Horren; this artery cometh up from the heart, and is departed in
twain, and the one part cometh upward, and carrieth blood, that is
purified and spirit of life to the brain; that so the spirit of
feeling may be bred, nourished, kept, and saved. The other part goeth
downward, and is departed in many manner wise toward the right side
and toward the left.
Then mark well, that a vein is the bearer and carrier of blood, keeper
and warden of the life of beasts. And containeth in itself the four
bloody humours clean and pure, which are ordained for feeding of all
the parts of the body. Moreover, a vein is hollow to receive blood the
more easily, and as it needeth in kind, that one vein bring and give
blood to another vein. Also a vein is messager of health and of
sickness. For by the pulse of the arteries and disposition of the
veins, physicians deem of the feebleness and strength of the heart.
Also if a vein be corrupt, and containeth corrupt blood, it corrupteth
and infecteth all the body, as it fareth in lepers, whose blood is
most corrupt in the veins, of the which the members are fed by sucking
of blood, and seeketh thereby corruption and sickness incurable. Also
the vein of the arm is oft grieved, constrained and wranged, opened
and slit, and wounded, to relieve the sickness of all the body by
hurting of that vein.
The spittle of a man fasting hath a manner strength of privy
infection. For it grieveth and hurteth the blood of a beast, if it
come into a bleeding wound, and is medlied with the blood. And that,
peradventure, is, as saith Avicenna, by reason of rawness. For raw
humour medlied with blood that hath perfect digestion, is contrary
thereto in its quality, and disturbeth the temperance thereof, as
authors say. And therefore it is that holy men tell that the spittle
of a fasting man slayeth serpents and adders, and is venom to venomous
beasts, as saith Basil.
A discording voice and an inordinate troubleth the accord of many
voices. But according voices sweet and ordinate, gladden and move to
love, and show out the passions of the soul, and witness the strength
and virtue of the spiritual members, and show pureness and good
disposition of them, and relieve travail, and put off disease and
sorrow. And make to be known the male and the female, and get and win
praising, and change the affection of the hearers; as it is said in
fables of one Orpheus, that pleased trees, woods, hills, and stones,
with sweet melody of his voice. Also a fair voice is according and
friendly to kind. And pleaseth not only men but also brute beasts, as
it fareth in oxen that are excited to travail more by sweet song of
the herd, than by strokes and pricks.
Also by sweet songs of harmony and accord or music, sick men and
frantic come oft to their wit again and health of body. Some men tell
that Orpheus said, "Emperors pray me to feasts, to have liking of me;
but I have liking of them which would bend their hearts from wrath to
mildness, from sorrow to gladness, from covetousness to largeness,
from dread to boldness." This is the ordinance of music, that is known
above the sweetness of the soul.
Now it is known by these foresaid things, how profitable is a merry
voice and sweet. And contrariwise is of an unordinate voice and
horrible, that gladdeth not, nother comforteth; but is noyful and
discomforteth and grieveth the ears and the wit. Therefore Constantine
saith that a philosopher was questioned, why an horrible man is more
heavy than any burden or wit. And men say that he answered in this
manner. An horrible man is burden to the soul and wit.
The lungs be the bellows of the heart. It beateth in opening of itself
that it may take in breath, and thrusting together may put it out, and
so it is in continual moving, in drawing in and out of breath. The
lungs be the proper instrument of the heart, for it keleth the heart,
and by subtlety of its substance, changeth the air that is drawn in,
and maketh it more subtle. The lungs shapeth the voice, and ceaseth
never of moving. For it closeth itself and spreadeth, and keepeth the
air to help the heat in its dens and holes. And therefore a beast may
not live under the water without stifling, but as long as he may hold
in the air that is gathered within. The lungs by continual moving
putteth off air that is gathered within, cleanseth and purgeth it, and
ministereth continual and convenable feeding to the vital spirit. And
departeth the heart from the instruments of feeling, and breedeth
foamy humours, and beclippeth aside half the substance of the heart.
