BOOK VII. XV. 64-xvi. 67 



Capito. But nothing could easily be found that 

 is more remarkable than the monthly flux of women. 

 Contact with it turns new wine sour, crops touched 

 by it bccome barren, grafts die, seeds in gardens 

 are dried up, the fruit of trees falls otf, the bright 

 surface of mirrors in which it is merely reflected 

 is dimmed, the edge of steel and the gleam of 

 ivory are dulled, hives of bees die, even bronze 

 and iron are at once seized by rust, and a horrible 

 smell fills the air ; to taste it drives dogs mad and 

 infects their bites with an incurable poison. More- 

 over bitumen, a substance generally sticky and 

 viscous, that at a certain season of the year floats 

 on the surface of the lake of Judaea called the 

 Asphalt Pool,'» adheres to everj^thing touching it, 

 and cannot be drawn asxmder except by a thread 

 soaked in the poisonous fluid in question. Even that 

 very tiny creature the ant is said to be sensitive to 

 it, and throws away grains of corn that taste of it 

 and does not touch them again. Not only does this 

 pemicious mischief occur in a woman every month, 

 but it comes in larger (juantity every three months ; 

 and in some cases it comes more frequently than 

 once a month, just as in certain women it never 

 occurs at all. The latter, however, do not have 

 children, since the substance in question is the 

 material for human generation, as the semen from 

 the males acting like rennet collects this substance 

 within it, which thereupon immediately is inspired 

 with Hfe and endowed with body. Hence when this 

 flux occurs with women heavy with child, the off- 

 spring is sickly or still-born or sanious, according to 

 Nigidius. XVI. (The same writer hokis that a 

 woman's milk does not go bad while she is suckUng 



549 



