Of the holy fire which the Sheapheards call the Pox, or the Blisters, or Saint Anthonies fire.
THis euill is vncurable, for it neither admitteth medicine nor resication by knife, and [ 40] therefore whensoeuer a beast is infected therewith, it ought presently to be seperated from the residue of the flocke, for there is nothing that spreadeth it selfe more speedily: whensoeuer you aduenture to apply any thing vnto it, it presently waxeth angry, and per∣plexeth the whole body except it bee the milke of Goates, and yet my Author speaketh thus of it: Quod infusum tantum velet, vt & blandiatur igneam saeuitiam differens magis oc∣cisionem gregis, quam prohibens. That is, It seemeth to close with raging fire, as it were to flatter it a little, rarher deferring the death of the beast, then doing away the disease. It is therefore prescribed by the most memorable Author of al the Egyptians, that men doe oftentimes looke vpon the backes of their sheep to see the beginning of this sicknesse, and when they find a sheep affected herewith, they dig a ditch or hole fit for him at the ente∣ring [ 50] in of the sheepe-coate or stable, wherin they put the sheep aliue with his face vpward, and backe downeward, and cause all the residue of the flocke to come and pisse vpon him, by which action it hath bin often found (as Columella writeth) that this euill hath bin dri∣uen away, and by no other meanes.