produce Monsters by another way then that which we spake of before for even after they are brought forth we may fashion them into a monstrous shape even as we list for as we may shape young fruits as they grow into the fashion of any vessel or case that we make for them to grow into as we may make a Quince like a mans head a Cucumber like a Snake by making a case of that fashion for them to grow in so also we may do by the births of living Creatures Hippocrates in his book of Air and Water and Places doth precisely set down the manner hereof and sheweth how they do it that dwell by the River Phasis all of them being very long-headed whereas no other Nation is so besides And surely Custom was the first cause that they had such heads but afterward Nature framed her self to that Custome insomuch that they esteemed it an honourable thing to have a very long head The beginning of that Custome was thus As soon as the child was new born whiles his head was yet soft and tender they would presently crush it in their hands and so cause it to grow out in length yea they would bind it up with swathing bands that it might not grow round but all in length and by this custom it came to passe that their heads afterward grew such by nature And in process of time they were born with such heads so that they needed not to be so framed by handling for whereas the generative seed is derived from all the parts of the body sound bodies yielding good seed but crazie bodies unsound seed and oftentimes bald fathers beget bald children and blear-eyed fathers blear-eyed children and a deformed father for the most part a deformed childe and the like also cometh to passe concerning other shapes why should not also long-headed fathers generate long-headed children But now they are not born with such heads because that practise is quite out of use and so nature which was upheld by that custom ceaseth together with the custom So if we would produce a two-legged Dog such as some are carried about to be seen we must take very young whelps and cut off their feet but heal them up very carefully and when they be grow to strength join them in copulation with other dogs that have but two legs left and if their whelps be not two-legged cut off their legs still by succession and at the last nature will be overcome to yield their two-legged dogs by generation By some such practise as you heard before namely by handling and often framing the members of young children Mid-wives are wont to amend imperfections in them as the crookednesse or sharpnesse of their noses or such like CHAP. XIX Of the wonderful force of imagination and how to produce party-coloured births PLutark in his rehearsal of the opinions of Philosophers writes that Empedocles held that an infant is formed according to that which the mother looks upon at the time of conception for saith he women were wont to have commonly pictures and images in great request and to bring forth children resembling the same Hippocrates to clear a certain womans honesty that had brought forth children very unlike their parents ascribed the cause of it to a certain picture which she had in her chamber And the same defence Quintilian useth on the behalf of a woman who being her self fair had brought forth a Black-moor which was supposed by all men to be her slaves son Damascen reports that a certain young woman brought forth a child that was all hairy and searching out the reason thereof he found the hiary image of Iohn Baptist in her chamber which she was wont to look upon Heliodorus begins that excellent history which he wrote with the Queen of Aethiopia who brought forth Chariclea a fair daughter the cause whereof was the fable of Andromeda pictured in that chamber wherein she lay with the King We read of some others that they brought forth horned children because in the time of their coition they looked upon the fable of Actaeon painted before them Many children have hare-lips and all because their mothers being with child did look upon a Hare The conceit of the mind and the force of Imagination is great but it is then most operative when it is excessively bent upon any such thing as it cannot attain unto Women with child when they long most vehemently and have their minds earnestly set upon any thing do thereby alter their inward spirits the spirits move the blood and so imprint the likenesse of the thing mused upon in the tender substance of the child And surely all children would have some such marks or other by reason of their mothers longing if this longing were not in some sort satisfied Wherefore the searchers out of secrets have justly ascribed the marks and signes in the young ones to the imagination of the mother especially that imagination which prevails with her in the chiefest actions as in coition in letting go her seed and such like and as man of all other living creatures is most swift and fleeting in his thoughts and fullest of conceits so the variety of his wit affords much variety of such effects and therefore they are more in mankind then in other living creatures for other creatures are not so divers minded so that they may the better bring forth every one his like in his own kind Iacob was well acquainted with this force of imagination as the Scriptures witnesse for endeavouring To bring forth party-coloured Sheep he took that course which I would wish every man to take that attempts any such enterprize He took certain Rods and Poles of Popler and Almond-tree and such as might be easily barked and cut off half the rine pilling them by white strakes so that the Rods were white and black in several circles like a Snakes colour Then he put the Rods which he had pilled into the gutters and watering-troughs when the Sheep came to drink and