Of all the above ingredients the most famous was the hippomanes, which, according to Wier, was a piece of flesh upon the forehead of a young colt, of a black or brown colour, in size and shape like a fig, which the mare is said to bite off as soon as she has foaled, the mare forsaking her offspring when prevented from so doing; hence the hippomanes, which was in reality nothing more than a caul or part of the omentum attached to the head of the foal, as it is also sometimes to that of infants, was thought to be particularly effective in conciliating love, especially when calcined or reduced to powder, and swallowed in some of the blood of the person beloved. This superstition is, however, in some degree excusable, if it be considered that, even in the present day, many persons in our own country firmly believe the human caul to have the power of saving its possessor from drowning; and that in the good old times, it was regarded as a visible indication that Providence had designed the infant so furnished for the service of religion, such children, whether male or female, being destined, in consequence, for the cloister. Virgil thus mentions it as one of the ingredients of the philter that Dido caused to be made for her previously to her committing suicide: "Falcibus et messæ ad Lunam quæruntur alienis Pubentes herbæ, nigri cum lacte veneni. Quæritur _et nascentis equi in fronte revulsus_ Et matri præruptus amor."[107] "Herbs are brought, by moonlight mow'd With brazen scythes, big, swol'n with milky juice Of curious poison, _and the fleshy knot Torn from the forehead of a new foal'd colt_ To rob the mother's love." The following curious account of the wonderful effects of the hippomanes, and which fully justifies the etymology of that word, is given by Pausanias: