strange characters and the peas were wrapped in hair. The boy told his father that his schoolmaster was in the habit of stretching himself upon his body, placing his mouth on the boy’s mouth, which he made him open, and muttering into it I know not what words. It appears from this that the pupil had been bewitched by his master.
Nevertheless the more curious will be in some perplexity as to whether these matters are imaginary or not. For some have maintained that they are not natural articles which appear in such shapes; Wier, de praestig. III. 5.
Grilland, de Sortileg. q. 3. num. 28.
De Variet. XV. 80.while others have said that Satan brings these things from elsewhere. Cardan writes that all this is a mere glamour and illusion. Yet I would have it known that the peas and the notes of which we have spoken are still in existence, although it is eight years since the thing happened; and this serves to refute the dictum of Paul Grilland, who holds that the matters which come from the bodies of those who are bewitched melt and dissolve in a short time.