were in heat of conception that they might look upon the Rods. And the Sheep conceived before the Rods and brought forth young of party-colours and with small and great spots A delightful sight it was Now afterward Iacob parted these Lambes by themselves and turned the faces of the other Sheep towards these party-coloured ones about the time of conception whereby it came to passe that the other Sheep in their heat beholding those that were party-coloured brought forth Lambs of the like colour And such experiments might be practised upon all living Creatures that bear wool and would take place in all kinds of beasts for this course will prevail even in Generating party-coloured Horses A matter which Horse-keepers and Horse-breeders do practise much for they are wont to hang and adorn with tapestry and painted clothes of sundry colours the houses and rooms where they put their Mares to take Horse whereby they procure Colts of a bright Bay colour or of
wouldst bring forth any monsters by art thou must learn by examples and by such principles be directed as here thou mayest find First thou must consider with thy self what thing are likely and possible to be brought to passe for if you attempt likely matters Nature will assist you and make good your endeavours and the work will much delight you for you shall see such things effected as you would not think of whereby also you may find the means to procure more admirable effects There be many reasons and wayes whereby may be generated Monsters in Man First this may come by reason of inordinate or unkindly copulations when the seed is not conveyed into the due and right places again it may come by the narrownesse of the wombe when there are two young ones in it and for want of room are pressed and grow together again it may come by the marring of those thin skinnes of partition which nature hath framed in a womans wombe to distinguish and keep asunder the young ones Pliny writes that in the year of Caius Laelius and Lucius Domitius Consulship there was born a maid-child that had two heads four hands and was of double nature in all respects and a little before that a woman-servant brought forth a child that had sour feet and four hands and four eyes and as many ears and double natured every way Philostratus in the life of Apollonius writes that there was born in Sicily a boy having two heads I my self saw at Naples a boy alive out of whose breast came forth another boy having all his parts but that his head only stuck behind in the other boyes breast and thus they had sticken together in their mothers wombe and their navils also did cling each to other I have also seen divers children having four hands and four feet with six fingers upon one hand and six toes upon one foot and monstrous divers other wayes which here were too long to rehearse By the like causes may Monsters be generated in Beasts We shewed before that such beasts as bring forth many young ones at one burthen especially such as have many cells or receits in their wombe for seed do oftenest produce Monsters Nicocreon the Tyrant of Cyprus had a Hart with four horns Aelianus saw an Oxe that had five feet one of them in his shoulder so absolutely made and so conveniently placed as it was a great help to him in his going Livy saith that at Sessa-Arunca a City in Italy there was eaned a Lambe that had two heads and at Apolis another Lambe having five feet and there was a kitling with but three feet Rhases reports that he saw a Dog having three heads And there be many other like matters which I have no pleasure to speak of But it may seem that Monsters in Birds may be more easily produced both in respect that they are more given to lust and because also they bear in their bodies many egges at once whereby they may stick together and easily cleave each to other and besides this those birds that are by nature very fruitfull are wont to lay egges that have two yelkes For these causes Columella and Leontinus the Greek give counsel to air and purge the houses where Hennes are and their nests yea and the very Hennes themselves with Brimstone and pitch and torches and many do lay a plate of iron or some nailes heads and some Bay-Tree boughs upon their nests for all these are supposed to be very good preservatives against monstrous and prodigious births And Columella reports farther that many do strew grasse and Bay-Tree boughs and heads of Garlick and iron nails in the Hens nests all which are supposed to be good remedies against thunder that it may not marre their egges and these also do spoil all the imperfect chickens if there be any before ever they grow to any ripenesse Aelianus reporteth out of Apion that in the time of Oeneus King of the South there was seen a Crane that had two heads and in another Kings daies another bird was seen that had four heads We will shew also how to hatch A chicken with four wings and four feet which we learn out Aristotle Amongst egges some there are oft-times that have two yelkes if the Hennes be fruitful for two conceptions cling and grow together as being very near each to other the like whereof we may see in the fruits of Trees many of them being twins and growing into each other Now if the two yelks be distinguished by a small skinne then they yield two perfect chickens without any blemish but if the yelks be meddled one with another without any skinne to part them then that which is produced thereof is a Monster Seek out therefore some fruitful Hennes and procure some of the perfectest egges that they lay you may know which are for your purpose by the bignesse of them if not then hold them against the Sun and you shall discern both whether there be in them two yelks and also whether they be distinguished or no and if you finde in