himself Fishes 〈…〉 saith Pliny by the Root the 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 called round Birth-wort called also the venome of the Earth This Root they bruise and mingle it with Lime and cast itin to the Sea the Fishes come to it with great delight and are presently killed and float on the waters Dioscorides saith that broad leaved Tiâ—hymal bruised and strewed in the waters kills Fish We use now 〈…〉 Roots of it and with a weight let them down to the bottom of the waters that will be infected by them and kill the Fish presently But in the Sea 〈◊〉 shall sooner kill them thus Mingle Oriental Galls two drâ—chms 〈◊〉 Cheese one ounce Bean-meal three ounces with Aqua Vitae make pelleâ—s of these as big as Chick-peason Cast them into the Sea in the morning before Sun rise after three hours come to the place again and you shall finde all those that tasted of it 〈◊〉 drunk or dead and to appear either on the top or bottom of the Sea which you shall take up with a pole and a hook fastened to it or Fish speer The Aqua Vitae is added because it soon flies to the head The Oriental Galls are poyson that astonisheth them the Bean-meal is not of great concernment This bait invites them and the Cheese smells so that they sent it at a distance CHAP. XI Of other Experiments for hunting NOw I will add some Experiments that seem to be requisite that you may use for necessity when you please To change a Dogs colour Since white Dogs are seldom fit for hunting because they are seen afar off a way is found to change his colour that will be done if you boyl quick Iâ—me with Litharge and paint 〈◊〉 Dog with it 〈…〉 him black That a Dog may not go from you Democrites saith a Dog will never 〈◊〉 from you if you smeer him with Butter from head to tail and give him Butter to â—ick Also 〈…〉 you if you have the secondine of a Bitch close in a 〈…〉 â—mell to it If you â—ould not have Your Dog to bark If you have a Bitches second Membrane or Hares hairs or Dung or Vervain about you In Nilus there is a black stone found that a Dog will not bark 〈◊〉 he see it you must also carry a Dogs Tongue undâ—â— your great 〈◊〉 within your shooe or the dry heart of a dog about you Sextus Or the hair of 〈◊〉 or the Dung Pliny Or cut off the tail of a yong 〈◊〉 and put it under 〈…〉 or 〈◊〉 the Dog a Frog to eat in a piece of meat All these things are to â—â—ep Dogs from barking Nigidius saith that Dogs will all day 〈◊〉 from him who pulls off a tâ—â—k from a Sow and carrieth it a while about him Opâ—an If of 〈…〉 you takes And wâ—â—r it 〈…〉 dogs will 〈◊〉 for sake As frighted they will flie and 〈…〉 Bark at you though they barked much before That a Dog may not run If you anoynt him with Oyl under the shoulders he cannot run To make a Hawke 〈…〉 You shall animate your Hawk against 〈◊〉 prey thaâ— he may assail and flee at great Birds When you hawk wet the Hawks meat with Wine If it be a Buzzard add a little Vinegar to it when you would have him 〈◊〉 a give him three bits of flesh wet in wine or pour Wine in at his mouth with a yong Pidgeon so let him flie To make Partridge more bold to fight Give then 〈…〉 with their meat Pliny That dung-hill 〈◊〉 fight the better Give them Garlick to eat soon before theâ— fight whence in the old Comedy a Cock ready and earnest to fight is wittily called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fed with Garlick 〈◊〉 a Bird may not the high Take out the Feathers of 〈…〉 that make him flie upwards so he will whirl about and flie downward If you will have That a Bird shall not flie cut the upper and lower nerves of his Wings and it will not hurt him yet he cannot flie out of your Bird-cages or places you keep them in THE SIXTEENTH BOOK OF Natural Magick Wherein are handled secret and undiscovered Notes THE PROEME I Make two sorts of secret marks which they vulgarly call Syfers one of visible marks and is worthy of a treatise by it self another of secret marks whereof 〈…〉 tempted to say something in this present Volume 〈◊〉 what are the consequâ—â—â— thereof for the use of great Men and Princes that 〈…〉 than 〈…〉 man that knows the invention I shall set down plainly some examples 〈…〉 consequences of them must 〈◊〉 faithfully concealed lest by growing 〈◊〉 amongst ordinary people they be disrespecteâ—â— This is that I shall publish CHAP. I. How 〈…〉 in diver◠〈…〉 be reâ—â— THere are many anâ— almost infinit 〈◊〉 write things of necessity that the Charactâ—â— shall not 〈…〉 â—ou dip them into waters or put them neer the 〈…〉 them over 〈…〉 are read by dipping them into waters Therefore If you desire that letters not 〈…〉 are 〈◊〉 may be hiâ—â— Let Vitriol soak in boyling water when 〈…〉 strain it 〈◊〉 till the water grow clear with that liquor write 〈…〉 are dry they 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 Moreover grindâ— burnt straw 〈…〉 â—â—egar and 〈◊〉 will write 〈◊〉 the spaces between the foâ—â—er liâ—â—s describâ—â— large Then 〈…〉 Galls in white Wine wet a spunge in the liquor 〈◊〉 when you have need 〈…〉 and weâ— the letters so long until the native black 〈◊〉 disappear but the former colour that was not seen may 〈…〉 I will 〈◊〉 in what liquors paper must be soaked to make letters 〈◊〉 be see 〈…〉 said Dissolve Vitriol 〈…〉 then powder Galls finely and soak them inâ—â—ter let them stay there twenty four hours filtre them through 〈◊〉 cloth 〈…〉 that may make the water clear and make letters upon 〈…〉 to have concealed send it to your Friend absent when you would have 〈◊〉 appear dip them in the first liquor and the letters â—ill presenâ—â—y be seen That diâ—â—â—ng 〈◊〉 lineâ—â—â— water 〈◊〉 may appear Dissolve Alom in water and 〈…〉 linen 〈◊〉 napkins and the like for when they are dry they will 〈…〉 When you will have them visible 〈…〉 linen 〈…〉 to be darkned but only where the Alom 〈…〉 that you may read them 〈…〉 are dissolved those parts will admit water 〈◊〉 White 〈…〉 Litharge is first powdered and cast into an earthen pot that hath water and vinegar mix'd boyl it and strain it and keep it then write letters with Citron Lemons juce these are added to them when they begin to dry If you dip them in the liquor kept they will appear clearly and very white If womens brests or hands be wet in it and you sprinkle the said water upon them they will grow white as Milk Use it If at any time you want 〈◊〉 if you please A stone dipped in vinegar will shew the letters Make letters with Goats far upon a stone when they are dry they will not be seen If the stone be dipâ— into 〈◊〉 they presently
do they ever breed without rain though they have never so much water otherwise for it is the rain both that begets and nourishes them as Aristotle writes They are also generated of putrified things Experience hath proved that a dead horse thrown into a standing pool hath brought forth great store of Eeles and the like hath been done by the carcases of other creatures Aristotle saith they are generated of the garbage of the earth which he saith ariseth in the Sea in Rivers and in pools by reason chiefly of putrefaction but it arises in the Sea by reason of reeds in Pools and Rivers it arises by the banks-side for there the heat is more forcible to cause putrefaction And a friend of mine filled certain wooden vessels with water and Reeds and some other water-herbs and set them in the open Air having first covered them with a weighty stone and so in short time generated Eeles Such is the generation of Groundlings out of some and froth which fish the Greeks call Aphya because rain breeds it Many of them breed of the fome that rises out of the sandy chanel that still goes and comes at all times till at last it is dissolved so that this kind of fish breeds all times of the year in shadowy and warm places when the soyl is heated as in Attica neer to Salamnia and in Marathon where Themistocles got his famous victory In some places this fish breeds of fome by the help of the rain and swims on the top of the water in the fome as you see little wormes creep on the top of mud Athenaeus saith This fish is consecrated to Venus because she also comes of the froth of the Sea whence she is called Aphrodites Aelianus saith These fishes neither do beget nor are begotten but only come of mud for when dirt is clotted together in the Sea it waxes very black and slimy and then receives heat and life after a wonderful manner and so is changed into very many living Creatures and namely into Groundlings When the waves are too boistrous for him he hides himself in the clift of some rock neither doth he need any food And Oppianus makes the very same description of them and of their generation There is a kind of these fishes called a Mullet-Groundling which is generated of mud and of sand as hath been tried in many marish places amongst the rest in Gindus where in the Dog-daies the Lakes being dried up so that the mud was hard as soon as ever they began to be full of rain-rain-water again were generated little fishes a kind of Mullets about the bigness of little Cackrels which had neither seed nor egge in them And in some parts of Asia at the mouth of the Rivers into the Sea some of a bigger size are generated And as the Mullet-groundling comes of mud or of a sandy lome as Aristotle writes so it is to be thought that the Cackrel-groundling comes thereof also It seems too that A Carpe is generated of putrefaction Especially of the putrified mud of sweet water for it is experienced that in certain Lakes compassed about with Hills where there is no Well nor River to moisten it but only the rain after some few showers there hath been great store of fish especially Carps but there are some of this kind generated by copulation There are also in certain particular Lakes particular kinds of fishes as in the Lemane and the Benacian Lakes there be divers kind of Carpes and other such fishes Likewise there are certain Earthly fishes generated of putrefaction Pliny reports that in Paphlagonia they dig out of deep ditches certain earthly fishes very good to be eaten and it is so in places where there is no standing water and he wonders that they should be generated without copulation but surely it is by vertue of some moisture which he ascribes to the Wells because in some of them fishes are found Likewise Shel-fish are generated of the forthy mud or else meerly of the salt-salt-water for they have neither seed nor male nor female the hardnesse and closenesse of their shels hindering all things from touching or rubbing their inward parts which might be fit for generation Aristotle saith they breed all of themselves which appears by this that oft-times they breed in Ships of a forthy mud putrified and in many places where no such thing was before many shel-fishes have bred when once the place waxed muddy for lack of moisture And that these fishes emit no seed or generative matter it appears because that when the men of Chios had brought out of Lesbos many Oysters and cast them into Lakes neer the Sea there were found no more then were cast in onely they were somewhat greater So then Oysters are generated in the Sea in Rivers and in Lakes and therefore are called Limnostrea because they breed in muddy places Oppianus writes also that they have neither male nor female but are generated of themselves and their own accord without the help of any copulation So the fish called Ortica and the Purple and Muscles and Scallops and Perwinkles and Limpins and all Shel-fish are generated of mud for they cannot couple together but live only as plants live And look how the mud differs so doth it bring forth different kinds of fishes durty mud genders Oysters sandy mud Perwinkles the mud in the Rocks breedeth Holoturia Lepades and such-like Limpins as experience hath shewed have bred of rotten hedges made to fish by and as soon as the hedges were gone there have been found no more Limpins CHAP. V. That new kinds of living Creatures may be generated of divers beasts by carnal copulation WE have shewed that living Creatures are generated of putrefaction now we will shew that sundry kinds of beasts coupling together may bring forth new kinds of Creatures and these also may bring forth others so that infinite monsters may be daily gendred for whereas Aristotle saith that Africk alwayes brings forth some new thing the reason thereof is this because the Country being in most places dry divers kinds of beasts come out of sundry quarters thither where the Rivers were and there partly for lust and partly by constraint coupled together and so gendred divers monstrous Creatures The Antients have set down many such generations and some are lately devised or found out by chance and what may be hereafter let men of learning judge Neither let the opinions of some Philosophers stay us which hold that of two kinds divers in nature a third cannot be made unlike to either of the parents and that some Creatures do not gender at all as Mules do not for we see that contrary to the first of these their positions many Creatures are generated of kinds divers in nature and of these are generated others to the perpetual conservation of this new kind as hath been tried in many Villages that divers kinds coupling together have brought forth other new kinds differing from their progenitors every
