54 Conception, Birth and Infancy in 



hair on. 324 We can prevent their alarms by attaching to them the 

 tooth of a wolf, 325 a dolphin, or a dogfish. 326 Such notions are not 

 unknown in Italy now. Italian babies still suffer terribly from 

 "night terror", pavor nocturnus, and the less usual fits of fright 

 that may come by day, pavor diurnus. Zeno Zanetti reports out 

 of his profound knowledge of the folklore of Perugia that a child 

 may be safeguarded against terrifying nightmares by giving it 

 doses of the brains of a she-goat, if local teaching is followed, while 

 as an amulet it may still, as in antiquity, wear a piece of the skin 

 of an ass. 327 In this connection we remember a prescription from 

 the magi both for the diseases which belong particularly to infancy 

 and for epilepsy. It requires one to give the youngster the brains 

 of a she-goat. But they must be passed through a gold ring and 

 dropped into the mouth before the child is given its milk. 325 Su- 

 perstitious Neapolitans maintain that a remedy for fear is the eat- 

 ing of scarab beetles. 328 But there are Bolognese mothers who 

 fortify the infant against fear by washing it with water in which 

 certain herbs have been boiled. 329 In the Abruzzi country you will 

 be told not to put any sort of necklace on a baby boy lest he grow 

 up timid. 330 



Exposure to the hot sun of Italy might give the Roman baby 

 siriasis, an inflammation of the brain. 331 In some Latin references, 

 perhaps, the word should be translated "sunstroke." In any case, 

 its derivation reminds us that Sirius, the Dog-Star, must be held 

 responsible for a period in midsummer when Helios, the Sun-God, 

 is likely to do his worst. We cannot be much surprised, then, if 

 the heliotrope, Heliotr opium, europaeum (also called verrucaria, 

 a "wart plant" which should cure those excrescences), provides 

 leaves, which, when prepared in the form of an ointment, were 

 deemed a remedy for the disease. A turnsole ought to cure an 

 infant that had been turned too much towards the sun. It was 

 also supposed to be good for the child's convulsions, even if they 

 were of epileptic origin. If this plant was not available as a rem- 

 edy, one had merely to find dog dung that contained bones and 

 then attach these to the baby as an amulet. 332 Also conducive to 

 a cure was a sponge wet with cold water, or a frog applied, belly- 

 side in, on the suffering head. 333 



Babies were exposed to much other therapy that they might live 

 to regret. Their precious eyes might be smeared with the slimy 



