16 Conception, Birth and Infancy in 



horse manure or cowdung, as may also be recommended by Ital- 

 ians who claim to be wise in such matters. 62 



Pliny informs us 63 that when a woman's delivery is to be ex- 

 pected soon, the husband can quicken it if he unties the girdle of 

 his tunic and, after putting it around his wife, frees her from it, 

 uttering the set formula "I have fastened it and I am going to 

 loose it", and thereupon takes his departure. As a matter of fact, 

 other advice in Pliny upon magical effects that may result from 

 any sort of constriction would suggest that until his wife had been 

 delivered and was sound and well, the man of the house had better 

 stay around and safeguard her against careless visitors; for we 

 are told that when a woman is lying in, or a sick person is taking 

 medicine, nobody ought to sit near the bed with his fingers inter- 

 locked, or, worse still, with them in that position clasped over one 

 or both knees, nor, indeed, should anybody in a sick room cross 

 the knees at all. 64 Whoever participated in the rites of Juno 

 Lucina as the goddess of lying-in women must have nothing on 

 the person in the form of a knot. 65 



Nowadays there are Italian women who during pregnancy 

 would not dare to put a skein of wool or any knotted cord around 

 their neck lest the child be born with the umbilical cord around 

 its throat suffocating it, or, in any case, be fated to have a neck 

 that is permanently undersized. 66 The presence of maidens is un- 

 desirable, since their organs have never had the dilation of child- 

 bearing. 67 On the other hand, there is a supposedly efficacious 

 method of facilitating delivery by fastening around the parturient 

 woman the cast-off skin of a snake, or by giving her a bit of it 

 in her soup: then the baby slips from the womb quickly like a 

 snake from a hole. 68 This sort of obstetrical magic has a long 

 history behind it. According to the Roman superstition, the 

 circling slough had to be removed as soon as the child was born. 69 

 The skin was thought to work effectively also if some of it was 

 taken in wine with frankincense as the other ingredient. Ad- 

 ministered in any other way, it was said to cause a miscarriage. 69 



Latin literature informs us of other remedial agents that should 

 be available at parturition. To accelerate a woman's delivery 

 the echeneis should be worn as an amulet, 70 a vulture's feather 

 should be put under her feet, 71 or an ass's hoof should be burned 

 beneath her, but only when a dead fetus is to be expelled. 72 



