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CHAP. 59.—CYTINUS: EIGHT REMEDIES.

The Greeks have given the name of cytinus1 to the first germs of this tree when it is just beginning to blossom. These germs have a singular property, which has been re- marked by many. If a person, after taking off everything that is fastened upon the body, his girdle, for instance, shoes, and even his ring, plucks one of them with two fingers of the left hand, the thumb, namely, and the fourth finger, and, after rubbing it gently round his eyes, puts it into his mouth and swallows2 it without letting it touch his teeth, he will experience, it is said, no malady of the eyes throughout all the year. These germs, dried and pounded, check the growth of fleshy excrescences; they are good also for the gums and teeth; and if the teeth are loose a decoction of the germs will strengthen them.

The young pomegranates3 themselves are beaten up and applied as a liniment to spreading or putrid sores; they are used also for inflammations of the eyes and intestines, and nearly all the purposes for which pomegranate-rind is used. They are remedial also for the stings of scorpions.

1 The calyx of the blossom of the pomegranate. Its properties are remarkably astringent.

2 This would be nearly an impossibility, as the calyx is hard and coriaceous, and of considerable size. Nothing, however, is allowed to stand in the way of superstition.

3 "Ipsa corpuscula." The exact meaning of this expression is somewhat doubtful: Hardouin takes it to be the lower part of the cytinus.

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