BOOK XXIII. II. 2-III. 5 



time and with immense labour. But my gifts are 

 perfect before they leave me, and need no laborious 

 preparation. They proifer themselves unasked, and 

 if it be too much trouble to reach them, they actually 

 fall of themselves." She has striven to outdo herself, 

 in that she has created more for our benefit even than 

 for our pleasure. 



III. Headache and inflammations on the body are 

 reUeved by vine leaves and vine shoots combined with 

 pearl barley, heartburn by the leaves alone in cold 

 water, diseases of the joints, moreover, by the leaves 

 mixed with barley meal. Vine shoots pounded and 

 appHed to any kind of tumour dry it up ; an injection 

 of their juice cures dysentery. The drops of the vine, 

 which are a kind of gum, heal leprous sores, Uchen, 

 and itch, but these must first be treated with soda. 

 They also act as a depilatory if the hair be repeatedly 

 smeared with them and oil, and particularly those 

 drops that exude from green vines when burnt, by 

 which even warts are removed. An infusion of the 

 shoots taken as a draught is good for the spitting of 

 blood and for the fainting of women after conception. 

 The bark and dried leaves of vines check the bleeding 

 of wounds, and close up the wound itself. The juice 

 of the white vine," extracted while the vine is still 

 green, removes eruptions on the skin. The ash of 

 the twigs of vines and of grape skins, appUed in 

 vinegar, heals condylomata ^ and complaints of the 

 anus ; with rose oil, rue and vinegar added, it heals 

 sprains, burns, and swollen spleen. This ash too, in 

 wine but without oil, is sprinkled on parts affected by 

 erysipelas or chafed, besides acting as a depilatory. 

 The ash of the twigs sprinkled with vinegar is also 

 given in drink as a cure for splenic complaints, the 



417 



