BOOK VI. V. 3-vi. 2 



the left hand before sunrise, for it is believed to have 

 greater potency if it is picked in this way. The 4 

 following is the traditional manner of using it. A 

 line is drawn round the widest part of the ear-lap with 

 brazen pin in such a way that a figure resembling the 

 letter O appears where the blood flows. When this 

 operation has been performed both inside and on the 

 upper part of the ear, the middle of the circle which 

 has been described is pierced with the same pin and 

 the root mentioned above is inserted in the hole thus 

 made, and, when the newly made wound has closed 

 on it, it holds the root so tightly that it cannot slip out. 

 Then all the virulence of the disease and the poison 

 of the plague is attracted to this ear, until the part 

 round which the line was described by the pin morti- 

 fies and comes away. Thus the head is saved by the 

 sacrifice of a very small portion of it. Cornelius 5 

 Celsus " also recommends the pouring into the 

 nostrils of wine in which the leaves of mistletoe have 

 been crushed. The latter course must be adopted if 

 the cattle are suffering as a herd, the former if in- 

 dividual animals are affected. 



VI. Signs of indigestion are frequent eructations. Remedies 

 rumblings of the belly, distaste for food, tension of tionln'^^^ 

 the sinews and dimness of the sight, with the result cattle. 

 that the ox neither ruminates nor cleanses himself 

 by licking. The appropriate remedy will be two 

 congii of hot water, followed by thirty moderate- 

 sized stalks of cabbage cooked and dipped in 

 vinegar ; but the animal must abstain from other 

 food for one day. Some people keep the animal 2 

 shut up indoors, so that it cannot graze ; they then 

 mix four pounds of the tops of mastic and wild olive 

 crushed up with a pound of honey in a congius of water, 



147 