remaining Powders make a mass which you may form into cakes which being burnt on hot Ashes smell very sweetly I take out the Cinnamon and the Woods because in burning they cast forth a stink of smoak Another way Take one pound and a half of the Coals of Willow ground into dust and seirced four ounces of Labdanum three drachms of Storax two of Benjamin one of Lignum Aloes mix the Storax Benjamin and Labdanum in a Brass Morter with an Iron Pestle heated and put to them the Coal and Lignum Aloes powdered Add to these half an ounce of liquid Storax then dissolve Gum Tragacantha in Rose-water and drop it by degrees into the Morter When the powders are mixed into the form of an Unguent you may make it up into the shape of Birds or any other things and dry them in the shade You may wash them over with a little Musk and Amber upon a Pencil and when you burn them you will receive a most sweet fume from them Another Perfume Anoynt the Pill of Citron or Lemmon with a little Civet stick it with Cloves and Races of Cinnamon boyl it in Rose-water and it will fill your chamber with an odorifeous fume CHAP. IX How to adulterate Musk. THese Perfumes are often counterfeited by Impostors wherefore I will declare how you may discern and beware of these Cheats for you must not trust whole Musk-Cods of it there being cunning Impostors who fill them with other things and onely mix Musk enough to give its sent to them Black Musk inclining to a dark red is counterfeited with Goats blood a little rosted or toasted bread so that three or four parts of them beaten with one of Musk will hardly be discovered The Imposture may be discerned onely thus The Bread is easie to be crumb'd and the Goats blood looketh clear and bright within when it is broken It is counterfeited by others in this manner Beat Nutmegs Mace Cinnamon Cloves Spikenard of each one handful and seirce them carefully then mix them with the warm blood of Pigeons and dry them in the Sun Afterward beat them again and wet them with Musk-water and Rose-water dry them beat them and moysten them very many times at length add a fourth part of pure Musk and mix them well and wet them again with Rose-water and Musk-water divide the Mass into several parts and rowl them in the hair of a Goat which groweth under his Tail Others do it Another way and mingle Storax Labdanum and Powder of Lignum Aloes add to the Composition Musk and Civet and mingle all together with Rose-water The Imposture is discovered by the easie dissolving of it in water and it differeth in colour and sent Others augment Musk by adding Roots of Angelica which doth in some sort imitate the sent of Musk. So also they endeavour To adulterate Civet with the Gall of an Ox and Storax liquified and washed or Cretan Honey But if your Musk or Amber have lost their sent thus you must do To make Musk recover its sent hang it in a Jakes and among stinks for by striving against those ill savours it exciteth its own vertue reviveth and recovereth its lost sent THE TWELFTH BOOK OF Natural Magick Of Artificial Fires THE PROEME BEfore I leave off to write of Fire I shall treat of that dangerous Fire that works wonderful things which the vulgar call Artificial Fire which the Commanders of Armies and Generals use lamentably in divers Artifices and monstrous Designs to break open Walls and Cities and totally to subvert them and in Sea-fights to the infinite ruine of mâ—rtal men and whereby they oft-times frustrate the malicious enterprizes of their Enemies The matter is very useful and wonderful and there is nothing in the world that more frights and terrifies the mindes of men God is coming to judge the world by Fire I shall describe the mighty hot Fires of our Ancestors which they used to besiege places with and I shall add those that are of later Invention that far exceed them and lastly I shall speak of those of our days You have here the Compositions of terrible Gun-powder that makes a noise and then of that which makes no noise of Pipes that vomit forth deadly Fires and of Fires that cannot be quenched and that will rage under Water at the very bottom of it Whereby the Seas rend asunder as if they were undermined by the great violence of the flames striving against them and are lifted up into the Air that Ships are drawn by the monstrous Gulphs Of Fireâ—Balls that flie with glittering Fire and terrifie Troops of Horse-men and overthrow them So that we are come almost to eternal Fires CHAP. I. How divers ways to procure Fire may be prepared VItruvius saith That it fell out by accident that sundry Trees frequently moved with Windes and Tempests the Bows of them rubbing one against another and the parts smiting each other and so being ratified caused heat and took fire and flamed exceedingly Wilde people that saw this ran away When the Fire was out and they durst come neerer and found it to be a great commodity for the Body of man they preserved the Fire and so they perceived that it afforded causes of civility of conversing and talking together Pliny saith It was found out by Souldiers and Shepherds In the Camp those that keep watch found this out for necessity and so did Shepherds because there is not always a Flint ready Theophrastus teacheth what kindes of Wood are good for this purpose and though the Anger and the handle are sometimes both made of one sort of Wood yet it is so that one part acts and the other suffers so that he thinks the one part should be of hard Wood and the other of soft Example Wood that by rubbing together will take Fire They are such as are very hot as the Bay-Tree the Buck-thorn the Holm the Piel-Tree But Mâ—estor adds the Mulberry-Tree and men conjecture so because they will presently blunt the Ax. Oâ— all these they make the Auger that by rubbing they may resist the more and do the business more firmly but the handle to receive them is to be made of soft Wood as the Ivy the wilde Vine and the like being dried and all moisture taken from them The Olive is not fit because it is full of fat matter and too much moysture But those are worst of all to make Fires that grow in shady places Pliny from him One Wood is rub'd against another and by rubbing takes Fire some dry fuel as Mushroomes or Leaves easily receiving the Fire from them But there is nothing better then the Ivy that may be rubbed with the Bay-Tree or this with that Also the wilde Vine is good which is another kinde of wilde Vine and runs upon Trees as the Ivy doth But I do it more conveniently thus Rub one Bay-Tree against another and rub lustily for it will presently smoak adding a little Brimstone put your fuel
the Birds will be so stupid that they cannot flie but are catch'd with ones hand Or mingle Barley and mushrooms that are so called from flies with the seeds of Henbane and make the pap of it and lay on a board as before To catch Rooks with your hands Powder Nux vomica and mingle it with flesh So also you may make Fish drunk Opian teacheth some ways If you will Make Fish drunk Sow-bread will do it for I said that Sow-bread will make men more drunk His words are Of Sow-bread-Root they make a paste that 's white And fat with which the rocks and holes they smeer The water 's poyson'd by it and the might And force thereof doth spread both far and neer The Fishes fall the Fishes are made blinde And tremble at it for the stinking smell This Root thus ordered alwayes leaves behinde Doth make them drunk as Fishers know full well CHAP. IX The peculiar poysons of Animals are declared DO not think I mean that one poyson can kill all living Creatures but every one hath his several poyson for what is venome to one may serve to preserve another which comes not by reason of the quality but of the distinct nature Would we mention The venoms that kill Dogs Dioscâ—rides saith that white Chamaeleon made up with Barley-Flour will kill Dogs Sows and Mice being wet with water or Oyl Theophrastus saith Dogs and Sows kneaded with water and Oyl but with Coleworts Sows Nux vomica which from the effect is called Dogs Nut if it be filed and the thin filings thereof be given with Butter or some fat thing to a Dog to swallow it will kill him in three hours space he will be astonished and fall suddenly and dies without any noise but it must be fresh that Nature seems to have produced this Nut alone to kill Dogs They will not eat the Fruit of the Ash because it makes pain in their back-bone and hips yet Sows are fatted by it So there is one Plant called Dogs bane Chrysippus saith that Dogs are killed with it if the shoots of it are given to them with water Dogs cole or wilde cole if it be given with Flesh so the fumes of Lead Aristotle in his wonders concerning the Country of the Scythians and Medes saith that there is Barley that men feed on but Dogs and Sows will not endure the Excrements of those that eat it as being poyson to them I say nothing of Aconitum called by Dioscorides Dogs bane I shall say the same Of Wolfs bane Wolfs bane kills Wolfs and many other wild Beasts and it 's so called from the effect Mountebanks make venome thus Take black Hellebore two ounces Yew-leaves one ounce Beech-rinde Glass quick Lime yellow Arsenick of each one ounce and half of sweet Almonds three ounces Honey what may suffice Make pellets as big as a small Nut. Others take Wolfs bane yellow Arsenick and Yew-leaves of each alike and mingle them There are other Herbs that kill Wolfs but I pass them to avoid tediousness Aelian saith By Nilus grows an Herb called Wolfs bane if a Wolf tread on it he dies of convulsions Wherefore the Egyptians forbid any such Herb to be imported into their Country because they adore this Creature There are also Herbs that kill Mice That Aconitum which is called Myoctonon kills Mice a great way off Dioscorides and Nicandor Staves-acre hath almost the same forces whose Root or Seed in powder mingled with Meal and fried with Butter kills Mice if they eat it They are driven away with the Root of Daffodils and if their holes be stopt with it they die The wilde Cucumber and Coloquintida kill Mice If Mice eat Tithymal cut into small slices and mingled with Flour and Metheglin they will be blinde So Chamaeleon Myacanthus Realgar namely of live Brimstone quick Lime and Orpiment will do the same But amongst Wolfs banes is reckoned Libards bane by whose Root powdered and given with flesh they are killed Flesh is strewed with Aconite and Panthers are killed if they taste thereof Their jaws and throat are presently in pain therefore it is called Pardalianches They are killed also by Dogs bane which also they call Pardalianches Lious bane is called Leontophonon it is a little Creature that breeds nowhere but where the Lion is Being taken it is burnt and with the Ashes thereof flesh is strewed and being cast in the high-ways where they meet Lions are killed so Pardalianches kills Lions as well as Panthers Ox bane The juice of black Chamaeleon kills Heifers by a Quinsey wherefore some call it Ulophonon Oxen fear black Hellebore yet they will eat the white Goats bane There is an Herb that from killing Beasts but especially Goats is called Aegolethros The Flowers of it in a watry Spring-time are venome when they wither so that this mischief is not found every yeer Harts bane Some 〈◊〉 First are found in Armenia with the powder of them they scatter Figs strewed with it in the places where wilde Beasts come Beasts no sooner taste of them but they diâ—â— And by this Art are Harts and Bores killed Aelian Horse banes are Aconite Hellebore and red Arsenick Wheezles bane are Sal Ammoniacâ— and Corn moystened with some Liquor scatter this about such places as Wheeâ—les haunt when they eat it they die or flie away Sheeps bane Nardum kills Sheep Dioscorides Cattel and Goats if they drink the water where Rhododendron is steeped will die Pliny and Ononyâ—â—ius an Author nameless Flea-bane kills Goats and Sheep so doth Savin Pigeons bane Sâ—r apio writes that Pigeons are killed when they eat Corn or Beans steept in water wherein white Hellebore hath been infused Hens bane Hens die by eating the Seeds of Broom called Spartum Bats bane 〈◊〉 in Geopon saith they die by the fume of Ivy. Vultures Some Animals are killed by â—ings that smell very sweet to us Vultures by Unguents and black Beetâ—â—â— by Roses The same happens if a man do but anoynt them or give them meat that is smeered with sweet Oyntment Aristotle lib. Mirabil Scorâ—ions bane Aconite called Theliphonum from killing Scorpions Scorpions are stupified by touching it and they wax pale shewing thâ—â— they are conquered The Eagle is killed with Comfrey the 〈◊〉 with the Gall of the Hiaenaâ— the Stare with Garlick-seed the 〈◊〉 with Brimstone the Urcâ—in with Pondweed the Faulcon the Sea-gill the Turtlâ— the black-Bird the Vulture the night-Bird called Scopes perish with Pomegranate Kâ—rneâ— The â—â—â—ling by the Flower of Willows the Grow with Rocket-seed the Bâ—â—tle with sweâ—t Oyntment the Rook with the reliques of flesh the Wolf hath fed on the â—ark by Mustard-seed the Crane by the Vine-juice CHAP. X. Of the venomes for Fishes THe Sea and Rivers use to be infected with some Herbs and other simples whereby the Fishes 〈…〉 those waters are 〈…〉 and die But because they are several foâ— several Fish 〈…〉 the Particulars and the Genâ—â—als that the Fisherman taught by these may invâ—â—â— others
