Page:Three Books of Occult Philosophy (De Occulta Philosophia) (1651).djvu/132

 he shall not prosper, but be unfortunate, and fall into misery, and sadness. And Albertus out of Chyrannis saith, that if any woman hath enchanted thee to love her, take the sheet she lies in, and piss through her hood, and her right sleeve, out of doors, and the enchantment will be quitted. And Pliny saith, that to sit by women great with child, or when a medicine is given to any one of them, the fingers being joyned together like the teeth of a Kemb, is a charm. This was known by experience in Alcumena breeding Hercules: and so much the worse, if that be done about one, or both knees. Also to sit cross legged, is Sorcery, therefore it was forbiden to be done in the Counsels of Princes, and Rulers, as a thing which hindred all acts. And it is said, if any one standing before the door call the man by his name, that is lying with a woman, and he answer, if then he fasten a knife, or needle on the door, and break it, the edge being downward, he that is in the bed with the woman cannot couple with her as long as those things shall be there.

==Chapter lii. Of the Countenance, and Gesture, the Habit, and Figure of the Body, and to what Stars any of these do answer; whence Physiognomy, and Metoposcopy, and Chyromancy, Arts of divination, have their grounds.== The countenance, gesture, the motion, setting, and figure of the body, being accidentall to us, conduce to the receiving of Celestiall gifts, and expose us to the superiour bodies, and produce certain effects in us, no otherwise then in Hellebor, which when thou gatherest, if thou pullest the leaf upward, it draws the humors upward, and causeth vomiting; if downward, it causeth purging, by drawing the humor downward. How much also the countenauce, gesture, do affect the sight, imagination, and Animall spirit, no man is ignorant. So they that couple for generation, for the most part are wont to