BOOK XXX.

REMEDIES DERIVED FROM LIVING CREATURES.

CHAP. 1. (1.)—THE ORIGIN OF THE MAGIC ART.

In former parts of this work, I have had occasion more than once, when

the subject demanded it, to refute the impostures of the magic art, and

it is now my intention to continue still further my exposure thereof.

Indeed, there are few subjects on which more might be profitably said,

were it only that, being, as it is, the most deceptive of all known

arts, it has exercised the greatest influence in every country and in

nearly every age. And no one can be surprised at the extent of its

influence and authority, when he reflects that by its own energies it

has embraced, and thoroughly amalgamated with itself, the three other

sciences[2708] which hold the greatest sway upon the mind of man.

That it first originated in medicine, no one entertains a doubt;[2709]

or that, under the plausible guise of promoting health, it insinuated

itself among mankind, as a higher and more holy branch of the medical

art. Then, in the next place, to promises the most seductive and the

most flattering, it has added all the resources of religion, a subject

upon which, at the present day, man is still entirely in the dark. Last

of all, to complete its universal sway, it has incorporated with itself

the astrological art;[2710] there being no man who is not desirous

to know his future destiny, or who is not ready to believe that this

knowledge may with the greatest certainty be obtained, by observing

the face of the heavens. The senses of men being thus enthralled by a

three-fold bond, the art of magic has attained an influence so mighty,

that at the present day even, it holds sway throughout a great part of

the world, and rules the kings[2711] of kings in the East.

CHAP. 2.—WHEN AND WHERE THE ART OF MAGIC ORIGINATED: BY WHAT PERSONS IT

WAS FIRST PRACTISED.

There is no doubt that this art originated in Persia,[2712] under

Zoroaster,[2713] this being a point upon which authors are generally

agreed; but whether there was only one Zoroaster, or whether in later

times there was a second person of that name, is a matter which still

remains undecided. Eudoxus,[2714] who has endeavoured to show that

of all branches of philosophy the magic art is the most illustrious

and the most beneficial, informs us that this Zoroaster existed six

thousand years before the death of Plato, an assertion in which he

is supported by Aristotle. Hermippus,[2715] again, an author who has

written with the greatest exactness on all particulars connected with

this art, and has commented upon the two millions[2716] of verses left

by Zoroaster, besides completing indexes to his several works, has

left a statement, that Agonaces was the name of the master from whom

Zoroaster derived his doctrines, and that he lived five thousand years

before the time of the Trojan War. The first thing, however, that must

strike us with surprise, is the fact that this art, and the traditions

connected with it, should have survived for so many ages, all written

commentaries thereon having perished in the meanwhile; and this, too,

when there was no continuous succession of adepts, no professors of

note, to ensure their transmission.

For how few there are, in fact, who know anything, even by hearsay,

about the only professors of this art whose names have come down to

us, Apusorus[2717] and Zaratus of Media, Marmarus and Arabantiphocus

of Babylonia, and Tarmoendas of Assyria, men who have left not the

slightest memorials of their existence. But the most surprising thing

of all is, that Homer should be totally silent upon this art in his

account[2718] of the Trojan War, while in his story of the wanderings

of Ulysses, so much of the work should be taken up with it, that we

may justly conclude that the poem is based upon nothing else; if,

indeed, we are willing to grant that his accounts of Proteus and of the

songs of the Sirens are to be understood in this sense, and that the

stories of Circe and of the summoning up of the shades below,[2719]

bear reference solely to the practices of sorcerers. And then, too,

to come to more recent times, no one has told us how the art of

sorcery reached Telmessus,[2720] a city devoted to all the services of

religion, or at what period it came over and reached the matrons of

Thessaly; whose name[2721] has long passed, in our part of the world,

as the appellation of those who practise an art, originally introduced

among themselves even, from foreign lands.[2722] For in the days of

the Trojan War, Thessaly was still contented with such remedies[2723]

as she owed to the skill of Chiron, and her only[2724] lightnings

were the lightnings hurled by Mars.[2725] Indeed, for my own part, I

am surprised that the imputation of magical practices should have so

strongly attached to the people once under the sway of Achilles, that

Menander even, a man unrivalled for perception in literary knowledge,

has entitled one of his Comedies “The Thessalian Matron,” and has

therein described the devices practised by the females of that country

in bringing down the moon from the heavens.[2726] I should have been

inclined to think that Orpheus had been the first to introduce into a

country so near his own, certain magical superstitions based upon the

practice of medicine, were it not the fact that Thrace, his native

land, was at that time totally a stranger to the magic art.

The first person, so far as I can ascertain, who wrote upon magic, and

whose works are still in existence, was Osthanes,[2727] who accompanied

Xerxes, the Persian king, in his expedition against Greece. It was he

who first[2728] disseminated, as it were, the germs of this monstrous

art, and tainted therewith all parts of the world through which the

Persians passed. Authors who have made diligent enquiries into this

subject, make mention of a second Zoroaster, a native of Proconnesus,

as living a little before the time of Osthanes. That it was this same

Osthanes, more particularly, that inspired the Greeks, not with a

fondness only, but a rage, for the art of magic, is a fact beyond all

doubt: though at the same time I would remark, that in the most ancient

times, and indeed almost invariably, it was in this[2729] branch of

science, that was sought the highest point of celebrity and of literary

renown. At all events, Pythagoras, we find, Empedocles, Democritus,

and Plato, crossed the seas, in order to attain a knowledge thereof,

submitting, to speak the truth, more to the evils of exile[2730] than

to the mere inconveniences of travel. Returning home, it was upon the

praises of this art that they expatiated—it was this that they held

as one of their grandest mysteries. It was Democritus, too, who first

drew attention to Apollobeches[2731] of Coptos, to Dardanus,[2732]

and to Phœnix: the works of Dardanus he sought in the tomb of that

personage, and his own were composed in accordance with the doctrines

there found. That these doctrines should have been received by any

portion of mankind, and transmitted to us by the aid of memory, is to

me surprising beyond anything I can conceive.[2733] All the particulars

there found are so utterly incredible, so utterly revolting, that

those even who admire Democritus in other respects, are strong in

their denial that these works were really written by him. Their

denial, however, is in vain; for it was he, beyond all doubt, who had

the greatest share in fascinating men’s minds with these attractive

chimæras.

There is also a marvellous coincidence, in the fact that the two

arts—medicine, I mean, and magic—were developed simultaneously:

medicine by the writings of Hippocrates, and magic by the works of

Democritus, about the period of the Peloponnesian War, which was waged

in Greece in the year of the City of Rome 300.

There is another sect, also, of adepts in the magic art, who derive

their origin from Moses,[2734] Jannes,[2735] and Lotapea,[2736] Jews

by birth,[2737] but many thousand years posterior to Zoroaster: and

as much more recent, again, is the branch of magic cultivated in

Cyprus.[2738] In the time, too, of Alexander the Great, this profession

received no small accession to its credit from the influence of a

second Osthanes, who had the honour of accompanying that prince in his

expeditions, and who, evidently, beyond all doubt, travelled[2739] over

every part of the world.

CHAP. 3.—WHETHER MAGIC WAS EVER PRACTISED IN ITALY. AT WHAT PERIOD THE

SENATE FIRST FORBADE HUMAN SACRIFICES.

It is clear that there are early traces still existing of the

introduction of magic into Italy; in our laws of the Twelve Tables for

instance; besides other convincing proofs, which I have already noticed

in a preceding Book.[2740] At last, in the year of the City 657, Cneius

Cornelius Lentulus and P. Licinius Crassus being consuls, a decree

forbidding human sacrifices[2741] was passed by the senate; from which

period the celebration of these horrid rites ceased in public, and, for

some[2742] time, altogether.

CHAP. 4.—THE DRUIDS OF THE GALLIC PROVINCES.

The Gallic provinces, too, were pervaded by the magic art,[2743] and

that even down to a period within memory; for it was the Emperor

Tiberius that put down their Druids,[2744] and all that tribe of

wizards and physicians. But why make further mention of these

prohibitions, with reference to an art which has now crossed the very

Ocean even, and has penetrated to the void[2745] recesses of Nature? At

the present day, struck with fascination, Britannia still cultivates

this art, and that, with ceremonials so august, that she might almost

seem[2746] to have been the first to communicate them to the people of

Persia.[2747] To such a degree are nations throughout the whole world,

totally different as they are and quite unknown to one another, in

accord upon this one point!

Such being the fact, then, we cannot too highly appreciate the

obligation that is due to the Roman people, for having put an end to

those monstrous rites, in accordance with which, to murder a man was to

do an act of the greatest devoutness, and to eat[2748] his flesh was to

secure the highest blessings of health.

CHAP. 5. (2.)—THE VARIOUS BRANCHES OF MAGIC.

According to what Osthanes tells us, there are numerous sorts of magic.

It is practised[2749] with water, for instance, with balls, by the aid

of the air, of the stars, of lamps, basins, hatchets, and numerous

other appliances; means by which it engages to grant a foreknowledge

of things to come, as well as converse with ghosts and spirits of the

dead. All these practices, however, have been proved by the Emperor

Nero, in our own day, to be so many false and chimærical illusions;

entertaining as he did a passion for the magic art, unsurpassed even

by his enthusiastic love for the music of the lyre, and for the songs

of tragedy; so strangely did his elevation to the highest point of

human fortune act upon the deep-seated vices of his mind! It was his

leading desire to command the gods of heaven, and no aspiration could

he conceive more noble than this. Never did person lavish more favours

upon any one of the arts; and for the attainment of this, his favourite

object, nothing was wanting to him, neither riches, nor power, nor

aptitude at learning, and what not besides, at the expense of a

suffering world.

It is a boundless, an indubitable proof, I say, of the utter falsity

of this art, that such a man as Nero abandoned it; and would to heaven

that he had consulted the shades below, and any other spirits as well,

in order to be certified in his suspicions, rather than commissioned

the denizens of stews and brothels to make those inquisitions of his

[with reference to the objects of his jealousy]. For assuredly there

can be no superstition, however barbarous and ferocious the rites

which it sanctions, that is not more tolerant than the imaginations

which he conceived, and owing to which, by a series of blood-stained

crimes, our abodes were peopled with ghosts.

CHAP. 6.—THE SUBTERFUGES PRACTISED BY THE MAGICIANS.

The magicians, too, have certain modes of evasion, as, for instance,

that the gods will not obey, or even appear to, persons who have

freckles upon the skin. Was this perchance the obstacle[2750] in Nero’s

way? As for his limbs, there was[2751] nothing deficient in them. And

then, besides, he was at liberty to make choice of the days prescribed

by the magic ritual: it was an easy thing for him to make choice

of sheep whose colour was no other than perfectly black: and as to

sacrificing human beings, there was nothing in the world that gave him

greater pleasure. The Magian Tiridates[2752] was at his court, having

repaired thither, in token of our triumph over Armenia, accompanied

by a train which cost dear to the provinces through which it passed.

For the fact was, that he was unwilling to travel by water, it being a

maxim with the adepts in this art that it is improper to spit into the

sea or to profane that element by any other of the evacuations that are

inseparable from the infirmities of human nature. He brought with him,

too, several other Magi, and went so far as to initiate the emperor

in the repasts[2753] of the craft; and yet the prince, for all he had

bestowed a kingdom upon the stranger, found himself unable to receive

at his hands, in return, this art.

