44 



116.— After this he gives us several recipes in which the dung of pigeons 

 is a main ingredient, as, 



117. — 1 R. Of the dung in powder ^iiij, barley meal or flower f iij, 

 vinegar q. f. mix them, to make a cataplasm against scrophulous and other 

 like hard tumors. 



118. — " 2 R. Of the powder of the dung Jijj hears grease f iiij, pep^ 

 per in powder ^j, oil of cummin seed ^£5 ; mix them for an oil against 

 baldness. 



119. — "3 R. Of the dung in powder ^iiij, black soap ^iij* oil ^^ 

 amber ^j, Mithridate, ^ij ; mix them for a cataplasm to ripen a plague 

 sore. 



120. — *' 4 R. Of the powder of the dung jj. Powder of winter cher" 

 ries §15 Cromwell seed 5ij ; mix them and make a powder against the 

 stone. Dose, from 5f§ to 5j*" 



121. — This dung is used likewise in salt-petre beds, and is of very great 

 advantage in the nourishing and production of it ; and till the days of 

 Oliver Cromwell, we had no salt-petre brought from abroad, but it was 

 made at home, from a mixture of pigeon's dung, fowls dung, hogs dung, 

 fat earth and lime, which with another ingredient will form salt-petre, only 

 it must be kept covered with a shed, to prevent or keep off the rain, that it 

 may only mix with the nitrous quality of the air ; and therefore when this 

 commodity is very dear, as it often has been, and may be again, the salt- 

 petre men produce it after this manner to this very day, by throwing in the 

 scum or refuse of their saltpetre amongst it. 



122. — Thus we have shown the various uses even of the most dis- 

 esteemed and excrementitious part ; but before we leave this head, we can- 

 not forbear mentioning the following story out of Tavernier, in the fourth 

 book of his first Volume of Persian Travels, page 146. 



J 23. — Says he, speaking of the people of Ispahan, "As for their 

 Pigeons, they fly wild about the country, but only some which they keep 

 tame in the City to decoy the rest, which is a sport the Persians use in hot 

 weather as well as cold. Now in regard the Christians are not permitted to 

 keep Pigeons, some of the vulgar sort will turn to Mahometans to have 

 that liberty. There are above three thousand Pigeon-houses in Ispahan, 

 for every man may build a Pigeon house upon his own farm, which yet is 

 very rarely done, all the other Pigeon houses belong to the king, who draws 

 a greater revenue from the dung than from the Pigeons ; which dung, as 

 they prepare it, serves to smoak their melons." 



COLUMBA TAJBELLAETA. The Carrier Pigeon. 



124. — The Carrier is larger in size than most of the common 



124. (Eaton.) — Mr. Moore observes, a Carrier is larger in size than most of the 

 common sorts of Pigeons ; this is true, he measiired one, whose length, from the point 

 of the beak to the extremity of the tail, Avas fifteen inches, though not one of the 

 largest, weighed near twenty ounces. I believe a Carrier cannot be too long from the 



