THere are two things which are in this, as all former Ages, worthy of the severest reproof, and they are Credulity, or a too light and easie belief on the one hand; and Incredulity, when men will not acknowledg or assent unto what is reasonably inferred; and this later too frequently befalls Wise men, though as absurd as the appre­hensions of Fools, and the credulity of the peo­ple which promiscuously swallow any thing. We are not intending to obtrude upon the World any far-fetcht Forraign matter, which a man had much better to believe than to go to prove or to [Page 4] beg your compassion from some Poetical Meta­morphosis, but briefly & in the words of truth to give you the Relation of some few matters which have by the Attestation of many Credible Witnes­ses, hapned here within our own World since the later end of July last. The things indeed some of them for their matter and circumstance so strange and unheard-of, that I have not met with a Parallell in any Ancient or Modern Inquirer in­to the strange Accidents of present or past Times.

In the Town of Lichfield in Staffordshire, a place of remark, in its being a Bishops See, on the one and thirtieth day of July last, being Saturday, be­tween the hours of twelve and one a clock, in the time of a full Market, (that being a market-day there) on a suddain there appeared an innumera­ble Swarm of Pismires or Ants with wings, which by their close keeping in a body, therewith and with their wings clouded and made dark the Skye; So many of them setled together in the Market-Place, and in several other Streets and Houses, that the ground was covered, and the [Page 5] market-people so annoyed, that they were for­ced to break up and be gone sooner by far then they used to do; for by Three of the Clock in the Afternoon the whole Market was dissolved: both People and Horses so grievously stung and tor­mented therewith, that they were forced to make what escape they could from them: Some Hor­ses through the torment of their stinging ran up and down more like wilde Creatures, than such as had been accustomed to the Saddle or burdens. Several of the Workmen that were imployed about the repair of Lichfield Minster, were stung with them: And the People that were at Har­vest, Work in the Fields, were forced to leave their businesse. After their continuance in this manner for three or four hours, or more, many of them fell down dead both in the Streets and Hou­ses, but especially in the Streets in such prodigi­ous quantities, that the Horses Hoofs were cove­red over treading among them: and not much lesse number in the houses, so that the People were compelled to sweep them out together; which being by that means brought together, made several heaps of them, to the bignesse of a [Page 6] bushell of Corn or larger; They were judged by severall of those that saw them, to have come out of the East. At length, the living remainder of them, which was not small, took their Flight to the Towns-end towards the North, where di­viding themselves, as it were, into two bodies, they parted, some of them flying one way, some ano­ther: yet notwithstanding left both their terrour and marks behind them among the People, who at the strangenesse of the Prodigy were so much affrighted, that they knew not what to say or do, but very much admired the strangenesse of the thing. These Pismires or Ants were not like those that are commonly found in Mole-hills, but a great deal bigger; they were judged to be about the bignesse of a Spider.

The like thing about the same time happened (with some small varying circumstances) about the City of Coventry in Warwick-shire, twenty miles from Lichfield, where multitudes of them fell, and in several other places; but we need not run over the Particulars anew, to trouble the Rea­der twice with one thing.

[Page 7] This is the substance of what is received from persons of Eminency and Reputation, of whom Mr. Archbold, Register, is one, Mr. Boylston an Apothecary; Mr. John Rawlins, Town-Clerk; Mr. Samuel Mar [...]and, one of His Majesties Ser­vants, and Mr. James Rixam, all Eye-witnesses thereof, besides many more, which would be too tedious here to mention.