We may rest fully persuaded then, that magic is a thing detestable

in itself. Frivolous and lying as it is, it still bears, however,

some shadow of truth upon it; though reflected, in reality, by the

practices of those who study the arts of secret poisoning, and not

the pursuits of magic. Let any one picture to himself the lies of the

magicians of former days, when he learns what has been stated by the

grammarian Apion,[2754] a person whom I remember seeing myself when

young. He tells us that the plant cynocephalia,[2755] known in Egypt

as “osiritis,” is useful for divination, and is a preservative against

all the malpractices of magic, but that if a person takes it out of

the ground entire, he will die upon the spot. He asserts, also, that

he himself had raised the spirits[2756] of the dead, in order to make

enquiry of Homer in reference to his native country and his parents;

but he does not dare, he tells us, disclose the answer he received.

CHAP. 7. (3.)—OPINIONS OF THE MAGICIANS RELATIVE TO THE MOLE. FIVE

REMEDIES DERIVED FROM IT.

Let the following stand as a remarkable proof of the frivolous nature

of the magic art. Of all animals it is the mole that the magicians

admire most! a creature that has been stamped with condemnation by

Nature in so many ways; doomed as it is to perpetual blindness,[2757]

and adding to this darkness a life of gloom in the depths of the earth,

and a state more nearly resembling that of the dead and buried. There

is no animal in the entrails of which they put such implicit faith, no

animal, they think, better suited for the rites of religion; so much

so, indeed, that if a person swallows the heart of a mole, fresh from

the body and still palpitating, he will receive the gift of divination,

they assure us, and a foreknowledge of future events. Tooth-ache, they

assert, may be cured by taking the tooth of a live mole, and attaching

it to the body. As to other statements of theirs relative to this

animal, we shall draw attention to them on the fitting occasions,

and shall only add here that one of the most probable of all their

assertions is, that the mole neutralizes the bite of the shrew-mouse;

seeing that, as already[2758] stated, the very earth even that is found

in the rut of a cart-wheel, acts as a remedy in such a case.

CHAP. 8.—THE OTHER REMEDIES DERIVED FROM LIVING CREATURES, CLASSIFIED

ACCORDING TO THE RESPECTIVE DISEASES. REMEDIES FOR TOOTH-ACHE.

But to proceed, with the remedies for tooth-ache—the magicians tell us,

that it may be cured by using the ashes of the head of a dog that has

died in a state of madness. The head, however, must be burnt without

the flesh, and the ashes injected with oil of cyprus[2759] into the ear

on the side affected. For the same purpose also, the left eye-tooth of

a dog is used, the gum of the affected tooth being lanced with it; one

of the vertebræ also of a dragon or of an enhydris, which is a male

white serpent.[2760] The eye-tooth, too, of this last, is used for

scarifying the gums; and when the pain affects the teeth of the upper

jaw, they attach to the patient two of the upper teeth of the serpent,

and, similarly, two of the lower ones for tooth-ache in the lower jaw.

Persons who go in pursuit of the crocodile, anoint themselves with the

fat of this animal. The gums are also scarified with the frontal bones

of a lizard, taken from it at full moon, and not allowed to touch the

ground: or else the mouth is rinsed with a decoction of dogs’ teeth in

wine, boiled down to one half.

Ashes of dogs’ teeth, mixed with honey, are useful for difficult

dentition in children, and a dentifrice is similarly prepared from

them. Hollow teeth are plugged with ashes of burnt mouse-dung, or

with a lizard’s liver, dried. To eat a snake’s heart, or to wear it,

attached to the body, is considered highly efficacious. There are some

among the magicians, who recommend a mouse to be eaten twice a month,

as a preventive of tooth-ache. Earth-worms, boiled in oil and injected

into the ear on the side affected, afford considerable relief: ashes,

too, of burnt earth-worms, introduced into carious teeth, make them

come out easily; and, used as a friction, they allay pains in such of

the teeth as are sound: the proper way of burning them is in an earthen

potsherd. They are useful, too, boiled with root of the mulberry-tree

in squill vinegar, and employed as a collutory for the teeth. The

small worm that is found in the plant known as Venus[2761] bath, is

remarkably useful, introduced[2762] into a hollow tooth; and as to the

cabbage caterpillar, it will make hollow teeth come out, by the mere

contact only. The bugs[2763] that are found upon mallows, are injected

into the ears, beaten up with oil of roses.

The small grits of sand that are found in the horns of snails,

introduced into hollow teeth, remove the pain instantaneously, Ashes

of empty snail-shells, mixed with myrrh,[2764] are good for the

gums; the ashes also of a serpent, burnt with salt in an earthen

pot, and injected, with oil of roses, into the ear opposite to the

side affected; or else the slough of a snake, warmed with oil and

torch-pine resin,[2765] and injected into either ear. Some persons

add frankincense and oil of roses, a preparation which, of itself,

introduced into hollow teeth, makes them come out without pain. It is

all a fiction, in my opinion, to say that white snakes cast this slough

about the rising of the Dog-star; for such a thing has never been seen

in Italy, and it is still more improbable that sloughing should take

place at so late a period in the warmer climates. We find it stated

also, that this slough, even when it has been kept for some time, mixed

with wax, will extract a tooth very expeditiously, if applied thereto:

a snake’s tooth, also, attached to the body as an amulet, allays

tooth-ache. Some persons think that it is a good remedy to catch a

spider with the left hand, to beat it up with oil of roses, and then to

inject it into the ear on the side affected.

The small bones of poultry, preserved in a hole in a wall, the

medullary channel being left intact, will immediately cure tooth-ache,

they say, if the tooth is touched or the gum scarified therewith,

care being taken to throw away the bone the moment the operation is

performed. A similar result is obtained by using raven’s dung, wrapped

in wool and attached to the body, or else sparrow’s dung, warmed with

oil and injected into the ear on the side affected. This last remedy,

however, is productive of an intolerable itching, for which reason it

is considered a better plan to rub the part with the ashes of young

sparrows burnt upon twigs, mixed with vinegar for the purpose.

CHAP. 9. (4.)—REMEDIES FOR OFFENSIVE ODOURS AND SORES OF THE MOUTH.

To impart sweetness to the breath, it is recommended to rub the teeth

with ashes of burnt mouse-dung and honey; some persons are in the habit

of mixing fennel root. To pick the teeth with a vulture’s feather, is

productive of a sour breath; but to use a porcupine’s quill for that

purpose, greatly strengthens the teeth. Ulcers of the tongue and lips

are cured by taking a decoction of swallows, boiled in honied wine;

and chapped lips are healed by using goose-grease or poultry-grease,

wool-grease mixed with nut-galls, white spiders’ webs, or the fine

cobwebs that are found adhering to the beams of roofs. If the inside of

the mouth has been scalded with any hot substance, bitches’ milk will

afford an immediate cure.

CHAP. 10.—REMEDIES FOR SPOTS UPON THE FACE.

Wool-grease, mixed with Corsican honey—which by the way is considered

the most acrid honey of all—removes spots upon the face. Applied with

oil of roses in wool, it causes scurf upon the face to disappear:

some persons add butter to it. In cases of morphew, the spots are

first pricked with a needle, and then rubbed with dog’s gall. For

livid spots and bruises on the face, the lights of a ram or sheep

are cut fine and applied warm, or else pigeons’ dung is used.

Goose-grease or poultry-grease is a good preservative of the skin

of the face. For lichens a liniment is used, made of mouse-dung in

vinegar, or of the ashes of a hedge-hog mixed with oil: but, when

these remedies are employed, it is recommended first to foment the

face with nitre dissolved in vinegar. Maladies of the face are also

removed by employing the ashes of the small, broad, snail that is so

commonly found, mixed with honey. Indeed, the ashes of all snails are

of an inspissative nature, and are possessed of certain calorific

and detersive properties: hence it is that they form an ingredient

in caustic applications, and are used in the form of a liniment for

itch-scabs, leprous sores, and freckles on the face.

I find it stated that a certain kind of ant known by the name of

“Herculanea”[2766] is beaten up, with the addition of a little salt,

and used for the cure of these diseases. The buprestis[2767] is an

insect but rarely found in Italy, and very similar to a scarabæus,

with long legs. Concealed among the grass, it is very liable to be

swallowed unobserved, by oxen in particular; and the moment it comes

in contact with the gall, it causes such a degree of inflammation,

that the animal bursts asunder; a circumstance to which the insect

owes its name. Applied topically with he-goat suet, it removes lichens

on the face, owing to its corrosive properties, as previously[2768]

stated. A vulture’s blood, beaten up with cedar resin and root of

white chamæleon—a plant which we have already[2769] mentioned—and

covered with a cabbage leaf, when applied, is good for the cure of

leprosy; the same, too, with the legs of locusts, beaten up with

he-goat suet. Pimples are treated with poultry grease, beaten up and

kneaded with onions. One very useful substance for the face is honey

in which the bees have died; but a sovereign detergent for that part

is swans’ grease, which has also the property of effacing wrinkles.

Brand-marks[2770] are removed by using pigeons’ dung, diluted in

vinegar.

CHAP. 11.—REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE THROAT.

I find it stated that catarrhs oppressive to the head may be cured

by the patient kissing a mule’s nostrils. Affections of the uvula

and pains in the fauces are alleviated by using the dung of lambs

before they have begun to graze, dried in the shade. Diseases of the

uvula are cured with the juices of a snail pierced with a needle; the

snail, however, must be then hung up in the smoke. The same maladies

are treated also with ashes of burnt swallows, mixed with honey; a

preparation which is equally good for affections of the tonsillary

glands. Sheep’s milk, used as a gargle, alleviates diseases of the

fauces and tonsillary glands. Millepedes, bruised with pigeons’

dung, are taken as a gargle, with raisin wine; and they are applied,

externally, with dried figs and nitre, for the purpose of soothing

roughness of the fauces and catarrhs. For such cases, too, snails

should be boiled unwashed, the earth only being removed, and then

pounded and administered to the patient in raisin wine. Some persons

are of opinion, that for these purposes the snails of Astypalæa[2771]

are the most efficacious, and they give the preference to the detersive

preparation[2772] made from them. The parts affected are sometimes

rubbed with a cricket, and affections of the tonsillary glands are

alleviated by being rubbed with the hands of a person who has bruised a

cricket.

CHAP. 12.—REMEDIES FOR QUINZY AND SCROFULA.

For quinzy we have very expeditious remedies in goose-gall, mixed

with elaterium[2773] and honey, an owlet’s brains, or the ashes of a

burnt swallow, taken in warm water; which last remedy we owe[2774] to

the poet Ovid. But of all the remedies spoken of as furnished by the

swallow, one of the most efficacious is that derived from the young

of the wild swallow, a bird which may be easily recognized by the

peculiar conformation of its nest.[2775] By far the most effectual,

however, of them all, are the young of the bank-swallow,[2776] that

being the name given to the kind which builds its nest in holes on

the banks of rivers. Many persons recommend the young of any kind of

swallow as a food, assuring us that the person who takes it need be in

no apprehension of quinzy for the whole of the ensuing year. The young

of this bird are sometimes stifled and then burnt in a vessel with the

blood, the ashes being administered to the patient with bread or in the

drink: some, however, mix with them the ashes of a burnt weasel, in

equal proportion. The same remedies are recommended also for scrofula,

and they are administered for epilepsy, once a day, in drink. Swallows

preserved in salt are taken for quinzy, in doses of one drachma, in

drink: the nest,[2777] too, of the bird, taken internally, is said to

be a cure for the same disease.

