CHARMS
"With the charmes that she saide, A fire down fro' the
sky alight."--GOWER.
"She drew a splinter from the wound, And with a charm
she staunch'd the blood."--SCOTT.
"Thrice on my breast I spit to guard me safe From
fascinating Charms."--THEOCRITUS.
"Mennes fortunes she can tell; She can by sayenge her
Ave Marye, And by other Charmes of Sorcerye, Ease men of
the Toth ake by and bye Yea, and fatche the Devyll from
Hell."--BALE.
"I clawed her by the backe in way of a charme, To do me
not the more good, but the less harme."--HEYWOOD.
Charms, as already noticed, are not unlike amulets in significance and
similarity of power. The amulet must consist of some material
substance so as to be suspended when employed, but the charm may be a
word, gesture, look, or condition, as well as a material substance,
and does not need to be attached to the body. The word "charm" is
derived from the Latin word "carmen," signifying a verse in which the
charms were sometimes written, examples of which will be given later.
The medical term "carminative," a comforting medicine, really means a
charm medicine, and has the same derivation.
A charm has been defined as "a form of words or letters, repeated or
written, whereby strange things are pretended to be done, beyond the
ordinary power of nature." It can be seen, though, that this
definition is not sufficiently comprehensive.
For ages, people have had great faith in odd numbers. They have often
been used as charms and for medicine. Some one says: "Some
philosophers are of opinion that all things are composed of number,
prefer the odd before the other, and attribute to it a great efficacy
and perfection, especially in matters of physic: wherefore it is that
many doctors prescribed always an odd pill, an odd draught, or drop to
be taken by their patients. For the perfection thereof they allege
these following numbers: as 7 Planets, 7 wonders of the World, 9
Muses, 3 Graces, God is 3 in 1, &c." Ravenscroft, in his comedy of
"Mammamouchi or the Citizen Turned Gentleman," makes Trickmore as a
physician say: "Let the number of his bleedings and purgations be odd,
_numero Deus impare gaudet_" [God delights in an odd number].
Nine is the number consecrated by Buddhism; three is sacred among
Brahminical and Christian people. Pythagoras held that the unit or
monad is the principle and end of all. One is a good principle. Two,
or the dyad, is the origin of contrasts and separation, and is an evil
principle. Three, or the triad, is the image of the attributes of God.
Four, or the tetrad, is the most perfect of numbers and the root of
all things. It is holy by nature. Five, or the pentad, is everything;
it stops the power of poisons, and is dreaded by evil spirits. Six is
a fortunate number. Seven is powerful for good or evil, and is a
sacred number. Eight is the first cube, so is man four-square or
perfect. Nine, as the multiple of three, is sacred. Ten, or the
decade, is the measure of all it contains, all the numerical relations
and harmonies.[122]
Cornelius Agrippa wrote on the power of numbers, which he declares is
asserted by nature herself; thus the herb called cinquefoil, or
five-leafed grass, resists poison, and bans devils by virtue of the
number five; one leaf of it taken in wine twice a day cures the
quotidian, three the tertian, four the quartan fever.[123]
The seventh son of a seventh son was supposed to be an infallible
physician as the following quotations would indicate: "The seventh son
of a seventh son is born a physician; having an intuitive knowledge of
the art of curing all disorders, and sometimes the faculty of
performing wonderful cures by touching only." "Plusieurs croyent qu'en
France, les septiemes garcons, nez de legitimes mariages, sans que la
suitte des sept ait este interrompue par la naissance d'aucune fille,
peuvent aussi guerir des fievres tierces, des fievres quartes, at
mesme des ecrouelles, apres avoir jeune trois ou neuf jours avant que
de toucher les malades. Mais ils font trop de fond sur le nombre
septenaire, en attribuant au septieme garcon, preferablement a tous
autres, une puissance qu'il y a autant de raison d'attribuer au
sixieme ou au huitieme, sur le nombre de trois, et sur celuy de neuf,
pour ne pas s'engager dans la superstition. Joint que de trois que je
connois de ces septieme garcons il y en a deux qui ne guerissent de
rien, et que le troisieme m'a avoue de bonne foy, qu'il avoit eu
autrefois la reputation de guerir de quantite des maux, quoique en
effet il n'ait jamais guery d'aucun. C'est pourquoy Monsieur du
Laurent a grande raison de rejetter ce pretendu pouvoir, et de la
mettre au rang des fables, en ce qui concerne la guerison des
ecrouelles."[124]
Charms were used to avert evil and counteract supposed malignant
influences of all kinds, but it is in their connection with diseases
of the body that we are chiefly interested. There is scarcely a
disease for which a charm has not been given, but it will be seen that
those which are most affected by charms are principally derangements
of the nervous system, or those periodical in character--diseases, in
fact, which have proved to be most easily influenced by suggestion.
Charms might be of the most varied composition. The material was
selected from the animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdom, and might
consist of anything to which any magical property was considered to
belong. Rags, old clothes, pins, and needles were frequently employed
in this way. Sir Walter Scott had in his possession a pretended charm
taken from an old woman who was said to charm and injure her
neighbor's cattle. It consisted of feathers, parings of nails, hair,
and similar material, wrapped in a lump of clay.
