The ninth Chapter.
Of inchanting or bewitching eies.
ANIE writers agree with Virgil and Theocritus in the effect of witching eies, affirming that in Scythia, there are women called Bithiæ,With the like propertie were the old Illyrian people indued: if we will credit the words of Sabinus grounded upon the report of Aul. Gell. having two balles or rather blacks in the apple of their eies. And as Didymus reporteth, some have in the one eie two such balles, and in the other the image of a horsse. These (forsooth) with their angrie lookes doo bewitch and hurt not onelie yoong lambs, but yoong children. There be other that/350. reteine such venome in their eies, and send it foorth by beames and streames so violentlie, that therewith they annoie not onlie them with whom they are conversant continuallie; but also all other, whose companie they frequent, of what age, strength, or complexion soever they be: as Cicero, Plutarch, Philarchus, and manie others give out in their writings.
This fascination (saith John Baptista Porta Neapolitanus) J. Bap. Neapol. in lib. de naturali magia. though it begin by touching or breathing, is alwaies accomplished and finished by the eie, as an extermination or expulsion of the spirits through the eies, approching to the hart of the bewitched, and infecting the same, &c. Wherby it commeth to passe, that a child, or a yoong man endued with a cleare, whole, subtill and sweet bloud, yeeldeth the like spirits, breath, and vapors springing from the purer bloud of the hart. And the lightest and finest/486. spirits, ascending into the highest parts of the head, doo fall into the eies, and so are from thence sent foorth, as being of all other parts of the bodie the most cleare, and fullest of veines and pores, and with the verie spirit or vapor proceeding thence, is conveied out as it were by beames and streames a certeine fierie force;This is held of some for truth. whereof he that beholdeth sore eies shall have good experience. For the poison and disease in the eie infecteth the aire next unto it, and the same proceedeth further, carrieng with it the vapor and infection of the corrupted bloud: with the contagion whereof, the eies of the beholders are most apt to be infected. By this same meanes it is thought that the cockatrice depriveth the life, and a woolfe taketh awaie the voice of such as they suddenlie meete withall and behold.
Old women, in whome the ordinarie course of nature faileth in the office of purging their naturall monethlie humors, shew also some proofe hereof. For (as the said J.B.P.N. reporteth, alledging Aristotle for his author) they leave in a looking glasse a certeine froth, by meanes of the grosse vapors proceeding out of their eies. Which commeth so to passe, bicause those vapors or spirits, which so abundantlie come from their eies, cannot pearse and enter into the glasse, which is hard, and without pores, and therefore resisteth: Non est in speculo res quæ speculatur in eo. but the beames which are carried in the chariot or conveiance of the spirits, from the eies of one bodie to another, doo pearse to the inward parts, and there breed infection, whilest they search and seeke for their proper region. And as these beames & vapors doo proceed from the hart of the one, so are they turned into bloud about the hart of the other: which bloud disagreeing with the nature of the bewitched partie, infeebleth the rest of his bodie, and maketh him sicke: the contagion wherof so long con- tinueth, as the distempered bloud hath force in the members. And bicause the infection is of bloud, the fever or sicknes will be continuall; whereas if it were of choler, or flegme, it would be intermittent or alterable.//
The tenth Chapter.487. 351.
Of naturall witchcraft for love, &c.
UT Nescio quis oculus teneros mihi fascinat agnos, saith Virgil: and thus Englished by Abraham Fleming:
I wote not I
What witching eie
Doth use to hant
My tender lams
Sucking their dams
And them inchant, as there is fascination and witchcraft by malicious and angrie eies unto displeasure: so are there witching aspects, tending contrariwise to love, or at the least, to the procuring of good will and liking. For if the fascination or witchcraft be brought to passe or provoked by the desire, by the wishing and coveting of anie beautifull shape or favor, the venome is strained through the eies, though it be from a far, and the imagination of a beautifull forme resteth in the hart of the lover, and kindleth the fier wherewith it is afflicted. And bicause the most delicate, sweete, and tender bloud of the belooved doth there wander, his countenance is there represented shining in his owne bloud, and cannot there be quiet; and is so haled from thence, that the bloud of him that is wounded, reboundeth and slippeth into the wounder, according to the saieng of Lucretius the poet to the like purpose and meaning in these verses: