SERPENT.] NATURAL HISTORY. 283 



laid in a hollow place, subject to receive moisture en- 

 gendereth Serpents. 



Topsell, " History of Serpents," pp. 595-96. 



[Topsell gives many other curious facts about Serpents, but 

 as his treatise covers nearly forty folio pages, this sample must 

 suffice.] 



You have ate a snake, and are grown young, gamesome 

 and rampant. 



Beaumont and Fletcher, " The Elder Brothers," iv. 4. 



HE hath left off o' late to feed on snakes ; 

 His beard's turn'd white again. 



Massinger, etc., "The Old Law," v. i. 



YOUR viper wine 



So much in practice with grey-bearded gallants, 

 But vappa to the nectar of her lips. 



Ibid., "Believe as You List," iv. I. 



THAT men may appear to be headless : Take the slough 

 of a snake, and auripigment [arsenic] and Greek pitch, and 

 the wax of young bees, and ass's blood, and pound them 

 all, and put them in a rough jar full of water, and make 

 it boil on a slow fire, and then let it cool, and make a 

 taper of it, and every man who shall be illuminated by 

 that taper will seem to be headless. 



tAlbertus Magnus, " Of the Wonders of the World." 

 IF you wish to kill a Serpent quickly, take as much as 

 you please of Aristolochia Rotunda, and pound it well, 

 and take a frog of the woods or of the fields, and pound 

 and mix it with the Aristolochia^ and put with it something 

 burnt, and write with it on a paper, or anything that you 

 prefer, and throw it to the Serpents. 



THAT a house may seem quite green and full of Serpents 

 and fearful images, take the skin of a Serpent, and the 

 blood of another male Serpent, and the fat of another 

 Serpent, collect all these three things, and put them in a 

 cere-cloth, and kindle it in a new lamp. 