The theory of _similia similibus curantur_ seems to have entered into
mediaeval medicine, and especially into the manufacture of charms. The
following prescriptions are examples: "The skin of a Raven's heel is
good against gout, but the right heel skin must be laid upon the right
foot if that be gouty, and the left upon the left.... If you would
have man become bold or impudent let him carry about with him the skin
or eyes of a Lion or Cock, and he will be fearless of his enemies,
nay, he will be very terrible unto them. If you would have him
talkative, give him tongues, and seek out those of water frogs and
ducks and such creatures notorious for their continuall noise
making."[125]
King also tells us that "Hartes fete, Does Fete, Bulles fete, or any
ruder beastes fete should ofte be eaten; the same confort the sinewes.
The elder these beastes be, the more they strengthen." It is
noticeable that not age but youth is now honored, and to-day only
calves' feet are accorded medicinal value.
Fort[126] gives the following account of the origin of cabbalism:
"Towards the close of the fourth century an unknown scholiast
collected the exegetical elucidations, explanations and
interpretations produced by the Gemara, and united them to the Mishna,
as a commentary out of which arose the Talmud. The word 'cabbala,'
whose original significance was used in the sense of reception, or
transmission, obtained at a later period the meaning of secret lore,
because the metaphysical and theosophic idealities which had been
developed in the Rabbinical schools, were communicated only to a few,
and consequently remained the undisputed property of a limited and
close organization." From this there developed a varied and
complicated system of words and numbers which showed their power in
all forms of magical marvels. Not the least common or puissant of
these was the healing of the sick.
Knots were sometimes used as charms, and Cockayne gives us an example
in the preface of _Saxon Leechdoms_: "As soon as a man gets pain in
his eyes, tie in unwrought flax as many knots as there are letters in
his name, pronouncing them as you go, and tie it round his neck."
Long before and long after New Testament days when Jesus used spittle
on the blind, and the time when Vespasian healed the blind by the same
means, spittle was considered a most efficacious remedy for various
diseases. Levinus Lemnius tells us: "Divers experiments shew what
power and quality there is in Man's fasting Spittle, when he hath
neither eat nor drunk before the use of it: for it cures all tetters,
itch, scabs, pushes, and creeping sores: and if venomous little beasts
have fastened on any part of the body, as hornets, beetles, toads,
spiders, and such like, that by their venome cause tumours and great
pains and inflammations, do but rub the place with fasting Spittle,
and all those effects will be gone and dispersed. Since the qualities
and effects of Spittle come from the humours, (for out of them is it
drawn by the faculty of Nature, as Fire draws distilled Water from
hearbs) the reason may be easily understood why Spittle should do such
strange things, and destroy some creatures."[127]
In _Saxon Leechdoms_ a cure for gout runs thus: "Before getting out of
bed in the morning, spit on your hand, rub all your sinuews, and say,
'Flee, gout, flee,' etc." Sir Thomas Browne, however, is not quite
sure that fasting spittle really is poisonous to snakes and vipers.
Alexander of Tralles tells us that even Galen did homage to
incantations, and quotes him as saying: "Some think that incantations
are like old wives' tales; as I did for a long while. But at last I
was convinced that there is virtue in them by plain proofs before my
eyes. For I had trial of their beneficial operations in the case of
those scorpion-stung, nor less in the case of bones stuck fast in the
throat, immediately, by an incantation thrown up. And many of them are
excellent, severally, and they reach their mark."
Even before our day, however, there were some sceptics. Andrews,
quoting Reginald Scot, says: "The Stories which our facetious author
relates of ridiculous Charms which, by the help of credulity, operated
Wonders, are extremely laughable. In one of them a poor Woman is
commemorated who cured all diseases by muttering a certain form of
Words over the party afflicted; for which service she always received
one penny and a loaf of bread. At length, terrified by menaces of
flames both in this world and the next, she owned that her whole
conjuration consisted in these potent lines, which she always repeated
in a low voice near the head of her patient:
'Thy loaf in my hand,
And thy penny in my purse,
Thou art never the better--
And I am never the worse.'"
Lord Northampton quite fittingly inquires: "What godly reason can any
Man alyve alledge why Mother Joane of Stowe, speaking these wordes,
and neyther more nor lesse,
'Our Lord was the fyrst Man,
That ever Thorne prick'd upon:
It never blysted nor it never belted,
And I pray God, nor this not may,'
should cure either Beasts, or Men and Women from Diseases?"[128]
Perhaps it would be well for us to treat the subject of charms as we
have that of amulets, and present the different charms under the
heading of the diseases which they were supposed to cure.
_Ague._--Many charms were given for this disease, some of which seem
to us to-day most ridiculous. Brand gives a quotation from the _Life
of Nicholas Mooney_ who was a notorious highwayman, executed with
others at Bristol, in 1752. It is as follows: "After the cart drew
away, the hangman very deservedly had his head broke for attempting to
pull off Mooney's shoes; and a fellow had like to have been killed in
mounting the gallows to take away the ropes that were left after the
malefactors were cut down. A young woman came fifteen miles for the
sake of the rope from Mooney's neck, which was given to her, it being
by many apprehended that the halter of an executed person will charm
away the ague and perform many other cures."