Millepedes,[2778] it is thought, used in the form of a liniment, are

peculiarly efficacious for quinzy: some persons, also, administer

eleven of them, bruised in one semi-sextarius of hydromel, through a

reed, they being of no use whatever if once touched by the teeth. Other

remedies mentioned are, the broth of a mouse boiled with vervain, a

thong of dogskin passed three times round the back, and pigeons’ dung

mixed with wine and oil. For the cure of rigidity of the muscles of the

neck, and of opisthotony, a twig of vitex, taken from a kite’s nest, is

attached to the body as an amulet.

(5.) For ulcerated scrofula, a weasel’s blood is employed, or the

animal itself, boiled in wine; but not in cases where the tumours have

been opened with the knife. It is said, too, that a weasel, eaten with

the food, is productive of a similar effect; sometimes, also, it is

burnt upon twigs, and the ashes are applied with axle-grease. In some

instances, a green lizard is attached to the body of the patient, a

fresh one being substituted at the end of thirty days. Some persons

preserve the heart of this animal in a small silver vessel,[2779] as

a cure for scrofula in females. Old snails, those found adhering to

shrubs more particularly, are pounded with the shells on, and applied

as a liniment. Asps, too, are similarly employed, reduced to ashes and

mixed with bull suet; snakes’ fat also, diluted with oil; and the ashes

of a burnt snake, applied with oil or wax. It is a good plan also, in

cases of scrofula, to eat the middle of a snake, the extremities being

first removed, or to drink the ashes of the reptile, similarly prepared

and burnt in a new earthen vessel: they will be found much more

efficacious, however, when the snake has been killed between the ruts

made by wheels. It is recommended also, to dig up a cricket with the

earth about its hole, and to apply it in the form of a liniment; to use

pigeons’ dung, either by itself, or with barley-meal, or oatmeal and

vinegar; or else to apply the ashes of a burnt mole, mixed with honey.

Some persons apply the liver of this last animal, crumbled in the

hands, due care being taken not to wash it off for three days: it is

said, too, that a mole’s right foot is a remedy for scrofula. Others,

again, cut off the head of a mole, and after kneading it with earth

thrown up by those animals, divide it into tablets, and keep it in a

pewter box, for the treatment of all kinds of tumours, diseases of the

neck, and the affections known as “apostemes:” in all such cases the

use of swine’s flesh is forbidden to the patient. “Taurus”[2780] is

the name usually given to an earth-beetle, very similar to a tick in

appearance, and which it derives from the diminutive horns with which

it is furnished: some persons call it the “earth-louse.”[2781] From the

earth thrown up by these insects a liniment is prepared for scrofula

and similar diseases, and for gout the application not being washed off

till the end of three days. This last remedy is effectual for a whole

year, and all those other properties are attributed to it which we have

mentioned[2782] when speaking of crickets. There are some, again, who

make a similar use of the earth thrown up by ants; while others attach

to the patient as many earth-worms as there are scrofulous tumours, the

sores drying as the worms dry up.

Some persons cut off the head and tail of a viper, as already

mentioned,[2783] about the rising of the Dog-star, which done, they

burn the middle, and give a pinch of the ashes in three fingers, for

thrice seven days, in drink—such is the plan they use for the cure of

scrofula. Others, again, pass round the scrofulous tumours a linen

thread, with which a viper has been suspended by the neck till dead.

Millepedes[2784] are also used, with one fourth part of turpentine;

a remedy which is equally recommended for the cure of all kinds of

apostemes.

CHAP. 13.—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE SHOULDERS.

The ashes of a burnt weasel, mixed with wax, are a cure for pains in

the shoulders. To prevent the arm-pits of young persons from becoming

hairy, they should be well rubbed with ants’ eggs. Slave-dealers also,

to impede the growth of the hair in young persons near puberty, employ

the blood that flows from the testes of lambs when castrated. This

blood, too, applied to the arm-pits,[2785] the hairs being first pulled

out, is a preventive of the rank smell of those parts.

CHAP. 14.—REMEDIES FOR PAINS IN THE VISCERA.

We give the one general name of “præcordia” to the human viscera; for

pains in any part of which, a sucking whelp is applied, being pressed

close to the part affected.[2786] The malady, it is said, will in

such case pass into the animal; a fact which may be satisfactorily

ascertained; for on disembowelling it, and sprinkling the entrails with

wine, that part of the viscera will be found affected in which the

patient himself was sensible of pain: to bury the animal in such a case

is a point most religiously observed. The dogs,[2787] too, which we

call “Melitæi,” applied to the stomach every now and then, allay pains

in that region: the malady, it is supposed, passes into the animal’s

body, as it gradually loses its health, and it mostly dies.

(6.) Affections of the lungs are cured by using mice, those of Africa

more particularly, the animal being skinned and boiled, in salt and

oil, and then taken with the food. The same preparation is used also,

for the cure of purulent or bloody expectorations.

CHAP. 15.—REMEDIES FOR PAINS IN THE STOMACH.

One of the very best remedies for affections of the stomach, is to use

a snail diet.[2788] They must first be left to simmer in water for

some time, without touching the contents of the shell, after which,

without any other addition, they must be grilled upon hot coals, and

eaten with wine and garum;[2789] the snails of Africa being the best

of all for the purpose. The efficacy of this remedy has been proved in

numerous instances of late. Another point, too, to be observed, is to

take an uneven number of them. Snails, however, have a juice, it should

be remembered, which imparts to the breath an offensive smell. For

patients troubled with spitting of blood, they are remarkably good, the

shell being first removed, and the contents bruised and administered in

water. The most esteemed kinds of all are those of Africa—those which

come from Iol,[2790], in particular—of Astypalæa, and, after them,

those of Ætna, in Sicily, those I mean of moderate size, for the large

ones are hard, and destitute of juice. The Balearic snails, called

“cavaticæ,” from being found in caverns, are much esteemed; and so,

too, are those from the islands of Capreæ.[2791] Those of Greece, on

the other hand, are never used for food, either old or fresh.

River snails, and those with a white shell, have a strong, rank,

juice, and forest snails are by no means good for the stomach, having

a laxative effect upon the bowels; the same too, with all kinds of

small snails. Sea-snails,[2792] on the other hand, are more beneficial

to the stomach; but it is for pains in that region that they are found

the most efficacious: the best plan, it is said, is to eat them alive,

of whatever kind they may happen to be, with vinegar. In addition

to these, there are the snails called “aceratæ,”[2793] with a broad

shell, and found in numerous localities: of the uses to which they are

put we shall[2794] speak further on the appropriate occasions. The

craw of poultry, dried and sprinkled in the drink, or else used fresh

and grilled, has a soothing effect upon pectoral catarrhs and coughs

attended with phlegm.[2795] Snails, beaten up raw and taken in three

cyathi of warm water, allay cough. A piece of dog’s skin, wrapped round

any one of the fingers, affords relief to patients suffering from

catarrh. A broth made of boiled partridges is strengthening for the

stomach.

CHAP. 16.—REMEDIES FOR PAINS IN THE LIVER, AND FOR SPITTING OF BLOOD.

For the cure of pains in the liver, a wild weasel is taken with the

food, or the liver only of that animal; a ferret also, roasted like a

sucking-pig. In cases of asthma, millepedes are used, thrice seven of

them being soaked in Attic honey, and taken internally by the aid of

a reed:[2796] for all vessels, it should be remembered, turn black on

coming in contact with them. Some persons grill one sextarius of these

insects on a flat pan, till they become white, and then mix them with

honey. There are some authorities who call this insect a “centipede,”

and recommend it to be given in warm water. Snails are administered

to persons subject to fainting fits, alienation of the senses, and

vertigo: for which purposes, a snail is beaten up, shell and all, with

three cyathi of raisin wine, and the mixture is administered warm with

the drink, for nine days at most. Others, again, give one snail the

first day, two the second, three the third, two the fourth, and one the

fifth; a mode of treatment also adopted for the cure of asthma and of

abscesses.

There is, according to some authorities, an insect resembling the

locust in appearance, destitute of wings, and known by the Greek name

of “troxallis,” it being without a name in Latin: a considerable

number of writers, however, consider it as identical with the insect

known to us as “gryllus.”[2797] Twenty of these insects, they say,

should be grilled, and taken in honied wine, by patients troubled with

hardness of breathing or spitting of blood. Some persons pour pure

grape-juice,[2798] or sea-water, upon unwashed snails, and then boil

and eat them for food; or else they bruise the snails, shells and

all, and take them with this grape-juice. A similar method is also

adopted for the cure of cough. Honey in which the bees have died, is

particularly good for the cure of abscesses. For spitting of blood a

vulture’s lungs are used, burnt upon vine logs, and mixed with half the

quantity of pomegranate blossoms, or with the same proportion of quince

and lily blossom: the whole being taken morning and evening, in wine,

if there is no fever; but where there are symptoms of fever, instead of

wine, water is used in which quinces have been boiled.

CHAP. 17.—REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE SPLEEN.

According to the prescriptions given by the magicians, a fresh sheep’s

milt is the best application for pains in the spleen, the person who

applies it uttering these words: “This I do for the cure of the

spleen.” This done, it is enjoined that the milt should be covered up

with mortar in the wall of the patient’s sleeping-room, and sealed

with a ring, a charm[2799] being repeated thrice nine times. A dog’s

milt, removed from the animal while still alive, taken with the food,

is a cure for diseases of the spleen: some, again, attach it fresh to

that part of the patient’s body. Others give the patient—without his

knowing it—the milt of a puppy two days old, to eat, in squill vinegar;

the milt, too, of a hedge-hog is similarly used. Ashes of burnt snails

are employed, in combination with linseed, nettle-seed, and honey, the

treatment being persisted in till the patient is thoroughly cured.

A green lizard has a remedial effect, suspended alive in an earthen

vessel, at the entrance of the sleeping-room of the patient, who, every

time he enters or leaves it, must take care to touch it with his hand:

the head, too, of a horned owl, reduced to ashes and incorporated with

an unguent; honey, also, in which the bees have died; and spiders, the

one known as the “lycos”[2800] in particular.

CHAP. 18.—REMEDIES FOR PAINS IN THE SIDE AND IN THE LOINS.

For pains in the side, the heart of a hoopoe is highly esteemed; ashes,

too, of burnt snails, that have been boiled in a ptisan, snails being

sometimes applied in the form of a liniment, alone. Potions employed

for this purpose have a sprinkling in them of the ashes of a mad dog’s

skull. For the cure of lumbago, the spotted lizard[2801] from beyond

seas is used: the head and intestines being first removed, the body is

boiled in wine, with half a denarius of black poppy, and the decoction

is taken in drink. Green lizards, also, are taken with the food, the

feet and head being first removed; or else three snails are crushed,

shells and all, and boiled with fifteen peppercorns in wine. The feet

of an eagle are wrenched off in a contrary direction to the joint, and

the right foot is attached to the right side, the left foot to the

left, according as the pains are situate. The millepede,[2802] which

we have spoken of as being called the “oniscos,” is a cure for these

pains, taken, in doses of one denarius, in two cyathi of wine. The

magicians recommend an earth-worm to be put in a wooden dish, which

has been split and mended with iron wire; which done, some water must

be taken up with the dish, the worm drenched with it and buried in the

spot from which it was taken, and the water drunk from the dish. They

assert, also, that this is a marvellously excellent cure for sciatica.

CHAP. 19. (7.)—REMEDIES FOR DYSENTERY.

