I 



TOAD.] NATURAL HISTORY. 311 



killed the Toad, and so became grateful to her host which 

 did nourish her in his chamber ; for at the third time the 

 Toad leaped off from the man's mouth, and swelled to 

 death. The mole also is an enemy to the Toad, fbr 

 Albertus saw a Toad crying above the earth very bitterly, 

 for a mole did hold her fast by the leg within the earth, 

 labouring to pull her in again, while the other strove to 

 get out of her teeth ; and so on the other side, the Toads 

 do eat the moles when they be dead. The cat doth kill 

 serpents and Toads, but eateth them not, and unless she 

 presently drink she dieth for it. The Toads of the earth 

 are more poisonful than the Toads of the water, except 

 those Toads of the water, which do receive infection or 

 poison from the water, for some waters are venomous 

 but the Toads of the land, which do descend into the 

 marshes, and so live in both elements, are most venomous; 

 and the hotter the country is, the more full are they of 

 poison. When an asp hath eaten a Toad, their biting is 

 incurable, and bears, being killed by men after that they 

 have eaten salamanders or Toads, do poison their eaters. A 

 Toad hath two livers, and although both of them are cor- 

 rupted, yet the one of them is full of poison, and the 

 other resists poison. The spittle of Toads is venomous, 

 for if it fall upon a man, it causeth all the hair to fall off 

 from his head. Plantain and black hellebore, sea-crabs dried 

 to powder and drunk, the stalks of dog's - tongue, the 

 powder of the right horn of a hart, the milt, spleen and 

 heart of a Toad, also the blood of the sea-tortoise mixed 

 with wine, cummin and the rennet of a hare, also the blood 

 of a tortoise of the land mixed with barley-meal, and the 

 quintessence of treacle, and oil of scorpions, all these 

 things are very precious against the poison of serpents and 



T^ J 



Topsell, "History of Serpents," pp. 726-30. 



THE jaws of a Toad, sweating and foaming out poison, 

 are not more dangerous than a pen. 



Dekker's "Dead Term." 



THOU shalt eat nothing but a poached spider, and drive 

 it down with syrup of Toads. 



"A Match at Midnight," i. I. 