Pettigrew relates that "In Skippon's account of a 'Journey through the
Low Countries,' he makes mention of the lectures of Ferrarius and his
narrative of the cure of the ague of a Spanish lieutenant, by writing
the words FEBRA FUGE, and cutting off a letter from the paper every
day, and he observed the distemper to abate accordingly; when he cut
the letter F last of all the ague left him. In the same year, he says,
fifty more were reported to be cured in the same manner."
Another charm for ague was only effective when said up the chimney on
St. Agnes Eve, by the eldest female of the family. It was as follows:
"Tremble and go!
First day shiver and burn.
Tremble and quake!
Second day shiver and learn:
Tremble and die!
Third day never return."[129]
Pliny said: "Any plant gathered from the bank of a brook or river
before sunrise, provided that no one sees the person who gathers it,
is considered as a remedy for tertian ague." Lodge, in glancing at the
superstitious creed with respect to charms, says: "Bring him but a
Table of Lead, with Crosses (and 'Adonai,' or 'Elohim,' written in
it), and he thinks it will heal his ague."
Mr. Marsden, while among the Sumatrans, accidentally met with the
following charm for the ague: "(Sign of the cross.) When Christ saw
the cross he trembled and shaked and they said unto him, hast thou
ague? and he said unto them, I have neither ague nor fever; and
whosoever bears these words, either in writing or in mind, shall never
be troubled with ague or fever. So help thy servants, O Lord, who put
their trust in thee!"
From Douce's notes, Mr. Brand informs us that it was usual with many
persons about Exeter who had ague "to visit at dead of night the
nearest cross road five different times, and there bury a new-laid
egg. The visit is paid about an hour before the cold fit is expected;
and they are persuaded that with the Egg they shall bury the Ague. If
the experiment fail, (and the agitation it occasions may often render
it successful) they attribute it to some unlucky accident that may
have befallen them on the way. In the execution of this matter they
observe the strictest silence, taking care not to speak to anyone,
whom they may happen to meet. I shall here note another Remedy against
the Ague mentioned as above, viz., by breaking a salted Cake of Bran
and giving it to a Dog, when the fit comes on, by which means they
suppose the malady to be transferred from them to the Animal."[130]
This and similar methods were designated transplantation.
_Bites of Venomous Animals._--It is an old medical superstition that
every animal whose bite is poisonous carries the cure within itself,
but external charms were also used. It was thought that the poison of
the Spanish fly existed in the body, while the head and wings
contained the antidote. "A hair of the dog that bites you" is the cure
for hydrophobia, the fat of the viper was the remedy for its bite, and
"three scruples of the ashes of the witch, when she had been well and
carefully burnt at a stake, is a sure catholicon against all the evil
effects of witchcraft."[131]
Serpents' bites, which were always considered very dangerous, were
said to be healed by people called sauveurs, who had a mark of St.
Catharine's wheel upon their palates. Snake stones, originally brought
from Java, were supposed to absorb the poison by being simply placed
over the bite. Russel mentions a charm against mosquitoes, used in
Aleppo. It consisted of certain unintelligible characters inscribed on
a little slip of paper, which was pasted over the windows or upon the
lintel of the door. One family has obtained, through heredity, the
power of making these charms, and they distribute them on a certain
day of the year without remuneration.
Navarette was told that the best remedy against scorpions was to make
a commemoration of St. George when going to bed. This, he says, never
failed, but he also rubbed the bed with garlic. The following is given
as a cure for the sting of the scorpion: "The patient is to sit on an
ass, with his face to the tail of the animal, by which the pain will
be transmitted from the man to the beast." Or again, a person who was
bitten by either a tarantulla or a mad dog must go nine times round
the town on the Sabbath, calling upon and imploring the assistance of
the saint. On the third night--the prayers being heard and granted,
and the health restored--the madness was removed. The prayer was as
follows:
"Thou who presidest over the Apulian shores,
Thou who curest the bites of mad dogs,
Thou, O Sacred One, ward off this cruel plague,
This dismal gnawing of dogs.
Get thee far hence, O madness, O fury."[132]
_Burns._--The following is "A Charme for a burning":
"There came three angels out of the east;
The one brought fire, the two brought frost--
Out fire; in frost;
In the name of the Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost.
--Amen."[133]
_Childbirth._--Many superstitious practices have grown up around this
condition. In 1554, Bonner, Bishop of London, forbade "a mydwife of
his diocese to exercise any witchecrafte, charmes, sorcerye,
invocations, or praiers, other than such as be allowable and may stand
with the lawes and ordinances of the Catholike Church." In 1559, the
first year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, an inquiry was instituted
"whether you knowe any that doe use charmes, sorcery, enchauntementes,
invocations, circles, witchecraftes, southsayinge, or any lyke craftes
or imaginacions invented by the devyl, and specially in the tyme of
woman's travaylle." Two years before this, the midwives took an oath
among themselves, so Strype tells us, not to "suffer any other bodies'
child to be set, brought, or laid before any woman delivered of child
in the place of her natural child, so far forth as I can know and
understand. Also I will not use any kind of sorcerye or incantation in
the time of the travail of any woman."