because the air hath no place to get forth when therefore any man drinks when the water is drank up as far as the hole of the spire end by the air pressed within is the water thrust violently forth and flies in the face of him that drinks Also there is a vessel that no man can drink out of it but he who knows the art Make an earthen or metal vessel in form of a Bottle or Flagon and make it full of holes from the neck to the middle of the belly From the bottom let a pipe ascend by the handle of the vessel and the handle being round about it let it come above the brims of the vessel empty under the handle in a place not seen make a little hole that any man holding the vessel by the handle may with his finger stop and unstop this hole when he please under the brim of the vessel where you set it to your mouth let there be another secret hole Then pour water into the vessel if now any man put the bottle to his mouth and raiseth it to drink the water will run forth at the neck that is open and at the belly but he that knows the trick taking the vessel by the handle shuts the hole with his thumb and not moving the vessel he draws the air with his mouth for the water follows the air and so he drinks it all up but if any man suck and shut not the hole the water will not follow CHAP. VI. That we may use the Air in many Arts. VVE may use Air in many Artifices I shall set down some that I may give a hint to others to invent more And chiefly How wind may be made in a chamber that guests may almost freeze Make a deep pit and put in a sufficient quantity of river or running water let the pit be close stopt onely let a pipe convey it through the walls that it may be brought into the chamber Let the water be let down into the pit by a kind of Tunnel lest the air should come forth at the place where it goes in by the water is the air of the pit expelled and comes by the pipe into the chamber that not onely those that sleep there but such as converse there are extream cold and benummed I will shew How Air may serve for Bellows I saw this at Rome Make a little cellar that 's close on all sides pour in by a Tunnel from above a quantity of water on the top of the wall let there be a little hole at which the air may break forth with violence for it will come so forcibly that it will kindle a fire and serve for bellows for Brass and Iron-melting furnaces the Tunnel being so made that when need is it may be turned and water may be put in THE TWENTIETH BOOK OF Natural Magick The Chaos wherein the Experiments are set down without any Classical Order THE PROEME I Determined at the beginning of my Book to write Experiments that are contain'd in all Natural Sciences but by my business that called me off my mind was hindred so that I could not accomplish what I intended Since therefore I could not do what I would I must be willing to do what I can Therefore I shut up in this Book those Experiments that could be included in no Classes which were so diverse and various that they could not make up a Science or a Book and thereupon I have here heaped them altogether confusedly as what I had overpassed and if God please I will another time give you a more perfect Book Now you must rest content with these CHAP. I. How sea-Sea-water may be made potable IT is no small commodity to mankinde if sea-Sea-water may be made potable In long voyages as to the Indies it is of great concernment For whilst Sea men by reason of tempests are forced to stay longer at Sea than they would for want of water they fall into great danger of their lives Galleys are forced all most every ten days to put in for fresh water and therefore they cannot long wander in enemies countries nor go far for enemies stop their passages Moreover in sea Towns and Islands when they want water as in our days in the Island Malta and in the Syrses Souldiers and Inhabitants endured much hardness and Histories relate many such things Hence I thought it necessary to search curiously whether Sea-water might be made potable But it is impossible to finde out any thing for this how it may be done unless we first finde out the cause of its saltness and what our Ancestors have said concerning that matter especially since Aristotle saith That the salt may easily be taken from the Sea because the sea is not salt of its own Nature but by the Sun that heats the water which draws out of it cold and dry earthly exhalations to the top of it and these being there burnt cause it to be salt when the moist subtile parts are resolved into thin vapors We therefore imitating Nature by raising the thin parts by Chymical Instruments may easily make it sweet For so the Nature of the Sea makes sweet waters for the Rivers There are also veins of the Sea in the deep parts of the earth that are heated by the Sun and the vapours are elevated to the tops of the heighest Mountains where by the cold superficies they meet with they congeal into drops and dropping down by the vaulted roots of Caves they run forth in open streams We first fill a hollow vessel like a great Ball with Sea-water it must have a long neck and a cap upon it that live coles being put under the water may resolve into thin vapors and fill all vacuities being carryed aloft this ill sented grossness when it comes to touch the coldness of the head or cap and meets with the Glass gathers like dew about the skirts of it and so running down the arches of the cap it turns to water and a pipe being opened that pertains to it it runs forth largely and the receiver stands to receive it as it drops so will sweet water come from salt and the salt tarryeth at the bottom of the vessel and three pound of salt water will give two pounds of fresh water but if the cap of the limbeck be of Lead it will afford more water yet not so good For Galen saith That water that runs through pipes of Lead if it be drank will cause an excoriation of the intestines But I found a way How to get a greater quantity of fresh water when we distil salt water Make a cap of earth like to a Pyramis all full of holes that through the holes Urinals of Earth or Glass may be brought in Let their mouths stick forth well luâ—ed that the vapor may not exhale the cap after the fashion of the limbeck must have its pipe at the bottom running round and let it crop forth at the nose of it Set this upon a
of Magick THere are two sorts of Magick the one is infamous and unhappie because it hath to do with foul spirits and consists of Inchantments and wicked Curiosity and this is called Sorcery an art which all learned and good men derest neither is it able to yeeld any truth of Reason or Nature but stands meerly upon fancies and imaginations such as vanish presently away and leave nothing behinde them as Jamblichus writes in his book concerning the mysteries of the Aegyptians The other Magick is natural which all excellent wise men do admit and embrace and worship with great applause neither is there any thing more highly esteemed or better thought of by men of learning The most noble Philosophers that ever were Pythagoras Empedocles Democrites and Plato forsook their own countries and lived abroad as exiles and banished men rather then as strangers and all to search out and to attain this knowledge and when they came home again this was the Science which they professed and this they esteemed a profound mysterie They that have been most skilfuâ— in dark and hidden points of learning do call this knowledge the very highest point and the perfection of natural Science insomuch that if they could find out or devise amongst all natural Sciences any one thing more excellent or more wonderful then another that they would still call by the name of Magick Others have named it the practical part of natural Philosophy which produceth her effects by the mutual and fit application of one natural thing unto another The Platonicks as Plotinus imitating Mercurius writes in his book of Sacrifice and Magick makes it to be a Science whereby inferiour things are made subject to superiours earthly are subdued to heavenly and by certain pretty allurements it fetcheth forth the properties of the whole frame of the world Hence the Aegyptians termed Nature her self a Magician because she hath an alluring power to draw like things by their likes and this power say they consists in love and the things that were so drawn and brought together by the affinity of Nature those they said were drawn by Magick But I think that Magick is nothing else but the survey of the whole course of Nature For whilst we consider the Heavens the Stars the Elements how they are moved and how they are changed by this means we find out the hidden secrecies of living creatures of plants of metals and of their generation and corruption so that this whole Science seems meerly to depend upon the view of Nature as afterward we shall see more at large This doth Plato seem to signifie in his Alcibiades where he saith That the Magick of Zoroastres was nothing else in his opinion but the knowledge and study of Divine things wherewith the Kings Sons of Persia amongst other princely qualities were endued that by the example of the Common-wealth of the whole world they also might learn to govern their own Common-wealth And Tully in his book of Divinations saith That amongst the Persians no man might be a King unless he had first learned the Art of Magick for as Nature governs the world by the mutual agreement and disagreement of the creatures after the same sort they also might learn to govern the Common-wealth committed unto them This Art I say is full of much vertue of many secret mysteries it openeth unto us the properties and qualities of hidden things and the knowledge of the whole course of Nature and it reacheth us by the agreement and the disagreement of things either so to sâ—nder them or else to lay them so together by the mutual and fit applying of one thing to another as thereby we do strange works such as the vulgar sort call miracles and such as men can neither well conceive nor sufficiently admire For this cause Magick was wont to flourish in Aethiopia and India where was great store of herbs and stones and such other things as were fit for these purposes Wherefore as many of you as come to behold Magick must be perswaded that the works of Magick are nothing else but the works of Nature whose dutiful hand-maid Magick is For if she find any want in the affinity of Nature that it is not strong enough she doth supply such defects at convenient seasons by the help of vapours and by observing due measures and proportions as in Husbandry it is Nature that brings forth corn and herbs but it is Art that prepares and makes way for them Hence was it that Antipho the Poet said That we overcome those things by Art wherein Nature doth overcome us and Plotinus calls a Magician such a one as works by the help of Nature onely and not by the help of Art Superstitious profane and wicked men have nothing to do with this Science her gate is shut against them neither do we judge them worthy to be driven away from this profession onely but even out of Cities and out of the world to be grievously punished and utterly destroyed But now what is the 〈◊〉 and what must be the learning of this professor we purpose to 〈◊〉 in that which floweth CHAP. III. The Instruction of a Magician and what manner of man a Magician ought to be NOw it is meet to instruct a Magician both what he must know and what he must observe that being sufficiently instructed every way he may bring very strange and wonderful things to pass Seeing Magick as we shewed before is a practical part of Natural Philosophy therefore it behoveth a Magician and one that aspires to the dignity of that profession to be an exact and a very perfect Philosopher For Philosophy teaches what are the effects of fire earth air and water the principal matter of the heavens and what is the cause of the flowing of the Sea and of the divers-coloured Rain-bowe and of the loud Thunder and of Comets and firy lights that appear by night and of Earth-quakes and what are the beginnings of Gold and of Iron and what is the whole witty force of hidden Nature Then also he must be a skilful Physician for both these Sciences are very like and neer together and Physick by creeping in under colour of Magick hath purchased favour amongst men And surely it is a great help unto us in this kinde for it teaches mixtures and temperatures and so shews us how to compound and lay things together for such purposes Moreover it is required of him that he be an Herbalist not onely able to discern common Simples but very skilful and sharp-sighted in the nature of all plants for the uncertain names of plants and their neer likeness of one to another so that they can hardly be discerned hath put us to much trouble in some of our works and experiments And as there is no greater inconvenience to any Artificer then not to know his tools that he must work with so the knowledge of plants is so necessary to this profession that indeed it is all in all He
