Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden maonachi Cestrensis; together with the English translations of John Trevisa and of an unknown writer of the fifteenth century.

Capitulum secundum.

Augustinus de Civitate Dei, libro sexto decimo, capitulo septimo. A question may be movede of suche mervayles in nature wheder thei come of Adam or of Noe, as men callede Cyclopes, hauenge oon eie in the forehede. And somme be [folio 81a] seide to haue either kynde as the ryȝhte pappe of a man and the lifte of a woman, other while gendrenge to gedre and to conceyve. Also in other places hit is seide women of the age of v. yere to childe, and not to excede the viij^the yere from the natiuite of theyme, and somme men have thees with owte a homme of grete swiftenes, whiche peple be callede Sciopode, [stropode or scropode, Harl. MS.] in that thei lyenge in the somer tyme with theire faces vpwarde, defende alle theire body thro the schado of theire foote. To the whiche question we say that hit is [not] necessary a man to beleve the kyndes of alle men whiche be seide to be; neuerthelesse the same reason may be assignede of the monstruous peple whiche

we schewede afore of the monstruous partes. For God knowethe how euery thynge awe to be create, and how he scholde dispose the pulcritude of the vniversite in hit, in similitude of partes either in dissimilitude. In oure tyme and age a childe was borne in the este, dowble in the superior parte vn to the myddes of the bely, and single from that place downewarde, ȝitte for alle that we schalle not [haue] diffidence but that he come of Adam. Therefore won|drefulle or monstruous thynges, other thei be not in eny wyse, or if thei be thei ar noo men, or if thei be men with owte eny dowte thei toke theire originalle of Adam. And that somme men say, as in fables, men callede Antipodas to be, that is to say, men to be in a contrarious parte of the worlde, and to trede with theire feete ageyne oure stappes; hit is not credible by eny reason, neither the cognicion of eny story dothe not expresse hit to be soo, but that the coniecture of man movethe that thynge. For thauȝhe the erthe be rownde and conuexede with ynne, neuerthelesse hit is not bare of þat parte, sithe that hit is circumamicte with waters, and thauȝhe the erthe were bare þer, hit wolde not

folowe by a directe consequente that the erthe scholde con|teyne men in that parte. ℞. Perauenture but if we vnder|stonde Antipodas men so namede in that maner as Mar|cianus dothe in his Astrology, seyenge that Capricorne [folio 81b] makethe somer to men called Antipode, and Cancer wynter; whiche thynge is supposede to be caused ouer the sowthe parte of Ethioppe, for the stappes þer be oblike and con|trarious to theyme whiche dwelle abowte the yle callede Tyle vnder that pole artike. Isidorus, Eth., libro xj ^o. The creaciones of wondres be causede otherwhile to the

significacion of thynges to comme, and then thei lyve not longe; as a fox was foolede of a mare in the tyme off Xerses kynge of Persa. And also þer was suche a wondre in the tyme of Alexander the Conquerour, the superior partes of whom were of a man, but dedde, and the partes inferialle were of diuerse bestes, and in lyfe, whiche signifiethe or signifiede the soden dethe of kynge Alexander, for the more vile partes lyvede more longe then the partes more nowble. Isidorus, libro xj., capitulo ultimo. And mon|struous transformaciones of men in to bestes be made other|while thro charmes of wicches and wikkede operaciones of yerbes. Somme thynges receyve mutacion by theire nature, somme thynges goe in to other kyndes by corrupcion, as bees of roten calfes, and vermyn callede scarabei of cor|rupte

horses, cancres and scorpiones of mules. Augustinus, libro octavo, capitulo sexto. As vn to the monstruous trans|formaciones of men, hit is to be holden that the deuelles and ylle men may not create eny nature, neither chaunge that is create; neuerthelesse thei may thro the permission of God transfigurate similitudes, so that the thynge fan|tasticalle of a man that he [that he] These words should be cancelled apparently.] seethe diuerse similtudes, as in thenkenge other in dremenge, the wyttes corporealle op|pressede; sithe hit is no tru body, ȝit hit dothe appere as to straunge wittes as a thynge corporealle in the similitude of somme beste, and hit apperethe to hym suche as he did see in dreames and to bere burdones. But and if the ordre of trawthe be considerate, the burdones be borne of deuelles. ℞. We schalle expresse more of this mater after the batelle of Troye.