(4) And he slew him in the field : and his blood cried from^the ground to heaven, complaining because he had slain him.

(9) The red sap gushing forth from the tree fell in the gourd and with it they made a ball which glistened and took the shape of a heart. The tree gave forth sap similar to blood, with the appearance of real blood. Then the blood, or that is to say the sap of the red tree, clotted, and formed a very bright coating inside the gourd, like clotted blood; meanwhile the tree glowed at the work of the maiden. It was called the "red tree of cochineal," but [since then] it has taken the name of Blood Tree because its sap is called Blood. "There on earth you shall be beloved and you shall have all that belongs to you," said the maiden to the owls. "Very well, girl. We shall go there, we go up to serve you; you, continue on your way, while we go to present the sap, instead of your heart, to the lords," said the messengers. When they arrived in the presence of the lords, all were waiting. "You have finished?" asked Hun-Camé. "All is finished, my lords. Here in the bottom of the gourd is the heart."

(18) But concerning precious stones, as carbuncles, rubies, diamonds, smaragdines or emeralds, onyxes and the like, which are of the best sort, they have their original where the flash of the light rose up in the love. For that flash becometh generated in the meekness, and is the heart in the centre of the qualifying or fountain spirits; therefore those stones are also meek, full of virtue, delightful, pleasant and lovely. Now it might be asked, Why in this world is man so in love with gold, silver and precious stones, above all other things, and useth them for a defence or protection, and for the maintenance of his body? [Eccles. vii. 12] Answer.

(42) It containeth also fierceness and corruption: Being inflamed in the fire it engendereth a hard, tearing and stony nature, a fierce, wrathful source, a destruction of life, whereby the stone or gravel is engendered in the flesh, causing great pain and torment to the flesh.

(42) "On the fifth leaf there was a fair rose tree flowered in the midst of a sweet garden, climbing up against a hollow oak; at the foot whereof boiled a fountain of most white water, which ran headlong down into the depths, notwithstanding it first passed among the hands of infinite people, who digged in the earth seeking for it; but because they were blind, none of them knew it, except here and there one who considered the weight. On the last side of the fifth leaf there was a king with a great fauchion, who made to be killed in his presence by some soldiers a great multitude of little infants, whose mothers wept at the feet of the unpitiful soldiers: the blood of which infants was afterwards by other soldiers gathered up, and put in a great vessel, wherein the sun and the moon came to bathe themselves.

(14) But when king Lucifer had stirred the wrath in this birth or geniture, and had with his loftiness brought the poison and death into it, then in the wrathful birth, in the fierceness or sting of death, such earth and stones were generated.

(4) And thus they found the food, and this was what went into the flesh of created man, the made man; this was his blood; of this the blood of man was made. So the corn entered [into the formation of man] by the work of the Forefathers.

(11) And the prince Maste'ma sent ravens and birds to devour the seed which was sown in the land, in order to destroy the land, and rob the children of men of their labours. Before they could plough in the seed, the ravens picked (it) from the surface of the ground.

(11) Afterwards, with a cloud for a jar (khûmb)—thus they call the measure which was a means of the work—he seized upon the water and made it rain most prodigiously, in drops like bull's heads and men's heads, pouring in handfuls and pouring in armfuls, both great and small.

(6) Then people saw I, who from out the river Lifted their heads and also all the chest; And many among these I recognised. Thus ever more and more grew shallower That blood, so that the feet alone it covered; And there across the moat our passage was. "Even as thou here upon this side beholdest The boiling stream, that aye diminishes," The Centaur said, "I wish thee to believe That on this other more and more declines Its bed, until it reunites itself Where it behoveth tyranny to groan. Justice divine, upon this side, is goading That Attila, who was a scourge on earth, And Pyrrhus, and Sextus; and for ever milks The tears which with the boiling it unseals In Rinier da Corneto and Rinier Pazzo, Who made upon the highways so much war." Then back he turned, and passed again the ford.

(2) The Minotaur beheld I do the like; And he, the wary, cried: "Run to the passage; While he wroth, 'tis well thou shouldst descend." Thus down we took our way o'er that discharge Of stones, which oftentimes did move themselves Beneath my feet, from the unwonted burden. Thoughtful I went; and he said: "Thou art thinking Perhaps upon this ruin, which is guarded By that brute anger which just now I quenched. Now will I have thee know, the other time I here descended to the nether Hell, This precipice had not yet fallen down. But truly, if I well discern, a little Before His coming who the mighty spoil Bore off from Dis, in the supernal circle, Upon all sides the deep and loathsome valley Trembled so, that I thought the Universe Was thrilled with love, by which there are who think The world ofttimes converted into chaos; And at that moment this primeval crag Both here and elsewhere made such overthrow. But fix thine eyes below; for draweth near The river of blood, within which boiling is Whoe'er by violence doth injure others."