And when the lungs be grieved by any occasion, it speedeth to death-
ward.
The liver hath name, for fire hath place therein, that passeth up anon
to the brain, and cometh thence to the eyen, and to the other wits and
limbs. And the liver by its heat, draweth woose and juice and turneth
it into blood, and serveth the body and members therewith, to the use
of feeding. In the liver is the place of voluptuousness and liking of
the flesh. The ends of the liver hight fibra, for they are straight
and passing as tongs, and beclip the stomach, and give heat to
digestion of meat: and they hight fibra, because the necromancers
brought them to the altars of their god Phoebus and offered them
there, and then they had answers.
The liver is the chief fundament of kindly virtue, and greatest helper
of the first digestion in the stomach, and the liver maketh perfectly
the second digestion in the stomach, in the hollowness of its own
substance, and departeth clean and pured, from unclean and unpured,
and sendeth feeding to all the members, and exciteth love or bodily
lust, and receiveth divers passions. Then the liver is a noble and
precious member, by whose alteration the body is altered, and the
liver sendeth feeding and virtues of feeding to the other members, to
the nether without mean, and to the other, by mean of the heart.
Some men ween, that the milt is cause of laughing. For by the spleen
we are moved to laugh, by the gall we are wroth, by the heart we are
wise, by the brain we feel, by the liver we love.
IV
MEDIAEVAL GEOGRAPHY
The fourteenth and fifteenth books of the "De Proprietatibus" are
treatises on the geography of the time. Very few words of the editor's
are needed to introduce them to modern readers. They may be divided
into two classes: one, interesting because of the legends they
preserve for us, the other, as reflecting the social life of the time.
The first class is represented here by the accounts of the Amazons, of
India, of Ireland, and of Finland. Here we have the outlines of the
stories--
"Of antres vast, and deserts idle,
Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven,
And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders"--
told by Othello to Desdemona.
In the other we class such accounts as those of France and of Paris,
of the Frisians, Flanders, Scotland, and Iceland. Such countries as
these were well known in the thirteenth century, and the feelings of
our author about them can be gathered easily enough. The tone of the
chapters about England and Scotland would be enough alone to prove
that Bartholomew was an Englishman, it there were no other reason to
think it.
THERE is a lake that hight lake Asphaltus, and is also called the Dead
Sea for its greatness and deepness: for it breedeth, ne receiveth, no
thing that hath life. Therefore it hath nother fish ne fowls, but
whensoever thou wouldst have drowned therein anything that hath life
with any craft or gin, then anon it plungeth and cometh again up;
though it be strongly thrust downward, it is anon smitten upward. And
it moveth not with the wind, for glue withstandeth wind and storms, by
which glue all [the] water is stint. And therein may no ship row nor
sail, for all thing that hath no life sinketh down to the ground; nor
he sustaineth no kind, but it be glued. And a lantern without its
light sinketh therein, as it telleth, and a lantern with light
floateth above.
As the Master of Histories saith, this lake casteth up black clots of
glue. In the brim thereof trees grow, the apples whereof are green
till they are ripe: and if ye cut them when they are ripe, ye shall
find ashes within them. And so it is said in the gloss; and there grow
most fair apples, that make men that see them have liking to eat of
them, and if one take them, they fade and fall in ashes and smoke, as
though they were burning.
Olympus is a mount of Macedon, and is full high, so that it is said,
that the clouds are thereunder, as Virgil saith. This mount departeth
Macedonia and Thracia, and is so high, that it passeth all storms and
other passions of the air. And therefore philosophers went up to see
the course and places of stars, and they might not live there, but if
they had sponges with water to make the air more thick by throwing and
sprinkling of water: as the Master of Histories saith.
