BOOK XXX. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM LIVING CREATURES. (continued 2)
John Bostock translation
(15.) Ants’ eggs, they say, beaten up with flies, impart a black colour2879 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 horns2882 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 mice2883 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 boa2884 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 found2890 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-pecker2894 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 ram2895 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’s2896 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 Niger2901 who wrote in Greek, Licinius Macer.2902