Medicina de Quadrupedibus/Text (Translated)
Translation.
The king of the Egyptians who was called Idpartus sent [a message of] health to the Cæsar Octavianus his friend, thus saying: «I am [aware] by many examples [of thy virtues and prudence, and yet I think that thou never camest to know leechdoms of thus great power or such as I learn are those] which we obtained from Æsculapius. I then [make] them [known] for thine instruction and [for that] I knew thee worthy to know this, that is of leechcrafts of wild beasts.»
There is an animal which is named taxo, that is badger in English. Take that beast and do off the teeth from it [while yet] alive, those which it has biggest, and thus say: «In the name of the almighty God I kill thee and beat thy teeth off thee», and then subsequently wind them up in a linen garment, and work them in gold or in silver, that they may not touch thy body. Have them with thee, then thou shalt suffer damage neither from heavenly body, nor from hail, nor from strong storm, nor from an evil man, nor from aught [of] pestilential, nor shall the touch of any evil hurt thee, or if somewhat of evil be [to thee, it shall soon be] torn asunder, as was the girdle of Abdias the prophet. Then take the right fore foot with these words, and thus say: «In the name of the living God I take the as a leechdom»; then in whatever conflict or fight thou shalt be [thou shalt be] victorious, and thou shalt do well in it if thou hast the foot with thee. With its suet smear the horses which are in a fever or in any ailment; it shall retire from [them] and the hour of life shall be prolonged to them, and though it be a great ailment, it shall quickly depart away. Mingle its blood with a little salt for horses and mules and any foor-footed beast which are struggling with pestilence, or with any evil; put [it] by means of a horn on the beasts mouth after its strength, and so for about three nights; they will be whole. Boil its brain in three sextarii of oil in a new pot, till the third part be boiled away; bottle off, and preserve it. If any one be [troubled] with head-racking pain after the bath, smear [him] therewith for three nights, he will be healed,–and also the feet, and though a man be in any chronic and incurable disease, this manner will heal and cure him. Take its liver, divide it, and bury it at the turnings round of thy land boundaries, at thy borough wall-foundations, and hide the heart at thy borough gates: then thou and thine shall be released [so as] to go about in health and return home; all pestilence shall be driven away, and what was done before shall cause no injury, and there shall be little danger from fire. [It is] also kown that its hide is useful to hounds, and to all four-footed beasts, to put upon [them as a preservative] against the peril of pestilence. Have fell pieces of the hide on thy shoes; thou shalt never feel distress in thy feet. Thou holiest Cæsar, I will have thee believe that this wild beast benefits well if [thou] on thy cleansing days, when thou travellest through earth’s circumference, eatest and takest its flesh boiled: it shall be good to thee and wholesome to thy hosts. If anything of evil has been done to any one so that he may not enjoy his sexual lusts, let him boil a badger’s testicles in running spring-water and in honey and let him take it then fasting for three days; he will soon be better. Against flux of blood, when to all men the moon is seventeen nights old, after the setting of the sun, come then to the tree which is called mulberry-tree and take from it an apple (a berry) with thy left hand with two fingers, that is with the thumb and the ring-finger, a white apple, which as yet is not ruddy; then lift it up and up arise: this is useful for the upper part of the body. Again put it down and lout down over it: it is profitable for the lower part of the body. Before then thou take this apple, say then these words: «I take thee» etc.
When thou hast said these words, take the apple and wind it up in a fine purple cloth, and see that this leechdom touch neither water nor earth. When there is need, and the upper part of the body labours in any sore, or any difficulties, bind [it] upon the forehead; if it is on the lower part, bind [it] on the womb. Ad mulieris fluxum let her take the comb with which she alone combs her head (hair), with which no other person combed it before nor ever shall comb it after. But under the mulberry-tree there let her comb her hair, let her gather what is lost in the comb and hang it on an upstanding twig of the mulberry-tree, and again after a a while, when clean, let her gather it [from the twig] and preserve it: that shall be a leechdom for her, for the one who there combs her head. If thou wish a woman to be cleansed who never might be cleansed, work her a salve from the hair and dry it somewhat and put it on her body; then shall she be cleansed.
