272 FISHING GOSSIP. 



tioned in the Scrfptures (Mark xiv. 3) ; while the 

 Spectator says : " He cast into the pile bundles of 

 myrrh, and sheaves of spikenard, enriching it with 

 every spicy shrub." 



In some of the many recipes in which oils are used 

 we find that of comfrey alluded to, which in Baily's 

 Dictionary is given as " an excellent wound herb ; " 

 and the celebrated J. J. Eousseau, in his Letters on the 

 Elements of Botany, speaks of it as the sympliytum 

 officinale I/inncei, being common by watersides. 

 Galbanum, a strong-scented gum, is likewise fre- 

 quently mentioned ; and herein is a strange contradic- 

 tion of opinion in reference to its odour, for while we 

 find in the Apocrypha, " I yielded indeed a pleasant 

 odour, like the best myrrh ; as galbanum " (Ecclus. 

 xxiv. 15) ; Hill, the chymical author, whom we have 

 before quoted, says " its smell is strong and disagree- 

 able." 



" Some advise to take the bones or skull of a dead man, at 

 the opening of a grave, and beat them into powder, and to put 

 of this powder into the moss wherein you keep your worms ; 

 but others like the grave earth as well." 



" Man's fat " is very often alluded to in the old 

 books, and we are directed " to any surgeons " for it ! 

 " Cat's fat " is likewise strongly recommended, and 

 that fat from a heron's leg. Now we know that 

 herons and cats are fond of fish, and that although a 

 cat has an almost insuperable aversion to the wetting 



