Counsel Against the Plague

When it is from above, flee to the lowlands.

If it originates from above, one should flee for two months first to air that is low, thick, cold, and humid, provided that it is not commonly unhealthy. For the other two months, [flee] to mid-slope. Thereafter, [go] higher to air that is dry, cold, and thin, always fleeing air that is hot, humid, and cloudy. In such air, men are as fish in turbid waters. And know that pestilential air is to men much like murky water is to fish. But that which is poison to men is not necessarily always poison to other animals, because of the diversity of the celestial signs and of natural species. From this arises the fact that I do not know what to say of the opinion of some who say that when the pestilential poison begins from the air, the birds accustomed to flying high fly low and dwell

Prognostic from birds when the plague comes from above.

in the plains. But when it begins from the earth, the earthworms and serpents emerge from the depths of the earth, and the birds accustomed to flying and dwelling

Prognostic when it comes from below.

low fly high and to the mountains. They add that sometimes the animals flee from the high ground to the low, and then return to the high, when the poison descends first into the air and then into

The kite flees the plague.

the earth. From this the common folk have derived [the belief] that kites flee pestilential air, and where kites are found, there is no bad air. We have heard more...