Dysentery is cured by taking the broth of a leg of mutton, boiled with

linseed in water; by eating old ewe-milk cheese; or by taking mutton

suet boiled in astringent wine. This last is good, too, for the iliac

passion, and for inveterate coughs. Dysentery is removed also, by

taking a spotted lizard from beyond seas, boiled down till the skin

only is left, the head, feet, and intestines, being first removed. A

couple of snails also, and an egg, are beaten up, shells and all, in

both cases, and made lukewarm in a new vessel, with some salt, three

cyathi of water, and two cyathi of raisin-wine or date-juice, the

decoction being taken in drink. Ashes, too, of burnt snails, are very

serviceable, taken in wine with a modicum of resin.

The snails without shells, which we have[2803] mentioned as being

mostly found in Africa, are remarkably useful for dysentery, five of

them being burnt with half a denarius of gum acacia, and taken, in

doses of two spoonfuls, in myrtle wine or any other kind of astringent

wine, with an equal quantity of warm water. Some persons employ all

kinds of African snails indiscriminately in this manner; while others,

again, make use of a similar number of African snails or broad-shelled

snails, as an injection, in preference: in cases, too, where the flux

is considerable, they add a piece of gum acacia, about the size of

a bean. For dysentery and tenesmus, the cast-off slough of a snake

is boiled in a pewter vessel with oil of roses: if prepared in any

other kind of vessel, it is applied with an instrument made of pewter.

Chicken-broth is also used as a remedy for these affections; but the

broth of an old cock, strongly salted, acts more powerfully as a

purgative upon the bowels. A pullet’s craw, grilled and administered

with salt and oil, has a soothing effect upon cœliac affections; but

it is absolutely necessary that neither fowl nor patient should have

eaten corn[2804] for some time before. Pigeons’ dung, also, is grilled

and taken in drink. The flesh of a ring-dove, boiled in vinegar, is

curative of dysentery and cœliac affections: and for the cure of

the former, a thrush is recommended, roasted with myrtle-berries; a

blackbird, also; or honey, boiled, in which the bees have died.

CHAP. 20.—REMEDIES FOR THE ILIAC PASSION, AND FOR OTHER MALADIES OF THE

BOWELS.

One of the most dangerous of maladies is that known by the name of

“ileos:”[2805] it may be combatted, they say, by tearing a bat asunder,

and taking the blood, or by rubbing the abdomen with it. Diarrhœa

is arrested more particularly by taking snails, prepared in manner

already[2806] mentioned for cases of asthma; the ashes, also, of snails

burnt alive, administered in astringent wine; the liver of poultry

grilled; the dried craw of poultry, a part that is usually thrown

away, mixed with poppy-juice—in some cases it is used fresh, grilled,

and taken in wine—partridge broth; the craw of partridges beaten up

by itself in red wine; a wild ringdove boiled in oxycrate; a sheep’s

milt, grilled and beaten up in wine; or else pigeons’ dung, applied

with honey. The crop of an ossifrage, dried and taken in drink, is

remarkably useful for patients whose digestion is impaired—indeed,

its good effects may be felt if they only hold it in the hand while

eating. Hence it is that some persons wear it attached to the body as

an amulet; a practice which must not be too long continued, it being

apt to cause a wasting of the flesh. The blood, too, of a drake has an

astringent effect.

Flatulency is dispelled by eating snails; and griping pains in the

bowels, by taking a sheep’s milt grilled, with wine; a wild ringdove

boiled in oxycrate; the fat of an otis[2807] in wine; or the ashes of

an ibis, burnt without the feathers, administered in drink. Another

prescription mentioned for griping pains in the bowels is of a very

marvellous nature: if a duck, they say, is applied to the abdomen, the

malady will pass into the bird, and it will die.[2808] Gripings of the

bowels are treated also with boiled honey in which the bees have died.

Colic is most effectually cured by taking a roasted lark with the

food. Some recommend, however, that it should be burnt to ashes in

a new vessel, feathers and all, and then pounded and taken for four

consecutive days, in doses of three spoonfuls, in water. Some say that

the heart of this bird should be attached to the thigh, and, according

to others, the heart should be swallowed fresh, quite warm, in fact.

There is a family of consular dignity, known as the Asprenates,[2809]

two brothers, members of which, were cured of colic; the one by eating

a lark and wearing its heart in a golden bracelet; the other, by

performing a certain sacrifice in a chapel built of raw bricks, in form

of a furnace, and then blocking up the edifice the moment the sacrifice

was concluded. The ossifrage has a single intestine only, which has the

marvellous property of digesting all that the bird has swallowed: the

extremity of this intestine, it is well known, worn as an amulet, is an

excellent remedy for colic.

There are certain concealed maladies incident to the intestines, in

relation to which there are some marvellous statements made. If to the

stomach and chest, more particularly, blind puppies are applied, and

suckled with milk from the patient’s mouth,[2810] the virulence of

the malady, it is said, will be transferred to them, and in the end

they will die: on opening them, too, the causes of the malady will be

sure to be discovered. In all such cases, however, the puppies must be

allowed to die, and must be buried in the earth. According to what the

magicians say, if the abdomen is touched with a bat’s blood, the person

will be proof against colic for a whole year: when a patient, too, is

attacked with the pains of colic, if he can bring himself to drink the

water in which he has washed his feet, he will experience a cure.

CHAP. 21. (8.)—REMEDIES FOR URINARY CALCULI AND AFFECTIONS OF THE

BLADDER.

For the cure of urinary calculi, it is a good plan to rub the abdomen

with mouse-dung. The flesh of a hedge-hog is agreeable eating, they

say, if killed with a single blow upon the head, before it has had

time to discharge its urine[2811] upon its body: [persons[2812] who

eat this flesh, it is said, will never by any possibility suffer from

strangury.] The flesh of a hedge-hog thus killed, is a cure for urinary

obstructions of the bladder; and the same, too, with fumigations made

therewith. If, on the other hand, the animal has discharged its urine

upon its body, those who eat the flesh will be sure to be attacked

by strangury, it is said. As a lithontriptic,[2813] earth-worms are

recommended, taken in ordinary wine or raisin wine; or else boiled

snails, prepared the same way[2814] as for the cure of asthma. For

the cure of urinary obstructions, snails are taken from the shells,

pounded, and administered in one cyathus of wine, three the first day,

two the second, and one the third. For the expulsion of calculi, the

empty shells are reduced to ashes and taken in drink: the liver also of

a water-snake, and the ashes of burnt scorpions are similarly employed,

or are taken with bread or eaten with a locust. For the same purpose,

the small grits that are found in the gizzard of poultry or in the craw

of the ringdove, are beaten up and sprinkled in the patient’s drink;

the craw, too, of poultry is taken, dried, or if fresh, grilled.

For urinary calculi and other obstructions of the bladder, dung of

ring-doves is taken, with beans; ashes also of wild ring-doves’

feathers, mixed with vinegar and honey; the intestines of those birds,

reduced to ashes, and administered in doses of three spoonfuls; a small

clod from a swallow’s nest, dissolved in warm water; the dried crop of

an ossifrage; the dung of a turtle-dove, boiled in honied wine; or the

broth of a boiled turtle-dove.

It is very beneficial also for urinary affections to eat thrushes with

myrtle-berries, or grasshoppers grilled on a shallow-pan; or else to

take the millepedes, known as “onisci,”[2815] in drink. For pains in

the bladder, a decoction of lambs’ feet is used. Chicken-broth relaxes

the bowels and mollifies acridities; swallows’ dung, too, with honey,

employed as a suppository, acts as a purgative.

CHAP. 22.—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE FUNDAMENT AND OF THE GENERATIVE

ORGANS.

The most efficacious remedies for diseases of the rectum are

wool-grease,—to which some add pompholix[2816] and oil of roses— a

dog’s head reduced to ashes; or a serpent’s slough, with vinegar. In

cases where there are chaps and fissures of those parts, the ashes of

the white portion of dogs’ dung are used, mixed with oil of roses;

a prescription due, they say, to Æsculapius,[2817] and remarkably

efficacious also for the removal of warts. Ashes of burnt mouse-dung,

swan’s fat, and cow suet, are also used. Procidence of the rectum is

reduced by an application of the juices discharged by snails when

punctured. For the cure of excoriation of those parts, ashes of burnt

wood-mice are used, with honey; the gall of a hedge-hog, with a bat’s

brains and bitches’ milk; goose-grease, with the brains of the bird,

alum, and wool-grease; or else pigeons’ dung, mixed with honey. A

spider, the head and legs being first removed, is remarkably good as a

friction for condylomata. To prevent the acridity of the humours from

fretting the flesh, goose-grease is applied, with Punic wax, white

lead, and oil of roses; swan’s grease also, which is said to be a cure

for piles.

A very good thing, they say, for sciatica, is, to pound raw snails

in Aminean[2818] wine, and to take them with pepper; to eat a green

lizard, the feet, head, and intestines being first removed; or to eat

a spotted lizard, with the addition of three oboli of black poppy.

Ruptures and convulsions are treated with sheep’s gall, diluted with

woman’s milk. The gravy which escapes from a ram’s lights roasted, is

used for the cure of itching pimples and warts upon the generative

organs: for other affections of those parts, the ashes of a ram’s

wool, unwashed even, are used, applied with water; the suet of a

sheep’s caul, and of the kidneys more particularly, mixed with ashes of

pumice-stone and salt; greasy wool, applied with cold water; sheep’s

flesh, burnt to ashes, and applied with water; a mule’s hoofs, burnt

to ashes; or the powder of pounded horse teeth, sprinkled upon the

parts. In cases of decidence of either of the testes, an application of

the slime discharged by snails is remedial, they say. For the treatment

of sordid or running ulcers of those parts, the fresh ashes of a burnt

dog’s head are found highly useful; the small, broad kind of snail,

beaten up in vinegar; a snake’s slough, or the ashes of it, applied

in vinegar; honey in which the bees have died, mixed with resin;

or the kind of snail without a shell, that is found in Africa, as

already[2819] mentioned, beaten up with powdered frankincense and white

of eggs, the application being renewed at the end of thirty days; some

persons, however substitute a bulb for the frankincense.

For the cure of hydrocele, a spotted lizard, they say, is marvellously

good, the head, feet, and intestines being first removed, and the

rest of the body roasted and taken frequently with the food. For

incontinence[2820] of urine dogs’ fat is used, mixed with a piece of

split alum the size of a bean; ashes, also, of African snails burnt

with the shells, taken in drink; or else the tongues of three geese

roasted and eaten with the food, a remedy which we owe to Anaxilaüs.

Mutton-suet,[2821] mixed with parched salt, has an aperient effect upon

inflammatory tumours, and mouse-dung, mixed with powdered frankincense

and sandarach, acts upon them as a dispellent: the ashes, also, of

a burnt lizard, or the lizard itself, split asunder and applied; or

else bruised millepedes, mixed with one third part of turpentine.

Some make use of earth of Sinope[2822] for this purpose, mixed with a

bruised snail. Ashes of empty snail-shells burnt alone, mixed with wax,

possess certain repercussive properties; the same, too, with pigeons’

dung, employed by itself, or applied with oat-meal or barley-meal.

Cantharides, mixed with lime, remove inflammatory tumours quite as

effectually as the lancet; and small snails, applied topically with

honey, have a soothing effect upon tumours in the groin.

CHAP. 23. (9.)—REMEDIES FOR GOUT AND FOR DISEASES OF THE FEET.

