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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

One needs to pestle white & yellow marcasites &
diverse kinds of mines, & then wash them well, in
order that the earthy & powdery part 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 grassegrotto 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. 


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.

