IV. The Science of the Magi

Magicians Let US now further examine Pliny's picture of magic,
gators of riot as he expressly defines or censures it, but as he reflects nature. j^g q-^^ assertions and purposes in his fairly numerous cita- tions from its literature and perhaps its practice. Here I shall rather strictly limit my survey to those statements which Pliny definitely ascribes by name to the magi or magic art. The most striking fact is that the magicians are cited again and again concerning the supposed properties, virtues, and effects of things in nature — herbs, animals, and stones. These virtues are, it is true, often employed in an effort to produce wonderful results, and often too they are combined with some fantastic rite or superstitious ceremonial per- formed by a human agent. But in many cases either no »XXX, 47. =" XXXVII, II.
on herbs.
rx PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 65
rite at all is suggested or merely some simple medicinal ap- plication; and in a few cases there is no mention of any par- ticular operation or result, the magicians are cited simply as authorities concerning the great but unspecified virtues of natural objects. Indeed, they stand out in Pliny's pages not as mere sorcerers or enchanters or wonder-workers, but as those who have gone the farthest and in most detail — too far and too curiously in Pliny's opinion — into the study of medi- cine and of nature. Sometimes their statements, cited with- out censure, supplement others concerning the species under discussion;^ sometimes they are his sole source of informa- tion on the subject in hand.^
Pliny connects the origin of botany rather closely with The magi magic, mentioning Medea and Circe as early investigators of plants and Orpheus among the first writers on the sub- ject.^ Moreover, Pythagoras and Democritus borrowed from the mac/i of the orient in their works on the properties of plants.^ There would be little profit in repeating the names of the herbs concerning which Pliny gives opinions of the magicians, inasmuch as few of them can be associated with any plants known to-day.^ Suffice it to say that Pliny makes no objection to the herbs which they employed. Nor does he criticize their methods of employing them, although some seem superstitious enough to the modern reader. A chaplet is worn of one herb,® others are plucked with the left hand and with a statement of what they are to be used for, and in one case without looking backward.'^ The anem- one is to be plucked when it first appears that year with a statement of its intended use, and then is to be wrapped in a red cloth and kept in the shade, and, whenever anyone falls sick of tertian or quartan fever, is to l3e bound on the pa- tient's body.^ The heliotrope is not to be plucked at all but
'XX, 30; XXI, 38, 94, 104; 104; XXII, 9, 24, 29; XXIV, 99.
XXII, 24, 29. 102; XXV, 59, 65, 80-81; XXVI,
=XXI, 36; XXIV, 99. 9-
' XXV, 5. * XXI, 38.
^XXIV, 99-102. 'XXI, 104; XXII, 24.
^See XX, 30; XXI, 36, 38, 94, 'XXI. 94.
66
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Marvelous virtues of herbs.
tied in three or four knots with a prayer that the patient may recover to untie the knots. ^
PHny does not even object to the marvelous results which the magi think can be gained by use of herbs until towards the close of his twenty-fourth book, although already in his twentieth and twenty-first books such powers have been claimed for herbs as to make one well-favored and enable one to attain one's desires,^ or to give one grace and glory.^ At the end of his twenty-fourth book * he states that Pythag- oras and Democritus, following the magi, ascribe to herbs unusually marvelous virtues such as to freeze water, invoke spirits, force the guilty to confess by frightening them with apparitions, and impart the gift of divination. Early in his twenty-fifth book ^ Pliny suggests that some incredible effects have been attributed to herbs by the magi and their disciples, and in a later chapter ® he describes the magi as so mad about vervain that they think that if they are anointed with it, they can gain their wishes, drive away fevers and other dis- eases, and make friendships. The herb should be plucked about the rising of the dog-star when there is neither sun nor moon. Honey and honeycomb should be offered to ap- pease the earth; then the plant should be dug around with iron with the left hand and raised aloft. By the time he reaches his twenty-sixth book Pliny's courage has risen, so to speak, enough to cause him at last to enter upon quite a tirade against "magical vanities which have been carried so far that they might destroy faith in herbs entirely." "^ As examples he mentions herbs supposed to dry up rivers and swamps, open barred doors at their touch, turn hostile armies to flight, and supply all the needs of the ambassadors of the Persian kings. He wonders why such herbs have never been employed in Roman warfare or Italian drainage. Pliny's only objection to magic herbs therefore seems to be the excessive powers which are claimed for some of them.
'XXII, 29. 'XX, 30. •XXI, 38. *XXIV, 99 and 102.