them such plenty of matter that you see they are for your turn let them be sitten upon their due time and the chickens will have four wings and four legges but you must have a special care in bringing them up And as some egges have two yelkes so there are some that have three but these are not so common and if they could be gotten they would yield chickens with six wings and sixs legges which be more wonderful There hath been seen a small Duck with four feet having a broad thin bill her fore-parts black her hinder-parts yellow a black head whitish eyes black wings and a black circle about her neck and her back and tail black yellow feet and not standing far asunder and she is at this day kept to be seen at Torga No question but she was generated after the same manner as we spake even now of chickens So they report of a Pigeon that was seen which had four feet And many such monsters we have oft-times hatcht at home for pleasure sake So also are Serpents generated having many heads and many tailes Aristotle writes of certain Serpents that they may be generated after the same manner to have many heads The Poets and the ancient devisers of Fables do speak much of that Hydra Lâ—rnaea which was one of Hercules labours to overcome which Fiction was without all question occasioned by these kinds of Monsters And whilst I was imployed about the writing of this present work there was in Naples a Viper seen alive which had two heads and three cloven tongues and moved every one of them up and down I my self have seen many Lizards that had two or three tails which the common people most foolishly esteem to be a jest and it cannot be but these were generated of such egges as had two yelks CHAP. XVIII Of certain other waies how to produce monstrous births WE may also
breeding young bones hang up fine pictures and place goodly images in their sight some of the most beautiful and handsome young men that ever mankind afforded as of Nireus Narcissus and valiant Hyacinthus and of other young lusty gallants that were most comely and beautiful in face and very sightly for all the parts of their body and some of such excellent gods as was Apollo crowned with a garland of fresh coloured Bay and Evan that had a Diadem of Vine-leaves about his head and goodly hair hanging down under it and this they did that while their Wives stood gazing continually upon such brave pictures and comely portraitures they might breed and bring forth children of the same comlinesse and beauty CHAP. XXI How we may procure either males or females to be generated EMpedocles was of opinion That males or females were generated according to the heat or cold that was in them and thence it is saith he that the first males are reported to have been generated in the Eastern and Southern parts of the earth but the first females in the Northern parts But Parmenides quite contrary affirmed That males were especially generated towards the North as having in them more solidity and thicknesse and females especially towards the South as being more loose and open according to the disposition of the place Hipponax held That males and females are generated according as the seed is either strong and solid or fluid weak and feeble Anaxagoras writes that the seed which issueth out of the right parts of the body is derived into the right parts of the wombe and likewise that which issueth out of the left parts of the body falleth into the left parts of the wombe but if they change courses and the right seed fall into the left cell or receit in the wombe or the left seed into the right cell then it generates a female Leucippus held That there was no cause either in the seed or heat or solidity or place that they should be different sexes but only as it pleases nature to mark the young ones with different genitories that the male hath a yard and the female a wombe Democritus affirms that either sex in every part proceeds indifferently from either parent but the young one takes in sex after that parent which was most prevalent in that generation Hipponax saith if the seed whereof the young is begotten prevail most then it is a male but if the nourishment which it receives in the breeding prevail more then the seed then it is a female But all Physitians with one consent affirm that the right side hath most heat in it wherefore if the woman receive and retain the generative seed in the right side of her wombe then that which she conceives is a male but if in the left side it is a female The experience whereof may be evidently seen in such living Creatures as bring forth many at one burthen for if you cut open a Sow that is great with Pig you shall find the Boar-pigs lying in the right side and the Sow-pigs in the left side of her wombe And hence it is that Physitians counsel women as soon as they have taken in mans seed to turn them presently on their right side And hence it is that if you knit up a Rams right stone he begets Ewe-lambs only as Pliny writeth A Bull as soon as he hath rid a Cow gives evident signs to any man to conjecture whether he hath begotten a Cow-calf or a Bulchin for if he leap off by the right side it is certain that he hath begotten a Bulchin if by the left side then a Cow-calf Wherefore the Aegyptians in their Hieroglyphicks when they would signifie a woman that hath brought forth a daughter they make the character likeness of a Bull looking toward the left side but to signifie the birth of a son they make his character as looking toward the right side But if you desire to have a male generated Africanus Columella and Didymus counsel you to knit up the left stone of the Sire if a female then to knit up his right stone at such times as he is to be coupled for generation But because this would be too muchto do where