good thing cometh certainly from the power of the Sun and if we receive any good from any thing else yet the Sun must perfect and finish it Heraclitus calls the Sun the Fountain of heavenly light Orpheus calls it the light of life Plato calls it a heavenly Fire an everliving Creature a star that hath a Soul the greatest and the daily star and the natural Philosophers call it the very heart of heaven And Plotinus shews that in antient times the Sun was honoured in stead of God Neither yet is the Moon lesse powerful but what with her own force and what with the force of the Sun which she borrows she works much by reason of her neernesse to these inferiours Albumasar said That all things had their vertue from the Sun and the Moon and Hermes the learned said that the Sun and the Moon are the life of all things living The Moon is nighest to the Earth of all Planets she rules moist bodies and she hath such affinity with these inferiours that as well things that have souls as they that have none do feel in themselves her waxing and her waining The Seas and Flouds Rivers and Springs do rise and fall do run sometimes swifter sometimes flower as she rules them The surges of the Sea are tost to and fro by continual succession no other cause whereof the Antients could find but the Moon only neither is there any other apparent reason of the ebbing and flowing thereof Living creatures are much at her beck and receive from her great encrease for when she is at the full as Lucilius saith she feeds Oysters Crabs Shelfish and such like which her warm light doth temper kindly in the night season but when she is but the half or the quarter light then she withdraws her nourishment and they wastâ— In like manner Cucumbers Gourds Pompons and such like as have store of 〈◊〉 juice feel the state of the Moon for they wax as she doth and when she 〈◊〉 they waste as Athenaeus writes Likewise the very stems of plants do follow the state of the heavens witnesse the Husband-man who finds it by experience in his graffing and skilful Husbandmen have found the course and season of the year and the monethly race of the Moon so necessary for plants that they have supposed this knowledge to be one chief part of Husbandry So also when the Moon passeth through those signs of the Zodiak which are most peculiar to the earth if you then plant trees they will be strongly rooted in the earth if you plant them when she passeth through the signs of the Air then the tree so planted will be plentiful in branches and leaves and encreaseth more upward then downward But of all other the most pregnant sign hereof is found in the Pome-granate which will bring forth fruit just so many years as many daies as the Moon is old when you plant it And it is a report also that Garlick if it be set when the Moon is beneath the earth and be also plucked up at such a time it will lose its strong savour All cut and lopped Woods as Timber and Fewel are full of much moisture at the new of the Moon and by reason of that moisture they wax soft and so the worm eats them and they wither away And therefore Democritus counselleth and Vitruvius is also of the same minde to cut or lop trees in the waining of the Moon that being cut in season they may last long without rottennesse And that which is more as her age varies so her effects vary according to her age for in her first quarter she maketh hot and moist but especially moist from thence all moist things grow and receive their humidity in that time from that time to the full of the Moon she gives heat and moisture equally as may be seen in Trees and Minerals from that time to the half Moon decaying she is hot and moist but especially hot because she is fuller of light thence the fishes at that time commonly are wont to swim in the top of the water and that the Moon is in this age warm appears by this that it doth extend and enlarge moist bodies and thereby the moisture encreasing it causeth rottennesse and maketh them wither and wâ—â—te away But in her last quarter when she loseth all her light then she is meerly hot and the wises of Chaldea hold that this state of heaven is best of all other So they report that there is a Moon-herb having round twirled leaves of a blewish colour which is well acquainted with the age of the Moon for when the Moon waxeth this herb every day of her age brings forth a leaf and when she waineth the same herb loseth for every day a leaf These variable effects of the Moon we may see more at large and more usually in tame creatures and in plants where we have daily sight and experience thereof The Pismire that little creature hath a sense of the change of the Plantes for she worketh by night about the full of the Moon but she resteth all the space betwixt the old and the new Moon The inwards of mice answer the Moons proportion for they encrease with her and with her they also shrink away If we cut our hair or pair our nailes before the new Moon they will grow again but slowly if at or about the new Moon they will grow again quickly The eyes of Cats are also acquainted with the alterations of the Moon so that they are sometimes broader as the light is lesse and narrower when the light of the Moon is greater The Beetle marketh the ages and seasons of the Planets for he gathering dung out of the mixen rounds it up together and covereth it with earth for eight and twenty daies hiding it so long as the Moon goeth about the Zodiak and when the new Moon cometh he openeth that round ball of dirt and thence yields a young Beetle Onions alone of all other herbs which is most wonderful feels the changeable state of the Planets but quite contrary to their change frameth it self for when the Moon waineth the Onions encrease and when she waxeth they decay for which cause the Priests of Egypt would not eat Onions as Plutark writes in his fourth Commentary upon Hesiode That kinde of spurge which is called Helioscopium because it follows the Sun disposeth of her leaves as the Sun rules them for when the Sun riseth she openeth them as being desirous that the morning should see them rise and shutteth them when the Sun setteth as desiring to have her flower covered and concealed from the night So many other herbs follow the Sun as the herb Turn-sole 〈◊〉 when the Sun riseth she holds down her head all day long that the Sun may never so much as writhe any of her there is such love as it were betwixt them and she stoops still the same way which the Sun goeth so do the flowers of Succory and of Mallows
with his side and the other would shut them as fast when they were open Some cannot away to look upon a Cat a Mouse and such like but presently they swoon So many have the gift from heaven to heal the Kings-evil and divers other sores and that which hath troubled much many Surgeons and they could not heal it hath at length been healed only with spittle Again we must well consider what kinds of qualities are incident to what kinds of parties as commonly queans are impudent ruffians are luxurious theeves are fearful and such like passions as Writers everywhere mention Moreover some natural things have not only such properties in themselves but they are apt also to communicate them unto others A Harlot is not only impudent in her self but she also naturally infects therewith all that she touches and carries about her so that if a man do often behold himself in her glasse or put on her garments it will make him impudent and lecherous as she is The Load-stone doth not only draw to it self that iron which it touches but also all iron things neer it the same ring which the Load-stone draws to it self will draw many rings if they be neer so that it will be like a chain the vertue of the Load-stone passing out of one ring into another And the like may be observed in other things We must note also that the vertues of some things are seated in their whole substance of other things in some of their parts The Sea-Lamprey stayeth a Ship not principally with any one part but with her whole body And there be many like examples On the other side many things work by some of their parts as the Cockatrice and the Basilisk by their eyes likewise Pismires shun the wings of a Rere-mouse but her head and heart they do not shun so they shun the heart of an Houpe but neither the head nor yet the wings The like may be observed in other things CHAP. XIV Of those properties and vertues which things have while they live and of such as remain in things after death WE must consider that almost all those vertues which are found to be excellent in things while they are alive do quite perish in death and seldom are of any force afterward If the wolf espy us his eyes make us dumb the eyes of the Cockatrice and Basilisk will kill us forth-right the Sea-lamprey staies the course of a Ship the Struthio-camelus can digest iron but none of all the these being dead worketh ought for when they perish their vertues also perish with them Therfore it is a wise rule in natural Magick that if a man will work any thing by living creatures or by any of their parts or properties he must take the benefit of them while they be alive for if they die their vertue dies also For the soul saith Albertus is a chief help and strikes a great stroke in those qualities which are in living creatures so that they being alive are endued with many operative vertues which their death especially if it be natural that their humours are quite wasted takes from them as Physitians do much observe Draw out a frogs tongue take away from the Ray or fork-Fork-fish his dart the eyes or stones out of any creatures head or any such operative things not after they are dead but while they are yet alive and throw them into the water again that if it be possible they may live still lest their vertue should decay but rather that by their living they might quicken those their natural properties and so you may work better thereby And thus we must do in all things else which I spare to speak of any further Sometimes yet the properties of things are operative yea and that more forcibly after death The Wolf is hurtful and odious to sheep after he is dead for if you cover a drum with a wolfs skin the sound of it will make sheep afraid when most other creatures will not be afraid nay sheep will make a heavy noise whereas it contrariwise causeth such clamorous creatures as hear it to hold their peace so if you cover it with a bears skin the sound thereof will make horses run away and if you make harp-strings of all their guts severally and put them together upon the instrument they will alwayes jar and never make any consort The beast Hyaena and the Panther are naturally at variance hence the skin of a dead Hyaena makes the Panther run away nay if you hang their severall skins one against the other the Panthers skin will lose the hairs So a Lions skin wasteth and eateth out the skins of other beasts and so doth the wolfes skin eat up the Lambs skin Likewise the feathers of other fowles being put among Eagles feathers do rot and consume of themselves The beast Florus it may be the Ass and the bird Aegithus are at such mortal enmity that when they are dead their blood cannot be mingled together The Pigeon loves the Kastrel so well that she loves the Dove-house much the better where a dead Kastrel is In like manner herbs and other simples retain many operative qualities even after they are dried up These things must be well considered by a Magiâ—ian lest peradventure he be deceived in their working CHAP. XV. That all Simples are to be gotten and used in their certain seasons SEeing all inferiours especially plants receive their vertue from the heavens therefore we must have a special care to take them in their due seasons for as heaven varies the constitutions of the year so doth it vary plants they being much nourished by the temperature of the Air and the time of the year as Theophrastus saith is all in all from them Whence that proverb was justly fetcht That it is the year and not the field which brings forth fruit Which may be understood two wayes either as the vulgar sort mean or after a more peculiar manner Concerning the vulgar understanding thereof Dioscorides shews that we must have a special care both to plant and to gather all things in their right seasons for they are operative onely as their reason is observed but otherwise of no force The time of gathering must be a calm and fair time If we gather them either too soon or too late they loose their best vertue Roots must be plucked up in the fall of the leaf for then they are fullest both of moisture and vertue their force hiding it self within them when their leaves fall which lasts long in them being at that season gathered Flowers must be gathered in the Spring because then they have most vertue and Leaves must be gathered in the Summer The like we must observe in other things Know also that some things lose their vertue quickly others keep it along time as experience and the rules of Physick teach us that some things may be kept many years others being long kept are good for nothing Whence it cometh that many
