CHAP. 28.—NINETEEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE CROCODILE.
For fabulous stories connected with it the crocodile may
challenge the next place; and, indeed for cunning, the one
1
which lives both upon land and in the water is fully its equal:
for I would here remark, that there are two varieties of this
animal. The teeth of the right jaw of the amphibious crocodile, attached to the right arm as an amulet, acts as an aphrodisiac, that is, if we choose to believe it. The eye-teeth of
the animal, filled with frankincense—for they are hollow—are
a cure for periodical fevers, care being taken to let the patient
remain five days without seeing the person who has attached
them to his body. A similar virtue is attributed to the small
stones which are found in the belly of this animal, as being a
check to the cold shiverings in fevers, when about to come on;
and with the same object the Ægyptians are in the habit of
anointing their sick with the fat of the crocodile.
The other kind of crocodile
2 resembles it, but is much inferior in size: it lives upon land only, and among the most
odoriferous flowers; hence it is that its intestines are so greatly
in request, being filled as they are with a mass of agreeable
perfumes. This substance is called "crocodilea," and it is
looked upon as extremely beneficial for diseases of the eyes,
and for the treatment of films and cataract, being applied with
leek-juice in the form of an ointment. Applied with oil of
cyprus,
3 it removes blemishes growing upon the face; and, employed with water, it is a cure for all those diseases, the
nature of which it is to spread upon the face, while at the same
time it restores the natural tints of the skin. An application
of it makes freckles disappear, as well as all kinds of spots and
pimples; and it is taken for epilepsy, in doses of two oboli, in
oxymel. Used in the form of a pessary it acts as an emmenagogue. The best kind of crocodilea, is that which is the whitest,
friable, and the lightest in weight: when rubbed between the
fingers it should ferment like leaven. The usual method is
to wash it, as they do white lead. It is sometimes adulterated
with amylum
4 or with Cimolian earth, but the most common
method of sophistication is to catch the crocodiles and feed
them upon nothing but rice. It is recommended as one of
the most efficient remedies for cataract to anoint the eyes with
crocodile's gall, incorporated with honey. We are assured
also that it is highly beneficial for affections of the uterus to
make fumigations with the intestines and rest of the body, or
else to envelope the patient with wool impregnated with the
smoke.
The ashes of the skin of either crocodile, applied with vinegar
to such parts of the body as are about to undergo an incision,
or indeed the very smell of the skin when burning, will render
the patient insensible to the knife. The blood of either crocodile, applied to the eyes, effaces marks upon those organs and
improves the sight. The body, with the exception of the head
and feet, is eaten, boiled, for the cure of sciatica, and is found
very useful for chronic coughs, in children more particularly:
it is equally good, too, for the cure of lumbago. These animals
have a certain fat also, which, applied to the hair, makes it fall
off; persons anointed with this fat are effectually protected
against crocodiles, and it is the practice to drop it into wounds
inflicted by them. A crocodile's heart, attached to the body
in the wool of a black sheep without a speck of any other
colour, due care too being taken that the sheep was the first
lamb yeaned by its dam, will effectually cure a quartan fever,
it is said.