there is great store of cattel we may assay it by another means Northern blasts help much to the conception of a male and Southern blasts to the conception of a female as Pliny reporteth the force of the Northern air is such that those beasts which are wont to procreate females only this will cause to bring forth males also The Dams at the time of their copulation must be set with their noses into the North and if they have been used to coition still in the morning you must not put them to it in the afternoon for then they will not stand to their mate Aristotle a man most subtile and exquisitely seen in the works of nature willeth us that about the time of gendering we should wait for some Northern blasts in a dry day and then let the flock feed against the winde and so let them fall to copulation if we would procure females to be generated then we must so wait for Southern blasts and let them stand with their heads towards the South as they are in copulation for so not only Aristotle counselleth but Columella and Aelianus also for it is a rule that Aelianus Pliny Africanus and Didymus do all give that if the cattel as soon as they have been covered do turn themselves toward the Southern winde then certainly they have conceived females There is also some cause of the procreation of a male or of a female in the begetters themselves nay further some cause thereof may be the force and operation of some waters for sometimes the waters cause that a male or female be generated There is not far from the City Pana a certain River called Milichus and not far from that another River called Charadius whereof if the beasts drink in the Spring-time they commonly bring forth all males for which cause the Shepherds there drive away their flocks at that time and feed them in that part of the Country which lieth farthest off from that River as Pausanias writeth in his Achaica CHAP. XXII Of divers experiences that may be and have been practised upon divers living Creatures THere remain now certain experiments of living Creatures both pleasant and of some use which we have thought good here to set down to save a labour of seeking them any further And first How to make Horses have white spots on them It is a thing required in the art of trimming of Horses to be able to cause white spots to grow in some parts of them for crafty Horse-coursers are wont to counterfeit white spots in the forehead or left thigh or right shoulder of an Horse thereby to deceive such men as are wont to gesse at the goodnesse and qualities of a horse by the conjecture of such marks And
better filled and the larger grown Likewise Florentinus sheweth how to make Pease of a bigger growth If saith he you take Pease and steep them in warm water the day before you sow them they will grow the greater Some men take more pains then needeth who because they would have a greater Pease growing they steep them shells and all and put Nitre into the water wherein they are steeped and sow them in their shells Vitches may be made bigger if they be set with a little pole to grow up thereby for this will cause them to thicken as Theophrastus saith So also Onions may be thickned as Sotion sheweth About some twenty days before you translate them from the place where they first grew you must dig away the earth about them and let them lie a drying that all moisture may be kept from them and then plant them again and they will grow much bigger But if withal you pill of the top-skin and so plant them they will be far greater Likewise we may cause Artichocks to bear a fuller fruit as Varro sheweth If you plant them in a well-soiled place and cover them with old dung and water them often in the summer-time you shall by this means have a fuller and a more tender Artichock We may also practise another Device whereby to make greater fruit which Theophrastus hath set down and he brings an Example how to make Pomegranates to grow greater then ordinary for Art may cause the greatness of Fruit. When the first buds be formed upon the boughs they must be put into an earthen vessel that is made with a hole quite thorow and the bough whereon they grow must be swayed downward without hurting it then cover the pot with earth and so you shall have exceeding great Pomegranates The reason whereof is this The pot preserves the fruit from the vapours that would otherwise annoy it and besides the earth ministreth some moisture unto it so that the bigness thereof is increased by the store of nourishment It receives no more help from the tree then if it were out of the earth and therefore the kernels are no greater then ordinary but the pill is much thicker the proper juice of it is somewhat wasted and consumed for which cause the taste of this fruit so handled is waterish and worse then others but the rine receives outward nourishment and spends none for which cause that is much thicker The like practise Palladius and Martial use thereby to procure A great Citron They take a Citron when it is young and shut it up fast in an earthen vessel for the Citron will increase continually till it come to be of the bigness and fashion of the vessel wherein it is put but there must be a hole made thorow the vessel whereby the air may get in unto it By the like device Theophrastus assays to produce Cucumbers and Gourds greater then ordinary by hiding them while they are young both from Sun and from Winde that nothing may come at them to hinder their growth Like to this Device is the setting of them in Fennel-stalks or in earthen Pipes whereby the natural Juyce and Nourishment is kept in to the increasing of their growth We will also shew out of Theophrastus a like Device whereby the Herb Alisander or Parsley may be made greater You must dig the Alisander round