GRAFTING EXPERIMENTS ' 87 



and groped about as if in full possession of its parts. 

 Then, just for a joke, and to amuse the company at the 

 Villa, we resolved to graft the head on the body again, 

 which we succeeded in doing with the same ease as the 

 enchanter, Orrilo, who put his dismembered body to- 

 gether, and of whom the epic poet of Ferrara thus sings : 



" Oft times asunder his stout limbs they hewed, 

 Nor could they thus succeed the man to kill, 

 For hand or leg cut off, with ready skill. 

 The bold enchanter, in its place, renewed. 

 His head does Grifon cleave, now, to the chin. 

 Now Aquilante's sword sinks to his chest; 

 He laughs at this blow as at all the rest. 

 In helpless rage they curse this Satan's kin. 

 Hast seen the slippery silver break and fall. 

 Called mercury by some old alchemist? 

 How fast it runs in many a shining ball, 

 Then joins in one, and not a drop is miss'd ! 

 Thus Orrilo does seek his severed head, 

 Nor till he finds it, leaves off stumbling round; 

 Then seizing it by the long locks of red, 

 Or by the nose, straight on his neck 'tis bound. 

 Now Grifon hurls him, with a mighty hand, 

 Into the stream, but this does nought avail ; 

 Swimming below, without an ache or ail, 

 Orrilo crosses to the other strand." 



Thus our little animals, with their grafted heads, lived, 

 not only all that day, but for five continuous days, to the 

 great surprise of all who were not in the secret. And in 

 that state they not only dropped their excrement, but 

 even laid their eggs. Hence, an overhasty writer would 

 have had many eye-witnesses to vouch for the truth of 

 this experiment, but in asserting the restoration of the 

 heads as genuine, he would be writing sheer nonsense, 

 for the heads adhered to the trunks by means of a green> 



