Types of Fever and Their Cures
67b
Aramaic
Abaye said: An expert told it to me: For one-day sun-heat, a jug of fluids. For two-day [sun-heat], fennel. For three-day [sun-heat], red meat [cooked] over coals, and clear wine. For chronic [lit., old] fever, let one take a black hen and cut it length- and widthwise, and let him shave the middle of his head and place [the hen] on it and leave it on him until it becomes putrid. Let him descend and stand in water up to his neck, until [his] physical state is weak, and [then] let him submerge, rise, and sit down.
If not, let him eat leeks. Let him descend and stand in water up to his neck, until [his] physical state is weak, and [then] let him submerge, rise, and sit down. [ . . . ]
70a
Abaye said: An expert told it to me: All potions are [given in doses of] three, seven, or twelve, except for this one, [administered] until one is healed. All potions are [to be taken] on an empty stomach, but in this case [’aḥilu-illness],1 [drugs were administered] after one ate and drank, entered the toilet, and defecated and washed his hands. A kūna-measure [likely a handful] of a porridge of lentils should be brought to him and a kūna-measure of aged wine, and one should knead them together and let him consume [it]. Let him wrap himself in a cloth and let him lie down, and no one should make him arise until he rises by himself. When he rises, he should remove his cloth, but if not, it [’aḥilu-illness] will return to him.
Notes
[Earlier in the passage, ’aḥilu is defined as a “fire in the bones.”—Ed.]
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
