One-Day and Three-Day Fevers

Aramaic

Abaye said: An expert told it to me: For a one-day fever, one should take a white glass, go to the salt pit, and take its weight as salt, and tie it to the hollow of the neck with a yellow, twisted string.

If [this does] not [work]—one shall sit [at a] crossroads. When one spots a giant ant [lit., a camel-like ant] carrying something, one should take it [the ant] up and put it into a copper tube; and he shall close it with lead and seal it with sixty seals.

He shall shake it, lift it up, and say to it [the ant], “Your burden is upon me, and my burden is upon you!”

R. Aḥa ben R. Huna said to R. Ashi: And what [could happen] if someone had already found it [the ant] and stopped [his illness] with it? One should better say to it [the ant], “My burden and your burden are upon you!”

If [this does] not [work]—One should take a new pitcher, go to the river, and say to it, “River, river! Loan me a pitcher of water for a guest who happened to come to me!”

And one should turn it seven times above one’s head, then one should throw it backward and say to it [to the river], “River, river! Take the water you gave me, since a guest who happened to come to me for one day will also leave after one day.”

R. Huna said: For a tertian fever—let one bring seven thorns from seven palm trees, and seven chips from seven beams, and seven nails from seven bridges, and seven [portions of] ashes from seven ovens, and seven [portions of] dust from seven door sockets, and seven [pieces of] pitch from seven ships, and seven handfuls of kammoni, and seven hairs from the beard of an old dog. And one should tie them to the hollow of the neck with a yellow, twisted string.

Translated by Markham J. Geller and Lennart Lehmhaus.