109v - - - - - [continued]
when they want to bite or eat something, they do not bite with a direct attack, but with sinuous turns & from the side, as do Satan & his disciples. It has a small head, but a very long body. The entryway to sin seems small & inconsequential, but the consequences of it are very great. It abstains from eating seven or eight days, once it has devoured some frog. It can swallow three or four of them, one after the other, and what he devoured is neither corrupted nor consumed in one go in its stomach, but p any part little by little, that is to say bones and everything. And the remains are found as fresh as when it had devoured them, such that sometimes, when one presses & torments it, it renders what it has engulfed, parts of which are found totally consumed & others as fresh as if it were alive. It can keep for two to three hours a frog engulfed & renders it completely alive.
Toad
If by chance you want to mold this vile animal & if it pisses in your hand, it would burn your hand & itch, as if you had handled nettles. But the most powerful remedy for this is to put your hand into fresh earth, & to cover it as if you wanted to bury it. A frog is not so beautiful molded because it has lively skin, & the other has a lumpy one.
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You can mold it hollow, and leaving under its belly an open notch, you will make it jump with the twisted cord of the saw. Or else, if it is a small, put it on a magnet of its size, cut thinly, then put it in good vinegar.
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When it is big, one needs to mold it hollow, & if you want to make it have an open mouth, put some cotton inside, & then on the cotton some melted wax.
Killing snakes for molding
Some put a drop of aqua fortis in their mouths, which makes it really drunk, such that the head & the part behind seem to be dead, but the mouth remains alive, and when you pierce it with a needle to fit it to the mold, it moves & spoils & undoes everything. Therefore, to kill them entirely, put it in a bottle of good vinegar & some eau de vye. And do thusly with lizards & other similar beasts.
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If you want to keep them, you can put them in a pipe full of earth in a garden outdoors. But your pipe must be covered with archal wire, for otherwise it would climb & go up very high.