Miscellanies · §80 · Julius Africanus

The dryinas under oaks: flayed feet, ash-leaf juice

About a dryinas. The dryinas snake, making its life in the roots of the oaks and rolling toward other trees, is so wicked toward destroying badly that if someone should step on it the feet are flayed and swellings come to be through the whole of the legs. And still more wonderful: if someone also wishes to treat them, this one's hands too are flayed. The juice of the leaves of an ash, then, before all food and drink, is very useful being given as a drench.

Greek

3.31 Περὶ δρυΐνου Ὁ δὲ δρυΐνης ὄφις ἐν ταῖς τῶν δρυῶν ῥίζαις τὸν βίον ποιούμενος καὶ πρὸς ἄλλοις δένδροις καλινδούμενος οὕτω καὶ πονηρός ἐστιν πρὸς τὸ διαφθεῖραι κακῶς, ὡς, εἴ τις αὐτῷ ἐπιβαίη, τοὺς πόδας ἀποδέρεσθαι καὶ οἰδήματα καθ' ὅλων τῶν σκελῶν γίνεσθαι. Καὶ ἔτι θαυμασιώτερον· εἰ καὶ θεραπεύειν τις αὐτοὺς ἐθέλει, καὶ τούτου τὰς χεῖρας ἀποδέρεσθαι. Μελίας οὖν τῶν φύλλων ὁ χυλὸς πρὸ παντὸς βρωτοῦ καὶ ποτοῦ χρήσιμος πάνυ ἐγχυματιζόμενος.