Of the generation of Arimals. 2?

woman lately marri d, being in all mens judgement great with child, brought torchin dead os a child, four Creatures like to frogs, and after had her perfect health. Bucthis was a kind of a Moon-calf. Paracelsus (nd, that if) on cut a serpent in pieces^and hide him in a vessel of glasss, under the mud, there will be ger.died manyworms, which being nourished by the mud,will grow every one as big a? a Serpent;so that of one serpent may be an hundred generated: and the like he hoi ds of othercreatures. I will not gainsay it, but only thus, that they do not gender the fame ser-pents. And so, he iaith,youmay make them of a womans flowers; and ie, he faith,you may generate a Basilisk, that all shall die which look upon him: buc this isa stark lie. It is evident also, that

Serpents may be generated of mans ma r row> of the hairs of A menstrutus woman,and of a horse■ tail , or mane.

We read, that in Hungary, by the River Theisa, Serpents and Lyzards did breed inmens bodies, so that three thoutand men died of it. *Plinp writes, that about the be-ginning of the wars against the Marsi, a maid-servant brought forth a serpent. Avi-cennairs his bock of deluges,writes,that serpents are gendred of W' - . ■ hairs e-

fpecially, because they are naturally moider and longer then mens. • > . sve expe-rienced also, that che hairs of a horses mane laid in the waters, wiii 1 ccome ser-pents: and our friends have tried the same. No man denies buc that serpentsare easily gendred of mans flesh, especially oshis marrow. tÆltamts faith, thata dead mans back-marrow being putrified, becomes a serpent: and so of themeekest living Creature arises the most savage: and that evil mens back-bonesdo breed such monsters after death; Ovid shews, that many hold it for a truth.‘Tlinj received it of many reports, that Snakes gendred of the marrow of mensbacks. Writers also shew,

How a Scorpion maybe generated of Basil.

Flountinus the Grecian faith, That Basil chewed and laid in the Sun, will engenderserpents. Plmy addech ; that if you rub it,and cover it with a stone, it will be-come a Scorpion; and if you chew it, and lay it in the Sun, it will bring forth worms.And some fay, that if you stamp a handful of Basil, together with ten Crabs or Cre-vises, all the Scorpions thereabouts will come unto it. Avwtnna tells of a strangekind of producing a Scorpion; but Galen denies it to be true. Buc the body of aCrab-fish is strangely turned into a Scorpion: Pliny faith, that w bile the Sun is in thesign Cancer, if the bodies of those fishes lie dead upon the Land, they yvil be turnedinto Scorpions. Ovid faith, if you take off the Crabs arms, and hide the rest in thegrounds will be a Scorpion,There is also a

Creature that lives but one day, tred in viueger ;

as tÆliauui writes; and it is called Ephemeras, because it lives but one day: it isgendred of the dregs of fowre wine ; and as soon as the vessel is open, that it comesinto the light, presently it dies. The River Hippanis , about the solstitial daies, yieldscertain little husks, whence issue forth certain four-footed birds, which live and flicabout till noon, but pine away as the Sun draws downward, and die at the Sun-fet-ting j and because they live but one day, they are called Hemcrobion, a daies-vird. So the

c Pyfigo»es be generated m the fire ;

Certain little flying beasts, so called, because they live and are nourished in the fire iand yet they fl

that as soon asLikewise the

tc up and down in the Air. This is strange : but that is more stfanoe,ever they come out of the fire, into any cold air, presently they die

Salamander