CHAPTER 2

THE ILLNESSES OF HUMANS AND THEIR CURE

The treatments of illnesses that I am presenting here reflect an unusual blend of folk traditions and scholarly traditions, with the one type ceaselessly crossing over into the other. A profound syncretism marks the recipes whose pagan origins cannot be denied despite their Christian garb. Disorders of the body and external attacks, mainly by means of invisible arrows, illnesses are battled by all means available: plants, minerals, bodily substances, to which are added orisons, conjurations, exorcisms, and spells of banishment and execration. The recipes are interspersed with commands: Leave! Flee! Go away! and so forth, with threats—I am going to . . . —and appeals to God and his saints for their help, or to a pagan deity. In them we find reference to numerous mythical situations or narratives (historiolae) and analogy, introduced by “just as” or “like.” Jesus and Mary are ceaselessly featured in the charms based on the theme of meeting: the saints know how to bind illnesses.

In an edifying tale (exemplum) passed down by a fifteenth-century manuscript, God even grants to each plant growing by the foot of a statue of Jesus the power of restoring health to the ill.¹ A miniature from the Chants royaux (Royal Songs) of Rouen (1519–28) depicts Christ as an apothecary prescribing remedies for Adam and Eve.

Diseases do not always correspond to the modern diagnoses because medieval texts make a disproportionate use of terms like gout or fever.

Christ the Apothecary, miniature from the Chants royaux of Rouen.

  Deroux, Maladie et Maladies dans les textes latines et médiévaux; Campbell, Hall, and Klausner, eds., Health, Disease, and Healing in Medieval Culture.

ABSCESS, TUMOR

16  AGAINST A WEEPING ABSCESS

Place lettuce or plantain leaves over the abscess; then throw them into running water several hours later, while saying:

God and the abscess were fighting
God won, the abscess disappeared.
In the name of . . ., and so forth.

  Transylvanian Saxons, nineteenth century. Schuster, Siebenbürgisch-sächsische Volkslieder, 306.

17  FOR AN ABSCESS OF THE FOOT

Plunge the afflicted foot into running water and with the healthy foot on the bank say: “Our Lord Jesus Christ passed over the bridge, the malevolent abscess bit his foot. Evil abscess, fall into the river! Jesus, my lord, heal my foot!”

  Transylvanian Saxons, nineteenth century. Schuster, Siebenbürgisch-sächsische Volkslieder, 306.

18  A SPELL FOR AN ABSCESS OF THE FOOT

Make the sign of the cross and say: “I am removing you from here and putting you into the earth where you will cook and die. If you do not disappear, I will cut you with a knife and tear you off.”

  Romania, nineteenth century. Schullerus, Rumänische Volksmärchen, 44.

19  A SPELL FOR AN ABSCESS

Three virgins are approaching my hands. One has red shoes, red stockings, a red cover, a red brooch, red gloves, and a red shawl. The second has a yellow cover, a yellow brooch, a yellow headscarf, yellow gloves, yellow shoes, and a yellow apron. The third has a white cover, a white brooch, a white headscarf, white shoes, and white stockings. Leave! Leave my hands!

The colors mentioned refer to the three stages of coloration in an abscess. The three virgins are supernatural beings who started appearing in the fourth century and were Christianized into the Three Marys.

  Latvia, nineteenth century. Bartels, “Über Krankheits-Beschwörungen,” 30; Trümpy, “Similia similibus.”

20  TO GET RID OF A TUMOR

Repeat the following phrase:

Flee, tumor! Flee, tumor! May all evil flee! Wherever you are coming from, stay there! Here you will be pulled and torn apart, nothing good will befall you here! Over there’s your home, sleep there! Perkons will hunt you with his nine sons. Disappear like the waning moon, like an old puffball,^*3 like the dew.

This charm makes an appeal to the god of thunder, Perkunas (Perun), who was also invoked against chest pains.

  Latvia, nineteenth century. Bartels, “Über Krankheits-Beschwörungen,” 22.

AFFLICTION

21  AGAINST A DARK MOOD

If someone is dark of mood and cannot find rest because of his pains and grief, he should place in his bed mandrake that he has soaked in water for one day and night, so that it will reheat from his sweat and he should say: “God who created man from silt without pain, as this silt has now passed to the other side, place next to me this same silt, as you have created it, so that it might bring me peace.”

  Latin, twelfth century. Hildegard von Bingen, Physica, I, 56, “On the Mandrake”; Camus, L’Opera salernitana “Circa instans” ed il testo primitive del “Grant herbier en francoys,” no. 299; Platearius, Livre des simples médecines, vol. 2, 203, chap. 279; Gubernatis, La Mythologie des plantes, vol. 2, 213–17.

ANGINA (SORE THROAT)

22  AGAINST A SORE THROAT

While fasting, one charms the patient, who is also fasting, while holding the spot stricken by the illness with three fingers: the thumb, the middle finger, and the ring finger, while saying: “Disappear, it you were born today, if you were born sooner, it you have emerged this day, if you emerged sooner. This illness and disorder, this pain of the tonsils, this swelling of the abscess in the throat, by this charm I expel them from the throat, I make them leave, by this charm, I eradicate from these limbs, from this marrow.”

Oddly enough, the use of these three fingers can be seen again in a nineteenth-century Swedish charm for stopping bleeding. One should keep in mind that the ring finger is called digitus medicinalis.

  Latin, fourteenth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, 15.11.

23  AGAINST ANGINA AND PAINS OF THE THROAT

Blended with an equal weight of myrrh the ashes of a young swallow burned alive will heal wonderfully if you proceed carefully, which is to say if you first introduce a finger [into the throat] then rub it with a feather; one also blows the powder into the throat with a straw. This should be done three or four times a day as it is quite helpful.

  Latin, seventeenth century. Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek, Codex medicinalis 1, fol. 25v.

24  INCANTATION FOR SORE THROATS

“Neptune has anginas on the stone; he stayed there, he had no one to heal them. He healed himself with his trident.” Say this three times.

  Latin, ninth century. St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Codex 751. Heim, “Incantamenta magica graeca latina,” 557.

25  TO HEAL A SORE THROAT

Take a branch of a plum tree and attach it to the chimney so it will dry out, to heal a sore throat.

  France, eighteenth century. Thiers, Traité des superstitions (1777), vol. 4, 325.

ANTHRAX

26  FOR ANTHRAX, FISTULAS, AND OTHER CONTAGIOUS DISEASES

Take a lead strip as long and wide as the wound, then draw a cross on each corner and another in the center, and while doing this, say: “Lord Jesus Christ who died for us on the cross, restore health to your servant [name]. The five wounds of God are his remedies, may the pious cross and the passion of Christ be his remedy!” Once you have done this, make sure the strip does not touch the ground, for it will lose its power. And know that you should say while drawing the cross [in the middle]: “Lord Jesus Christ,” and as done previously. Next, while placing this strip on the ailing part, you should recite this charm accompanied by three benedictions: “Lady Holy Mary, mother of the Savior, for the five days you had conceiving him, without any human intervention, and painlessly gave birth to him, and that you saw him come back from the dead, and by his virtue, ascend into heaven; by the five wounds He suffered on the cross, may He heal this illness!” And each time you say this charm, give the blessing: “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, amen. Just as the wounds of our Lord Jesus Christ did not putrefy, did not stink, nor produced worms, but healed perfectly.” Make sure that this strip of lead is not removed before three days; then take red cabbage, cook it well in water with root and bark, then crush it with your hands and not with iron. Cook it until half the water has disappeared, wash the wound often as well as the affliction, then place the lead strip back over it and say this orison: “Lord Jesus Christ, you who redeemed our sins with your precious blood on the cross, deign to bless this lead so that the affliction it will touch will heal by the virtue of your most holy passion. By the Christ our Lord, amen.”

  Latin and Middle French, circa 1300. London, British Library, Additional 15236, folio 31v–32r; Grabner, “Ein Arzt hat dreirlei Gesicht.”

BIRTH

Facilitating birth and reducing its pains has always been a major concern. It was once believed that a long and painful labor was the punishment for adultery or other sins of the mother. A host of methods were developed in folk medicine, such as the following: to facilitate childbirth, one should wear a belt made from the hide of a deer hunted during the canicular days, or the heart of a living hare, or hang a viper around the neck, or smear the belly with an ointment made from ant larvae. Even earlier, Pliny the Elder informs us: “It is said, that if a person takes a stone or other missile which has slain three living creatures, a man, a boar, and a bear, at three blows, and throws it over the roof of a house in which there is a pregnant woman, her delivery, however difficult, will be instantly accelerated thereby” (Historia Naturalis, XXVIII, 6).

27  FOR A WOMAN WHO IS LATE GIVING BIRTH

Write on virgin parchment dyed with grape (juice): “Befriend him, chaste Lucina; ’tis thine own Apollo reigns”; then attach it to her right thigh, and when the child has emerged, pull it off immediately.

There are two kinds of virgin parchment: one from an animal that has not yet reached the age of procreation and the other from one that was stillborn. The magic spell is in fact a verse from Virgil’s Bucolics [or Eclogues 4.10]! Another one that this time was taken from the Aeneid (4.129; 11.1) appears in the following charm.

Martinus de Arles, Tractatus de superstitionibus (Rome: Vincentium Luchinum, 1559): for childbirth.

 

  Latin, fifth century. Pseudo-Theodore, Theodori Prisciani Euporiston libri III, 340: 25ff.

28  TO COMPEL HER TO GIVE BIRTH

Say three times in her left ear: “Chile, come out, your brothers summon you into the light.” Once the woman has given birth, write this on the top of the door: “Meanwhile, emerging Dawn abandoned the Ocean.”

  Latin, fifth century. Pseudo-Theodore, Theodori Prisciani Euporiston, 340: 13ff.

29  TO ACCELERATE BIRTH

Carve these characters on a crust of bread and attach it to [the woman’s] right thigh:

And once she has given birth, detach it.

  Latin, ninth–tenth century. Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde 7 (1839), 1020.

30  TO DELIVER A CHILD

Write this on bread: “† Adam† Adam † Adam, leave! † The Christ is calling you †. Holy Mary, free your servant [name]. Arising from the mouth of babes and sucklings is the praise of Thy name that Thou might destroy the enemies and allow the child to live!² Give her this bread to eat and she will deliver the child.

  Latin, twelfth century. Franz, Die kirchlichen Benediktionen in Mittelalter, vol. 2, 101; HDA, vol. 3, 344ff.

31  TO GIVE BIRTH WITHOUT DANGER

Write the Our Father in a marble vase that you will rinse with white wine, which you will then give to the woman to drink. She will then give birth without danger.

  Middle French, Cambrésis, thirteenth century. Coulon, Curiosités de l’histoire, 65, no. 57.

32  TO DELIVER A CHILD

Write these verses and attach them to the right big toe (of the woman giving birth): “The God of gods, the Lord has spoken and called forth the earth.”

  Latin, thirteenth century. London, British Library, Sloane 146, fol. 30v.

Giving birth, 1483.

33  TO DELIVER A CHILD MORE QUICKLY

When a woman is in labor and cannot give birth quickly, and this is posing a threat to her life, one must write a note that is long enough to encircle her body:

De viro vir, vincit leo de tribu Juda; Maria peperit Jhesum; Elisabeth sterilis peperit Johannem babtystam; adjuro te, infans, per patrem † et filium † et spiritus † sanctum: sij masculus es aut femina, vt exeas de ista vulva; exanite.

When the child has been born, remove the note and grate two pfennigs’ weight of ivory and give this to the woman to drink in wine; she will expel the placenta if you do not have a midwife near her.

  Low German and Latin, 1487, Royal Library of Stockholm, MS X, 114, fol. 55r–v.

34  WHEN A WOMAN CANNOT GIVE BIRTH

Have her drink mugwort or verbena in wine or beer. This herb should also be attached immediately to her navel: she will give birth. Take the herb away immediately after. Write on a note: “Elisabeth conceived the Precursor, Holy Mary conceived the Savior. Boy or girl, come out! Christ calls you forth. May all the saints intercede on my behalf †.”

This prescription consists of two different elements, the remedy and an amulet (the text in quotation marks), of which we have numerous examples.

  Low Saxon and Latin, shortly before 1400. Utrecht, Library of the Royal University, MS 1355, no. 16.

35  FOR A WOMAN IN A LONG LABOR

Take mugwort and coral and blend them together on the right thigh in a linen cloth, and by their property she shall give birth. And also bind mugwort by itself on the woman’s thigh, but remove these things at once after the birth. And note that the chamber of the woman in labor should contain no pears and no nuts. Because of their occult properties, they will greatly obstruct the birth.

  France (Troyes), sixteenth century. M.-D. Leclerc, Les maladies des femmes, 8.

36  TO GIVE BIRTH QUICKLY

When a woman is ready to give birth, take her belt, go to the church and bind the bell with this belt. Then have it rung three times so that this woman will give birth quickly.

  France, seventeenth century. Thiers, Traité des superstitions (1679), 320; Traité des superstitions (1777), vol. 4, 325.

37  TO DELIVER A CHILD IMMEDIATELY

Take some root of henbane, otherwise known as piglet, and place it on the woman’s left thigh, and remove it at once, when the child is out, for fear it will disturb her overmuch.

  France (Troyes), seventeenth century. M.-D. Leclerc, Les maladies des femmes, 8.

38  FOR A DIFFICULT BIRTH

The women of the clan sing the following to the birthing mother and one of the women peels an egg between her thighs:

The oak, the oak is so round,

And the belly is full and round;

Child, leave it in good health!

The Lord God is calling you!”

  Gypsies of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksdichtungen, 141.

39  WHEN PAINS ARE FELT FOLLOWING THE BIRTH

After the birth, suffumigate the woman with worm-eaten willow wood while humming this song:

The smoke flies away, fast and thick,

and the moon is flying, too!

They have found themselves,

You should therefore be healed;

When the smoke has passed,

Be freed of the pain,

Be freed of the pain!

  Gypsies of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksdichtungen, 141ff.

BITES

40  PROTECTION FROM SNAKEBITES

Anyone who carries the leaves and the root of verbena will be protected from snakebites.

  Latin, fourth century. Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarius, 3§7.

41  PROTECTION FROM SNAKEBITES

If someone rubs stag suet on himself or carries a piece of untanned deer hide and rewarms it, no snake can approach him.

  Germany, sixteenth century. Herr, Das neue Tier-und Arzneibuch, chap. 6.

42  FOR DOG BITE

Write on virgin parchment: oscaragi III ego ungues.

  Latin, ninth century. St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Codex 751; Heim, “Incantamenta magica,” 564.

43  PROTECTION FROM RABID DOGS

The ash of burnt crayfish (or crab) is an amulet against the bite of rabid dogs.

  France, sixteenth century. Fernel, De abditis rerum causis libri dvo, 243.

44  INCANTATION AGAINST THE SERPENT

Say three times, “A multicolored demon but the little skin, the little skin is the flesh, the flesh is the bone, may the bone remain healthy!”

The person undoing the enchantment should remain where the patient welcomed him. And the patient must bring him water and three small hazel branches. And the person undoing the enchantment will take the three branches and dispel the enchantment in this water while saying the words above three times.

  Romania, 1832. Bucharest, Biblioteca Academiei Române, Romanian MS BAR 5706, fol. 58r: “Descântec de năjit”; Timotin, Descântecele manuscrise româneşti, 257.

45  ANOTHER INCANTATION AGAINST THE SERPENT

Panca pasca cacarat poca poi tocosora panca paca caca panca rata.

Write these words in a glass and wash them with wine or virgin water and give them to someone who has been bitten to drink and to wash the bite.

  Romania, eighteenth century. Bucharest, Biblioteca Academiei Române, Romanian MS BAR 1517, fol. 42v.

46  AGAINST A SNAKEBITE

Say the following verse.

Saint Peter put wood on the fire.

A snake then came and hung from Peter’s arm.

Peter took the snake and cast it into the fire,

And the snake burned.

I will heal you the same way (name).

††† Amen.

  Sweden (Västergötland), late nineteenth century. Klintberg, Svenska trollformler, 67. Bokmål, no. 9, “ormbett.” Reichborn-Kjennerud, Vår gamle trolldomsmedisin, vol. 2, 134–39.

47  TALISMAN AGAINST SCORPION STINGS

Carve upon a bezoar the image of a scorpion at the hour of the moon when it enters the second decan of Scorpio. The ascendant must be in Leo, Taurus, or Aquarius. The bezoar is then set in a gold ring and one imprints a seal in the incense that has been chewed up by the patient at the said hour, when the moon is in Scorpio, and the victim is given this imprint to drink, then his pains shall vanish.

The author repeats this prescription in the tenth treatise of the second part, which follows.

  Arabic magic, mid-eleventh century. Ghāyat al-hakīm, II, 10, 32.

48  AGAINST SCORPIONS

On the morning of a Monday, on the hour of Scorpio’s exultation, carve upon a mahâ (a crystal or white stone) the image of a snake with a scorpion above it; no reptile shall bite the bearer of this stone, and he will be healed of all bites if he places it in a liquid that he next drinks.

  Arabic magic, mid-eleventh century. Ghāyat al-hakīm, II, 10, 122.

49  SPELL FOR DRIVING FEROCIOUS BEASTS AWAY

Say the following verse.

Matey, matey, motey, motey a, a, a,

moutef, moutef, mitey, mitey!

May the desert be purified for the unknown one!

  Lexa, La Magie dans l’Égypte antique, vol. 2, 4; Maspero, Recueil de travaux relatifs à la philologie et à l’archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes, vols. 4 (1882), and 14 (1892); Kurt Sethe, Die altägyptischen Pyramiden-Texte.

50  TO PREVENT A SNAKE FROM CAUSING HARM

Say these words: aussi’ osià aussi’.

  Italy, late nineteenth century. Libro de segretto, 10

51  INCANTATION AGAINST WOLF BITE

Say the following prayer:

Cosmas, Damian, incantation to the Mother of God. A purplish bird is sitting on a whelk, the whelk dries up, just as the whelk’s stalk [has been] cut [and] tossed behind the hedge, may the bite of the wolf dry. Amen.

And one takes three young hazel shoots and undoes their enchantment in virgin water and thoroughly washes the wound with this water and gives it to the person to drink, and this will be his remedy.

Another Romanian charm tells us that there are poisonous wolves that cause the death of livestock.

  Romania, eighteenth century. Bucharest, Biblioteca Academiei Române, MS BAR 1320, folio 21r; Timotin, Descântecele manuscrise româneşti, 291.

52  ANOTHER INCANTATION AGAINST WOLF BITE

Kota tota dota bašalyk, adyk, psyk, cik!

These words make no sense. Their magical character is based on alliteration.

  Lithuania, nineteenth century. Vaitkevičienė, Lietuvių užkalbėjimai, no. 1371.

BLEEDING

In The Odyssey (bk. 19) Homer tells how Odysseus’s bleeding, caused by the attack of a wild boar, was halted by a spell.

53  SPELL AGAINST FLOWING BLOOD

One writes the following on a sheet of virgin papyrus and ties it with a thread to a man’s waist, or a woman’s, whose blood is flowing from a certain place on their body.

SICYCVMA CVCVMA VCVMA CVMA VMA MA A

  Latin, fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, X, 34.

54  TO STOP THE FLOW OF BLOOD

Repeat the following phrases:

Truncha musa. Daffatana. Quui. Truna. Musa. Daffanata clusa. Sic hicfeda cala feda. Palafeda devulnera.

The soldier Longinus stabbed the Lord with his spear. Nepoecine poluit. Olim fact olio. Amen.

The soldier Longinus stabbed the Lord Jesus Christ with his spear, water and blood poured from his wound.

May the Christ anoint! May he bar the vein. Murmur accessus. Amen Our Father.

Repeat the following three times:

By the Christ, stop, stop, stop as the river Jordan stopped!

  Latin, twelfth century. Rationale, Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, MS Clm 100, fol. 112v; Ohrt, Die ältesten Segen über Christi Taufe und Christi Tod in religionsgeschichtlichem Lichte; Edsman, “Folklig sod met rot I heden tid,” Arv (1946): 145–76; HDA, vol. 5, 1327ff., “Longinussegen.”

55  AGAINST A GUSH OF BLOOD

† Caro † cruce † Ysmahelite make that [the wound] of your servant [name] seal back up. Amen. † In the name of the F. † and of the Son and of the H. † protect, Lord, your servant [name] from this harm and from all debility of body and soul. † Facing this sign, none dies. †††. A. B. G. H. O. Q. 8. 2. F. f. f.

