Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/295

 sayn. Als soon as this fische is awalknit, silo maks her to loup with grit fure into the see, and fra she fynd hirseff fast she wry this hir out of hir awn skin and dels. Of the fatness that scho lies is maid oulie in grit quantitie, and of hir skin is maid strong cabills."

"In Murrayland, in the kirke of Pette, the bains of lytill John remains in grit admiration of the pepill. He has been fourteen feit of hight, with square members efFeiring thairto. Sax yeirs afore the cumin of this werk to light, we saw his hansh bain als meikle as the liaill bain of ane man, for we shut our arm in the mouth thairof, by quhilk appeirs how strang and square pepill grew in our region afore they war efieminat with lust and intemperance of mouth." Spare diet seems to have been, in the estimation of our author, the all in all of human excellence, whether mentally or corporeally, and its disuse has certainly never been more eloquently bewailed than in the following paragraph:—"I belief nane lies now sic eloquence nor fouth [plenty] of language that can sufficiently declare how far we in thir present dayis ar different fra the virtew and temperance of our eldaris. For quhare our eldaris had sobreatie, we have cbreitie and drunkness; quhare they had plentie with sufficence, we have immoderate desiris with superfluities; as he Avar maist nobyl and honest that could devore and swelly maist; throw quhilk we engorge and fillis ourself day and nycht sa full of meitis and drinkis, that we can nocht abstane quhill our wambe be sa svvon, that it is unable to ony virtewous occupation, and nocht allanerly may surfect denners and sowpar suffice, bot also we must continue our shameful vorasitie with dubell denners and sowpars, throw quhilk mony of us gang-is to na uthir bisines bot to fill and tume our wambe. Na fische in the see, nor fowle in the aire, nor beist in the wood, may haif rest, bot ar socht here and thair to satisfy the hungry appelitis of gluttonis. Nocht allanerly are wynis socht in France, bot in Spayne, Italy, and Greece, and sumtyme baith Aphrick and Asya ar socht for new delicious meitis and wynis to the samyn effect. The young pepill and bairnis follow thir unhappie customes of thair faderis, and givis themself to lust and insolence, havind all vertewous craftis in contemption, and sa whan tyme of weir occurris, they are sa effeminat and soft, that they pass on hors as heavie martis, and are sae fat and grown that they may do na thing in compare of the soverane manheid of thair antecessors. Als sun as they ar returnit hame becaus thair guddis ar not sufficient to nuris them in voluptuous life and pleasur of thair wambe, they are given to all maneir of avarice, and outhir castis them to be strang and maSsterful theves, or else sawers of dissention amang the nobyllis."

Perhaps, after all, the last paragraph of Boece's Cosmography of Scotland might have been sufficient to attest his character: "Thus it were needful to put an end to our Cosmographie, were not an uncouth history tarryis a litill my pen. Mr Jame Ogilby, with uther nobylmen, wes send as ambassatouris frae the maist nobill prince king James the feird to the kyng of France, and be tempest of see they war constrainit to land in Norway, quhare they saw nocht far fra thaim raony wild men nakit and ruch, on the sam maner as they war painted. At last they got advertising by land wart pepill that they war doum beestis under the figur of men, quha in tyme of nicht usit to come in grit companies to land wart villages, and quhan they fand na doggis they brek up doris, and slays all the pepill that they fynd thair intill. They are of sa huge strenth that they pull up treis by the rutis and fechts thairwith amang thaimself. The ambassatouris war astonist at thir monstouris, and made strick watches with grit fyres birnand all nicht, and on the morrow they pullit up sails and dcpairtit. Forther the Nor. way men schow that there wes also nocht far fra thaim an pepill that swomit all the symer, like fische in the see, leifand on fische, bot in the winter, because the