of mustard to treat serpent and scorpion bites, toothache, indigestion, asthma, epilepsy, constipation, dropsy, lethargy, tetanus, leprous sores and other illnesses (Nat. 20.236–240). The seed of the mustard plant is described as the smallest of all seeds on earth. The smallness of the mustard seed was proverbial.56 Mark describes the growth of the small seed which becomes the largest of all garden plants with reference to big branches on which birds (lit. ‘birds of the sky’; i.e. wild birds) can