Other spells like this give caruce for cruce, which alters the meaning. Here the Holy Cross is evoked, which confirms that it provides protection against all danger. The series of uppercase letters (characters) seems to be the beginning of the Greek alphabet, and the three “f ’s” are the abbreviation of a triple fiat, “let it be so.”

  Latin, twelfth century. Codex Engelbergensis 45, fol. 157; Heim, “Incantamenta magica,” 555; Franz, Die kirchlichen Benediktionen, 2:175; Thiers, Traité des superstitions (1777), 1:357.

56  TO HALT BLEEDING OF A VEIN

If you throw a toad into a new kettle and shred it until it has been reduced to charcoal, its ashes, purified with vinegar, will heal all hemorrhaging of men and women, of the kidneys and uterus, and it will halt the bleeding of a vein or the cut of an artery. If you wish proof, take a knife, rub it with this ash, then stab any quadruped you please, its blood will not flow.

  Greek, fourteenth century. KYPANIΣ I, Φ; Mély, Les lapidaires grecs, 77–78.

57  TO STOP BLEEDING

Write these letters on parchment in two places and tie them on the two thighs of the man or woman who is bleeding, the blood will stop:

h b c v o x a g

And if you wish to find proof, write them on the knife you are using to kill a pig. No blood will come out.

  France, Cambrésis, thirteenth century. Coulon, Curiosités de l’ histoire, 64, no. 53.

58  TO STOP BLOOD THAT IS FLOWING

Carve upon an onyx the image of a lion with the characters shown below at the hour of the Lion and in the ascendant of his house, know that it will hold back immediately the blood of the person who holds it and prevent it from flowing.

  Arabic magic, mid-eleventh century. Ghāyat al-hakīm, II, 10, 130.

59  FOR A HEMORRHAGE

One should write on a limb from which blood is flowing this word: tetragramaton, with a cross at the beginning and another at its end.

  Latin, ca. 1300, London, British Library, Additional 15236, folio 47v.

60  AGAINST BLOOD LOSS

In Bethlehem the city,

A true child was born,

From a true woman a true child

True veins of this man hold back your blood!

If the patient is a man, write Veronix on his forehead with his own blood; if it is a woman, Veronia.

The reference to Bethlehem is quite common in charms against blood loss (ad sanguinem restrigendum; conjuration pro sanguine); it marks a stage in the life of Jesus, followed by his baptism in the Jordan, which then stopped flowing, say the charms. This reference is absent here. As for Veronix, this is Veronica/Beronica, frequently invoked in charms against bleeding.

  French and Latin, fifteenth century. Tractatus de egritudine mulieribus, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS fr. 7056.

61  TO STOP BLEEDING

To stop bleeding, take the moss from a skull and crush it into a powder; this heals, it is proven.

  Low German, 1487, Royal Library of Stockholm, MS X, 114, fol. 44v; Ebermann, Blut- und Wundsegen in ihrer Entwicklung dargestellt.

62  TO STOP BLOOD FLOW

The stone from a carp skull placed against the fold of the little finger corresponding to the bleeding part stops even the most impetuous blood flow possible.

  France, seventeenth century. Laurent Joubert, La Première et Seconde partie des erreurs populaires, 171.

63  FOR STOPPING BLEEDING

Repeat the following verse.

Blood, blood, be as weary of flowing

As Jesus was of a woman

Who on Sunday did not stop spinning.

Blood, blood, be as sorry to flow

As Jesus was of a woman

Who on Friday brushed her hair

And gave new life to the wounds of Jesus.

Blood, blood, be as weary of flowing

As Jesus is of the gray-haired man

Who goes to the thing,^*4 knows the law

And shares in a wrong.

Blood, blood, be as weary of flowing

As Jesus is of the old graybeard

Who stands at the edge of Hell, a staff in his hand.

  Sweden, 1763, Klintberg, Svenska trollformler, 64, no. 2, “Ståmma blod”; Ohrt, De danske Besvaergelser mod Vrid og Blod.

64  FOR HEMORRHAGES OF THE UTERUS

Repeat the following verse.

Uterus was seated on a marble stone;

An old man approached him.

“Uterus, where do you wish to go?”

“I am going to [name]’s home,

I wish to see her blood,

I am going to devour her heart,

I wish to take her life.”

“Uterus, do not do this thing,

remain on the marble!

May the woman of the wood eat you

As if you never existed!

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”

  Saxons of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Von Wlislocki, Volksglaube und Volksbrauch der Siebenbürger Sachsen, 86.

65  TO STOP BLEEDING

Say: “Blood! Blood! Blood! Stop! Stop! Stop! In the name of God the Father †, the Son †, and the Holy Ghost †” while making the sign of the cross three times. Next, repeat this and the signs of the cross while blowing on the blood.

  Pomerania, nineteenth century. Tettau and Temme, Die Volkssagen Ostpreussens, Litthauens und Westpreussens, 242.

66 TO STOP BLEEDING

Repeat the following verse:

There were three sinful women

Who went to see the blood.

One says: “May it flow;”

The second: “May it stop;”

The third: “Blood, stop flowing,

It is the will of God.

Blood to blood, bone to bone,

Hold as firmly as the rock;

Bleed no more; ooze no more

Until the mother of God gives birth.”

Next the wound was bandaged with the apron of a lady of the night.

  Saxons of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksglaube, 85.

67  TO STOP BLEEDING

Repeat the following verse:

O wonder of wonders,

The tomb of the Lord is down here!

Three florets are blooming upon it:

The first is called optimism,

The second humility,

The third, blood, stop flowing †.

For it is the will of the Lord.

  Germany (Rugen Island), nineteenth century. Tettau and Temme, Die Volkssagen, 342.

68  TO STOP BLEEDING

One writes INRI on a small piece of wood that is then thrown down a well while saying: “Blood, stop, God wishes it. The cross of Christ was made of this wood! Amen!”

INRI, “Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum,” [Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews], is Christ’s triumphal title. It is regularly used in conjurations of bleeding. It is sometimes associated with the Three Magi.

  Saxons of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksglaube, 85.

69  TO STOP BLEEDING

Say the following words thrice over the place where blood is flowing and make three signs of the cross: Notre dame ou zimarajne Sa ne lajgne l‘atre bouche non sorte giamaj autre goutte, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen.”

  Italy, nineteenth century. Libro de segretto, 21.

BLINDNESS

70  TO HEAL THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN BLIND FOR A LONG TIME

Dissolved in the milk of a woman who has only engendered once and that only of a male child, the Persian stone placed on the skin as an ointment will heal those who have lost their sight and been blind for a long time.

  Latin, eleventh century. Marbode, De lapidus, 36.

71  TO CURE BLINDNESS

Three blind men were resting on God’s path. Jesus Christ went to them and asked: “Why are you sitting here, poor blind men?” “We are sitting here because we see not our holy God and cannot recognize him.” Then Jesus Christ touched them saying: “I bless you, rise and go forth! Know that Jesus Christ has healed you.”

Here, the person speaking the charm blows three times into the patient’s eyes and says: “In the name of God the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.”

  Lithuania, twentieth century. Vaitkevičienė, Lietuvių užkalbėjimai, no. 1445; Greeven, Krankheit und Heilung nach dem Neuen Testament; Hauck, “Gott als Arzt,” in Text und Bild, 19–64.

BOILS

72  TO CURE BOILS

Repeat the following verse:

Our Lord Jesus Christ came down from the cross,

And in his company one hundred thousand angels

Carrying one hundred thousand lances.

May they bring them to the harvest

And may one hundred thousand swords set down foot.

Mother, Marykind, help!

Blow, Saint Oufle! Blow Saint Christoufle!

And I myself blow.

Oufle should be Saint Odulphe (ninth century). The name endings were altered to rhyme with souffle [blow, exhale].

  Latin, France, thirteenth century. Vaisbrot, “Édition critique de la Compilatio singularis exemplorum,” no. 813 (kindly sent to me by Jacques Berlioz).

BURNS

73  TO HEAL BURNS

Say Rangarua gauerbat three times, lick the burn three times, then spit.

  Latin, ninth century. Önnerfors, “Iatromagische Beschwörungen,’” no. 34.

74  FOR A BURN

Our Holy Father was making his way when he came across a crying child. “Father, what is ailing this child?” “He has grabbed a burning ember. Take some pork fat and three breaths from your body, and the fire will move outside.”

Many other healing techniques were employed in the past; here is one of the most singular: “The first snow that falls between Epiphany and the Purification of the Holy Virgin, the Candlemas, is gathered up as precious; once melted it is used to wash the eyes and burns.” A. Hock, Croyances et Remèdes populaires (Liège: Vaillant-Carmane, 1872–74), 164.

  France, eighteenth century. LeBrun, Superstitions anciennes et modernes, préjugés vulgaires qui ont induit les Peuples à des usages & à des Pratiques contraires à la Religion.

CANKER

“Canker” covers two types of disease, in fact: the simple canker sore or soft cancer, an ulcerous ailment, and the syphilitic canker. Our texts do not allow this distinction to be made.

In folk beliefs, the word designates certain lesions of the mouth or tongue, primarily thrush and mouth ulcers.

75  TO CURE A CANKER

Repeat the following:

Demon, I conjure you, whatever kind you may be, to leave this Christian, to leave bones and marrow, his blood and flesh! Leave, red-brown canker, watery canker, stinging canker, oozing canker, canker of the bottom!

Canker, I conjure you by the sun and moon, by the river Jordan, by the wind that blows, by the bells that ring, by the saints, by all the saints that God has on heaven and earth—to leave from this Christian and to reside and stay no longer, not in his marrow, not on his blood, not in his flesh! Do not last any longer; do not remain any longer! Just as God placed his foot in the river Jordan and nothing attacked his marrow, his flesh, his blood, and his bones, In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

  Middle Dutch, fourteenth century. Gand, Universiteitsbibliotheek, MS 697, fol. 6v–7r. Ferdinand Ohrt, “Zu den Jordansegen,” Zeitschrift für Volkskunde, Neue Folge 1 (1930): 269–74.

76  AGAINST CANKERS, FISTULAS, BOILS, AND ALL KINDS OF PESTILENCES

Repeat the following prayer:

Blessed be our lord God and the instant he was born. It should be the same for this person [name]. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen. I believe in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. And in Our Lord Jesus Christ who will truly wish to aid this man [name] against cankers, fistulas, boils, and all kinds of pestilences as well as all similar ills. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

In medieval texts, pestilence means either “contagious disease” or “plague.”

  Middle Dutch, fifteenth century. London, British Library, Additional 39638, fol. 142v–143r.

  Hengel and Hengel, “Die Heilungen Jesu und medizinisches Denken,” in Medicus viator, Festschrift Richard Siebeck, 331–61.

CATARRH

77  AGAINST THE CATARRHS OF CHILDREN

Place a cloth smeared with lamb fat on the child’s chest every evening. In the morning, tear off a small piece of the cloth and throw it into the house where the chickens roost while saying:

There were three midwives

Who were walking in the early morning dew

and speaking about love;

The old man appeared with the illness

and it rendered them mute.

Old man, old man, come!

Carry away the affliction of my child.

In the name of God, and so on.

  Saxons of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksglaube, 94.

CHARBON (ANTHRAX)

78  ORISON FOR REQUESTING HEALING FROM CHARBON AND MALIGNANT PUSTULES

Say the following prayer:

O Jesus, my Savior, true God and true man, I firmly believe that you spilled your blood for us, I believe that you have suffered for us and spilled your precious blood for us; do not forget me in your holy grace, for the illness about which I implore our holy patron to intercede on our behalf. May it be so.

As medication against charbon, take ivy that is closest to the ground, soap that has not yet been used and beat both together with very fresh cream. This should be applied on the affliction.

  France, nineteenth century. Le Médecin des pauvres, 3; Pierre Saintyves, Les Grimoires à oraisons magiques.

COLIC

79  PROTECTION FROM COLIC

According to the magi, if you rub the belly with bat blood, you will be protected from colic for a full year, or, if colic is present, you can be healed by having the courage to swallow the water in which you have washed your feet.

  Latin, first century. Pliny, Historia naturalis, XXX, 64.

80  CHARM AGAINST COLIC

With a cloth or thread, attach around your neck the heart of the crested lark and spread its blood over your belly while saying: “Flee, colic pain, may the crested lark make you flee!” Then eat it.

The verb “flee” is regularly used in the charms of later antiquity. R. Heim provides numerous examples (“Incantamenta magica,” 480ff. and 488).

  Latin, ninth century. Önnerfors, “Iatromagische Beschwörungen,” no. 21.

81  FOR STOMACH ACHES AND ANIMAL COLIC

Write this on whatever you wish and attach it the navel of the man or livestock: Lolismus, lolistus.

  Latin, ninth century. Önnerfors, “Iatromagische Beschwörungen,” no. 26.

82  TO BE CURED OF COLIC

You must place your right hand on the abdomen and say: “Mary who was Mary, or colic, passion that is between my liver and my heart, between my spleen and my lungs, stop in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.” You should moreover recite three Paters and three Aves.

  France (Ardennes), nineteenth century. Albert Meyrac, Traditions, Coutumes, Légendes et Contes des Ardennes, 175, no. 68; Cabanès and Barraud, Remèdes de bonne femme, 283.

83  BANISHMENT OF COLIC

One should say: roped colic, cramping colic, red cramping colic, black cramping colic, yellow cramping colic, green cramping colic, blue cramping colic, gray cramping colic, white cramping colic, cramping colic, that has come or been given, I send you back whence you came or whence you were born. Cramping or roped colic, I untie you, cramping colic, I unbuckle you, cramping colic that is in the entrails, I cut you into pieces. Cramping roped colic may God cut you as I cut you.

At this same time in France, colic was also cured this way:

Find a sorcerer or a person of good will who will touch the affliction and press your navel with a finger while saying: “Mary who was Mary, or colic and poison that is between my liver and my heart, between my spleen and my lungs, stop! In the name of God the Father †, in the name of God the Son †, and in the name of God the Holy Ghost †.” Say three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys while naming the patient by his name and saying: “God by his power has healed you. Amen.”

  France, nineteenth century. Le Médecin des pauvres, no. 15.

CONSTIPATION

84  CURE FOR CONSTIPATION

When a man is constipated and cannot have a bowel movement, take the humerus or tibia of a dead man, and take off their ends so that these bones are hollow, fill them with the excrement of this man you wish to heal, then place this bone in hot water, but it should not be boiling, in this way the patient will have a bowel movement.

  Germany, 1750, Staricius, Grimoire ou la Magie naturelle, 332ff.

COUGH

85  CURE FOR COUGHS

For coughs, write on virgin parchment this name: Ialdabrae, and use the fiber of a new sponge to tie it around your neck.

  Latin, ninth century. St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Codex 751; Heim, “Incantamenta magica,” 557; Önnerfors, “Iatromagische Beschwörungen,” no. 13.

CRAMPS AND SPASMS

86  PROTECTION FROM CRAMPS

† Thebal † Ech † Guth † E Guthany †. Write these names on parchment with the crosses; the one who carries it shall be protected from cramps.

Another Latin manuscript in the British Library (Additional 33996, folio 170v) adds that these names also cure spasms.

  England, fourteenth century. London, British Library, Sloane 2584, fol. 31r.

87  TO CURE SPASMS

Say this: “Our Lord God and Saint Peter were walking along a road. A cramp seized Peter; he sat on the ground and Our Lord God healed him with his right thumb: “Cramp, you should leave from here! In the name of God, amen.”

  Middle Dutch, late fifteenth century. London, British Library, Sloane 3002, fol. 31r–v.

88  PROTECTION FROM CRAMPS

A ring of buffalo horn worn on a finger or toe will offer protection from cramps, this is a powerful and proven remedy.

  Germany, 1546, Herr, Das neue Tier-und Arzneibuch, chap. 10.

89  PROTECTION FROM CRAMPS

I grab you with my right hand, tearing cramp! Cramp, cease! Do not last any longer! You should quickly clear out of here! Like smoke in the wind, like mist in the sun you should leave from here.

  Germany (Voigtland), nineteenth century. Bartels, “Über Krankheits-Beschwörungen,” 27.

CUTS

90  PROTECTION FROM CUTS

On the Isle of Bujan in the great ocean-sea, lies the white Alatyr stone; upon this stone sits a beautiful girl, an expert seamstress who holds a steel needle. She threads it with a thread of red silk and sews up bleeding wounds. I protect God’s servant [name] against cuts. Get behind steel, and you, blood, cease flowing!

The Russians place paradise, the land of eternal summer where birds and insects go to spend the winter, on the mythical island of Bujan. Here is how A. N. Afanassiev explains the birth of this myth:

The sky that shines luminously blue is found beyond the clouds or beyond a sea of rain; to reach the kingdom of the sun [meaning the kingdom where the sun retires for the night], it is necessary to cross through the celestial waters. This heavenly kingdom is depicted this way as being surrounded on all sides by water, in other words, in the form of an island. This metaphor appears in an entirely clear-cut fashion in Russian incantations in which the marvelous island Bujan is featured. . . . “The Isle Bujan” is the name given to the springtime sky.³

Placed beneath the sign of beginning, the island played a very important role in Russian folk magic. Charms and incantations should call on it in order to be effective. In fact, it was considered to be the headquarters of all forms of energy; simply invoking its name lent its strength to the magic spell. This compelled A. N. Afanassiev to write that, without it, “incantations have no power.”⁴

As for the Alatyr stone, magical texts place it either on this island or at its base. It is white and intense (bel-gorjuč ), unknown to all (nikem ne vedomyi), and it was seen as “the father of all stones.”

  Russia, nineteenth century. Gruel-Apert, La Tradition orale russe, 107.

  Bajburin, “Quelques aspects de la mythologie de l’île,” Cahiers slaves 7, (2004): 1–9.

DEAFNESS

91  TO HEAR AGAIN

Someone who is deaf in one ear must place the heart of a dead widderwalo [golden blackbird] so that it will warm again, and his ear will again hear.

  Twelfth century. Hildegard von Bingen, Physica, VI, 62, “Widderwalo.”

92  TO RECOVER HEARING

Take four biles, the first from a trout, the second from an eel, the third from a hare, and the fourth from a crow. Put them into a new pot, pour in the equivalent of nine sous of a good brandy and place the pot over a fire so that it boils for as long as it takes to walk fifty steps, then take it off and let it cool. Next, with a feather, let two or three drops fall into the patient’s ear. He should be lying on a bench with the ear that hears poorly turned toward you. He will recover his hearing. If this is ineffective, repeat the operation.

  Germany, 1750, Staricius, Grimoire ou la Magie naturelle, 285ff.

DRY PATCH

93  TO CURE DRY SKIN

Take a new needle and with its tip trace the contour of the dry patch or eczema while saying: “Dry patch or rash, engendered by nine kinds of roots, you shall vanish as quickly as the dew before the sun of the month of May, from nine to eight, from eight to seven, from seven to six, from six to five, from five to four, from four to three, from three to two, from two to one, from one to zero.”

  France, nineteenth century. Cabanès and Barraud, Remèdes de bonne femme, 214.

94  TO CURE DRY PATCHES OR HERPES

Open and close the breadbox three times every morning for nine days, and make a draft while opening and closing it, and expose those who have dry patches or herpes on their faces to this draft, in order to cure them.

  France, seventeenth century. Thiers, Traité des superstitions (1679), 328; Traité des superstitions (1777), 4:335.

95  TO LOSE INFLAMATION

Take the cloth that is used to clean the bakers’ oven and vigorously rub the dry patch with it while saying:

Varpelon, varpelon, you will lose your redness, your width, your hollowness, your inflammation, in nomine Patris.

Then one blows on the spot three times.

“Varpelon” is the name of a caterpillar that peasants blame for dry patches, which they still call diarde and guardre.

  France, nineteenth century. Cabanès and Barraud, Remèdes de bonne femme, 276.

EPILEPSY

Epilepsy, which was once called “the falling sickness,” was regarded by medieval physicians as a brain disease that banished balance and the senses for a period of time due to “congestion of the ventricles of the brain,” as Bernard of Gordon (circa 1450–1500) put it. At the same time, it was thought the person was possessed by a demon, hence the use of the word demoniac to describe an epileptic.

96  TO CURE EPILEPSY

If you give a lunatic the fruits of the asterion [thought to be cannabis —Trans.] to eat during the waning moon, when it is in the sign of Virgo, and you hang some of this plant around his neck, he will be cured.

