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 straightness of the chest, as also lime in some of their pectoral medicines.

But they commend unguents of quicksilver against the scab and I have safely given six or eight grains of mercurius dulcis unto kestrils and owls, as also crude and current quicksilver, giving the next day small pellets of silver or lead till they came away uncoloured: and this, if any [way], 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 until the flesh grew tender, they fed the hawk therewith: and to restore and well flesh them, they commonly gave them hog's flesh, with oil, butter, and honey; and a decoction of cumfory to bouze.3

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 bats: 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 through 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 strewed 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 shell, 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 entering with the French

3 bouze.] MS. Sloan. 1827, reads "drink; and had a notable medicine

against the inflammation of the eyes, by juice of purslain, opium, and saffron."

artists who seem to have been the first and noblest 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 fly from the right. They used a bell, and took great care that their jesses should not be red, lest eagles should fly 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* 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 county of Norfolk made a flight at a woodcock 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, fly 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 knocked down with staves and stones.

Their perches seemed not so large as ours: for they made them of such a bigness that their talons might almost meet: and they choose to make them of sallow, poplar, or lime tree.

They used great clamours and hallowing 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 seem more sober and solemn than ours at present, so improperly attended with oaths and imprecations. For they called on God at their sitting out, according to the account of Demetrius, τὸν Θεὸν ἐπικαλέσαντες, in the first place calling upon God.

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

De Re Rustica.

upon the heart of birds. Though he hath mentioned divers hawks, yet Julius Scaliger, an expert falconer, despaired to reconcile them unto ours. And 't is 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 noble 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 eyes and ramage hawks, of stores 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 middler sort, and the third a smaller bird, tercellene, or tassel, of the male sex; which hawks being only 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 cats, kitlings, whelps, and rats, without one drop of water.

If anything may add unto your knowledge in this noble 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 Emperor, Frederick the Second; as also the works of the noble Duke Belisarius, of Tardiffe, Francherius, of Francisco Sforzino of Vicensa; and may not a little inform or recreate yourself with that elegant poem of Thuanus.* I leave you to divert yourself by the perusal of it, having, at present, no more to say but that I am, &c.

*De Re Accipitraria, in 3 books. †

Or more of late by P. Rapinus in verse.-MS. Note of Evelyn's.

TRACT VI.

OF CYMBALS, ETC.

SIR,

WITH What difficulty, if possibility, you may expect satisfaction concerning the music, or musical instruments of the Hebrews, you will easily discover if you consult the attempts of learned men upon that subject: but for the 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 xiußaλov áλaλáľov mentioned by St. Paul,* and rendered a tinkling cymbal, whether the translation be not too soft and diminutive, some question may be made: for the word aλaλálov implieth no small sound, but a strained and lofty vociferation, or some kind of hallowing sound, according to the exposition of Hesychius, αλαλάξατε ἐνυψώσατε τὴν φωνήν. A word drawn from the lusty shout of soldiers, crying ảλaλà at the first charge upon their enemies, according to the custom of the eastern nations, and used by the Trojans in Homer; and is also the note of the chorus in Aristophanes ἀλαλαὶ ἡ παιών. In other parts of scripture we read of loud and high sounding cymbals; and in Clemens Alexandrinus, that the Arabians made use of cymbals in their wars instead of other military music; and Polyænus in his Stratagems affirmeth that Bacchus gave the signal of battle unto his numerous army, not with trumpets but with tympans and cymbals.

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: 't is probable there will be additions, the masters of music being now active in that affair. Beside my naked thanks I have yet nothing to return you but this 1 Cor. xiii, 1.

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 ecstacy.

"He that shall drink one drop of his beverage, shall have his bosom like the ocean, filled with gems and precious liquors.

"Let not loose the reins unto thy passions in this world: he that represseth them shall become a true Solomon in the faith.

"Amuse not thyself to adore riches, nor to build great houses and palaces.

"The end of what thou shalt build is but ruin.

Pamper not thy body with delicacies and dainties; it may come to pass one day that this body may be in hell.

Imagine not that he who findeth riches, findeth happiness. He that findeth happiness is he that findeth God.

"All who prostrating themselves in humility shall this day believe in Vele,* if they were poor, shall be rich; and if rich, shall become kings."

After the sermon ended, which was made upon a verse in the Alcoran containing much morality, the Dervises in a gallery apart sung this hymn, accompanied with instrumental music, which so affected the ears of Monsieur du Loir, that he would not omit to set it down, together with the musical notes, to be found in his first letter unto Monsieur Bouliau, prior of Magny.

Excuse my brevity: I can say but little where I understand but little. I am, &c.

Vele, the founder of the convent.