The third book of the works of Mr. Francis Rabelais, Doctor in Physick containing the heroick deeds of Pantagruel the son of Gargantua / now faithfully translated into English by the unimitable pen of Sir Thomas Urwhart.

CHAP. LII. How a certain kind of Pantagruelion is of that nature, that the Fire is not able to consume it. (Book 52)

I Have already related to you great and admirable things; but if you might be induced to adventure upon the hazard of believing some other Divinity of this Sacred Pantagruelion, I very willingly would tell it you. Believe it if you will, or otherways believe it not, I care not which of them you do, they are both alike to me, it shall be sufficient for my purpose to have told you the Truth, and the Truth I will tell you: But to enter in thereat, because it is of a knaggy, difficult and rugged access, this is the Question which I ask of you, If I had put within this Bottle two Pints, the one of Wine and the other of Water, throughly and exactly mingled together, how would you unmix them? After what manner would you go about to sever them, and separate the one Liquor from

the other, in such sort, that you render me the Water apart, free from the Wine, and the Wine also pure, without the In∣termixture of one drop of Water; and both of them in the same measure, quan∣tity and taste that I had embottled them? Or to state the Question otherways, If your Carr-men and Mariners, entrusted for the Provision of your Houses, with the bringing of a certain considerable number of Tuns, Punchions, Pipes, Bar∣rels and Hogsheads of Gr••ves Wine, or of the Wine of Orleans, Beanne and Mire∣vaux, should drink out the half, and af∣terwards with Water fill up the other empty halves of the Vessels as full as be∣fore; as the Limosins use to do in their Carriages by Wains and Carts of the Wines of Argenton and Sangaultier. After that, how would you part the Water from the Wine, and purifie them both in such a case. I understand you well enough; your meaning is, that I must do it with an Ivy Funnel: That is written, it is true, and the Verity thereof explored by a thousand Experiments; you have learned to do this Feat before I see it: But those that have never known it, nor at any time have seen the like, would hardly be∣lieve that it were possible. Let us never∣theless proceed.

But put the case we were now living in the Age of Silla, Marius, Caesar, and other such Roman Emperors; or that we were in the time of our ancient Druids, whose custom was to burn and calcine the dead Bodies of their Parents and Lords, and that you had a mind to drink the Ashes or Cinders of your Wives or Fathers in the infused Liquor of some good White∣wine, as Artemisia drunk the Dust and Ashes of her Husband Mansolus; or o∣therways, that you did determine to have them reserved in some fine Urn or Reli∣quary Pot, how would you save the Ashes apart, and separate them from those o∣ther Cinders and Ashes into which the Fuel of the Funeral and bustuary Fire hath been converted? Answer if you can; by my Figgins, I believe it will trouble you so to do.

Well, I will dispatch, and tell you, that if you take of this Celestial Pantagruelion so much as is needful to cover the Body of the Defunct, and after that you shall have inwrapped and bound therein as hard and closely as you can the Corps of the said deceased Persons, and sowed up the Folding-sheet with thred of the same stuff, throw it into the Fire, how great or ardent soever it be it matters not a Straw, the Fire through this Pantagruelion

will burn the Body, and reduce to Ashes the Bones thereof, and the Pantagruelion shall be not only not consumed nor burnt, but also shall neither lose one Atom of the Ashes inclos'd within it, nor receive one Atom of the huge bustuary heap of Ashes resulting from the blazing Confla∣gration of things combustible laid round about it, but shall at last, when taken out of the Fire, be fairer, whiter, and much cleaner than when you did put it in at first: Therefore it is called Asbeston, which is as much to say as incombustible. Great plenty is to be found thereof in Carpasia, as likeways in the Climate Diasienes, at ve∣ry easie rates. O how rare and admira∣ble a thing it is, that the Fire which de∣voureth, consumeth and destroyeth all such things else, should cleanse, purge and whi∣ten this sole Pantagruelion Carpasian Asbe∣ston! If you mistrust the Verity of this Relation and demand for further Con∣firmation of my Assertion a Visible Sign, as the Iews, and such incredulous Infidels use to do; take a fresh Egg, and orbicu∣larly (or rather ovally) infold it within this Divine Pantagruelion; when it is so wrap∣ped up, put it in the hot Embers of a Fire, how great or ardent soever it be, and having left it there as long as you will, you shall at last, at your taking it

out of the Fire, find the Egg roasted hard, and as it were burnt, without any Alte∣ration, Change, Mutation, or so much as a Calefaction of the Sacred Pantagruelion: For less than a Million of Pounds Sterling, modified, taken down and amoderated to the twelfth part of one Four Pence Half-penny Farthing, you are able to put it to a trial, and make Proof thereof.