To prevent varicose veins, the legs of children are rubbed with a

lizard’s blood: but both the party who operates and the patient must

be fasting at the time. Wool-grease, mixed with woman’s milk and white

lead, has a soothing effect upon gout; the liquid dung also voided

by sheep; a sheep’s lights; a ram’s gall, mixed with suet; mice,

split asunder and applied; a weasel’s blood, used as a liniment with

plantago; the ashes of a weasel burnt alive, mixed with vinegar and

oil of roses, and applied with a feather, or used in combination with

wax and oil of roses; a dog’s gall, due care being taken not to touch

it with the hand, and to apply it with a feather; poultry dung; or

else ashes of burnt earth-worms, applied with honey, and removed at

the end of a couple of days. Some, however, prefer using this last

with water, while others, again, apply the worms themselves, in the

proportion of one acetabulum[2823] to three cyathi of honey, the feet

of the patient being first anointed with oil of roses. The broad, flat,

kind of snail, taken in drink, is used for the removal of pains in the

feet and joints; two of them being pounded for the purpose and taken

in wine. They are employed, also, in the form of a liniment, mixed

with the juice of the plant helxine:[2824] some, however, are content

to beat up the snails with vinegar. Some say that salt, burnt in a

new earthen vessel with a viper, and taken repeatedly, is curative of

gout, and that it is an excellent plan to rub the feet with viper’s

fat. It is asserted, too, that similar results are produced by keeping

a kite till it is dry, and then powdering it and taking it in water, a

pinch in three fingers at a time; by rubbing the feet with the blood

of that bird mixed with nettles; or by bruising the first feathers of

a ring-dove with nettles. The dung of ring-doves is used as a liniment

for pains in the joints; the ashes also of a burnt weasel, or of burnt

snails, mixed with amylum[2825] or gum tragacanth.

A very excellent cure for contusions of the joints is a spider’s web;

but there are persons who give the preference to ashes of burnt cobwebs

or of burnt pigeons’ dung, mixed with polenta and white wine. For

sprains of the joints a sovereign remedy is mutton suet, mixed with

the ashes of a woman’s hair; a good application, too, for chilblains

is mutton suet, mixed with alum, or else ashes of a burnt dog’s head

or of burnt mouse-dung. Ulcers, free from discharge, are brought to

cicatrize by using the above-named substances in combination with

wax; ashes, also, of burnt dormice, mixed with oil; ashes of burnt

wood-mice, mixed with honey; ashes of burnt earth-worms, applied with

old oil; or else ashes of the snails without a shell that are so

commonly found. All ulcers on the feet are cured by the application of

ashes of snails, burnt alive; and for excoriations of the feet, ashes

of burnt poultry-dung are used, or ashes of burnt pigeons’ dung, mixed

with oil. When the feet have been galled by the shoes, the ashes of an

old shoe-sole are used, or the lights of a lamb or ram. For gatherings

beneath[2826] the nails, a horse’s tooth, powdered, is a sovereign

remedy. A light application of a green lizard’s blood, will cure the

feet of man or beast when galled beneath.

For the removal of corns upon the feet, the urine of a mule of either

sex is applied, mixed with the mud which it has formed upon the ground;

sheep’s dung, also; the liver of a green lizard, or the blood of that

animal, applied in wool; earth-worms, mixed with oil; the head of a

spotted lizard, pounded with an equal quantity of vitex and mixed

with oil; or pigeons’ dung, boiled with vinegar. For the cure of all

kinds of warts, dogs’ urine is applied fresh, with the mud which it

has formed upon the ground; dogs’ dung, also, reduced to ashes and

mixed with wax; sheep’s dung; the blood of mice, applied fresh, or the

body of a mouse, split asunder; the gall of a hedgehog; a lizard’s

head or blood, or the ashes of that animal, burnt entire; the cast-off

slough of a snake; or else poultry dung, applied with oil and nitre.

Cantharides, also, bruised with Taminian[2827] grapes, act corrosively

upon warts: but when warts have been thus removed, the remedies should

be employed which we have pointed out for ulcerations on the skin.

CHAP. 24. (10.)—REMEDIES FOR EVILS WHICH ARE LIABLE TO AFFECT THE WHOLE

BODY.

We will now turn our attention to those evils which are a cause of

apprehension, as affecting the whole body. According to what the

magicians say, the gall of a male black dog is a counter-charm for the

whole of a house; and it will be quite sufficient to make fumigations

with it, or to use it as a purification, to ensure its preservation

against all noxious drugs and preparations. They say the same, too,

with reference to a dog’s blood, if the walls are sprinkled with it;

and the genitals of that animal, if buried beneath the threshold. This

will surprise persons the less who are aware how highly these same

magicians extol that most abominable insect, the tick, and all because

it is the only one that has no[2828] passage for the evacuations, its

eating ending only in its death, and it living all the longer for

fasting: in this latter state it has been known to live so long as

seven days, they say, but when it gorges to satiety it will burst in

a much shorter period. According to these authorities, a tick from a

dog’s left ear, worn as an amulet, will allay all kinds of pains. They

presage, too, from it on matters of life and death; for if the patient,

they say, gives an answer to a person who has a tick about him, and,

standing at the foot of the bed, asks how he is, it is an infallible

sign that he will survive; while, on the other hand, if he makes no

answer, he will be sure to die. They add, also, that the dog from whose

left ear the tick is taken, must be entirely black. Nigidius has stated

in his writings that dogs will avoid the presence all day of a person

who has taken a tick from off a hog.

The magicians likewise assure us that patients suffering from delirium

will recover their reason on being sprinkled with a mole’s blood; and

that persons who are apt to be troubled by the gods of the night[2829]

and by Fauni, will experience relief by rubbing themselves morning and

evening with the tongue, eyes, gall, and intestines of a dragon,[2830]

boiled in oil, and cooled in the open air at night.

CHAP. 25.—REMEDIES FOR COLD SHIVERINGS.

A remedy for cold shiverings, according to Nicander, is a dead

amphisbæna,[2831] or its skin only, attached to the body: in addition

to which, he informs us that if one of these reptiles is attached to

a tree that is being felled, the persons hewing it will never feel

cold, and will fell it all the more easily. For so it is, that this

is the only one among all the serpents that faces the cold, making

its appearance the first of all, and even before the cuckoo’s note is

heard. There is another marvellous fact also mentioned, with reference

to the cuckoo: if, upon the spot where a person hears this bird for

the first time, he traces round the space occupied by his right foot

and then digs up the earth, it will effectually prevent fleas from

breeding, wherever it is thrown.

CHAP. 26.—REMEDIES FOR PARALYSIS.

For persons apprehensive of paralysis the fat of dormice and of

field-mice, they say, is very useful, boiled: and for patients

threatened with phthisis, millepedes are good, taken in drink, in

manner already[2832] mentioned for the cure of quinzy. The same, too,

with a green lizard, boiled down to one cyathus in three sextarii of

wine, and taken in doses of one spoonful daily, until the patient is

perfectly cured; the ashes also of burnt snails, taken in wine.

CHAP. 27.—REMEDIES FOR EPILEPSY.

For the cure of epilepsy wool-grease is used, with a modicum of myrrh,

a piece about the size of a hazel-nut being dissolved and taken after

the bath, in two cyathi of wine: a ram’s testes, also, dried and

pounded, and taken in doses of half a denarius, in water, or in a

semi-sextarius of asses’ milk; the patient being forbidden wine five

days before and after using the remedy. Sheep’s blood, too, is mightily

praised, taken in drink; sheep’s gall, also, and lambs’ gall in

particular, mixed with honey; the flesh of a sucking puppy, taken with

wine and myrrh, the head and feet being first removed; the callosities

from a mule’s legs, taken in three cyathi of oxymel; the ashes of a

spotted lizard from beyond seas, taken in vinegar; the thin coat of a

spotted lizard, which it casts like a snake, taken in drink—indeed some

persons recommend the lizard itself, gutted with a reed and dried and

taken in drink; while others, again, are for roasting it on a wooden

spit and taking it with the food.

It is worth while knowing how the winter slough of this lizard is

obtained when it casts it off, before it has had the opportunity of

devouring[2833] it; there being no creature, it is said, that resorts

in its spite to more cunning devices for the deception of man; a

circumstance owing to which, the name of “stellio”[2834] has been

borrowed as a name of reproach. The place to which it retires in

summer is carefully observed, being generally some spot beneath the

projecting parts of doors or windows, or else in vaults or tombs. In

the early days of spring, cages made of split reeds are placed before

these spots; and the narrower the interstices the more delighted is the

animal with them, it being all the better enabled thereby to disengage

itself of the coat which adheres to its body and impedes its freedom

of action: when, however, it has once quitted it, the construction of

the cage prevents its return. There is nothing whatever preferred to

this lizard as a remedy for epilepsy. The brains of a weasel are also

considered very good, dried and taken in drink; the liver, too, of

that animal, or the testes, uterus, or paunch, dried and taken with

coriander, in manner already[2835] mentioned; the ashes also of a

burnt weasel; or a wild weasel, eaten whole with the food. All these

properties are equally attributed to the ferret. A green lizard is

sometimes eaten, dressed with seasonings to stimulate the appetite, the

feet and head being first removed; the ashes, too, of burnt snails are

used, as an ointment, with linseed, nettle-seed, and honey.

The magicians think highly of a dragon’s tail, attached to the body,

with a deer’s sinews, in the skin of a gazelle; as also the small grits

found in the crops of young swallows, tied to the left arm of the

patient; for swallows, it is said, give small stones to their young the

moment they are hatched. If, at the commencement of the first paroxysm,

an epileptic patient eats the first of a swallow’s brood that has been

hatched, he will experience a perfect cure: but at a later period the

disease is treated by using swallow’s blood with frankincense, or by

eating the heart of the bird quite fresh. Nay, even more than this, a

small stone taken from a swallow’s nest will relieve the patient the

moment it is applied, they say; worn, too, as an amulet, it will always

act as a preservative against the malady. A kite’s liver, too, eaten

by the patient, is highly vaunted; the slough also of a serpent; a

vulture’s liver, beaten up with the blood of the bird, and taken thrice

seven days in drink; or the heart of a young vulture, worn attached to

the body.

And not only this, but the vulture itself is recommended as a food for

the patient, and that, too, when it has been glutted with human flesh.

Some recommend the breast of this bird to be taken in drink from a cup

made of cerrus[2836] wood, or the testes of a dunghill cock to be taken

in milk and water; the patient abstaining from wine the five preceding

days, and the testes being dried for the purpose. There have been

authorities found to recommend one-and-twenty red flies—and those found

dead, too!—taken in drink, the number being reduced where the patient

is of a feeble habit.

CHAP. 28. (11.)—REMEDIES FOR JAUNDICE.

Jaundice is combated by administering ear-wax to the patient, or

else the filth that adheres to the udders of sheep, in doses of one

denarius, with a modicum of myrrh, in two cyathi of wine; the ashes,

also, of a dog’s head, mixed with honied wine; a millepede, in one

semi-sextarius of wine; earth-worms, in hydromel with myrrh; wine

in which a hen’s feet have been washed, after being first cleansed

with water—the hen must be one with yellow[2837] feet—the brains of

a partridge or of an eagle, in three cyathi of wine; the ashes of a

ring-dove’s feathers or intestines, in honied wine, in doses of three

spoonfuls; or ashes of sparrows burnt upon twigs, in doses of two

spoonfuls, in hydromel.