about the root and cover it with Cachryl and then heap earth upon it For the roots spend all the moisture themselves and suffer no nourishment to ascend into the buds This Cachryl is hot and thick and as by the thickness it draws nourishment to it so by vertue of the heat it doth concoct and digest that which it hath attracted and therefore seeing this doth both draw more nourishment to the Alisander and also concoct it there must needs be a greater augmentation of that herb This practice he borrowed of Aristotle This herb may also be made bigger by another means namely if when you plant it you make a hole for it in the ground with a great stake for the root will at length fill up the hole So there is a means to make A Radish-root grow bigger if it be planted in a cold ground as Pliny sheweth For Radishes are much cherished and delighted with cold as in some cold places of Germany there be Radishes growing as big as a little childe Some have reported that if you drive a stake into the ground six inches deep and put chaff into the pit which the stake hath made and then put in the Radish-seed covering it over with earth and muck the Radish will grow up to the bigness of the pit By a Device not much unlike to this Florentinus sheweth how to Make great Lettise You must remove them and water them well and when they are grown half a handful high you must dig round about them that the roots may be seen then wrap them in Ox-dung and cover them over again and water them still and when they are waxen bigger cut the leaves cross with a sharp knife and lay upon them a little barrel or tub that never was pitcâ—ed for Pitch will hurt the herb that so it may grow not in height but onely spread forth in breadth So the herb Beet may be made greater as Sotion sheweth To make Beet grow in bigness saith he thou must cover the roots over with some fresh Ox-dung and divide the leaves or buds and lay a broad stone or a tyle upon it to cause it to spread forth in bredth You may also make Leeks greater by removing them and laying a great stone or a broad tyle upon them but in no case must they be watered By the very same Device Anatolius sheweth how to make Garlick greater by laying tyles upon the roots thereof as upon Leeks Theophrastus sheweth another kinde of Device whereby to make Radishes greater and he saith that the Gardeners of his time were wont to practise it They took away the leaves in the Winter-time when they flourish most and cast the Radishes into the ground covering them over with earth and so they lasted and grew till Summer came again never shooting forth either into buds or leaves except it were where the earth was gone that they lay uncovered The like Experiment doth Palladius teach concerning the Rape-root whereby to make Rape-roots greater Assoon as you have plucked them up you must strip off all the leaves and cut off the stalk about half an inch above the root then make certain furrows for them in the ground for every one of them a several furrow and there bury them asunder about eight inches deep and when you have cast earth upon them tread it in and by that means you shall have great Rape-roots By the like means Theophrastus thinks we may procure The herb Wake-robbin to grow greater When it is most full of leaves and when the leaves be at the broadest we must bow them downward winding them round about the root
a wonderful Oyl which helpeth concoction and taketh away the inclinations to vomit it is thus made Pour half a Pint of the best Oyl into a brass Pot tinned within and of a wide mouth then take fifteen pound of Romane-Mint and beat it in a Marble-Morter with a VVooden-Pestle until it come to the form of an Oyntment add as much more Mint and VVormwood and put them into the Oâ—l mingle them and stir them well but cover the Pot lest any durt should fall in and let them stand three dayes and infuse then set them on a gentle fire and boyl them five hours for fifteen dayes together until the Oyl have extracted all the vertue of the infused Herbs then strain them through a Linen-cloth in a press or with your hands till the Oyl be run cleer out then take new Herbs beat them and put them into the strained Oyl boyl it again and strain it again do the same the third time and as often as you renew it observe the same course until the Oyl have contracted a green colour but you must separate the juice from the Oyl very carefully for if the least drop do remain in it the Oyl will have but small operation and the whole intent is lost A certain sign of perfect decoction and of the juice being consumed will be if a drop of it being cast upon a plate of iron red-hot do not hiss At last Take a pound of Cinnamon half a pound of Nutmegs as much Mastick and Spikenard and a third part of Cloves poun them severally and being well seirced put them into the Oyl and mix them with a VVooden-stick Then pour it all into an Earthen Vessel glazed within with a long Neck that it may easily be shut and stoot close but let it be of so great a capacity that the third part of it may remain empty Let it stand fifteen days in the Sun alwayes moving and shaking it three or four times in a day So set it up for your use CHAP. VII That a Woman may conceive THere are many Medicines to cause Conception spread abroad because they are much desired by Great Persons The Ancients did applaud Sage very much for this purpose And in Coptus after great Plagues the Egyptians that survived forced the Women to drink the juice of it to make them conceive and bring forth often Salt also helpeth Generation for it doth not only heighten the Pleasures of Venus but also causeth Fruitfulness The Egyptians when their Dogs are backward in Copulation make them more eager by giving them Salt-meats It is an Argument also of it