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A Mule is called Mulus, and hath that name of Molendo, grinding, for he is vnder the yoke of Bakers, and draweth about milstones, as Isid. saith libro. 15. And the Iewes tell, that Ana Esaus ne∣phew, made first Asses and Mares, for to haue first against kinde, the kinde of mules bred and gendred as he saith: and therefore the Mule followeth the kind of the Mare, and is more than an Asse, & fairer, and swifter: but he is more slow, fouler, and lesse than an Horse, and so
the mule is a barren beast, and neuer∣thelesse a noble beast to trauaile, as Pli∣nius saith lib. 8. ca. 44. And these beasts, the Mare and the Asse desire neuer to gender together, except they be together in youth, and sucke togethers while they be coltes: therefore Heards put and set their coltes to sucke Asses, and Asse colts to sucke Mares, when they will haue such beasts gendered betwéene beasts of diuers kinde as he saith. Also he saith: that wine drinking is forbidden ye Mule. Of wilde Asses and Mares, are swifte Mules gendred, with hard féete and able to runne, and haue great riuells in the body, and are wilde in heart, and neuer∣thelesse gentle: and those that be gen∣dered betwéene a wild Asse and a Mare, passe all other. Libro septimo Aristotle speaketh of the Mule and saieth, that the more water that the mule drinketh, the more good his meate doth him. Also li. 14. the Mule hath no gall openlye séene vpon his liuer. Also lib. 21. he saith, for the mule is gendered betwéene the Asse and the Mare, he gendereth not, for the kinde of either of them, of the Asse and of the Mare is colde, and so the coldnesse of the sire and of the dam hath masterie in the mule that is gendered, and there∣fore the mule is barren, and nothing is gendred of his séede, by reason of passing colde that hath mastrie on him. Also, there it is sayd, that it hapneth, that bo∣dies of Mules be great and huge, for menstruall superfluitie passeth into nou∣rishing and féeding of the body, and the bloud that néedeth not to kinde, passeth out with vrine, & therefore ye male mules smell not to the vrin of ye female mules, as other beasts do that haue houes: and the other deale of superfluitie passeth in∣to increasing and greatnesse of the body. Therefore the female mule conceiueth but by hap and full selde, and the male Mule for he is the more hot, because of the male kind, gendreth somtime in some countries and lands, and that but by hap, but what he gendereth is straunge and occasion, as he yt is gendred betwéene an horse and an Asse, and is worthye that such a one be barren, for he is gendered against kind. Huc vs{que} Arist. li. 16.
Isaac in Dietis saith, that mules flesh is worse to nourishing and defieng than Asses flesh his dirt stamped and burnt: stauncheth bloud, if it be tempered with vineger, as Dioscorides saith, and the same dirte helpeth against stinging of of Scorpions, as he saith.
(Musmoue, a kinde of great shéepe very white, the which somtime bred in the North Iles of Scotland, as Hector Boetius affirmeth, of the bignesse of a Bucke, horned round and bending: of forme betwéene a Sheepe and a Goate, strong and swifte. Read Gesner in his additions, fol. 10.)
Additiō.