Lisboa. 1672.
Father Simam de Vasconcellos probably stole this miracle from the Arabian story of Solomon, not that he is deficient in invention, but a Jesuit cannot be suspected of ignorance.
In a very old book, the Margarita Philosophica, is an account of a parasol more convenient, tho’ not in so elegant a taste as that of the wonder worker Anchieta. There is said to be a nation of one legged men, and one of these unipods is represented in a print lying on his back, under the shade of his own great foot. It is probably a classical lie.
The most quaint account of Solomon’s wisdom is in Du Bartas.
Hee knowes——
Whether the Heavens sweet-sweating kisse appear
To be Pearls parent, and the Oysters pheer,
And whether, dusk, it makes them dim withall,
Cleer breeds the cleer, and stormy brings the pale:
Whether from sea the amber-greece be sent,
Or be some fishes pleasant excrement.
He knowes why the Earth’s immoveable and round,
The lees of Nature, center of the mound;
Hee knows her mesure: and hee knows beside
How Coloquintida (duely apply’d)
Within the darknesse of the Conduit-pipes,
Amid the winding of our inward tripes,
Can so discreetly the white humour take.
Sylvester’s Du Bartas.
[77] In places where there was water we found a beautiful variety of the plover.
Niebuhr.
[78] The Camels of the hot countries are not fastened one to the tail of the other as in cold climates, but suffered to go at their will like herds of cows. The Camel driver follows singing, and from time to time giving a sudden whistle. The louder he sings and whistles, the faster the Camels go, and they stop as soon as he ceases to sing. The Camel-drivers to relieve each other sing alternately, and when they wish their beasts to brouze for half an hour on what they can find, they amuse themselves by smoking a pipe, after which beginning again to sing, the Camels immediately proceed.
Tavernier.