Chap. 25.] KEMEDIES FOE COLD SHIVEKINGS. 449 



cause of apprehension, as affecting the whole body. According 

 to what the magicians say, the gall of a male black dog is a 

 counter-charm for the whole of a house ; and it will be quite suffi- 

 cient to make fumigations with it, or to use it as a purification, 

 to ensure its preservation against all noxious drugs and pre- 

 parations: They say the same, too, with reference to a dog's 

 blood, if the walls are sprinkled with it ; and the genitals of 

 that animal, if buried beneath the threshold. This will sur- 

 prise persons the less who are aware how highly these same 

 magicians extol that most abominable insect, the tick, and 

 all because it is the only one that has no-° passage for the 

 evacuations, its eating ending only in its death, and it living all 

 the longer for fasting : in this latter state it has been known 

 to live so long as seven days, they say, but w^hen it gorges to 

 satiety it will burst in a much shorter period. According to 

 these authorities, a tick from a dog's left ear, worn as an 

 amulet, will allay all kinds of pains. They presage, too, from 

 it on matters of life and death ; for if the patient, they say, 

 gives an answer to a person who has a tick about him, and, 

 standing at the foot of the bed, asks how he is, it is an infal- 

 lible sign that he will survive ; while, on the other hand, if he 

 makes no answer, he will be sure to die. They add, also, that 

 the dog from whose left ear the tick is taken, must be entirely 

 black. !N^igidius has stated in his writings that dogs will 

 avoid the presence all day of a person who has taken a tick 

 from off a hog. -a 



The magicians likewise assure us that patients suffering \ 

 from delirium will recover their reason on being sprinliied 

 with a mole's blood ; and that persons who are apt to be 

 troubled by the gods of the nighf-^ and by Fauni, will expe- [ 

 rience relief by rubbing themselves morning and evening with ' 

 the tongue, eyes, gall, and intestines of a dragon,"' boiled in 

 oil, and cooled in the open air at night. 



CHAP. 25. aE3IEDIES FOE COLD SHIVEEINGS. 



A remedy for cold shiverings, according to Kicander, is a 

 dead amphisbcena,"^ or its skin only, attached to the body : in 

 addition to which, he informs us that if one of these reptiles 



20 A popular fallacy of Pliny's time. See B. xi. c. 40. 



21 Spectres and nightmare. 22 '\;\^q serpent so called. 

 23 See B. viii. c. 35. 



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