  Latin, fourth century. Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarius, 60§1.

97  TO STOP EPILEPTIC SPASMS

For epileptics, in other words demoniacs, and for all those suffering from spasms, do this: take three scruples of mandrake and have them drink it in hot water, and they will be cured.

  Latin, fourth century. Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarius, 131.

98  A REMEDY FOR EPILEPSY

Take an equal amount of incense, myrrh, and ivy berries, and blend them all together with water that the patient will be given to drink on a Thursday, while the moon is setting. This is a proven remedy.

  Latin, eighth century. Bamberg, Staatstsbibliothek, Codex medicinalis 1, fol. 39r.

99  TO STOP THE SPITTING UP OF BLOOD

Secretly give the blood of a weasel conserved in vinegar to a person spitting blood, or to an epileptic, and it will cure him.

  Latin, ninth century. Liber Kyranidorum, 104, 1–2.

100  FOR AN EPILEPTIC

Have a priest say three Christmas masses. At the start of the first one, the patient should offer three silver coins in honor of the Trinity, and the priest should place them near the corporal^*5 or beneath it so that the signs of the cross prescribed by the canon [of the mass] extend over them. At the end of the first mass the patient should trade in the three coins for twelve deniers and make a gift of them at the start of the third mass. To finish, he should redeem them for twenty-four deniers and have a ring made from silver coins without any other metal mixed in, and wear it without ever removing it. He will be protected from the disease.

  Latin, Germany, late fifteenth century. Hollen, Preceptorium divinae legis, 25.

101  TO HELP IN MEMORIZATION

To help in memorization, the recipes were most likely sometimes written in verse, like this one:

Again you will say another medicine

Of lovage take the root

Three words write upon it:

Jesus † Christus † dominus †

So long as it is worn hung around the neck,

He shall no longer fall, it is well known.

If he truly believes in God

He will be ever healed, that is sure.

  Middle French, thirteenth century. Cambridge, St. John’s College D.4, fol. 88v.

102  HERE IS A TRUE AND PROVEN MEDICINE AGAINST EPILEPSY

Write this orison on a parchment of Ascrie(?): communicantes at memoriam venerantes.⁵ Then the patient should confess all his sins, the priest should chant a mass for the Trinity, and seven tapers or seven candles should be placed on the altar. The first should have Sunday written on it, the second Monday, and so forth, then the patient should take communion. For the duration of the mass and the speaking of its orison, the bref [the magic spell on parchment] should remain on the altar.

After the mass, the patient should take as many of the tapers as he wishes. The day inscribed on it guarantees his life and he should conserve it honorably and properly. The priest will tie the bref to the patient’s neck who should wear it for the rest of his life.

The use of candles in folk cures does not only concern epilepsy. In his Essai sur l’éducation médicinale des enfants,⁶ N. Brouzet offers the following testimony:

When a child suffers from a well-established infestation of worms that has resisted the ordinary aids of Medicine for several days, the women with secrets are in the habit of laying the child out on a table, around whom they light nine candles—nine, no more and no less. Once the candles have been lighted, the main player places herself at the child’s feet and says with singular enthusiasm, supported by the most extravagant faces and gestures . . . : “nau bermis qu’a Job, de nau qu’en a trop, de nau beinguen à ouesit,” which means: “This little Job has nine worms, he has too many with nine, may they be reduced to eight.” All the candles are gradually extinguished while saying the banishing spell (as stated previously) in the same tone and with the same ceremony each time until only the last candle remains and Job only has one worm left. Then, one finishes by saying: “Qu’aquaes in qu’a je autan de poudé sur Job, couen à part à la Misso lou qui l’enten darré la Carérniessio”: “May this worm that is the lone to remain, have as much power over Job as the one that hears the Mass behind the Servant of the Priest has part of this Sacrifice.”

  Middle Dutch, 1305, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS Latin 6838 A, fol. 153r and 154r.

103  AGAINST THE FALLING SICKNESS

Chant a mass of the Holy Spirit and make seven candles of virgin wax. Write Sunday on the 1st, Monday on the 2nd, Tuesday on the 3rd, Wednesday on the 4th, Thursday on the 5th, Friday on the 6th, and Saturday on the 7th. Light them all together at the mass and let them burn until the end. Then arrange things for the patient to select one and, as long as he fasts on bread and water on the day indicated, until the end of his life, or if his mother or father do it for him until he has been cured. Make sure that the patient has confessed and fully fulfilled his penitence, and that he drinks the water of the washbasin after the priest has washed his hands in it. In truth, he shall be healed.

  Middle English, fifteenth century. Müller, Aus mittelenglischen Medizintexten, 107.

104  FOR THE FALLING SICKNESS

Take larks from the nest before they have touched the ground and tear off their heads; drain their blood into a copper container, take white incense, shape it, and pour the blood over it, make it into a ball and give it to the patient in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus sancti. Write the verses of the three holy kings:

		Caspar, Balthasar, Melchior	Gaspar, Balthasar, Melchior
		Hec si quis secum on portaverit	Whoever wears these names their person
		Solvitur a morbo domini pietate caduca	Will be healed of the falling sickness by the grace of God.

These verses must be written on a bref to be tied around the neck before sunrise.

  Middle High German, fifteenth century. German herbal. CSB 52, “Epilepsie.”

105  TO SUCCOR AN EPILEPTIC

If you wish to succor an epileptic, take a strap of new buckskin and when the falling sickness strikes him, tie it around his neck, saying: “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, I bind this man with this knot!” Take the strap, tie a knot into it and hang it around his neck. The patient should abstain from wine until he happens upon a place where a dead body has just been interred. There you should remove the strap and say: “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, I bury this strap in the hope the illness will no longer strike this man until the resurrection of this corpse on Day of the Last Judgment.”

  Middle High German, mid-thirteenth century. Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, MS Cgm 92, fol. 14v.On knots, cf. Wolters, “Faden und Knoten als Amulett,” Archiv für Religionswissenschaft 8 (1905): 1–22.

106  TO CURE AND EPILEPTIC

Tie a nail from a crucifix to the arm of an epileptic to cure him.

  France, seventeenth century. Thiers, Traité des superstitions (1679), 330; Traité des superstitions (1777), 4:337.

107  MYSTERIOUS RING FOR HEALING FALLING SICKNESS

You shall make a ring of pure silver in whose bezel you will set a piece of elk hoof; then you will select a Monday in springtime when the moon will be in a benign aspect or in conjunction with Jupiter or Venus, and at the favorable hour of the constellation you will carve the following on the inside of the ring: † Dabi †, Habi †, Haber †, Habro †; then having perfumed it three times with the perfume of Monday, be assured that by wearing it on the hand’s middle finger, it will provide surety against the falling sickness.

Monday perfume consists of the head of a green frog, the eyes of a white bull, the seed of the white poppy, incense, and camphor. This is all blended together with the blood of a young goose or dove to form a paste; lastly, this is formed into small seeds that will be used three by three once they are totally dry.

  France, eighteenth century. Petit Albert, 126.

108  ORISON FOR REQUESTING THE HEALING OF FALLING SICKNESS, SAINT VITUS’ DANCE, AND STOMACHACHES

The patient will say, or have said on his behalf, the following prayer: “Like David with his harp healed King Saul, God, cure the brain of this poor man of its affliction; blessed Saint Vitus, intercede for this one who has lost his guide and his freedom of movement.

  France, Troyes, eighteenth century. Le Médecin des Pauvres, 3.

109  FOR FALLING SICKNESS

Blowing into the right ear, speak these words: “Jasparé, fers migraine, thus, maléchiar, balthazard, ou ronce.” It will still need an hour for the cure, it is necessary to have three nails the length of his little finger, bury them deeply into the spot of his first fall, with each of them name the name of the person. Five Our Fathers, and so forth.

Here we have a fine example of the oral transmission of a charm, the words to be spoken are in fact the spell of the Three Kings: “Gaspar, fert myrrham, thus Melchior, Balthazar aurum,” reproduced by hearsay.

  France, nineteenth century. Le Médecin des pauvres (1875).

110  AGAINST EPILEPSY

One must tie a living frog between the patient’s shoulders with a large strap and say: Frogs, leave my house! You are invited to become a corpse!” Three days later, the strap and the now dead frog should be secretly placed in a dead man’s coffin, and while it is being buried, one must say: “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost I bury this frog and the epilepsy of [full name] so that it remain here until the Last Judgment.”

  Saxons of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksglaube, 88ff.

ERYSIPELAS

(SEE ALSO “SAINT ANTHONY’S FIRE”)

111  AGAINST ERYSIPELAS

Repeat the following verse.

In the sky, in the sky, in the sky,

There are three birds.

The first is called swan wave;

the second is called cold wave

and the third tranquil wave.

    †††

  Sweden (Småland), early nineteenth century. Klintberg, Svenska trollformler, 72, no. 20, “ros.”

112  TO TREAT ERYSIPELAS

One blends in a container the blood of a priest with pounded elder bark, then one places all this in a cloth that is used to treat the afflicted part of the body while saying:

I have two eyes,

I have two feet;

Nasal pain

Go down into the feet;

From the feet, go down into the ground;

Go out of the ground

And die!

  Gypsies of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksdichtungen, 139.

113  TO GET RID OF ERYSIPELAS

Repeat the following:

Erysipelas, leave and go to the desert! Erysipelas, whatever you may be, whether you are red or white, black, green yellow, blue-striped, brown, or multicolored (it is necessary to list nine colors). Erysipelas of ninety-six kinds, you must retreat and go to a fallow field. If you do not leave, I will cut you with the knife, I will sweep you with the broom, and burn you. This is to be repeated three times.

  Romanians of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Schullerus, Rumänische Volksmärchen, 43ff.

ÉTISIE (CONSUMPTION)

114  TO RECOVER STRENGTH FROM ÉTISIE

Write the following words on a small piece of bread:

Hagios habi, rabi, gabi

It is then given to eat to the one who is struck by a sudden weakness. If this is written on a crust of bread, the individual will recover his strength.

Étisie, étique, or hectique (the Swiss German Fress-Rätticher) means a fever that causes great weight loss.

  Switzerland (Argovie), nineteenth century. Rochholz, “Aargauer Besegnungen,” Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde 4 (1859): 110.

EYE AILMENTS

(SEE ALSO LEUCOMA, OPHTHALMIA, RHEUM, STYE)

115  TO HEAL THE EYES

When the eyes begin to cause suffering, they can be healed if one knows the patient’s name and makes knots in an unbleached cloth while spelling out each letter.

  Latin, fifth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, VIII, 62.

116  TO EXPEL EYE AILMENTS

Mugwort expels the ailments of the eyes from man.

  Latin, fourth century. Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarius, 10§1.

117  TO CLEAN THE EYES

To make dust or other debris come out of the eye, rub it gently with the five fingers of the right hand if it is the right eye, or of the left hand, if it is the left eye, while saying three times: Te tunc resungo, bregam, gresso. Spit thrice and do all this three times.

Similarly, while you lightly rub the patient’s eye, keep your own eye on the same side closed, and say this charm three times: In mon dercomarcos axtison.

  Latin, fifth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, VIII, 170.

118  TO REMOVE PAIN AND WHITE SPOTS

If you harvest waterlilies before sunrise, it is said they will remove the white spots from the eyes and all ocular pain.

  Latin, fourth century. Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarius, 23§1.

119  FOR EYE PAIN

Write these characters on a virgin parchment and tie it to the forehead:

Obes orbirio

  Latin, ninth century. St. Gallen, Siftbibliothek, Codex 751; Heim, “Incantamenta magica,” 564.

120  TO SHARPEN SIGHT

The fat of a viper confers sharpened sight and cures all kinds of amblyopia [lazy eye]. Its eyes, when carried in a phylactery, will cure ophthalmia.

  Greek, fourteenth century. KYPANIΣ II, E.

121   TO HEAL OPHTHALMIA AND HEADACHES

The glaucus is a very large sea fish. Hung around the neck, the stones from its head will heal ophthalmia and headaches.

  Greek, fourteenth century. KYPANIΣ IV, G.

122  TO CLEAR WHITE SPOTS FROM THE EYES

Three Evangelists were singing as they walked; the apostle Andrew was sitting on a stone. Lord Jesus joined them. “Saint Andrew, what are you doing sitting there?” “I have a cloudy spot over my eyes, I can no longer read or sing, I can no longer devote myself to the Scriptures.” The Christ raised his blessed hand and passed it over his face. “Saint Andrew, rise up, take your book, and go straight to church! You will sing and read there, you will zealously devote yourself to the Scriptures, and God shall grant your prayer by the Word and the Holy Blood, and your eyes will be healed, (as sure) as the clear, bright sun climbs through a limpid sky. I command it, by God the Father, and so on. Our Father, the Credo, and so on.”

  Saxons of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Schuster, Siebenbürgisch-sächsische Volkslieder, 310.

123  TO RELIEVE EYE PAIN

Wash the eyes with a blend of saffron and water while saying:

Pain of the eyes,

Go into the water;

From the water, go into the saffron;

Leave the saffron and go into the ground,

Go back and join the Phuvush!

There is your home,

It’s there where you have been invited to celebrate!

  Gypsies of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksdichtungen, 138.

FATIGUE

124  FOR TRAVEL FATIQUE

If a traveler carries mugwort in his hand, he will feel no travel fatigue whatsoever.

  Latin, fourth century. Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarius, 10§1.

125  FOR FATIGUE AND IMBALANCE

Hold mugwort in your left hand and say: “I remedy fatigue and imbalance. Carried in the hand, mugwort works wonders.

  Latin, ninth century. Önnerfors, “Iatromagische Beschwörungen,” no. 42.

FEAR

126  TO BE SAFE

If you are scared, write the name of Saint Bernard on paper and swallow it; none will sting you, wound you, or capture you. This is proven.

  Germany, ca. 1530, Dresden, Sächsische Landesbibliothek, MS C 326, folio 35r.

127  TO BE SPARED FROM FEAR

Mount a bear and perform certain tricks to be spared from fear.

  France, seventeenth century. Thiers, Traité des superstitions (1679), 330.

FEVER

Fever was a generic term applied to diseases containing a febrile state that affected the entire body. Martin de Saint-Gille tells us, around 1362–65: “Fever is unnatural heat changed into ardor.”

128  FOR A SPEEDY CURE FROM FEVER

Take the parings of the toenails and fingernails of a sick person, and mix them up with wax, the party saying that he is seeking a remedy for a tertian, quartan, or quotidian fever, as the case may be; then stick this wax, before sunrise, upon the door of another person—such is the prescription they give for these diseases! What deceitful persons they must be if there is no truth in it! And how highly criminal, if they really do thus transfer diseases from one person to another! Some of them, again, whose practices are of a less guilty nature, recommend that the parings of all the fingernails should be thrown at the entrance of an anthill, taking the first ant that attempts to draw one into the hole; this, they say, must be attached to the neck of the patient, and he will experience a speedy cure.

  Latin, first century. Historia Naturalis, 28.86.

129  TO REDUCE FEVER

If the feverish wears a salamander heart by his neck, the fever will fall immediately.

  Latin, twelfth century. Liber Kyranidorum, 126: 16–17.

130  FOR ALL FEVERS

One should begin with the charm below! In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, amen.” Next, both secretly recite the Our Father, then make the sign of the cross on the patient’s forehead while saying: “In the name of the Father, and so on.” Next, one speaks the charm after drawing with the right thumb a cross on the forehead while saying: “† Christ † vanquishes † Christ rules † Christ † commands † Christ † heals you.” Then each should say the Our Father to themselves in silence, then say: “Christ is born † Christ is dead † Christ resurrected from the dead on the third day † May the Father heal you by his power † may the Son heal you by his passion † may the Holy Ghost heal you by his bounty, may the Holy Trinity heal you by its all-powerful glory, whatever their nature, of all illness. Amen. † In the name of the Father, and so on.” Each should then silently recite the Our Father and the Credo. With God’s permission, he shall be cured. This is proven.

  Latin and French, circa 1300, London, British Library, Additional 15236, fol. 42r–43v.

131  SPELL FOR REPELLING FEVER

Our Lord Jesus was on a walk with his apostles when he entered into the house of Simon Peter. He found his mother-in-law lying down suffering from fever and exhaustion. Simon Peter said: “My Lord Jesus, have pity on Garbêlêa, daughter of Zoe, and take from her this fever (sent unto her) by the enemy!” [Jesus] grabbed her hand at once, placed it over the fever, and she was healthy, and being healthy got up and served them. Akheletes, Tiometes, Probatios, Sabatios, Eoukenios, Stefanas, Kyriakos! Ananias, Asarlas, Misaël! Setrak, Mnisak, Mnabtinako! Bakak, Thelal, Méal!

Among these names we can recognize those of saints and the three children in the furnace (Deuteronomy 3:52–88).

  Lexa, La Magie dans l’Égypte antique, 104, from a Coptic magic papyrus.

132  FOR ALL FEVERS

Write this on a virgin parchment and place it on the altar near the chalice until three masses have been said over it, then tie the parchment around his neck.

† on lona onu oni one onus oni one onus

  France, Provençal, thirteenth century. Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R 14.30, fol. 146r.

A REMEDY FOR FEVER

Take a leaf of sage and write on it Christus tonat, and have the patient eat it on the first day; recite a Pater Noster and an Ave Maria and the Credo. The second day, write Angelus nunciat on another leaf and have the patient eat it, then recite two Pater Noster and two Aves Maria and two Credos. The third day, write Johannes predicat on the third leaf and have the patient eat it, then recite three Pater Noster and three Ave Maria and three Credos. And when he feels better, he should say three masses: one to the Holy Ghost, one to Saint Michael, and the last to Saint John.

A plant sacred to the Romans, sage should be picked while wearing a white tunic with well-washed bare feet. Its virtues against fever are explained by etymology: its name comes from the verb salvare, “to save.”

  Middle English, fourteenth century. F. Holthausen, “Rezepte, Segen und Zaubersprüches aus zwei Stockholmer Handschriften,” Anglia 19 (1897): 78ff.

  Macer Floridus, De viribus herbarum, vv. 870–81; Delatte, Herbarius: Recherches sur le cérémonial usité chez les anciens pour la cueillette des simples et des plantes magiques, 3rd ed., Académie Royale de Belgique, Classe des lettres et des sciences morales et politiques, mémoires, vol. 54, fasc. 4.

134  A REMEDY FOR FEVER

Take a crust of bread and write on it

† O febris, omni laude colenda, o languor sanitatis et gaudy † Ascribendas nox pax max.

  Latin and Middle High German, Tyrol, fifteenth century. Zingerle, “Segen und Heilmittel aus einer Wolfsthurner Handschrift des XV. Jahrhunderts,” 175.

135  FOR FEVER

Good Saint Thomas was crossing through a dark pine forest when he saw before him seventy-seven fevers and jaundices. Good Saint Thomas said: “I shall weave a rope and tie you to it, you, the seventy-seven fevers and jaundices.”

  Germany, sixteenth century. Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek, Cpg 267, fol. 14v.

136  FOR FEVER AND TREMBLING

If someone is feverish, have three nails forged, like those of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and go to the tree called Ispm (aspen). Bury them in the trunk saying: Just as shivers this Irbrrn (laurel), may the man or woman who has fever and trembling^*6 for as long as the trees are planted in Irbrrn.

We do not understand why the name of the tree was changed, as the analogy between the aspen and the trembling caused by fever is perfectly operational. We should recognize this as an error by the copyist who read one word for another, an easily understood misunderstanding as the names are coded.

  Middle High German, early fifteenth century. Marburg, Universitätsbibliothek, MS B 20, fol. 113v.

137  FOR FEVER

Take three sacred hosts and on the first write Pater pax, on the second filus vita, and on the third spiritus sanctum est remedium. On the other side of the first one write O crux admirabilis, on the second euacuacio vvineris, and on the third restauracio sanitas. Have the patient eat the hosts three mornings in a row.

  Latin, fifteenth century. Zingerle, “Segen und Heilmittel,” 172–77; Peter Browe, “Die Eucharistie als Zaubermittel.”

138  TO CAUSE A FEVER TO VANISH

To cause any fever to vanish, write this in a virgin parchment and hang it around the neck of the individual suffering from fever for him to wear for nine days:

IHC ÷ IHC ÷ IHX ÷ Soter ynos + Adonai O.

  France, Provençal, thirteenth century. Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R 14.30, fol. 145.

