Book II, chapters 1–4: Mingling and generating living creatures

THE SECOND BOOK OF Natural Magick: Shewing how living Creatures of divers kinds, may be mingled and coupled together, that from them, new, and yet profitable kinds of living Creatures may be generated.

The PROEME.

HAving wandred beyond my bounds, in the consideration of Causes and their Actions; which I thought fit to make the Subject of my first book: it will be time to speak of those Operations, which we have often promised, that we may not too long keep off from them those ingenious men that are very desirous to know them. Since that we have said, That Natural Magick is the top, and the compleat faculty or Natural Science, in handling it, we will conclude within the compass of this Volume, whatsoever is High, Noble, Choice, and Notable, that is discovered in the large field of Natural History. But that we may perform this, I shall reduce all those Secrets into their proper places; and that nothing may be thrust out of its own rank, I shall follow the order of Sciences. And I shall first divide them into Natural and Mathematical Sciences; and I shall begin with the Natural; for I hold that most convenient, that all may arise from those things that are simple, and not so laborious, to Mathematical Sciences. I shall from Animals first proceed to Plants, and so by steps to Minerals, and other works of Nature. I shall briefly describe Fountains, also whence flow Springs; and I shall annex thereto the Reasons, and the Causes; that Industrious men made acquainted with this, may find out more of themselves. And because there are two generations of Animals and Plants, one of themselves, the other by copulation: I shall first speak of such as are bred without copulation; and next, of such as proceed from copulation one with another, that we may produce new living Creatures, such as the former ages never saw. I shall begin therefore with Putrefaction, because that is the principle to produce new Creatures; not onely from the variety of Simples, but of mixed Bodies. I thought fit to leave none out, though they be of small account, since there is nothing in Nature, appear it never so small, wherein there is not something to be admired.

CHAP. I.

The first Chapter treateth of Putrefaction, and of a strange manner of producing living Creatures.

BEfore we come to shew that new living Creatures are generated of Putrefaction, it is meet to rehearse the opinions of antient Philosophers concerning that matter. Whereof though we have spoken elsewhere, in the description of Plants, yet for the Readers ease, we will here rehearse some of them, to shew that not onely imperfect, but perfect living Creatures too, are generated of Putrefaction. P[…]rphyry thought that Living creatures were begotten of the bowels of the Earth soaked in water, and quickned by the heat of the Sun. Of the same mind were Archelaus the Athenian, Anaxagoras Clazomenius, and Euripides his Scolar. Cleodemus, and after him Theophrastus, thought that they came of putrified water mixt with earth; and the colder and fouler the water was, the unfitter it was for their generation. Diodorus, and many other good Philosophers hold, that all living Creatures did arise of putrefaction. For whereas in the beginning of the world, the Heavens, and Earth, and Elements were setled in their natural places, the earth being left slimy and soft in many places, and then dried and stricken with the heat of the Sun, brought forth certain tumors and swellings in the surface and uppermost parts: in these tumors were contained and cherished many putrefactions and rotten clods, covered over with certain small skins; this putrified stuff, being moi[…]ened with dew by night, and the Sun heating it by day, after a certain season became ripe; and the skins being broken, thence issued all kinds of living Creatures; whereof, they that had quickest heat, became birds; the earthy ones became creeping beasts; the waterish ones became fishes in the Sea; and they which were a mean, as it were, betwixt all these, became walking-creatures. But the heat of the Sun still working upon the earth, hindered it from begetting and bringing forth any more such creatures; but then, the creatures before generated coupled together, and brought forth others like themselves. Avicenna, in that work of his which he made of deluges and flouds; holds, that after the great flouds that drowned the Earth, there was no mans seed; but then, man, and all living Creatures else, were generated of rotten carcases, only by the vertue of the Sun: and therefore he supposeth, that the womb, and such needful places framed by nature, for the better fashioning of the infant, are not needfull to the procreation of man. He proves his assertion by this, that mice, which arise of putrefaction, do couple together, and beget store of young; yea, and serpents are generated chiefly of womans hair. And in his book of living Creatures, he tels of a friend of his, that brought forth Scorpions after a strange manner, and those did beget other Scorpions, not imperfect, or unlike to themselves, but such as did also procreate others. Averroes held, that the stars were sufficient to generate imperfect creatures; as mice, bats, moules, and such like, but not to generate Men, or Lions. And daily experience teacheth us, that many living creatures come of the putrified matter of the earth. And the Ancients supposing all things to be produced out of the earth, called it the mother of all; and the Greeks called it Dimitera. Ovid hath very elegantly set down this generation of putrefaction, under the fable of Pytho; that the earth brought forth of its own accord, many living creatures of divers forms, the heat of the Sun enliving those moistures that lay in the tumors of the earth, like fertile seeds in the belly of their mother; for heat and moisture being tempered together, causeth generation. So then, after the deluge, the earth being now moist, the Sun working upon it, divers kinds of creatures were brought forth, some like the former, and some of a new shape.

