STRANGE MEDICINES. 759 



mies could be converted into coarse paper for the use of grocers, and 

 the cloth and rags were sometimes used as clothing at least, so we 

 are told by Abdallatif, a traveler of the twelfth century, who also 

 records how one of his friends found in the tombs of Ghizeh a jar 

 carefully sealed, which he opened, and found it to contain such excel- 

 lent honey that he could not resist eating a good deal of it, and was 

 only checked in his feast by drawing out a hair, whereupon he inves- 

 tigated further, and found the body of an ancient Egyptian baby in 

 good condition, and adorned with jewels. He does not record how he 

 enjoyed that meal in retrospect. Imagine dining off the honeyed es- 

 sence of a baby-Pharaoh ! 



Is it not pitiful to think that all the skill so lavishly expended by 

 the sages of ancient Egypt in rendering their bodies indestructible, 

 should, after three thousand years, end in this ? And, in truth, the 

 mummies thus dealt with, had less reason to complain of their lot 

 than the multitude which were broken up and sold at so much per ton 

 to fertilize the fields of a far-distant and insignificant islet peopled by 

 barbarians ! 



A very interesting point of similarity between the little shop of 

 the old Japanese apothecary, and those of early English druggists, is 

 suggested by the extensive use of calcined animal matter, recom- 

 mended in the prescriptions which were most highly valued in Eng- 

 land before the Norman Conquest, and which are recorded in elabo- 

 rate Saxon manuscripts, carefully preserved in our national archives. 

 These " leechdoms " are written in ancient black-letter characters, and 

 are curiously illustrated with pictures of the herbs and animals which 

 are recommended for medicinal use. 



Our Saxon ancestors appear to have devoted considerable attention 

 to the subject of their hair. Though ignorant of macassar-oil, they 

 discovered that dead bees burned to ashes, and seethed in oil with 

 leaves of willow, would stop hair from falling off ; but should the hair 

 be too thick, then must a swallow be burned to ashes under a tile, and 

 the ashes be sprinkled on the head. But in order altogether to pre- 

 vent the growth of hair, emmets' eggs rubbed on the place are found 

 an effectual depilatory ; " never will any hair come there." 



Excellent also as a cure for deafness is the juice of emmet's eggs 

 crushed, or else the gall of a goat, or, in extreme cases, boar's gall, 

 bull's gall, and buck's gall, mixed in equal parts with honey, and 

 dripped into the ear, sometimes with the addition of very nasty in- 

 gredients. But if earwigs had entered in, then the sufferer is bidden 

 to " take the mickle great windlestraw, with two edges, which waxeth 

 in highways, chew it into the ear ; he, the earwig, will soon be off." 



Even this poor insect was turned to account. One prescription 

 desires that " the bowels of an earwig be pounded with the smede of 

 wheaten meal and the netherward part (i. e., root) of marche, and min- 

 gled with honey." 



