128 PLIIfT'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book YIL 



Damon gives an account of a race of people, not very much 

 unlike them, the Pharnaces of ^Ethiopia, whose perspiration 

 is productive of consumption °^ to the body of every person that 

 it touches. Cicero also, one of our own writers, makes the re- 

 mark, that the glances of all women who have a double pupil 

 is noxious.^ 



To this extent, then, has nature, when she produced in man, 

 in common with the wild beasts, a taste for human flesh, 

 thought fit to produce poisons as well in every part of his 

 body, and in the eyes even of some persons, taking care that 

 there should be no evil influence in existence, which was not 

 to be found in the human body. !N'ot far from the city of 

 Rome, in the territory of the Palisci, a few families are found, 

 who are known by the name of Hirpi. These people perform 

 a yearly sacrifice to Apollo, on Mount Soracte, on which occa- 

 sion they walk over a burning pile of wood, without being 

 scorched even. On this account, by \irtue of a decree of the 

 senate, they are always exempted from military service, and 

 from all other public duties. ^^ 



Some individuals, again, are bom with certain parts of the 

 body endowed with properties of a marvellous nature. Such 

 was the case with King Pjn'hus, the great toe of whose right 

 foot cured diseases of the spleen, merely by touching the pa- 

 tient. ^° We are also informed, that this toe could not be re- 



Erand says (" Popular Antiquities," vol. iii.), " Swimming a witch was an- 

 other kind of popular ordeal. By this method she was handled not less 

 indecently than cruelly : for she was stripped naked and cross bound, the 

 right thumb to the left toe, and the left thumb to the right toe. In this 

 state she was cast into a pond or river, in which, if guilty, it was thought 

 impossible for her to sink." 



^' This is probably the meaning of the word "tabem " here ; though it 

 may possibly signify "rottenness," or "putrefaction." 



^- This remark is not contained in any of the works of Cicero now ex- 

 tant.— B. 



^9 Cuvier observes, that these people probably exercise some deception, 

 analogous to that practised by a Spaniard, who exhibited himself in Paris, 

 and professed to be incombustible, but who, eventually, was the dupe of 

 his own quackery, and paid the penalty with his life. It would appear, 

 that the Hirpi were not confined to one district, but dispersed over differ- 

 ent parts of Italy, See the note of Heyne, on the prayer of Ai-uns, JEn. 

 B, xi. 1. 785, et seq. — B. 



^ Plutarch relates these supposed facts in his life of PytThus ; this state- 

 ment may be considered analogous to what has been recorded in modern 

 times, respecting the efficacy of the royal touch in curing certain diseases, 

 especially what has been termed the "'King's evil." — B. 



