Book I.

civet-cat, alfo, abounds with forceries ; for the polls of a door being1 touched with her blood, the arts of jugglers and forcerers are fo invalid that evil fpirits can by no means be called up, or compelled to talk with them : — this is Pliny’s report. Alfo, thofe that are anointed with the oil of her left foot, being
boiled with the allies of the ancle bone of the fame and the blood of a weafel,
lhall become odious to all. The fame, alfo, is to be done with the eye being decoded. If any one hath a little of the firait-gut of this animal about him, and it is bound to the left arm, it is a charm ; that if he does but look upon a
woman, it will caufe her to follow him at all opportunities ; and the Ikin of
this animal’s forehead withftands witchcraft.
We next come to fpeak of the blood of a bafililk, which magicians call the blood of Saturn. — This procures (by its virtue) for him that carries it about him, good fuccefs of petitions from great men ; likewife makes him amazingly fuccefsful in the cure of difeafes, and the grant of any privilege. They fay, alfo, that a tike, if it be taken out of the left ear of a dog, and it be altogether black, if the Tick perfon lhall anfwer him that brought it in, and who, Handing at his feet, lhall alk him concerning his difeafe, there is certain hope of life ; and that he lhall die if he make him no anfwer. They fay, alfo, that a Hone bitten by a mad dog caufes difcord, if it be put into drinks ; and if any one lhall put the tongue of a dog, dried, into his Ihoe, or fome of the powder, no dog is able to bark at him who hath it ; and more powerful this, if the herb hound’s-tongue be put with it. And the membrane of the fecundine of a bitch does the fame ; likewife, dogs will not bark at him who hath the heart of a dog in his pocket.
The red toad (Pliny fays) living in briers and brambles, is full of forceries, and is capable of wonderful things : there is a little bone in his left fide, which being call into cold water, makes it prefently hot ; by which, alfo, the rage of dogs are reftrained, and their love procured, if it be put in their drink, making them faithful and ferviceable ; if it be bound to a woman, it flirs up lull. On the contrary, the bone which is on the right fide makes hot water cold, and it binds it fo that no heat can make 4t hot while it there remains. It is a cer- tain cure for quartans, if it be bound to the fick in a fnake’s Ikin ; and like- wife
Chap. X. NATURAL MAGIC. 47
wife cures all fevers, the St. Anthony’s fire, and reftrains love and luft. And the fpleen and heart are effectual antidotes againfl: the poifons of the faid toad. Thus much Pliny wiites.
Alfo it is faid, that the fword with which a man is flain hath wonderful power ; for if the fnaffle of a bridle, or bit, or fpurs, be made of it, with thefe a horfe ever fo wild is tamed, and made gentle and obedient. They fay, if we dip a fword, with which any one was beheaded, in wine, that it cures the quartan, the fick being given to drink of it. There is a liquor made, by which men are made as raging and furious as a bear, imagining themfelves in every refpe£t to be changed into one ; and this is done by dilfolving or boiling the brains and heart of that animal in new wine, and giving any one to drink out of a fkull, and, while the force of the draught operates, he will fancy every living creature to be a bear like to himfelf ; neither can any thing divert or cure him till the fumes and virtue of the liquor are entirely expended, no other diftemper being perceivable in him.
The molt certain cure of- a violent head-ache, is to take any herb growing upon the top of the head of an image ; the fame being bound, or hung about one with a red thread, it will foon allay the violent pain thereof.
OF MAGICAL LIGHTS, CANDLES, LAMPS, &c.
There are made, artificially, fome kinds of lamps, torches, candles, and the like, of fome certain and appropriate materials and liquors opportunely gathered and collected for this purpofe, which, when they are lighted and fhine alone, produce fome wonderful effects. There is a poifon from mares, after copulation, which, being lighted in torches compofed of their fat and mar- row, doth reprefent on the walls a monftrous deformity of horfes5 heads, which thing is both eafy and pleafant to do : the like may be done of alfes and fiies. And the ikin of a ferpent or fnake, lighted in a green lamp, makes the images of the fame to appear ; and grapes produce the fame effect, if, when they are
4'S NATURAL MAGIC, Book I,
in their flowers, you (hall take a phial, and bind it to them, filled with oil, and fliall let that remain fo till they are ripe, and then the oil be lighted in a lamp, you fliall fee a prodigious quantity of grapes ; and the fame in other fruits. If centaury be mixed with honey and the blood of a lapwing, and be put in a lamp, they that hand about will be of a gigantic fiature ; and if it be lighted in a clear evening, the liars will feem fcattered about.
