. 
Olaus Magnus distinguishes between martens and 
sables:— 
“Martins and sables are creatures of cold countries. All know 
them by their names, but few by their virtues, unless by the quality 
of their skins a man may know what creatures they are. . . . 
They will bite terribly for their bigness, for they have teeth naturally 
as sharp as razours, and exceeding small and sharp nails. But. as 
their flesh is said to be nothing worth, so their skins are of huge prices, 
especially among forrainers, that use them more for their pleasure than 
commodity. The difference between them is this, that the martins 
are of a grosser fur from the crown of their head to their tail, but not 
if you rub them the contrary way: but the sabels are not so ; for if you 
stroak them with your hand from their tail to their crowns, they are 
equally smooth, because they are furry, and their hair is thicker; and 
therefore they are sooner eaten by the worms then other skins are, 
unless they are constantly used, or wormwood leaves put between them 
to preserve them. And if sable skins are laid in the sun to dry, they 
will consume more in one day than if they were worn a whole year. 
When the beast is alive he always lyes in some shady grove, and gets 
his living by lying in wait for small birds.” (Page 184.) 
Topsell (p. 755) writes thus 
“ Of the zebel, commonly called a sabell.—Among all the kindes of 
weasels, squirrels, wood-mice, wilde-mice, or other little 
Sable, beasts of the world, there is none comparable to this 
zebeth. It is bred in Muscovia and the northerne 
partes of the worlde, among the Lapones, but no where more plentifull 
then in Tartaria, Scythia, and Sarmasia; and it is therefore called by 
some Mas Scythicus, the Scythian mouse. In the furthest part of 
Lithuania they have little or no mony, and therefore the marchants 
which traffick thither do exchange their wares for zebel or sabel skins. 
Those are the best which have most white and yellow haires mingled 
in them, and the garments of princes are onely fringed and lined 
with these sabel skinnes; and honorable matrons, auncient noble men 
and their wives, doe likewise use two or three of these to weare about 
their neckes. For it is certaine that a garment of these skinnes is 
much deerer then cloth of gold; and I have heard, and also read, that 
there have beene two thousand duckets payed for so many as were 
put in one cloake.” 
As a besant is supposed to have been equivalent to a 
ducat, the following passage from Marco Polo’s Travels, 
