155 c Grave as, &c.] For the history of Pegu, read Mandelsa and Olearius’s Travels.

172 In military, &c.] Paris Garden, in Southwark, took its name from the possessor.

231 Though by, &c.] Promethean fire.  Prometheus was the son of Iapetus, and brother of Atlas, concerning whom the poets have feigned, that having first formed men of the earth and water, he stole fire from heaven to put life into them; and that having thereby displeased Jupiter, he commanded Vulcan to tie him to mount Caucasus with iron chains, and that a vulture should prey upon his liver continually:  but the truth of the story is, that Prometheus was an astrologer, and constant in observing the stars upon that mountain; and, that, among other things, he found the art of making fire, either by the means of a flint, or by contracting the sun-beams in a glass.  Bochart will have Magog, in the Scripture, to be the Prometheus of the Pagans.

He here and before sarcastically derides those who were great admirers of the sympathetic powder and weapon salve, which were in great repute in those days, and much promoted by the great Sir Kenelm Digby, who wrote a treatise ex professo [of his own knowledge] on that subject, and, I believe, thought what he wrote to be true, which since has been almost exploded out of the world.

267 And ’mong, &c.] Cossacks are a people that live near Poland.  This name was given them for their extraordinary nimbleness; for cosa, or kosa, in the Polish tongue, signifies a goat.  He that would know more of them, may read Le Laboreur and Thuldenus.

275 And tho’, &c.] This custom of the Huns is described by Ammianus Marcellinus, Hunni semicruda cujusvis Pecoris carne vescuntur, quasi inter femora sua & equorum terga subsertam, calefacient brevi.  P. 686. [The Huns stoutheartedly eat half-raw meat, which is warned briefly by being hedl between their thighs and their hoeses’ backs.]

283 — —­ He spous’d in India,
    Of noble House, a Lady gay. 
The Story in Le Blanc, of a bear that married a king’s daughter, is no more strange than many others, in most travellers, that pass with allowance; for if they should write nothing but what is possible, or probable, they might appear to have lost their labour, and observed nothing but what they might have done as well at home.

343 In magic he was deeply read,
    As he that made the Brazen-Head;
    Profoundly skill’d in the Black Art;
    As English Merlin for his Heart. 
Roger Bacon and Merlin.  See Collier’s Dictionary.

368 d As Joan, &c.] Two notorious women; the last was known here by the name of Moll Cutpurse.

378 e Than the Amazonian, &c.] Penthesile, Queen of the Amazons, succeeded Orythia.  She carried succours to the Trojans, and after having given noble proofs of her bravery, was killed by Achilles.  Pliny saith, it was she that invented the battle-ax.  If any one desire to know more of the Amazons, let him read Mr. Sanson.