תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

COX (BROTHERS) AND WYMAN, GREAT QUEEN STREET,

LINCOLN'S-INN FIELDS.

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

PSEUDODOXIA EPIDEMICA, Books V. TO VII.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

.. 216

.. 219

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

PSEUDODOXIA EPIDEMICA.

THE FIFTH BOOK:

THE PARTICULAR PART CONTINUED.

OF MANY THINGS QUESTIONABLE AS THEY ARE COMMONLY DESCRIBED IN PICTURES; OF MANY POPULAR CUSTOMS, ETC.

CHAPTER I.

Of the Picture of the Pelican.

AND first, in every place we meet with the picture of the pelican, opening her breast with her bill, and feeding her young ones with the blood distilled from her. Thus is it set forth not only in common signs, but in the crest and scutcheon of many noble families; hath been asserted by many holy writers, and was an hieroglyphick of piety and pity among the Egyptians; on which consideration they spared them at their tables.1

1 And first, &c.] These singular birds are said to fish in companies; they form a circle on the water, and having by the flapping of their huge wings, driven the terrified fish towards the centre, they suddenly dive all at once as by consent, and soon fill their immense pouches with their prey. In order subsequently to disgorge the contents, in feeding their young, they have only to press the pouch on their breast. This operation may very probably have given rise to the fable, that the pelican opens her breast to nourish her young.

As to its hieroglyphical import, Horapollo says that it was used among the Egyptians as an emblem of folly; on account of the little care it takes to deposit its eggs in a safe place. He relates that it buries them in a hole; that the natives, observing the place, cover it with dry cow's dung, to which they set fire. The old birds immediately endeavouring to extinguish the fire with their wings, get them burnt, and so are easily caught.-Horap. Hicrogl. cura Pauw, 4to. Traj. ad Rh. 1727, pp. 67, 68.

[blocks in formation]

Notwithstanding, upon enquiry we find no mention hereof in ancient zoographers, and such as have particularly discoursed upon animals, as Aristotle, Elian, Pliny, Solinus, and many more; who seldom forget proprieties of such a nature, and have been very punctual in less considerable records. Some ground hereof I confess we may allow, nor need we deny a remarkable affection in pelicans toward their young; for Elian, discoursing of storks, and their affection toward their brood, whom they instruct to fly, and unto whom they redeliver up the provision of their bellies, concludeth at last, that herons and pelicans do the like.

As for the testimonies of ancient fathers, and ecclesiastical writers, we may more safely conceive therein some emblematical, than any real story: so doth Eucherius confess it to be the emblem of Christ. And we are unwilling literally to receive that account of Jerom, that perceiving her young ones destroyed by serpents, she openeth her side with her bill, by the blood whereof they revive and return unto life again. By which relation they might indeed illustrate the destruction of man by the old serpent, and his restorement by the blood of Christ: and in this sense we shall not dispute the like relations of Austin, Isidore, Albertus, and many more; and under an emblematical intention, we accept it in coat-armour.

As for the hieroglyphick of the Egyptians, they erected the same upon another consideration, which was parental affection; manifested in the protection of her young ones, when her nest was set on fire. For as for letting out her blood, it was not the assertion of the Egyptians, but seems translated unto the pelican from the vulture, as Pierius hath plainly delivered. Sed quòd pelicanum (ut etiam aliis plerisque persuasum est) rostro pectus dissecantem pingunt, ita ut suo sanguine filios alat, ab Egyptiorum historia valde alienum est, illi enim vulturem tantùm id facere tradiderunt.

And lastly, as concerning the picture, if naturally examined, and not hieroglyphically conceived, it containeth many improprieties, disagreeing almost in all things from the true and proper description. For, whereas it is commonly set forth green or yellow, in its proper colour it is inclining to white, excepting the extremities or tops of the wing feathers, which are brown. It is described in the bigness of a hen,

« הקודםהמשך »