BOOK XIII. xLiii. 124-XLIV, 127 



shrub in their direction : their bodies swell up, and 

 their face is attacked by erysipelas — for which reason 

 before beginning they grease it with a solution 

 of wax. The doctors however say that mixed with 

 other ingredients the shrub is of use in treating 

 certain diseases, and also for fox-rnange, bruises and 

 spottiness — as if there really were any lack of 

 remedies, forcing them to take in hand new enormi- 

 ties! But they cloak their noisome expedient with 

 excuses of that sort, and such is their impudence that 

 they ask us to beHeve that poison is among the 

 resources of science ! 



The thapsia of Africa is the most violent of all. 

 Some people make an incision in the stalk during 

 harvest-time and make a hollow in the root itself for 

 the juice to collect in, and when it has dried take it 

 away ; others pound the leaves and stalk and root in 

 a mortar and after drying the juice hard in the sun 

 cut it up into lozenges. The emperor Nero at the 

 beginning of his reign gave this juice a famous ad- 

 vertisement, as when during his nocturnal escapades 

 his face had sustained a number of bruises he 

 smeared it with a mixture of thapsia, IVankincense 

 and wax and on the following day gave the he to 

 rumour by going about with a whole skin. It is a 

 well-known fact that fire can be best kept ahght 

 in a fennel stalk, and that the fennels in Egypt are 

 the best. 



XLIV. In Egypt also grows the caper-tree, a other shmbi 

 shrub with a rather hard wood ; also its seed is well 

 known as an article of food, and is usually gathered 

 together with the stalk. Its foreign varieties should 

 be avoidcd. inasmuch as the Arabian kind is poisonous 

 and the African injures the gums, and that from 



173 