The eagle stone and iris were supposed to promote an easy delivery,
and the sardonyx was laid _inter mammas_ to procure an easy birth; a
sardonyx formerly belonged to the monastery of St. Albans to be used
for this purpose. In some countries, during childbirth, the men lie
in, keep their beds, and are attended as if really sick, sometimes as
long as six weeks.[134]
_Chorea._--Of all the charms against this disease, St. Vitus' dance,
none seemed so effectual as an application to the saint. In the
translation of Naogeorgus, Barnabe Googe says:
"The nexte is VITUS sodde in oyle, before whose ymage faire
Both men and women bringing hennes for offring doe repaire:
The cause whereof I doe not know, I think, for some disease
Which he is thought to drive away from such as him doe please."
_Colic._--This disorder was cured by a person drinking the water in
which he had washed his feet; we might well consider the cure worse
than the disease.
_Consumption._--Shaw[135] speaks of a cure for consumptive diseases
used in his time in Moray. "They pared the Nails of the Fingers and
Toes of the Patient, put these Parings into a Rag cut from his
clothes, then waved their Hand with the Rag thrice round his head
crying _Deas soil_, after which they buried the Rag in some unknown
place." Dr. Baas[136] declares that natural pills of rabbit's dung
were in use on the Rhine as a cure for consumption.
"There is a disease," says the minister of Logierait, writing in 1795,
"called Glacach by the Highlanders, which, as it affects the chest and
lungs, is evidently of a consumptive nature. It is called Macdonald's
disease, 'because there are particular tribes of Macdonalds, who were
believed to cure it with the Charms of their touch, and the use of a
certain set of words. There must be no fee given of any kind. Their
faith in the touch of a Macdonald is very great.'"[137]
_Cramp._--Among the many charms for cramp, the following is taken from
_Pepys' Diary_:[138]
"Cramp be thou faintless,
As our Lady was sinless
When she bare Jesus."
_Demoniacal Possession._--To know when a person is possessed, try the
following, says King: "Take the harte and liver of a fysshe called a
Pyck, and put them into a pot wyth glowynge hot coles, and hold the
same to the patient so that the smoke may entre into hym. If he is
possessed he cannot abyde that smoke, but rageth and is angry." "It is
good also to make a fyre in hys chamber of Juniper wood, and caste
into the fire Franckincense and S. John's wort, for the evill spirits
cannot abyde thys sent, and Waxe angry, whereby may be perceived
whether a man be possessed or not."[139] I am afraid that possession
would be sadly common if either of these tests were applied.
_Dislocation._--Among the oldest charms we have is one given by Cato
the Censor for the reduction of a dislocated limb, and passed on to us
by Pettigrew.
"A dislocation may be cured by this charm. Take a reed four or five
feet long; cut it in the middle, and let two men hold the points
towards each other for insertion. While this is doing repeat these
words: _In Alio S. F. Motas vaeta, Daries Dardaries Astataries
Dissunapitur_. Now jerk a piece of iron upon the reeds at their
juncture, and cut right and left. Bind them to the dislocation or
fracture, and it will effect a cure."[140]
_Dropsy._--Toads were formed into a powder called Pulvis AEthiopicus,
the mode of preparation being given in Bates's Pharmacopoeia. This
powder was used externally, and also given internally in cases of
dropsy and other diseases.
_Epilepsy._--The liver of a dead athlete was a sovereign remedy
against epilepsy in early days. In Lincolnshire a portion of a human
skull taken from a grave was grated and given to epileptics as a cure
for fits, and the water in which a corpse had been washed was given to
a man in Glasgow for the same purpose.[141] Another remedy was also
proposed: "If a man be greved wyth the fallinge sicknesse, let him
take a he-Wolves harte and make it to pouder and use it: but if it be
a woman, let her take a she-Wolves harte."[142]
John of Gladdesden, who was court physician from 1305-1317, spoke thus
concerning epilepsy: "Because there are many children and others
afflicted with the epilepsy, who cannot take medicines, let the
following experiment be tried, which I have found to be effectual,
whether the patient was a demoniac, a lunatic, or an epileptic. When
the patient and his parents have fasted three days, let them conduct
him to church. If he be of a proper age, and of his right senses, let
him confess. Then let him hear Mass on Friday, and also on Saturday.
On Sunday let a good and religious priest read over the head of the
patient, in the church, the gospel which is read in September, in the
time of vintage, after the feast of the Holy Cross. After this, let
the priest write the same gospel devoutly, and let the patient wear it
about his neck, and he shall be cured. The gospel is, 'This kind goeth
not out but by prayer and fasting.'"[143]
Among some African tribes the foot of an elk is considered a splendid
remedy against epilepsy. One foot only of each animal possesses
virtue, and the way to ascertain the valuable foot is to "knock the
beast down, when he will immediately lift up that leg which is most
efficacious to scratch his ear. Then you must be ready with a sharp
scymitar to lop off the medicinal limb, and you shall find an
infallible remedy against the falling sickness treasured up in his
claws." The American Indians and mediaeval Norwegians also considered
this a sure remedy. The person afflicted, however, must apply it to
his heart, hold it in his left hand, and rub his ear with it.[144]
_Evil-eye._--Children were supposed to be most susceptible to the
evil-eye. Charms and amulets were furnished against fascination in
general. Certain figures in bronze, coral, ivory, etc., representing a
closed hand with the thumb thrust out between the first and second
fingers called the _fig_, were common. In Henry IV, Part II, Pistol
says:
"When Pistol lies, do this; and fig me, like
The bragging Spaniard."
