seemeth; but as I have heard, they live not long, for their women at three years of age bear children, at six years are barren and reputed old, and the greatest age they may reach unto is nine or ten years.Ovid, in his sixth book of Metamorphoses, saith, that they are two feet long, double the reckoning of Juvenal, and that their women bear children at five years, and at eight years are old, and die soon after.

"Antonio. The common fame that goeth of them is so, and the like saith Aristotle, by these words: the cranes come out of the plains of Scythia, to the lakes above Egypt, which is where the river Nilus runneth; and it is said, that they fight in this place with the pigmies, and this is no fable, but an assured truth, that there are marvellous little men, and very little horses also; the men are about two feet and a hand-breadth high, the women breed children at five years, at eight are barren, and live not much longer. Solinus also, in treating of the self same matter, saith, that the pigmies inhabit certain hills of India, and that the longest term of their life is eight years.

"Ludovico. These authors are well wide one from another, seeing the one placeth them in Africa, and the other in the uttermost bounds of Asia, being so many thousand miles difference between them. Pomponius Mela will have their habitation to be in the farthest parts of all Africa. Some others will have it to be in Europe; for Gemafrisius, in his Cosmography, saith, that there was a ship made of leather, driven through a vehement tempest upon the coast of the kingdom of Norway, in the which were no other people than pigmies, of whose habitation there could no knowledge be had, because no man could understand their language; but according to the course of their voyage, it could not be but in some part between the west and the north, which we will farther prove, when we come to discourse thereof. It must be in some other new part of the world, or else it must be in some country contained under Europe. Pigafeta, a knight of Malta, which accompanied Magellan, in his voyage to the Indies, when he discovered the Straight, and returned back in the ship called Victoria, (which they say went round about the world) in a relation that he made to the Pope, of his strange adventures by the way, said, that being in the Archipelago, which is in the Sea of Sur, and on the other side of the Straight, there were found pigmies in a certain island, of different fashion from these, for their ears were as great as their whole body; they laid themselves down on the one, and covered themselves with the other, and were in their running exceeding swift, which, though he himself did not see, because he could not apart himself from the voyage which the ship held, yet it was in the islands there about, a thing notoriously known and manifest, and the most part of the mariners testified the same.

"Antonio. Pigafeta had need, for the credit of his report, to bring such witnesses as had seen them in person; but the matter is not great, for every man may believe herein what he list, without committing deadly sin."

Of the people of the island of the South, we have specimens even in England; except that their bones are not "like

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sinews," nor are they entirely beautiful," nor altogether "covered with hair;" but for their tongues. However, the reader shall see what manner of men they were, and then judge whether the breed be extinct or not. They are remarkable, as we have hinted, for several distinguishing traits; but

"The chiefest thing wherein they differ from us, is their tongues, which have a singular particularity given them by nature, the which is, that from their birth they are so parted and divided, that they seem to be double, so that they use them diversly, and in one instant pronounce different reasons; and which is more, they counterfeit also the voice of the birds and fowls of the air; but which is of other most admirable, they speak with two men at once-to one with the one part, and to the other with the other part of the tongue, and demanding of the one, they answer to the other, as though the two tongues were in two several mouths of two sundry men."

Leaving these "Biloquists," as Charles Brockden Brown would have called them, and other matters, we arrive at the narratives of men remarkable for strength. Among these, we hear of the Fencer Tritamio, who overcame the strongest men, although he himself was bound hand and foot; of the celebrated Milo (p. 19); of Tritormo (p. 20), who raised even the wonder of Milo; of Pero Pardo de Riba de Neyra, who griped his enemy to death, (who was a bishop to boot) after the fashion of Alcides.-We are then told of a man who remained from youth to old age without drinking, and of another who never drank in the course of his life. In short, almost every remarkable story of antiquity is brought forward and discussed. The book is prodigal in narrative and marvel beyond any other which ever came before us; and the multitude of facts, extracted from Pliny, Solinus, Sabellicus, &c. &c. is altogether without parallel. We think that there cannot be less than six hundred stories (some brief, to be sure) scattered over the six days' dialogue of The Spanish Mandevile. We are yet, it must be observed, in the "First Discourse;" the which, unless we quit it very speedily, will of itself exhaust the limit which we can afford for the criticism of the whole book: nevertheless, in this age of disinterments, we will venture upon another extract. How the Patagonians shrunk in comparison with the ancient worthies, dug up and embalmed by our friend Torquemeda. Even the mammoths could scarcely have been deemed fit companions for men, whose skulls could hold "a bushel" of brains, or for the giant son of Evander, "slain by Turnus."