139  TO HEAL A FEVER

To heal fever, write on a virgin parchment: † on lona, omi, om, one, onus, om one, oni, then tie it around the patient’s neck.

  France, Provençal, thirteenth century. Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R 14.30, fol. 145.

140  CONJURATION OF FEVERS

Say the following:

I conjure you, male and female fevers,

I conjure you by all the saints both men and women,

I conjure you by the Holy Mass and the Four Gospels,

I conjure you by the planets and mercy,

I conjure you by the vij words that God spoke over the cross when he knew a bitter death,

I conjure you by the liiii and the lx wounds inflicted upon him by the crown of thorns with the lxxvij prickers,

I conjure you by the milk that he drank from the breast of His mother,

I conjure you by His bounty and His innocence,

I conjure you by the Ten Commandments,

I conjure you by the twelve precepts of the Faith,

I conjure you by the sun, by the moon, and by the stars,

I conjure you by the Gospels,

I conjure you to obey under penalty of banishment,

I conjure you by the cross upon which He was nailed,

I conjure you by the blood he spilled on Good Friday and until His death,

I conjure you by all that comes from God and His dear mother, to leave here before an hour has elapsed and to forever remain far from the iiijc 3 ills and the xliij pains that have seized my soul and my body.

  Middle Dutch, late fifteenth century. Bruges, Episcopal Archives, Reckening Kapelnij St. Agnes, 1490–95.

141  ANOTHER CONJURATION OF FEVERS

Repeat the following prayer:

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, amen. I conjure you, illnesses and all manner of nocturnal or diurnal demons, by the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, by the undivided Trinity, by the intercession of the blessed Mary, by the prayers of the saints, by the merits of the patriarchs, by the suffrage of the angels and archangels, by the intervention of the apostles, by the passion of the martyrs, by the faith of the confessors, by the chastity of virgins, by intercession of all the saints, by the seven sleepers whose names are: Malthus, Maximianus, Dionisius, Johannes, Constantinus, Seraphon, Martinianus, and by the name of God blessed through the centuries: † a † g † l † a—to not harm or cause any evil to this servant of God, [name], neither when he sleeps or wakes. † Christus vincit † Christus regnat † Christus imperat †. May the Christ bless us and protect us from all evil †. Amen.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, amen. In my name they expel the demons, they remove the tongues of the talking serpents, and, if they drink poison, it does nothing to them; they lay hands upon the sick and make them well. † Admirable Cross † elimination of pain, restoration of health † here is the cross of the Lord, flee ill-intentioned parties † the lion of Judah, root of David triumphs, hallelujah † Christ triumphs † Christ rules † Christ commands.

May the Christ protect this servant [name] from all sight and all persecution of the Devil, and from all misfortune, at all times and all places, by the virtue of the holy cross † amen † agios † hyskyros † athanatos † elesyon †.

The incorporation of illnesses into demons is clear from the first sentence of this charm that shares all the features of an exorcism. To fight them, in addition to God, one mobilizes Christianity’s most eminent representatives. The references are Mark 16:17–18, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and Revelation 5:5.

  Latin, fifteenth century. London, British Library, Sloane 962, fol. 9v–10r.

142  TO CURE A FEVER

If you find a naked man in a gagathe [ jayet, jet], crowned and proud with a cup in one hand and a sprig of herb in the other, fix the gagathe to a ring made from any metal, and any man stricken by fever will be instantly cured if he wears this ring.

  Latin, Italy, 1502, Camillo Leonardi, Les Pierres talismaniques: Speculum lapidum III, 3:17, 18.

143  TO HEAL FEVERS

It is necessary to say nine Our Fathers and nine Hail Marys during nine days in the morning, and tie around the neck of the patient a note on which this orison is written:

In nomine Domini Jesu Maria Amen. Deus Abraham † Deus Isaac † Deus Jacob † Deus Moyses † Deus Esaie † Deus autem: quartan, tertian, continuous, daily, & and all other fever, I conjure you to leave from atop [full name] and that you have no more power over his body than the Devil has on the priest when he consecrates the mass, and that you have lost your heat, your strength, and your vigor, just as Judas lost his color when he betrayed Our Lord.

  France, eighteenth century. Lebrun, Superstitions anciennes et modernes, 99.

144  TO HEAL FEVERS

Roll in the dew of the oats on Saint John’s Day before sunrise to heal fevers.

  France, eighteenth century. Thiers, Traité des superstitions (1777), vol. 3, 262.

145  AGAINST FEVER

You must make your way close to a river where, once there, you will throw nine kinds of things behind you while saying:

Fever, fever, go away from me,

I give you water, water!

I am not one of your friends,

So go back then

To where you were nursed,

To where you were cared for,

To where you were loved!

May Mashurdalo help me!

Mashurdalo, or, to be more precise, Mašmurdalo, “the meal killer” (maš, “meat,” and murdalo, “killer”), is a gullible and simple-minded giant with a weakness for human flesh, on the condition it comes from a healthy individual. He haunts the woods and wild places, lying in wait for animals and humans, and has a wife and children. His life is hidden inside an egg guarded by a hen. To kill him, it is necessary to slay the life in the egg. As he is not intelligent, people easily dupe him. He shows gratitude to anyone who lends him their aid when he is in danger. He owns a bridle that when placed around his neck transforms him into an ugly, scrawny horse, but one that is fast as the wind. Whoever drinks his blood acquires incredible strength.

  Gypsies of Transylvania, nineteenth Wlislocki, Volksdichtungen, 139.

146  PRAYER FOR FEVER TO CHRIST AND THE VERY HOLY SAINT SISINNIUS

Say the following prayer:

Eternal God, send away, Lord, the devil from this man, the servant of God George Bratul, from his head and his voice, from his hair, from the top of his head, his face, his eyes, his ears, his nostrils, his tongue, the top of his tongue, his throat, his chest, his heart, his entire body, his limbs, and the joints of his limbs, from the inside of the member [?] and outside it, from his bones and veins and capillaries, and his whole being [missing]. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and now, and so on.

Carved on a lead sheet, this phylactery bears the name of its recipient, George Bratul. Although the title of the incantation speaks of fever, the text is much closer to an exorcism. Saint Sisinnius (died 708) is often invoked in Greek and Romanian charms, mainly against Gello, a demoness, witch, and child eater.

  Slavonic Serbian, Romania (Oltenia), first half of the eighteenth century. Stahl, “L’organisation magique du territoire villageois roumain,” 150–162.53.

147  AGAINST FEVERS

Write [these words] on an apple and give them to the patient for him or her to eat: isvole, io, naculte, iavoleiog, să şezi,^*7 isvoleio, toleja, itrize nevşico, voscrişenia ianco sileschi, iar trisavita procleora, orarbo, boţueo, inumele vreime, otgaisima isfetago duha,^†8 amin.

Given the length of the magic spell, we have to ask how anyone was able to write it on an apple!

  Romania, 1784, Bucharest, Biblioteca Academiei Române din Bucureşti, MS Romanian BAR 4458, fol. 94r (kindly passed on by Emanuela Timotin).

148  FOR THREE TYPES OF FEVERS

Write these words on a piece of paper and give it to the patient to keep on his person: arsilisu, arzamisu, pe murat, de dat, faraon. And he should read these words three times a day, or else these words: are liea, sadeleia, tracu, leovitu, inelegami, naşegon, isu: islugi, vaşah, abaset, bluşiaia, nemulea raboja.

  Romania, eighteenth century. Bucharest, Biblioteca Academiei Române, MS Romanian BAR 4743, fol. 184v (kindly passed on by Emanuela Timotin).

149  AGAINST FEVER

To lower a fever, write these words on three sheets of paper;

SATAR
APIRA
TITIT
ARIPA
RATAS

The patient will eat one sheet early in the morning, whether with bread or something else. He will eat the second sheet the same way three days later. Three days after this, the third sheet must be cast into running water by the patient’s eldest or baby brother without uttering a word and who must return without looking back. This method of healing is called drugį rišt.

Drugys is a disease that causes shivering and a high fever that can last several weeks. Drugį rišt, “binding the fever,” indicates that the illness must be cured by making knots in a thread. The words of the spell are a corrupted version of the magic square SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS. Spell making with knots has been used since antiquity.

  Lithuania, nineteenth century. Vaitkevičienė, Lietuvių užkalbėjimai, no. 1388.

  Heim, “Incantamenta magica,” 484; Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart, 131ff; Descombes, Les Carrés magiques: Histoire et technique de carré magique, de l’Antiquité aux recherches actuelles.

150  AGAINST FEVER

The child’s mother pricks her left breast with a new needle, drips a drop of blood onto a sacred host, then places it on her daughter’s left palm, and pierces the host with the needle, saying: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost! What was given me by the three Wenken, I give to you, my blood with my blood, in order that milord Satan on the Hoprichberg does you no wrongs.

The three Wenken (Wänjen) are the three goddesses of fate, and the Hoprichberg is a site of the witches’ sabbat.

  Saxons of Transylvania, nineteenth century; Wlislocki, Volksglaube, 81–82.

151  TO GET RID OF FEVER

Early in the morning, before sunrise, go into the forest and choose a shrub. When the first ray of sunlight hits it, shake it as hard as you can while saying: “Fever, fever, enter into him, here you should dwell!” The fever will enter the bush and the patient is rid of it. During this procedure, no one should disturb you, meaning speak to you, otherwise the remedy is ineffective.

Here is one of numerous examples of transference of evil or illness (transplantatio morbi) into a plant. Jean-Baptiste Thiers sites another method: “Tie yourself to certain trees with a rope or other bond, wood or straw, and remain like this for some time, to be cured of fevers.”

  Switzerland, 1911, Wittich, “Zauber und Aberglauben der Zigeuner,” Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde 15 (1911): 151.

  Traité des superstitions (1679), 322ff.

152  TO GET RID OF FEVER

When someone is feverish, one should go to the home of a person of note, or better, the pastor’s, then demand a buttered piece of bread, then leave without saying thank you; once the fever has gone, you may return and give thanks.

  Germany (Pomerania), nineteenth Tettau and Temme, Die Volkssagen, 342.

153  TREATMENT OF MALARIA

In the treatment of quartan fevers (a kind of fever that comes on every three days, after seventy-two hours, that is, on the fourth day) clinical medicine is, so to say, pretty nearly powerless; for which reason we shall insert a considerable number of remedies recommended by professors of the magic art, and, first of all, those prescribed to be worn as amulets: the dust, for instance, in which a hawk has bathed itself, tied up in a linen cloth, with a red string, and attached to the body; the longest tooth of a black dog; or the wasp known by the name of pseudosphex, which is always to be seen flying alone, caught with the left hand and attached beneath the patient’s chin. Some use for this purpose the first wasp that a person sees in the current year. Other amulets are a viper’s head, severed from the body and wrapped in a linen cloth; a viper’s heart, removed from the reptile while still alive.

  Latin, first century. Pliny, Historia naturalis, XXX, 98.

154  FOR QUARTAN FEVER

The evil demon of quartan fever is sent to men and women by the first decan of Capricorn; it is not tamed promptly because being without a head it neither sees nor understands. Take grapes with four seeds, peel them with your nails and not with your mouth, then put them in a piece of rough cloth, hang it around the neck of the patient, and he will heal.

  Latin, twelfth century. Liber Kyranidorum, 30, 5ff.

155  FOR QUARTAN FEVER

Have the patient visit a course of running water while holding in his or her left hand a bref bearing these three written names, and he or she should wash themselves all over. Here are these three names: Aros, tremos, hely. Then write on a wax tablet: Jhesus Christus dominus noster. Alpha et O. Maximilianus, Malchus, Constantius, Dionisius, Johannes, Seraphon, and Maximianus. Immediately erase the letters with holy water, then blend myrrh with the water and give it to the patient to drink when the fever sets in; she or he will no longer shiver.

  Middle High German, fourteenth century. Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek, Cpg 265, fol. 12r.

156  FOR QUARTAN FEVER

Take three sage leaves and write on the first one † pater, on the second ! † vita, on the third filius pax † spiritus remedium † and give them to the patient to eat three mornings in a row.

  Latin, fifteenth century. Wroclaw, University Library, MS III, F 10, fol. 271r.

157  TO HEAL QUARTAN FEVER

To heal quartan fever, write this on parchment and tie it around the neck of the afflicted individual:

Stephanius, Portarius, Sanbusius, Diontius, Eugenius, Gesilius, and Quiriatius.⁷

Some of the names of the saints are corrupted. We can recognize Porcarius and Quiriacus; Diontius should be Denis (Dionysus), and Gesilus would be Pople Gelasius I. Enrico Catarino Davila cites a Mons martyr Sanbucuius in his De bello Gallico historiarum (Rome, 1745, vol. 3, p. 59).

  France (Provence), beginning of the fifteenth century. Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R 14.30, fol. 145.

158  TO CURE TERTIAN FEVER

This is a kind of fever that comes on every two days.

The Magi recommend plucking the leaves of the false anchusa^*9 8 with the left hand, while saying for whom they are being gathered at the same time. They are to be worn as an amulet, attached to the person, for the cure of tertian fevers.

For tertian fevers, the magi recommend picking parthenion^†10 9 with the left hand, and saying, without turning around, for whom it is being harvested. Then a leaf is placed under the patient’s tongue, which he should then swallow a minute later in a cystile^‡11 of water.

  Latin, first century. Pliny, Historia naturalis, XX, 50 and 176.

159  TO CURE TERTIAN FEVER

The theraph [a spider] captured in the name of the patient and thoroughly pulverized in wax will heal tertian fever accompanied by shivering if applied as a plaster to the forehead.

  Latin, twelfth century. Liber Kyranidorum, 111, 1–2.

160  TO EXPEL DEMI-TERTIAN FEVER

Write abracadabra on a sheet of papyrus repeatedly, subtracting one letter each time until all that remains is one letter, which will give this writing the form of a tip. Do not forget to tie the papyrus sheet to the patient’s neck with a linen thread.

The cabalistic term abracadabra was already known in the first century BCE as a magic word. It is used in a reducing diagram against fevers and pain: as the word grows shorter, the problems gradually vanish.

  Latin, second–third century. Quintus Serenas, Liber medicinalis, vv. 934–40.

  For more on abracadabra, cf. Lecouteux, Dictionary of Ancient Magic Words and Spells, 8–10.

161  FOR DEMI-TERTIAN FEVER

Found on roads at the beginning of spring, spider eggs, or those of the tarantula, taken in the name of the patient and wrapped in a black cloth, then hung from the patient’s left arm, heals tertian, quartan, and daily fevers. They must be taken during the waning moon, when it is in the sign of Pisces, on the Sabbath day, toward the second hour for demi-tertian fever, around the third hour for tertian fever, and toward the fourth hour for quartan fever, and hung from the patient’s neck or arm.

The bite of the tarantula was greatly feared, and to heal it, people danced the tarantella in cemeteries.⁸

  Latin, twelfth century. Liber Kyranidorum, 135, 15ff.

162  FOR QUARTAN FEVER

According to the magi, the patient should knot heliotrope four times for quartan fever, three times for tertian fevers, without ripping it, while promising to untie the knots once health has been restored.

  Latin, first century. Pliny, Historia naturalis, XX, 61; Wolters, “Faden und Knoten als Amulett,” 1–22.

163  REMEDY FOR TERTIAN AND QUARTAN FEVERS

Magi have attributed powerful effects to these plants [to anemones], instructing that the first plant one sees in the year should be immediately harvested while saying that it is being gathered as a remedy for tertian and quartan fevers; after this the blossoms must be wrapped up in a red rag and kept in the shade, and so be used, should occasion arise, as an amulet.

  Latin, first century. Pliny, Historia naturalis, XXI, 166.

164  TO HEAL TERTIAN OR QUARTAN FEVER

Girded about the waist, germander [Teucrium chamaedrys] heals tertian and quartan fevers.

  Latin, fourth century. Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarius, 71§2.

165  TO HEAL TERTIAN OR QUARTAN FEVER

If you give the head of a bat to someone suffering from tertian or quartan fever, or lethargy, or somnolence, to wear, he will be cured.

  Latin, fourteenth century. KYPANIΣ I, N; Mély, Les lapidaires grecs, 68.

FLUX

166  TO DISSIPATE FLUX AND INFLAMMATIONS

In the vicinity of Ariminous, there is a plant called reseda;^*12 it dissipates fluxes and all inflammations. Those employing it add these words: “Reseda, be the réséda [soother] of diseases; Do you know, do you know, who here has bred their young? May the roots have neither head nor feet.” These words are repeated three times, the speaker spitting each time.

  Latin, first century. Pliny, Historia naturalis, XXVII, 131.

GOUT

By gout is meant a joint pain (arthetica), sciatica, chiragra, and podagra. The famous physician Guy de Chauliac notes that gout is caused by “gluttony, drunkenness, indigestion, and lust.” But, when combined with other words, “gout” designates other ailments: for example, goutterose is nothing but roseacea and goutte-cramp is merely cramps. . . .

167  FOR GOUT

If one takes a living frog in someone’s name when neither the sun nor moon are above the horizon, then, with scissors cut off this frog’s two feet and wrap them in buckskin, and lastly tie them to the feet—the right one to the right food, and the left one to the left, it is a perfect remedy for gout in the feet.

  Latin, twelfth century. Liber Kyranidorum, 104, 1ff.

168  TO HEAL GOUT

Remove from a living stork its tendons from its feet, legs, and wings, and have them worn by those suffering gout in their hands and feet, limb for limb, and they will by healed.

  Latin, twelfth century. Liber Kyranidorum, 166, 11ff.

169  CONJURATION OF GOUT

Repeat the following:

I forbid you, gout, by the holy transubstantiation and by the five sacred wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ and by the blood that flowed from His five wounds, and by the first man that God created or caused to be born; I forbid you, by the three nails that were driven into the hands and feet of God; I forbid you by the four good women who stood there on two feet and said: “Born of the two bodies of woman,” and which, with a true love, was granted them all that was possible—this was Mary, the mother of God, and Jesus Christ, and milady Saint Elisabeth and milord John the Baptist; I forbid you, by this judgment that God spoke over me and over the living and the dead; I forbid you by the pious cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ on which he suffered martyrdom for me and for all Christians; I forbid you, by the divine power that is in heaven and earth, from hurting me, me, servant of God, or harming any of my limbs, my head, my brain, my eyes, my teeth, my hands, my feet, my fingers, my ribs, my back, my kidneys, my hops, my bones, my feet, my teeth, my veins, everything! Whatever side I may turn, may the divine power succor me as it did the holy tomb where God rested when all that existed shook. Pilate said: “Have you illnesses or gout?” “No I do not.” Any man or woman who bears these words on their person will be assured that gout shall never again paralyze them. I believe that no man and woman can refute these words because the sinner near the cross was pardoned. Give me, God’s servant, health of soul and body like that of Mary when she gave birth to her dear son. Amen.

  Germany, ca. 1370, Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, 3:497; HDA, vol. 7, 25ff., “Pilatus.”

170  TO RELIEVE THE PAIN OF GOUT

If one cuts the foot off a living rabbit and always carries it on his person, the pains of gout will diminish.

  Germany, sixteenth century. Herr, Das neue Tier-und Arzneibuch, chap. 28; Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, 3 vol., t. 3, p. 497f.

171  TO PROVIDE RELIEF TO THE FOOT OF A PERSON SUFFERING FROM GOUT

Write the following names on a band of tin or silver, you attach it to buckskin and bind it to the foot of this person. The buckskin [should have] two streamers.

Thembarathem, Nourembrenoutipe, aïokhthou semmarathemmou, naïoou!

Then say, “Heal [name] to whom [mother’s name] gave birth, of all the illnesses that are in his feet and in the soles of his feet!”

You do this when the moon is in the constellation of the Lion.

  Lexa, La Magie dans l’Égypte antique, 93ff.

172  AGAINST GOUT

Say nine times while fasting, terra pestem tenere salene, salene, salene manete his hire padibus, then kiss the ground and spit upon it, next rub the afflicted limbs with volatile alkali [ammonia] for seven days, and you will be relieved, for gout cannot be truly healed.

  France, eighteenth century. Les Œuvres magiques de Henri-Corneille Agrippa, 94.

173  AGAINST GOUT

Place cow manure mixed with a great deal of salt on the suffering area and say:

“[Full name] I hold you . . . in the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost! [Full name] I hold your seventy-seven kinds of gout; I hold the one that pulls you, the one that pinches you, the hot gout, the cold gout, the crying gout, the mute gout, I hold all gouts in my hand of a sinner, I see all the gouts with my eyes of a sinner and I command you, in the name of eternal God, by the [unidentifiable word] crown of thorns of Our Lord Jesus Christ to die in this . . . [only the initial of the word Dr. is given]; may you pulverize the seventy-seven lightning bolts, may seventy-seven winds carry you over the seventy-seven mountains! Amen.

