310 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXVI II- 



whip with which he guides his horse. In addition to all this, 

 so full of quirks and subtleties are the vain conceits of the 

 magicians, they recommend the hyaena to be captured while 

 the moon is passing through the sign of Gemini, and every 

 hair of it to be preserved, if possible. They say, too, that the 

 skin of the head is highly efficacious, if attached to a person 

 suffering from head- ache ; that the gall, applied to the fore- 

 head, is curative of ophthalmia ; and that if the gall is boiled 

 down with three cyathi of Attic honey and one ounce of saffron, 

 it will be a most effectual preservative against that disease, 

 the same preparation being equally good for the dispersion of 

 films on the eyes and cataract. If, again, this preparation is 

 kept till it is old, it will be all the better for improving the 

 sight, due care being taken to preserve it in a box of Cyprian 

 copper : they assert also, that it is good for the cure of argema, 

 eruptions and excrescences of the eyes, and marks upon those 

 organs. For diseases 45 of the crystalline humours of the eyes, 

 it is recommended to anoint them with the gravy of hyaena's 

 liver roasted fresh, incorporated with clarified honey. 



We learn also, from the same sources, that the teeth of the 

 hysena are useful for the cure of tooth-ache, the diseased tooth 

 being either touched with them, or the animal's teeth being 

 arranged in their regular order, and attached to the patient ; 

 that the shoulders of this animal are good for the cure of pains 

 in the arms and shoulders ; that the teeth, extracted from the 

 left side of the jaw, and wrapped in the skin of a sheep or he- 

 goat, are an effectual cure for pains in the stomach ; that the 

 lights of the animal, taken with the food, are good for cceliac 

 affections ; that the lights, reduced to ashes and applied with oil, 

 are also soothing to the stomach ; that the marrow of the back- 

 bone, used with old oil and gall, is strengthening to the sinews ; 

 that the liver, tasted thrice just before the paroxysms, is good 

 for quartan fevers ; that the ashes of the vertebrae, applied in 

 hyaena's skin with the tongue and right foot of a sea-calf and a 

 bull's gall, the whole boiled up together, are soothing for gout; 

 that for the same disease hyaena's gall is advantageously em- 

 ployed in combination with stone of Assos; 46 that for cold shiver- 

 ings, spasms, sudden fits of starting, and palpitations of the 



45 " Glaucomata." Littre considers, on the authority of M. Sichel, that 

 "Glaucoma" and "suffusio" are different names for the same disease- 

 cataract. 46 See B. xxxvi. c. 27. 



