himself in red mud so that he looks as if he were stained
with blood. Then he throws himself on the ground and
holds his breath, so that he positively does not seem to
breathe. The birds, seeing that he is not breathing, and
that he looks as if he were covered with blood with his
tongue hanging out, think he is dead and come down to
sit on him. Well, thus he grabs them and gobbles them
up.1

  The Devil has the nature of this same.
  With all those who are living according to the flesh
he feigns himself to be dead until he gets them in his
gullet and punishes them. But for spiritual men of faith
he is truly dead and reduced to nothing.
  Furthermore, those who wish to follow the devil's
works perish, as the Apostle says: 'Know this, since if you
live after thp flesh you shall die, but if you mortify the
doings of the foxy body according to the spirit you shall
live'. And the Lord God says: 'They will go into the lower
parts of the earth, they will be given over to the power
of the sword, they will become a portion for foxes'.
  1 The same fable was reported of cats with rats in the Middle Ages, and
by
Francis Meres in Pal/adis Tamia (1598) of leopards with monkeys.


There is a beast called a Y A L E, which is as big as a horse,
has the tail of an elephant, its colour black and with the
jowls of a boar. It carries outlandishly long horns which
are adjusted to move at will. They are not fixed, but are
moved as the needs of battle dictate, and, when it fights,
it points one of them forward and folds the other one
back, so that, if it hurts the tip of this one with any

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