454 PLINY'S KATUEAL HISTOKY. [Book XXX. 



itself, tied up in a linen cloth, with a red string, and attached 

 to the body ; the longest tooth of a black dog ; or the wasp 

 known by the name of " pseudosphex," 32 which is always to 

 be seen flying alone, caught with the left hand and attached 

 beneath the patient's chin. Some use for this purpose the 

 first wasp that a person sees in the current year. Other 

 amulets are, a viper's head, severed from the body and wrapped 

 in a linen cloth ; a viper's heart, removed from the reptile 

 while still alive ; the muzzle 33 of a mouse and the tips of its 

 ears, wrapped in red cloth, the animal being set at liberty 

 after they are removed; the right eye plucked from a living 

 lizard, and enclosed with the head, separated from the body, 

 in goat's skin ; the scarabseus also that forms pellets 34 and rolls 

 them along. 



It is on account of this kind of scarabseus that the people 

 of a great part of Egypt worship those insects as divinities ; 

 an usage for which Apion gives a curious reason, asserting, as he 

 does, by way of justifying the rites of his nation, that the insect 

 in its operations pictures the revolution of the sun. There is 

 also another kind of scarabseus, which the magicians recom- 

 mend to be worn as an amulet the one that has small horns 38 

 thrown backwards ; it must be taken up, when used for this 

 purpose, with the left hand. A third kind also, known by the 

 name of "fullo/' 37 and covered with white spots, they recom- 

 mend to be cut asunder and attached to either arm, the other 

 kinds being worn upon the left arm. Other amulets recom- 

 mended by them, are, the heart of a snake taken from the 

 living animal with the left hand ; or four joints of a scorpion's 

 tail, together with the sting, attached to the body in a piece of 

 black cloth ; due care being taken that the patient does not see 



32 " Bastard-wasp." 



33 " Rostellum." Holland renders it " The little prettie snout's end of 

 a mouse." 



34 Of cowdung. It was supposed that there was no female scarabseus, 

 and that the male insect formed these balls for the reproduction of its 

 species. It figures very largely in the Egyptian mythology and philosophy 

 as the emblem of the creative and generative power. It has been suggested 

 that its Coptic name " skalouks" is a compound Sanscrit word, signifying 

 " The ox-insect that collects dirt into a round mass." See B. xi c. 34. 



36 Probably the " lucanus " mentioned in B. xi. c. 34 ; supposed to be 

 the same as the stag-beetle. 



37 The u fuller," apparently. This name may possibly be derived, how- 

 ever, from the Greek <pv\\6v, a ''leaf." 



