286 PLINY' o NATUKAL HISTOEY, [Book XXVIII. 



to be a preventive of baldness and of head- ache, to cut the hair 

 on the seventeenth and twenty-ninth 60 days of the moon. 



A rural law observed in most of the farms of Italy, forbids 6 * 

 women to twirl their distaffs, or even to carry them uncovered, 

 while walking in the public roads ; it being a thing so pre- 

 judicial to all hopes and anticipations, those of a good harvest 63 

 iu particular. It is not so long ago, that M. Servilius 

 Nonianus, the principal citizen at Rome, 63 being apprehensive 

 of ophthalmia, had a paper, with the two Greek letters P and 

 A 64 written upon it, wrapped in linen and attached to his neck, 

 before he would venture to name the malady, and before any 

 other person had spoken to him about it. Mucianus, too, who 

 was thrice consul, following a similar observance, carried about 

 him a living fly, wrapped in a piece of white linen ; and it 

 was strongly asserted, by both of them, that to the use of these 

 expedients they owed their preservation from ophthalmia. 

 There are in existence, also, certain charms against hail- storms, 

 diseases of various kinds, and burns, some of which have been 

 proved, by actual experience, to be effectual; but so great is the 

 diversity of opinion upon them, that I am precluded by a 

 feeling of extreme diffidence from entering into further par- 

 ticulars, and must therefore leave each to form his own con- 

 clusions as he may feel inclined. 



CHAP. 6. (3.) TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX OBSERVATIONS 



ON EEMEDIES DERIVED FROM MAN. EIGHT REMEDIES DERIVED 

 FROM CHILDREN. 



We have already, 65 when speaking of the singular peculiar- 

 ities of various nations, made mention of certain men of a 

 monstrous nature, whose gaze is endowed with powers of 

 fascination ; and we have also described properties belonging to 

 numerous animals, which it would be superfluous here to repeat. 

 In some men, the whole of the body is endowed with remark- 

 able properties, as in those families, for instance, which are a 

 terror to serpents ; it being in their power to cure persons 

 when stung, either by the touch or by a slight suction of the 

 wound. To this class belong the Psylli, the Marsi, and the people 



60 * Twenty-eighth, according to our reckoning. 



61 Probably from their ominous resemblance to the Parcae, or Fates, with 

 their spindles, 62 "Frugum." 



63 " Princeps civitatis." 64 "Bho" and "Alpha." 



65 In B. vii. c. 2.* 