That Ships in the Sea as Plutarch witnesseth are alwayes full of an innumerable company of Mice And some affirm That Female-Mice will conceive without a Male onely by licking Salt And Fish-wives are insatiably leacherous and alwayes full of Children Hence the Poets feigned venus to be born of Salt or the Sea The Egyptian Priests saith the same Author did most Religiously abstain from Salt and Salt-meats because they did excite to lust and cause erection A remedy to procure conception This I have tryed and found the best when a womans courses are just past let her take a new-laid egge boil it and mix a grain of musk with it and sup it up when she goes to bed Next morning take some old beans at least five years old and boil them for a good space in a new pipkin and let the woman when she ariseth out of her bed receive the fume into her privities as it were through a tunnel for the space of an hour then let her sup up two eggs and go to bed again and wipe off the moisture with warm clothes then let her enjoy her husband and rest a while afterwards take the whites of two eggs and mix them with Bole-armenick and Sanguisâ—draconis and dip some flax into it and apply it to the reins but because it will hardly stick on swathe it on from falling a while after let her arise and at night renew the plaister But when she goeth to sleep let her hold ginger in her mouth This she must do nine days CHAP. VIII Remedies against the Pox. SInce this disease hath raged so cruelly amongst men there have been invented a multitude of most excellent remedies to oppose it And although many have set out several of them yet I will be contented with this one only which we may use not onely in this disease but almost in all other and I have seen many experiences of it It is easily made and as easily taken Take a pound of lingnum Guaiacum half a pound of Sarsaperilla beaten small five ounces of the stalks and leaves of Sena one handful of Agrimony and Horse-tail a drachm of Cinnamon and as much cloves and one nutmeg Poun them all and put them into a vessel which containeth twenty gallons of Greek wine let it stand a day and then let the patient drink it at meals and at his pleasure for it purgeth away by degrees all maladies beside the French-pox If the patient groweth weak with purging let him intermit some days In the summer time leave out the cinnamon and the nutmeg I have used it against continual head-aches deafness hoarsness and many other diseases A preservation against the Pox which a man may use after unclean women Take a drachm of hartwort and gentian two scruples of sanders and lignum-aloes half a drachm of powder of coral spodium and harts horn burnt a handful of sowthistle scordium betony scabious and tormentil as much of roses two pieces of Guaiacum two scales of copper a drachm and a half of Mercury precipitate a pint of malmesey a quart of the waters of sowthistle and scabious mix the wine and waters and lay the Guaiacum in it a day and then the rest then boil them till half be consumed strain them and lay a linnen-cloth soaking in the expression a whole night then dry it in the shade do this thrice and after copulation wash your yard in it and lay some of the linnen on and keep it close CHAP. IX Antidotes against Poyson IT is the common opinion of all Physitians that those herbs stones or any other thing which being put into a Serpents mouth doth kill him is an Antidote against his poyson We read in Dioscorides of the herb Alkanet which is very efficacious against the poyson of Serpents and being chewed and spit out upon a Serpent killeth him Upon this I thrust half a drachm of treacle or mithridate mixt with Aqua vitae into a vipers mouth and she died within half an hour I made a water-serpent swallow the same but she received no hurt by it onely lay a small time â—â—upified wherefore I pressed some oyl out of the seeds of citron and orange or lemons and dropt it into the serpents mouth and she died presently Moreover a drachm of the juice of Angelica-roots will kill a serpent The Balsame as they call it which is brought from
this the onely bawd to procure him an executorship They smoke themselves with Cumine who disfigure their faces to counterfeit holiness and mortification of their body There is an experiment also whereby any one may know how To cause Sores to arise Take Perwinckle an herb of an intolerable sharpness that is worthily named Flammula bruise it and make it into a plaister and it will in a short space ulcerate and make blisters arise Cantharides beaten with strong water do also raise watry blisters and cause ruptures CHAP. XIV Of Fascination and Preservatives against inchantments NOw I will discourse of inchantment neither will I pass over in silence who they are whom we call Inchanters For if we please to look over the Monuments of Antiquity we shall finde a great many things of that kind delivered down to posterity And the tryal of later ages doth not altogether explode the fame of them neither do I think that it derogateth from the truth of the stories that we cannot draw the true causes of the things into the streight bonds of our reasons because there are many things that altogether impede the enquiry but what I my self judge of others opinions I thought fit here to explicate You may find many things in Theocritus and Virgil of this kind whence that verse arose There 's same I know not whose unlucky eye Bewitcheth my yong Lambs and makes them die Isigonus and Memphodorus say There are some families in Africa that bewitch with their tongue the very Woods which if they do but admire somewhat earnestly or if they praise fair trees growing corn lusty children good horses or fat sheep they presently wither and die of a suddain from no other cause or harm which