410 PLINt's NATtJEAL HISTORY. [Book XXTX. 



the snail, it is attached to the patient, the smaller snails being 

 pounded and applied to the forehead. Wool- grease, too, is 

 used for a similar purpose ; the bones of a vulture's head, worn 

 as an amulet ; or the brains of that bird, mixed with oil and 

 cedar resin, and applied to the head and introduced into the 

 nostrils. The brains of a crow or owlet, are boiled and taken 

 with the food : or a cock is put into a coop, and kept without 

 food a day and a night, the patient submitting to a similar 

 abstinence, and attaching to his head some feathers plucked 

 from the neck or the comb of the fowl. The ashes, too, of a 

 weasel are applied in the form of a liniment ; a twig is taken 

 from a kite's nest, and laid beneath the patient's pillow ; or a 

 mouse's skin is burnt, and the ashes applied with vinegar : 

 sometimes, also, the small bone is extracted from the head of 

 a snail that has been found between two cart ruts, and after 

 being passed through a gold ring, with a piece of ivory, is 

 attached to the patient in a piece of dog's skin ; a remedy 

 well known to most persons, and always used with success.®^ 



'For fractures of the cranium, cobwebs are applied, with oil 

 and vinegar ; the application never coming away till a cure 

 has been effected. Cobwebs are good, too, for stopping the 

 bleeding of wounds ^^ made in shaving. Discharges of blood 

 from the brain are arrested by applying the blood of a goose 

 or duck, or the grease of those birds with oil of roses. The 

 head of a snail cut off with a reed, while feeding in the 

 morning, at full moon more particularly, is attached to the 

 head in a linen cloth, with an old thrum, for the cure of head- 

 ache ; or else a liniment is made of it, and applied with white 

 wax to the forehead. Dogs' hairs are worn also, attached to 

 the forehead in a cloth. 



CHAP. 37. EEMEDIES FOB, AFFECTIONS OF THE EYELIDS. 



A crow's brains, taken with the food, they say, will make 

 the eyelashes grow ; or else wool-grease, applied with warmed 

 myrrh, by the aid of a fine probe. A similar result is pro- 

 mised by using the following preparation : burnt flies and 

 ashes of mouse-dung are mixed in equal quantities, to the 

 amount of half a denarius in the whole ; two sixths of a dena- 



^* He does not appear to state this on hearsay only ! 

 ^' Cobwebs are still used for this purpose, as also the fur. from articles 

 made of beaver, Ajasson mentions English taffeta. 



