The magicians take the brains of a she-goat, and, after passing them through a gold ring, drop them into the mouth of the infant before it takes the breast, as a preservative against epilepsy and other infantile diseases. Goats’ dung, attached to infants in a piece of cloth, prevents them from being restless, female infants in particular. By rubbing the gums of infants with goats’ milk or hare’s brains, dentition is greatly facilitated. CHAP. 79.—PROVOCATIVES OF SLEEP. Cato was of opinion that hare’s flesh,[2394] taken as a diet, is provocative of sleep. It is a vulgar notion, too, that this diet confers beauty for nine days on those who use it; a silly play[2395] upon words, no doubt, but a notion which has gained far too extensively not to have had some real foundation. According to the magicians, the gall of a she-goat, but only of one that has been sacrificed, applied to the eyes or placed beneath the pillow, has a narcotic effect. Too profuse perspiration is checked by rubbing the body with ashes of burnt goats’ horns mixed with oil of myrtle. CHAP. 80.—STIMULANTS FOR THE SEXUAL PASSIONS. Among the aphrodisiacs, we find mentioned, a wild boar’s gall, applied externally; swine’s marrow, taken inwardly; asses’ fat, mixed with the grease of a gander and applied as a liniment; the virulent substance described by Virgil[2396] as distilling from mares when covered; and the dried testes of a horse, pulverized and mixed with the drink. The right testicle, also, of an ass, is taken in a proportionate quantity of wine, or worn attached to the arm in a bracelet; or else the froth discharged by that animal after covering, collected in a piece of red cloth and enclosed in silver, as Osthanes informs us. Salpe recommends the genitals of this animal to be plunged seven times in boiling oil, and the corresponding parts to be well rubbed therewith. Bialcon[2397] says that these genitals should be reduced to ashes and taken in drink; or else the urine that has been voided by a bull immediately after covering: he recommends, also, that the groin should be well rubbed with earth moistened with this urine. Mouse-dung, on the other hand, applied in the form of a liniment, acts as an antaphrodisiac. The lights of a wild boar or swine, roasted, are an effectual preservative against drunkenness; they must, however, be eaten fasting, and upon the same day. The lights of a kid, too, are productive of the same effect. CHAP. 81. (20.)—REMARKABLE FACTS RELATIVE TO ANIMALS.