Page:Three Books of Occult Philosophy (De Occulta Philosophia) (1651).djvu/122

 of wonderfull, and strange vertues, the seal of which, when he turned it toward the palm of his hand, no body could see him, but he could see all things: by the opportunity of which Ring he ravished the Queen, and slew the King his Master, and killed whomsoever he thought stood in his way, and in these villanies no body could see him, and at length by the benefit of this Ring be became King of Lydia.  

 

Here be wonderfull vertues of places accompanying them, either from things there placed, or by the influences of the Stars, or in any other way. For as Pliny relates of a Cuckow, in what place any one doth first hear him, if his right foot be marked about and, and that foot-step digged up, there will no Fleas be bred in that place where it is scattered. So they say that the dust of the track of a Snake being gathered up, and scattered amongst Bees, makes them return to their hives. So also that the dust, in which a Mule hath rolled himself, being cast upon the Body, doth mitigate the heat of love, and that the dust wherein a Hawk hath rolled her self, if it be bound to the body in a bright red cloth, cures the quartane. So doth the stone taken out of the nest of a Swallow, as they say, presently relieve those that have the falling sickness, and being bound to the party, continually preserve them, especially if it be rolled in the blood, or heart of a Swallow. And it is reported That if any one shall cut a veine, and being fasting, shall go over a place where any one lately fell with the fit of a Falling sickness, that he shall fall into the same disease. And Pliny reports, that to fasten an Iron naile in that place where he that fell with a fit of the Falling sickness first pitched his head, will free him from his disease. So they say that an Hearb growing upon the head of any image, being gathered, and Rh