There is a bird, known as the “icterus,”[2838] from its peculiar

colour: if the patient looks at it, he will be cured of jaundice, they

say, and the bird will die. In my opinion this is the same bird that is

known in Latin by the name of “galgulus.”[2839]

CHAP. 29.—REMEDIES FOR PHRENITIS.

In cases of phrenitis a sheep’s lights, attached warm round the

patient’s head, would appear to be advantageous. But as to giving a man

suffering from delirium a mouse’s brains in water to drink, the ashes

of a burnt weasel, or the dried flesh even of a hedgehog, who could

possibly do it, supposing even the effects of the remedy were certain?

I should be inclined, too, to rank the ashes of the eyes of a horned

owl in the number of those monstrous prescriptions with which the

adepts in the magic art abuse the credulity of mankind.

It is in cases, too, of fever, more particularly, that the acknowledged

rules of medicine run counter to the prescriptions of these men: for

they have classified the various modes of treating the disease in

accordance with the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and relatively to the

revolutions of the sun and moon, a system which deserves to be utterly

repudiated, as I shall prove by a few instances selected from many.

They recommend, for example, when the sun is passing through Gemini,

that the patient should be rubbed with ashes of the burnt combs,

ears, and claws of cocks, beaten up and mixed with oil. If, again, it

is the moon that is passing through that sign, it is the spurs and

wattles of cocks that must be similarly employed. When either of these

luminaries is passing through Virgo, grains of barley must be used;

and when through Sagittarius, a bat’s wings. When the moon is passing

through Leo, it is leaves of tamarisk that must be employed, and of the

cultivated tamarisk, they add: if, again, the sign is Aquarius, the

patient must use an application of box-wood charcoal, pounded.

Of the remedies, however, that we find recommended by them, I shall be

careful to insert those only the efficacy of which has been admitted,

or, at least, is probable in any degree; such, for instance, as the

use of powerful odours, as an excitant for patients suffering from

lethargy; among which, perhaps, may be reckoned the dried testes of a

weasel, or the liver of that animal, burnt. They consider it a good

plan, too, to attach a sheep’s lights, made warm, round the head of the

patient.

CHAP. 30.—REMEDIES FOR FEVERS.

In the treatment of quartan fevers, clinical medicine is, so to

say, pretty nearly powerless; for which reason we shall insert a

considerable number of remedies recommended by professors of the

magic art, and, first of all, those prescribed to be worn as amulets:

the dust, for instance, in which a hawk has bathed itself, tied

up in a linen cloth, with a red string, and attached to the body;

the longest tooth of a black dog; or the wasp known by the name of

“pseudosphex,”[2840] which is always to be seen flying alone, caught

with the left hand and attached beneath the patient’s chin. Some use

for this purpose the first wasp that a person sees in the current year.

Other amulets are, a viper’s head, severed from the body and wrapped in

a linen cloth; a viper’s heart, removed from the reptile while still

alive; the muzzle[2841] of a mouse and the tips of its ears, wrapped

in red cloth, the animal being set at liberty after they are removed;

the right eye plucked from a living lizard, and enclosed with the head,

separated from the body, in goat’s skin; the scarabæus also that forms

pellets[2842] and rolls them along.

It is on account of this kind of scarabæus that the people of a great

part of Egypt worship those insects as divinities; an usage for

which Apion gives a curious reason, asserting, as he does, by way of

justifying the rites of his nation, that the insect in its operations

pictures the revolution of the sun. There is also another kind of

scarabæus, which the magicians recommend to be worn as an amulet—the

one that has small horns[2843] thrown backwards; it must be taken up,

when used for this purpose, with the left hand. A third kind also,

known by the name of “fullo,”[2844] and covered with white spots, they

recommend to be cut asunder and attached to either arm, the other kinds

being worn upon the left arm. Other amulets recommended by them, are,

the heart of a snake taken from the living animal with the left hand;

or four joints of a scorpion’s tail, together with the sting, attached

to the body in a piece of black cloth; due care being taken that the

patient does not see the scorpion, which is set at liberty after the

operation, or the person who has attached the amulet, for the space of

three days: after the recurrence, too, of the third paroxysm, he must

bury the whole in the ground. Some enclose a caterpillar in a piece

of linen with a thread passed three times round it, and tie as many

knots, repeating at each knot why it is that the patient performs that

operation. A slug is sometimes wrapped in a piece of skin, or the heads

of four slugs, cut from the body with a reed: a millepede is rolled up

in wool: the small grubs that produce the gadfly,[2845] are used before

the wings of the insect are developed; or any other kind of hairy grub

is employed that is found adhering to prickly shrubs. Some persons

attach to the body four of these grubs, enclosed in an empty walnut

shell, or else some of the snails that are found without a shell.

In other cases, again, it is the practice to enclose a spotted

lizard in a little box, and to place it beneath the pillow of the

patient, taking care to set it at liberty when the fever abates. It

is recommended also, that the patient should swallow the heart of a

sea-diver, removed from the bird without the aid of iron, it being

first dried and then bruised and taken in warm water. The heart of

a swallow is also recommended, with honey; and there are persons

who say that, just before the paroxysms come on, the patient should

take one drachma of swallow’s dung in three cyathi of goats’ milk or

ewes’ milk, or of raisin wine: others, again, are of opinion that

the birds themselves should be taken, whole. The nations of Parthia,

as a remedy for quartan fevers, take the skin of the asp, in doses

of one sixth of a denarius, with an equal quantity of pepper. The

philosopher Chrysippus has left a statement to the effect, that the

phryganion,[2846] worn as an amulet, is a remedy for quartan fevers;

but what kind of animal this is he has nowhere informed us, nor have I

been able to meet with any one who knows. Still, however, I felt myself

bound to notice a remedy that was mentioned by an author of such high

repute, in case any other person should happen to be more successful in

his researches. To eat the flesh of a crow, and to use nitre in the

form of a liniment, is considered highly efficacious for the treatment

of chronic diseases.

In cases of tertian fever—so true it is that suffering takes delight in

prolonging hope by trying every remedy—it may be worth while to make

trial whether the web of the spider called “lycos”[2847] is of any

use, applied, with the insect itself, to the temples and forehead in a

compress covered with resin and wax; or the insect itself, attached to

the body in a reed, a form in which it is said to be highly beneficial

for other fevers. Trial may be made also of a green lizard, enclosed

alive in a vessel just large enough to receive it, and worn as an

amulet; a method, it is said, by which recurrent fevers are often

dispelled.

CHAP. 31.—REMEDIES FOR DROPSY.

For the cure of dropsy, wool-grease, a piece about the size of a

hazel-nut, is given in wine, with the addition of a little myrrh: some

add goose-grease, steeped in myrtle wine. The filth that adheres to the

udders of sheep is productive of a similar effect, as also the dried

flesh of a hedge-hog, taken with the food. Matter vomited by a dog, we

are assured, applied to the abdomen, will draw off the water that has

accumulated there.

CHAP. 32. (12.)—REMEDIES FOR ERYSIPELAS.

For the cure of erysipelas, wool-grease is used, with pompholix[2848]

and oil of roses; the blood[2849] also extracted from a tick; earth

worms, applied in vinegar; or else a cricket crushed between the

hands—the good effect of this last being that the person who uses this

precaution before the malady has made its appearance, will be preserved

therefrom for a whole year. Care must be taken also that iron is used

for the removal of the cricket, with some of the earth about its hole.

Goose-grease is also employed for this purpose; a viper’s head, dried

and burnt, and applied with vinegar; or a serpent’s slough, applied to

the body, immediately after the bath, with bitumen and lamb suet.

CHAP. 33.—REMEDIES FOR CARBUNCLES.

Carbuncles are removed by an application of pigeons’ dung, either alone

or in combination with linseed and oxymel; or of bees that have died

in the honey. A sprinkling of polenta upon the sores is also used. For

carbuncles and other sores of the generative organs, wool-grease is

used as a remedy, with refuse of lead; and for incipient carbuncles,

sheep’s dung is employed. Tumours and all other affections that stand

in need of emollients are treated most effectually with goose-grease;

that of cranes, too, is equally efficacious.

CHAP. 34.—REMEDIES FOR BOILS.

For boils the following remedies are prescribed; a spider, applied

before mentioning the insect by name, care being taken to remove it

at the end of two days; a shrew-mouse, suspended by the neck till it

is dead, care being taken not to let it touch the earth when dead,

and to pass it three times around the boil, both operator and patient

spitting on the floor each time; poultry-dung, that of a red colour in

particular, applied fresh with vinegar; the crop of a stork, boiled in

wine; flies, an uneven number of them, rubbed upon the patient with the

ring[2850] finger; the filth from sheep’s ears; stale mutton suet, with

ashes of women’s hair; ram suet also, with ashes of burnt pumice and an

equal quantity of salt.

CHAP. 35.—REMEDIES FOR BURNS.

For burns, the ashes of a dog’s head are used; ashes of burnt dormice,

with oil; sheep’s dung, with wax; ashes also of burnt snails, an

application so effectual, as not to leave a scar even. Viper’s fat,

too, is used, and ashes of burnt pigeons’ dung, applied with oil.

CHAP. 36.—REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE SINEWS.

For nodosities in the sinews, the ashes of a viper’s head are applied,

with oil of Cyprus;[2851] or else earth-worms, with honey. Pains in the

sinews should be treated with an application of grease; the body of a

dead amphisbæna, worn as an amulet; vulture’s grease, dried with the

crop of the bird and beaten up with stale hog’s lard; or else ashes of

the head of a horned owl, taken in honied wine with a lily root—that

is, if we believe what the magicians tell us. For contractions of the

sinews, the flesh of ring-doves is very good, dried and taken with the

food: and for spasmodic affections, the ashes of a hedge-hog or weasel

are used. A serpent’s slough, attached to the patient’s body in a piece

of bull’s hide, is a preventive of spasms: and the dried liver of a

kite, taken in doses of three oboli, in three cyathi of hydromel, is a

preservative against opisthotony.

CHAP. 37.—REMEDIES FOR MALADIES OF THE NAILS AND FINGERS.

Agnails and hangnails upon the fingers are removed by using the ashes

of a burnt dog’s head, or the uterus of a bitch boiled in oil, the

fingers being first rubbed with a liniment of ewe-milk butter, mixed

with honey. The gall-bladder, too, of any animal is very useful for

this purpose. Malformed nails are healed with an application of

cantharides and pitch, which is removed at the end of two days; or else

with locusts fried with he-goat suet; or with an application of mutton

suet. Some mix mistletoe and purslain with these ingredients; while

others, again, use verdigrease and mistletoe, removing the application

at the end of two days.

CHAP. 38. (13.)—METHODS FOR ARRESTING HÆMORRHAGE.

Bleeding at the nostrils is arrested by mutton suet taken from the

caul, introduced into the nostrils; by drawing up rennet, lamb’s rennet

in particular, mixed with water, into the nostrils, or by using it as

an injection, a remedy which succeeds even where other remedies have

failed; by making up goose-grease into a bolus with an equal quantity

of butter, and plugging the nostrils with it; or by using the earth

that adheres to snails, or else the snails themselves, extracted from

the shell. Excessive discharges from the nostrils are arrested also

by applying crushed snails, or cobwebs, to the forehead. For issues

of blood from the brain, the blood or brains of poultry are used, as

also pigeons’ dung, thickened and kept for the purpose. In cases where

there is an immoderate flow of blood from a wound, an application of

horse-dung, burnt with egg-shells, is marvellously good for stopping it.

