Book 2. ihe temple ofWifdome. 225

Germany^ there was found in the Earth, a certain lit- tle 5tatue of a kind of unrcBned Mecall, naturally made; which repreiented in a round Figure, a man having a little Child at his back : and whoever hath a- hy where feen the pidure of St. ChnHopher , may eafily conceive the /hape of this. It is not long fince there was found in the Hiprc/«;^« Foreft, a (lone that naturally reprefcnted the figure of an old man with a long beard, and crowned with a Triple Crown, as the Pope of Rome is. Obferve likewife that many of thefe liones, or (jamahes , are called all by the fame name, becaufe they have always the fame fig«re. So that which reprefents the Eyes of a man, is called LeHcophthalmos : that which bears the figure of a Heart , ErtcardU : that which hath the (hape of a Tongue reprefented on it, Glofopetra : that which is figured like the Genitals, Enorchta : and if it repre- lent as well the fecret parts of a man, as of a woman, it is then called I>/>V*&c.
To the figures that are found in Plants, and Flow- ers, you may likewife adde thole which reprefent feme kind of Letters, or words ; as the Hyacinth , on which the Poet fayes, is written the Complaint of the fair Phosbus^ for having killed Hyacmhtts-^ whom he afcerward transformed into a flower of the fame name: and this Complaint of his is expreft in thefe two Letters, ai , which make up the word, Ai^ which we frequently ufe in all kinds of forrow. Nonfat is hoc Thcsho f/?, {hie enim fnit auBor benorUi) Jpfe [hos gemitus foliis irtfcribit^ (^ Hya FUs hahet injcriftum^funeftaqtie iitera duUa f/?.
The flower alfo that fprung, (according to the fi on of the fame Poet,) from the blood of the valiant Aax^ bears the two firft letters of his name Ai.
Liters
22 6 The Temple of Wifdome. Book 2.
I At era commtims medits jiuerecjue^ viroqucy Jjifcripta eft folns^ h^c nominis. t/U qnereU, As for the divers kinds of Figures that we meet withal in beads, (which we have likewife examined in the Ho/j Guide^ ) 1 have found nothing more worthy our admiration, then what I have been lately inform- ed of by Eye wkncffes : namely, that it is not long fince , that in divers parts oi Poitou it rained a certain kind of little creatures, about an inch in bignefs ; fome whereof were in the (h ape of Biihops, with a Rochet and hood, clofed up in a fhell, or skin, fo admirably that one would have thought it to have been of bur- nifhed gold : othcis were in a (hapc like Friers , with a Frock and CowUfome were of a certain horrid (hape, and others like I know not what. It is a great won- der, if this Relation come among the Frenchmen, if we have not very fpeedilyfome llrange Interpretation of the %jvelatioyt^ fucha one a5 jinantos Jerancartpu, and R:Jphael Eglimish^st given, (as we fhall (hew hereafter) oFthe dark Vifionsof /)4^/>/, by the help of certain Charadcrs found upon two Herrings taken up upon the Coaft of NorWay. But to pafs by thefc fooleries.
In the firft Book 3 where I (pake of divers fofts of Talifmans^ and prove their vertu?, according to the opinion of the Eallern parts ; you mufl take heed, that you mix not all forts ofCharadcrsand figures indiffe- rently , with thefe i'alifmans. For though many of them bear the figures of the living creatures defcribed in the Heavens, which we ufually call Conlieliations, they are not therefore pre fen t\y to pafs for true 7".t/;/- muKs ', but either fome kind of money, as that of the Duke of Brtinfwick^ whereon were engraven all the Ccleftial Signs; and that oLJfigtiJlus C^^prjOn which
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