The Works of Sir Thomas Browne Volume III Part 26

While _Cicada_ is rendred a _Grashopper_, we commonly think that which is so called among us to be the true _Cicada_; wherein, as we have elsewhere declared,[260] there is a great mistake: for we have not the _Cicada_ in _England_, and indeed no proper word for that Animal, which the French nameth _Cigale_. That which we commonly call a Grashopper, and the French _Saulterelle_ being one kind of Locust, so rendred in the Plague of _aegypt_, and, in old Saxon named _Gersthop_.

[260] _Vulg. Err. B. 5. c. 3._

I have been the less accurate in these Answers, because the Queries are not of difficult Resolution, or of great moment: however, I would not wholly neglect them or your satisfaction, as being, Sir,

_Yours_, etc.

OF HAWKS AND FALCONRY

Ancient and Modern.

TRACT V

SIR,

In vain you expect much information, _de Re Accipitraria_, of Falconry, Hawks or Hawking, from very ancient Greek or Latin Authours; that Art being either unknown or so little advanced among them, that it seems to have proceeded no higher than the daring of Birds: which makes so little thereof to be found in _Aristotle_, who onely mentions some rude practice thereof in _Thracia_; as also in _aelian_, who speaks something of Hawks and Crows among the Indians; little or nothing of true Falconry being mention'd before _Julius Firmicus_, in the days of _Constantius_, Son to _Constantine_ the Great.

Yet if you consult the accounts of later Antiquity left by _Demetrius_ the Greek, by _Symmachus_ and _Theodosius_, and by _Albertus Magnus_, about five hundred years ago, you, who have been so long acquainted with this n.o.ble Recreation, may better compare the ancient and modern practice, and rightly observe how many things in that Art are added, varied, disused or retained in the practice of these days.

In the Diet of Hawks, they allowed of divers Meats which we should hardly commend. For beside the Flesh of Beef, they admitted of Goat, Hog, Deer, Whelp and Bear. And how you will approve the quant.i.ty and measure thereof, I make some doubt; while by weight they allowed half a pound of Beef, seven ounces of Swines Flesh, five of Hare, eight ounces of Whelp, as much of Deer, and ten ounces of He-Goats Flesh.

In the time of _Demetrius_ they were not without the practice of Phlebotomy or Bleeding, which they used in the Thigh and Pounces; they plucked away the Feathers on the Thigh, and rubbed the part, but if the Vein appeared not in that part, they opened the Vein of the fore Talon.

In the days of _Albertus_, they made use of Cauteries in divers places: to advantage their sight they seared them under the inward angle of the eye; above the eye in distillations and diseases of the Head; in upward pains they seared above the Joint of the Wing, and at the bottom of the Foot, against the Gout; and the chief time for these cauteries they made to be the month of _March_.

In great coldness of Hawks they made use of Fomentations, some of the steam or vapour of artificial and natural Baths, some wrapt them up in hot Blankets, giving them Nettle Seeds and b.u.t.ter.

No Clysters are mention'd, nor can they be so profitably used; but they made use of many purging Medicines. They purged with Aloe, which, unto larger Hawks, they gave in the bigness of a Great Bean; unto less, in the quant.i.ty of a _Cicer_, which notwithstanding I should rather give washed, and with a few drops of Oil of Almonds: for the Guts of flying Fowls are tender and easily scratched by it; and upon the use of Aloe both in Hawks and Cormorants I have sometimes observed b.l.o.o.d.y excretions.

In phlegmatick causes they seldom omitted _Stave-saker_, but they purged sometimes with a Mouse, and the Food of boiled Chickens, sometimes with good Oil and Honey.

They used also the Ink of Cuttle Fishes, with Smallage, Betony, Wine and Honey. They made use of stronger Medicines than present practice doth allow. For they were not afraid to give _Coccus Baphicus_; beating up eleven of its Grains unto a Lentor, which they made up into five Pills wrapt up with Honey and Pepper: and, in some of their old Medicines, we meet with Scammony and _Euphorbium_. Whether, in the tender Bowels of Birds, infusions of Rhubarb, Agaric and Mechoachan be not of safer use, as to take of Agary two Drachms, of Cinnamon half a Drachm, of Liquorish a Scruple, and, infusing them in Wine, to express a part into the mouth of the Hawk, may be considered by present practice.

