400 
flint's natural HISTOKT. [Book XXIX. 
CHAP. 26. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM OTHER BIRDS. 
The flesh of pigeons also, or of swallows, used fresh and 
minced, is a remedy for injuries inflicted by serpents: the 
same, too, with the feet of a horned owl, burnt with the plant 
plumbago.^^ While mentioning this bird, too, I must not 
forget to cite another instance of the impositions practised by the 
magicians : among other prodigious lies of theirs, they pretend 
that the heart of a horned owl, applied to the left breast of a 
woman while asleep, will make*^ her disclose all her secret 
thoughts. They say, also, in addition to this, that persons who have 
it about them in battle will be sure to display valour. They 
describe, too, certain remedies made from the egg of this bird for 
the hair. But who, pray, has ever had the opportunity of 
seeing the egg of a horned owl, considering that it is so highly 
ominous to see the bird itself And then besides, who has 
ever thought proper to make the experiment, and upon his hair 
more particularly In addition to all this, the magicians go 
so far as to engage to make the hair curl by using the blood of 
the young of the homed owl. 
What they tell us, too, about the bat, appears to belong to 
pretty much the same class of stories : if one of these animals is 
carried alive, three times round a house, they say, and then 
nailed outside of the window with the head downwards, it will 
h ave all the effects of a countercharm : they assert, also, that the 
bat is a most excellent preservative for sheepfolds, being first 
carried three times round them, and then hung up by the foot 
over the lintel of the door.^^ The blood of the bat is also 
recommended by them as a sovereign remedy, in combination 
with a thistle,^^ for injuries inflicted by serpents. 
CHAP. 27. REMEDIES FOR THE BITE OF THE PHALANGIUM. THE 
SEVERAL VARIETIES OF THAT INSECT, AND OF THE SPIDER. 
Of the phalangium,** an insect unknown to Italy, there are 
39 See B. XXV. c. 97. 
^'^ The same is said of a frog's tongue, in B. xxxii. c. 18. 
That is no reason, as Ajasson remarks, why the egg should not bo 
found, it being easy to take it from the nest at night, when, the bird 
being absent, no ill omen will arise from seeing it. 
We still see bats nailed upon and over stable doors in various parts 
of this country. 43 n Carduus." 
*4 A sort of spider. See B. xi. cc. 24, 28, 29. 
