322 PEDIPALPI — SCORPIONS. 



by putrefaction, and the other by laying of egges, and both 

 these ways are consonant to nature, for Lacinius writeth 

 tliat some creatures are generated only by propagation of 

 seed — such are men, vipers, whales, and the palm-tree; 

 some again only by putrefaction, as mice, Scorpions, Emmets, 

 Spiders, purslahi, which, Qrst of all, were produced by pu- 

 trefaction, and since their generation are conserved by the 

 seed and egges of their own kinde. Now, therefore, we 

 will first of all speak of the generation of Scorpions by pu- 

 trefaction, and afterward by propagation. 



'•riiny saith^ that when Sea-crabs dye, and their bodies 

 are dried upon the earth, when the sun entereth into Can- 

 cer and Scorpius, out of the putrefaction thereof ariseth a 

 Scorpion; and so out of the putrefied body of the crefish 

 burned arise Scorpions, which caused Ovid thus to write: 



Concava littoreo si demas brachia cancro, 

 Cselera supponas terrae, de parte sepulta 

 Scorpius exibit, caudaque minabitur unca. 



And again : 



Obrutus exemptis cancer tellure lacertis, 

 Scorpius exiguo tempore factus erit. 



In English thus : 



If that the arms you take from Sea-crab-fish, 

 And put the rest in earth till all consumed be. 

 Out of the buried part a Scorpion will arise, 

 With hooked tayl doth threaten for to hurt thee. 



"And therefore it is reported by ^lianus that about Es- 

 tamenus, in India, there are abundance of Scorpions gene- 

 rated only by corrupt rain-water standing in that place. 

 Also out of the Basalisk beaten into pieces and so putre- 

 fied are Scorpions engendered. And when as one had 

 planted the herb basilica on a wall, in the room or place 

 thereof he found two Scorpions. And some say that if a mau 

 chaw in his mouth fasting this herb basill before he wash, and 

 afterward lay the same abroad uncovered where no sua 

 Cometh at it for the space of seven nights, taking it in all 

 the daytime, he shall at length finde it transmuted into a 

 Scorpion, with a tayl of seven knots.'^ 



1 Nat. Hist, XX. 12. 



3Cf. Pliny, X. 12; and IMoufet's Theatr. Ins., p. 205. 