'XXV, 5. «XXV, 59. 'XXVI, 9-
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 67
He adds that it would be strange that the creduhty which arose from such wholesome beginnings had reached such a pitch, if human ingenuity observed moderation in anything and if the much more recent system of medicine which As- clepiades founded could not be shown to have been carried even beyond the magicians. Here again we see Pliny failing to recognize magic as a primitive social product and regard- ing it as a degeneration from ancient science rather than science as a comparatively modern development from it. But he may well be right in thinking that many particular far-fetched recipes and rites were the late, artificial product of over-scholarly magicians. Thus he brands as false and magical the assertion of a recent grammarian, Apion, that the herb cynocephalia is divine and a safeguard against poison, but kills the man who uproots it entirely.-^
In a few cases Pliny objects to the animals or parts of Animals animals employed by the magi, as in the passage already cited of^^^f/*^ where he complains that they admire moles more than any mals. other animals.^ But his assertion is inconsistent, since he has already affirmed that they hold the hyena in most admi- ration of all animals on the ground that it works magic upon men.^ Their promise of readier favor with peoples and kings to those who anoint themselves with lion's fat, espe- cially that between the eyebrows, he criticizes by declaring that no fat can be found there.^ He also twits the magi for magnifying the importance of so nasty a creature as the tick.^ They are attracted to it by the fact that it has no outlet to its body and can live only seven days even if it fasts. Whether there is any astrological significance in the number seven here Pliny does not say. He does inform us, how- ever, that the cricket is employed in magic because it moves backward.^ A very bizarre object employed by the Druids and other magicians is a sort of tgg produced by the hissing or foam of snakes."^ The blood of the basilisk may also be
;XXX, 6. 'XXX, 24.
"xxviiii 27. "xxix, 39.
* XXVIII, 25. 'XXIX. 12.
68 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
classed as a rarity. Apparently animals in some way un- usual are preferred in magic, like a black sheep/ but the logic in the reasons given by Pliny for their selection is not clear in every instance. In some other cases not criticized by Pliny ^ we have plainly enough sympathetic magic or the principle of like cures like, as when the milt of a calf or sheep is used to cure diseases of the human spleen. Further The magicians, however, do not scorn to use familiar
instances
and easily obtainable animals like the goat and dog and cat. The liver and dung of a cat, a puppy's brains, the blood and genitals of a dog, and the gall of a black male dog are among the animal substances employed.^ Such substances as those just named are equally in demand from other animals.^ Mi- nute parts of animals are frequently employed by the magi- cians, such as the toe of an owl, the liver of a mouse given in a fig, the tooth of a live mole, the stones from young swallows' gizzards, the eyes of river crabs.^ Sometimes the part employed is reduced to ashes, perhaps a relic of sacrificial custom. Thus for toothache the magi inject into the ear nearer the tooth the ashes of the head of a mad dog and oil of Cyprus, while they prescribe for affections of the sinews the ashes of an owl's head in honied wine with lily root.^ Other living creatures which Pliny mentions as used by the magi are the salamander, earthworm, bat, scarab with reflex horns, lizard, tortoise, bed-bug, frog, and sea- urchin.'^ The dragon's tail wrapped in a gazelle's skin and bound on with deer-sinews cures epilepsy,® and a mixture of the dragon's tongue, eyes, gall, and intestines, boiled in oil, cooled in the night air, and rubbed on morning and evening, frees one from nocturnal apparitions.®
Sometimes the parts of animals are bound on outside the patient's body, sometimes the injured portion of his body
^XXX, 6. 7; XXX, 27; XXXII. 38. 'XXVIII, 57; XXX, 17. «XXX, 8 and 36; see also
"Use of goat, XXVIII, 56, 63, XXVIII. 60; XXXII, 19 and 24.
78-79; cat, XXVIII, 66; puppy, 'XXIX, 23; XXX, 18, 20, 30.
XXIX, 38: dop, XXX, 21. 49; XXXII, 14, 18, 24.
* XXVIII, 60, 66, 77; XXIX, 26. *XXX, 27.
• XXVIII, 66 ; XXIX, 15 ; XXX, " XXX, 24.
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 69
is merely touched with them. Once the whole house is to be Magic fumigated with the substance in question ; ^ once the walls "nf^als are to be sprinkled with it ; once it is to be buried under the and parts threshold. Some instances follow of more elaborate magic ritual connected with the use of animals or parts of animals. The hyena is more easily captured by a hunter who ties seven knots in his girdle and horsewhip, and it should be captured when the moon is in the sign of Gemini and with- out the loss of a single hair.^ Another bit of astrology dis- pensed by the tnagi is that the cat, whose salted liver is taken with wine for quartan fever, should have been killed under a waning moon.^ To cure incontinence of urine one not only drinks ashes of a boar's genitals in sweet wine, but afterwards urinates in a dog kennel and repeats the for- mula, "That I may not urinate like a dog in its kennel." * The magicians insist that the sex of the patient be observed in administering burnt cow-dung or bull-dung in honied wine for cases of dropsy.^ For infantile ailments the brains of a she-goat should be passed through a gold ring and dropped in the baby's mouth before it is given its milk.® After the fresh milt of a sheep has been applied to the pa- tient with the words, "This I do for the cure of the spleen," it should be plastered into the bedroom wall and sealed with a ring, while the charm should be repeated twenty-seven times."^ In treating sciatica^ an earthworm should be placed in a broken wooden dish mended with an iron band, the dish should be filled with water, the worm should be buried again where it was dug up, and the water should be drunk by the patient. The eyes of river crabs are to be attached to the patient's person before sunrise and the blinded crabs put back into the water.^ After it has been carried around the house thrice a bat may be nailed head down outside a window as an amulet. ^^ For epilepsy goat's flesh should be
^XXX, 24. "XXVIII, 78.
