Chap. 27.] REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE HTJENA. 311 



heart, it is a good plan to eat some portion of a hyaena's heart 

 cooked, care being taken to reduce the rest to ashes, and to 

 apply it with the brains of the animal to the part affected ; 

 that this last composition, or the gall applied alone, acts as 

 a depilatory, the hairs being first plucked out which are 

 wanted not to grow again; that by this method superfluous hairs 

 of the eyelids may be removed ; that the flesh of the loins, 

 eaten and applied with oil, is a cure for pains in the loins ; and 

 that sterility in females may be removed by giving them the 

 eye of this animal to eat, in combination with liquorice and dill, 

 conception within three days being warranted as the result. 



Persons afflicted with night-mare and dread of spectres, will 

 experience relief, they say, by attaching one of the large teeth 

 of a hyaena to the body, with a linen thread. In fits of delirium 

 too, it is recommended to fumigate the patient with the smoke 

 of one of these teeth, and to attach one in front of his chest, 

 with the fat of the kidneys, or else the liver or skin. They 

 assert also that a pregnant woman will never miscarry, if she 

 wears suspended from her neck, the white flesh from a hyaena's 

 breast, with seven hairs and the genitals of a stag, the whole 

 tied up in the skin of a gazelle. The genitals, they say, eaten 

 with honey, act as a stimulant upon a person, according to 

 the sex, and this even though it should be the case of a man 

 who has manifested an aversion to all intercourse with females. 



Nay, even more than all this, we are assured that if the 

 genitals and a certain joint of the vertebrae are preserved in 

 a house with the hide adhering to them, they will ensure peace 

 and concord between all members of the family ; hence it is * 

 that this part is known as the " joint of the spine," 47 or ' ' At- 

 lantian 48 knot." This joint, which is the first, is reckoned among 

 the remedies for epilepsy. 



The fumes of the burnt fat of this animal will put ser- 

 pents to flight, they say ; and the jawbone, pounded with anise 

 and taken with the food, is a cure for shivering fits. A fumi- 

 gation made therewith has the effect of an emmenagogue ; and 

 such are the frivolous and absurd conceits of the professors of 

 the magic art, that they boldly assert that if a man attaches to 



4 7 " Spinae " seems a preferable reading to " ruinse," adopted by Sillig. 



48 ** Nodum Atlantion." From the Greek drKaq, "much enduring," 

 Julius Pollux says, because it was fitted for supporting burdens. The 

 " hinc " " hence," of Pliny here appears to be a non sequitur. 