"For my part, I think that this matter of giants be for the most part feigned; and though there have been great men, yet were they never so huge as they are described, for every one addeth that as he thinketh good. Solinus writeth, that it is by many authors agreed,

that no man can pass the length of seven feet, of which measure it is said that Hercules was. Yet in the time of Augustus Cæsar, saith he, there lived two men, Pusion and Secundila, of which, either of them had ten feet or more in length, and their bones are in the ossary of the Salustians; and afterwards, in the time of the Emperor Claudius, they brought out of Arabia a man called Gauara, nine feet and nine inches long; but in a thousand years before Augustus, had not been seen the like shape of men, neither since the time of Claudius; for in this our time, who is it that is not born less than his father.

"Antonio. If you mark it well, in the same chapter in which Solinus handleth this matter, he saith, that the bones of Orestes were found in Tegea, which being measured, were seven cubits long, which are more than four yards according to the common opinion; and yet this is no great disformity in respect of that which followeth; besides, saith he, it is written by antiquity, and confirmed by true witnesses, that in the wars of Crete, upon an irruption of waters, breaking up the earth with the violent impetuosity, at the retreat thereof, amongst many openings of the earth, they found in one monument a man's body, thirty-three cubits long. Among the rest that went to see this spectacle so strange, was Lucius Flaccus, the legate, and Metellus, who beholding that with their eyes, which otherwise they would not have believed, remained as men amazed. Pliny also saith, that a hill of Creta breaking, there was found the body of a man forty-five cubits long, the which some said was of Orion, and others of Ocius. And though the greatness of these two bodies be such that it seem incredible, yet far greater is that of Antheus, the which Antonio Sabellicus, in his neads, saith was found in the city of Tegana, at such time as Sartorius remained there captain-general of the Roman army, whose sepulchre being opened, and his bones measured, the length of his carcase was found to be seventy cubits; and to confirm the possibility of this, he addeth presently, that a certain host of his, a man of good credit, told him, that being in Crete, and meaning to cut down a certain tree to make therewith the mast of a ship, that self tree, by chance, was turned up by the root, under the which was found a man's head, so incredibly great, it amazed the beholders, but being rotten it fell in pieces, the teeth still remaining whole, of the which they carried one to Venice, showing it to those that desired the sight thereof, as a thing wonderful. Friar Jacobo Philippo de Bergamo writeth, in his Supplementum Chronicorum, that there was found a sepulchre, and in the same a body of admirable greatness, outreaching, as it were, in length, the high walls or buildings; it seemed that he lay sleeping; he had wounds upon him well four feet wide! at his bolster stood a candle burning, which would not go out till they bored a hole underneath, and then the light extinguished. The body, so soon as they touched it, turned into powder and ashes; round about him were written in Greek letters, these words,--Pallas, son of Evander, slain by Turnus.

"Ludovico. You would wonder more at that which Sinforianus Campegius writeth, in his book called Ortus Gallicus, alleging the authority of Johannes Bocacius, who affirmed to have seen it himself;

that in Sicilia, near to the city of Trapana, certain labourers digging for chalk under the foot of a hill, discovered a cave of great wideness, entering into the which with light, they found, sitting in the midst thereof, a man of so monstrous hugeness, that, astonished therewith, they fled to the village reporting what they had seen, and at last gathering together in great number, with weapons and torches, they returned back to the cave, where they found this giant, whose like was never heard of before; in his left hand he held a mighty staff, so great and thick as a great mast of a ship: seeing that he stirred not, they took a good heart and drew near him, but they had no sooner laid their hands upon him but he fell into ashes, the bones only remaining, -so monstrous, that the very skull of his head held in it a bushel of wheat; and his whole carcase being measured, was found to be one hundred and forty cubits long."

