Chap. 6.] 
EEMEDIES DEBITED FROM MAIST. 
287 
called Ophiogenes,*'^ in the Isle of Cyprus. One Euagon, 
a member of this family, while attending upon a deputation at 
Eome, was thrown by way of experiment, by order of the con- 
suls, into a large vesseF'^ filled with serpents ; upon which, 
to the astonishment of all, they licked his body all over with 
their tongues. One peculiarity of this family — if indeed it is 
still in existence — is the strong offensive smell which proceeds 
from their body in the spring ; their sweat, too, no less than 
their spittle, was possessed of remedial virtues. The people 
who are born' at Tentyris, an island in the river I^ilus, are 
so formidable^^ to the crocodiles there, that their voice even is 
sufficient to put them to flight. The presence even, it is well 
known, of all these different races, will suffice for the cure of 
injuries inflicted by the animals to which they respectively 
have an antipathy ; just in the same way that wounds are 
irritated by the approach of persons who have been stung by 
a serpent at some former time, or bitten by a dog. Such 
persons, too, by their presence, will cause the eggs upon which 
a hen is sitting to be addled, and will make pregnant cattle 
cast their young and miscarry; for, in fact, so much of 
the venom remains in their body, that, from being poisoned 
themselves, they become poisonous to other creatures. The 
proper remedy in such case is first to make them wash their 
hands, and then to sprinkle with the water the patient who is 
under medical treatment. When, again, persons have been 
once stung by a scorpion they will never afterwards be attacked 
by hornets, wasps, or bees : a fact at which a person will be 
the less surprised when he learns that a garment which has 
been worn at a funeral will never be touched by moths that 
it is hardly possible to draw serpents from their holes except 
by using the left hand ; and that, of the discoveries made by 
Pythagoras, one of the most unerring, is the fact, that in the 
name given to infants, an odd number of vowels is portentous 
of lameness, loss of eyesight, or similar accidents, on"^^ the right 
In B. vii. c. 2, he speaks of these people — the serpent-born — as 
natives of Parium, a town of the Hellespont. Ajasson suggests that they 
may have been a branch of the Thamirades, a sacerdotal family of Cyprus. 
6^ ^' Dolium." 68 See B. viii. c. 38. 
69 Ajasson has thought it worth while to contradict this assertion. 
"'^ Meaning, of course, in case such an accident should befall the party. 
The passage appears, however, to be corrupt. 
