Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume V/Hippolytus/The Refutation of All Heresies/Book IV/Part 31

by Hippolytus

Chapter XXXI.—Method of Poisoning Goats.

And if one smear^[1] the ears of goats over with cerate, they say that they expire a little afterwards, by having their breathing obstructed. For this to them is the way—as these affirm—of their drawing their breath in an act of respiration. And a ram, they assert, dies,^[2] if one bends back (its neck)^[3] opposite the sun. And they accomplish the burning of a house, by daubing it over with the juice of a certain fish called dactylus. And this effect, which it has by reason of the sea-water, is very useful. Likewise foam of the ocean is boiled in an earthen jar along with some sweet ingredients; and if you apply a lighted candle to this while in a seething state, it catches the fire and is consumed; and (yet though the mixture) be poured upon the head, it does not burn it at all. If, however, you also smear it over with heated resin,^[4] it is consumed far more effectually.  But he accomplishes his object better still, if also he takes some sulphur.

Footnotes

1. Or, “close up.”
2. The words “death of a goat” occur on the margin of the ms.
3. A similar statement is made, on the authority of Alcmæon, by Aristotle in his Histor. Animal., i. 2.
4. Μαννῇ is the word in the text. But manna in the ordinary acceptation of the term can scarcely be intended. Pliny, however, mentions it as a proper name of grains of incense and resin. The Abbe Cruice suggests the very probable emendation of μάλθῃ, which signifies a mixture of wax and resin for caulking ships.