rificing to the planets with the view of securing
their diabolical ends, throw into the flames such things as raise a
pleasant perfume when they wish to perform good actions; but when they
desire to bring about wicked results, they raise disagreeable smells.
When soliciting the aid of the sun, it was customary to take the brain
of an eagle or the blood of a white cock; when appealing to the moon,
the blood of a goose was supposed to be good; when sacrificing to
Saturn, the brain of a cat and the blood of a bat were indispensable;
when soliciting Jupiter's assistance, the blood of a swallow or stork
and the brains of a hart were recommended; when sacrificing to Mars,
the blood of a man or of a black cat was thought best; and when
Mercury was sacrificed to, the brain of a fox or of a weasel and the
blood of a magpie were burned on the altar.

All instruments, vessels, and other things used for magical purposes
were recommended to be new; and when a magical missive was to be
written, the parchment was prepared from the skin of a black kitten,
the pen was a feather plucked from a live crow or raven, and the ink
consisted of human blood, or a preparation of calcined cuttle-fish
bones, nutgalls, and rain water, prepared in the day and hour of
Saturn.

In order to secure success in the magical art, it was necessary for
the operator to have his whole soul in his work, otherwise his labour
was in vain. Ancient philosophers have informed us that when the human
mind is intent upon magical work, it is joined with the mind and
intelligence of the stars, and hence the wonderful result of secret
art.

Magicians pretended to possess the power of producing monstrous
creatures, even devils. They could, if their statements can be relied
upon, create a cockatrice by artificially hatching an egg in a
preparation of arsenic and the poison of serpents. The ashes of a
burned duck, treated in a magical manner, produced a huge toad.
Numerous writers conclude that there are two species of toads--the one
produced by ordinary generation, and the other by devilish science.
Plutarch and more modern writers say that frogs descend from the
clouds in rain. Egyptian magicians produced proof of mice, frogs, and
serpents growing out of earth and flowers. It was said that Damnatus
Hispanus could make them in any number he pleased.

By certain charms, magicians could place a horse or an ass's head upon
a man's shoulders, and change the head of an inferi