Page:The whole familiar colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.djvu/392

388 FAMILIAR COLLOQUIES. holiness of the person that wears it. As the touch of our Saviour's garment cured the woman with the bloody issue ; or else I could not satisfy myself whether I was to thank the weaver or the tailor for the virtue of it. Th. Without doubt, he that gives the form gives the virtue. Ph. Well, then, for time to come I will live more merrily, and not torment myself with the fear of hell, the tediousness of con- fession, or the torment -of repentance.   Ep. I often wonder with myself what god nature consulted when it intermixed certain secret amities and enmities in all things, for which there is no probable reason to be given, unless for her own entertainment, as we set cocks and quails a fighting to make us diver- sion. Jo. I do not very well take in what you aim at. Ep. Well, then, I will tell you in familiar instances. You know that serpents generally are enemies to mankind. Jo. I know there is an old enmity betwixt them and us, and an irreconcilable one, which will be so as long as we remember that unlucky apple.

Ep. Do you know the lizard 1 Jo. Why not ? Ep. There are very large green ones in Italy. This creature is by nature very friendly to mankind, and an utter enemy to serpents. Jo. How does this appear ? Ep. Which way soever a man turns his face they will gather about him, turn their heads toward him, look stedfastly in his face, and view him a long time. If he spits they will lick up his spittle ; nay, I have seen them drink up a boy's piss. They suffer themselves to be handled by boys, and will suffer themselves to be hurt by them with- out doing them any harm ; and if you put them to your mouth, they love to lick your spittle ; but if you catch them, and set them a fight- ing together, it is wonderful to see how fierce they are, and will not at all meddle with him that set them a fighting. If any one is walking in the fields in a hollow way, by rustling the bushes sometimes in one place and sometimes in another, they will make him take notice of them. One that is not acquainted with it would think they were serpents ; when you look at them they turn their heads to look at you till you stand still ; if you go on they follow you ; and if a man be doing anything, they will make him take notice of them. You would think they were sporting, and mightily delighted with the sight of a man. Jo. It is very admirable.

Ep. I saw once a very large and charming green lizard fighting with a serpent at the entrance of a hole. I wondered at first what was the meaning of it, for I could not see the serpent. An Italian told me that the serpent was within ; by and by the lizard comes to us, as if it were shewing us her wounds, and begging a remedy, and did not only suffer herself to be touched, but as often as we stood still, she stood still, viewing us very earnestly. The serpent had almost gnawed away one of her sides, and of green had made it red. Jo. Had I been there, I should have had a mind to avenge the lizard's quarrel. Ep. But her enemy had hid herself in the bottom of the hole. But some 