Ancient Rome and Modern Italy 53 



with pain in that region a live duck and a lap-dog of the Melitaean 

 species, or a puppy that was not yet old enough to see, a post- 

 mortem examination of the animal was expected to reveal in it 

 the very malady of which the beneficiary had been relieved. 312 As 

 a matter of fact, that anal extraction of disease is actually used 

 today on Sicilian babies when they are suffering from the colic. 313 

 But for this common ailment there is also available a remedy which 

 has none of the offensiveness of these animal transfers: simply have 

 a twin touch the belly of the little sufferer with his foot. 314 



Convulsions are another dreaded ailment, but why let an infant 

 have them? As soon as it is born, a tortoise should be killed and 

 a few drops of its blood should be given it to drink. 315 Such a 

 quiet animal ought to be potent. There is a well-known quietus 

 for an epileptic fit, a small iron key, la chiave di San Valentino. 

 Suspended from a baby's neck, it is thought to prevent and cure 

 this affliction. But in order to stop the paroxysms of a child the 

 key must be one that is made of brass or silver. 316 If, in spite of 

 its wearing a protective key, Papal coin, or the dried heart of a 

 cocksparrow suspended from its neck and a black silk handkerchief 

 tied around it, it does have fits, hot wax dropped on its neck and 

 finger nails from a candle which has had an ecclesiastical blessing 

 may be expected to work a cure. 317 The heart of a swallow which 

 has been dried is used as an amuletic protection against a recur- 

 rence of such troubles. 318 



In order to prevent an infant from suffocating itself during sleep, 

 one need only put on it somewhere an emerald. We must suppose, 

 however, that few Italian parents could possess such a costly means 

 of insurance. 319 Another charm that is favored for a baby is a 

 gathering of badger's hair. 320 Like hair from a red dog, if it 

 is suspended from the neck, it should keep him from becoming pale, 

 weak, and emaciated. 321 The long-suffering toad has to provide 

 another charm. At the time of a new moon all four of its legs are 

 cut off while the reptile is still alive, so that, when suspended from 

 a child's neck, they may cure it of scrofulous ulcerations. 322 



It is Pliny the Elder who tells us that, if babies are restless, the 

 dung of goats should be attached to them in a piece of cloth. This 

 acts as a sedative more effectively on a girl than on a boy. 323 He 

 tells us, too, that we can make the little ones fearless by putting on 

 them the skin of a wolf, or of an ass, or a piece of it which has the 



