170 THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS 



draw to them all the maligne juice and nourishment that the 

 other may be more pure and refined, as well as Toads and other 

 poysonous Serpents licke the venome from the Earth ? ... So 

 have I seen some people when they have burned their fingers to 

 goe and burne them again to fetch out the fire. And why may 

 not one poyson fetch out another as well as fire fetch out fire ?" 

 " For should all things be known at once," he wisely concludes, 

 ** Posterity would have nothing left wherewith to gratifie them- 

 selves in their owne discoveries, which is a great encouragement 

 to active and quick Wits, to make them enquire into those 

 things which are hid from the eyes of those which are dull 

 and stupid." 



Coles's Art of Simpling is the only herbal which devotes 

 a chapter to herbs useful for animals — " Plants as have operation 

 upon the bodies of Bruit Beasts." This chapter is full of curious 

 folk lore. He gives the old beliefs that a toad poisoned by a 

 spider will cure itself with a plantain leaf; that weasels when 

 about to encounter a serpent eat rue ; that an ass when it feels 

 melancholy eats asplenium ; that wild goats wounded by arrows 

 cure themselves with dittany ; that the swallow uses celandine 

 (" I would have this purposely planted for them," he adds) ; 

 that linnet and goldfinch (and. have any birds brighter eyes?) 

 constantly repair their own and their young one's eyesight with 

 eyebright ; that if loosestrife is thrown between two oxen when 

 they are fighting they will part presently, and being tied about 

 their necks it will keep them from fighting; that cocks which 

 have been fed on garhck are " most stout to fight and so are 

 Horses "; that the serpent so hates the ash tree " that she will 

 not come nigh the shadow of it, but she delights in Fennel very 

 much, which she eates to cleer her eyesight ; " that, if a garden 

 is infested with moles, garhc or leeks will make them " leap 

 out of the ground presently." Perhaps the most remarkable 

 effects of herbs are the two following. " Adders tongue put 

 into the left eare of any Horse will make him fall downe as if 

 he were dead, and when it is taken out againe, he becomes more 



