SCORPION.] NATURAL HISTORY. 275 



not multiply too much. And some Scorpions do eat some 

 venomous things, and have the worse venom, and so 

 dragons do eat Scorpions, and those be worst. 



Bartholomew (Bertbelet\ bk. xviii. 98. 



AN Italian, through the oft smelling of an herb called 

 basil, had a Scorpion bred in his brain, which did not 

 only a long time grieve him, but also at the last killed 

 him. Jacobus Hollerius a learned Physician affirms it for 

 truth. Take heed, therefore, ye smellers of basil. 



Lupton, "Notable Things," bk. i. 38. 



IF any be bitten or stricken of a Scorpion, which shall 



eat basil the same day, he shall be made whole thereof 



["which" refers to the man, not to the Scorpion, which 

 might refuse to eat basil]. Ibid., bk. v. 66. 



ONE handful of basil with ten sea -crabs, stamped or 

 beaten together, doth make all the Scorpions to come to 

 that place that are nigh to the same. ibid., 73. 



ALEXANDRINUS JOVIANUS PONTANUS doth say, that he 

 saw a man was grievously stung or stricken of a Scorpion, 

 which presently was delivered and helped thereof, with 

 drinking of frankincense, wherein was sealed the sign of a 

 Scorpion : being after made in powder. But it must be 

 graven in the stone of a ring (Scorpio ascending), the 

 moon then being there, and placed in the Angle, and the 

 frankincense must be sealed with that seal, when the moon 

 is in Scorpio, and found in an Angle. Ibid.^ bk. ix. 40. 





THERE is an ancient town in Afric called Pescara, 

 wherein the abundance of Scorpions do so much harm, that 

 they drive away the inhabitants all the summer-time every 

 year until November following. The authors have observed 

 seven several kinds. The fifth kind eateth herbs, and the 

 bodies of men, and yet remaineth insatiable ; it hath a 

 bunch on the back, and a tail longer than other Scorpions. 

 The sixth is like a crab, and is of a great body, and hath 

 tongs and takers very solid and strong, like the gramuel 

 or crayfish, and is therefore thought to take the beginning 