Against a snake’s bite hartshorn has also power to dry up every wet; hence it is used as an eye-salve. Against headache, drink the weight of five pennies of ashes of hartshorn with one sextarius of wine and two of water; take a cup full of this every day and drink. This drink also restrains sore of womb. Against wagging of teeth, hartshorn burnt and pounded steadies the teeth, if one wisely uses it. Ad mulieris fluxum hartshorn beaten to dust and drunk in wine: she shall soon be well. Against worms, to kill [them], drink burnt hartshorn in hot water: it kills and casts out the worms. Also to kill snakes take ashes of the horn and spread them where they (the snakes) are: they shall soon flee away. Against sore of milt take burnt hartshorn in a sweet drink: it shall dry up the milt and remove away the sore. Against tetter, mingle burnt hartshorn with vinegar, smear with that; amendment soon comes to it. Again, to get a tetter off the face, mingle with oil burnt hartshorn and smear; when that is dried, renew it again. Do this before the rising of the sun: quickly it cures. Ut coitus appetitus excitetur, sume cervi testiculos et siccatos in pulverem redige, partemque in vini poculum indito: ita coitus appetitus excitatur. For the same take a hart’s dung and pound it to dust, put [the dust] into a drink of wine: it will cure the same.
For troubles of women, who suffer troubles in their inward places, work for them into a salve a fox’s limbs and its grease with old oil and with tar; apply [that salve] to the women’s places: it quickly cures the troubles. Against headache, take that and smear the head with the like to what is said here above: it cures wonderfully. Against sore of ears, again, take the same salve [when] clear, drip [it] into the ear: it cures wonderfully. Against sore of milt, a foxes lung roasted in hot ash and pounded, and reduced to a drink; it cures the milt wonderfully; so does its liver the same. Against warts, take a fox’s testicles, rub the warts very often therewith: it quickly breaks them up and removes them away. Against oppressive harg-drawn breathing, a fox’s lung boiled and put into sweet wine and administered: it cures wonderfully. Against sore kernels, take a fox’s testicles and rub often therewith; they will soon be whole. Against sore of the jaws, take a fox’s sinews and wet them in honey and rub the jaws with them very often: he (the sufferer) will soon be well of that disease. Ad congressus cum muliere, the extremest end of a fox’s tail hung upon the arms: thou believest that it is done as a mockery upon the sexual business. Against sore of ears, take a fox’s gall, mingle [it] with [oil; drip into the ears; it cures well. Against dimness of eyes, take a fox’s gall mingled with] honey of dumble dore, and applied to the eyes: it cures. Against sore of ears, take a fox’s fat and drop it into the ears when once melted: good health will come to them. Against pain of feet, if the inner part of the shoe be vixen-hide and if it [be] gout, smear the feet with oil: they will have so much the lighter walk.
Against oversleeping, a hare’s brain [in wine] given as a drink: wonderfully it amends. Against sore of eyes a hare’s lung set on and bound thereto: the sore will be healed wonderfully. Against foot-swellings and scathes, a hare’s lung bound on above and beneath: the steps are healed wonderfully. For the women whose fœtus perishes, dry a hare’s heart and work [it] to dust with a third part of frankincense dust; administer it to be drunk for seven days in clear wine. Next, to those from whom it often gets loose [administer it] for thirty days, either in wine or in a preparation of worts. Next, for the women who after childbirth are ill-at-ease in some places, reduce the same to a drink, for them fasting, in warm water: [the case] will soon be healed. Against dimness of eyes, a hare’s gall mingled with honey and smeared with: the eyes become bright. Against sore of bladder [shred into the man’s drink] a hare’s sinews dried, [and roasted with salt, and fried; it cures wonderfully. Against bite of spider, prepare a hare’s sinews] and give them [the man] to take; it is also good if one swallows them raw. They are also good against nausea, if boiled. Against falling hair boil or roast on a pan in good oil a hare’s womb: smear the hair and the head: then the hair holds on and the salve compels that it shall grow. In order that a woman may give birth to a male child, a hare’s belly dried and cut into slices or rubbed into a drink: let them both (man and wife) drink [it]; if the wife alone drinks it, then she will give birth to an hermaphrodite, that is as naught, neither man nor woman. Again for the same, after her cleansing, give the woman a hare’s testicles to drink in wine: then will she conceive a male child. In order that the teeth of children may grow without sore, a hare’s brain boiled; rub frequently the gums therewith: they will be clean and unsore. Against pain of womb take a hare’s heels, bear that on thy frock: it cures wonderfully. Against sore of eyes a hare’s liver boiled is good to drink in wine, and [it is good too] to bathe the eyes with the broth. Against blood-running, a hare’s liver burnt, and rubbed, and spread on; it quickly stills [it].
