Mediaeval Lore from Bartholomew AnglicusBartholomaeus, Anglicus, active 13th century
History
Mediaeval Lore from Bartholomew Anglicus
Bartholomaeus, Anglicus, active 13th century
Civilization, Medieval; Science, Medieval
In this bird [the vulture] the wit of smelling is best. And therefore
by smelling he savoureth carrions that be far from him, that is beyond
the sea, and ayenward. Therefore the vulture followeth the host that
he may feed himself with carrions of men and of horses. And therefore
(as a Diviner saith), when many vultures come and fly together, it
tokeneth battle. And they know that such a battle shall be, by some
privy wit of kind. He eateth raw flesh, and therefore he fighteth
against other fowls because of meat, and he hunteth fro midday to
night, and resteth still fro the sunrising to that time. And when he
ageth, his over bill waxeth long and crooked over the nether, and [he]
dieth at the last for hunger.
And some men say, by error of old time, that the vulture was sometime
a man, and was cruel to some pilgrims, and therefore he hath such pain
of his bill, and dieth for hunger, but that is not lawful to believe.
Jorath saith, that there is a great fish in the sea, that hight
Bellua, that casteth out water at his jaws with vapour of good smell,
and other fish feel the smell and follow him, and enter and come in at
his jaws following the smell, and he swalloweth them and is so fed
with them. Also he saith that Dolphins know by the smell if a dead
man, that is on the sea, ate ever of Dolphin's kind; and if the dead
man hath eat thereof, he eateth him anon; and if he did not, he
keepeth and defendeth him fro eating and biting of other fish, and
shoveth him, and bringeth him to the cliff with his own working?
Enchirius is a little fish unneth half a foot long: for though he be
full little of body, nathless he is most of virtue. For he cleaveth to
the ship, and holdeth it still stedfastly in the sea, as though the
ship were on ground therein. Though winds blow, and waves arise
strongly, and wood storms, that ship may not move nother pass. And
that fish holdeth not still the ship by no craft, but only cleaving to
the ship. It is said of the same fish that when he knoweth and feeleth
that tempests of wind and weather be great, he cometh and taketh a
great stone, and holdeth him fast thereby, as it were by an anchor,
lest he be smitten away and thrown about by waves of the sea. And
shipmen see this and beware that they be not overset unwarily with
tempest and with storms.
The crab is enemy to the oyster. For he liveth by fish thereof with a
wonderful wit. For because that he may not open the hard shell of the
oyster, he spieth and awaiteth when the oyster openeth, and then the
crab, that lieth in await, taketh a little stone, and putteth it
between the shells, that the oyster may not close himself. And when
the closing is so let, the crab eateth and gnaweth the flesh of the
oyster.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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