104
NOTES AND QUERIES.
112 S. I. FEB. 5, 1916.
33. Patreeyous, lentils, (Berachoth, 40 b).
34. Zippouren, onycha (Kerissous, 6 a).
35. Himelta, opium (Yoma, 81 b; Bera- -choth, 36).
36. Levounct, frankincense (Kerissous, 6).
37. Kinnomoun. cinnamon (ibid., 6 a).
38. Dveillim (dried figs), in Yoma, 83 b.
39. Zimmukim (raisins), in Yoma, 83 b.
40. Delooin (poppies), in Nedarim, 54 a.
41. Pull hamitzree (Egyptian beans) in Nedarim, 54 a.
Salt plays a large part in Rabbinical pharmacy. Physicians advised salt after every meal, and water after wine in order to avoid the risk of askerra = parched throat and suffocation (Berachoth, 40). Lentils '(adoshim), taken once a month (ibid., 40), were also held to destroy any tendency to those troubles. Bulmus may be a printer's error for kulmus (calamus), or the sugar- cane (Knei bosem of Ex. xxx. 23). Kolae (dried corn) is found in Avodah Zara, 38 b ; from that a popular drink (shociss) was made. Ground or milled into flakes or grains, kneaded with butter, honey, spices, and -\wine, it was a most refreshing dish, and very invigorating. Workmen, shepherds, and others found it most sustaining when merely -damped with water. Palpal (pepper) is mentioned in Tractates Sabbath, 65 a; Gittin, 69 a ; and Pesachim, 42 b ; and, along with finely matured wines and fat meats and little fishes (dogim ketannim), in Yoma. Strange to remark, fish, as diet "for all and sundry, does not seem to have to the Rabbins at all. In Cha-
giga, 10 a, occurs an epigram on pepper:
- ' One peppercorn is worth a dozen dates."
Roush (hemlock or the head), laanoh (worm- wood), cheemoh (radish), dill, rue, narcissus, luf (arum), nightshade, kubla (camomiles), lupines, cocoa-nut, and castor-oil, cited by Celsius, Maimonides, Lightfoot, and Royle in their writings, have escaped my eye.
Reference has already been made to the presence in the Talmud of what the Rabbins stigmatized as " Darkei Hoamouree " (Shob- bos, 67 a), " the manners of the Amorites," viz., the popular fondness for " cures " by magic, amulets, charms, and incantations. The following (ibid., 67 a) is one of many -examples of the public will overriding the higher law of the Rabbins: " Women in a state of convalescence (meshoom refuoh) may walk abroad on the Sabbath day bearing a grasshopper's egg, a fox's tooth, or a charmed nail." Fevers, epilepsy (Berachoth, 34 b), shabreeree or temporary blindness (Gittin, 69), yerouko or jaundice (Tractate Shobbos), were all held by the hedyouteem (the masses), and
especially by their womenkind, to be amen-
able to the traditional treatment by means
of charms, and of unguents mystically pre-
pared by the assia (homceopathist) of the
town or village. Jaundice was combated
by giving the patient yerokous (yellow
messes) made of herbs; and there was a
popular delusion about the sun's power to
absorb the patient's fevers, as the follow-
ing anecdote (Berachoth, 34 b) will illus-
trate : One of the sons of Rabban Gamaliel
lay stricken with fever. As a last resort
Gamaliel dispatched two of his disciples to
Rabbi Chaneena ben Dousa, a famous assia,
who, as soon as they arrived, without speak-
ing a word to them, ascended to his private
chamber to pray. As he entered the room a
flood of sunshine greeted him. Taking this
for a good omen, he rejoined his anxious
visitors and directed them to return joyously
because his prayers had been heard and the
boy " had been saved by the sun " (sJmychol-
zosou cheimo), i.e., the fever had been taken
away. Astonished at the working of the
miracle, the young men asked him whether
he was a prophet. " I am neither a prophet
nor the son of a prophet, but I have been
orally taught (kach mekooblannee) that when
my prayers come freely (shegooro tefillosee
be fee) all is well ; if not, then the patient is
metoorof, torn asunder body from soul,"
it being an unlucky omen (Pesachim)
if speech comes haltingly or things be
done clumsily. Quacks would prescribe
for shabreeree by muttering a sort of
abracadabra made out of the word itself.
In Tractate Shobbos, 67 a, a man had a
bone in his throat, and the assia (local
herbalist) procured a particular root (possibly
hemlock because it signifies head, roush, as
well), and, after laying it on his head for a
time, muttered mystical sentences over him.
The amulet called Darkoun or dragon
(Berachoth, 62 b) opens up too wide
a subject. Suffice it to say that Rashi
in loco suggests that the malady called
Droken in the text is a tumour which was
believed to be curable by looking at a
symbol of a dragon, in which ingenious
word-play lay the seeds of the so-called
Kabbalah, many of whose votaries in less
enlightened centres of Judaism (known as
Chassideem) still favour homoeopathic reme-
dies and consult the bals^em (a degenerate
type of the Talmudic assia), whose specious
injunctions they carry out with regrettable
fidelity. In Baba Mezia this dragon-
charm is associated with the sun, and may,
therefore, have been used by those simple-
persons to charm away fevers, &c., as it