288 
PLINT S NATURAL HISTORY. 
[Book XXVIII. 
side of the body, and an even number of vowels of the like 
infirmities on the left. 
(4.) It is said, that if a person takes a stone or other missile 
which has slain three living creatures, a man, a boar, and a 
bear, at three blows, and throws it over the roof of a house 
in which there is a pregnant woman, her delivery, however 
difficult, will be instantly accelerated thereby. In such a case, 
too, a successful result will be rendered all the more probable, 
if a light infantry lance*^^ is used, which has been drawn from, 
a man's body without touching the earth; indeed, if it is 
brought into the house it will be productive of a similar result. 
In the same way, too, we find it stated in the writings of 
Orpheus and Archelaiis, that arrows, drawn from a human 
body without being allowed to touch the ground, and placed 
beneath the bed, will have all the effect of a philtre ; and, 
what is even more than this, that it is a cure for epilepsy if 
the patient eats the flesh of a wild beast killed with an iron 
weapon with which a human being has been slain. 
Some individuals, too, are possessed of medicinal properties 
in certain parts of the body ; the thumb of King Pyrrhus, for 
instance, as already^^ mentioned. At Elis, there used to 
be shown one of the ribs"^^ of Pelops, which, it was generally 
asserted, was made of ivory. At the present day even, there 
are many persons, who from religious motives will never clip 
the hair growing upon a mole on the face. 
CHAP. 7. PROPERTIES OE THE HUMAN SPITTLE. 
But it is the fasting spittle of a human being, that is, as 
already stated by us, the sovereign preservative against the 
poison of serpents J while, at the same time, our daily experience 
may recognize its efficacy and utility,"^^ in many other respects. 
We are in the habit of spitting,''^ for instance, as a preservative 
from epilepsy, or in other words, we repel contagion thereby : 
71 "Hasta velitaris." in b. vii. c. 2. 
It is the shoulder-blade of Pelops that is generally mentioned in the 
ancient Mythology. Pliny omits to say of what medicinal virtues it was 
possessed. '^^ In B. vii. c. 2. 
''^ It certainly ,does seem to be possessed of some efficacy for the removal 
of spots and stains, but for no other purpose probably. 
In some parts of France, the peasants spit in the hand when in terror 
of spectres at night. In our country, prize-fighters spit in the hand before 
beginning the combat, and costermongers spit on their morning's handsel, 
or first earned money, for good luck. 
