Folklore, huh, you’ve got fairy path, fairy ring, fairy tale, fairy-locks, fakelore, fasting spittle – that can’t mean what I imagine it means, can it?
Fasting spittle – saliva produced first thing in the morning, before breakfast – has been used to treat a wide variety of diseases for many hundreds of years. Spittle cures are usually considered to be more effective if fasting spittle is used.
“Wait! Before you spit on her – you haven’t eaten yet today, have you?”
“No.”
“Oh, good, carry on then.”
An early recorded use of spittle as a cure comes from the Gospel of St Mark, believed to have been written in about 70 AD:
And they bring unto him [Jesus] one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech … And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. Mark 7:32–5
Writing at about the same time as Mark, the Roman natural philosopher Pliny commented in his Natural History that fasting spittle was efficacious in the treatment of ophthalmia, and that the fasting spittle of a woman was particularly beneficial for treating bloodshot eyes.
Hm. Okay. Where can I learn more?
A treatise on the virtues and efficacy of the saliva, or fasting spittle : being conveyed into the intestines by eating a crust of bread, early in a morning fasting, in relieving the gout, scurvey, gravel, stone, rheumatism, &c., arising from obstructions : also, on the great cures accomplished by the fasting spittle, when externally applied to recent cuts, sore eyes, corns, warts, &c.
That’s all well and good, but what does Pliny have to say about it?
But it is the fasting spittle of a human being, that is, as already stated by us, the sovereign preservative against the poison of serpents; while, at the same time, our daily experience may recognize its efficacy and utility, in many other respects. We are in the habit of spitting, for instance, as a preservative from epilepsy, or in other words, we repel contagion thereby: in a similar manner, too, we repel fascinations, and the evil presages attendant upon meeting a person who is lame in the right leg. We ask pardon of the gods, by spitting in the lap, for entertaining some too presumptuous hope or expectation.
SPITTING IN THE LAP FOR ENTERTAINING TOO PRESUMPTUOUS AN EXPECTATION. God bless.
So, is this like, first thing in the morning spittle, or can you clean your mouth first? Cause both are gross, but straight-out-of-bed spit is gross and smelly. I’m cringing imagining the ocular infections.
This is almost as palatable as Romans using the sweat of gladiators as cologne.
Gladiator sweat cologne is both the most Roman and the most amazing conceivable thing.
And publicly supplied piss for bleach.
Well, that’s just practical.
I mean, it’s kind of a win-win. Tanners get all the pee they need, and there’s somewhere better to pee than right out on the sidewalk. Fancy!
Meh, people used it to bleach their teeth, too. Or so Shakespeare would have us believe.
eye of newt and toe of frog are sounding tasty now
Someone find that quote from Down and Out in Paris and London about how gnarly your spit gets after days of literally fasting. My google skills aren’t up to it apparently.
“Complete inertia is my chief memory of hunger; that, and being obliged to spit very frequently, and the spittle being curiously white and flocculent, like cuckoo-spit. I do not know the reason for this, but everyone who has gone hungry several days has noticed it.”
Only found it thanks to remembering the word “flocculent,” because, c’mon, “FLOCCULENT”.
*praise hands emoji*
“… and being obliged to spit very frequently, and
the spittle being curiously white and flocculent, like cuckoo-spit.
I do not know the reason for this, but everyone who
has gone hungry several days has noticed it.”
Drat, out-searched!
I was getting my annual this morning, and the nurse asked if I’d fasted, and I was all, “sure, totally” (yogurt doesn’t count, right?), and she came at me with a mouth swab and asked again, was I really fasting?, and I copped to the yogurt and she put her swab away and sent me to just have bloodwork done instead.
Now I know why.
She was harvesting it for the fasting spittle black market!
Basically, Western civilization was built on the teachings of spit magicians.
“Spit Magician” is a great job title. I’ve got to find a way to work that into my resume somehow.
This is fascinating. Because the mouth is a perfect breeding ground for bacteria and some types of fungus (i.e. it’s warm, moist, and sometimes contains food), saliva contains antibodies. Levels of those antibodies in the saliva are highest in the morning and lowest at night. So application of morning spittle to “recent cuts, sore eyes, corns, warts, &c” is really not a bad idea.
I can offer no scientific explanation for Pliny, though.
Also, saliva has enzymes in it that break down the proteins in your blood, so it’s super effective at getting out blood stains and cleaning blood off of skin.
I have actually used a dab of spit as an emergency measure to fade period blood stains at work.
God, I love bodily secretions internet threads.
I can offer no scientific explanation for Pliny, though.
I think that “his parents bumped uglies” is a pretty safe assumption.
you mean it’s not the sovereign preservative against the poison of serpents?
for some reason, that part really appeals to me. I’m imagining some poor person getting an asp bite, getting spat on repeatedly by the crowd which then gathers, and still dying despite all that free fasting spittle.
“Why did she die?”
“We didn’t spit hard enough!”
“Did anyone have breakfast first? Yogurt still counts!”
“we repel contagion thereby”
Lololololol repelling contagion by literally doing the thing that spreads contagion. I wonder what hopelessly stupid things we’re doing in medicine now that they’ll laugh at us for after we’re all dead.
and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.
ha ha, that that is just a big long ephphatha joke. if Jesus said that without spitting at him that would be much more remarkable.
what’s with the sticking his fingers in his ears though, that’s not really appropriate to do to a man you just met, Jesus
Well, we know that both urine (sterile after the first second or so of flow rinses out the urethra) and maggots (debrides gangrenous flesh) have their applications–oh, I’m sorry, I had no idea that anyone eats lunch this late. I can finish that for you. Hey, at least I didn’t go on about “laudable pus”–dessert? Don’t mind if I do!
Baby pee is another fun folk-medical ingredient. Wash your face with a used baby diaper to eliminate zits!
This means I can spit in a man’s eye and tell him it’s for his own good, right?
Does anyone here listen to Sawbones? This needs to be in an episode if it’s not already
I have it on a list of podcasts I am checking out as and when I have time, not gotten to it yet!
I wonder how many vials of Jesus-spit were hawked as relics over the years.
OOOH me too! Because warm water and salt aren't always available in your average toilet cubicle.
Another joyful part of experiencing the fun of menstruation.
Salt, huh? I'll have to try that.
Yup, it's my secret weapon. Ideally you want to soak the stain in some really salty water or apply a sort of salty paste and then shove in the washing machine to try and deal with any left.
“…spitting in the lap, for entertaining some too presumptuous hope or expectation” if only I had known that trick when I was dating.
” And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue”
For some reason, I first read this as with the “his” referring to Jesus’ own ears and tongue, which made it seem kind of like he was doing the Aramaic hokey-pokey or something.