HERB - Lion and Locust wording in a period recipe

[Gaylin Walli]

Agnes very kindly wrote:

>My inclination is to read that lion is in fact a kind of locust.

As opposed to reading it as a mistranslation then? yes, by
you following commentary. This is good. Thank you for
bringing this up. I wouldn't have thought of it this way.

>My Latin dictionary gives locusta as lobster,

My Latin dictionary as well, which I didn't even consider
looking into. This is good. Much good.

>I don't think most people could find testicles on a locust (big 
>insect) but on a lobster, yes.

Uhm, okay. I don't much about lobster, to be honest. As far as
I'm concerned, the fish market has a magic fish machine that
makes them in the back room and wraps them in shrink-wrapped
polystyrene trays. A lobster has testicles or an area that could
be considered them?

>Did Aelian have easy access to lions?

This is something my husband brought up. I initially thought
that perhaps the description might be one of the "only for
the rich and famous" kind of cures, but in context, the rest
of the document doesn't always look that way. The document
seems rather accessible for any dilettante like Porta.

>I'd look for an aggressive form of lobster

Right-o. Excellent idea.

>Jasmine, the icky treatment that most grosses me out is putting a live
>badger into boiling water

Ew.

Ew ew.

>(there's quite a list of disgusting animal recipes in one
>of the works included  in Cockayne). Do you have that one?  Do you have
>time for me to find it for you?

I'd love to have you find it for me and yes I have the time. I don't
teach the class until October 2nd at the Midrealm Pentemere
Regional session of our Royal University.

In the class, I'd like to also try to find as many reasons as I can for
why something might still actually work today, if possible. Leeches
are easy, raw meat is fairly easy, animal bits of varying kinds
are easy (lungs blown up to support collapsing lungs, bits of
muscle as a use in brain surgery, that type of thing). But some of
the other bits are a little harder.

Do you see the idea I'm trying to work with here? We may think
things are very icky, oftentimes, *they* thought it was pretty
damned nasty too. But fear and the knowledge that something nasty
really worked were powerful weapons. And knowing something
still works today is even cooler when you can say "this is why."
If I can touch upon even a few of those, I think that would help
make period medicine of varying kinds even more accessible to the
person who doesn't normally look into it or just thinks "leeches
and herbs, that's all they used."

Okay. I'm babbling again. I'll take ANYTHING people can give me,
especially with regards to anything they consider icky. Then I
can touch upon those really icky things that actually had a reason
that they might still work today. The more icky things, working or
not, the better, I say.

Thanks everybody, especially those of you who've contacted me
offline. Your help is much appreciated.

Jasmine
iasmin de cordoba, gwalli at infoengine.com

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