thing also Solinus affirmeth The same Isigonus saith there are amongst the â—riballians and Illyrians certain men who have two pupils in each eye and do bewitch most deadly with them and kill whatever they look earnestly on especially with angry eyes so pernicious are they and yong children are most subject to their mischief There are such women in Scythia called Bichiae saith Apollonides Philarchus reporteth of another kind called Thibians in Pontus who had two pupils in one eye and in the other the picture of a horse of which Didymus also maketh mention Damon relateth of a poyson in Ethiopia whose sweat would bring a consumption in all bodies it touched and it is manifest that all women which have two pupils in one eye can bewitch with it Cicero writeth of them so Plutarch and Philarchus mention the Paletheobri a Nation inhabiting in part of the Pontick Sea where are Inchanters who are hurtful not onely to children that are tender and weak but to men of full growth who are of a strong and firm body and that they kill with their looks making the persons languish and consume away as in a consumption Neither do they infect those onely who live among them but strangers and those who have the least commerce with them so great is the power and witchcraft of their eyes for though the mischief be often caught in copulation with them yet it is the eyes that work for they send forth spirits which are presently conveyed to the heart of the bewitched and so infect him Thus it cometh to pass That a yong man being full of thin clear hot and sweet blood sendeth forth spirits of the same nature for they are made of the purest blood by the heat of the heart and being light get into the uppermost parts of the body and flye out by the eyes and wound those who are most porous which are fair persons and the most soft bodies With the spirits there is sent out also a certain fiery quality as red and blear-eyes do who make those that look on them fall into the same disease I suffered by such an accident my self for the eye infecteth the air which being infected infecteth another carrying along with it self the vapors of the corrupted blood by the contagion of which the eyes of the beholders are overcast with the like redness So the Wolf maketh a man dumb so the Cockatrice killeth who poysoneth with looking on and giveth venimous wounds with the beams of his eyes which being reflexed upon himself by a looking-glass kill the Author of them So a bright Mirror dreadeth the eyes of an unclean women saith Aristotle and groweth cloudy and dull when she looketh on it by reason that the sanguine vapour is contracted by the smoothness of the glass into one place so that it is spotted with a kind of little mist which is plainly seen and if it be newly gathered there will be hardly wip'd off Which thing never happeneth on a cloth or stone because it penetrateth and sinketh into the one and is dispersed by the inequality of parts in the other But a Mirror being hard and smooth collecteth them entire and being cold condenseth them into a dew In like manner almost if you breath upon a clear glass it will wax moist as it were with a sprinkling of spettle which condensing will drop down so this efflux of beams out of the eyes being the conveyers of spirits strike through the eyes of those they meet and flye to the heart their proper region from whence they rise and there being condensed into blood infect all his inward parts This stranger blood being quite repugnant to the nature of the man infects the rest of him and maketh him sick and there this contagion will continue as long as he hath any warm blood in his body For being a distemper in the blood it will cast him into a continual feaver whereas if it had been a distemper of choler or flegme it would have afflicted him by intervalls But that all things may be more distinctly explained you must know first that there are two kind of Fascinations mentioned by Authors One of Love the other of Envy or Malice If a person be ensnared with the desire of a fair and beautiful woman although he be caught at a distance yet he taketh the poyson in at his eyes and the Image of her beauty settleth in the heart of this Lover kindleth a flame there which will never cease to torment him For the soft blood of the beloved being strayed thither maketh continual representations of her she is present there in her own blood but it cannot settle or rest there for it continually endeavoureth to flye homeward as the blood of a wounded person spirts out on him that giveth the blow Lucretius describeth this excellenty He seeks that body whence his grief he found For humors always flow unto a wound As bruised blood still runs unto the part That 's struck and gathers where it feels the smart So when the murtheress of his heart 's in place Blushes arise and red orespreads his facee But if it be a Fascination of Envy or Malice that hath infected any person it is very dangerous and is found most often in old women