Few Mineral Medicines were of inward use among them: yet sometimes we observe they gave filings of Iron in the straitness of the Chest, as also Lime in some of their pectoral Medicines.

But they commended Unguents of Quick-silver against the Scab: and I have safely given six or eight Grains of _Mercurius Dulcis_ unto Kestrils and Owls, as also crude and current Quick-silver, giving the next day small Pellets of Silver or Lead till they came away uncoloured: and this, if any, may probably destroy that obstinate Disease of the _Filander_ or Back-worm.

A peculiar remedy they had against the Consumption of Hawks. For, filling a Chicken with Vinegar, they closed up the Bill, and hanging it up untill the Flesh grew tender, they fed the Hawk therewith: and to restore and well Flesh them, they commonly gave them Hogs Flesh, with Oil, b.u.t.ter and Honey; and a decoction of c.u.mfory to bouze.

They disallowed of salt Meats and Fat; but highly esteemed of Mice in most indispositions; and in the falling Sickness had great esteem of boiled Batts: and in many Diseases, of the Flesh of Owls which feed upon those Animals. In Epilepsies they also gave the Brain of a Kid drawn thorough a gold Ring; and, in Convulsions, made use of a mixture of Musk and _Stercus humanum aridum_.

For the better preservation of their Health they strowed Mint and Sage about them; and for the speedier mewing of their Feathers, they gave them the Slough of a Snake, or a Tortoise out of the Sh.e.l.l, or a green Lizard cut in pieces.

If a Hawk were unquiet, they hooded him, and placed him in a Smith's Shop for some time, where, accustomed to the continual noise of hammering, he became more gentle and tractable.

They used few terms of Art, plainly and intelligibly expressing the parts affected, their Diseases and Remedies. This heap of artificial terms first entring with the French Artists: who seem to have been the first and n.o.blest Falconers in the Western part of _Europe_; although, in their Language, they have no word which in general expresseth an Hawk.

They carried their Hawks in the left hand, and let them flie from the right. They used a Bell, and took great care that their Jesses should not be red, lest Eagles should flie at them. Though they used Hoods, we have no clear description of them, and little account of their Lures.

The ancient Writers left no account of the swiftness of Hawks or measure of their flight: but _Heresbachius_[261] delivers that _William_ Duke of _Cleve_ had an Hawk which, in one day, made a flight out of _Westphalia_ into _Prussia_. And, upon good account, an Hawk in this Country of _Norfolk_, made a flight at a Woodc.o.c.k near thirty miles in one hour.

How far the Hawks, Merlins and wild Fowl which come unto us with a North-west wind in the Autumn, flie in a day, there is no clear account; but coming over Sea their flight hath been long, or very speedy. For I have known them to light so weary on the coast, that many have been taken with Dogs, and some knock'd down with Staves and Stones.

[261] _De Re Accipitraria, in 3 Books._

Their Perches seem not so large as ours; for they made them of such a bigness that their Talons might almost meet: and they chose to make them of Sallow, Poplar or Lime Tree.

They used great clamours and hollowing in their flight, which they made by these words, _ou loi, la, la, la_; and to raise the Fowls, made use of the sound of a Cymbal.

Their recreation seemed more sober and solemn than ours at present, so improperly attended with Oaths and Imprecations. For they called on G.o.d at their setting out, according to the account of _Demetrius_, t?? Te??

?p??a??sa?te?, _in the first place calling upon G.o.d_.

The learned _Rigaltius_ thinketh, that if the Romans had well known this airy Chase, they would have left or less regarded their Circensial Recreations. The Greeks understood Hunting early, but little or nothing of our Falconry. If _Alexander_ had known it, we might have found something of it and more of Hawks in _Aristotle_; who was so unacquainted with that way, that he thought that Hawks would not feed upon the Heart of Birds. Though he hath mention'd divers Hawks, yet _Julius Scaliger_, an expert Falconer, despaired to reconcile them unto ours. And 'tis well if, among them, you can clearly make out a Lanner, a Sparrow Hawk and a Kestril, but must not hope to find your Gier Falcon there, which is the n.o.ble Hawk; and I wish you one no worse than that of _Henry_ King of _Navarre_; which, _Scaliger_ saith, he saw strike down a Buzzard, two wild Geese, divers Kites, a Crane and a Swan.

