patient be fasting. Touching the sufferer with the back of her hand, she is to say, "Apollo forbids a disease to increase which a naked virgin restrains." Then, withdrawing her hand, she is to repeat the same words thrice and to join with the patient in spitting on the ground each time.[1]
Pliny occasionally prefaces his marvelous remedies by some such expression as "it is said." This circumstance is scarcely to be taken as a sign of mental reservation, however, as the following absurd statement, which he makes upon his own authority and declares is easily tested by experiment, will indicate. "If a person repents of a blow given to another, either by hand or with a missile, let him spit at once into the palm of the hand which inflicted the blow, and all resentment in the person struck will instantly vanish." This is often proved, according to Pliny, in the case of beasts of burden, which can be induced to increase their speed by this method after the use of the whip has failed.[2]
One can, perhaps, make some distinction between the strange influences which Pliny credited and the statements of the magi which he rejected. I believe that he did not go to the length of affirming that plants or parts of animals could cause panics, procure provisions, win you royal favor, gain for you vengeance on your enemies, or make you invisible. But he was inconsistent enough. After asserting that a single fish but a few inches long could immediately
- ↑ Bk. xxvi, ch. 60. "Experti adfirmavere plurumum referre, si virgo inponat nuda ieiuna ieiuno et manu supina tangens dicat; 'Negat Apollo pestem posse crescere cui nuda virgo restinguat,' atque ita retrorsa manu ter dicat totiensque despuant ambo."
- ↑ Bk. xxviii, ch. 7. "Mirum dicimus, sed experimento facile: si quern paeniteat ictus eminus comminusve inlati et statim exspuat in mediam manum qua percussit, levatur ilico in percusso culpa. Hoc saepe delumbata quadripede adprobatur statim a tali remedio correoto animalis ingressu."
