400 plint's nattjeal history. [Book XXIX. 



CHAP. 26. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM OTHER BIRDS. 



The flesli of pigeons also, or of swallows, used fresh and 

 minced, is a remedy for injuries inflicted by serpents : the 

 same, too, with the feet of a horned owl, burnt with the plant 

 plumbago.^^ While mentioning this bird, too, I must not 

 forget to cite another instance of the impositions practised by the 

 magicians : among other prodigious lies of theirs, they pretend 

 that the heart of a horned owl, applied to the left breast of a 

 woman while asleep, will make**' her disclose all her secret 

 thoughts. They say, also, in addition to this, that persons who have 

 it about them in battle will be sure to display valour. They 

 describe, too, certain remedies made from the egg of this bird for 

 the hair. But who, pray, has ever had the opportunity of 

 seeing the egg of a horned owl, considering that it is so highly 

 ominous to see the bird itself?" And then besides, who has 

 ever thought proper to make the experiment, and upon his hair 

 more particularly .^ In addition to all this, the magicians go 

 so far as to engage to make the hair curl by using the blood of 

 the young of the horned owl. 



What they tell us, too, about the bat, appears to belong to 

 pretty much the same class of stories : if one of these animals is 

 carried alive, three times round a house, they say, and then 

 nailed outside of the window with the head downwards, it will 

 have all the effects of a countercharm : they assert, also, that the 

 hat is a most excellent preservative for sheepfolds, being first 

 carried three times round them, and then hung up by the foot 

 over the lintel of the door.*^ The blood of the bat is also 

 recommended by them as a sovereign remedy, in combination 

 with a thistle,*^ for injuries inflicted by serpents. 



CHAP. 27. REMEDIES FOR THE BITE OF THE PHALANGIUM. THE 



SEVERAL VARIETIES OF THAT INSECT, AND OF THE SPIDER. 



Of the phalangium,** an insect, unknown to Italy, there are 



=^9 See B. XXV. c. 97. 



♦> The same is said of a frog's tongue, in B. xxxii. c. 18. 



*^ That is no reason, as Ajasson remarks, why the egg should not be 

 found, it being easy to take it from the nest at night, when, the bird 

 being absent, no ill omen will arise from seeing it. 



*2 We still see bats nailed upon and over stable doors in various parts 

 of this country. 43 ». Carduus." 



<* A sort of spider. See B. xi. cc. 24, 28, 29. 



