Chap. 29] REMEDIES DERIVED EEOM THE CHAMELEON". 31/ 



a wooden vessel, have the effect, if we choose to believe him, 

 of making their owner invisible to others ; that the possession, 

 also, of the right shoulder of this animal will ensure victory over 

 all adversaries or enemies, provided always the party throws 

 the sinews of the shoulder upon the ground and treads them 

 under foot. As to the left shoulder of the chamaeleon, I should 

 be quite ashamed to say to what monstrous purposes Democri- 

 tus devotes it; how that dreams may be produced by the 

 agency thereof, and transferred to any person we may think 

 proper ; how that these dreams may be dispelled by the em- 

 ployment of the right foot ; and how that lethargy, which has 

 been produced by the right foot of this animal, may be removed 

 by the agency of the left side. 



So, too, head-ache, he tells us, may be cured by sprinkling 

 wine upon the head, in which either flank of a chamaeleon has 

 been macerated. If the feet are rubbed with the ashes of the 

 left thigh or foot, mixed with sow's milk, gout, he says, will 

 be the result. It is pretty generally believed, however, that 

 cataract and diseases of the crystalline humours of the eyes 

 may be cured by anointing those organs with the gall for tliree 

 consecutive days ; that serpents may be put to flight by drop- 

 ping some of it into the fire ; that weasels may be attracted by 

 water into which it has been thrown ; and that, applied to the 

 body, it acts as a depiiator5\ The liver, they say, applied with 

 the lungs of a bramble- frog, is productive of a similar eftect : 

 in addition to which, we are told that the liver counteracts the 

 effects of philtres ; that persons are cured of melancholy by 

 drinking from the warm skin of a chamaeleon the juice of 

 the plant known by that name ; and tliat if the intestines of 

 the animal and their contents — we should bear in mind that 

 in reality the animal lives without food**" — are mixed with 

 apes' urine, and the doors of an enemy are besmeared with the 

 mixture, he will, through its agency, become the object of 

 universal hatred. 



We are told, too, that by the agency of the tail, the 

 course of rivers and torrents may be stopped, and serpents 

 struck with torpor ; that the tail, prepared with cedar and 

 myrrh, and tied to a double branch of the date-palm, will 

 divide waters that are smitten therewith, and so disclose every- 



^ See B. viii. c. 61. Flies and gnats are, in reality, its food. 