themselves either egge or young as Pliny noteth But now we will speak of a most excellent generation namely how Bees are generated of an Ox. Aelianus writes That Oxen are commodious many wayes amongst the rest this is one excellent commodity that being dead there may be generated of them a very profitable kind of Creatuers namely Bees Ovid saith it that as all putrified bodies are turned into some small living Creatuers so Oxen putrified do generate Bees Florentinus the Grecian saith that Jubas King of Africa taught how to make Bees in a wodden Ark. Democritus and Varro shew a cruel manner of making Bees in a house but it is a very ready way Chuse a house ten cubits high and ten cubits broad square every way but let there be but one entrance into it and four windows on each side one Put in this room an Ox about two or three years old let him be fat and fleshy then set to him a company of lusty fellows to beat him so cruelly that they kill him with their cudgels and break his bones withal but they must take great heed that they draw no blood of him neither must they strike him too fiercely at the first After this stop up all the passages of the Ox his nostrils eyes mouth and necessary places of evacuation with fine linen clouts besmeared with pitch Then cast a great deal of honey under him being laid with his face upwards and let them all go forth and daube up the door and the windows with thick lome so that no wind nor Air can get in Three weeks after open the room and let the light and the Air come in except there where the wind would blow in too violently And when you see that the matter is through cold and hath taken air enough then shut up the door and windows as before About eleven daies after open it again and you shall find the room full of Bees clotted together and nothing of the Ox remaining beside the horns the bones and the hair They say that the Kings of the companies are generated of the brain the other of the flesh but the chief Kings of all of the marrow yet those that come of the brain are most of them greater handsomer and better-coloured then the rest When you open the room first you shall find the flesh turned into small white and unperfect creatures all of the same shape but as yet only growing and not moving Afterward at the second opening you may see their wings grown the right colour of Bees in them and how they sit about their Kings and flutter about especially toward the windows where they would enjoy their desired light But it is best to let them light by the windows every other day This same experiment Virgil hath very elegantly set down in the same manner Now as the best kind of Bees are generated of a young Ox so a more base kind of them is brought forth of the dead flesh of baser creatures Aelianus saith That Waspes are generated of an Horse when his carcase is putrified the marrow of him brings forth Waspes a swift kind of fowl from a swift kind of beast Ovid saith that Hornets are thence generated and Isiodore derives crabronem à cabo id est caballo a hornet of a horse because they are brought forth of horses Pliny and Virgil say that waspes and hornets both are generated of the flesh of dead horses In like manner Drones come of Mules as Isiodore affirmeth and the Drone is called Fucus quasi Fagos because he eats that which he never laboured for But others hold that Locusts and not Drones are generated of Mules flesh So also of the basest beast cometh the basest fowl The Beetle is generated of the Ass as Pliny writes Isiodore saith they come of swift dogs Aelianus saith they have no female but lay their seed in a clot of earth for 28 dayes and then bring forth young out of it CHAP. III. Of certain Birds which are generated of the Putrefaction of Plants Olaus Magnus in the description of the North-countries of Europe reports that about Scotland there be certain birds generated of the fruit of a Tree Munster saith there be certain Trees which bring forth a fruit covered over with leaves which if it fall into the water under it at the right season it lives and becomes a quick bird which is called Avis arborea Neither is this any new tale for the antient Cosmographers especially Saxo Grammaticus mentions the same Tree Late Writers report That not onely in Scotland but in the River of Thames also by London there is a kind of Shel-fish in a two-leaved shell that hath a foot full of plaits and wrinkles these fish are little round and outwardly white smooth and brittle shelled like an Almond shell inwardly they are great bellied bred as it were of moss and mud they commonly stick on the keel of some old Ship where they hang together like Mushrome-stalks as if they were thereby nourished Some say they come of worms some of the boughs and branches of Trees which fall into the Sea if any of these be cast upon shore they die but they which are swallowed still into the Sea live and get out of their shell and grow to be ducks or such like birds Gesner saith that in the Islands Hebrides the same Birds are generated of putrified wood If you cast wood into the Sea first after a while there will certain worms breed in it which by little and little become like ducks in the head feet wings and feathers and at length grow to be as big as Geese and when they are come to their full growth they flie about in the Air as other birds do As soon as the wood begins first to be putrified there appears a great many wormes some unshapen others being in some parts perfect some having feathers and some none Paracelsus saith As the yelk and white of an egge becomes a chick by the heat of an Hen so a bird burnt to ashes and shut up in a vessel of glass and so laid under the mixen will become a slimy humour and then if it be laid under a Hen is enlived by her heat and restored to her self like a Phoenix Ficinus reporteth and he had it out of Albertus That there is a certain bird much like a Black-bird which is generated of the putrefaction of Sage which receives her life and quickning from the general life of the whole world CHAP. IV. Of Certain fishes which are generated of putrefaction HAving first spoken of earthly Creatures and then of Fowles now we will speak of Fishes so generated And first how Eeles are generated Amongst them there is neither male or female nor egges nor any copulation neither was there ever seen in any of them any passage fit to be a womb They have bred oft-times in certain muddy pools even after all the water and mud hath been gone only by rain-water neither indeed
if you have Hawks that descend from the right and best kind art may more easily work upon them then upon such as come of the baser sort In like manner there may be generated of divers kinds of Eagles divers fowles as The Osprey the fowl called Ossifragus and Ravens also Pliny discoursing of the Osprey saith That they have no proper kinde of their own but are descended from divers sorts of Eagles mingled together and that which cometh of the Osprey is of the kind of Ossifragi and that which cometh of the Ossifragi is a kind of little Ravens and of these afterward is generated a kind of great Ravens which have no issue at all the Author of which assertions before Pliny was Aristotle in his book of Wonders Oppianus saith that Land-eagles are a bastard brood which their parents beat out of their nests and so they are for a while nourished by some other fowles till at length they forsake the Land and seek their living in the Sea CHAP. XVI Of the commixtion of divers kinds of fishes IT is a very hard thing for a man to know whether divers kinds of fishes be mingled together or no because they live altogether under the waters so that we cannot observe their doings especially such as they practise against the ordinary course of nature But if we rightly consider that which hath been spoken before we may easily effect their commixtion namely if we take such fishes as are much given to venery and match those together which are alike in bigness in time of breeding and in other such conditions as were before required Aristotle in his book of living Creatures saith that divers fishes in kind never mingle their seeds together neither did ever any man see two fishes of divers kinds couple in generation excepting only these two The Skate and the Ray which engender the Rhinobatos which is so called of both his parents names compounded together And out of Aristotle Pliny reporteth that no fishes of divers kinds mingle their seeds save only the Skate and the Ray of both which is gendred the fish Rhinobatos which is like the Ray in all his former parts and hath his name in Greek answerable to his nature for it is compounded of the names of both his parents And of this kind of fish I never read nor heard any thing besides this Theodorus Gaza translates the word Rhinobatos into Squatinâ—-raia in Latine that is a Skate-ray and though some deny that there is any such fish yet surely it is found in the Sea about Naples and Simon Portus a very learned Philosopher of Naples did help me to the sight of one of them and the picture thereof is yet reserved and it is to be seen CHAP. XVII How we may produce new and strange Monsters STrange and wonderful monsters and aborsements or untimely births may be gendred of living Creatures as by those wayes of which we spake before namely the commixtion of divers kinds so also by other means as by the mixture of divers seeds in one wombe by imagination or such like causes Concerning Imagination we will speak hereafter Now at this time let us see the wayes of engendring such monsters which the Ancients have set down that the ingenious Reader may learn by the consideration of these wayes to invent of himself other wayes how to generate wonderful monsters Democritus as Aristotle saith held that the mixture of many seeds when one is received into the wombe before and another not long after so that they are meddled and confounded together is the cause of the generation of many Monsters that sometimes they have two heads and more parts then the nature of their kinde requires Hence it is that those birds which use often coitions do oftentimes bring forth such births But Empedocles having forecast all scruples and doubts within himself seems to have attained the truth in this case for he saith that the causes of the generation of monstrous Creatures are these either if the seed be too much or if it be too little or if it light not in the right place or if it be scattered into many parts or if the congredients be not rightly affected to procreate according to the ordinary course of nature And Straton assignes many reasons why such monsters are generated as because some new seed is cast upon the former or some of the former seed is diminished or some parts transposed or the wombe puffed up with winde And some Physitians ascribe it principally to the place of conception which is oft-times misplaced by reason of inflations Aristotle saith that such Creatures as are wont to bring forth many young ones at one burthen especially such as have many cells or receipts for seed in their wombe do most commonly produce monsters for in that they bring forth some that are not so fully perfect thereby they degenerate more easily into monsters especially of all other the Pigs that are not farrowed at their due time but some certain dayes after the rest of the litter for these cannot chuse but be monsters in one part or other because whatsoever is either more or less then that which the kind requires is monstrous and besides Nature And in his book of Problems he saith that small four-footed Creatures bring forth monsters but Man and the greater sorts of four-footed beasts as Horses and Asses do not produce them so often His reason is because the smaller kinds as Bitches Sows Goats and Ewes are far more fruitful then the greater kinds are for of those every one brings forth at least one and some bring forth for the most part many at once Now Monsters are wont to be produced then when there is a commixtion or confusion of many seeds together either by reason of sundry copulations or because of some indisposition in the place of conception Hence it is that birds also may bring forth monsters for they lay egges sometimes that have a double yelk and if there be no small skin that keeps both the yelks asunder then the confusion of them causeth the breed to become monstrous Nature is earnest in the fashioning of a living Creature and first shapes out the principal parts of the body afterwards she worketh sometimes more sometimes lesse as the matter can afford which she works upon still framing her self thereunto whereby it cometh to passe that if the matter be defective then she cannot have her forth if it be overmuch then is nature overcome and so both wayes hindered of her purpose and thereby brings forth monstrous broods as in artificial births hath been often seen some being defective as having but one leg or but one eye some exceeding the ordinary course as having four eyes or four arms or four feet and sometimes having both sexes in them which are called Hermaphrodites and so look how your art disposes and layes things together and after the same manner Nature must needs accomplish her work and finish your beginnings But whosoever