CHAP. II.

Of certain earthly Creatures, which are generated of putrefaction.

PLants and living Creatures agree both in this, that some of them are generated of seed, and some of them Nature brings forth of her own accord, without any seed of the same kind; some out of putrified earth and plants, as those Creatures that are divided between the head and the belly; some out of the dew that lies upon leaves, as Canker-worms; some out of the mud, as shel-creatures; and some out of living Creatures themselves, and the excrements of their parts, as lice. We will onely rehearse some which the Ancients have set down, that so we may also learn how to procreate new creatures. And first, let us see, how

Mice are generated of putrefaction.

Diodorus saith, that neer to the City Thebais in Egypt, when Nilus overflowing is past, the Sun heating the wet ground, the chaps of the earth send forth great store of mice in many places; which astonisheth men to see, that the fore-part of the mice should live and be moved, whereas their hinder parts are not yet shapen. Pliny saith, that after the swaging of Nilus, there are found little mice begun to be made of earth and water, their fore-parts living, and their hinder parts being nothing but earth. Aelianus saith, that a little rain in Egypt, engenders many mice, which being scattered everywhere in their fields, eat down their corn, and devour it: And so it is in Pontus; but by their prayers to God, they are consumed. Macrobius and Avicenna say, that the mice so generated, do encrease exceedingly by coupling together. Aristotle found out, that a kind of field-mice encreased wonderfully; so that in some places they did suddenly eat up whole fields of corn: insomuch that many Husband-men appointing to reap their corn on the morrow, when they came with their reapers, found all their corn wasted. And as these mice are generated suddenly, so they are suddenly consumed, in a few dayes; the reason whereof cannot be so well assigned. Pliny could not find how it should be; for neither could they be found dead in the fields, neither alive within the earth in the winter time. Diodorus and Aelianus write, That these field-mice have driven many people of Italy out of their own Countrey: they destroyed Cosas, a City of Hetruria: many came to Troas, and thence drove the inhabitants. Theophrastus and Varro write, That mice also made the inhabitants of the Island Gyarus to forsake their Country; and the like is reported of Heraclea in Pontus, and of other places. Likewise also

Frogs are wonderfully generated of rotten dust and rain;

for a Summer showre lighting upon the putrified sands of the shore, and dust of high-wayes, engenders frogs. Aelianus, going from Naples in Italy, to Puteoli, saw certain frogs, that their fore-parts moved and went upon two feet, while yet their hinder parts were unfashioned, and drawn after like a clot of dirt: and Ovid saith, one part lives, the other is earth still: and again, mud engenders frogs that sometimes lack feet. The generation of them is so easie, and sudden, that some write it hath rained frogs; as if they were gendred in the Air. Phylarchus in Athenaeus writes so; and Heraclides Lembus writes, that it rained frogs about Dardany and Poeonia, so plentifully, that the very wayes and houses were full of them: and therefore the inhabitants, though for a few daies at the first they endured it, killing the frogs, and shutting up their houses, yet afterward when they saw it was to no purpose, but they could neither use water, nor boil meat, but frogs would be in it, nor so much as tread upon the ground for them, they quite forsook their countries, as Diodorus and Eustathius write. The people Autharidae in Thesprtaia, were driven out of their Country, by certain imperfect frogs that fell from heaven. But it is a strange thing that

Red Toads are generated of dirt, and of womens flowers.