Do not think to overmatch me here, by paragoning with it, in the way of a more eminent Comparison, the Salaman∣der. That is a Fib; for albeit a little or∣dinary Fire, such as is used in Dining-Rooms and Chambers, gladden, chear up, exhilerate and quicken it, yet may I war∣rantably enough assure, that in the flaming Fire of a Furnace, it will, like any other animated Creature, be quickly suffocated, choaked, consumed and destroyed. We have seen the Experiment thereof, and Galen many ages ago hath clearly demon∣strated and confirmed it, Lib. 3. De tempo∣ra mentis. And Dioscorides maintaineth the same Doctrine, Lib. 2. Do not here in∣stance in competition with this Sacred Herb the Feather Allum, or the wooden Tower of Pyrce, which Lucius Sylla was never able to get burnt; for that Arche∣laus, Governour of the Town for Mithri∣dates King of Pontus, had plaistered it all

over on the out-side with the said Allum. Nor would I have you to compare there∣with the Herb, which Alexander Cornelius called Fonem, and said that it had some re∣semblance with that Oak which bears the Misselto; and that it could neither be con∣sumed, nor receive any manner of pre∣judice by Fire, nor by Water, no more than the Misselto, of which was built (said he) the so renowned Ship Argos. Search where you please for those that will be∣lieve it, I in that Point desire to be excu∣sed. Neither would I wish you to paral∣lel therewith (although I cannot deny but that it is of a very marvellous Nature) that sort of Tree which groweth alongst the Mountains of Brianson and Ambrun, which produceth out of his Root the good Agarick; from its Body it yieldeth unto us a so excellent Rosin, that Galen hath been bold to equal it to the Turpentine: Upon the delicate Leaves thereof it retaineth for our use that sweet Heavenly Honey, which is called the Manna: And although it be of a gummy, oily, fat and greasie Sub∣stance, it is notwithstanding unconsuma∣ble by any Fire. It is in Greek and Latin called Larix. The Alpinesi name it Melze. The Antenotides and Venetians term it La∣rege; which gave occasion to that Castle in Piedmont to receive the Denomination

of Larignum, by putting Iulius Caesar to a stand at his return from amongst the Gauls.

Iulius Caesar commanded all the Yeo∣mens, Boors, Hinds, and other Inhabitants in, near unto, and about the Alps and Pi∣edmont, to bring all manner of Victuals and Provision for an Army to those places, which on the Military Road he had ap∣pointed to receive them for the use of his marching Soldiery; to which Ordinance all of them were obedient, save only those as were within the Garrison of Larignum; who, trusting in the natural Strength of the place, would not pay their Contribu∣tion. The Emperor purposing to cha∣stise them for their refusal, caused his whole Army to march streight towards that Ca∣stle, before the Gate whereof was erected a Tower, built of huge big Sparrs and Rafters of the Larch Tree, fast bound to∣gether with Pins and Pegs of the same Wood, and interchangeably laid on one another, after the fashion of a Pile or Stack of Timber, set up in the Fabrick thereof to such an apt and convenient heighth, that from the Parapet above the Portcullis they thought with Stones and Leavers to beat off and drive away such as should approach thereto.

When Caesar had understood that the chief Defence of those within the Castle did consist in Stones and Clubs, and that it was not an easie matter to sling, hurl, dart, throw, or cast them so far as to hin∣der the Approaches, he forthwith com∣manded his Men to throw great store of Bavins, Faggots and Fascines round about the Castle; and when they had made the Heap of a competent height to put them all in a fair Fire, which was thereupon incontinently done; the Fire put amidst the Faggots was so great and so high, that it covered the whole Castle, that they might well imagine the Tower would thereby be altogether burnt to Dust, and demolished. Nevertheless, contrary to all their Hopes and Expectations, when the Flame ceased, and that the Faggots were quite burnt and consumed, the Tow∣er appeared as whole, sound and entire as ever. Caesar, after a serious Consideration had thereof, commanded a Compass to be taken, without the distance of a Stone Cast from the Castle round about it there, with Ditches and Entrenchments to form a Blockade; which when the Loringians understood, they rendred themselves upon Terms: And then, by a Relation from them it was that Caesar learned the admira∣ble Nature and Vertue of this Wood;

which, of it self, produceth neither Fire, Flame nor Coal; and would therefore in regard of that rare Quality of Incombu∣stibility, have been admitted into this Rank and Degree of a true Pantagruelional Plant; and that so much the rather, for that Pan∣tagruel directed that all the Gates, Doors, Angiports, Windows, Gutters, frettized and embowed Seelings, Cans, and other whatsoever wooden Furniture in the Abby of Theleme should be all materiated of this kind of Timber. He like ways caused to cover therewith the Sterns, Stems, Cook-rooms or Laps, Hatches, Decks, Coursies, Bends and Walls of his Carricks, Ships, Galli∣oons, Galays, Brigantins, Foysts, Frigates, Crears, Barks, Floyts, Pinks, Pinnaces, Huys, Catches, Capers, and other Vessels of his Thalassian Arcenal; were it not that the Wood or Timber of the Larch-tree, being put within a large and ample Fur∣nace full of huge vehemently flaming Fire, proceeding from the Fuel of other sorts and kinds of Wood, cometh at last to be corrupted, consumed, dissipated and destroyed, as are Stones in a Lime-kill: But this Pantagruelion Asbestin is rather by the Fire renewed and cleansed, than by the Flames thereof consumed or changed. Therefore,

Arabians, Indians, Sabaeans, Sing not in Hymns and Io Paeans; Your Incense, Myrrh, or Ebony: Come, here, a nobler Plant to see; And carry home, at any rate, Some Seed, that you may propagate. If in your Soil it takes, to Heaven A thousand thousand Thanks be given; And say with France, it goodly goes Where the Pantagruelion grows.