Book 2
13
When in such a state, who would not flee;—who would not turn from them, even if a father, a son, or a brother? There is danger, also, from the communication of the ailment. Many, therefore, have exposed their most beloved relatives in the wilderness, and on the mountains, some with the intention of administering to their hunger, but others not so, as wishing them to die. There is a story that one of those who had come to the wilderness, having seen a viper creep out of the earth, compelled by hunger, or wearied out with the affection, as if to exchange one evil for another, ate the viper alive, and did not die until all his members had become putrid and dropped off: and that another person saw a viper creep into a cask of new wine, and after drinking of the same to satiety, vomit it up, and discharge a great deal of its venom along with the new wine; but when the viper was smothered in the new wine, that the man drank of it largely and greedily, seeking thus to obtain a rescue from life and the disease; but when he had carried the drinking to satiety and intoxication, he lay down on the ground, at first as if about to die; but when he awoke from his sleep and intoxication, first of all his hair fell off, next the fingers and nails, and all the parts melted away in succession. But as the power was still in the semen, nature formed the man again, as if from the act of generation: it made other hairs to grow, and made new nails and clean flesh, and put off the old skin, like the slough of a reptile; and he was called back, like another new man, to a growth of life. Thus goes the fable; not very probable, indeed, nor yet entirely incredible; for that one ill should be overcome by another is credible. And that from the existing spark nature should renew the man, is not so incredible as to be held to be a prodigy.
