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.