Book I.

OF THE SERPENT.
Hippocrates, by the use of some parts of this animal, attained to himself divine honours ; for therewith he cured pestilence and contagion, consumptions, and very many other diseases ; for he cleansed the flesh of a viper. The utmost part of the tail and head being cut off, he stripped off the skin, casting away the bowels and gall ; he reserved of the intestines only the heart and liver ; he drew out all the blood, with the vein running down the back-bone ; he bruised the flesh and the aforesaid bowels with the bones, and dried them in a warm oven until they could be powdered, which powder he sprinkled on honey ; being clarified and boiled, until he knew that the fleshes in boiling had cast aside their virtue, as well in the broth as in the vapours ; he then added unto this electuary the spices of his country to cloak the secret. But this cure of diseases by the serpent contains a great mystery, viz. that as death crept in by the serpent of old, itself ought to be mitigated by the death of the serpent ; for Adam, being skilful in the properties of all beasts, was not ignorant also that the serpent was more crafty than other living creatures, and that the aforesaid balsam, the remedy of death, lay hid in the serpent ; wherefore the spirit of darkness could not more falsely deceive our first parents than under the guileful serpent’s form ; for they foolishly imagined they should escape the death, so sorely threatened by God, by the serpent’s aid.
Amber is an amulet : — a piece of red amber worn about one, is a preservative against poisons and the pestilence.
Likewise, a sapphire stone is as effectual. Oil of amber, or amber dissolved in pure spirit of wine, comforts the womb being disordered : if a suffumigation of it be made with the warts of the shank of a horse, it will cure many disorders of that region.
The liver and gall of an eel, likewise, being gradually dried and reduced to powder, and taken in the quantity of a filbert-nut in a glass of warm wine, causes a speedy and safe delivery to women in labour. The liver of a serpent likewise effects the same.
Rhubarb,
NATURAL MAGIC.
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Chap. II.
Rhubarb, on account of its violent antipathy to choler, wonderfully purges the same. Music is a well-known specific for curing the bite of a tarantula, or any venomous spider ; likewise, water cures the hydrophobia. Warts are cured by paring off the same ; or by burying as many pebbles, secretly, as the party has warts. The king’s-evil may be cured by the heart of a toad worn about the neck, first being dried. — Hippomanes excites lust by the bare touch, or being suspended on the party. If any one shall spit in the hand with which he struck, or hurt, another, so shall the wound be cured ; — likewise, if any one shall draw the halter wherewith a malefactor was slain across the throat of one who hath the quinsey, it certainly cures him in three days ; also, the herb cinque-foil being gathered before sun-rise, one leaf thereof cures the ague of one day ; three leaves, cures the tertian ; and four, the quartan ague. Rape seeds, sown with cursings and imprecations, grows the fairer, and thrives ; but if with praises, the reverse. The juice of deadly nightshade, distilled, and given in a propor- tionate quantity, makes the party imagine almost whatever you chuse. The herb nip, being heated in the hand, and afterwards you hold in your hand the hand of any other party, they shall never quit you, so long as you retain that herb. The herbs arsemart, comfrey, flaxweed, dragon-wort, adder’s- tongue, being steeped in cold water, and if for some time being applied on a wound, or ulcer, they grow warm, and are buried in a muddy place, cureth the wound, or sore, to which they were applied. Again, if any one pluck the leaves of asarabacca, drawing them upwards, they will purge another, who is ignorant of the drawing, by vomit only ; but if they are wrested downward to the earth, they purge by stool. A sapphire, or a stone that is of a deep blue colour, if it be rubbed on a tumour, wherein the plague discovers itself, (before the party is too far gone) and by and by it be removed from the sick, the absent jewel attracts all the poison or contagion therefrom. And thus much is sufficient to be said concerning natural occult virtues, whereof we speak in a mixed and miscellaneous manner coming to more distinct heads anon.
CHAP.
30
NATURAL MAGIC.