of old they used to binde the heads of young men and maids deceased with garlands of this hearb. And Korrimanus (de mirac. mortuorum) speaks of a dead head so crowned with this hearb, which in the year 1635. being taken out of the grave, was found uncorrupted. And as dead bodies embalmed with spices, are preserved from corruption; so by the fame dead bodies, men are oftentimes preserved alive: for that stuffe which proceeds from them, called by the Arabians Mumia, is an excellent remedy against diseases arising from cold and moi∣sture. Francis the first carried always some of it about him. It was found in the Tombs of those Princes who had been imbal∣med with rich spices; but that which is found in ordinary graves, is not the true Mumia, but false, uselesse, or rather perni∣cious for the body, as not being of the same materials that the true Mumia was.
IV. That the presence of a dear friend standing by a dying man, will prolong his life a while, is a thing very remarkable and true, and which I found by experience: for about tenne years ago, when my aged Father was giving up the ghost, I came towards his beds side, he suddenly cast his eyes upon me, and there fixed them; so that all the while I stood in his sight, he could not die till I went aside, and then he departed. Doubt∣less, the sympathy of affections, and the imagination working upon the vital spirits, kept them moving longer then otherwise they would have done; so that the heart the seat of affection, and the brain the hous of imagination, were loth to give off, and the spirits in them, to rest from their motion, so long as they had an object wherein they delighted. The like I have read of others: And truly the sympathy of affections, and strength of imagination is admirable, when the mind is able to presage the death or danger of a friend though a great way off. This also I found in my self: For once I suddenly fell into a passion of weeping, upon the apprehension I took that my dear friend was dead whom I exceedingly loved for his vertues, and it fell out accordingly as I presaged; for he died about the same hour that I fell into that weeping fit, and we were at that time 60 miles asunder, nor could I tell certainly, that he was dead till two days after. Thus to some the death of friends is presaged by bleeding at the nose, and sudden sadness, by dreams, and di∣vers other ways, which the learned Poet was not ignorant of when he saith,
Agnovit longe gemitum praesaga m••li mens. AEn. l. 10. So by the Greek Poet the soul is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a soothsayer of