He seems to be talking about an extra-liturgical casting out of demons by means of exsufflation and signing when he declares that gods rejected by Christians are driven from the bodies of men " by our touch and by our breath, " and are thus " carried away by the thought and vision of the fire [ of judgment ] . " He is talking about an ordinary gesture of aversion when he asks a Christian incense-dealer ( regarded as hypocritical because he sells incense for polytheistic altars ), " with what mouth, I ask, will he spit and blow before the fuming altars for which he himself provided ? with what constancy will he [ thus ] exorcise his foster children ? " And his remarks to his wife about the dangers of mixed marriage suggest that exsufflation was a distinctively Christian practice : " [ If you marry again, to a non-Christian, ] shall you escape notice when you sign your bed or your body ? when you blow away some impurity?