carefully closed up must needs last unputrified even for a whole age nay for all eternity At Rome I saw a fish that was drenched in the water that had been distilled out of the Vine and she was preserved five and twenty years as fresh as while she was alive and at Florence I saw the like of fourty years continuance the vessel was made of glass and made up with the seal of Hermes And I make no question but that all things that are sowced in this kind of liquor will last sound and good for many ages How many sorts of things I have preserved by this one means it were too long here to rehearse CHAP. XI That fruits may be very well preserved in salt-waters NExt after wine salt-water is of special use for preserving from putrefaction for such things as have been drenched therein have lasted long very sound and good The Ancients saw that whatsoever was preserved in salt was kept thereby from putrifying wherefore that they might preserve fruits from corruption they have used to drench them in salt-waters Homer calls salt a divine thing because it hath a special vertue against putrefaction and by it bodies are preserved to all eternity Plato calls it the friend of God because no sacrifices were welcome to him without salt Plutark saith that the Antients were wont to call it a divine influence because the bodies of creatures that were seasoned with salt from above were thereby acquitted from corruption Salt binds and dries and knits together and doth priviledge bodies from putrefaction that in their own nature must needs putrifie as the Aegyptians custome manifestly sheweth who were wont to season their dead bodies with salt as Herodotus writeth But let us come to examples Beritius saith that Pomegranates are preserved in salt-waters You must take sea-water or else brine and make it boil and so put your Pomegranates into it and afterward when they are thorough cold dry them and hang them up in the Sun and whensoever you would use them you must steep them in fresh-water two dayes before Columella rehearses the opinion of a certain Carthaginian touching this matter Mago would have saith he that Sea-water should be made very hot and Pomegranates being tied together with thread or broom-twigs to be drenched in it till they change their colour and then to be taken forth and dried in the Sun for three dayes and afterward to be hanged up and when you would use them you must steep them in fresh and sweet water for the space of four and twenty hours before and so they will be fit for your use Pliny also reports out of the same Author that Pomegranates are first to be hardened in hot Sea-water and then to be dried in the Sun three dayes and so to be hung up that the evening dew come not at them and when you would use them to steep them first in fresh-water Palladius writes the same out of Pliny and he sheweth also that Damosins may be preserved in salt-waters They must be fresh gathered and then drenched either in brine or else in sea-water scalding hot and then taken forth and dried either in the Sun or else in a warm Oven Columella would have them drenched in new wine sodden wine and vineger but he gives a special charge also to cast some salt amongst them lest the worm or any other hurtful vermine do grow in them Palladius likewise sheweth that Pears will last long in salt-water first the water is to be boiled and when it begins to rise in surges you must skim it and after it is cold put into it your Pears which you would preserve then after a while take them forth and put them up in a pitcher and so make up the mouth of it close and by this means they will be well preserved Others let them lie one whole day and night in cold salt-water and afterward steep them two dayes in fresh-water and then drench them in new wine or in sodden wine or in sweet wine to be preserved Others put them in a new earthen pitcher filled with new wine having a little salt in it and so cover the vessel close to preserve them Likewise Modlars may be preserved in salt-water They must be gathered when they are but half ripe with their stalks upon them and steeped in salt-water for five dayes and afterward more salt-water poured in upon them that they may swim in it Didymus sheweth also that Grapes may be preserved long in salt-water You must take some sea-water and make it hot or if you cannot come at that take some brine and put wine amongst it and therein drench your clusters of grapes and then lay them amongst Barley straw Some do boil the ashes of a Fig-tree or of a Vine in water and drench their clusters therein and then take them out to be cooled and so lay them in Barley straw The grape will last a whole year together if you gather them before they be thorough ripe and drench them in hot water that hath Allome boiled in it and then draw them forth again The Antients were wont To put salt to Wine to make it last the longer as Columella sheweth They took new wine and boiled it till the third part was wasted away then they put it into vessels there to preserve it for their use the year following they put a pinte and a half of this liquor thus boiled into nine gallons of new wine unboiled and after two dayes when these liquors are incorporated together they wax hot and begin to spurge then they cast into them half an ounce of salt beaten small and that made the wine last till the next year Theophrastus and Pliny write that The fruits of those Palm-trees which grow in salt places are fittest to be preserved as those which grow in Judaea and Cyrenian Africk because those Countries especially do afford salt and sandy grounds for salt is a great nourisher of these kinds of fruits and they are preserved long even by their own saltnesse so that the salter the places are where they grow the better will the fruit be preserved So likewise that kind of Pulse which is called Cicer is preserved by its own saltness without any other dressing for the nature thereof is to have a saltish juice within it whereby it cometh to pass that whereas all other Pulse are subject to corruption and have some vermine or other breeding in them onely this kind doth not engender any at all because of the bitter and sharp saltish juice that is in it as Theophrastus writeth Didymus likewise writeth that Beans will last long in salt-water for if they be sowced in sea-water they will continue long without any blemish Pliny also sheweth that Garlick may be preserved in salt-water for if you would have Garlick or Onions to last long you must dip the heads thereof in warm salt-water so will they be of longer continuance and of a better taste So Cucumbers are preserved in
How the defects of wine may be managed and restored OUr forefathers found out many remedies to preserve wine and in our dayes we have taken no less pains For wine is easily corrupted and takes to it self many strange qualities Paxamus saith wine either grows sowre or dead about the Solstices and when the seven stars set or when the dog star causeth heat and when it is extream cold or hot or rainy or windy or when it thunders We shall shew remedies for all these First we shall lay down out of Africanus the signs to know wines that will last or will corrupt When you have put your wine into a vessel after some time change the vessel and look well on the Lees for thence shall you know what the wine is proving it by smelling to it whether it corrupt or weevils breed in it these are signs it putrifies Others take wine out of the middle of the vessel they heat it and when it is cold they taste of it and they judge of the wine by the favour some by the smell of the cover a strong taste is the best sign a watry the worst sharpness of duration weakness of corrupting The signs must be taken at the times to be feared we mentioned But to come to the remedies we shall shew how To mend weak wine The wine will be weak when it begins to breath forth that force of heat fot when the soul of it is breathed forth the wine grows immediately sowre vineger is the carcasse of wine Then we may presently prevent it by adding aqua vitae to it for by that it may put on a new soul the measure will be the fourth part of a pound for a vessel Another remedy will be That wine may not grow hot In the Summer Solstice wine grows hot by the hot weather and is spoiled then put quick-silver into a glass-viol well stopt and hang it in the middle of the vessel and the coldness of it will keep the wine from heating The quantity is two pound for great vessels for when the air is hot the external heat draws forth the inward heat and when that is gone it is spoiled We That wine may not exhale use this remedy The vessel being full we pour oyle upon it and cover it for oyle keeps the spirits from evaporating which I see is now used for all liquors that they may not be perverted Wines sometimes are troubled But To clear wines Fronto bids us do thus Cast three whites of egges into a large earthen dish and beat them that they may froth put some white salt to them that they may be exceeding white and pour them into a vessel full of wine for salt and the white of an egge will make all thick liquors clear but as many Dolia or such measures as there are in the vessel so many whites of egges must you have to be mingled again with so many ounces of salt but you must stir the mixture with a stick and in four dayes it will grow clear Also it is done That wines may not corrupt I said that salt keeps all things from corrupting wherefore for every Dolium powder one ounce of Allome and put it into the wine vessel with the wine for it will keep it from corrupting The same is done if you put in one ounce of common salt or half one half the other Also brimstone hinders putrefaction Wherefore if you shall adde to eight ounces of Allome or of Salt four ounces of brimstone you shall do well The Antients were wont to peserve wine by adding Salt or sea-sea-water to it and it would continue along time Columella teacheth thus when the winds are quiet you must take water out of the deep sea when it is very calm and boyl it to thirds adding to it if you please some spices There are many ordinary things but we let them pass CHAP. XXIV How Oyl may be made of divers things IT is an excellent thing to shew the diversity of ways to make Oyl That if Olives should ever be scarce yet we might know how to draw Oyl from many kinds of fruits and seeds And some of these ways that came from the Antients yet onely the best and such as are our inventions Wherefore to begin We say that Oyl may be made of Ricinus call'd Cicinum Dioscorides makes it thus Let ripe Ricini as many as you please wither in the hot Sun and be laid upon hurdles let them be so long in the Sun till the outward shell break and fall off Take the flesh of them and bruise it in a morter diligently then put it into a Caldron glazed with Tin that is full of water put fire under and boil them and when they have yielded their inbred juyce take the vessel from the fire and with a shell skim off the Oyl on the top and keep it But in Egypt where the custom of it is more common for they cleanse the Ricini and put them into a Mill and being well grownd they press them in a press through a basket Pliny saith They must be boiled in water and the Oyl that swims on the top must be taken off But in Egypt where there is plenty of it without fire and water sprinkled with Salt it is ill for to eat but good for Candles But we collected them in September for then is the time to gather them with it parts from a prickly cover and a coat that holds the seed in it it is easily cleansed in a hot Caldron The weight of Oyl is half as much as the seed but it must be twice knocked and twice pressed Palladius shews how Oyl of Mastick is made gather many Grains of the Mastick-tree and let them lye in a heap for a day and a night Then put a basket full of those Berries into any vessel and pouring hot water thereto tread them and press them forth Then from that humour that runs forth of them the Oyl of Mastick that swims on the top is poured off But remember lest the cold might hold it there to pour hot water often on For thus we see it made with us and all the Country of Surrentum also so is made Oyl of Turpentine as Damageron teacheth The fruit of Turpentine is grownd in a Mill as the Olives are and is pressed out and so it sends forth Oyl The kernels serve to feed hogs and to burn Likewise Oyl of Bays Boil Bay-berries in water the shels yield a certain fat it is forced out by crushing them in the hands then gather the Oyl into horns Palladius almost as Dioscorides in January boil many Bay-berries that are ripe and full in hot water and when they have boy'ld long the watry oyl that swims on the top that comes from them you shall gently pour off into vessels driving it easily with feathers The Indians make as it is said Oyl of Sesamon It is made as we said before it sends forth excellent Oyl abundantly There is made Oyl of