_Eye Diseases._--Among the early Germans, ambulatory female medicists
were not uncommon, and they cured largely through charms. The
following is a charm used for eye diseases:
"Three maidens once going
On a verdant highway;
One could cure blindness,
Another cured cataract,
Third cured inflammation;
But all cured by one means."[145]
_Fevers._--This charm was used for fever: "Wryt thys Wordys on a
lorell lef[+]Ysmael[+]Ysmael[+] adjuro vos per Angelum ut soporetur
iste Homo N. and ley thys lef under hys head that he wete not therof,
and let hym ete Letuse oft and drynk Ip'e seed smal grounden in a
morter, and temper yt with Ale."[146]
"The fever," says Werenfels, "he will not drive away by medicines,
but, what is a more certain remedy, having pared his nails and tied
them to a crayfish, he will turn his back, and as Deucalion did the
stones from which a new progeny of men arose, throw them behind him
into the next river."[147]
The "Leech book"[148] says that for typhus fever the patient is to
drink of a decoction of herbs over which many masses have been sung,
then say the names of the four "gospellers" and a charm and a prayer.
Again, a man is to write a charm in silence, and just as silently put
the words in his left breast and take care not to go in-doors with the
writing upon him, the words being EMMANUEL VERONICA. The Loseley MSS.
prescribe the following for all manner of fevers: "Take iii drops of a
woman's mylke yt norseth a knave childe, and do it in a hennes egge
that ys sedentere (or sitting), and let hym suppe it up when the evyl
takes hym."
_Goitre._--The dew collected from the grave of the last man buried in
a church-yard has been used as a lotion for goitre, and a
correspondent of _Notes and Queries_ for May 24, 1851, furnishes two
remedies then in use at Withyam, Sussex. "A common snake, held by its
head and tail, is slowly drawn by someone standing by nine times
across the front part of the neck of the person affected, the reptile
being allowed, after every third time, to crawl about for awhile.
Afterwards the snake is put alive in a bottle, which is corked
tightly, and then buried in the ground. The tradition is, that as the
snake decays, the swelling vanishes. The second mode of treatment is
just the same as the above, with the exception of the snake's doom. In
this case it is kidded, and its skin, sewn in a piece of silk, is worn
round the diseased neck. By degrees the swelling in this case also
disappears."
_Headache._--In Brand's day, the rope which remained after a man had
been hanged and cut down was an object of eager competition, being
regarded as of great virtue in attacks of headache, and Gross says:
"Moss growing on a human skull, if dried, powdered, and taken as
snuff, will cure the Headach." Loadstone was also recommended as a
sovereign remedy for this malady. Pliny said that any person might be
immediately cured of the headache by the application of any plant
which has grown on the head of a statue, provided it be folded in the
shred of a garment, and tied to the part affected with a red string.
_Hemorrhage._--The following charm has been used to stop bleeding at
the nose and other hemorrhages:
"In the blood of Adam Sin was taken,
In the blood of Christ it was all shaken,
And by the same blood I do the charge,
That the blood of (insert name) run no longer at large."
Pepys in his _Diary_ gives us a Latin charm of which the following is
a translation:
"Blood remain in Thee,
As Christ was in himself;
Blood remain in thy veins,
As Christ in his pains;
Blood remain fixed,
As Christ was on the crucifix."
Brand, the historian of Orkney, says: "They have a charm whereby they
stop excessive bleeding in any, whatever way they come by it, whether
by or without external violence. The name of the Patient being sent to
the Charmer, he saith over some words, (which I heard,) upon which the
blood instantly stoppeth, though the bleeding Patient were at the
greatest distance from the Charmer. Yea, upon the saying of these
words, the blood will stop in the bleeding throats of oxen or sheep,
to the astonishment of Spectators. Which account we had from the
Ministers of the Country."
Boyle says: "Having been one summer frequently subject to bleeding at
the nose, and reduced to employ several remedies to check that
distemper; that which I found the most effectual to stanch the blood
was some moss of a dead man's skull, (sent for a present out of
Ireland, where it is far less rare than in most other countries,)
though it did but touch my skin, till the herb was a little warmed by
it."[149]
Brand gives "A charme to staunch blood: Jesus that was in Bethleem born,
and baptyzed was in the flumen Jordane, as stente the water at hys
comyng, so stente the blood of thys man N. thy servvaunt, thorw the
virtu of thy holy Name [+] Jesu [+] & of thy Cosyn swete Sent Jon. And
sey thys charme fyve tymes with fyve Pater Nosters, in the worschep of
the fyve woundys."[150]
"In the year 1853," says Berdoe, "I saw among the more precious drugs
in the shop of a pharmaceutical chemist at Leamington a bottle
labelled in the ordinary way with the words, Moss from a Dead-Man's
Skull. This has long been used, superstitiously, dried, powdered, and
taken as snuff, for headache and bleeding at the nose."
_Herpes._--Turner[151] notices a prevalent charm among old women for
the shingles, and which is not uncommonly heard of to-day. It was to
smear on the affected part the blood from a black cat's tail.
He says that in the only case when he saw it used it caused
considerable mischief.