Amazonia, women's land, is a country part in Asia and part in Europe,
and is nigh to Albania, and hath that name of Amazonia, of women that
were the wives of the men that were called Goths, the which men went
out of the nether Scythia, and were cruelly slain, and then their
wives took their husbands' armour and weapons, and resed on the
enemies with manly hearts, and took wreck of the death of their
husbands. For with dint of sword they slew all the young males, and
old men, and children, and saved the females, and departed prey, and
purposed to live ever after without company of males. And by ensample
of their husbands that had alway two kings over them, these women
ordained them two queens, that one hight Marsepia, and that other
Lampeta, that one should travail with a host, and fight against
enemies, and that other should in the mean time, govern and rule the
communities. And they were made so fierce warriors in short time, that
they had a great part of Asia under their lordship nigh a hundred
years: among them they suffered no male to live nor abide, in no
manner of wise. But of nations that were nigh to them, they chose
husbands because of children, and went to them in times that were
ordained, and when the time was done, then they would compel their
lovers to go from them, and get other places to abide in, and would
slay their sons, or send them to their fathers in certain times. And
they saved their daughters, and taught them to shoot and to hunt. And
for the shooting of arrows should not be let with great breasts, in
the 7th year (as it is said), they burnt off their breasts, and
therefore they were called Amazons. And as it is said, Hercules
adaunted first the fierceness of them, and then Achilles. But that was
more by friendship than by strength, as it is contained in deeds and
doings of the Greeks, and the Amazons were destroyed and brought to
death by great Alexander. But the story of Alexander saith not so. But
it is said that Alexander demanded tribute of the Queen of the
Amazons, and she wrote to him again by messengers in this manner.
"Of thy wit I wonder, that thou purposest to fight with women, for if
fortune be on our side, and if it hap that thou be overcome, then art
thou shamed for evermore, when thou art overcome of women, and if our
gods be wroth with us, and thou overcomest us, it shall turn thee to
little worship, that thou have the mastery of women."
The noble king wondered on her answer, and said, that it is not seemly
to overcome women with sword and with woodness, but rather with
fairness and with love: and therefore he granted them freedom and made
them subject to his empire, not with violence but with friendship and
with love.
England is the most island of Ocean, and is beclipped all about by the
sea, and departed from the roundness of the world, and hight sometimes
Albion: and had that name of white rocks, which were seen on the sea
cliffs. And by continuance of time, lords and noble men of Troy, after
that Troy was destroyed, went from thence, and were accompanied with a
great navy, and fortuned to the cliffs of the foresaid island, and
that by revelation of their feigned goddess Pallas, as it is said, and
the Trojans fought with giants long time that dwelled therein, and
overcame the giants, both with craft and with strength, and conquered
the island, and called the land Britain, by the name of Brute that was
prince of that host: and so the island hight Britain, as it were an
island conquered of Brute that time, with arms and with might. Of this
Brute's offspring came most mighty kings. And who that hath liking to
know their deeds, let him read the story of Brute.
And long time after, the Saxons won the island with many and divers
hard battles and strong, and their offspring had possession after them
of the island, and the Britons were slain or exiled, and the Saxons
departed the island among them, and gave every province a name, by the
property of its own name and nation, and therefore they cleped the
island Anglia, by the name of Engelia the queen, the worthiest duke of
Saxony's daughter, that had the island in possession after many
battles. Isidore saith, that this land hight Anglia, and hath that
name of Angulus, a corner, as it were land set in the end, or a corner
of the world. But saint Gregory, seeing English children to sell at
Rome, when they were not christened, and hearing that they were called
English: according with the name of the country, he answered and said:
Truly they be English, for they shine in face right as angels: it is
need to send them message, with word of salvation. For as Beda saith,
the noble kind of the land shone in their faces. Isidore saith,
Britain, that now hight Anglia, is an island set afore France and
Spain, and containeth about 48 times 75 miles. Also therein be many
rivers and great and hot wells. There is great plenty of metals, there
be enough of the stones Agates, and of pearls, the ground is special
good, most apt to bear corn and other good fruit. There be, namely,
many sheep with good wool, there be many harts and other wild beasts;
there be few wolves or none, therefore there be many sheep, and may be
securely left without ward, in pasture and in fields, as Beda saith.
