128 
Pliny's natural history. 
[Book TIL 
Damon gives an account of a race of people, not very much 
unlike them, the Pharnaces of ^Ethiopia, whose perspiration 
is productive of consumption to the body of every person that 
it touches. Cicero also, one of our own writers, makes the re- 
mark, that the glances of all women who have a double pupil 
is noxious.^ 
To this extent, then, has nature, when she produced in man, 
in common with the wild beasts, a taste for human flesh, 
thought fit to produce poisons as well in every part of his 
body, and in the eyes even of some persons, taking care that 
there should be no evil influence in existence, which was not 
to be found in the human body, ^ot far from the city of 
Eome, in the territory of the Palisci, a few families are found, 
who are known by the name of Hirpi. These people perform 
a yearly sacrifice to Apollo, on Mount Soracte, on which occa- 
sion they walk over a burning pile of wood, without being 
scorched even. On this account, by virtue of a decree of the 
senate, they are always exempted from military service, and 
from all other public duties.^^ 
Some individuals, again, are born with certain parts of the 
body endowed with properties of a marvellous nature. Such 
was the case with Kiug Pyrrhus, the great toe of whose right 
foot cured diseases of the spleen, merely by touching the pa- 
tient.^^ We are also informed, that this toe could not be re- 
Brand says (" Popular Antiquities," vol. iii.), " Swimming a witch was an- 
other kind of popular ordeal. By this method she was handled not less 
indecently than cruelly : for she was stripped naked and cross bound, the 
right thumb to the left toe, and the left thumb to the right toe. In this 
state she was cast into a pond or river, in which, if guilty, it was thought 
impossible for her to sink." 
This is probably the meaning of the word tabem " here ; though it 
may possibly signify rottenness," or putrefaction." 
This remark is not contained in any of the works of Cicero now ex- 
tant.— B. 
^9 Cuvier observes, that these people probably exercise some deception, 
analogous to that practised by a Spaniard, who exhibited himself in Paris, 
and professed to be incombustible, but who, eventually, was the dupe of 
his own quackery, and paid the penalty with his life. It would appear, 
that the Hirpi were not confined to one district, but dispersed over differ- 
ent parts of Italv. See the note of Heyne, on the prayer of Aruns, -^n. 
B. xi. 1. 785, et seq.—B. 
^ Plutarch relates these supposed facts in his life of Pyrrhus ; this state- 
ment may be considered analogous to what has been recorded in modern 
times, respecting the eflS.cacy of the royal touch in curing certain diseases, 
especially what has been termed the King's evil." — B. 
