Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing

harmes that

ro' the sky a

splinter fro

she staunch'd t

breast I spit

ting Charms.

rtunes she

sayenge her

r Charmes o

the Toth a

e the Devyll f

y the backe in

ore good, but the

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

reby strange things are pretended to be done, beyond the ordinary power of nature

nd 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

iple. 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 fo

herb called cinquefoil, or five-leafed grass, resists poison, and bans devils by virtue of the number five;

a naissance d'aucune fille, peuvent aussi guérir des fièvres tierces, des fièvres quartes, at mesme des écrouelles, après avoir je?né trois ou neuf jours avant que de toucher les malades. Mais ils font trop de fond sur le nombre septenaire, en attribuant au septième gar?on, préférablement à tous autres, une puissance qu'il y a autant de raison d'attribuer au sixième ou au huitième, sur le nombre de trois, et sur celuy de neuf, pour ne pas s'engager

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 pri

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 take

t 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 b

eaten; the same confort the sinewes. The elder these beastes be, the more they strengthen." It is notic

mud. 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

xon Leechdoms: "As soon as a man gets pain in his eyes, tie in unwrought flax as many knot

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 fas

it on your hand, rub all your sinuews, and say, 'Flee, gout, flee,' etc." Sir Thomas Browne

g 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-

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 bre

af in m

penny in

never t

never the

reason can any Man alyve alledge why Mother Joane of St

was the

Thorne pri

sted nor it

God, nor th

easts, or Men and Wo

as we have that of amulets, and present the different charms un

s: "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 malefact

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

said up the chimney on St. Agnes Eve, by the

ble a

y shiver

e and

y shiver

le an

never re

ers it, is considered as a remedy for tertian ague." Lodge, in glancing at the superstitious creed with respect to charms, says

s 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 the

ey 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 h

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 th

re 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,

g 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 mus

idest over the

est the bite

One, ward off t

ence, O madnes

wing is "A Charm

hree angels o

t fire, the tw

re; in

e Father, and Son

en.

he 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 mid

easy birth; a sardonyx formerly belonged to the monastery of St. Albans to be used for this purpose. In some countries, d

dance, none seemed so effectual as an application to the

sodde in oyle, bef

bringing hennes for

doe not know, I th

o drive away from suc

g the water in which he had washed his feet; we mi

ent, 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

ntly 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 Cha

for cramp, the following is

e thou f

Lady wa

e bare

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. Jo

e given by Cato the Censor for the reduction of a

ch other for insertion. While this is doing repeat these words: In Alio S. F. Motas v?ta, Daries Dardaries Astataries Dissunapitur. Now jerk a

of preparation being given in Bates's Pharmacop?ia. This powder was used

en 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:

ic, 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,

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 sickne

t fascination in general. Certain figures in bronze, coral, ivory, etc., representing a closed hand with the thum

ies, do this;

gging S

medicists were not uncommon, and they cured largely throu

aidens o

rdant h

d cure b

cured

red infl

red by one

per Angelum ut soporetur iste Homo N. and ley thys lef under hys head that he wete not therof, an

edy, having pared his nails and tied them to a crayfish, he will turn his back, and as Deucalion d

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. prescri

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 a

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 i

has been used to stop bleeding a

d of Adam Si

of Christ it

ame blood I

(insert name) run

a Latin charm of which the

remain

t was in

main in

st in h

remain

was on the

tient 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

temper; 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 Irelan

the water at hys comyng, so stente the blood of thys man N. thy servvaunt, thorw the virtu of thy holy Name ? Jesu ? & of

t at Leamington a bottle labelled in the ordinary way with the words, Moss from a Dead-Man's Skull. This has

ot uncommonly heard of to-day. It was to smear on the affected part the blood from a black c

hese 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

night-mare

weight on

of their bre

the tale

ke off he

the night-mar

into leves of lether: Ismael! Ismael! adjuro te per Angelum Michaelum ut soporetur homo iste; and lay

for carrying this out. Make seven or nine-it must be an odd number-cakes of the newly emitted an

illed 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, an

on 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 debilitate

t. Fillan's

can frenzied

azed brain

e 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 kep

e 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 pac

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 ri

shave

ave st

er runs by

r Bones

e 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 su

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 M

used for troubles of this kind. Pepys'

t was of a

both with na

d, nor belled, r

f Jesus no mo

m of the sa

as of a V

pricked w

ther bell,

in Jesus thi

ves anot

in Mary our Sa

d he wore the

this true and

never fester, n

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

that henbane seed roasted would cure it. The following f

eth you hap to

ittle wormes th

heed be tane) m

e your teeth, wh

ence (a gum no

unto this, a

el to the tooth

thereof, and ea

inders and holding the open mouth over the rising smoke. The heat causes the seed to sprout, and thus there appe

p, 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

n, and commit any magulated part to the touch of the dead. Old Women

in 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 trie

r 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

t," a play of 1606, Lord Momford is made to say: "The Creses here are excellent good: the proportion of

he 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

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 cr

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

. 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

ance 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

tes 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

itten by Baillie Dundee, among several medicinal receipts I find an exorcism against all kinds of worms in the

rious Myths of the

fe of Cornelius A

raité des Supers

al Medicine," Nineteent

of Medical Economy Durin

pular Antiquitie

III, pp.

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