  Saxons of Transylvania, nineteenth century Wlislocki, Volksglaube, 91ff.

174  TO HEAL A SUFFERER OF GOUT

To heal a sufferer of gout, take his toenail parings and hairs from his legs, and put them in the hole of an oak trunk that has been pierced to the marrow. Plug the hole with a peg made of the same wood and cover the top with cow manure. If the illness does not return in the space of three months, the oak has drawn all the illness into it; if it does not stop, start over.

  France, nineteenth century. Cabanès and Barraud, Remèdes de bonne femme, 211; Gaidoz, Un vieux rite medical.

175  TO CURE GOUT

While Jesus was out walking he met Cananias. “What have you got, Cananias?” “I have gout.” “Tie it to a green willow in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. From twilight Thursday to Friday dawn, go in silence to the willow, take three of its branches, pierce a knot through which the patient will have to breathe.

Cananias is probably a corruption of Ananias, the name offered by other such prescriptions. Two saints have this name. The first, whose feast day is December 16 or 17, is one of the three Hebrews cast into the furnace (Daniel 3:12–30), the second is Ananias of Damascus, celebrated on Januay 25 or October 1, who baptized Saint Paul.

  Germany, nineteenth century. CSB 391, “Gicht” (Gout).

176  CHARM FOR RELIEVING GOUT

Make a string from elder fibers then wrap it around the afflicted limb while saying:

Gout, I bind you with this tie,

Jesus was bound with;

Jesus was freed and rose up to heaven;

You, go down into hell,

In the name of God, and so on.

  Saxons of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksglaube, 92.

HEADACHE

177  TO CURE A HEADACHE

It is said that if one pours vinegar on the hinges of doors, it will make a mud that, when applied to the forehead, will cure headache; the rope used to hang a man wrapped around the temples will produce the same effect.

  Latin, first century. Pliny, Historia naturalis, XXVIII, 86.

178  TO DISPELL A HEADACHE

Attach plantain root at the throat. It works wonders at dispelling headaches.

  Latin, fourth century. Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarius, 1.

179  FOR MIGRAINE

If the right side [of the head] is suffering, write hyof on the skin, if it is the left side cela hhhc. Similarly write on a parchment:

ωhti ω σι aa loti poca zonie ho ωαΛYPIZε.

  Latin, fifth century. Pseudo-Theodore, Theodori Prisciani Euporiston, 314, 30 ff.

180  TO HEAL A MIGRAINE

To heal a migraine, place your hand on the patient’s head and say three times: Hoebae etho oras erbe bo Abraxat boetite.

  Latin, eighth century. Önnerfors, “Iatromagische Beschwörungen,” no. 3.

181  TO HEAL A MIGRAINE

When the sun is in the sign of Aries, if you collect and dry sheep dung, and then apply it with vinegar to the one suffering from headaches, that one will be healed.

  Latin, twelfth century. Liber Kyranidorum, 124, 13–14.

182  TO CURE VIOLENT HEADACHES

If a man is suffering from violent headaches, place a sardonyx on his head while speaking this spell: “Just as God cast the first angel into the abyss, may this ill vanish from [name] and all his awareness be restored.”

  Twelfth century. Hildegard von Bingen, Physica, IV, 7, “On the Sardonyx.” Cf. Lecouteux, A Lapidary of Sacred Stones.

183  TO HEAL HEADACHES

Carve the figure of Aries with that of Mars, who is a man armed with a lance, and of Saturn, who is an old man holding a scythe in his hand, both being direct, and Jupiter not being in Aries, nor Mercury in Taurus.

Or simply mark Aries when the sun is in this sign.

  France, seventeenth century. Dom Jean Albert Belin, Traité des talismans ou figures astrales, 109.

184  TO CURE A HEADACHE

Bind your temples with a hangman’s rope to no longer feel a headache.

  France, seventeenth century. Thiers, Traité des superstitions (1679), 333.

185  TO FIND RELIEF FROM HEAD PAIN

Our Lord God was sitting at the door of the church when his mother passed by. “Dear Son and Lord, why are you so sad, today?” He answered: “Most dear Mother, I cannot help but be sad: my poor head hurts and has almost made me senseless. Who would have believed that no one would believe me?” She said: “You will be comforted as you have spoken to me of it with your own mouth. What will you give me if I heal you with a benediction?” He answered: “I would give you heaven and earth to find relief and feel better.” She blessed him with her hand and his pain quickly vanished.

  Latin, 1416, Kalocsa, Hungary, Föszékeseghyhàzi Könyvatär, MS 629, fol. 25r.

186  AGAINST HEADACHE

Repeat the following verse:

The Virgin Mary and her Virgins

had gone to the beach.

They then saw the brain flowing.

They came out of the water and prayed

and placed it between the brain and the skull.

With God’s blessing.

This charm alludes to the Three Marys who replaced the mythic figures of the Fates.

  Sweden (Norrköping), 1617–18, Klintberg, Svenska trollformler, 74, no. 25, “huvudvärk.”

187  AGAINST MIGRAINES

The patient should have a third party rub, press, and wet his head with water or vinegar while saying this charm that is meant to exorcise the demon responsible for the affliction:

Pain, pain in my head!

With the Father of all ills

You must, cursed pain, vanish!

Go far away, be intelligent,

You have caused me enough suffering!

Your home is by no means here

and I want to expel you from my head

Return back to where you were nursed,

Return there, nasty one!

Go into the head

of the one who is walking on my shadow!

Confused with the soul in the lexicon of many peoples, the shadow is the tracing of the soul, its double. This is why stepping on someone’s shadow is a serious offense in certain cultures.

  Gypsies of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksdichtungen, 137.

  Lecouteux, Witches, Werewolves, and Fairies, 137–41.

188  FOR HEADACHES

For headaches, write on a wild beast’s hide the following names and attach them around the head: lioness, lion, bull, tiger, bear. While you are attaching them, pronounce these names silently.

  Latin, ninth century. St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Codex 751; Heim, “Incantamenta magica,” 555ff.

189  FOR HEADACHES

Write the word Athena on an olive leaf and bind this leaf to the head with a handful of double parsley.

“Athena” refers to Zeus/Jupiter’s migraine when he was giving birth to Athena/Minerva.

  France, eighteenth century. Les Œuvres magiques de Henri-Corneille Agrippa, 83. Morvan, nineteenth century. Cabanès and Barraud, Remèdes de bonne femme, 212, although the parsley is no longer mentioned.

HEATSTROKE, SUNSTROKE

190  TO CURE OVERHEATING

To keep your head from overheating in summer, wear pennyroyal, either on your ear or beneath a gold ring.

According to Macer Floridus, pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium) was also recommended against serpent bites and against the evil eye.

In nineteenth-century France this was a recommended cure for heatstroke:

On the stroke of noon, take a glass full of unfiltered water and put in a piece of salt as large as a hazelnut and place the glass on the patient’s head while reciting an Our Father and a Hail Mary. Next, Saint Eugenia and the patron saint of the ailing individual should be invoked. These prayers should be repeated three times while keeping the glass of water on the patient’s head. Repeat this operation for nine days in a row. On the ninth day, one sees the water boiling and the patient is cured.

  Latin, fourth century. Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarius, 93.

  Macer Floridus, De viribus herbarum, vv. 626–77; G. Camus, Circa instans, no. 391; M. Platearius, Livre des simples médecines, 2:233, chap. 343.

191  AGAINST THE RAYS OF THE SUN

Say the following verse:

I bless you with my right foot,

You will be protected against two illnesses;

Against the maladies of the lungs,

Against the maladies of the tongue.

People believed that the rays of the sun were dangerous and imagined them as arrows. The “sun shot” (solskott) designates illnesses that are difficult to diagnose and involves the sudden and unexpected attack of a painful disease. We find this notion in Denmark and southern Sweden. The concept of the healing foot is also familiar. The tongue disease is probably a wound in this organ like a crack or canker sore (Norwegian munnskåld).

  Sweden (Småland), 1870–80, Klintberg, Svenska trollformler, 75, no. 30, “solskott.”

HEMORRHOIDS

192  TO CURE HEMORRHOIDS

“By the holy Paschal baptism and by the holy day of Pentecost and by the holy night of Christmas and by the holy words one speaks on these three days, I conjure you, hemorrhoid, to remain tranquil, to not worsen or grow, but to wither. May milady Saint Mary and the most holy Christ succor me, He of whom you have need, amen.” A priest should speak this charm.

  Alemannic (Alsace), fifteenth century. Birlinger, “Aus einem elsässischen Arzbeibuch des XIV Jahrhunderts.”

193  TO CURE HEMORRHOIDS

Take saliva from your mouth with the middle finger of your left hand, and when touching the hemorrhoids, say: “Pins, go away, God curses you, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”

After which, say nine Pater and nine Aves during seven days; on the second day say only eight, and reduce the number by one on each successive day.

Earlier, Pliny the Elder noted the use of saliva in various cases: as an antidote against snakes, for boils, for eye inflammations. Here is a particularly lovely practice: One heals pains in the neck by applying saliva, while fasting, with the right hand to the right knee and with the left hand to the left knee” (Historia naturalis, XXVIII, 37).

  France, seventeenth century. Honorius, Le livre des conjurations, 123; Les Œuvres magiques de Henri-Corneille Agrippa, 92.

HICCUPS

194  TO STOP HICCUPS

To make hiccups stop, you must, without breathing, say and repeat this spell:

I have the souglot [hiccups]
Barbaro
Please to Gù [God]
I have them no more.

  France (Ardennes), nineteenth century. Meyrac, Traditions, 174, no. 58; HDA, vol. 7, 1223–24.

HYDROPS OR DROPSY (EDEMA)

195  TO HEAL DROPSY

The stone from the head of the hydra heals hydrops; it must be tied to the patient’s belly. The stone is procured like this: the snake is hung up and exorcized to make it vomit the stone, and then smoked with laurel wood while saying: “By the God that created you and who you worship rightly with your forked tongue, if you give me the stone I will not harm you but return you to your home.” Once he has expelled the stone, keep it in a piece of silk.

  Latin, twelfth century. Liber Kyranidorum, 200, 12ff.

196  PRAYER FOR REQUESTING THE HEALING OF HYDROPS AND PALE COLORING

Repeat the following prayer:

My God, command my blood to purify and the water that is too abundant within it to change into blood, as you changed into wine the pitchers of water at the wedding in Cana. My God, do not refuse me this miracle, and if it finally manages to pass, by Dominum Jesum Christum, let it be so.

  France, nineteenth century. Le Médecin des pauvres, 4ff.

HYSTERIA

197  TO BIND THE UTERUS

Here three women are standing

On the southern side of the table.

They are weaving blue thread

And spinning it on a gold loom.

I would bind Pain and Claw

For one hundred years

And then for as long as the world shall exist.

Bite these words and Amen.

This charm is founded on a notion dating back to antiquity according to which the uterus moves about in the woman’s body. When the uterus starts moving, women become hysterical. We should note that in folk beliefs that men are also equipped with a uterus if we take Finnish charms at their word. There are illnesses such as uterine prolapse, digestive disorders, and so on, which are the source of this concept of a uterus that enjoys a certain independence. The three women mentioned in the charm are the Germanic Norns who correspond to the Parcae of classical antiquity.

  Sweden (Småland), 1831, Klintberg, Svenska trollformler, 74, no. 27, “Binda barnmodern.”

  HDA, vol. 2, 438ff., “Dreifrauensegen.”

ILLNESSES IN GENERAL

198  TO BANISH FEAR AND MISFORTUNE

In order to banish all fear of disease and misfortune, pluck the Scotch thistle [Onopordum acanthium] only if the moon is in Capricorn, as long as you carry it on your person, nothing will happen to you.

  Latin, fourth century. Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarius, 110.

199  TO MAKE ALL ILLNESSES TAKE FLIGHT

Say this prayer four times over water and give it to the patient to drink: “Here is the sign of the cross †. The cross is the remedy for all things. By this sign of the cross, may all illness immediately take flight! And may by this same sign † be saved whoever wears the cross of the sweet Jesus who triumphs, rules, and commands.” Write the Our Father and this benediction nine times.

  Latin and Middle Dutch, mid-fifteenth century. Ghent, Universiteitsbibliotheek, MS 697, fol. 142v.

200  AGAINST ALL ILLNESS

Repeat the following phrases:

I go into the vast plain, beneath the dazzling sun, beneath the clear crescent, beneath the sparkling stars, beneath the floating clouds; I gird myself with clouds, I cover myself with the skies, I place upon my head the dazzling sun, I wrap myself in clear auroras, I scatter countless stars like so many sharp arrows, to protect myself from all harmful illness.

  Russia, nineteenth century. Gruel-Apert, La Tradition orale russe, 107.

201  SECOND PENTACLE OF MARS

The image below is successfully used against all manner of illness if it is applied over the suffering part.

IMPETIGO

Impetigo is a skin disorder characterized by rashes and itching. In the Middle Ages, according to the ancient French translation of Bernard of Gordon’s Practica, it was known as impetigine and serpigine, and was considered to be one of the four forms of leprosy.

202  AGAINST IMPETIGO

Repeat this spell:

Impetigo has nine daughters:

The nine have become eight,

The eight have become seven,

The seven have become six,

The six have become five,

The five have become four,

The four have become three,

The three have become two,

The two have become one,

The one has become none.

A reducing spell of the most common kind found throughout the whole of Europe since late Antiquity.

  Sweden (Småland), 1763, Klintberg, Svenska trollformler, 78, no. 40, “revormar”; Tillhagen, Folklig läkekonst, 257–59.

INFLAMMATION

203  CLIP THE INFLAMMATION OF THE JOINTS

The creakings in the limbs are cut with an ax. The diseased limb is placed on a threshold. Then the healer strikes the sensitive sides of the limb while he and the patient exchange these words:

“I strike and strike and strike.”
“What are you striking?”
“I am striking the chain of creakings so they leave the limb and enter the vein.”

This is for peritendinitis and tendovaginitis. The Swedish knarren involves inflammation, a very painful affliction that makes itself known in the swollen joints, a kind of gout. People who work hard are susceptible to this. The painful joint should be placed on a chopping block and the healer make symbolic chops next to it. Traditionally the healer used an axe to heal the patient, but there are variations.

  Sweden (Angermanland), 1937, Klintberg, Svenska trollformler, 73ff., no. 24, “Hugga bort knarren.”

INSOMNIA

204  TO MAKE SOMEONE SLEEP

Unbeknownst to the patient, write in silence on a virgin parchment: “IωIωKONNIAA C. NNOYε to the one who birthed this woman” and place it under his or her head.

  Latin, fifth century. Pseudo-Theodore, Theodori Prisciani Euporiston, 307, 23ff.; Franz-Josef Kuhlen, Zur Geshichte der Schmerz-, Schlaf-, und Betäubungsmittel in Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit.

205  TO SLEEP

Place a sheet of paper beneath the head of the insomniac with the words below written on it and make him eat lettuce or drink poppy crushed in a mortar and mixed with beer.

† Ysmael † ysmael † I adjure you by the angel to put this man to sleep.

  Middle English, fourteenth century. London, British Library, Sloane 963, fol. 53r. For more on lettuce see Macer Floridus, De viribus herbarum, vv. 765–75.

206  TO FALL ASLEEP

If you hang the beak of a heron with crawfish bile in a donkey skin around the neck of someone who cannot sleep, he will fall asleep.

  Greek, fourteenth century. KYPANIΣ III, E.

207  TO INDUCE SLEEP

With the blood of a bat that has never alit upon the ground write on a candle: luculus vennus haben bata biltus. All will sleep as long as this candle is burning.

  Middle Dutch, fourteenth century. Ghent, Universiteitsbibliotheek, MS 697, fol. 35v.

208  TO RETURN TO SLEEP

Take a hammer, a broom, and an iron, go out at midnight and shout: “Mother of the forest and of midnight, return to [name] the sleep of lambs, calves, piglets, and, most importantly, all that is small and cute. If you do not return it to him, I will strike you with this hammer, sweep you with this broom, and burn you with this iron.”

In north Russia the cause of childhood insomnia is a fantastic female called the Midnight. It comes at night and tickles the soles of the child’s feet and makes noise. The most widespread spell for driving out the Midnight is: “You have come from the forest, go back to the forest! You have come from the wind, go back to the wind! You have come with the passersby, go back with the passersby!”

  Romania, nineteenth century. Schullerus, Rumänische Volksmärchen, 44.

  Mazalova, “La médecine populaire dans les villages de la Russie du Nord,” Ethnologie française 4 (1996): 669.

JAUNDICE

209  TO CURE JAUNDICE

A person with jaundice should tie this little bird [widderwalo]—feathers and all—when it is dead, over his stomach. The jaundice will pass into it, and he will be cured.

  Twelfth century. Hildegard von Bingen, Physica, VI, 62, “Widderwalo”; Heinrich Schipperges, Hildegard von Bingen, Heilkunde: Das Buch von dem Grund und Wesen und der Heilung der Krankheiten.

210  TO CURE JAUNDICE

Take an apple, cut it into quarters, throw away the fourth quarter. On the first write “In the name of the Father and the Son Jesus of Nazareth †;” on the second, “† and of the Holy Ghost,” and on the third, “king of the Jews. Amen.”

  Latin, thirteenth century. Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ashmole 1444, fol. 139.

211  TO CURE JAUNDICE

Jaundice, where do you come from? You are there, whence you came, and you have nothing to do in [name]. Starting today, I forbid you, as true as the clear sun shall rise, to remain in this man.

Leave him, go from his marrow into his bones, from his bones into his flesh, from his flesh into his hand, from his hand into the wind, the gentle son of the holy mother wishes it! In the name of . . ., and so on.

  Transylvanian Saxons, nineteenth century. Schuster, Siebenbürgisch-sächsische Volkslieder, 309.

212  TO CURE JAUNDICE

Urinate into a hollowed-out turnip and hang it in the chimney hood. As the urine evaporates the illness will disappear.

In nineteenth-century Belgium, one had the patient urinate on an omelet or round loaf, that was then given to a dog to eat. The dog would die and the person would be healed.

  Saxons of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksglaube, 91; Hock, Croyances et Remèdes populaires du pays de Liège, vol. 4, 127.

213  TO KILL JAUNDICE

Three women took three yellow axes, took them in their yellow hands, rested them on their yellow shoulders, took three yellow paths, reached three yellow forests, chopped down three yellow trees, left by three yellow paths, and arrived at the yellow farm, at the yellow farm they entered the yellow common room, and found themselves facing the yellow [name]. They slew the jaundice with the three yellow trees, they struck it down dead in the name of God.

The three yellow women are fairies or the Three Marys; they countered the illness with its own color.

  Transylvanian Saxons, nineteenth century. Bartels, “Über Krankheits-Beschwörungen,” 30.

  D. A. Mackenzie, “Color Symbolism,” FolkLore 33, no. 2 (1922): 136–69.

LACTATION

214  TO INCREASE LACTATION

If you pierce a galactide^*13 and thread it with the wool thread from a pregnant ewe and hang this stone from the neck of a woman, it will generously fill the breasts with milk when she wears it.

  Latin, ninth century. Marbode, De lapidus, 42.

LETHARGY

215  TO CURE LETHARGY

Anyone who wears a bat’s head wrapped in black cloth tied to his right arm, will not sleep or drowse as long as he carries it; keeping the heart of the bat on his person guarantees the greatest alertness.

  Latin, twelfth century. Liber Kyranidorum, 121.

LEUCOMA

A macula or spot over the eye, leucoma was known in Medieval French as maille or catharata.

216  TO CURE LEUCOMA

If one gathers water lilies before sunrise, it is said they will take away the white spots from the eyes and all ocular pain.

  Latin, fourth century. Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarius, 23§1.

217  TO CURE LEUCOMA

† Alia † nec lia † nec gallina † On the edge of the sea, the macula was sitting †. White † which Christ dispersed † or red, which Christ dissolved † or black, which Christ detached from Your servant † Agyos † agyos † holy cross. Amen.

This spell was passed on as far north as Denmark, and of course with corruptions. It became † Alia † nec glia † nec alma † in fifteenth-century Denmark (Ohrt, Danmarks trylleformler, no. 1158). Thanks to a tenth-century manuscript from Reims (MS 304, fol. 158) we know that it is the chicken (gallina) that heals the patient of his leucoma.

