454 
PLINT S KATUJRAL HISTOllY. 
[Book XXX. 
itself, tied up in a linen cloth, with a red string, and attached 
to the hody ; the longest tooth of a black dog ; or the wasp 
known by the name of pseudosphex,"^^ which is always to 
be seen flying alone, caught with the left hand and attached 
beneath the patient's chin. Some use for this purpose the 
first wasp that a person sees in the current year. Other 
amulets are, a viper's head, severed from the body and wrapped 
in a linen cloth ; a viper's heart, removed from the reptile 
while still alive ; the muzzle^^ of a mouse and the tips of its 
ears, wrapped in red cloth, the animal being set at liberty 
after the}^ are removed ; the right eye plucked from a living 
lizard, and enclosed with the head, separated from the body, 
in goat's skin ; the scarabseus also that forms pellets^^ and rolls 
them along. 
It is on account of this kind of scarabseus that the people 
of a great part of Egypt worship those insects as divinities ; 
an usage for which Apion gives a curious reason, asserting, as he 
does, by way of justifying the rites of his nation, that the insect 
in its operations pictures the revolution of the sun. There is 
also another kind of scarabeeus, which the magicians recom- 
mend to be worn as an amulet — the one that has small liorns^^ 
thrown backwards ; it must be taken up, when used for tbis 
purpose, with the left hand. A third kind also, known by the 
name of ''fullo,*'^^ and covered with white spots, they recom- 
mend to be cut asunder and attached to either arm, the other 
kinds being worn upon the left arm. Other amulets recom- 
mended by them, are, the heart of a snake taken from the 
living animal with the left hand ; or four joints of a scorpion's 
tai], together with the sting, attached to the body in a piece of 
black cloth ; due care being taken that the patient does not see 
2^ " Bastard-wasp." 
^•^ ^' Eostellum." Holland renders it The little prettie snout's end of 
a mouse." 
Of cowdung. It was supposed that there was no female scarabaeus, 
and that the male insect formed these balls for the reproduction of its 
species. It figures very largely in the Egyptian mythology and philosophy 
as the emblem of the creative and generative power. It has been suggested 
that its Coptic name " sJcalouks'* is a compound Sanscrit word, signifying 
— The ox-insect that collects dirt into a round mass." See B. xi, c. 34. 
Probably the ^' lucanus " mentioned in B. xi. c. 34 ; supposed to be 
the same as the stag-beetle. 
3^ The " fuller," apparently. This name may possibly be derived, how- 
ever, from the Greek ^vKXbp, a leaf." 