or Almond-tree-wood especially that as it is of the wilde Tree for these afford great remedy for drunkenness Timotheus did so enflame the minde of Alexander the Great that he was mad to fight and when he would he changed his minde and drew out all his courage and he endeavoured To draw his sluggish and yielding thoughts from Battle to Banquets and so carried him which way he pleased which could not be done but by Vine-wood or Wood-Laurel The Instrument of the Harper who when Agamemnon went from Greece to Troy did keep Clilemnestra chaste by his Musick was made of Willow called Agnus Castus for the women in the Feasts of Ceres amongst the Athenians put Willow-Park-leaves under them to keep them chaste when they lay in bed for so they extinguished the desire of venery The Pythagoreans used some Tunes For sleep and waking For when they would by sleep overcome divers cares they play'd certain Tunes that easie and quiet sleep might come upon them and when they arose so soon as they went out of their Chambers with some Musick they would dispel all confusion and dulness of sleep that they might set to their work It is said that the Aeolian Musick doth still the tempests of the minde and rocks men a sleep they provoked men to sleep with Almond-tree or Vine-tree-wood and they drove sleep off with Hellebore Take this experiment that is common A Harp that is play'd on will move another Harpstrung to the same height Let the strings be stretched alike that both may come to the same melody perfectly if you shall strike one of the base strings the other will answer it and so it is in the trebles yet they must be at a moderate distance and if this be not very clear lay straw upon it and you shall see it move But Suetonius Tranquillas in his Book De Ludicra Historia saith That in Winter some strings are struck and others sound Thus any ignorant man may tune a Htrp if one Harp be rightly tuned for Musick and lye still he by stretching the strings of the other and by slackning them and striking as the string of the Harp that lyes still guides him so of the rest But if you will That a deaf person may hear the sound of the Harp or else stop your ears with your hands that you may not hear the sound Then take fast hold of the Instrument by the handle with your teeth and let another strike on it and it will make a Musical noise in the brain and may be a sweeter noise And not onely taking hold of the handle with your teeth but the long neck neer the Harp and by that you shall hear the sound perfectly that you may say that you did not hear the Musick but taste it Now remains what I think is very pleasant To make a Harp or other Instrument be play'd on by winde Do thus When the windes are very tempestuous set your Instruments just against it as Harps Flutes Dulcimers Pipes the wind will run violently into them and play low upon them and will run into the holes of the reeds whence if you stand neer and listen you will hear most pleasant Musick by consent of them all and will rejoyce CHAP. VIII To discover Frauds whereby Impostors working by Natural means pretend that they do them by conjuration NOw will I open Cheats and Impostors whereby Jugglers and Impostors who fain themselves to be Cujurers and thereby delude fools knaves and simple women I to cast down their fraud by a admonishing simple people not to be deceived by them shall open the causes thereof And first By what means they fain that they can discover Treasures The greater part of Cozners when they are themselves very poor and most miserable of all men they profess themselves able to finde out Treasures and they promise to other men what they want themselves and they use four Rods that are double forked the tops whereof sticking close together crossways they hold the lower parts of them with their hands open neer their belly they seem to mumble some Verses and the Rods fall down and where they fall they bid those men to dig that would find Treasures The cause is for that the Rods seem to stand fast in their hands and yet have no hold at all and they seem always ready to fall and if they remove never so little from their place they presently fall down Also there are in mens arms and hands pulsations of Arteries which although they seem immovable yet they do move the hands unseen and make them to tremble Yet some Metal-Masters who report that these forked Rods are a great help to them in finding out of Mines For with a Knife they cut the Hazel-tree which they say is the fittest of all to finde out Veins especially if the Hazel come upon any Mineral Vein Others use divers Trees as the Metals are divers for they use wands of Hazel for Veins of Silver Ash for Brass Wilde Pilch-tree for Lead chiefly white-Lead or Brass or Gold then they take the Rod by both ends and clinch their fists but they must hold their fingers clinched upwards toward heaven and that the Rod may be lifted up there where the ends meet thus they wander here and there through Mountainous places and when they set their foot upon a Vein the Rod will presently turn about and discover a Vein in any place when they come off from it the Rod will be quiet and they say the Veins have so great force that they will bend the Boughs of Trees that grew neer towards them as Agricola writes more largely Another merry conceit remains that three Schroles of Paper not touched shall change their places This cannot be done but an ignorant man will admire it Make three long Schroles of Paper or of linen and let them be one longer then another equally for all of them being made equal at the lower end and turn'd about equally they take one the others place and change their situation put the longest in the middle or in the first place they change their situation if the longest be put last they hold as they were No man but will think this to be done by the Divel yet this proceeds from no other cause but because in the end of the revolution the longer remains and the last from whence it riseth stays behinde Aristotle in his Problems seems to mean this why the Section of a Paper if any man cut it off straight from the plain basis in measuring it will be straight when it is turned about but if it be bended it will be twisted whether this falls out that when the rounds of another Section are placed on the same plain that Section declining is not equally opposite but somewhat less wherefore when you part them those rounds that are contain'd in the same plain will make a line that belong to their own order c. Some were deceived who thought this proceeded from