_Incubus._--Stones with holes through them were commonly called
hag-stones, and were often attached to the key of the stable door to
prevent witches riding the horses. One of these suspended at the head
of the bed was celebrated for the prevention of nightmare. In the
"Leech book"[152] we find the following: "If a mare or hag ride a man,
take lupins, garlic, and betony, and frankincense, bind them on a fawn
skin, let a man have the worts on him, and let him go into his house."
Notice the following from Lluellin's poems:
"Some the night-mare hath prest
With that weight on their brest,
No returnes of their breath can passe,
But to us the tale is addle,
We can take off her saddle,
And turn out the night-mare to grasse."
_Insomnia._--In the Loseley MSS. we find a receipt "For hym that may
not slepe. Take and wryte yese wordes into leves of lether: Ismael!
Ismael! adjuro te per Angelum Michaelum ut soporetur homo iste; and
lay this under his bed, so yt he wot not yerof and use it allway
lytell, and lytell, as he have nede yerto."
_Jaundice._--This disease was sometimes cured by transplantation, and
Paracelsus gives us a method for carrying this out. Make seven or
nine--it must be an odd number--cakes of the newly emitted and warm
urine of the patient with the ashes of ash wood, and bury them for
some days in a dunghill.
In the journal of Dr. Edward Browne, transmitted to his father, Sir
Thomas Browne, we read of a magical cure for jaundice: "Burne wood
under a leaden vessel filled with water; take the ashes of that wood,
and boyle it with the patient's urine; then lay nine long heaps of the
boyled ashes upon a board in a ranke, and upon every heap lay nine
spears of crocus: it hath greater effects than is credible to any one
that shall barely read this receipt without experiencing."[153]
_Madness._--The early inhabitants of Cornwall used "to place the
disordered in mind on the brink of a square pool, filled with water
from St. Nun's well. The patient, having no intimation of what was
intended, was, by a sudden blow on the breast, tumbled into the pool,
where he was tossed up and down by some persons of superior strength
till, being quite debilitated, his fury forsook him; he was then
carried to church, and certain masses were sung over him. A similar
practice of the people of Perthshire is noticed by Sir Walter Scott in
_Marmion_.
"Thence to St. Fillan's blessed well,
Whose spring can frenzied dreams dispel,
And the crazed brain restore."
_Marasmus._--Mr. Boyle relates the case of a physician whose wan face
betokened a marasmus, and who was induced to try a method not unlike
the sympathetic cures. "He took an egg and boiled it hard in his own
warm urine; he then with a bodkin perforated the shell in many
places, and buried it in an ant-hill, where it was kept to be devoured
by the emmets; and as they wasted the egg, he found his distemper to
abate and his strength to increase, insomuch that his disease left
him."[154]
_Rickets._--The most common method of dealing with this disease was by
drawing the children through a split tree. The tree was afterward
bound up and, as it healed and grew together, the children acquired
strength; at least, so 'twas said. Sir John Cullum saw the operation
performed and says that the ash tree was selected as most preferable
for the purpose. "It was split longitudinally about five feet: the
fissure was kept open by the gardener, whilst the friend of the child,
having first stripped him naked, passed him thrice through it, almost
head foremost. This accomplished, the tree was bound up with
packthread, and as the bark healed, so it was said the child would
recover. One of the cases was of rickets, the other a rupture."
Drawing the children through a perforated stone was also a cure for
rickets, providing that two brass pins were carefully laid across each
other on the top edge of this stone.[155]
_Sciatica._--Sleeping on stones on a particular night was formerly
practised in Cornwall to cure all forms of lameness. Boneshave was the
term used for sciatica in Exmoor, where the following charm was used
for its cure: The patient must lie on his back on the bank of a river
or brook, having a straight staff lying by his side between him and
the water, and must have the following words repeated over him:
"Boneshave right,
Boneshave straight.
As the water runs by the stave
Good for Boneshave."[156]
_Scrofula._--Scrofula, or "king's-evil," was best cured by the touch
of the sovereign, but, if this could not be accomplished, a naked
virgin could cure it, especially if she spit three times upon it.
Stroking the affected parts nine times with the hand of a dead man,
particularly of one who had suffered a violent death as a penalty of
his crime, especially if it be murder, was long practised, and was
said to be efficacious in curing scrofula.
_Sweating Sickness._--Aubrey[157] gives a selection of the favorite
prescriptions in use against the sweating sickness. Among them was the
following: "Another very true medicine.--For to say every day at seven
parts of your body, seven paternosters, and seven Ave Marias, with one
Credo at the last. Ye shall begyn at the ryght syde, under the right
ere, saying the '_paternoster qui es in coelis, sanctificetur nomen
tuum_,' with a cross made there with your thumb, and so say the
paternoster full complete, and one Ave Maria, and then under the left
ere, and then under the left armhole, and then under the left hole,
and then the last at the heart, with one paternoster, Ave Maria with
one Credo; and these thus said daily, with the grace of God is there
no manner drede hym."
_Thorns._--Three metrical charms have been used for troubles of this
kind. _Pepys' Diary_ records "A charme for a thorne":
"Jesus, that was of a Virgin Born,
Was pricked both with nail and thorn;
It neither wealed, nor belled, rankled nor boned;
In the name of Jesus no more shall this."
Another form of the same is this:
"Christ was of a Virgin born,
And he was pricked with a thorn;
It did neither bell, nor swell;
And I trust in Jesus this never will."
