408 
plijsit's natural htstort. 
[Book XXIX. 
narcotic poisons the common weasel is kept dried, and taken 
internally, in doses of two drachmae. 
CHAP. 34, (6.) — EEMEDIES FOR ALOPECY. 
Where the hair has been lost through alopecy, '® it is made 
to grow again by using ashes of burnt sheep's dung, with oil of 
cyprus^^ and honey ; or else the hoof of a mule of either sex, 
burnt to ashes and mixed with oil of myrtle. In addition to these 
substances, we find our own writer, Yarro, mentioning mouse- 
dung, which he calls muscerda,"''^^ and the heads of flies, 
applied fresh, the part being first rubbed with a fig-leaf. 
Some recommend the blood of flies, while others, again, apply 
ashes of burnt flies for ten days, in the proportion of one part 
of the ashes to two of ashes of papyrus or of nuts. In other 
cases, again, we find ashes of burnt flies kneaded up with 
woman's milk and cabbage, or, in some instances, with honey 
only. It is generally believed that there is no creature less 
docile or less intelligent than the fly ; a circumstance which 
makes it all the more marvellous that at the sacred games at 
Olympia, immediately after the immolation of the bull in 
honour of the god called Myiodes,""'^ whole clouds of them 
take their departure from that territory. A mouse's head or 
tail, or, indeed, the whole of the body, reduced to ashes, is a 
cure for alopecy, more particularly when the loss of the hair has 
been the result of some noxious preparation. The ashes of a 
hedge-hog, mixed with honey, or of its skin, applied with tar, 
are productive of a similar effect. The head, too, of this last 
animal, reduced to ashes, restores the hair to scars upon the 
body ; the place being first prepared, when this cure is made 
use of, with a razor and an application of mustard : some 
persons, however, prefer vinegar for the purpose. All the 
properties attributed to the hedge-hog are found in the por- 
cupine in a still higher degree.^^ 
A lizard burnt, as already®^ mentioned, with the fresh root 
of a reed, cut as fine as possible, to facilitate its being re- 
76 So called from a\w7ri}^, " a fox/' an animal very subject to the loss 
of its hair. " See B. xii. c. 51. 
''^ So swine's dung was called " sucerda," and cowdung bucerda." 
'9 Or Maagrus, the "fly catcher," the name of a hero, invoked at Ali- 
phera, at the festivals of Athena, as the protector against flies. It was 
also a surname of Hercules. See B. x. c. 40. 
60 See B. viii. c. 53. In c. 32 of this Book. 