with the best Gunpowder onely but the pipe with that mixture that burns more gently that when fire is put to it you may hold it so long in your hand until that slow composition may come to the centre and then throw it amongst the enemies for it will break in a thousand pieces and the iron wires and pieces of iron and parts of the Ball will fly far and strike so violently that they will go into planks or a wall a hand depth These are cast in by Souldiers when Cities are besiged for one may wound two hundred men and then it is worse to wound then to kill them as experience in wars shews But when you will fill the pipes hold one in your hand without a Ball full of the composition and try it how long it will burn that you may learn to know the time to cast them lest you kill your self and your friends I shall teach you how with the same Balls Troops of Horsemen may be put into confusion There are made some of these sorts of Balls that are greater about a foot in bigness bound with the same wire but fuller of iron piles namely with a thousand of them These are cast amongst Troops of Horsemen or into Cities besieged or into ships with slings or iron guns which they call Petrels and divers ways for if they be armed with iron pieces when they break they are cast forth so with the violence of the fire that they will strike through armed men and horses and so fright the horses with a huge noise that they cannot be ruled by bridle nor spurs but will break their ranks They have four holes made through them and they are filled with this said mixture that being fired they may be cast amongst Troops of Horsemen and they will cast their flames so far with a noise and cracking that the flames will seem like to thunder and lightning CHAP. VIII How in plain ground and under waters mines may be presently digged TO dig Mines to overthrow Cities and Forts there is required great cost time and pains and they can hardly be made but the enemy will discover it I shall shew how to make them in that champion ground where both armies are to meet with little labour and in short time To make Mines in plain grounds where the Armies are to meet If you would do this in sight of the enemy for they know not what you do I shall first teach how A little before night or in the twilight where the meeting shall be or passage or standing there may pits be made of three foot depth and the one pit may be distant from the other about ten foot There fit your Balls about a foot in bigness that you may fill the whole plain with them then dig trenches from one to the other that through them cotton matches may pass well through earthen pipes or hollow caâ—es but fire the Balls at three or four places then bury them and make the ground even leaving a space to give fire to them all at once Then at the time of war when the enemy stands upon the ground then remove at your pleasure or counterfeit that you fly from them and cast in fire at the open place and the whole ground will presently burn with fire and make a cruel and terrible slaughter amongst them for you shall see their limbs fly into the air and others fall dead pierced through burnt with the horrible flames thereof that scarce one man shall scape You shall make your Match thus In a new Test let the best Aqua vitae boyl with gunpowder till it grow thick and be like pap put your matches into it and role them in the mixture take the Test from the fire and strew on as much gunpowder as they will receive and set them to dry in the Sun put this into a hollow cane and fill it full of gunpowder or take one part refined salt-peter brimstone half as much and let it boyl in a new earthen pot with oyl of linseed put in your Match and wet them well all over with that liquor take them away and dry them in the Sun But if you will make Mines under the Water use this rare invention You shall make your Mines where the enemies Galleys or Ships come to ride you shall upon a plain place fit many beams or pieces of timber fastned cross-wise and thrust through or like nets according to the quantity in the divisions you shall make fit circles of wood and fasten them and fill them with gunpowder the beams must be made hollow and be filled with match and powder that you may set fire to the round circles with great diligence and cunning smeer over the circles and the beams with pitch and cover them well with it that the water may not enter and the powder take wet for so your labour will be lost and you must leave a place to put fire in then sink your engine with weights to the bottom of the water and cover it with stones mud and weeds a little before the enemy come Let a Scout keep watch that when their Ships or Galleys ride over the place that the snare is laid for fire being put to it the sea will part and be cast up into the air and drown'd the Ships or will tear them in a thousand pieces that there is nothing more wonderful to be seen or done I have tried this in waters and ponds and it performed more then I imagined it would CHAP. IX What things are good to extinguish the fire I Have spoken of kindling fires but now I shall shew how to quench them and by the way what things obnoxious to the fire will endure it and remain But first I will relate what our Ancestours have left concerning this business Vitruvious saith That the Larch-tree-wood will not burn or kindle by it self but like a stone in the furnace will make no coles but burn very slowly He saith the reason is That there is in it very little air or fire but much water and earth and that it is very solid and hath no pores that the fire can enter at He relates how this is known When Caesar commanded the Citizens about the Alps to bring him in provision those that were secure in a Castle of wood refused to obey his commands Caesar bade make bundles of wood and to light torches and lay these to the Castle when the matter took fire the flame flew exceeding high and he supposed the Castle would have fallen down but when all was burnt the Castle was not touched Whence Pliny writes The Larch-tree will neither burn to coles nor is otherwise consumed by fire then stones are But this is most false For seeing it is rosiny and oyly it presently takes fire and burns and being one fired is hard to put out Wherefore I admire that this error should spread so far and that the Town Larignum so called from the abundance of
vessel turned downwards touch the upper part of the lower liquor that no Air may enter for then the water will presently descend into the vessel underneath and the lighter part of the mingled liquor will ascend and the water will sink down and if it be all wine it will all ascend no wine will stay with the water if any thing stay behind you must know that so much water was mingled with the wine which may easily be known by the smell and taste if you do it as it should be done Then take a vessel that will hold more of the same liquor and put it into a vessel underneath till it takes it all in whence by the proportion of the wine ascended and of the water any man may know easily how much water is mingled with the wine But for convenience let the Vial that shall hold the water be of a round belly and the hole not very great and let the vessel under that contains the wine have a narrow mouth that the upper round mouth may the better joyn with the undermost and no Air come in But because it happeneth oft that the upper Ball when it hath drank in all the wine the wine will not fill it and we would part the water from the wine take therefore the round Glass in your hand and turn it about with the mouth upwards then will the wine presently turn about and come uppermost which may be a tongue laid in be all call'd forth Be careful to see when the wine is all drawn out remove the tongue and the water will remain pure CHAP. IV. How otherwise you may part water from wine I Can do this another way not by levity and gravity as I said but by thinness and thickness for water is the thinnest of all liquors because it is simple but wine being coloured and colour comes from the mixture of the Elements it is more corpulent Wherefore to part wine from water we must provide a matter that is full of holes and make a vessel thereof into which the wine poured with the water may drean forth for the water will drean forth through the pores of the matter that is opened by a minglâ—â— and corpulent body And though many kinds of wood be fit yet Ivy is the best because it is full of pores and chinks wherefore if you make a vessel of Ivy wood that is green and pour into it wine mingled with water the water will in a short time drean out Yet I see that all the Antients and modern Writers thought the contrary yet both reason and experience are against them For Gaeto saith If you would know whether there be water put to your wine make a vessel of Ivy put your wine you think is mixed with water into it if there be any water the wine will run forth and the water stay behind for an Ivy vessel will hold no wine And Pliny from him The Ivy is said to be wonderful for proof of wine If a vessel be made of Ivy-wood the wine will run forth and the water will stay behind if any were mingled with it Whereupon both of them are to be noted for a two sold error because they say it comes from the wonderful faculty of the Ivy whereas every porous wood can do the same Again he saith that the wine will run forth and the water stay behind whereas it is the contrary But Democritus thought what was truest and more probable who used not an Ivy vessel but one full of holes saith he they pour it into a new earthen pot not yet seasoned and hang it up for two days the pot saith he will leak if any water be mingled with it Democritas used another Art for the same purpose Some stop the mouth of the vessel with a new Spunge dipt in Oyl and incline it and let it run forth if there be water in it onely the water will run forth which experiment also he useth in Oyl For the Spunge is full of holes and open enough and being dipt in Oyl that hinders that the liquor cannot run forth so easily Africanus adds another reason Put liquid Alom into a vessel of wine then stop the mouth with a Spunge dipt in Oyl and incline it and let it run forth for nothing but the water will run out For the Alom binds the liquors that they drean forth very slowly CHAP. V. Another way to part a light body mingled with a heavy I Have another Art to seperate a light body from a heavy or wine from water or by another way Make a linnen tongue or of bombast and dip it into the vessel where wine is mingled with water and let the tongue swim above without the liquor and ascend above it and so hang pendulous out of the vessel for the lighter liquor will ascend by the tongue and drop on the outside but when the lighter ascends it attracts the heavy also wherefore when you see the colour change take the vessel away for the water runs forth It is evident that the wine being lighter will always ascend to the top of the vessel and run forth by the tongue though all Vintners say the contrary that the water will run forth by the tongue and that the wine will stay within CHAP. VI. How light is mingled in heavy or heavy in light VVE can easily know whether any light matter is mingled with heavy or any heavy matter with light And I will expound the manner out of Archimedes his Book concerning thingâ— that swim above water the cause whereof is that if Wood stone or any heavy Metal be equal in weight to the same quantity of water the utmost superficies oâ— the body will be equal with the superficies of the water if it weigh heavior it will sink to the bottom if it be lighter the lighter it is then the water so much of it will swim above the watâ—â— Since therefore this is true and wine is heavior then water one and the same thing will sink more in wine than in water and in thicker water the less Wherefore vessels are more drown'd in River than in the Sea for Sea-water is thicker and more heavy by reason of its salt mingled with it as also we have it in Alexander If therefore you would know Whether water be mingled with wine Put the wine you suspect to be mingled with water into some vessel and put an Apple or Pear into it if the Apple sink the wine is pure but if it floâ—e the wine hath water mingled with it because water is thicker than wine Which Democritus saith is contrary and false He saith it is necessary sometimes to commit the Care of the wine of new wine to Stewards and Servants also the Merchant hath the like reason to try whether his wine be pure They use to cast an Apple into the vessel but wilde Pears are the best others cast in a Locust others a Grashopper and if they swim it is pure wine but
