A similar importance is assigned to his staff or wand; for he tells Ferdinand,—
—— "I can here disarm thee with this stick,
And make thy weapon drop:"[516:B]
and, when he abjures the practice of magic, one of the requisites is, to "break his staff," and to
"Bury it certain fathoms in the earth."[516:C]
But the more immediate instruments of power were Books, through whose assistance spells and adjurations were usually performed. Reginald Scot, speaking of the traffickers in Magic of his time, says,—"These conjurors carrie about at this daie, books intituled under
the names of Adam, Abel, Tobie, and Enoch; which Enoch they repute the most divine fellow in such matters. They have also among them bookes that they saie Abraham, Aaron, and Salomon made. They have bookes of Zacharie, Paule, Honorius, Cyprian, Jerome, Jeremie, Albert, and Thomas: also of the angels, Riziel, Razael, and Raphael."[517:A]
Books are, consequently, represented as one of the chief sources of Prospero's influence over the spiritual world. He himself declares,—
———————— "I'll to my book;
For yet, ere supper time, must I perform