Against blood running from the nose, a mountain-buck, that is a wood-buck or goat, a liver of this, broken up with vinegar and thrust into the nostril: wonderfully quickly it stills the blood-running. For brightness of eyes the gall of a wild buck mingled with field-bees’ honey and smeared on: the brightness comes to them. The same has power against sore of jaws: mingle the gall and honey together, touch the jaws therewith–it cures. Against dimness of eyes mingle together a wood-goat’s gall and a little wine; smear therewith three times; then they will be cured. Against a spotted face, a wood-buck’s gall, or a goat’s, mingled with water, and smeared on; it cures quickly. Against pimples which grow upon the face, smear with a goat’s gall; it will cleanse all the pimples off the face and diminish all the unsightliness. Against sore of ears and sounding [in them], a wood-goat’s gall mingled with new oil or with apples’ juice and lukewarm and put into the ears: it cures [them]. Against toothache mingle a wood-goat’s gall with oil, smear very frequently with that; then they (the teeth) shall be whole. Against sore or wound of the orchis bag, mingle a mountain-goat’s gall with honey, apply [it] to the sore: it cures well. Ad mulieris voluptatem [augendam], cum ture capreoli fel commisceto, et cum urticæ semine: hoc unge veretrum ad præparandum coitum: sic in ista copulatione mulier voluptatem percipiet. Lest a child be falling, that is be sick of the falling sickness, or dream of an apparition, draw a mountain-goat’s brain through a golden ring; give [it] to the child to swallow before it takes and sucks milk: it will be cured. Against erysipelas take a goat’s horn and lay it to the fire so that it may burn at the fire; then remove the incrustations to a new vessel; then pound them thoroughly along with sharp acid; apply [them] to the erysipelatous eruptions, till they be whole. To get sleep, a goat’s horn laid under the head turns waking into sleep. Against blood running from the nose dry a goat’s blood and rub [it] down to dust; apply [that] to the nostril: it withstands. Against inflammation and against pricking of eyes new goat’s cheese laid thereon (i. e. on the eyes) with the eyelids: there will quickly be amends for him (the man). Against headache new goat’s cheese bound thereto: it cures. Against foot-disease, new goat’s cheese laid on relieves the sore. Against hardness of the inwards, whatsoever he eats, let him mingle [it] with the water[1] and let him drink the same against hardness of the inwards, that the tightened womb may be relieved: the [more] he drinks, the more it cleanses. Against the [evil] humour, have him also drink goat’s blood: that will well cure him. If the inwards puff up, take a goat’s blood with grease of the same, and mingle barley groats and bind [this] outside on the womb: it cures wonderfully. Against sore of ears, apply a goat’s mie to the ear: [it] relieves the sore. If matter be therein, it casts that out. Against kernels, mingle a piece of goat’s dung with honey; smear therewith; [it] will soon be better. Against thigh-pains, knead thoroughly a piece of goat’s dung so that it be as it were a salve, and smear the thighs therewith: they will soon be whole. Against swellings a piece of goat’s dung; smear the swellings therewith: it drives them away and cures them and brings about that they do not rise again. Against spasms, mingle a piece of goat’s dung with vinegar, and smear therewith: it cures the sore. A goat’s gall, drunk in wine, removes women’s afterbirth for them, and cures them.