The ink of the cuttle-fifli being put into a lamp, makes Blackamoors appear. So, alfo, a candle made of fome faturnine things, fuch as man’s fat and mar- row, the fat of a black cat, with the brains of a crow or raven, which being- extinguifhed in the mouth of a man lately dead, will afterwards, as often as it fhines alone, bring great horror and fear upon the fpedlators about it.
Of fuch like torches , candies, lamps, &c., (of which we fliall fpeak further in our Book of Magnetifm and Mummies ) Hermes fpeaks largely of ; alfo Plato and Chyrannides ; and, of the later writers, Albertus Magnus makes particular mention of the truth and efficacy of thefe, in a treatife on thefe particular things relative to lights, &c. '
OF THE ART OF FASCINATION, OR BINDING BY TIIE LOOK
OR SIGHT.
We call fafcination a binding, becaufe it is effected by a look, glance, or ob- fervation, in which we take pofleffion of the fpirit, and overpower the fame, of thofe we mean to fafcinate or fufpend ; for it comes through the eyes, and the inflrument by which we fafcinate or bind is a certain, pure, lucid, fubtil fpirit, generated out of the ferment of the purer blood by the heat of the heart, and the firm, determined, and ardent will of the foul which directs it to the objedl previously difpofed to be fafeinated. This doth always fend forth by the eyes rays or beams, carrying with them a pure fubtil fpirit or vapour into the eye or blood of him or her that is oppofite. So the eye, being opened and intent m>o.n any one with a flrong imagination, doth dart its beams, which are the
vehicle
Chap. X. - NATURAL MAGIC. 49
vehicle of the fpirit, into whatever we will affedl or bind, which fpirit finking- the eye of them who are fafcinated, being flirred up in the heart and foul of him that fends them forth, and poffeffing the brealt of them who are flruck, wounds their hearts, infedts their fpirits, and overpowers them. .
Know, likewife, that in witches, thofe are moft bewitched, who, with often, looking, diredt the edge of their fight to the edge of the fight of thofe who bewitch or fafcinate them ; whence arofe the faying of “ Evil eyes, &c.” For when their eyes are reciprocally bent one upon the other, and are joined beams to beams, and lights to lights, then the fpirit of the one is joined to the fpirit of the other, and then are flrong ligations made ; and moft violent love is ftirred up, only with a fudden looking on, as it were, with the darting a look, or piercing into the very inmoft of the heart, whence the fpirit and amorous blood, being thus wounded, are carried forth upon the lover and enchanter ; no otherwife than the fpirit and the blood of him that is murdered is upon the murderer, who, if Handing near the body killed, the blood flows afrelh, which thing has been tried by repeated experiments.
So great power is there in fafcination that many uncommon and wonderful things are thereby effected, efpecially when the vapours of the eyes are fub- fervient to the affection ; therefore collyries, ointments, alligations, &c. are ufed to affedt and corroborate the fpirit in this or that manner : to induce love, they ufe venereal collyriums, as hippomanes, blood of doves, &rc. To induce fear, they ufe martial collyriums., as the eyes of wolves, bear’s fat, and the civet-cat. To procure mifery, or ficknefs, they ufe faturnine, and fo on.
Thus much we have thought proper to fpeak concerning Natural Magic, in which we have, as it may be faid, only opened the firft chamber of Nature’s ftorehoufe ; indeed we Jhould have hiferted many more things here , but as they fall more properly under the heads of Magnet ifm , Mummy, &c., to which we refer the reader, we fhall take our leave of the reader for the pre- . fent, that we may give him time to breathe, likewife to digeft what he has here feafted upon ; and, while he is preparing to enter the unlocked chambers