In Dariene, a Province of the new world, the air is most unwholesome, the place being muddy and full of stinking marishes; nay, the village is it self a marish, where Toads are presently gendred of the drops wherewith they water their houses, as Peter Martyr writes. A Toad is likewise generated of a duck that hath lyen rotting under the mud, as the verse shews which is ascribed to the duck; When I am rotten in the earth, I bring forth Toads: happily because they and I both, are moist and foul creatures. Neither is it hard to generate Toades of womens putrified flowers; for women do breed this kind of cattel, together with their children, as Celius Aurelianus and Platearius call them, frogs, toads, lyzards, and such like: and the women of Salerium, in times past, were wont to use the juice of Parsley and Leeks, at the beginning of their conception, and especially about the time of their quickening, thereby to destroy this kind of vermin with them. A certain woman lately married, being in all mens judgement great with child, brought forth in stead of a child, four Creatures like to frogs, and after had her perfect health. But this was a kind of a Moon-calf. Paracelsus said, that if you cut a serpent in pieces, and hide him in a vessel of glasse, under the mud, there will be gendred many worms, which being nourished by the mud, will grow every one as big as a Serpent; so that of one serpent may be an hundred generated: and the like he holds of other creatures. I will not gainsay it, but only thus, that they do not gender the same serpents. And so, he saith, you may make them of a womans flowers; and so, he saith, you may generate a Basilisk, that all shall die which look upon him: but this is a stark lie. It is evident also, that

Serpents may be generated of mans marrow, of the hairs of a menstruous woman, and of a horse-tail, or mane.

We read, that in Hungary, by the River Theisa, Serpents and Lyzards did breed in mens bodies, so that three thousand men died of it. Pliny writes, that about the beginning of the wars against the Marsi, a maid-servant brought forth a serpent. Avicenna in his book of deluges, writes, that serpents are gendred of womens hairs especially, because they are naturally moister and longer then mens. We have experienced also, that the hairs of a horses mane laid in the waters, will become serpents: and our friends have tried the same. No man denies but that serpents are easily gendred of mans flesh, especially of his marrow. Aelianus saith, that a dead mans back-marrow being putrified, becomes a serpent: and so of the meekest living Creature arises the most savage: and that evil mens back-bones do breed such monsters after death; Ovid shews, that many hold it for a truth. Pliny received it of many reports, that Snakes gendred of the marrow of mens backs. Writers also shew,

How a Scorpion may be generated of Basil.

Florentinus the Grecian saith, That Basil chewed and laid in the Sun, will engender serpents. Pliny addeth; that if you rub it, and cover it with a stone, it will become a Scorpion; and if you chew it, and lay it in the Sun, it will bring forth worms. And some say, that if you stamp a handful of Basil, together with ten Crabs or Crevises, all the Scorpions thereabouts will come unto it. Avicenna tells of a strange kind of producing a Scorpion; but Galen denies it to be true. But the body of a Crab-fish is strangely turned into a Scorpion: Pliny saith, that while the Sun is in the sign Cancer, if the bodies of those fishes lie dead upon the Land, they wil be turned into Scorpions. Ovid saith, if you take of the Crabs arms, and hide the rest in the ground, it will be Scorpion. There is also a

Creature that lives but one day, bred in vineger;

as Aelianus writes; and it is called Ephemerus, because it lives but one day: it is gendred of the dregs of sowre wine; and as soon as the vessel is open, that it comes into the light, presently it dies. The River Hippanis, about the solstitial daies, yields certain little husks, whence issue forth certain four-footed birds, which live and flie about till noon, but pine away as the Sun draws downward, and die at the Sun-setting; and because they live but one day, they are called Hemerobion, a daies-bird. So the

Pyrig[…]nes be generated in the fire;

Certain little flying beasts, so called, because they live and are nourished in the fire; and yet they flie up and down in the Air. This is strange; but that is more strange, that as soon as ever they come out of the fire, into any cold air, presently they die. Likewise the

Salamander is gendred of the water;

for the Salamander it self genders nothing, neither is there any male or female amongst them, nor yet amongst Eeels, nor any kind else; which doth not generate of 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 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 banksside, 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-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-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.