[124] In “the Ceremonies to be observed at the Coronation of His most Excellent Majesty King George IV.,” the order of the procession is given, the first item of all being “the King’s Herbwoman with her six maids, strewing the way with Herbs.” [125] In this mysterious isle also “there ben wylde gees that han two Hedes, and ther ben Lyouns all white and als grete as oxen, and many othere dyverse Bestes.” [126] There is a notion in Cheshire that this complaint can be cured by holding a toad or frog for a few minutes within the child’s mouth, at the imminent risk, one would imagine, of choking the patient. In Norfolk, they had greater faith in giving the child milk to drink that a ferret had previously lapped at. [127] “The knops or heads are holow within, and for the most part hauing wormes in them, the which you shall find in cleaning the heads. The small wormes that are founde within the knops of teasels do cure and heale the quartaine ague, to be worne or tied about the necke or arme.”—_Lyte’s translation of Dodœns_, A.D. 1586. [128] Judges, chap. xiv. [129] Dryden’s Translation. [130] This old writer, not being aware of the various stages of egg, larva, pupa, and imago through which butterflies and moths pass, is much perplexed over the silkworm, “whether I may name it a worme or a flie,” he says, “I cannot tell. For sometimes it is a worm, sometimes a flie, and sometimes neither worm nor flie, but a little seed which the dying flies leave behinde them.” [131] Apart from these various monsters, and the hundreds of others that bear them company, Aldrovandus seems to have been always accessible to anyone who would bring him one wonder the more; hence he also figures a bunch of grapes terminating in a long beard; representations of cloud-warriors in conflict in the sky; comets like blazing swords, and many other wonderful things that set our ancestors wondering in fear and amazement as to what such portents should signify. [132] “To be shewn at the Royal Infirmary of this city, price sixpence, the largest and most beautiful lion that was ever seen in this country. Also an Egyptian mummy, lately sent as a present to the Infirmary by Alexander Drummond, Esq., Consul of the Turkey Company at Aleppo. Likewise a very large horn of a sea unicorn, which all connoisseurs acknowledge to be a remarkable curiosity. “N.B.—As the money collected on this occasion is to be applied solely for the relief of the Indigent Sick in the said Hospital, therefore if persons of Substance and Distinction shall give more, it will be thankfully accepted on behalf of the distressed Patients.”—_Edinburgh Chronicle_, 1758.