Chap. 49.] APHRODISIACS AND ANTAPHRODISIACS. 467 
tracted, it will aid dentition to a marvellous degree, attached 
to the neck of infants. The brains, too, of the same serpent 
are recommended to be attached to the body for a similar pur- 
pose, as also the small stone or bone that is found in the back 
of the slug. 
An admirable promoter of dentition is found in sheep's 
brains, applied to the gums ; and equally good for diseases of 
the ears, is an application of goose-grease, with juice of ocimum. 
Upon prickly plants there is found a kind of rough, hairy, 
grub: attached to the neck of infants, these insects give instant 
relief, it is said, when any of the food has stuck in the throat. 
CHAP. 48. PliO VOCATIVES OF SLEEP. 
As a soporific, wool-grease is employed, diluted in two 
cyathi of wine with a modicum of myrrh, or else mixed with 
goose-grease and myrtle wine. For a similar purpose also, a 
cuckoo is attached to the body in a hare's skin, or a young 
heron's bill to the forehead in an ass's skin : it is thought, too, 
that the beak alone, steeped in wine, is equally efficacious. On 
the other hand, a bat's head, dried and worn as an amulet, acts 
as a preventive of sleep. 
CHAP. 49. APHRODISIACS AND ANTAPHRODISIACS, 
A lizard drowned in a man's urine has the effect of an ant- 
aphrodisiac upon the person whose urine it is ; for this animal 
is to be reckoned among the philtres, the magicians say. The 
same property is attributed to the excrements of snails, and to 
pigeons' dung, taken with oil and wine. The right lobe of a 
vulture's lungs, attached to the body in the skin of a crane, 
acts powerfully as a stimulant upon males : an effect equally 
produced by taking the yolks of five pigeons' eggs, in hone}', 
mixed with one denarius of hog's lard; sparrows, or eggs of 
sparrows, with the food ; or by wearing the right testicle of a 
cock, attached to the body in a ram's skin. The ashes of a 
burnt ibis, it is said, employed as a friction with goose-grease 
and oil of iris, will prevent abortion when a female has once 
conceived ; while the testes of a game-cock, on the other hand, 
rubbed with goose-grease and attached to the body in a ram's 
skin, have all the efi'ect of an antaphrodisiac : the same, too, 
with the testes of any kind of dunghill cock, placed, together 
w^ith the blood of a cock, beneath the bed. Hairs taken from 
H H 2 
