Page:Leechdoms wortcunning and starcraft of early England volume 1.djvu/30

{{RunningHeader|xvi|{{smallcaps|preface.}} and tied on; by the head of viper cut off, or its living heart cut out, in a piece of cloth; by the snout and tips of the ears of a mouse in a rose-coloured patch, the animal itself to be let loose; by the right eye of a living lizard poked out, in a bit of goats skin; by the ball rolling scarabæeus (s. stercorarius); a holly planted in (the courtyard of) a house keeps off witchcrafts; they say that an amulet of the chamæelæa (Dafne laureola, D. mezereum) will cure pearl "albugo" in the eyes, provided that the plant be gathered before sunrise, and the purpose be outspoken; an herb picked from the head of a statue and tied up in a red thread will cure head ache; an herb by which dogs stale, if drawn untouched by iron, cures dislocations. Enough, perhaps, has been said to mark the character of Plinius collections.

{{outside RL|Iosephos.}}With Plinius was contemporary Ioseph, or Josephus. The tales about the mandrake current much later, and found in the Saxon Herbarium, are traceable to what he says of the Baaras, an herb that runs away from the man that wants to gather it, and won't stop till one throws on it οὖρον γυναιχὸς ἢ τὸ ἔμμηνον αἷμα, for nastiness is often an element of mysteries, and even then it kills the dog that draws it out. It is not certain that the mandrakes berries are meant in Genesis xxx. 14.

{{outside RL|Philagrios.}}Philagrios (364 A.D.) thought it superfluous and unbecoming to add to a prescription a direction to spit once into the drug pot, once on the earth, with some barbarous names, since without the names it would be equally efficacious. {{smallrefs}}