468 PLTNy's NATURAL niSTOHY. [Book XXX. 



the tail of a she-mule while being covered by the stallion, will 

 make a woman conceive, against her will even, if knotted 

 together at the moment of the sexual congress." If a man 

 makes water upon a dog's urine, he will become disinclined to 

 copulation, they say. 



A singular thing, too, is what is told about the ashes of a 

 spotted lizard — if indeed it is true — to the effect that, wrapped 

 in linen and held in the left hand, they act as an aphrodisiac, 

 while, on the contrary, if they are transferred to the right, they 

 will take effect as an antaphrodisiac. A bat's blood, too, they 

 say, received on a flock of wool and placed beneath a woman's 

 head, will promote sexual desire ; the same being the case also 

 with a goose's tongue, taken with the food or drink. 



CHAP. 50. EEMEDIES FOE PHTHIRIASIS, AND TOK VAEIOUS OTHER 



AFFECTIONS. 



In phthiriasis, all the vermin upon the body may be killed in 

 the course of three days, by taking the cast-off slough of a ser- 

 pent, in drink, or else whey of milk after the cheese is removed, 

 with a little salt. Cheese, it is said, will never become rotten 

 with age or be touched by mice, if a weasel's brains have been 

 mixed with the rennet. It is asserted, too, that if the ashes of 

 a burnt weasel are mixed with the cramming for chickens or 

 j'oung pigeons, they will be safe from the attacks of weasels. 

 Eeasts of burden, when troubled with pains in staling, find 

 immediate relief, if a bat is attached to the body ; and they are 

 effectually cured of bots by passing a ring-dove three times 

 round their generative parts — a truly marvellous thing to relate, 

 the ring-dove, on being set at liberty, dies, and the beast is in- 

 stantly relieved from pain. 



CHAP. 51. EEMEDIES FOR INTOXICATION. 



The eggs of an owlet, administered to drunkards three days 

 in wine, are productive of a distaste for that liquor. A sheep's 

 lights roasted, eaten before drinking,'^ act as a preventive of 

 inebriety. The ashes of a swallow's beak, bruised with myrrh 

 and sprinkled in the wine, act as a preservative against intoxica- 

 tion : Horus,'^ king of Assyria, was the first to discover this.®"^ 



'' " Inter se conligatse in coitu." 



78 See B. xxviii. c. 80. 's See end of B. xxix. 



^^ He has hardly immortalized his name by it. 



