[122] Where?
[123] Said to be an astringent earth made from rock-alum, and containing both alum and vitriol. Known to Hippocrates.
[124] Red lead or vermilion? The idea seems to be to frighten the dupe by the supposed prodigy of a hen laying eggs which have red or black inside them instead of white.
[125] Pliny, Nat. Hist., VIII, c. 75, says the sheep is compelled when it feeds to turn away from the sun by reason of the weakness of its head. This is probably the story which Hippolytus or the author has exaggerated. Something is omitted from the text.
[126] Seal or porpoise oil?
[127] Hymns like these are to be found in the two collections of magic papyri quoted in n. on p. [93] supra.
[128] He tells us how this trick is performed on p. [100] infra. Lecanomancy or divination by the bowl was generally performed by means of a hypnotized boy, as described in Lane’s Modern Egyptians. This, however, is a more elaborate process dependent on fraud.
[129] Reading νάτρον for νίτρον. It was common in Egypt, and saltpetre would not have the same effect, which seems to depend on the expulsion of carbonic acid.
[130] μυρσίνη. Cruice suggests μάλφη, a mixture of wax and pitch, which hardly seems indicated. Storax is the ointment recommended by eighteenth-century conjurers. Water is all that is needful.
[131] ἰχθυοκόλλα. Presumably fish-glue. Macmahon suggests isinglass. The salamander, the use of which is to be sought in sympathetic magic, was no doubt calcined and used in powder. σκολοπένδριον, “millipede” and σκολόπενδρον, “hart’s tongue fern” are the alternative readings suggested. Fern-oil is said to be good for burns.