brass Cauldron that will hold much water fill it with salt water after that the Urinals and putting on their caps when fire is put under both the Urinals will drop and the cap that contains others by its pipe will drop out water also for the vapors rising from the Cauldron of hot water will make the Urinals drop and the cap will drop withal But if at Sea the commodity of such a vessel cannot be had We may Distil salt water otherwise though but little Dioscorides shews the old way of distillation we may that way distil sea water in ships which Pliny shews also Fleeces of wool extended about the ship are made wet by the vapors rising from the Sea and sweet water is pressed out of them But let us see whiter Salt water may be made fresh another way Aristotle saith it and Solomon before him That all Rivers came from the Sea and return to the Sea for by the secret passages under ground the waters that are sent forth leave their earthly and dry parts mixed with the earth and they come forth pure and sweet He saith The cause why the salt water comes not forth is because it is ponderous and settles and therefore onely hot-waters of salt-waters can run forth for they have a lightness that oversways the weight of the salt for what is hot is lightest Adde that waters running through the earth are much strained and therefore the heavior and thicker they are the more do they continually sink down and are left behind and the lighter they are the more pure do they come forth and are severed For as Salt is heavy so sweet water is light and so it comes that they are sweet waters that run forth This is the very cause why salt-water when it moves and is changed is made the sweeter for motion makes it lighter and purer Let us see now if we can imitate Nature Fill then great vessels with earth and set them so one above another that one may drean into another and thus salt-water dreaning through many vessels may leave the salt behinde I tried it through ten vessels and it remain'd still salt My friend said that he made it sweet through twenty vessels Yet thus I thought to warn you of that all earth is not fit for this use Solinus saith That sea-water strain'd through clay will grow sweet and it is proved that the salt is taken away if you strain it often through thin sand of a River Earth that lies in covered places and under roots is naught for that is commonly salt as also where Cattle are sâ—alled which Columella saith is naught for Trees for that it makes salt-salt-water what is strain'd from it Black earth is naught for it makes the waters sharp but clay grounds make sweet waters Paxamus Anaxagoras said That the saltness of the sea came from the Rivers running through salt places and communicating that quality to the sea Some approve River-gravel for this use and their reason is because always sweet waters are found by the shores and they say this happens because they are strain'd through the sand and so grow fresh coming from the salt-salt-sea for the sweet water that is found neer the sea is not of the sea but such water as comes from the tops of hills through the secret channels of the earth thither For waters that drean forth sweet are sweet though they lye even with the sea and in plain places as Apuila where the waters drean not from the hills they are salt So on the shores of Africa But Aristotle brings an experiment from a vessel of wax for if one make a Ball of wax that is hollow and shall dip it into the sea it being of a sufficient thickness to contain he shall finde it full of fresh water because the corpulent saltness cannot get in through the pores of the wax And Pliny by letting down little nets into the sea and hollow balls of wax or empty vessels stopt saith they will draw in fresh water for sea-water strain'd through clay will grow fresh But I have found this to be false For I have made pots of clay as fine and well as I could and let them down into salt-water and after some days I found salt-water in them Also if it were true it is of no use when as to sweeten one pound of water a thousand Balls of wax a day were not sufficient But for this many vessels might be invented of porous wood and stones A vessel of Ivy that parts as I said wine from water will not part salt from water if it drean through it But stones are brought from Portingal made into vessels into which sea water put will drean forth sweet if not the first yet the second time they use it to break the stone also for that many pumex and porous stones may be tried Leo Baptista Albertus saith That an earthen pot well stopt and put into the sea will fill with potable water But I have tried all earthen vessels and I always found salt-water Aristotle in his Problems saith It may be done Another way If salt-water cannot be drank cold yet hot and cool again it is better to drink It is because a thing useth to change from contrary to contrary and salt-water is contrary to fresh and when it is boil'd the salt part is boil'd off and when it is cold stays at the bottom This I tried and found it false and more salt for by heat the thin vapors of the water that are sweet exhale and the salt stay behinde and in lesser water the same quantity of salt makes it salter as I said in my distillations I wonder such a wise man would relate such falsities Florentinus borrowing it from him saith If water be not good nor poâ—able but ill let it be boiled till a tenth part of it be consumed then purge it and it will be good For sea-water so boil'd will grow sweet Let me see whether it can be made so Another way and that in great quantity There is a thing that being cast into large vessels filled with sea-water by fastning the salt will make it fall to the bottom or by curdling it and so it frees the water from it Wherefore we must think on things that have a stiptick quality the Antients tried this the Moderns have effected it Pliny Nitrous of bitter waters if you put Barley-flower dried to them they are tempered that you may drink of them in two hours therefore is Barley-flower put into wine sacks and elswhere Those that go to the red-Red-sea through the Desarts make nitrous and salt and bitter waters fit to drink in two hours by putting in of Barley-meal and they eat Barley-meal The like force hath the Chalk of the Rhodes and our Clay Also Cooks with Catlings and Meal of Wheat will take salt out of very salt meaâ— I tried this oft but found it false yet some of the saltness was taken away Pliny If you must drink ill
waters strew in powder of Penniroyal Leo Baptista Albertus when they take up the water of Nilus muddy if they do but rub the edge of the vessel with an Almond it presently grows clear I tried this to and found it false when common salt is cast into Aqua fortis that parts Gold from Silver the Silver will presently descend We see also that in the making of that they call read Alac casting but Alom into Lye the salt and colour will presently precipitate to the bottom and nothing will remain but clear water We see that milk will curdle with many Herbs which we speak of elsewhere We shall use therefore for this purpose coagulaters and astringents Cooks say That a Spunge put into a pot of salt-water will draw the salt to it but pressed forth again and cast in once more will take it all out So wood wrapt about with fillets of linnen and put into the pot will draw the salt to it Others binde in a clout Wheat-meal and put it into the pot and draw forth the salt Palladius where he speaks of seasoning of wines saith The Greeks bid men keep sea-sea-water that is clean and taken out of the calm sea the year before whose Nature is that in this time it will lose its saltness or bitterness and smell sweet by age It remains to shew How sweet waters may be mended Leo Baptista saith If you place a glazed vessel full of salt and well stopt with lime putting oyl under that no water may penetrate into it that it may hang in the middle of the waters of a Cistern these waters will in no time corrupt Others adde also Quick-silver If water begin to corrupt cast in salt to purge them and if salt be wanting put in some sea-sea-water for so at Venice they draw water from St Nicolas Well for Marriners that go long voyages because it stands so neer the sea and salt lyes hid in it by communicating with those waters We read in Scripture that Elizeus did this who at Jericho or Palestina cast in salt into a Fountain and made it potable water which was before bitter and corrupt If water breeds worms cast in quick Lime and they will dye When we would make wine clear beat the white of an Egge and the troubled wine will descend if you put it in Others cast in the dust that is on the catlings of small nuts and the Spaniards cast in Gyp to make in clear and all these we may use in waters CHAP. II. How to make water of Air. IF all other means fail we may make water of air onely by changing it into air as Nature doth for she makes water of air or vapors Therefore when we want water we may make it of air and do as Nature doth We know when the Sun heats the earth it draws forth the thinnest vapors and carrieth them on high to that region of the air where the cold is those vapors are condensed into drops and fall down in Rain Also we see in summer that in Glass vessels well rinced and that are full of cold water the air by coming to the outermost superficies will presently clow'd the the Glass and make it lose its cleanness a little after it will be all in a dew and swell into bubbles and by degrees these will turn to drops and fall down which have no other reason for them but because the cold air sticking to the Glass grows thick and is changed into water We see also in Chambers at Venice where there windows are made of Glass when a gross and thick vapor sticks to the Glass within and a cold vapor prevails without that within will turn to dew and drop down Again in winter in Brass Guns which are always very cold and are kept in Cellars and vaulted places where men also use to be that the air will grow thick and lighting upon the cold superficies of them they will be all of a dew and drop with water But to say no more Make a large round vessel of Brass and put into it Salt-Peter unrefined what will fill it men call it Solazzo mingled with Ice for these two mixed as I said in this Book make a mighty cold and by shaking them with the wondeful force of the cold they gather air about the vessel and it will presently drop into a vessel underneath A deligent Artist will adde more that he may get a greater quantity of water It sufficeth that I have shewed the way CHAP. III. How one may so alter his face that not so much as his friends shall know him SUch as are taken prisoners or shut up close and desire to escape and such as do business for great men as spies and others that would not be known it is of great moment for them to know how to change their Countenances I will teach them to do it so exactly that their friends and wives shall not know them Great men do not a little enquire for such secrets because those that can dissemble theirown persons have done great matters and lovers have served their Mistresses and Parents have not suspected it Ulisses attempting to know what the Trojans did clothed in counterfeit garments and his face changed did all he would and was not discovered Homer With many scars he did transform his face In servants clothes as from a beggars race He went to Troy And when he desired to know what Penelope and her suters did he transformed himself again I shall shew how this may be done many ways by changing the Garments Hair Countenance Scars Swellings we may so change our Faces that in some places it may rise in bunches in other places it may sink down And first How to dye the Flesh. But to begin with the colouring of the Flesh. The Flesh may be dyed to last so long or to be soon washed out If you will have it soon wash'd off Steep the shells of Walnuts and of Pomegranates in Vinegar four or five days then press them forth by a Press and dye the face for it will make your face as black as an Ethiopian and this will last some days Oyl of honey makes a yellow colour and red and it will last fourteen days or more The fume of Brimstone will discolour the face that it will shew sickly as if one had long kept his bed but it will be soon gone But if you will have it last many days firm and very hardly to come off Use water of Depart that seperates Gold from Silver made of Salt-Peter and Vitriol and especially if it have first corroded any Silver this will last twenty days until the skin be changed But if you will Change the Hair I taught elsewhere how to do this yet I will take the pains to do it again Oyl of honey dyes the Hair of the head and beard of a yellow or red colour and this will hold a moneth But if they be hoary white or yellow we may dye them black with