'XXVIII, 27. 'XXX, 17.
» XXVIII, 66; and see XXIX, ^XXX 18
'^*xxvTii, 60. 'xxxii, 38.
" XXVIII, 68. "XXIX, 26.
70
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Marvels wrought with parts of ani- mals.
The magi on stones.
given which has been roasted on a funeral pyre, and the animal's gall should not be allowed to touch the ground.^
Pliny occasionally speaks in a vague general way of his citations from the magi concerning the virtues of parts of animals as lies or nonsense or ''portentous," but he does not specifically criticize their procedure any more than he did their methods of employing herbs, and he does not criticize their promised results as much as he did before. Indeed, as we have already indicated, the object in a majority of cases is purely medicinal. The purpose of others is pastoral or agricultural, such as preventing goats from straying or caus- ing swine to follow you.^ The blood of the basilisk, how- ever, is said to procure answers to petitions made to the powerful and prayers addressed to the gods, and to act as a safeguard against poison or sorcery {veneficiorum amuleta).^ Invincibility is promised the wearer of the head and tail of a dragon, hairs from a lion's forehead, a lion's marrow, the foam of a winning horse, a dog's claw bound in deerskin, and the muscles alternately of a deer and a gazelle.* A woman will tell secrets in her sleep if the heart of an owl is applied to her right breast, and power of divina- tion is gained by eating the still palpitating heart of a mole.'^
In the case of stones the names are again, as in the case of herbs, of little significance for us.^ The accompany- ing ritual is slight. There are one or two suspensions from the neck or elsewhere by such means as a lion's mane — the hair of the hyena will not do at all — nor the hair of the cynocephalus and swallows' feathers. '^ There is some use of incantations with the stones, a setting of iron for one stone, burial of another beneath a tree that it may not dull the axe, and placing another on the tongue after rinsing the mouth with honey at certain days and hours of the moon in order to acquire the gift of divination.^ Indeed, the results promised
* XXVIII, 63.
* XXVIII, 56; XXIX, 15. "XXIX, 19.
*XXIX, 20. *XXIX, 26; XXX, 7.
* Pliny ascribes statements
cerning stones to the magi in the following chapters: XXXVI, 34; XXXVII, 37, 40, 49, SI, 54, 56, 60, 70, 73-
' XXXVII, 54 and 40.
* XXXVII, 40, 60, 56, 73-
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 71
are all marvelous. The stones benefit public speakers, admit to the presence of royalty, counteract fascination and sor- cery, avert hail, thunderbolts, storms, locusts, and scorpions ; chill boiling water, produce family discord, render athletes invincible, quench anger and violence, make one invisible, evoke images of the gods and shades from the infernal re- gions.
We have yet to mention a group of magical recipes and other
remedies which Pliny for some reason collects in one chap- "magical ■' '■ recipes,
ter ^ but which hardly fall under any one head. A whet- stone on which iron tools are sharpened, if placed without his knowledge under the pillow of a man who has been poi- soned, will cause him to reveal all the circumstances of the crime. If you turn a man who has been struck by lightning over on his injured side, he will speak at once. To cure tu- mors in the groin, tie seven or nine knots in the remnant of a weaver's web, naming some widow as each knot is tied. The pain is assuaged by binding to the body the nail that has been trod on. To get rid of warts, on the twentieth day of the moon lie flat in a path gazing at the moon, stretch the hands above the head and rub the warts with anything that comes to hand. A corn may be extracted successfully at the moment a star shoots. Headache may be relieved by a liniment made by pouring vinegar on door hinges or by binding a hangman's noose about the patient's temples. To dislodge a fish-bone stuck in the throat, plunge the feet into cold water; to dislodge some other sort of bone, place bones on the head; to dislodge a morsel of bread, stuff bits of bread into both ears. We may add from a neighboring chapter a very magical remedy for fevers, although Pliny calls it "the most modest of their promises." ^ Toe and fin- ger nail parings mixed with wax are to be attached ere sun- rise to another person's door in order to transfer the disease from the patient to him. Or they may be placed near an ant-hill, in which case the first ant who tries to drag one in-
^ XXVIII, 12, "Magorum haec ^ XXVIII, 23.
commenta sunt. . . ."
72
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap:
Summary of the state- ments of the magi.
From the magi to Pliny's magic
side the hill should be captured and suspended from the pa- tient's neck.
Such is the picture we derive from numerous passages in the Natural History of the magic art, its materials and rites, the effects it seeks to produce, and its general attitude towards nature. Besides the natural materials employed and the marvelous results sought, we have noted the frequent use of ligatures, suspensions, and amulets, the obser\''ance of astrological conditions, of certain times and numbers, rules for plucking herbs and tying knots, stress on the use of the right or left hand — in other words, on position or direction, some employment of incantations, some sacrifice and fumi- gation, some specimens of sympathetic magic, of the theory that "like cures like," and of other types of magic logic.