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 (Berthelet), bk. xviii. § 98. 
Aw 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. 
Ir 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 
