“When a man has his hair cut, he is careful to burn it, or bury it secretly, lest falling into the hands of some one who has an evil eye, or is a witch, it should be used as a charm to afflict him with a headache.”—(Livingston, “Zambesi,” London, 1865, p. 47.) Etmuller relates that in his time women suffering from retention of the menses were in the habit of plucking the hair growing on the pubis, which would promptly cause their reappearance, but whether by the irritation or by taking the hair internally, is not clear:—“Mulieres suffocatæ ex utero soleant vellicare in pilis pubis, ut citius et felicius ad se redeant.” Finger-nail clippings were drunk as an emetic, especially by soldiers while on campaign:—“Ungues infusi in vinum vel potum cum vehementia cient vomitum et purgant per fecessum ... propinavit pro vomitorio et purgante militibus ungues proprios infusos per noctem in vinum calidum.”—(Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 269.) “The hair and nails are cut at the full moon.”—(Grimm, “Teutonic Mythology,” Stallybrass, London, 1882, vol. ii, p. 712 _et seq._) The Patagonians “all believe that the witches and wizards can injure whom they choose, even to deprivation of life, if they can possess themselves of some part of their intended victim’s body, or that which has proceeded thence, such as hair, pieces of nails, etc.... And this superstition is the more curious from its exact accordance with that so prevalent in Polynesia.”—(“Voyage of the Adventure and Beagle,” London, 1839, vol. ii. p. 163, quoting the Jesuit Faulkner.) “Which is the most deadly deed whereby a man increases most the baleful strength of the Dævas, as he would by offering them a sacrifice?” “Ahura Mazda answered:—‘It is when a man here below combing his hair or shaving it off, or paring off his nails, drops them in a hole or in a crack.’”—(Fargard XVII. Avendidad, Zendavesta, Oxford, 1880, p. 186.) Beckherius states that the clippings of the finger-nails made an excellent emetic. “Vomitorium non inelegans ex iis paratur.”—(“Med. Mic.”) Flemming goes more into detail; he says that the finely ground clippings of the hoof of the elk, stag, goat, hull, etc., were employed as a vomitory, but in their absence, human finger-nails were substituted; “istam ungulorum speciem quæ ab homine desumitur, substitui.” Human finger-nail clippings were also recommended in “sympathetic” cures.—(Flemming, “De Remediis,” p. 21.) “He who trims his nails and buries the parings is a pious man; he who burns them is a righteous man; but he who throws them away is a wicked man, for mischance might follow should a female step over them.”—(Paul Isaac Hershon, “Talmudic Miscellany,” Boston, 1880, p. 49; footnote to above, “The orthodox Jews in Poland are to this day careful to bury away or burn their nail-parings.”) On a fragment of a Chaldean tablet occurs this curious passage:—