Brand gives another thus:
"Unto the Virgin Mary our Saviour was born,
And on his head he wore the crown of thorn;
If you believe this true and mind it well,
This hurt will never fester, nor yet swell."[158]
_Toothache._--King in his interesting article recites this cure:
"Seeth as many little green frogges sitting upon trees as thou canst
get, in water: take the fat flowynge from them, and when nede is,
anoynt the teth therwyth. The graye worms breathing under wood or
stone, having many fete, these perced through with a bodken and then
put into the toth, alayeth the payne."[159] A nail driven into an oak
tree is reported to be a cure for this pain, and bones from a
church-yard have from ancient times been used as charms against this
disease.
An early idea was that toothache was caused by a worm and that henbane
seed roasted would cure it. The following from "The School of Salerne"
formulates this superstition:
"If in your teeth you hap to be tormented,
By meane some little wormes therein do breed,
Which pain (if heed be tane) may be prevented,
Be keeping cleane your teeth, when as you feede;
Burne Francomsence (a gum not evil sented),
Put Henbane unto this, and Onyon seed,
And with a tunnel to the tooth that's hollow,
Convey the smoke thereof, and ease shall follow."
Even to-day, I suppose, druggists sell henbane seed for this purpose.
The seed is used by sprinkling it on hot cinders and holding the open
mouth over the rising smoke. The heat causes the seed to sprout, and
thus there appears something similar to a maggot, which is ignorantly
supposed by the sufferer to have dropped from the tooth.[160]
_Warts._--The cures for warts are many and varied. There have been
many charms devised for their removal. Grose gives directions to
"Steal a piece of beef from a butcher's shop, and rub your wart with
it, then throw it down the necessary house, or bury it, and as the
beef rots, your warts will decay."[161] Some have great faith in
having a vagrant count them, mark the number on the inside of his hat,
and then when he leaves the neighborhood he takes the warts with him.
Coffin water was also considered good for them.
"For warts," says Sir Thomas Browne, "we rub our hands before the
moon, and commit any magulated part to the touch of the dead. Old
Women were always famous for curing warts; they were so in Lucian's
time."[162]
Sir Kenelm Digby, in a work already referred to, says: "One would
think that it were folly that one should offer to wash his hands in a
well-polished silver basin, wherein there is not a drop of water, yet
this may be done by the reflection of the moonbeams only, which will
afford it a competent humidity to do it; but they who have tried it,
have found their hands, after they are wiped, to be much moister than
usually; but this is an infallible way to take away warts from the
hands, if it be often used."
Black gives us several ways of charming away warts. He says:
"Lancashire wise men tell us for warts to rub them with a cinder, and
this tied up in paper, and dropped where four roads meet, will
transfer the warts to whoever opens the parcel. Another mode of
transferring warts is to touch each wart with a pebble, and place the
pebbles in a bag, which should be lost on the way to church; whoever
finds the bag gets the warts." A common Warwickshire custom was to rub
the warts with a black snail, stick the snail on a thorn bush, and
then, say the folks, as the snail dies so will the wart
disappear.[163]
Warts, on the other hand, seem in certain cases to be considered
lucky. In "Syr Gyles Goosecappe, Knight," a play of 1606, Lord Momford
is made to say: "The Creses here are excellent good: the proportion
of the chin good; the little aptnes of it to sticke out; good. And the
wart aboue it most exceeding good."
_Wen._--A newspaper of 1777 reports: "After he (Doctor Dodd) had hung
about ten minutes, a very decently dressed young woman went up to the
gallows in order to have a wen in her face stroked by the Doctor's
hand; it being a received opinion among the vulgar that it is a
certain cure for such a disorder. The executioner, having untied the
Doctor's hand, stroked the part affected several times therewith."
At the execution of Crowley, a murderer of Warwick, in 1845, a similar
scene is described in the newspapers: "At least five thousand persons
of the lowest of the low were mustered on this occasion to witness the
dying moments of the unhappy culprit.... As is usual in such cases (to
their shame be it spoken) a number of females were present, and
scarcely had the soul of the deceased taken its farewell flight from
its earthly tabernacle, than the scaffold was crowded with members of
the 'gentler sex' afflicted with wens in the neck, with white
swellings in the knees, &c., upon whose afflictions the cold clammy
hand of the sufferer was passed to and fro for the benefit of his
executioner."[164]
_Whooping-Cough._--It was a common belief in Devonshire, Cornwall, and
some other parts of England, that if one inquired of any one riding on
a piebald horse of a remedy for this complaint, whatever he named was
regarded as an infallible cure. In Suffolk and Norfolk, a favorite
remedy was to put the head of a suffering child for a few minutes into
a hole made in a meadow. It must be done in the evening with only the
father and mother to witness it.
A child in Cornwall received the following treatment: "If afflicted
with the hooping cough, it is fed with the bread and butter of a
family, the heads of which bear respectively the names of John and
Joan. In the time of an epidemic, so numerous are the applications,
that the poor couple have little reason to be grateful to their
godfathers and godmothers for their gift of these particular names.
Or, if a piebald horse is to be found in the neighbourhood, the child
is taken to it, and passed thrice under the belly of the animal; the
mere possession of such a beast confers the power of curing the
disease."