The next stratum of narrative comprises different stories of nations and individuals, who have attained great ages,-one, two, three, four, five hundred years! but, as we have already treated our readers with some tales on that head, from our. friend " Hermippus Redivivus," we shall pass those which illuminate the present volume, without any further mention.— We now come to Centaurs and Seamen, whereof divers tales are unfolded; and more particularly, a tradition of a certain people of Spain, called Marini, which wears a very classical complexion. From the Marini, we pass to different transformations, beginning with one effected by Tiresias, that " prophet old," and ending with a story of a husbandman's wife in Spain, who, leaving her husband, assumed man's apparel, and finally, by dint of imagination, wrought upon herself an absolute change of sex! Manuel, or Marie Pacheco, also, “ of a woman became a man," and passed into the Indies, where she "won in the wars great reputation," and afterwards married a gentlewoman, of a very noble house; but "whether she had any children or no, he writeth not."

The "second discourse" relates to the virtues of certain springs, rivers, and lakes, with some opinions touching terrestrial paradise;" but for these, we must refer the reader to the book itself.

The "third" is a discourse "entreating of fancies, visions, spirits, enchanters, charmers, witches, and hags: containing besides, divers strange matters which have happened, delightful and not less necessary to be known." In the first place, it is laid down, that illusions and apparitions of spirits chiefly proceed from "the devil;" although, it is admitted, that Aristotle and the Peripatetics, and also Democritus, disbelieved in them altogether. However, our author has not the fear of the ancients before his eyes, in this instance; but draws upon his belief largely for the entertainment of the reader. The

introductory part of this discourse, touching the Lemures, Demonia, the degrees of spirits, &c. reminds us a good deal of our old friend Burton, who had probably read this book. This part, though it is interesting to ourselves, we must omit, and resort to the stories which will probably be more generally. acceptable.

The reader may take the following, by which he will discover, that making love to nuns may be a serious matter. This is perhaps the only instance on record of a man being present at his own funeral.

"Antonio. Many things have happened, and happen daily in the world, to search the depth and bottom of whose secrets were great presumption, at which, though sometimes by signs and tokens we may give a guess, yet we must always think, that there is something hidden from us, and of this sort is that which happened to a gentleman in this our Spain, whose name, for the foulness of his endeavour, and many respects beside, I will conceal, and the name also of the town where it happened. This gentleman being very rich and noble, dealt in matters of dishonest love with a nun, the which to the end she might enjoy his abominable embracements, willed him to make a key like unto that of the church door, and she would find time and means (through her turn which she had about the service of the sachristie, and other such occasions), to meet him there. The gentleman exceedingly rejoicing at this match, caused two keys to be made, the one for the door of the church portal, and another of the church door itself, which being done, because it was somewhat far from his house, he took one night his horse, and for the more secrecy of the matter rode thither alone: being come thither about midnight, leaping off his horse, and tying him by the reins of the bridle to a convenient place, he went towards the monastery, of which opening the first door of the portal, he found that of the church open of itself, and in the church a great light, and brightness of torches and wax candles, and withall he heard voices, as it were of men singing, and doing the funeral service of some one that was deceased: at which, being amazed, he drew nearer, better to behold the manner thereof, where he might see the church to be full of friars and priests, singing these obsequies, having in the midst of them a coffin covered with black, about which were many lights and tapers burning; each of the friars, priests, and many other men besides, that seemed to assist at these funerals, having also a wax candle burning in their hands; but his greatest astonishment of all was, that he knew not one of them: after he had remained awhile beholding them, he approached near one of the friars, and asked him from whom those honourable solemnities were done, who answered him, that such a gentleman, naming his own proper name, was dead, and that they were now performing the honors of his burial. The gentleman, laughing, replied, saying he whom you speak of liveth, and you are deceived; nay, quoth the friar, you are deceived, for he is assuredly