BOOK XXIV. xLii. 70-72 



the same bark pounded checks all kinds of gatherings. 

 From the leaves is extracted a juice employed for the 

 same purposes. The leaves ai-e also decocted in 

 Mine ; but bv themselves with honey added thev 

 are applied to gangrenous sores. A decoction of 

 them taken in wine or the leaves themselves applied 

 locally with rose oil and wax are soothing." So used 

 they also cure epinyctis ; ^ a decoction of them is heal- 

 ing to tooth-ache and ear-ache ; the root is similarly 

 used for the same purposes. The leaves furthermore 

 are apphed with pearl barley to spreading ulcers. A 

 drachma by weight of the seed is taken in drink for 

 the poison of phalangia and other spiders ; it is 

 appHed however with chicken fat to boils. It is an 

 antidote also to the poison of serpents except that of 

 the asp. It is also good for jaundice, phthiriasis and 

 nits, if a decoction is used as a Hniment, and this 

 too checks excessive menstruation. The ash from the 

 tree is good for all the same purposes. They say that if 

 it is mixed with the urine of a castrated ox and taken 

 in either drink or food it is antaphrodisiac. A burning 

 coalof this wood is quenched with the urine mentioned 

 and kept in the shade. This, when you want to hght 

 it, crumbles to powder.'' The Magi have recorded 

 that the urine of a eunuch also has the same effect. 



extracted from the reading of the MSS. Mayhofi's reslituitur 

 requires venerem as the understood direct object oi accendere; 

 in other words, the sentence gives, not a method of preparing 

 the mixture, but one of counteracting it. The conjectures of 

 Voss put this view far more ciearly. " A buming coal, when 

 desire is quenched, is put out by such urine and stored in a 

 shady place; if the wish to kindle desire comes back, the 

 same coal is burned." The rekindling of the coal rekindles 

 sexual desire by imitative magic. This interpretation com- 

 mends itself to students of folk-lore, but is based on bokl 

 and dubious conjecture. 



55 