We have an account of a cure for whooping-cough in a Monmouthshire
paper about the middle of the nineteenth century. "A few days since an
unusual circumstance was observed at Pillgwenlly, which caused no
small degree of astonishment to one or two enlightened beholders. A
patient ass stood near a house, and a family of not much more rational
animals was grouped around it. A father was passing his little son
under the donkey, and lifting him over its back a certain number of
times, with as much solemnity and precision as if engaged in the
performance of a sacred duty. This done, the father took a piece of
bread, cut from an untasted loaf, which he offered the animal to bite
at. Nothing loath, the Jerusalem poney laid hold of the piece of bread
with his teeth, and instantly the father severed the outer portion of
the slice from that in the donkey's mouth. He next clipped off some
hairs from the neck of the animal, which he cut up into minute
particles, and then mixed them with the bread which he had crumbled.
This very tasty food was then offered to the boy who had been passed
round the donkey so mysteriously, and the little fellow having eaten
thereof, the donkey was removed by his owners. The father, his son,
and other members of his family were moving off, when a bystander
inquired what all these 'goings on' had been adopted for? The father
stared at the ignorance of the inquirer, and then in a half
contemptuous, half condescending tone, informed him that 'it was to
cure his poor son's whooping-cough, to be sure!' Extraordinary as this
may appear, in days when the schoolmaster is so much in request, it is
nevertheless true."
There is a belief in Cheshire that, if a toad is held for a moment
within the mouth of the patient, it is apt to catch the disease, and
so cure the person suffering from it. A correspondent of _Notes and
Queries_ speaks of a case in which such a phenomenon actually
occurred; but the experiment is one which would not be very willingly
tried. Brand informs us that "Roasted mice were formerly held in
Norfolk a sure remedy for this complaint; nor is it certain that the
belief is extinct even now. A poor woman's son once found himself
greatly relieved after eating three roast mice!"[165]
_Worms._--A Scotch writer in the last half of the seventeenth century
observed: "In the Miscellaneous MSS. ... written by Baillie Dundee,
among several medicinal receipts I find an exorcism against all kinds
of worms in the body, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
to be repeated three mornings, as a certain remedy."[166]
[122] S. B. Gould, _Curious Myths of the Middle Ages_,
p. 273.
[123] H. Morley, _Life of Cornelius Agrippa_, I, p. 165.
[124] M. Thiers, _Traite des Superstitions_, p. 436.
[125] E. A. King, "Medieval Medicine," _Nineteenth
Century_, XXXIV, p. 147.
[126] G. F. Fort, _History of Medical Economy During the
Middle Ages_, p. 72.
[127] J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, III, pp. 229 f.
[128] _Ibid._, III, pp. 228 and 237.
[129] T. J. Pettigrew, _Superstitions Connected with ...
Medicine and Surgery_, pp. 94 f.
[130] J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, III, pp. 252 f.
[131] E. Berdoe, _Origin and Growth of the Healing Art_,
p. 416.
[132] T. J. Pettigrew, _Superstitions Connected with ...
Surgery and Medicine_, pp. 104-106.
[133] _Pepys' Diary_, I, p. 323.
[134] T. J. Pettigrew, _Superstitions Connected with ...
Medicine and Surgery_, pp. 113-115.
[135] _History of Moray_, p. 248.
[136] _History of Medicine_, p. 159.
[137] J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, III, pp. 240 and
248.
[138] I, p. 324.
[139] E. A. King, "Medieval Medicine," _Nineteenth
Century_, XXXIV, p. 149.
[140] T. J. Pettigrew, _Superstitions Connected with ...
Medicine and Surgery_, p. 77.
[141] E. Berdoe, _Origin and Growth of the Medical Art_,
pp. 397 and 414.
[142] E. A. King, "Medieval Medicine," _Nineteenth
Century_, XXXIV, p. 147.
[143] E. Berdoe, _Origin and Growth of the Healing
Art_, p. 327.
[144] T. J. Pettigrew, _Superstitions Connected with ...
Medicine and Surgery_, pp. 84 f.
[145] G. F. Fort, _History of Medical Economy During the
Middle Ages_, p. 196.
[146] J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, III, p. 237.
[147] T. J. Pettigrew, _Superstitions Connected with ...
Medicine and Surgery_, p. 92.
[148] II, p. 139.
[149] _Ibid._, pp. 112 f.
[150] J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, III, pp. 237,
241, and 268.
[151] _Diseases of the Skin_, p. 82.
[152] II, p. 139.
[153] T. J. Pettigrew, _Superstitions Connected with ...
Medicine and Surgery_, p. 103.
[154] _Ibid._, p. 102.
[155] J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, III, pp. 249 f.
[156] _Ibid._, p. 245.
[157] _History of England_, II, p. 296.
[158] J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, III, p. 264.
[159] E. A. King, "Medieval Medicine," _Nineteenth
Century_, XXXIV, p. 148.
[160] E. Berdoe, _Origin and Growth of the Healing Art_,
pp. 414 f.
[161] T. J. Pettigrew, _Superstitions Connected with ...
Medicine and Surgery_, p. 108.
[162] J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, III, p. 241.
[163] Berdoe, _Origin and Growth of the Healing Art_,
pp. 415 f.
[164] J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, III, p. 241.
[165] _Ibid._, p. 239.
[166] _Ibid._, p. 240.