In France (Burgundy), the following charm was still being used last century:

The Three Marys went off

Beyond the mountains

Seeking a cure

For eyespots and buds [cataracts].

They met Our Lord Jesus Christ

Who asked them: “Marys, where are you going?”

“Lord, we are going

Beyond the mountains

In search of a cure

For eyespots and buds.”

Our Lord told them: “Mary, Marion,

Go back to your homes

There you will find a cure

For eyespots and buds.”

  Latin, ninth–tenth century. Wickersheimer, La médecine et les médecins en France au temps de la Renaissance, 154ff.

218  AGAINST LEUCOMA

Repeat the following prayer:

Heavenly Father, drive away the spot and cloud from the eyes of this man like you have removed the cloudy spot from the eyes of your servant Jacob. In the name of the Father † and the Son † and the Holy Ghost † amen. Kirieleison, Kristeleison, Pater Noster. January, Felix, Philip, Salvan, Alexander, Vital, Martial. These are the seven sons of Saint Felicity, they can help us. Amen.

I conjure you to disappear † spot or pain of the eyes, irritating stain, by the Father † and the Son † and the Holy Ghost † and by His valorous mother, Saint Mary, and by the twenty patriarchs, and by the four Evangelists, and by the twelve apostles †, by all the saints and all the elect. I conjure you by the sign of the holy cross †, by the blessed remedy of the holy body of Our Savior Jesus Christ and His holy blood, by His five wounds, by all the angels of God—to return whence you came, Kirieleison, Kristeleison, Pater Noster. Nilaria dulcie (?) filana Christophorus Abraham divina inclina (?) Satripina, dear saints, help us in this distress, ayos, ayos, ayos, sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, sominus deus santus, omnipotens, Lord, take pity on us! I conjure you, eyespot, to vanish from this man, by the power of the holy Trinity. Kirieleison, Kristeleison, Pater Noster.

Blow then on his eyes while naming them.

Christ triumphs, Christ rules, Christ commands †. May the blessing of the heavenly Father succor the eyes of His servant as You have healed those of Tobias, and may they expel all that is harmful so that we may celebrate Your compassion and laud You, for all eternity. Amen.

At this moment, touch the ground. Our Lord touches the earth and wets it with His saliva, then smeared it on the eyes of the man born blind while saying: “Wash yourself. Because you believe, you will be enlightened by the sign of the holy cross †.

I command you, eyespot, by God † the Father, by † the Son and by † the Holy Ghost, by the terrible judgment, by the holy name of the holy Trinity, by Saint Mary, by the holy angels Gabri (el) † and Saint Raphael †—to utterly vanish never to return! You are so commanded by the Father, by † the Son and by † the Holy Ghost †. May the blessing of the Trinity touch your eyes, amen.”

There where you see a cross, you will make the sign of the cross in contemplation. This blessing is good for the eyes.

  Mixture of Latin and Middle High German, fifteenth century. London, British Library, Additional 28170, fol. 113v.

219  TO CURE WHITE SPOTS ON THE EYES

The good Lord and the good Virgin were out walking,

The good Saint John happened by.

God told Saint John:

“Sit down over there!”

“I have too many problems with my eyes.”

“Sit down there, I will heal you.”

White spot,

I tend to you.

Red spot, I touch you.

Black spot, I heal you.

In the name of the Father, †

The Son, †

The Holy Ghost, †

So shall it be. †

  France, twentieth century. Dominique Camus, La Sorcellerie en France aujourd’hui, 324ff.

220  TO CURE THE EYES

Repeat this prayer three days in a row and, with the help of the imagination, you will be cured.

Three holy virgins were going

Beyond the mountains

In search of a cure,

For the eyes and the bud

When their road led them to meet

The Baby Jesus who asked them:

“My three virgin ladies, where are you going?”

“Lord, we are going over the mountains

To find a cure

For the eyes and the bud.”

Baby Jesus answered them:

“Go back to your homes.

There you will find a cure

For the eyes and the bud.”

The bud is the cataract. This prayer also works for animals.

  France, nineteenth century. Cabanès and Barraud, Remèdes de bonne femme, 286ff.

221  ORISON FOR AN EYE PROBLEM

Blessed Saint John, passing here, met three Virgins on his path, he asked them: “What are you doing here?” “We are healing spots over the eye.” “Heal, Virgins, heal the eye or eyes of [name].” While making the sign of the cross and blowing into the eye, say: “Eye spot, late grief or [what] whether it be nail paring, seed, or spider, God commands you to have no more power over this eye than the Jews did the day of Easter over the body of O.L.J.C.” Then make the sign of the cross again while blowing into the person’s eyes saying: “God has healed you.”

Without forgetting a novena on behalf of the blessed Saint Claire.

  France (Troyes), ca. 1840. Laissez dire et faites le bien: Le Médecin des pauvres, 8ff.

LOSS OF SPEECH

222  TO REGAIN SPEECH

If a man loses the power of speech through an illness, crush alum in water and pour it into his mouth: he will speak.

  Old Provençal, early fifteenth century. Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R 14.30, fol. 145.

LUMPS

The following recipe is one of the countless examples of the transfer of ills into something else, in this case into the earth.

223  AGAINST LUMPS

When a child bumps his forehead, press against the bump with a knife blade while saying:

Soften, soften, soften you

and disappear quickly!

Go into the ground

never to return!

Knife, knife, eradicate it,

send it back into the ground!

The person then stabs the knife into the ground then pulls it back out.

  Gypsies of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksdichtungen, 145ff.

LUNACY

It was long believed that a man under the moon’s influence was subject to moments of madness and could even act like a beast at these times. The metamorphosis of a man into a werewolf was explained by the stages of the moon in this way.⁹

224  TO CURE LUNACY

If a lunatic wears verbena around his neck during the waning moon and when it is in the first decan of the sign of Taurus or Scorpio, he will be healed.

  Latin, fourth century. Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarius, 8§1.

225  TO CURE LUNACY

A pill of felty germander [Teucrium polium] and the root of this plant placed in a clean cloth and hung around the neck of a lunatic will cure him. This is proven.

  Latin, fourth century. Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarius, 57§1.

226  TO CURE LUNACY

If peony is placed on a sleeping lunatic, he will rise immediately healed, and if he carries it on him, he will never be struck by this evil.

  Latin, fourth century. Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarius, 65§1; G. Camus, Circa instans, no. 360; Platearius, Livre des simples médecines, 2:229, chap. 330.

227  TO HEAL LUNATICS

A mole’s heart in buckskin will heal lunatics.

  Latin, twelfth century. Liber Kyranidorum, 140, 16.

228  TO CURE MADNESS

The sting of the scorpion, the tip of the basil holding the seeds, and the heart of a swallow worn hung from the neck or in a buckskin, heals lunatics of their madness. This phylactery also drives away demons who refuse to go away.

  Greek, fourteenth century. KYPANIΣ IV, Ω

229  TO RECOVER THE MIND

When someone has lost his reason due to illness, write these words on a piece of bread and give it to him to eat. He will recover his right mind:

† DISTON † GRATON † BORSIBS ††

  Germany, sixteenth century. Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek, Cpg 268, fol. 24r.

LUXATION (DISLOCATION)

230  TO HEAL DISLOCATION OR FRACTURE

Take a green reed four or five feet long and split it down the middle, and let two men hold it to your hips. Begin to chant: “motas uaeta daries dardares astataries dissunapiter” and continue until the two sides of the split reed meet. Brandish a knife over them, and when the reeds meet so that one touches the other, grasp them with the hand and cut them right and left. If the pieces are applied to the dislocation or the fracture, it will heal. However, chant every day, and, in the case of a dislocation, in this manner, if you wish:

Huat hanta huat ista pista sista domiabo, danmaustra.

Or else:

Huat haut haut ista sis tar sis ardannabou dannaustra.

  Latin, third century BCE. Cato the Elder, De agricultura, 160.

MADNESS

231  TO CURE DELIRIUM

The magi are certain that individuals suffering from delirium will regain their reason if sprinkled with mole’s blood.

  Latin, first century. Pliny, Historia naturalis, XX, 14.

232  AGAINST MADNESS

Take marsh mallow, lupine, paquerette [daisy], polypody, corn-cockle, and elecampane. When night and day divide, sing the Litanies, at church: those of the names of the saints, and Our Father. Leave still stinging, make your way to where the plants are, and circle them three times. When you have gathered them, return to the church singing the same song, and sing twelve masses over them in honor of the twelve apostles, as well as over all the brews indicated for this illness.

  Old English, tenth century. Leechbok, in Cockayne, Leechdoms, vol. I, 138.

233  FOR SOMEONE OF VACILLATING MIND

Write these letters and hang them about his neck:

Illness has vanquished you, Jesus treats you, the Virgin saves you, m m a. τ vos.

  Provence, early fifteenth century. Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R 14.30, fol. 145.

234  FOR THE INSANE

A man devoid of his senses should wear agrimony tied to his right arm, a woman to her left arm: this will restore their good sense and intelligence.

  Middle High German, Speyer, 1456. Berlin, Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Besitz, Codex mgf 817, fol. 6r.

MALEMORT (TRAGIC OR SUDDEN DEATH)

235  A CHARM AGAINST SUDDEN DEATH

In a collection of exempla, the Compilatio singularis exemplorum (fifteenth century), we find a sharp critique against charms; it takes the form of this narrative:

A priest had made a charm against the malemort [or mallemen] and had great success. One of his companions asked the priest to teach it to him. He taught it to him after much beseeching on condition that as long as he lived he would not use it or teach it to anyone else unless he collected two denars from each person. Here is the charm:

Belly, belly may God

Let you fart as you are accustomed.

Branchy thistle, horned beetle,

All the shit of the belly sprints to the ass.

He says nothing more, nothing less, and he obtains healing. What trickery!

  Vaisbrot, “Édition critique,” ex. 810 (kindly sent to me by Jacques Berlioz).

MULTIPLE-PURPOSE RECIPES

236  TO EXPEL ILLNESS

You and the patient both fasting, while holding the affliction at fault with three fingers, the thumb, the middle finger, and the ring finger, and while raising the other two, say: “If you were born today or earlier, if you were created today or before, get out!” With this charm and consecration. I expel this illness, this tumor, large or small, this skin rash, this swelling, this scrofula, large or small.

  Latin, fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, VIII, 62.

237  TO EXPEL PAIN

Decomal titianos npocyanteos, which in Latin means “for all pains inside and out,” even for those stricken by quartan fever or who have begun to feel feverish. Write these names in ink on virgin parchment. dilute them in three measures of warm water that you will give the patient to drink. This is a proven remedy.

acko MENEIBOS cvρω aαopNe avtvRa. dekeviωik.

  Latin, sixth century. Antidotarium Bruxellense, 368.

238  TO DELIVER FROM TORMENT

† Before the front door of the lord centurion, the paralytic is tormented.

† Before the front door of the lord centurion, the paralytic is tormented.

† Before the front door of the lord centurion, the paralytic is tormented.

† You, lord centurion, deliver so-and-so from the power of paralysis, from the power of languor, from the power of fever, from the power of the dropping temperature, from the onset of quartan fever, from the onset of tertian fever, from the onset of daily fever!

  Latin, eighth century. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, Lat. MS 13246, fol. 253v.

239  A CHARM AGAINST VERMIN

Here is a charm for charming Christians against vermin and all kinds of gout, fistulas, and fevers.

The patient should not eat any meat or ingest any drink.

† In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen. As true that God was and is, as true as that he was well formed, as true that what he said was well said, as true that he incarnated through the Virgin, as true that he was crucified, as true that he received five wounds in his body, as true that two thieves were hung on either side of Him, as true that His holy feet and hands were pierced by nails, as true that His glorious head was crowned with thorns, as true that He spilled His blood upon the cross, through which the devil was bound and vanquished, as true that on the cross he humbly suffered death, thanks to which we have received the baptism, as true that His holy body rested in the tomb and resurrected on the third day, as true that he rose to heaven when He wished and rested at the right of His father, and that He will come on the day of judgment and that each and all will rise again in flesh and blood, and that Our Lord his five wounds will show and as he wishes will judge, as true as it is true, that healed be [name] of gout, abscess, canker, vermin, and all manner of fever and gout.

Then say three Our Fathers in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, then have read the Four Gospels: Rogobat Jesusm quidam Phariseus; Cum natus esset Jesus in Bethleem; Recumbentibus undecim disciple; In principio erat verbum.

  Latin, thirteenth century. London, British Library, Sloane 146, fol. 67rv–68r.

240  TO HEAL CONJUNCTIVTIS

The quail is known to all. Its eyes, when worn around the neck, will heal conjunctivitis, tertian fever, and quartan fever.

Hung from the right arm, the stones found in the swallow’s stomach heal hepatics; they protect from coughs, head colds, inflammation of the uvula and tonsils, and all forms of conjunctivitis.

  Greek, fourteenth century. KYPANIΣ III, O.

  Greek, fourteenth century. KYPANIΣ III, C.

241  PRAYER FOR HEALING TOOTHACHES, HEADACHES, OR EARACHES

Saint Apollonia was sitting on a stone of marble, when Our Savior, passing by, asked her: “What is tormenting you?”

“I am here, divine teacher because of the pain, because of my toothache,”

“Apollonia, turn around, if it is a drop of blood, it will fall; if it is a worm, it will die.

  France, eighteenth century. Le Médecin des pauvres, 7.

242  AGAINST ALL MANNER OF FEVERS

When Jesus saw the cross on which his body had been placed, his body shivered, his blood shot through him. He happened upon a Jew named Marquantin, who said to him: “I believe your are scared or in the grip of fever.”

“No,” Jesus answered, “I have neither fear nor fever at all; but whoever this orison will say, wear on his right arm, never will fever and trembling take hold of him.”

Tertian fever, semi-tertian fever, quartan fever, semi-quartan fever, slow fever, daily fever, intermittent fever, malignant fever, purplish fever, fever of whatever nature you may be, I conjure you to leave [name]’s body in the name of the Father † the Son † and the Holy Ghost † and of Milord Saint Peter and Milady his Mother, who will cure him of fever, if it is a man, or who will heal her, if it is a woman.

You fold this note while speaking in the name of the Father, and so on, then tie it on to the right arm of the fever sufferer with five needles of crimson thread; also while speaking in the name of the Father, and so on. It should be worn for nine days; when it is put on, one should be fasting.

  France, eighteenth century. Les Œuvres magiques de Henri-Corneille Agrippa, 93–94.

243  A PRAYER AGAINST INJURY

Say the following prayer:

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Milady Saint Anne who gave birth to the Virgin Mary, the Virgin Mary who gave birth to Jesus Christ, God bless you and heal poor creature [name] of a leg-breaking wound, fracture, and annoyance, and all other kinds of injury of any kind in the honor of God and of the Virgin Mary and of Milords Saint Cosmas and Saint Damina. Amen.

Then say three Pater[s] and three Ave[s].

  France, eighteenth century. Lebrun, Superstitions anciennes et modernes, 97.

244  ORISON IN CASE OF CHOLERA, TYPHUS, SWEATING SICKNESS, SCARLET FEVER, POX, AND SO FORTH

Only God, All-powerful God, source of life and health, we fall upon our knees to beg you for your mercy; it is within you, God of clemency, that we come to repent in the soul, and with spirit filled with good intentions, to seek a haven against the afflictions that ravage us. We flee to you, O God, Father of all salvation, to ask you to tame your wrath that we have overly encouraged with our wickedness. Lord, may your exterminating angel no longer strike with his sword; we confess our sins and transgressions, we proclaim to the heavens our redemption; Lord, grace and pity for our offenses; God give us the time to expiate and atone, as you did for holy King David. May your virtue, Our Father, may your grace, be spread over us like a blanket of protection. O Lord, purify us! O Lord, pour upon us the balm of your sanite [health]! O blessed Saint Francis of Sales, intercede for we poor sinners. Magnificamus te, we say to you great above all. Laudamus te, we praise you. Glorificamus te, we glorify you forever. Amen.

Oddly enough we find in this orison the medieval notion of illnesses as punishment for sins, and divine protection like a breastplate (lorica). The Latin is borrowed from the Gloria.

We find this significant passage in Johann Weyer’s book:

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil. . . . Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the Gospel of Peace, above all taking the shield of faith with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit—which is the word of God. . . .” (De praestigiis daemonum, 5.1, 361–62).

  France, eighteenth century. Le Médecin des pauvres, 6ff.

NEVUS

245  TO CURE A BIRTHMARK

For a nevus: while touching the wall and putting your finger in the back, say three times: “Pu pu pu, may I never see you again through the wall.”

The nevus is a mole children can have at birth. This ordinarily congenital skin lesion is also called strawberry mark or birthmark.

  Latin, fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, XVIII, 30.

NIGHTMARE

246  TO CURE THE AFFLICTION OF NIGHTMARES

If someone is afflicted by nightmares, place some betony in his bed.

  Greek, fourteenth century. KYPANIΣ III, O.

  Twelfth century. Hildegard von Bingen, Physica, I, 56, “On Betony”; G. Camus, Circa instans, no. 70; Platearius, Livre des simples médecines, 2:90, chap. 59.

247  FOR PROTECTION FROM INSOMNIA AND NIGHTMARES

This sign must be carved on a piece of brown coal with a magnet for protection from insomnia and nightmares.

  Iceland, seventeenth century. Ólafur Daviđsson, “Isländische Zauberzeichen und Zauberbücher,” Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde 13 (1903): 277.

248  PROTECTION FROM NIGHTMARE DEMONS

Repeat the following:

Witch and all evil spirits, in the name of the Holy Trinity, I forbid you, my belongings, my flesh, my blood, I forbid you all pinholes in my house and farm until you have scaled every mountain, crossed all waters, counted all the leaves of the trees and all the stars of the sky before sunrise, when the mother of God gave birth to her son. †††

It was believed that the nightmare was a demon named Ephialtes (William of Auvergne, De Universo, 2.2, 833 C; 945 B; 2.3, 1069 C) or the double of a witch that would come lie atop the sleeper, or a spirit called the mahr, a term we find in the French word for nightmare, cauchemar. This double could gain entry through the smallest gap—like a keyhole, for example. By obliging it to complete an impossible task, one could find shelter from its nocturnal attacks.

  Switzerland, nineteenth century. Rochholz, “Aargauer Besegnungen,” 114.

  Lecouteux, “Mara-Ephialtes-Incubus: Le cauchemar,” Études germaniques 42 (1987): 1–24; “Le double, le cauchemar, la sorcière,” Études germaniques 43 (1988): 395–405. Bridier, Le Cauchemar: Étude d’une figure mythique; Carl-Herman Tillhagen, The Conception of the Nightmare in Sweden; Bernard Terramorsi, ed., Le Cauchemar: Mythologie, folklore, arts et littérature.

NOSEBLEED (EPISTAXIS)

249  TO STOP NOSEBLEED

Using the patient’s blood write on three laurel leaves: Tantale pie, pie Tantale, Tantale pie. Wash them next with pure leek juice, and make the patient drink it.

  Latin, fifth century. Pseudo-Theodore, Theodori Prisciani Euporiston, 276, 10ff; Macer Floridus, De viribus herbarum, vv. 507–48.

250  TO STOP THE FLOW OF BLOOD FROM THE NOSE OR VEIN

One must write these letters on the patient’s forehead with his own blood: a † g † l † a and speak this charm: “Our Lady was sitting on a bench holding her son in her lap. True mother, true child, true vein hold your blood! In the name of Jesus I command you to not let even one more drop escape!” The patient should then say three Pater Nosters and three Ave Marias with the person who spoke the charm, which he must say three times. Never has this failed.

  Latin and French, ca. 1300, London, British Library, Sloane 146, folio 48v–49r; Lecouteux, “Agla: Remarques sur un mot magique,” in Le Secret d’Odin: Mélanges pour Régis Boyer, 19–34.

251  PROTECTION AGAINST BLOOD FLOWING FROM THE NOSE

Against blood flowing out of the nose, make this sign on the forehead, XX. Next take a wisp of straw with two knots and cut the knots, then write this sign on his forehead with his blood.

  Middle French. Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O 1.20, fol. 43v–44r.

252  TO STOP BLEEDING

When a person is bleeding from the nose or elsewhere, you should write upon him a Greek name O. P. E. W. E. N. with his own blood, it’s true, and say into his ear: “I conjure you, blood, by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, to cease flowing like the Jordan stopped flowing when Jesus was baptized.”

