Pulse plaster that erases a horse's burnt brand
Of Africanus: erasure of horses' brands. This theft of valuable horses, having changed the brands, is to take out the letters burnt into the bodies and to make the former mark vanish by another color and unrecognizable to the former master. It is done thus: a pulse, whose form is inscribed at the end in hexagon 7, thoroughly boiled at the first moon at the third hour — plaster it on whichever part you wish to erase bramble. For ulcerating by the burn it brings up white hair; and if you plaster it in many places, the formerly single-colored will be variegated. Against all the other colors — whites only excepted, because of the like nature of the hair's regrowth — the art will cut out the letter and will keep the original color.
Greek
3.36 Ἀφρικανοῦ· χαρακτήρων ἵππων ἀφανισμός. Ἵππων δὲ αὕτη σπουδαίων κλοπὴ χαρακτῆρας ἀλλάξασα τὰ ἐκκαυθέντα τοῖς σώμασι γράμματα ἐξελεῖν καὶ ἀφανίσαι τὸ πρόσθεν σύμβολον ἑτέρῳ χρώματι καὶ ἀνεπίγνωστον ποιῆσαι τῷ πρώην δεσπότῃ. Τὸ δὲ οὕτω γίνεται· ὄσπριον, οὗ τὸ εἶδος ἐπὶ τέλει ἑξαγώνῳ ἑβδόμῳ ἐπιγέγραπται πρώτῃ σελήνῃ ὥρᾳ τρίτῃ δίεφθον ὂν ὅτῳπερ ἀφανίσαι θέλῃς μέρει [βάτον] ἐπίπλασσε. Ἑλκῶσαν γὰρ τῇ καύσει λευκὴν ἀναφέρει τρίχα· εἰ δὲ καὶ πολλαχοῦ ἐμπλάσαις, ὁ πρόσθεν μονόχρωμος ἔσται ποίκιλος. Κατὰ πάντων ἡ τέχνη τῶν ἄλλων χρωμάτων, λευκῶν μόνων χωρὶς διὰ τὸ ὁμοφυὲς τῆς τῶν τριχῶν ἀναφυῆς, τὸ μὲν γράμμα ἐκκόψει, τὸ δὲ ἀρχαῖον χρῶμα τηρήσει.
About this text
Julius Africanus, Cesti (Embroidered Girdles): a miscellany of history, science, and craft, in the surviving fragments — books 7, 2, and 3 in full, with parts of books 4, 8, 9, and 13, and the colophon of Cestus 18. The older English translates his letters only. The book-2 table of contents and a book-7 appendix are not in this volume.
New English from locked PG 10 / Khazarzar Greek of the Cesti fragmenta through 9.5. Earlier lemma-led scaffold English was discarded. Book-2 pinax and book-7 appendix held. This lock is exhausted.
Catalogue & scope
Khazarzar scan
Witnesses
- Copy-text PG 10 Cesti fragmenta (Khazarzar) (Greek)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.