CHAP. 39.—REMEDIES FOR ULCEROUS SORES AND WOUNDS.

For the cure of ulcers, wool-grease is used; with ashes of burnt

barley and verdigrease, in equal quantities; a preparation which is

good, too, for carcinomata and spreading sores. It cauterizes the flesh

also around the margins of ulcers, and reduces and makes level fungous

excrescences formed by sores. Ashes, too, of burnt sheep’s dung, mixed

with nitre, are of great efficacy for the cure of carcinomata; as also

those of lambs’ thigh-bones, in cases more particularly where ulcers

refuse to cicatrize. Very considerable, too, is the efficacy of lights,

ram’s lights in particular, which are of the greatest utility for

reducing and making level the fleshy excrescences formed by ulcerous

sores. With sheep’s dung, warmed beneath an earthen pan and kneaded,

the swellings attendant upon wounds are reduced, and fistulous sores

and epinyctis are cleansed and made to heal.

But it is in the ashes of a burnt dog’s head that the greatest

efficacy is found; as it quite equals spodium[2852] in its property

of cauterizing all kinds of fleshy excrescences, and causing sores

to heal. Mouse-dung, too, is used as a cautery, and weasels’ dung,

burnt to ashes. Pounded millepedes, mixed with turpentine and earth

of Sinope,[2853] are used for penetrating carcinomata and fleshy

indurations in deep-seated sores; and the same substances are

remarkably useful for the treatment of ulcers threatened with maggots.

Indeed the several varieties of worms themselves are possessed of

marvellously useful properties. The worms,[2854] for instance, that

breed in wood are curative of all kinds of ulcers: reduced to ashes,

with an equal quantity of anise, and applied with oil, they heal

cancerous sores. Earthworms are so remarkably healing for wounds

recently inflicted, that it is a very general belief that by the end

of seven days they will unite sinews even that have been cut asunder:

hence it is that it is recommended to keep them preserved in honey.

Ashes of burnt earth-worms, in combination with tar or Simblian

honey,[2855] cauterize the indurated margins of ulcerous sores. Some

persons dry earthworms in the sun, and apply them to wounds with

vinegar, the application not being removed till the end of a couple

of days. The earth also that adheres to snails is useful, similarly

employed; snails, too, taken whole from the shell, are pounded and

applied to fresh wounds, to heal them, and they arrest the progress of

cancerous sores.

There is an insect called “herpes”[2856] by the Greeks, which is

particularly useful for the cure of all kinds of serpiginous[2857]

sores. Snails, beaten up, shells and all, are very good for this

purpose; and it is said that, with myrrh and frankincense, they

will unite the sinews even when cut asunder. The fat, too, of a

dragon,[2858] dried in the sun, is remarkably useful, and so are the

brains of a cook or capon for recent wounds. By taking with the food

salt in which vipers have been preserved, ulcers are rendered more

easy of treatment, it is said, and are made to heal all the sooner.

Antonius[2859] the physician, after operating in vain upon ulcers, that

were incurable with the knife, used to prescribe viper’s flesh to be

eaten by the patient, whereby a marvellously speedy cure was effected.

The locust called “troxallis,”[2860] reduced to ashes and applied with

honey, removes the indurated margins of ulcerous sores: ashes, also, of

burnt pigeons’ dung, with arsenic and honey, are very effectual in all

cases where a cautery is required. The brains of a horned owl, applied

with goose-grease, are marvellously efficacious for uniting wounds, it

is said. For the malignant ulcer known as “cacoëthes,”[2861] the ashes

of a ram’s thigh-bones are used, mixed with woman’s milk, the sores

being washed with linen cloths well rinsed. For the same purpose, the

bird known as the screech-owl[2862] is boiled in oil, ewe-milk butter

and honey being added to the preparation, when properly dissolved.

An application of bees that have died in the honey, acts emolliently

upon the indurated margins of ulcerous sores; and for the cure of

elephantiasis, the blood and ashes of a weasel are employed. Wounds and

weals produced by blows are effaced by an application of sheep-skins

fresh from the body.

CHAP. 40.—REMEDIES FOR BROKEN BONES.

For fractures of the joints, ashes of sheep’s thigh-bones are

particularly useful, applied in combination with wax; and the remedy

is all the more efficacious, if a sheep’s jaw-bones are burnt with

the other ingredients, together with a deer’s antler, and some wax

dissolved in oil of roses. For broken bones, a dog’s brains are

used, spread upon a linen cloth, with wool laid upon the surface and

moistened every now and then. The fractured bone will mostly unite

in the course of fourteen days; and a cure equally expeditious may

be effected by using the ashes of burnt field-mice, with honey, or

of burnt earthworms; a substance which is extremely useful for the

extraction of splintered bones.

CHAP. 41.—APPLICATIONS FOR CICATRIZATIONS, AND FOR THE CURE OF MORPHEW.

Cicatrizations are restored to their original colour by applying

sheep’s lights, those of a ram in particular; mutton-suet, mixed with

nitre; the ashes of a green lizard; a snake’s slough, boiled in wine;

or else pigeons’ dung, mixed with honey; a preparation which, in

combination with wine, is good for the removal of white morphew. For

the cure, also, of morphew, cantharides are used, with two-thirds of

rue-leaves; a preparation which the patient must keep applied, in the

sun, till the skin itches and rises in blisters; after which it must

be fomented and well rubbed with oil, and the application repeated.

This must be done for several days in succession, due precautions being

taken that the ulcerations do not penetrate too deep.

For the cure, too, of morphew, a liniment is recommended, made of flies

and root of agrimony; the white part also of poultry dung, kept in a

horn box with stale oil; a bat’s blood; or else the gall of a hedge-hog

applied with water. Itch-scab is cured by using the brains of a horned

owl, incorporated with saltpetre; but dog’s blood is the best thing to

keep it in check. The small, broad, snail that is found, crushed and

applied topically, is an effectual cure for itching sensations.

CHAP. 42.—METHODS OF EXTRACTING FOREIGN SUBSTANCES FROM THE BODY.

Arrows, pointed weapons, and other foreign substances that require to

be extracted from the body, are removed by the application of a mouse

split asunder, or of a lizard more particularly, similarly divided, or

else the head only of the animal, pounded with salt. The snails, too,

that are found in clusters upon leaves, are pounded and applied with

their shells on; as also those that are used as food, the shells being

first removed, applied with hare’s rennet in particular. The bones of a

snake, applied with the rennet of any four-footed animal, will produce

a similar effect before the end of two days: cantharides, also, bruised

and applied with barley-meal, are highly extolled.

CHAP. 43. (14.)—REMEDIES FOR FEMALE COMPLAINTS.

For diseases incident to females, a ewe’s placenta is very useful, as

already[2863] mentioned by us, when speaking of goats: sheep’s dung,

too, is equally good. A fumigation of burnt locusts, applied to the

lower parts, affords relief to strangury, in females more particularly.

If, immediately after conception, a woman eats a cock’s testes every

now and then, the child of which she is pregnant will become[2864] a

male, it is said. The ashes of a burnt porcupine, taken in drink, are

a preventive of abortion: bitches’ milk facilitates delivery: and the

afterbirth of a bitch, provided it has not touched the ground, will

act as an expellent of the fœtus. Milk, taken as a drink, strengthens

the loins of women when in travail. Mouse-dung, diluted with rain

water, reduces the breasts of females, when swollen after delivery.

The ashes of a burnt hedge-hog, applied with oil, act as a preventive

of abortion. Delivery is facilitated, in cases where the patient has

taken, either goose-dung in two cyathi of water, or the liquid that

escapes from the uterus of a weasel by its genitals.

Earth-worms, applied topically, effectually prevent pains in the

sinews of the neck and shoulders; taken in raisin wine, they expel the

after-birth, when retarded. Applied by themselves, earthworms ripen

abscesses of the breasts, open them, draw the humours, and make them

cicatrize: taken in honied wine, they promote the secretion of the

milk. In hay-grass there are small worms found, which, attached to the

neck, act as a preventive of premature delivery; they are removed,

however, at the moment of childbirth, as otherwise they would have

the effect of impeding delivery; care must be taken, also, not to

put them on the ground. To promote conception, five or seven of them

are administered in drink. Snails, taken with the food, accelerate

delivery; and, applied with saffron, they promote conception. Used

in the form of a liniment, with amylum[2865] and gum tragacanth,

they arrest uterine discharges. Taken with the food, they promote

menstruation; and, mixed with deer’s marrow, in the proportion of one

denarius and the same quantity of cyprus[2866] to each snail, they

reduce the uterus when displaced. Taken from the shell, and beaten up

with oil of roses, they dispel inflations of the uterus; the snails of

Astypalæa being those that are mostly chosen for these purposes.

Those of Africa, again, are employed in a different manner, two of them

being beaten, up with a pinch of fenugreek in three fingers, and four

spoonfuls of honey, and the preparation applied to the abdomen, after

it has been rubbed with juice of iris.[2867] There is a kind of small,

white, elongated snail,[2868] that is found straying here and there:

dried upon tiles in the sun, and reduced to powder, these snails are

mixed with bean-meal, in equal proportions, forming a cosmetic which

whitens and softens the skin. The small, broad, kind of snail, mixed

with polenta, is good for the removal of a tendency to scratch, and rub

the skin.

If a pregnant woman steps over a viper, she will be sure to

miscarry;[2869] the same, too, in the case of the amphisbæna, but

only when it is dead. If, however, a woman carries about her a live

amphisbæna in a box, she may step over one with impunity, even though

it be dead. An amphisbæna, preserved for the purpose, will ensure an

easy delivery, even though it be dead.[2870] It is a truly marvellous

fact, but if a pregnant woman steps over one of these serpents that

has not been preserved, it will be perfectly harmless, provided she

immediately steps over another that has been preserved. A fumigation

made with a dried snake, acts powerfully as an emmenagogue.

CHAP. 44.—METHODS OF FACILITATING DELIVERY.

The cast-off slough of a snake, attached to the loins, facilitates

delivery; care must be taken, however, to remove it immediately after.

It is administered, too, in wine, mixed with frankincense: taken in

any other form, it is productive of abortion. A staff, by the aid of

which a person has parted[2871] a frog from a snake, will accelerate

parturition. Ashes of the troxallis,[2872] applied with honey, act as

an emmenagogue; the same, too, with the spider that descends as it

spins its thread from aloft; it must be taken, however, in the hollow

of the hand, crushed, and applied accordingly: if, on the contrary, the

spider is taken while ascending, it will arrest menstruation.

The stone aëtites,[2873] that is found in the eagle’s nest, preserves

the fœtus against all insidious attempts at producing abortion. A

vulture’s feather, placed beneath the feet of the woman, accelerates

parturition. It is a well-known fact, that pregnant women must be

on their guard against ravens’ eggs, for if a female in that state

should happen to step over one, she will be sure to miscarry by the

mouth.[2874] A hawk’s dung, taken in honied wine, would appear to

render females fruitful. Goose-grease, or that of the swan, acts

emolliently upon indurations and abscesses of the uterus.

CHAP. 45.—METHODS OF PRESERVING THE BREASTS FROM INJURY.

