butcher who was killing his meat, a drop of blood sprung on her face,
whereupon she said her child would have a blemish on its face, and at
the birth it was found marked with a red spot.

[Illustration]

Likewise in the reign of Henry III, there was a woman delivered of a
child having two heads and four arms, and the bodies were joined at the
back; the heads were so placed that they looked contrary ways; each had
two distinct arms and hands. They would both laugh, both speak, and
both cry, and be hungry together; sometimes the one would speak and the
other keep silence, and sometimes both speak together. They lived
several years, but one outlived the other three years, carrying the dead
one (for there was no parting them) till the survivor fainted with the
burden, and more with the stench of the dead carcase.

[Illustration]

It is certain that monstrous births often happen by means of undue
copulation; for some there are, who, having been long absent from one
another, and having an eager desire for enjoyment, consider not as they
ought, to do as their circumstances demand. And if it happen that they
come together when the woman's menses are flowing, and notwithstanding,
proceed to the act of copulation, which is both unclean and unnatural,
the issue of such copulation does often prove monstrous, as a just
punishment for doing what nature forbids. And, therefore, though men
should be ever so eager for it, yet women, knowing their own condition,
should at such times positively refuse their company. And though such
copulations do not always produce monstrous birth, yet the children,
thus begotten, are generally heavy, dull, and sluggish, besides