Against warts and swellings a ram’s black wool dipped in water, and after that in oil, and then laid on the sore place: it removes away the sore and if it (the sore) is fumigated with [it], it contracts the lacerated wounds. Smear the warts and the swellings which are on a man’s hands, or on another limb, or about the anus, with the wet which drops from the half-boiled lung of a ram: it quickly removes them away. Against ulcerous wounds on the face, a ram’s lung carved up small and laid to the sore soon cures it. Against scurfs take a ram’s grease, and mingle therewith soot, and salt, and sand, and wipe it away with wool and afterwards smear: it will be smoother after this.
Against every sore, a boar’s brain boiled and worked into a drink in wine: it relieves all sores. Against sore of the testicles and of the yard mingle a boar’s brain with honey and bind it on: it cures wonderfully. Against flux of inwards boil together a new liver of boar and some sweet apple-tree rind mingled in wine and let [the man] drink: he is soon free from the flux. If ears are within sore, and matter be there, apply the same salve: it is very good. Ut viri voluptas perficiatur, sumat apri fel et ungat penem et testiculos: ita ingentem libidinem habebit. For a man who has the falling sickness, work a boar’s gall into a drink in wine or in water: the drink will cure him. Against spewing and nausea and napping, take a boar’s suet and boil [it] in three sextarii of water till the third part is boiled away, add thereto boar’s foam and let [the man] drink: he will be whole, and he himself will wonder and think that it is some other leechdom that he is drinking. For them who mie under them, a boar’s bladder roasted and given to be eaten: it cures the disease. Against erysipelas let [the man] rub into wine a boar’s dung and sulphur and drink [that drink] frequently: it amends the erysipelas.
Against devil-sickness and against an ill sight give to eat wolf’s flesh, well-dressed and boiled, to him who is in need of it: the apparitions which previously appeared to him shall not disquiet him. For sleep, lay a wolf’s head under the pillow: the unhealthy [man] shall sleep. To remove away eye-pain, take a wolf’s right eye and prick it to pieces and bind it to the [suffering] eye: it makes the sore wane if it is frequently smeared therewith. The woman who may have a dead child in her womb, if she drinks the milk of a she-wolf mingled with wine in like quantities, it soon cures.
Let those who suffer apparitions eat lion’s flesh: they will not after that suffer any apparitions. Against sore of sinews and of knee-joints, take a lion’s suet and a hart’s marrow, melt [them] and mingle [them] together; smear therewith the sore of the body: it will soon be whole.
Against the dwelling [by one] of snakes and for their removal, scatter a bull’s horn burnt to ashes where the snakes dwell; they will flee away. Mingle a bull’s gall with field-bees’ honey against obscurity and darkness of the eyes; put [it] upon the eyes: it cures wonderfully. Against a burn caused by water or fire, burn a bull’s dung and shed [it] thereon. Ad concubitum perficiendum, sume testiculos tauri siccatos in pulveremque redactos, aut eosdem in vino comminue et crebris [ille] haustibus ebibat [qui hoc philtro indiget]: ita promptior ad vererem erit atque citatior.
Against any spot, to take it from the body, take ivory pounded with honey and applied: it removes the spots wonderfully. Against all sores, if thou in the early part of summer takest for food any whelp, being then still blind, thou shalt not feel any sore. To make teeth grow without pain, a hound’s molar tooth burnt and rubbed small and applied extinguishes swellings of tooth-rooms.
Against headache, boil in oil or in clean butter pulegium, that [is] in English dwarfdwosle, and smear the head with [it].
- ↑ «The water» obviously refers to a goat’s urine mention by V in a paragraph immediately preceding this (ꝥ wæter þe innan ȝæt byþ…. þone wætan…).