  Middle High German, Tyrol, fifteenth century. Zingerle, “Segen und Heilmittel,” 315.

253  AGAINST EPISTAXIS

Cover the blood with dirt while saying:

Phuvush, I give it to you,

Phuvush, take it from me,

Give it to your child,

Carry it off quickly!

For the gypsies, the Phuvush (Pçvuš, fem. pçuvuši) is a small, ugly, hairy chthonian spirit who lives under the ground. He is sometimes described as resembling a mole with a human head. His name is formed from pçuv, “earth,” and “manuš, “man.” he is generally kind but will abduct women.

  Gypsies of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksdichtungen, 146.

PAIN, BLADDER

254  FOR BLADDER PAIN

Write this on pigskin for a man, and on the skin of a sow for a woman, and tie it by the navel:

Abara barbarica borbon cabradu brabaarasaba

  Latin, fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, XXVI, 43.

PAIN, GROIN

255  TO HEAL TUMORS OF THE GROIN

Some, to heal tumors of the groin, tie nine or seven knots, naming each knot after some widow, on a thread taken from a web that is then attached to the groin as an amulet. To prevent such a wound from being painful, they tie a nail or some other object that patient has walked on to the person with thread.

  Latin, first century. Pliny, Historia naturalis, XXVIII, 86.

256  TO HEAL PAINS OF THE GROIN

To heal pains of the groin and excoriations, wear the tip of a sucker of wormwood on the belt.

  Latin, fourth century. Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarius, 101§4.

257  TO MAKE PAIN DISAPPEAR

The root of henbane attached to the thigh and over the pain will cause it to disappear.

  Latin, fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, VIII, 130; Floridus, De viribus herbarum, vv. 1933–61.

PAIN, JOINTS

258  TO EASE JOINT PAIN

To counter joint pains, chant this song nine times over the painful area and spit on it:

The Evil One has bound, the angel has healed, the Lord has saved.”

The patient will soon feel better.

  Old English and Latin, tenth century. Læce boc, in Cockayne, Leechdoms, vol. 2, 312.

PAIN, KIDNEY

259  TO EASE KIDNEY PAIN

May someone whose kidneys are suffering write on a virgin parchment the characters below and seal them in gold or copper, and attach them around the kidneys. It is a marvelous remedy:

χαραβραως

  Latin, fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, XXVI, 43.

260  TO EASE KIDNEY PAIN

When you undress to bathe, before getting into the water, take some oil with your left hand and say this name: Φαρμαχουc. Say this three times while rubbing your hands with the oil; wash them nine times.

  Latin, ninth century. Önnerfors, “Iatromagische Beschwörungen,” no. 18.

261  FOR KIDNEY AFFLICTION

Say “Lady Moon, daughter of Jupiter, just as the wolf cannot touch you, may the pain not touch my kidneys; if you eat my kidneys, I will hit you.”

  Latin, ninth century. Önnerfors, “Iatromagische Beschwörungen,” no. 19.

262  AGAINST KIDNEY PAIN

Tie hairs from a virgin to the painful part while saying: “Pain of the kidneys, I bind you with this virgin’s hair, not nine times, eight times; not eight times, seven times; not seven times, six times; not six times, five times; not five times, four times; not four times, three times; not three times, two times; not two times but one time; jump ninety-nine times over the hair and stamp your feet one hundred times.”

This charm uses the counting-down techniques that is a version of the decreasing or reducing spell: to force the withdrawal of an illness of misfortune, one takes a magic word and subtracts from it a letter one by one until only one remains.

  Saxons of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksglaube, 91.

263  A TALISMAN AGAINST STONES

Carve upon a strip of gold the image of a lion who has some gravel in front of him, as if he was playing with it, the hour is that of the sun and under the the middle decan of Leo and the sun is in this degree. He who is suffering from stones should take this strip onto his person and his pains shall disappear. This has been proven.

  Arabic magic, mid-eleventh century. Ghāyat al-hakīm, I, 5, 34.

PAINS, MULTIPLE

264  AGAINST PAIN

Say the following verse.

Our Lord Jesus Christ was pursuing his path,

Blessed be his name!

He met an ill man.

“What is your illness?”

“Erysipelas has settled in and rheumatism is flowing

And I am suffering from migraine, erysipelas, and gout,

Rheumatism, pain when I strike my fist, volatile pain,

Burn, pain in my limbs, explosive pain,

Colic, reed pain, pain when I make a fist,

Fleeting pain, headache, sore throat,

Pain in the heel, pain in the arm, pain in the side,

Pain in the back, pain in the chest, pain in the belly,

Pain in the hip, pain in the thigh, pain in the knee,

Pain in the leg, sharp pain, stabbing pain,

And all the kinds of pains that strike the body.”

“All these pains I will confine them

On the crag where no one dwells

And in the lake where no one paddles;^*14

This pain shall do you no more wrong

Than the sand beneath a rock stuck in the ground.”

    †††

  Sweden (Småland), 1831, Klintberg, Svenska trollformler, 72ff., no. 22, “värk.”

265  TO REMOVE PAIN

If you find a pain in your body or that of somebody else, get rid of it with a talismanic procedure from the Prophet (ruqîya rasûl Allah). When someone complained of an ulcer or a wound, the Prophet would place his finger on the ground then stand up and say: “Bismillah the dirt of our home mixed with the saliva of one among us, heals our disease, by the will of our master.”

  Arabic magic, twelfth century. From the Ihyâ’ of al-Ghazali, in Hamès, “Entre recette magique d’Al-Bûnî et prière islamique d’al-Ghazali,”, no. 86.

266  TO HEAL SEVERAL DISORDERS

If you wish to eliminate the different disorders or diseases that are implicit of disposition, as the doctors say, and prevent evil spells or poison from causing harm, make an image from very pure silver during the hour of Venus in the fourth, seventh, or tenth house and when Venus is well aspected and when the lord of the tenth is looking at fortune in a trine or sextile aspect, and when the lord of the fourth will be in Mercury’s quadrant aspect. Make certain that Mercury is not in retrograde or burnt by the sun and is not being injured by the evil rays of the bad aspect of Saturn. This image must be made in the last hour of the day of the Sun, when the lord of the hour will be in the tenth house on the side of the ascendant. This image will therefore infallibly cure the disorders of disposition.

  French translation of the Picatrix [the Ghāyat al-hakīm], eighteenth century. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, Fr. MS 14788.

PAIN, NECK

267  FOR NECK PAIN

For neck pains you should write on a gold blade in gold letters the characters below on the twentieth day of the first moon, then place the blade in a gold tube or wrap it in a goat hide attached with a strip of goat skin to the right foot, if it is the right side of the throat that hurts, or to the left foot if it is the left that is causing the pain; this is how you should wear it. For as long as one uses this amulet, it is necessary to abstain from the games of Venus, and for the woman to not enter a tomb; all this must be respected. For this neck pain, one must avoid ever putting the shoe on the left foot first.

        LΨMΘKIA

        LΨMΘKIA

        LΨMΘKIA

  Latin, fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, XXVIII, 26.

PALPITATIONS

268  TO CURE PALPITATIONS

For the beatings of the heart, write on virgin parchment: “† Just as the wolf touches not the egg,” wrap it in an unbleached fabric that you will tie to your knee. On the fifteenth day of the moon, pluck some celandine and give it to the patient with salt.

  Latin, ninth century. St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Codex 751; Heim, “Incanta magica graeca latina,” 564.

PAROTIDES

This is swelling of the parotid glands in the ears.

269  TO CURE PAROTIDES

To calm the parotides, the root of asphodel wrapped in black wool and tied around the neck is a remedy.

  Latin, fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, XV, 35.

270  AGAINST THE SKIN DISEASE CALLED PAISHE

I conjure you, angel that brings grace into every illness, which befalls man, and especially in this illness, which attacks man in his old age! May this illness leave [name] of [name of home]. They are Oriel, Gabriel, and Raphael who pray for the cessation of all illness! May [full name] vomit it out!

The charm has been Christianized by the mention of the three archangels; it is from the Coptic Magic Papyrus in the Borgiano Museum.

  Zoega, Catalogus codicum copticorum manuscriptorum qui in museo Borgiano Velitris adservantur, 627–30.

PLAGUE

In ancient times, the word plague designated both the pestilence we are familiar with, and which was made famous by the great black plague of the fourteenth century, and various other afflictions. Saint Roch was invoked for his protection against it.

  Biraben and Le Goff, “La peste dans le haut Moyen Âge,” Annales E.S.C. 24 (1969): 1484–1510; Naphy and Spicer, The Black Death and the History of Plagues; Coppin and Welpy, La Peste: Histoire d’une épidémie.

271  TO GET RID OF THE PLAGUE

Say the following words:

Disappear, bubo, as disappeared the man who braided and tied the rope that bound Jesus Christ when he was captured. You should do the same, bubo, disappear!

  Middle High German, fourteenth century. Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek, Cpg 244, fol. 113r.

272  BLESSING OF PLAGUE PATIENTS

Recite a Pater Noster and the Credo while fasting, then say over the patient: † Christus vincit † Christus regnat † Christus imperat. Then write these words on a long parchment made from a stillborn calf, long enough to go around the neck, and tie it there with linen thread. It is proven and true, the angel brought it from heaven to Rome and gave it to the pope at his instant request and insistent prayer.

Saint Roch, patron saint of plague victims, visiting a hospital, 1484.

† kay vinghan adonay satheos mire ineffabile omiginam ona animam misane dyas mode unde nemat gemasten orcamin sanguine berenisone irritas venas cansi dulis fervor fixiantis sanguinis siccatur. Fla fla gra gra frigela virgum et siden benedicite dominus.

Then write on this same bref:

Our Lord be blessed as well as the day of his birth, may this person be likewise.

Write the name he is called on this bref. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

The same spell can be found earlier in tenth- and eleventh-century England, against diarrhea, and in the Netherlands during the fifteenth century to stop bleeding. The corruptions¹⁰ cannot be translated, but what survives of a coherent text indicates that it was a spell against bleeding.

  Middle Dutch, fifteenth century. London, British Library, Additional 39638, fol. 15r–v.

  Berthoin-Mathieu, Prescriptions magiques anglaises du Xe au XIIe siècle.

PLEURISY

273  TO CURE PLEURISY

Write the following in a glass: Dia Biz, On, Dabulh, Cnerih.

  France, 1670, Honorius, Le livre des conjurations, 74.

POISON AND VENOM

274  AGAINST POISON

If someone suspects the presence of poison in something, he should hold a dead starling over it. If there is truly poison, its wings will spread apart and start to move.

  Twelfth century. Hildegard von Bingen, Physica, VI, 50, “Starling”; Müller, “Krankheit und Heilmittel im Werk Hildegards von Bingen,” in Hildegard von Bingen, 1179–1979, Festschrift zum 800. Todestag der Heiligen, 311–49.

275  TO STOP THE EFFECTS OF POISON

If someone has been poisoned let him write these words on three brefs of virgin parchment, and swallow one at noon, and one in the evening. Even is someone sought to kill him, the effect of the poison will be annihilated and the man will recover his health. Here are the words:

††† Agla ††† effrecga ††† agla ††† refoa †††

  Middle High German, fifteenth century. Kalrsruhe, Badische Landesbibliothek, MS Donaueschingen 792, fol, 138v.

276  AGAINST POISON

Say the following verse:

Poison, in doing this I beseech you,

In asking the aid of Saint Urh [Ulrich] and Saint Margarethe.

Begging you before the living God

To take back the poison from all venomous animals.

If you no longer live, may your parents take it back for you.

Make the sign of the cross, blow on the bread, and strike it three times with your knife. Recite the Our Father and the Angelic Salutation.

  Slovenia, nineteenth century. Monika Kropej, “Charm in the Context of Magic Practice: The Case of Slovenia,” Folklore 24 (2003): 70.

277  TO DRIVE AWAY POISON

There is a holy mountain, there is a holy seat. Saint Šempas is seated on a holy chair, holding a holy sword in his hands. The Virgin Mary comes looking for him, holding Jesus the Merciful in her arms, and says to him: “Why don’t you drive away this poison and the beast from which it comes? Return it to the animal whence it came!” Say three Our Fathers in honor of Saint Šempas over a piece of bread and give it to the animal.

Saint Šempas is the popular alteration of the Latin name of Saint Bassus (or Pass, in German), first changed to Saint Basso and then into Šempas buy fusing the two words. Šempas is also the name af a Slovenian village.

  Slovenia, nineteenth century. Slavec and Makarovič, eds., Zagovori v slovenski ljudski Zupanič ter zarotitve in apokrifne molitve.

278  PROTECTION AGAINST SUDDEN DEATH

This orison was at the sepulaire [tomb] of Jesus Christ, and whoever carries it on their person shall not die a sudden death, not be attacked by a venomous beast, finally, wherever this orison is, no evil can occur.

 

Jesus Christ, son of the living king, help me, savior of the world, save me.

Holy Virgin pray to your dear beloved son for me poor sinner, Queen of Angels, mirror of the blessed, Virgin Mary at the time my soul departs my body. Forgive me all my sins. So be it.

This is a short narrative of the “legend-prayer of the Holy Sepulcher” that a priest is supposed to have discovered wrapped in a cloth. It is a variant of the “letters fallen from Heaven.”

  Revue du clergé français 89, no. 529 (1917), 264ff.

PUSTULE

279  FOR PUSTULES APPEARING SUDDENLY ON THE TONGUE

Before speaking, touch the pustule with the edge of the tunic you are wearing and say three times: “May he who speaks ill of me perish!” and spit an equal number of times on the ground. You will be healed immediately.

Even in the twentieth century, it was believed that if someone was speaking ill about you, pustules would appear on your tongue; it was then necessary to bite the left edge of one’s tunic or apron, or bite one’s elbow, in this way the ill sayer would bite his own tongue. Or else spit three times into a handkerchief and knot it shut, and strike it with the hand. The pustules would boomerang back on the person speaking ill. (Cf. Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube, 287.)

  Latin, fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, XI, 21.

280  AGAINST PUSTULES

Jesus was following his path.

He met a galloping pustule.

“Where are you going”

“I am going to the peasant’s farm.

To make holes there and break bones.”

“You shall not go there at all.

With nine fingers of God

And ten angels of God

I send you beneath a rock stuck in the ground.

There you shall live and you shall do no wrong to anyone.

Shame on you, backsliding pustule,

Cursed galloping pustule,

You shall ride cats and claws,

And all the dogs living in Hell!”

  Sweden (Medelpad), 1908. Klintberg, Svenska trollformler, 69, no 14, “stryga” (fulsang).

RABIES

281  TO CURE RABIES

Write this on bread and give it to eat to the one with rabies and to all animals: Bus gur raber sibis graon diton. Si gur ramina pax peun pax inpeon peopn pax ita amen.

  Latin, ninth–tenth century. Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde 7 (1839), 1020–21.

282  REMEDY FOR TREATING THE BITE OF A DOG OR ANY OTHER RABID BEAST

Take a bread crust and on it write the following words: † bestera † bestie † brigonay † dictera † sagragan † es † domina † fiat † fiat † fiat.

  France, ca. 1393, Le Mesnagier de Paris, 788.

283  AGAINST THE BITE OF A RABID DOG

Have [the victim] eat cantharides nine days in a row. One on the first day, two on the second, three on the third, and so forth. Then nine on the ninth, eight on the tenth, seven on the eleventh, and so on. They must be wrapped in paper on which has been written: “Saint Christopher, help me! Pater, fili, spiritus”; the person swallows the paper at the same time as the cantharides.

  Saxons of Transylvania, nineteenth century Wlislocki, Volksglaube, 96.

284  FOR RABIES

Write this on the butter of three slices of bread that should be given the patient to eat in the morning, the evening, and the following morning:

Irijon + Sirijon + Karbon + Karfun + Stilida + Stalitara + Kakara + Idata + Stridata + Sijan + Beijan + Ad deus + Meus +

  Lithuania, nineteenth century. Vaitkevičienė, Lietuvių užkalbėjimai, no. 1395.

RASH OR OTHER OUTBREAK

285  TO GET RID OF A RASH

The trunk of a tree should be split into two, without separating the two halves completely, and the patient should be passed between them. Next, one must say:

May the three holy women examine my wounds, may they remain close to me until I am cured. May the wounds go hide in the wild woods so they may die there in the name of Lord God! Amen!

Then one draws a cross above the affected area.

This healing technique is called “transfer” (transplantatio morborum). In it, an individual rids himself of an ailment by transferring it into a tree, a plant, the water, and so forth.

The Jesuit Martin Delrio provided another method of transfer in 161:

Transplantatio morborum.

To heal the evil spell of hairs, needles, thorns, and similar things, which sorcerers stuff inside the body by means of the Devil, they should not be cut out of the body but once they have voluntarily emerged, seal them in the hollow of an oak or elder facing the east, and then plug the hole of same tree while saying certain words.

  Saxons of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksglaube, 85.

  Bartholin, De Transplantatione morborum dissertation epistolica; Fischer, Das Buch vom Aberglauben und falschen Wahn, 168–70; Delrio, Les Controverses et Recherches magique, 989; Saintyves, “Le transfert des maladies aux arbres et aux buissons,” Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française 15 (1918): 296–300; Grabner, “Die ‘Transplantatio morborum’ als Heilmethode in der Volksmedizin,” Österreichische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde 21 (1967): 178–96.

RHEUM

Rheum is a sticky yellowish secretion that collects and hardens on the edge of the eyelids.

286  TO CURE RHEUM

Harvest the root of the Rumex sylvestris (a small sorrel or dock) during the waning of the moon and wear it; so long as you have it on your person, you will not suffer from rheum.

  Latin, fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, VIII, 41.

287  TO CURE RHEUM

When rheum gets established, it can surely be cured in a marvelous fashion by writing on a virgin parchment: ϕυρφαραν, and that you attach this amulet to a cord, and that this be done in a state of purity.

  Latin, fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, VIII, 56.

288  TO CURE RHEUM

With a copper needle, carve these words on a gold blade: Ορωυω συρωδη. Hang it by a ribbon around the neck of the patient; this will keep him well for a long time if the application is performed on a Monday and if you have been chaste.

  Latin, fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, VIII, 59.

Cosmas and Damian.

RHEUMATISM

289  AGAINST RHEUMATISM

Have the miller or the miller’s wife strike with the mill hammer three times while saying: in nomine patris, and so on.

  France, eighteenth century. Lebrun, Superstitions anciennes et modernes, 82; Coulon, Curiosités de l’ histoire, 44.

290  TO HEAL RHEUMATISM

To heal rheumatism, which some call enchappe, by having the miller or miller’s wife of three races strike the mill hammer three times near the patient while saying In nomine patris, and so on.

  France, eighteenth century. Thiers, Traité des superstitions (1777), 4:337.

291  ORISON FOR RHEUMATISM AND OTHER SUFFERINGS

Blessed Saint Anne who gave birth to the Virgin Mary, Virgin Mary who gave birth to Jesus Christ, God heal you and bless you, poor creature, of illnesses, wounds, fractures, and all kinds of disabilities in the honor of God and the Virgin Mary, like Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian healed the five wounds of Our Savior. Say three Paters and three Aves for nine days every morning while fasting, in honor of the agonies suffered by Our Savior Jesus Christ on Calvary.

In the nineteenth century, in the arrondissement of Verviers (Belgium), rheumatics would go to the cemetery in search of five coffin nails that they would wear around their neck in a small pouch. The local gravediggers made a business out of selling these “good nails.”

  France, M. Le Pesant, “Prières superstitieuses du pays d’Ouche,” Annales de Normandie 3, nos. 3–4 (1953): 328.

  Hock, Croyances et Remèdes, 3:161.

RICKETS

292  AGAINST CARREAU (TABES MESENTERICA)

Say these words:

Holy Son, I am complaining to you because the carreau is irritating me. The carreau in the liver and in the lungs. From wherever it came to me, may God and good Saint John heal me. In the name of God, amen.

Carreau or mesenteric atropia, is a form of rickets.

(Cf. Charles Blomme, Dissertation sur l’atropie mésenterique vulgairement connue sous le nom de carreau.)

  Middle Dutch, fourteenth century. Leiden, MS Mij. Ned. Letterk. 960, fol. 2v.

293  TO HEAL A CHILD OF CARREAU

To heal a child of carreau, take up a church paving stone before sunrise and without letting anyone see you. Then apply it to the patient’s stomach.

