BOOK VI. VI. 5-vn. 4 



down honey is introduced as a suppository into the 

 bowel and the ox is driven at a quick pace. 



VII. Pain in the belly and intestines is assuaged Remedy for 

 by the sight of swimming birds, especially a duck. p"ahS^ra 

 If an ox which has a pain in its intestines sees a o^en. 

 duck, it is quickly delivered from its torment. The 

 sight of a duck is also even more successful in curing 

 mules and the race of horses. Sometimes, however, 

 no remedy is of any avail and colic follows, the sign 

 of which is a flux of blood and mucous matter from 

 the belly. The cure for this consists of fifteen 2 

 cypress-cones and the same number of oak-apples 

 and very old cheese equal in weight to the other two 

 ingredients. When these have been pounded up 

 together, four sextarii of rough wine are mixed with 

 them, and the mixture is administered in equal doses 

 for four days ; nor should tops of mastic and myrtle 

 and wild olive be lacking. Diarrhoea " wastes the 

 body and the strength and renders an animal useless 

 for work. When this happens, the ox will have to be 

 kept from drinking for two days and on the first day 

 must be kept from eating ; but soon thereafter tops of 3 

 wild olive and of reeds must be given, also berries of 

 mastic and myrtle, but no opportunity of drinking 

 water must be allowed except as sparingly as possible. 

 Some people crush a pound of tender leaves of bay 

 and the same quantity of horned southernwood ^ in 

 two sextarii of hot water and pour it down the 

 animal's throat and put before it the same food as I 

 mentioned above. Some people heat two pounds of 4 



<" That viridis agrees with alvus ( ' ' green bowel ' ' ) and does not 

 belong to the previous sentence is clear from Vegetius, who 

 writes, si venter coeperit flttere viridis (quoted by Schneider). 



' Probably Artemisia ahrotonum. 



151 



