156 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



lacerta monitor, attacks a snake, and is bitten 

 by its venomous fangs, it immediately runs to a 

 particular herb which grows in the desert ; and 

 eating some of it, and rubbing the wounded part 

 upon the leaves, it recovers from the effect of the 

 poison and returns to the fight. One assured 

 me that he had witnessed an encounter of this 

 kind, in which he perceived the effects of the herb 

 whenever the lizard was wounded by its adversary ; 

 and having plucked it up during their continued 

 encounter, he saw the wounded lizard seek in vain 

 this antidote, and die of the bite. But the tales 

 of the Arabs are not always true ; and this cannot 

 fail to recal the ancient belief in the properties of 

 the Elephoboscon and Dictamnus. 



Pliny mentions several plants said to be remedies 

 against the bites of serpents*; and Cicero t asserts 

 that " the wild goats of Crete, when wounded by 

 poisonous arrows, fled to a herb called Dictamnus, 

 which they had no sooner tasted than the arrows 

 forthwith fell from their bodies." This is re- 

 peated in other words by Aristotle and Pliny 1:, 

 and by Virgil§ in these lines : — 



" Dictamnuni gcnitiix Crctaea carpit ab Ida 

 Piiberibus caiilcm foliis, ct flore coiiiantcm 

 Piirj)ureo : non ilia fcris incoiinita capris 

 Grainina, cimi tcrgo volucrcs Incserc sagitta'." 



With regard to vElian's remark || of the Ich- 

 neumon being both male and female, we may con- 

 clude that, like the notion respecting the spotted 



* Plin.xxii. 22. ct alibi. f Cicero, Nat. Dcor. lib. ii. 



J Plin. XXV. 8. " Statim decidcntibus tclis." Aristot.An. ix. G. 

 § Virg. Mn. xii. 412. || vl<:iian, An. x. 1-7. 



