onions, olives, leeks, cheese,
and all sorts of meat and fish, and besides these, allowed them some
comfits.

QUESTION II. WHY MUSHROOMS ARE THOUGHT TO BE PRODUCED BY THUNDER, AND
WHY IT IS BELIEVED THAT MEN ASLEEP ARE NEVER THUNDERSTRUCK.

AGEMACHUS, PLUTARCH, DOROTHEUS.

At a supper in Elis, Agemachus set before us very large mushrooms. And
when all admired at them, one with a smile said, These are worthy
the late thunder, as it were deriding those who imagine mushrooms are
produced by thunder. Some said that thunder did split the earth, using
the air as a wedge for that purpose, and that by those chinks those that
sought after mushrooms were directed where to find them; and thence it
grew a common opinion, that thunder engenders mushrooms, and not only
makes them a passage to appear; as if one should imagine that a shower
of rain breeds snails, and not rather makes them creep forth and be seen
abroad. Agemachus stood up stiffly for the received opinion, and told
us, we should not disbelieve it only because it was strange, for there
are a thousand other effects of thunder and lightning and a thousand
omens deduced from them, whose causes it is very hard, if not
impossible, to discover; for this laughed-at, this proverbial mushroom
doth not escape the thunder because it is so little, but because it
hath some antipathetical qualities that preserve it from blasting; as
likewise a fig-tree, the skin of a sea-calf (as they say), and that
of the hyena, with which sailors cover the ends of their sails. And
husbandmen call thunder-showers nourishing, and think them to be so.
Indeed, it is absurd to wonder at these things, when we see the most
incredible things imaginable in thunder, as flame rising out of
moist vapors, and from soft clouds such astonishing noises. Thus, he
continued, I prattle, exhorting you to inquire after the cause; and I
shall accept this as your club for these mushrooms.

Then I began: Agemachus himself helps us exceedingly towards this
discovery; for nothing at the present seems more probable than that,
together with the thunder, oftentimes generative waters fall, which take
that quality from the heat mixed with them. For the piercing pure parts
of the fire break away in lightning; but the grosser windy part, being
wrapped up in cloud, changes it, taking away the coldness and heating
the moisture, altering and being altered with it, affects it so that it
is made fit to enter the pores of plants