110r - - - - - Molding
You could mold things and animals already cast, but it never comes out as well as the one from nature, with which you can make four or five molds.
Rock & grotto
You need to pestle white & yellow marcasites & various kinds of mines, & then wash them well, so that the earthy & powdery is cleaned, & there remains only the lustrous grain of the mine, with which you will sprinkle your rock previously covered with colle forte, if your grasse grotto is r not for a fountain & for touching water, and you will have a nice work.
Snakes
When they feel taken, they hardly bite, & do not have the power to harm, unless they are really big snakes. The main thing is to keep from being bitten before catching them, and having put your foot on top of it, as close to the neck as one can, one needs to grab it closest to the head, for it cannot bite if it does not have the means to stretch its neck & make a sinuous & oblique turn, & it cannot s harm with a direct attack, since he cannot move forward in a direct line, but writhes in the shape of an S. I saw that the one who taught me to mold them did not take this into account, & assured me that there was no trick to it, other than, when taking it, he would pull it, a little pressed & held tightly by the neck, & passing it under a shoe, he would flatten it in such a way that it would render soubs from its bottom, which is five to six fingers from the end of its tail, all nasty and venomous things that it had in its stomach, and that after this, it does not have the strength to bite, and if by chance it should bite or expel through its bottom some filth, he would only dig the earth with a knife, & bury his hand in fresh & damp earth, which, when applied fresh en on the infected part, pulls out all the venom, and nothing else. It is the same with toad’s venom, that I have seen experimented.
at left middle margin
In three, it is almost as thin that it will be after it does not eat. Molding it as soon as it is caught is best, before it becomes thin. One ought to kill it only a quarter hour before you want to mold.
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