Goose-grease, mixed up with oil of roses and a spider, protects the

breasts after delivery. The people of Phrygia and Lycaonia have made

the discovery, that the grease of the otis[2875] is good for affections

of the breasts, resulting from recent delivery: for females affected

with suffocations of the uterus, they employ a liniment made of

beetles. The shells of partridges’ eggs, burnt to ashes and mixed with

cadmia[2876] and wax, preserve the firmness[2877] of the breasts. It is

generally thought, that if the egg of a partridge or * * * is passed

three times round a woman’s breasts, they will never become flaccid;

and that, if these eggs are swallowed, they will be productive of

fruitfulness, and promote the plentiful secretion of the milk. It is

believed, too, that by anointing a woman’s breasts’ with goose-grease,

pains therein may be allayed; that moles formed in the uterus may be

dispersed thereby; and that itch[2878] of the uterus may be dispelled

by the application of a liniment made of crushed bugs.

CHAP. 46.—VARIOUS KINDS OF DEPILATORIES.

Bats’ blood has all the virtues of a depilatory: but if applied to

the cheeks of youths, it will not be found sufficiently efficacious,

unless it is immediately followed up by an application of verdigrease

or hemlock-seed; this method having the effect of entirely removing

the hair, or at least reducing it to the state of a fine down. It is

generally thought, too, that bats’ brains are productive of a similar

effect; there being two kinds of these brains, the red and the white.

Some persons mix with the brains the blood and liver of the same

animal: others, again, boil down a viper in three semisextarii of

oil, and, after boning it, use it as a depilatory, first pulling out

the hairs that are wanted not to grow. The gall of a hedgehog is a

depilatory, more particularly if mixed with bats’ brains and goats’

milk: the ashes, too, of a burnt hedgehog are used for a similar

purpose. If, after plucking out the hairs that are wanted not to grow,

or if, before they make their appearance, the parts are well rubbed

with the milk of a bitch with her first litter, no hairs will grow

there. The same result is ensured, it is said, by using the blood of a

tick taken from off a dog, or else the blood or gall of a swallow.

(15.) Ants’ eggs, they say, beaten up with flies, impart a black

colour[2879] to the eyebrows. If it is considered desirable that the

colour of the infant’s eyes should be black, the pregnant woman must

eat a rat.[2880] Ashes of burnt earth-worms, applied with oil, prevent

the hair from turning white.

CHAP. 47.—REMEDIES FOR THE DISEASES OF INFANTS.

For infants that are troubled with coagulation of the milk, a grand

preservative is lamb’s rennet, taken in water; and in cases where the

milk has so coagulated, it may be remedied by administering rennet in

vinegar. For the pains incident to dentition, sheep’s brains are a

very useful remedy. The inflammation called “siriasis,”[2881] to which

infants are liable, is cured by attaching to them the bones that are

found in the dung of dogs. Hernia in infants is cured by letting a

green lizard bite the child’s body while asleep, after which the lizard

is attached to a reed, and hung up in the smoke; by the time the animal

dies, the child will be perfectly cured, it is said. The slime of

snails, applied to the eyes of children, straightens the eyelashes, and

makes them grow. Ashes of burnt snails applied with frankincense and

juice of white grapes, are a cure for hernia [in infants], if applied

for thirty days consecutively. Within the horns[2882] of snails, there

are certain hard substances found, like grits of sand: attached to

infants, they facilitate dentition.

Ashes of empty snail-shells, mixed with wax, are a preventive of

procidence of the rectum; but they must be used in combination with the

matter that exudes from a viper’s brains, on the head being pricked.

Vipers’ brains, attached to the infant’s body in a piece of skin,

facilitate dentition, a similar effect being produced by using the

larger teeth of serpents. Ravens’ dung, attached to an infant with

wool, is curative of cough.

It is hardly possible to preserve one’s seriousness in describing some

of these remedies, but as they have been transmitted to us, I must

not pass them in silence. For the treatment of hernia in infants, a

lizard is recommended; but it must be a male lizard, a thing that may

be ascertained by its having but one orifice beneath the tail. The

method of proceeding, is for the lizard to bite the part affected

through cloth of gold, cloth of silver, and cloth dyed purple; after

which it is tied fast in a cup that has never been used, and smoked.

Incontinence of urine in infants is checked by giving them boiled

mice[2883] with their food. The large indented horns of the scarabæus,

attached to the bodies of infants, have all the virtues of an amulet.

In the head of the boa[2884] there is a small stone, they say, which

the serpent spits out, when it is in fear of death: if the reptile is

taken by surprise, and the head cut off, and this stone extracted,

it will aid dentition to a marvellous degree, attached to the neck of

infants. The brains, too, of the same serpent are recommended to be

attached to the body far a similar purpose, as also the small stone or

bone that is found in the back of the slug.

An admirable promoter of dentition is found in sheep’s brains,

applied to the gums; and equally good for diseases of the ears, is an

application of goose-grease, with juice of ocimum. Upon prickly plants

there is found a kind of rough, hairy, grub: attached to the neck of

infants, these insects give instant relief, it is said, when any of the

food has stuck in the throat.

CHAP. 48.—PROVOCATIVES OF SLEEP.

As a soporific, wool-grease is employed, diluted in two cyathi of wine

with a modicum of myrrh, or else mixed with goose-grease and myrtle

wine. For a similar purpose also, a cuckoo is attached to the body in a

hare’s skin, or a young heron’s bill to the forehead in an ass’s skin:

it is thought, too, that the beak alone, steeped in wine, is equally

efficacious. On the other hand, a bat’s head, dried and worn as an

amulet, acts as a preventive of sleep.

CHAP. 49.—APHRODISIACS AND ANTAPHRODISIACS.

A lizard drowned in a man’s urine has the effect of an antaphrodisiac

upon the person whose urine it is; for this animal is to be reckoned

among the philtres, the magicians say. The same property is attributed

to the excrements of snails, and to pigeons’ dung, taken with oil and

wine. The right lobe of a vulture’s lungs, attached to the body in

the skin of a crane, acts powerfully as a stimulant upon males: an

effect equally produced by taking the yolks of five pigeons’ eggs, in

honey, mixed with one denarius of hog’s lard; sparrows, or eggs of

sparrows, with the food; or by wearing the right testicle of a cock,

attached to the body in a ram’s skin. The ashes of a burnt ibis, it is

said, employed as a friction with goose-grease and oil of iris, will

prevent abortion when a female has once conceived; while the testes of

a game-cock, on the other hand, rubbed with goose-grease and attached

to the body in a ram’s skin, have all the effect of an antaphrodisiac:

the same, too, with the testes of any kind of dunghill cock, placed,

together with the blood of a cock, beneath the bed. Hairs taken from

the tail of a she-mule while being covered by the stallion, will make

a woman conceive, against her will even, if knotted together at the

moment of the sexual congress.[2885] If a man makes water upon a dog’s

urine, he will become disinclined to copulation, they say.

A singular thing, too, is what is told about the ashes of a spotted

lizard—if indeed it is true—to the effect that, wrapped in linen and

held in the left hand, they act as an aphrodisiac, while, on the

contrary, if they are transferred to the right, they will take effect

as an antaphrodisiac. A bat’s blood, too, they say, received on a flock

of wool and placed beneath a woman’s head, will promote sexual desire;

the same being the case also with a goose’s tongue, taken with the food

or drink.

CHAP. 50.—REMEDIES FOR PHTHIRIASIS, AND FOR VARIOUS OTHER AFFECTIONS.

In phthiriasis, all the vermin upon the body may be killed in the

course of three days, by taking the cast-off slough of a serpent, in

drink, or else whey of milk after the cheese is removed, with a little

salt. Cheese, it is said, will never become rotten with age or be

touched by mice, if a weasel’s brains have been mixed with the rennet.

It is asserted, too, that if the ashes of a burnt weasel are mixed with

the cramming for chickens or young pigeons, they will be safe from

the attacks of weasels. Beasts of burden, when troubled with pains in

staling, find immediate relief, if a bat is attached to the body; and

they are effectually cured of bots by passing a ring-dove three times

round their generative parts—a truly marvellous thing to relate, the

ring-dove, on being set at liberty, dies, and the beast is instantly

relieved from pain.

CHAP. 51.—REMEDIES FOR INTOXICATION.

The eggs of an owlet, administered to drunkards three days in wine, are

productive of a distaste for that liquor. A sheep’s lights roasted,

eaten before drinking,[2886] act as a preventive of inebriety. The

ashes of a swallow’s beak, bruised with myrrh and sprinkled in the

wine, act as a preservative against intoxication: Horus,[2887] king of

Assyria, was the first to discover this.[2888]

CHAP. 52.—PECULIARITIES RELATIVE TO CERTAIN ANIMALS.

In addition to these, there are some other peculiar properties

attributed to certain animals, which require to be mentioned in the

present Book. Some authors state that there is a bird in Sardinia,

resembling the crane and called the “gromphena;”[2889] but it is no

longer known even by the people of that country, in my opinion. In the

same province, too, there is the ophion, an animal which resembles the

deer in the hair only, and to be found[2890] nowhere else. The same

authors have spoken also of the “subjugus,”[2891] but have omitted

to state what animal it is, or where it is to be found. That it did

formerly exist, however, I have no doubt, as certain remedies are

described as being derived from it. M. Cicero speaks of animals called

“biuri,”[2892] which gnaw the vines in Campania.

CHAP. 53. (16.)—OTHER MARVELLOUS FACTS CONNECTED WITH ANIMALS.

There are still some other marvellous facts related, with reference

to the animals which we have mentioned. A dog will not bark at a

person who has any part of the secundines of a bitch about him, or

a hare’s dung or fur. The kind of gnats called “muliones,”[2893] do

not live more than a single day. Persons when taking honey from the

hives, will never be touched by the bees if they carry the beak of a

wood-pecker[2894] about them. Swine will be sure to follow the person

who has given them a raven’s brains, made up into a bolus. The dust

in which a she-mule has wallowed, sprinkled upon the body, will allay

the flames of desire. Rats may be put to flight by castrating a male

rat, and setting it at liberty. If a snake’s slough is beaten up with

some spelt, salt, and wild thyme, and introduced into the throat of

oxen, with wine, at the time that grapes are ripening, they will be

in perfect health for a whole year to come: the same, too, if three

young swallows are given to them, made up into three boluses. The dust

gathered from the track of a snake, sprinkled among bees, will make

them return to the hive. If the right testicle of a ram[2895] is tied

up, he will generate females only. Persons who have about them the

sinews taken from the wings or legs of a crane, will never be fatigued

with any kind of laborious exertion. Mules will never kick when they

have drunk wine.

Of all known substances, it is a mule’s[2896] hoofs only that are not

corroded by the poisonous waters of the fountain Styx: a memorable

discovery made by Aristotle,[2897] to his great infamy, on the occasion

when Antipater sent some of this water to Alexander the Great, for the

purpose of poisoning him.

We will now pass on to the aquatic productions.

SUMMARY.—Remedies, narratives, and observations, eight hundred and

fifty-four.

ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.—M. Varro,[2898] Nigidius,[2899] M. Cicero,[2900]

Sextius Niger[2901] who wrote in Greek, Licinius Macer.[2902]

FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.—Eudoxus,[2903] Aristotle,[2904]

Hermippus,[2905] Homer, Apion,[2906] Orpheus,[2907] Democritus,[2908]

Anaxilaüs.[2909]

MEDICAL AUTHORS QUOTED.—Botrys,[2910] Horus,[2911] Apollodorus,[2912]

Menander,[2913] Archidemus,[2914] Aristogenes,[2915] Xenocrates,[2916]

Diodorus,[2917] Chrysippus,[2918] Nicander,[2919] Apollonius[2920] of

Pitanæ.