The Parsis believed that dogs with four eyes could drive away the death-fiend; but such not being procurable, one “with two spots above the eyes” was used for the purpose. In their great sacred book,[271] the animal is represented to be the special one of Ormazd. Herodotus states that the Magi do not hesitate to kill all animals, “excepting dogs and men.”[272] The Oriental Mardux, in whom was assimilated the more ancient Silik-mulu-khi, a healing divinity, was attended by dogs, as was Nimrod, the hunter, with whom he may have been identical.[273] The COCK, as well as the dog, was a prominent attribute in many representations of Æsculapius. This alert bird, a bird watchful of the returning light, was very properly associated with a sun-god. It was a common object of sacrifice to the god, by patients who were grateful for relief or cure. Socrates has, through Plato, made this memorable. Said the dying sage, as he felt his limbs growing cold: “When the poison reaches the heart, that will be the end.” Feeling his body gradually losing its vital heat, and realizing that relief from his troubles was at hand, he said, as he passed away, “Crito, I owe a cock to Æsculapius; will you remember to pay the debt?” “The debt shall be paid,” responded his friend.[274] The practice of sacrificing[275] a cock for the restoration of health was not exclusively practiced by the votaries of Æsculapius. In his “Life of Pyrrhus, King of Epirus,” Plutarch says that “a white cock” was sacrificed generally by each of the patients he touched “for swelling of the spleen.” The full quotation will be given in a succeeding chapter. The bird is still sacrificed in some parts of Scotland and other countries, for the removal of at least one disease,—epilepsy. Dr. Mitchell, of Edinburgh, states that the practice is very familiar to him. In the northern part of his native country, “on the spot,” says he, “where the epileptic first falls, a black cock is buried alive, along with a lock of the patient’s hair and some parings of his nails.”[276] There is yet another animal associated with the god of medicine,—the GOAT. It was especially by the Cyrenians that the connection was much emphasized. Pausanias remarks that “the Cyrenians sacrifice goats, although this rite was not delivered by the Epidaurians.”[277] Still, as already pointed out, on Epidaurian coins, Æsculapius was represented sucking a goat,—an illustration of the legend.