Ancient Rome and Modem Italy 55 



fluid from snails to straighten their lashes and make them grow. 334 

 Instead of cough medicine, they might have to depend upon a 

 charm attached to their person, such as raven's dung in a piece of 

 wool. 335 On their ears, when diseased, went goose-grease with the 

 juice of basil. 336 If food stuck in baby's throat, letting certain 

 rough, hairy worms crawl on its neck might loosen the obstacle, 

 presumably through the child's reaction of terror. 336 A foolish 

 parent might decide that in order to safeguard an infant against 

 epilepsy and various diseases that threaten the first years of life it 

 was worth while trying a prescription found in the Natural History 

 of Pliny: daily for forty days drop a liquid compound of the liver 

 of an ass with panax or all-heal into its mouth. 337 If the child suf- 

 fered pain in the spleen, they treated it topically with a preparation 

 of honey and the milt of an ox. This was recommended also as an 

 application for running ulcers. 337 If ulcers were forming in baby's 

 mouth it was the milt of a calf boiled in wine that provided an oint- 

 ment for them. 338 The way to stop the child's diarrhoea was to 

 apply a hare's rennet to the breasts of its nurse. 339 



Even the healthiest children are exposed to various ills from 

 sources of which one is unlikely to think. Anybody who under- 

 stands the power of sympathetic magic will realize why it is that 

 some Italian mothers when washing their child's diapers take pains 

 not to beat them too hard against the stones of the fountain lest it 

 cause the wearer the gripes. 340 Mothers are cautioned particularly 

 not to let their little ones nap in the shade of a walnut tree; for 

 such serve as the sabbath dormitory of the witches and they are 

 likely to anoint a child with magic stuff and so make it pale and 

 subject to rickets. 341 The great assembly of witches is on the 

 night of S. Simone in November. Their most celebrated meeting- 

 place was under a walnut tree at Benevento. According to some 

 reports, this was destroyed centuries ago, but they continue to use 

 the site for their rendezvous. There one may see them dancing 

 on the night of San Giovanni Battista. 342 I have not had that 

 good luck. 



Even within the field of surgery magic had its role to play in 

 Roman times, and it still does among the modern people of Italy 

 in sporadic instances. Among the worthies of early history there 

 is no more respectable figure than Cato the Elder, nor can he be 

 classed among the unintelligent of his time. 343 Yet when anybody 



