272 FISHING GOSSIP. 
tioned in the Scriptures (Mark xiv. 3); while the 
Spectator says: “He cast into the pile bundles of 
myrrh, and sheaves of spikenard, enriching it with 
every spicy shrub.” 
Tn some of the many recipes in which oils are used 
we find that of comfrey alluded to, which in Baily’s 
Dictionary is given as “an excellent wound herb ;” 
and the celebrated J. J. Rousseau, in his Letters on the 
Elements of Botany, speaks of it as the symphytum 
officinale Linnei, being common by watersides. 
Galbanum, a strong-scented gum, is likewise fre- 
quently mentioned ; and herein is a strange contradic- 
tion of opinion in reference to its odour, for while we 
find in-the Apocrypha, “I yielded indeed a pleasant 
odour, like the best myrrh; as galbanum” (Ecclus. 
xxiv. 15); Hill, the chymical author, whom we have 
before quoted, says “its smell is strong and disagree- 
able.” . 
“ Some advise to take the bones or skull of a dead man, at 
the opening of a grave, and beat them into powder, and to put 
of this powder into the moss wherein you keep your worms ; 
but others like the grave earth as well.” 
“Man’s fat” is very often alluded to in the old 
books, and we are directed “to any surgeons” for it ! 
“Cat’s fat” is likewise strongly recommended, and 
that fat from a heron’s leg. Now we know that 
herons and cats are fond of fish, and that although a 
cat has an almost insuperable aversion to the wetting 