Nor must you expect from high Antiquity the distinctions of Eyess and Ramage Hawks, of Sores and Entermewers, of Hawks of the Lure and the Fist; nor that material distinction into short and long winged Hawks; from whence arise such differences in their taking down of Stones; in their flight, their striking down or seizing of their Prey, in the strength of their Talons, either in the Heel and fore-Talon, or the middle and the Heel: nor yet what Eggs produce the different Hawks, or when they lay three Eggs, that the first produceth a Female and large Hawk, the second of a midler sort, and the third a smaller Bird Tercellene or Ta.s.sel of the Masle s.e.x; which Hawks being onely observed abroad by the Ancients, were looked upon as Hawks of different kinds and not of the same Eyrie or Nest. As for what _Aristotle_ affirmeth that Hawks and Birds of prey drink not; although you know that it will not strictly hold, yet I kept an Eagle two years, which fed upon Kats, Kittlings, Whelps and Ratts, without one drop of Water.

If any thing may add unto your knowledge in this n.o.ble Art, you must pick it out of later Writers than those you enquire of. You may peruse the two Books of Falconry writ by that renowned Emperour _Frederick_ the Second; as also the Works of the n.o.ble Duke _Belisarius_, of _Tardiffe_, _Francherius_, of _Francisco Sforzino_ of _Vicensa_; and may not a little inform or recreate your self with that elegant Poem of _Thua.n.u.s_.[262] I leave you to divert your self by the perusal of it, having, at present, no more to say but that I am, _etc._

[262] _De Re Rustica._

OF CYMBALS, Etc.

TRACT VI

SIR,

With what difficulty, if possibility, you may expect satisfaction concerning the Musick, or Musical Instruments of the Hebrews, you will easily discover if you consult the attempts of learned men upon that Subject: but for Cymbals, of whose Figure you enquire, you may find some described in _Bayfius_, in the Comment of _Rhodius_ upon _Scribonius Largus_, and others.

As for ??a??? ??a????? mentioned by S. _Paul_,[263] and rendred a _Tinckling Cymbal_, whether the translation be not too soft and diminutive some question may be made: for the word ??a????? implieth no small sound, but a strained and lofty vociferation, or some kind of hollowing sound, according to the Exposition of _Hesychius_, ??a???ate ?????sate t?? f????. A word drawn from the l.u.s.ty shout of Souldiers, crying ??a?? at the first charge upon their Enemies, according to the custom of Eastern Nations, and used by Trojans in _Homer_; and is also the Note of the Chorus in _Aristophanes_ ??a?a? ?? pa???. In other parts of Scripture we reade of loud and high sounding Cymbals; and in _Clemens Alexandrinus_ that the Arabians made use of Cymbals in their Wars instead of other military Musick; and _Polyaenus_ in his _Stratagemes_ affirmeth that _Bacchus_ gave the signal of Battel unto his numerous Army not with Trumpets but with Tympans and Cymbals.

[263] Cor. 13. 1

And now I take the opportunity to thank you for the new Book sent me containing the Anthems sung in our Cathedral and Collegiate Churches: 'tis probable there will be additions, the Masters of Musick being now active in that affair. Beside my naked thanks I have yet nothing to return you but this enclosed, which may be somewhat rare unto you, and that is a Turkish Hymn translated into French out of the Turkish Metre, which I thus render unto you.

_O what praise doth he deserve, and how great is that Lord, all whose Slaves are as so many Kings!_

_Whosoever shall rub his Eyes with the dust of his Feet, shall behold such admirable things that he shall fall into an ecstasie._

_He that shall drink one drop of his Beverage, shall have his Bosome like the Ocean filled with Gems and pretious Liquours._