(1) Who ever could, e'en with untrammelled words, Tell of the blood and of the wounds in full Which now I saw, by many times narrating? Each tongue would for a certainty fall short By reason of our speech and memory, That have small room to comprehend so much. If were again assembled all the people Which formerly upon the fateful land Of Puglia were lamenting for their blood Shed by the Romans and the lingering war That of the rings made such illustrious spoils, As Livy has recorded, who errs not, With those who felt the agony of blows By making counterstand to Robert Guiscard, And all the rest, whose bones are gathered still At Ceperano, where a renegade Was each Apulian, and at Tagliacozzo, Where without arms the old Alardo conquered, And one his limb transpierced, and one lopped off, Should show, it would be nothing to compare With the disgusting mode of the ninth Bolgia. A cask by losing centre-piece or cant Was never shattered so, as I saw one Rent from the chin to where one breaketh wind.

(16) So in like manner the earth and stones have their descent; for when the Salitter kindled itself in nature, then all became very rugged, thick and dark, like a thick dark mist or cloud, which the astringent quality dried up hard with its coldness.

(91) When God had driven the corrupted Salitter of earth and stones, (which had generated itself in the outermost birth by the kindling), together on a heap as in a lump, then, for that cause, the third birth or geniture in nature in the deep, above the earth, was not pure and bright, because the wrath of God did yet burn therein.

(27) Grecorius* saith: O all ye Turba, it is to be observed that the envious have called the venerable’ stone Efflucidinus,t and they have ordered it to be ruled until it coruscates like marble in its splendour.} And go they: Show, therefore, what it is to posterity. Then he: Willingly; you must know that the copper is commingled with vinegar, and ruled until it becomes’ water. Finally, let it be congealed, and it remains a coruscating stone with a brilliancy like marble, which, when ye see thus, I direct you to rule until it becomes red, because when it is cooked till it is disintegrated and becomes earth, it is turned into a red colour. When ye see it thus, repeatedly cook and imbue it until it assume the aforesaid colour, and it shall become hidden gold. Then re-. peat the process, when it will become gold of a Tyrian colour. It behoves you, therefore, O all ye investigators of this Art, when ye have observed that this Stone is coruscating, to pound and turn it into earth, until it acquires some degree of redness; then take the remainder* of the water which the envioust ordered you to divide into two parts, and ye shall imbibe them! several times until the colours which are hidden by no body appear unto you.S Know also that if ye rule it ignorantly, ye shall see nothing of those colours. I knew a certain person who commenced this work, and operated the natures of truth, who, when the redness was somewhat slow in appearing, imagined that he had made a mistake, and so relinquished the work. Observe, therefore, how ye make the conjunction, for the punic dye,* having embraced his spouse, passes swiftly into her body, liquefies, congeals, breaks up, and disintegrates the same. Finally, the redness does not delay in coming, and if ye effect it without the weight, death will take place, whereupon it will be thought to be bad. Hence, I order that the fire should be gentle in liquefaction, but when it is turned to earth make the same intense,t and imbue it until God shall extract the colours for us and they appear.

(3) Now he tilled the land as he had been instructed in the Garden of Eden.*

(37) The juice of the grape was thought by the Egyptians to resemble human blood more closely than did any other substance. In fact, they believed that the grape secured its life from the blood of the dead who had been buried in the earth. According to Plutarch, "The priests of the sun at Heliopolis never carry any wine into their temples, * * * and if they made use of it at any time in their libations to the gods, it was not because they looked upon it as in its own nature acceptable to them; but they poured it upon their altars as the blood of those enemies who formerly had fought against them. For they look upon the vine to have first sprung out of the earth after it was fattened with the carcasses of those who fell in the wars against the gods. And this, say they, is the reason why drinking its juice in great quantities makes men mad and beside themselves, filling them as it were with the blood of their own ancestors." (See Isis and Osiris.)

(3) With dust dishonor’d, and deform’d with gore.

As the young olive in some sylvan scene,

Crown’d by fresh fountains with eternal green,

(97) But when he found that he could not effect it, then he kindled himself, intending to do it some other way; and so then the Son of Light became a Son of Darkness; for he himself consumed the power of his sweet water, and made it to be a sour stink. Of the Second Son, Covetousness. [Avarice]

(136) While he divided the flesh of the ..., and devised a cunning plan