58 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTOET. [Book XVIII. 



of shelled 33 beans. Other seeds, again, it is said, will be 

 exempt from the attacks of maggots, if bruised cypress 34 leaves 

 are mixed with them, or if they are sown just at the moon's 

 conjunction. Many persons, for the more effectual protection 

 of millet, recommend that a bramble-frog should be carried at 

 night round the field before the hoeing is done, and then buried 

 in an earthen vessel in the middle of it. If this is done, they 

 say, neither sparrows nor worms will attack the crop. The 

 frog, however, must be disinterred before the millet is cut ; for 

 if this is neglected, the produce will be bitter. It is pretended, 

 too, that all seeds which have been touched by the shoulders 

 of a mole are remarkably productive. 



Democritus recommends that all seeds before they are sown 

 should be steeped in the juice of the herb known as " aizoiim/' M 

 which grows on tiles or shingles, and is known to us by the 

 Latin name of " sedum" or " digitellum." 3G If blight pre- 

 vails, or if worms are found adhering to the roots, it is a very 

 common remedy to sprinkle the plants with pure amurca of 

 olives without salt, and then to hoe the ground. If, however, 

 the crop should be beginning to joint, it should be stubbed at 

 once, for fear lest the weeds should gain the upper hand. I 

 know for certain 37 that flights of starlings and sparrows, those 

 pests to millet and panic, are effectually driven away by means 

 of a certain herb, the name of which is unknown to me, being 

 buried at the four corners of the field : it is a wonderful thing 

 to relate, but in such case not a single bird will enter it. Mice 

 are kept away by the ashes of a weasel or a cat being steeped 

 in water and then thrown upon the seed, or else by using the 

 water in which the body of a weasel or a cat has been boiled. 

 The odour, however, of these animals makes itself perceived 

 in the bread even ; for which reason it is generally thought a 

 better plan to steep the seed in ox-gall. 38 As for mildew, 

 that greatest curse of all to corn, if branches of laurel are 



33 K Fractae." Perhaps, more properly " crushed." 



34 The odour of cypress, or savin, Fee thinks, might possibly keep 

 away noxious insects. 



35 The "always living," or perennial plant, our "house-leek," the 

 Sedum acre of Linnaeus. See E. xxv. c. 102. 



36 " Little finger," from the shape of the leaves. 



37 He must have allowed himself to be imposed upon in this case. 



38 Fee thinks that this may possibly be efficacious against the attacks 

 of rats, as the author of the Geoponica, B. x., states. 