England is a strong land and a sturdy, and the plenteousest corner of
the world, so rich a land that unneth it needeth help of any land, and
every other land needeth help of England. England is full of mirth and
of game, and men oft times able to mirth and game, free men of heart
and with tongue, but the hand is more better and more free than the
tongue.
Cedar is the name of the country in which dwelled the Ishmaelites,
that were the children of Kedar, that was Ishmael's eldest son. And
more truly they be there clept Agareni than Saraceni, though they
mistake the name of Sarah in vain, and be proud thereof, as though
they were gendered of Sarah. These men build no houses, but go about
in large wildernesses, as wild men, and dwell in tents, and live by
prey and by venison. Yet hereafter, as Methodius saith, they shall
once be gathered together, and go out of the desert, and win and hold
the roundness of the earth, eight weeks of years, and their way shall
be called the way of anguish and of woe. For they shall overcome
cities and kingdoms. And they shall slay priests in holy places, and
lie there with women, and drink of holy vessels, and tie beasts to
sepultures of holy saints, for the wickedness of the Christian men
that shall be in that time. These and many other things he doth
rehearse that Ishmaelites, men of Kedar, shall do in the world wide.
Ethiopia, blue men's land, had first that name of colour of men. For
the sun is nigh, and roasteth and toasteth them. And so the colour of
men showeth the strength of the star, for there is continual heat. For
all that is under the south pole about the west is full of mountains,
and about the middle full of gravel, and in the east side most desert
and wilderness: and stretcheth from the west of Atlas toward the east
unto the ends of Egypt, and is closed in the south with ocean, and in
the north with the river Nile. In this land be many nations with
divers faces wonderly and horribly shapen: Also therein be many wild
beasts and serpents, and also Rhinoceros, and the beast that hight
Cameleon, a beast with many colours. Also there be cockatrices and
great dragons, and precious stones be taken out of their brains,
Jacinth, and Chrysophrase, Topaz, and many other precious stones be
found in those parts, and cinnamon is there gathered. There be two
Ethiopias, one is in the east, and the other is in Mauritania in the
west, and that is more near Spain. And then is Numidia, and the
province of Carthage. Then is Getula, and at last against the course
of the sun in the south is the land that hight Ethiopia adusta, burnt;
and fables tell, that there beyond be the Antipodes, men that have
their feet against our feet. The men of Ethiopia have their name of a
black river, and that river is of the same kind as Nilus, for they
breed reeds and bullrushes, and rise and wax in one time. In the
wilderness there be many men wonderly shapen. Some oft curse the sun
bitterly in his rising and downgoing, and they behold the sun and
curse him always: for his heat grieveth them full sore. And other as
Trogodites dig them dens and caves, and dwell in them instead of
houses; and they eat serpents, and all that may be got; their noise is
more fearful in sounding than the voice of other. Others there be
which like beasts live without wedding, and dwell with women without
law, and such be called Garamantes. Others go naked, and be not
occupied with travail, and they be called Graphasantes. There be other
that be called Bennii, and it is said, they have no heads, but they
have eyes fixed in their breasts. And there be Satyrs, and they have
only shape of men, and have no manners of mankind. Also in Ethiopia be
many other wonders, there be Ethiops, saith Plinius, among whom all
four-footed beasts be brought forth without ears, and also elephants.
Also there be some that have a hound for their king, and divine by his
moving, and do as they will. And other have three or four eyes in
their foreheads, as it is said, not that it is so in kind, but that it
is feigned, for they use principally looking and sight of arrows. Also
some of them hunt lions and panthers, and live by their flesh, and
their king hath only one eye in his forehead. Other men of Ethiopia
live only by honeysuckles dried in smoke, and in the sun, and these
live not past forty years.
