Chap. 21.] EEMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE YIPER. 395 



CHAP. 20. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE DRAGON. 



The dragon 18 is a serpent destitute of venom. Its head, 

 placed beneath the threshold of a door, the gods heing duly 

 propitiated by prayers, will ensure good fortune to the house, 

 it is said. Its eyes, dried and beaten up with honey, form a 

 liniment which is an effectual preservative against the terrors 

 of spectres by night, in the case of the most timorous even. 

 The fat adhering to the heart, attached to the arm with a 

 deer's sinews in the skin of a gazelle, will ensure success in 

 law-suits, it is said ; and the first joint of the vertebra will 

 secure an easy access to persons high in office. The teeth, 

 attached to the body with a deer's sinews in the skin of a roe- 

 buck, have the effect of rendering masters indulgent and poten- 

 tates gracious, it is said. 



But the most remarkable thing of all is a composition, by 

 the aid of which the lying magicians profess to render persons 

 invincible. The)* take the tail and head of a dragon, the hairs 

 of a lion's forehead with the marrow of that animal, the foam 

 of a horse that has won a race, and the claws of a dog's feet : 

 these they tie up together in a deer's skin, and fasten them 

 alternately with the sinews of a deer and a gazelle. It is, 

 however, no better worth our while to refute such pretensions 

 as these, than it would be to describe the alleged remedies for 

 injuries inflicted by serpents, seeing that all these contrivances 

 are so many evil devices to poison 19 men's morals. 



Dragon's fat will repel venomous creatures ; an effect which is 

 equally produced by burning the fat of the ichneumon. 20 They 

 will take to flight, also, at the approach of a person who has 

 been rubbed with nettles bruised in vinegar. 



CHAP. 21. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE VIPER. 



The application of a viper's head, even if it be not the one 

 that has inflicted the wound, is of infinite utility as a remedy. 

 It is highly advantageous, too, to hold the viper that inflicted 

 the injury on the end of a stick, over the steam of boiling 



18 Some serpent of the boa species, probably. See B. via. cc. 1C, 14, 

 22, 41, and B. x. cc. 5, 92, 95, 96. 



19 By leading them to confound truth with fiction. 



20 See B. viii. c. 35. 



