42 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXIV. 



taken to gather it without the use of iron, the right hand 

 being passed for the purpose through the left sleeve of the 

 tunic, as though the gatherer were in the act of committing a 

 theft. 52 The clothing too must be white, the feet bare and 

 washed clean, and a sacrifice of bread and wine must be made 

 before gathering it : it is carried also in a new napkin. The 

 Druids of Gaul have pretended that this plant should be 

 carried about the person as a preservative against accidents of 

 all kinds, and that the smoke of it is extremely good for all 

 maladies of the eyes. 



CHAP. 63. SAMOLTJS I TWO REMEDIES. 



The Druids, also, have given the name of " samolus'' 53 to a 

 certain plant which grows in humid localities. This too, they 

 say, must be gathered fasting with the left hand, as a pre- 

 servative against the maladies to which swine and cattle are 

 subject. The person, too, who gathers it must be careful not 

 to look behind him, nor must it be laid anywhere but in the 

 troughs from which the cattle drink. 



CHAP. 64. GUM : ELEVEN REMEDIES. 



We have already** spoken of the different kinds of gum ; 

 the better sort of each kind will be found the most effective. 

 Gum is bad for the teeth ; it tends to make the blood coagu- 

 late, and is consequently good for discharges 65 of blood from 

 the mouth. It is useful for burns, 56 but is bad for diseases of 

 the trachea. It exercises a diuretic effect, and tends to 

 neutralize all acridities, being astringent in other respects. 

 The- gum of the bitter-almond tree, which has the most 57 



according to Sprengel. Fee, however, dissents from that opinion, for the 

 Lycopodium, he says, is but some three inches in height, while savin, with 

 which the Selago is here compared, is more than eight or ten feet high. De 

 Theis (Gloss. Botan.) thinks that it must have been a succulent plant ; but 

 upon what grounds he bases that conjecture, Fee declares himself at a loss 

 to conjecture. 



52 Evidently a superstition derived from the Druids. 



53 Sprengel thinks that it is the Samolus Valerandi of Linnaeus, the round- 

 leaved water-pimpernel, and Anguillara identifies it with the Anemone pul- 

 satilla, or pasque-flower. Fee inclines to the opinion that it is the Veronica 

 beceubunga of Linnaeus, the brook-lime. 



54 In B. xiii. c. 20. 



65 Gum is still used. Fee says, for this purpose. 



66 It is of no use whatever for burns, or as a diuretic. 



57 Fee says that it is not different in any way from the gum of other trees. 