In the over Egypt be many divers deserts, in whom are many monstrous
and wonderful beasts. There be Pards, Tigers, Satyrs, Cockatrices, and
horrible adders and serpents. For in the ends of Egypt and of Ethiopia
fast by the well where men suppose is the head of Nilus that runneth
by Egypt, be bred wild beasts, that hight Cacothephas, the which beast
is little of body, and uncrafty of members and slow, and hath a full
heavy head. And therefore they bear it always downward toward the
earth, and that by ordinance of kind for the salvation of mankind, for
it is so wicked and so venomous, that no man may behold it right in
the face, but he die anon without remedy.
Fraunce hight Francia and Gallia also, and had first that name Francia
of men of Germany, who were called Franci: and hath the Rhine and
Germayn in the east side, and in the north-east side the mountains
Alpes Pennini: and in the south the province of Narbonne, in the
north-west the British ocean, and in the north the island of
Britain.... This land of France is a rank country, and plentiful of
trees, of vines, of corn, and of fruits, and is noble by the affluence
of rivers and fountains; through the borders of which land run two
most noble rivers, that is to wit, Rhone and Rhine. Therein be noble
quarries and stones both to build and to rear buildings and houses
upon, and therein be special manner stones, and namely in the ground
about Paris, that is most passing, namely in a manner stone that is
hight Gypsum, that men of that country call Plaster in their language,
for the ground is glassy and bright, and by mineral virtue turneth
into stone; this manner stone burnt and tempered with water, turneth
into cement, and so thereof is made edifices and vaults, walls and
diverse pavements. And such cement laid in works waxeth hard anon
again as it were stone; and in France be many noble and famous cities,
but among all Paris beareth the prize; for as sometime the city of
Athens, mother of liberal arts and of letters, nurse of philosophers,
and well of all sciences, made it solemn in science and in conditions
among Greeks, so doth Paris in this time, not only France, but also
all the other deal of Europe. For as mother of wisdom she receiveth
all that cometh out of every country of the world, and helpeth them in
all that they need, and ruleth all peaceably, and as a servant of
soothness, she sheweth herself detty to wise men and unwise. This city
is full good and mighty of riches, it rejoiceth in peace: there is
good air of rivers according to philosophers, there be fair fields,
meads, and mountains to refresh and comfort the eyen of them that be
weary in study, there be convenable streets and houses, namely for
studiers. And nevertheless the city is sufficient to receive and to
feed all others that come thereto, and passeth all other cities in
these things, and in such other like.
Though this province be little in space, yet it is wealthful of many
special things and good. For this land is plenteous and full of
pasture, of cattle, and of beasts, royal and rich of the best towns,
havens of the sea, and of famous rivers, and well nigh all about is
moisted with Scaldelia. The men thereof be seemly and fair of body and
strong, and they get many children. And they be rich of all manner
merchandises and chaffer, and generally fair and seemly of face, mild
of will, and fair of speech, sad of bearing, honest of clothing,
peaceable to their own neighbours, true and trusty to strangers,
passing witty in wool craft, by their crafty working a great part of
the world is succoured and holpen in woollen clothes. For of the
principal wool which they have out of England, with their subtle craft
be made many noble cloths, and be sent by sea and also by land into
many diverse countries.
The men of Germany call men of this land Frisons, and between them and
the Germans is great difference in clothing and in manner. For
wellnigh all men be shorn round; and the more noble they be, the more
worship they account to be shorn the more high. And the men be high of
body, strong of virtue, stern and fierce of heart, and swift and
quiver of body. And they use iron spears instead of arrows.... The men
be free, and not subject to lordship of other nations, and put them in
peril of death by cause of freedom. And they had liefer die than be
under the yoke of thraldom. Therefore they forsake dignity of
knighthood, and suffer none to rise and to be greater among them under
the title of knighthood; but they be subject to Judges that they chose
of themselves from year to year, which rule the community among them.
They love well chastity, and punish all the unchaste right grievously:
And they keep their children chaste unto the time that they be of full
age, and so when they be wedded, they get manly children and strong.