its eyes, and it is a poison that acts on the imagination, not altogether unlike a menstruous woman, who also carries poison in her eyes, in such a way that from her very glance the mirror becomes spotted and stained. So, too, if she looks at a wound or a sore, she affects it in a similar way, and prevents its cure. By her breath, too, as well as by her look, she affects many objects, rendering them corrupted and weak, and also by her touch. You see that if she handles wine during her monthly courses it soon turns and becomes thick. Vinegar which she handles perishes and becomes useless. Generous wine loses its potency. In like manner, amber, civet, musk, and other strongly smelling substances being carried and handled by such a woman lose their odour. Gold, corals, and many gems are deprived of their colour, just as the mirrors are affected in this way. But—to return to my proposal of writing about the basilisk—how it carries its poison in its eye. You must know that it gets that power and that poison from unclean women, as has been said above. For the basilisk is produced and grows from the chief impurity of a woman, namely, from the menstrual blood. So, too, from the blood of the semen; if it be placed in a glass receptacle and allowed to putrefy in horse dung, from that putrefaction a basilisk is produced. But who would be so bold and daring as to wish to produce it, even to take it and at once kill it, unless he had first clothed and protected himself with mirrors? I would persuade no one to do so, and wish to advise every one to be cautious. But, to go on with our treatise about monsters, know that monstous growths amongst animals, which are produced by other methods than propagation from those like themselves, rarely live long, especially near or amongst other animals, since by their engrafted nature, and by the divine arrangement, all monsters are hateful to animals duly begotten from their own likeness. So, too, monstrous human growths seldom live long. The more wonderful and worthy of regard they are, the sooner death comes upon them; so much so that scarcely any one of them exceeds the third day in the presence of human beings, unless it be at once carried into a secret place and segregated from all men. It should be known, forsooth, that God abhors monsters of this kind. They displease Him, and none of them can be saved when they do not bear the likeness of God. One can only conjecture that they are shapen by the Devil, and born for the service of the Devil rather than of God; since from no monster was any good work ever derived, but, on the contrary, evil and sin, and all kinds of diabolical craft. For as the executioner marks his sons when he cuts off their ears, gouges out their eyes, brands their cheeks, cuts off their fingers, hands, or head, so the Devil, too, marks his own sons, through the imagination of the mother, which they derive from her evil desires, lusts, and thoughts in conception. All men, therefore, should be avoided who have more or less than the usual numbers of any member, or have any member duplicated. For that is a presage of the Devil, and a certain sign of hidden wickedness and craft.[1]
- ↑ A special treatise on this subject and cognate matters is found elsewhere in the Geneva folio. It is, briefly, as follows. There are many monsters in the sea which are not products of the original creation, but are born from the sperm of fishes of unlike species coming together contrary to the genuine order of Nature. Thus monsters are sometimes found in the sea exhibiting the form of man, which yet have not been generated ex sodomia from men, but arise by the conjunction of diverse fishes. . . . Even among men monsters are sometimes found that remind us partly of a human being, and partly of an animal. This is a repellent subject, but requires to be fully explained, that the first birth may be correctly understood. The same also takes place in the sea. There is, for example, the syren, of which the upper parts are those of a woman and the lower those of a fish. This does not form part of the original creation, but is a hybrid offspring from the union of two fishes of the same kind, but of different forms. Other marine animals are also found, which, without corresponding exactly to man, yet resemble him more than any other animal. However, like the rest of the brutes, they lack mind or soul. They have the same relations to man as the ape, and are nothing but the apes of the sea. As often as they unite, marine monsters of this kind are produced. Another such monstrous generation is the monachus or monk-like fish. But there are many genera of fishes, and many modes of generation, which do not always result from the sperm familiar or customary to them, but happen in various other ways. For example, certain monsters are drowned in the sea, and are devoured by the fishes. Now, if a sperm, constituted in exaltation, were to perish by immersion, and, having been consumed by a fish, were again exalted within it, a certain operation would undoubtedly follow from the nature of the fish and the sperm, whence it may be gathered that the majority of marine animals which recall the human form are in this manner produced. Yet, having the nature of a fish, they live in the waters and rejoice therein. The marine dog, the marine spider, and the marine man are of this class. If they are generated in any other way, it must be set down to sodomia. But there may be a third cause, namely, when spermatica of this kind acquire digestion, and by reason of this conjunction a birth takes place. . . . Monsters are likewise generated in the air, from the droppings of the stars from above. For a sperm falls from the stars. The winds also in their courses bring many strange things from other regions to which they are indigenous. The sperm of spiders, toads, and other creatures floating in the air are resolved, and hence other living things are produced. In this way grasshoppers and other monsters are begotten, their generation being of one only and not of two. Such births are more venomous and impure than are other worms. Therefore, houses ought to be scrupulously cleaned, or else so constructed as not to favour the accumulation of much filth. For the air is efficacious against seeds dispersed in this manner. The earth is, however, the most fruitful matrix of monstrous growths. There the animals both of land and sea congregate. The basilisk is generated from the sperm of a toad and a cock. The sperm of the cock uniting with that of the hen produces an egg. But if the cock emit his sperm without the hen doing likewise, the egg will be imperfect, and something will be generated unnaturally. There is another kind of basilisk, produced by the union, sodomitice, of a cock and a toad. After the same manner lizards unite with geckoes, and the copulation produces a peculiar worm, partaking of the nature of each, and known as a dragon. The asp is another instance of this unnatural generation. . . . From all that has been set down we may learn that whoever lives for his body alone is a basilisk, a dragon, and an asp, not, indeed, generated as yet, but meanwhile moving alive until he dies. You can now understand the abominable manner wherein unnatural monsters are generated. For if a man lives in sperm, his very sperms turn into worms, and remain worms, and in the day of the resurrection shall they be buried in the deepest parts of the earth, over which shall walk those who have risen.—De Animalibus natis ex Sodomia.