RINGWORM

In ancient times, ringworm, scabies, and impetigo were often commingled in prescriptions. In the first century, Pliny the Elder in Historia naturalis (XXVII, 100) proposed the following remedy:

The stone customarily found near rivers bears a dry, gray moss. It should be crushed into powder to which is added saliva and another stone. With this latter, you rub the scaly part while saying: “Flee cantharides, the wolf is greedy for blood.”

The spell in quotation marks is in Greek in the text. It is thought that moss mentioned here is peat moss (Sphagnum L.). The spell can be understood this way: just as cantharides eats the wheat, scabies gnaws the flesh.

294  TO CURE RINGWORM

Saint Peter upon the bridge of God was sitting; Our Lady of Caly went there and asked: “Peter, what are you doing here?” “Lady, it is for the pain of my head that I have come here.” “Saint Peter, you will rise; to Saint Agert you will go; you shall take the holy ointment from the mortal wounds of Our Lord; you will rub them upon yourself and say Jesus Maria three times. You must make the sign of the cross over your head three times.”

  France, seventeenth century. Honorius, Le livre des conjurations, 79; Les Œuvres magiques de Henri-Corneille Agrippa, 90.

295  PRAYER FOR RINGWORM

Paul was seated on a marble stone, Our Lord who was passing that way, asked him: “Paul, what are you doing there?” “I am here to heal the problem with my head.” “Paul, get up and go find Saint Anne so that she can give you some oil, you will grease yourself lightly with it while fasting, once a day for one year and a day. He who does this will have no bad temper, scabies, ringworm, or rabies.”

You must repeat this orison for one year and a day without missing a single day, every morning before breaking your fast, and at the end of this time you will be radically healed, and freed from all these evils for life.

  France (Troyes), ca. 1840, Laissez dire et faites le bien: Le Médecin des pauvres, 4.

SAINT ANTHONY’S FIRE, HOLY FIRE

An illness caused by rye ergot, a fungus. In 945, the annalist Flodard described what he then called the fire plague. Saint Anthony’s Fire (Thönigisfeuer in Alemannic) is still called ignis sacer (holy fire), Saint Marcel’s Fire, the burning disease, and ergotism. It is also used to designate erysipelas, shingles, and gangrenous ergotism.

296  FOR THE HOLY FIRE

Write on the part suffering from holy fire: “Flee, the pale Father Black shall follow you!” Also write this on the pain in the head: “YωωBBeVICI.” Also write: “aOPOMalω.”

  Latin, fifth century. Pseudo-Theodore, Theodori Prisciani Euporiston, 282: 19ff.

297  TO RELIEVE THE PAIN OF THE HOLY FIRE

Moreover, do not forget to enchant holy fire with these words: “The fire increases, the door burns, the water is thirsty. Just as I command this error, may this fire not cause me to suffer, nor to redden, nor get worse.”

The Pseudo-Theodore uses a figure of speech here called an adynaton, which is based on something that is naturally impossible and whose absolutely affirmative nature is displayed by its negation. The oldest such European formula dates from the tenth century and is in Old High German:

A bird who flew without feathers,

Was perched on a leafless tree,

A footless woman came along

Who caught it without hands,

Cooked it without fire,

Ate it without a mouth.

  Latin, fifth century. Pseudo-Theodore, Theodori Prisciani Euporiston, 282: 19ff.

  Gerhard Eis, Altdeutsche Zaubersprüche, 73; Archer Taylor, “Vogel federlos once more,” Hessische Blätter für Volkskunde 49–50 (1958): 277–93; Max Lüthi, Volksliteratur und Hochliteratur, 181–224.

298  AGAINST THE HOLY FIRE

Repeat the following verse:

I was crossing through a red forest,

In the red forest stood a red church,

In the red church there was a red stone,

On the stone lay a red knife,

Omen. Amen.

  Switzerland (Argovie), nineteenth century. Rochholz, “Aargauer Besegnungen,” 104.

SCABIES

299  TO HEAL SCABIES

To heal yourself of scabies, wash yourself with dew that fell during the night of Saint John.

  France (Ardennes), nineteenth century. Meyrac, Traditions, 172, no. 38.

SCARLET FEVER

300  TO CURE SCARLET FEVER

Repeat the following verse:

Scarlet fever, what are you trying to do?

Do you want to create a corpse?

Scarlet fever, abandon your plan,

Go far away into the greenery!

There is a cold spring there

Where you should flounder,

Where you should bathe for eternity.

In the name of G. t. F. a. t. S. a. t. H. G.

  Germany, nineteenth century. Carly Seyfarth, Aberglaube und Zauberei in der Volksmedizin Sachsens, 81.

SCIATICA

301  TO CURE SCIATICA

Before sunrise, go the ocean’s edge for three days in a row and swear not to eat garlic. You will recover.

  Latin, ninth century. Önnerfors, “Iatromagische Beschwörungen,” no. 31; Floridus, De viribus herbarum, vv. 161–95; Camus, Circa instans, no. 15; Platearius, Livre des simples médecines, 2:67, chap. 18.

302  TO CURE HIP PROBLEMS

Say the four following words aloud: sista, pista, rista, xista.

The spell seems incomplete. In fact, Jean-Baptiste Thiers presented it under this form: Huat hauat ista pista sista dannabo dannaustra, and indicated it was for treating fractures and hip problems (Traité des superstitions [1777], 1:361).

  France, nineteenth century. Coulon, Curiosités de l’histoire, 46; Heim, “Incantamenta magica,” 534.

303  TO GET RID OF STRING (SCIATICA, LUMBAGO)

To get rid of the string [sciatica, lumbago], one must repeat nine times several days in a row:

String, I bid you good days; you have as many roots as the good Lord has friends, but the friends of God will profit and your roots will die. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

  France, nineteenth century. Cabanès and Barraud, Remèdes de bonne femme, 288.

SCROFULA

Scrofula (Latin scrofulae) is the common name for a tubercular deterioration affecting the lymph nodes in the neck. It is also know as the “king’s evil.” The kings of France and England were believed to have the power to cure this affliction by saying: “The king touches you, God heals you.”

Johann Weyer provided an ancient recipe in 1568:

And the ancients believed that verbena (crushed with its root, sprinkled with wine, wrapped with a leaf, and heated in the ashes), when laid upon scrofulous tumors, would drive them away, if this was done by a fasting virgin for a fasting patient and if she touched him with her hand while saying: “Apollo forbids the spread of this plague, which a virgin extinguishes.”

Healing of scrofula.

At this point she was supposed to spit three times (De praestigiisdaemonum, 4.7)

  Du Laurens, De mirabili strumas sanandi, solis Galliae regibus christianis divinitus concessa.

304  TO CURE SCROFULA

Culled before sunrise and wrapped in wool that is the color known as native, and, moreover, coming from a ewe that has birthed a female lamb, the root of hibiscus^*15 worn tied to the scrofula, even when suppurating; some believe that for this usage it should be plucked with a gold tool, and care taken to avoid it touching the ground.

  Latin, first century. Pliny, Historia naturalis, XX, 151.

305  TO CURE SCROFULA

Mallow root, or plantain, carried in cloth or tied to a string around the neck will cure scrofula, it is obvious.

  Latin fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, XV, 48.

306  ORISON FOR REQUESTING THE HEALING OF SCROFULA AND FOUL HUMORS

Repeat the following prayer:

Jesus, who healed the lepers, deliver your servant from the vile evil that afflicts him.

Great Saint Louis, you who touched the scrofulous and restored them to health and purity in their homes, pray so for God to protect this poor world, and for all its wounds to be closed.

Blessed Saint Marcou, come to the aid of those who revere you, and pray so that the miracle of Reims will repeat in their favor.

  France, eighteenth century. Le Médecin des pauvres, 7; Trüb, Heilige und Krankheit.

307  TO HEAL SCROFULA

To heal scrofula, a fasting virgin need only say:

Negat Apollo pestem posse crescere, quam nuda Virgo restringat.

The phrase comes from Pliny the Elder (Historia naturalis, XXVI, 92) and concerns tumors:

The tumors are healed by nostrums with honey, by plantain with salt, by cinquefoil, by the root of the persolata used as for other forms of scrofula, by damasonium, and by verbascum mullein crushed with its root, sprinkled with wine, wrapped in its own leaves and heated in ashes, and applied hot. Individuals who have had the experience assure me that it matters a great deal that this application be made by naked young girl, who like the patient is fasting, and that this girl when she touches the afflicted area with the back of her hand, should say: “Apollo, prevent this fire of plague from spreading in the patient who has had it extinguished by a naked virgin.” After turning over her hand, she will speak this phrase thrice, and she and the patient will spit three times.

This spell seems to have been spread by a translation appearing in 1584: Gaius Plinius Secundus, History of the World (Lyon: Antoine Tardif ), 2:344.

In the following recipe negat was replaced by neque. Was this a typo or a reading error? There should be nothing surprising about the fact that the phrase “By Apollo, an evil driven away by a pure virgin cannot grow” turns to a healing god of classical antiquity for help, several centuries later.

  France, eighteenth century. Lebrun, Superstitions anciennes et modernes, 101.

308  TO HEAL SCROFULA

Let a virgin girl heat a leaf of mullein in ashes, then apply it to the patient while saying:

Necque Apollo pestem posse crescere quam nuda virgo.

  France, nineteenth century. Cabanès and Barraud, Remèdes de bonne femme, 211.

309  TO CHASE AWAY SCROFULA

Worn around the neck, plantain roots chase away the evil scrofula and do not permit its afflictions to grow.

  Middle High German, Speyer, 1456. Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Codex mgf 817, fol. 42r; Camus, Circa instans, no. 377; Platearius, Livre des simples médecines, 2:195, chap. 263.

SCURVY

310  PRAYER FOR SCURVY

Say the following phrase:

White canker, red canker, black canker, and all kinds of evil cankers, I enclose the scurvy inside, I curse you and conjure you to depart from me as quickly as the dew leaves before the sun on Saint John’s Day, by blowing for three mornings in a row into the mouth of the person before the sun rises.

  France, nineteenth century. Le Médecin des pauvres (1857), no. 7.

THE SHAKES

The shakes are characteristic of a feverish state that was once also known as “cold fever.”

311  PROTECTION FROM THE SHAKES

Whoever carries a sprig of mullein on his person will have no fear of the shakes and no illness will affect him.

Mullein (Verbascum thapsus), was also known as white broth, molene, or Saint Fiacre’s herb; it was later used as an herbal tea.

  Latin, fourth century. Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarius, 72.

312  TO GET RID OF THE SHAKES AND FEVER

Say the following phrase:

I adjure you, shakes and fevers, by all-powerful God and His son Jesus Christ, by the ascension and the descent of Our Savior into Hell, to withdraw from this servant of God and his poor body that Our Lord sought to illuminate. The lion of the tribe of Judah, David’s lion, defeats you, he defeats you, he who cannot be defeated. The Christ is born, the Christ is dead, the Christ will come back, Aius, Aius, Aius. Sanctus Sanctus, Sanctus. This is why, entering the cities with a salutary stride, traveling through the capitals, the countryside, the hamlets, villages, and towns, He drives out all diseases and treats all bodies.

  Old English and Latin, tenth century. Læce boc in Cockayne, Leechdoms, vol. 2, 136–38.

SHINGLES

313  TO CURE SHINGLES

Pass your hand over your chest several times, at the ailing area, in a clockwise direction, while saying: “Shingles, go away! This is not your place, neither here nor elsewhere. Between nine seas and nine mountains, there is your lodging.”

  France, Brittany, nineteenth century. Cabanès and Barraud, Remèdes de bonne femme, 214–15.

Anatomy, Johannes de Cuba, Hortus sanitatis, ca. 1501.

SHOT AND PROJECTILES

A distinction must be made between two different kinds of shot: those received in battle and the arrows shot by fantastic beings that carry disease.

314  TO EXTRACT A BOLT

Didymus pulled the nails from the wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Here are his words:

Sunt veriterra amide ellus lancea aliusta carne velocimiliter istis ossibus †. In the name of the Father † and the Son † and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

  Latin, sixteenth century. Ghent, Universiteitsbibliotheek, MS 1021 A, fol. 142v.

315  TO REMOVE AN ARROWHEAD

When you reach the place where the wounded man lies and you wish to remove the arrowhead, you must fall down on your knee and say three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys and add: “Nicodemus took the nails from the hands and feet of Our Lord Jesus Christ. In the same way this arrow is pulled from the body of this wounded man. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.” It will come out immediately by divine power.

  Middle Dutch, fifteenth century. London, British Library, Harley 1684, fol. 31r.

316  TO MAKE AN ARROWHEAD COME OUT

If an arrowhead has entered the body and cannot be extracted, place your right thumb over the wound, kneel, and say: “Pater on. fyli. on spiritus. on Jesus Criste. True God, hear us through the prayer of your servant Saint Blaise and hurry to heal your servant [name], amen.” Repeat this prayer as long as the arrowhead has not been pulled out.

The word on, “he who is” (the Greek o ωυ), is regarded as the first name of God. It occurs frequently in charms against fevers, meteors, epilepsy, toothaches, and so forth.

  Middle High German, Tyrol, fifteenth century. Zingerle, “Segen und Heilmittel,” 316.

317  CHARM AGAINST SHOTS

Odin’s mother stood on a mountain and drew a line through the nine kinds of magical shots:

Against the shot to the heart
Against the shot to the lungs
Against the shot to the liver
Against the shot to the blood
Against the shot to the flesh
Against the shot to the intestines
Against the shot to the stomach
Against the shot to the kidneys
Against all the nine kinds of shots
Which travel between heaven and earth, beneath moon and sun, By the three names!

  Norway, Ringerike, 1885, Bang, Norske hexeformularer og magiske-opskrifter, no. 886, “For Fin Skød”; Reichborn-Kjennerud, “Krankheit und Heilung in der Frühgeschichte Norwegens,” Niederdeutsch Zeitschrift für Volkskunde 14 (1936): 1–17.

318  FOR HEALING OF SHOT FROM ARQUEBUSES AND OTHERS, BOTH OLD AND NEW, WITHOUT OINTMENT OR RAGS

You shall make a decoction from what I will write for you below: take round birthwort, the weight of two pennies, laurel seed, an equal weight of freshwater crayfish dried in the oven, and which have been caught under the full moon, powdered musk, the weight of a penny, the herb called self-heal [Prunella vulgaris], otherwise average comfrey, the weight of four pennies. This herb must be plucked with its flowers and dried in the shade between two cloths. You shall reduce all these drugs to a powder, and after blending them well, place them in a packet of new cloth, which will be tied or sewn shut with a thread. Then you should take a new glazed pot, in which you shall place your packet, with around twenty small branches of periwinkle and three bottles of the best white wine you can find, and after having sealed your pot with three or four sheets of paper, so the steam cannot escape, you shall light the charcoal, and make it boil until you believe that the decoction has been reduced by one-third. Then you shall remove it from the fire, and after letting it cool, you shall put the decoction into two layers of fine linen, and place it in a jar of strong glass, to be used as needed. Make especially sure that the jar is so well sealed that it cannot take wind.

  France, eighteenth century. Petit Albert, 157ff; Paré, La Méthode de traicter les playes faictes par hacquebutes et aultres bastons à feu et de celles qui sont faictes par flèches, dardz, et semblables, aussi des combustions spécialement faictes par la pouldre à canon; Honko, Krankheitsprojektile: Untersuchungen über eine urtümliche Krankheitserklärung.

SPASMODIC SOB

319  TO STOP CRYING

When a child is crying spasmodically and cannot sleep, his mother takes a wisp of straw from his mattress, puts it in his mouth and, while she fumigates the child with cow manure mixed with hairs from the mother and father, she whispers:

With the hairs and the manure

May the disease be burned!

  Gypsies of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksdichtungen, 145.

SPLEEN

320  TO CURE PAIN IN THE SPLEEN

The fresh spleen of a sheep is placed, by a Magian prescription, over the painful spleen of a patient, the attendant saying that he is providing a remedy for the spleen. After this the Magi prescribe that it should be plastered into the wall of the patient’s bedroom, sealed with a ring thrice nine times and the same words repeated. If a dog’s spleen is cut out of the living animal and taken in food it cures splenic complaints; some bind it when fresh over the affected part. Others without the patient’s knowledge give in squill vinegar the spleen of a two-day-old puppy, or that of a hedgehog.

  Latin, first century. Pliny, Historia naturalis, 30.51.

SPRAIN

321  TO HEAL A SPRAINED FOOT

This healing must be started as soon as possible, not giving time for inflammation, and the sprain will be subtly healed. The person performing the operation should take off his left shoe, and and use his left foot to touch the patient three times while making the sign of the cross with this same left foot, and while saying the following words. The first time, say Antè †, the second time say Antè te †, on the third time, super antè te †. The ailing foot should be touched above the sprain, and this spell can be used to heal horses as well as men.

The spell Antè, and so on, was still used in twentieth-century France to protect livestock. The oldest instance of its use can be found in England in a fifteenth-century charm against a sprain in a horse; in Holland, † Ante † Sus Ante † Per Ante † cures gout.

  France, eighteenth century. Petit Albert, 161.

  Camus, Paroles magiques, secrets de guérison: Les leveurs de maux aujourd’ hui, nos. 77, 79, 81, 87ff.; Camus, La Sorcellerie en France aujourd’ hui, 101–4; J. van Haver, Nederlanse Incantatieliteratuur: Een gecommentarieerd compendium van Nederlandse Besweringsformules (Gand, 1964), nos. 231, 491.

322  TO RELIEVE THE PAIN OF A SPRAIN

Repeat the following:

Sprain, sprain, sprain, if you are in the blood, jump into the marrow; if you are in the marrow, jump into the bone; if you are in the bone, jump into the flesh; if you are in the flesh, jump into the skin; if you are in the skin, jump outside.

  France, nineteenth century. Cabanès and Barraud, Remèdes de bonne femme, 216.

323  PRAYER FOR FIXING SPRAINS, HERNIAS, AND FRACTURES

Make the sign of the cross over the injury while saying these words three times.

The four Evangelists, Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are present here to repair fractures and dislocations (sprains).

During the novena, say five Our Fathers and five Hail Marys while fasting.

  France, nineteenth century. Le Médecin des pauvres (1868).

324  AGAINST SPRAINS

Dåve crossed the bridge over the water

And entered Tiveden Forest

His horse tripped on a root

And sprained its foot.

Odin was passing by:

I shall heal your wound;

Flesh in flesh, bone in bone,

I will place limb against limb,

And never again shall your foot

Suffer misfortune or pain!

††† Amen.

This charm, featuring Odin, is reminiscent of the Second Merseberg Charm (late ninth or early tenth century), the oldest known example of the spell for healing a horse’s sprain by Odin/Wodan.¹¹ The perennial nature of the thinking expressed by the Swedish charm is confirmed by the Apocalypse of Peter (third–fourth century), in which we read: “Bone, go to the other bones, in the joints, tendons, nerves, flesh, the skin with its hairs.”

  Sweden (Södermanland), ca. 1860–70. Klintberg, Svenska trollformler, 66, no. 6, “vrickning.”

STERILITY

325  TO HAVE A CHILD

Women who have a problem conceiving a child gather the threads of the Metellina segmentata, a spider, threads known as the Virgin’s threads, and ingest them with their husbands while both say:

Keshalyi, spin, spin

As long as water is flowing in the stream!

We invite you to the baptism,

When you will have spun, spun

The red threads of happiness

For the son that we have obtained

By your grace, you Keshalyi

The Keshalyia/Kešalya (singular Kešly) are fairies of the woods and mountains, the daughters of the King of the Mists who drove them out of his palace after the Sun King had burned his beloved wife. They live in the mountains and forests, sometimes in gold and diamond palaces, and let their hair hang down into the valleys. These are seen in the form of fogs that the Gypsies call “hairs of the Kešalya” (Kešalyakri). Their eyes shine with a green light. Sometimes they weave the invisible caul (amniotic membrane) and ensure the individual’s good fortune for life. They are regularly invoked as a cure for sterility.

  Gypsies of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksdichtungen, 142.

STING

326  ORISON FOR REQUESTING HEALING OF BEING PRICKED BY THORNS, AND FOR SCRAPES AND BOILS

Say the following orison:

Sweet Jesus, the crown of thorns that was placed on your forehead left only holes of glory, however, the thorn is wicked, but it is powerless wherever faith reigns. I place my hope in you and pray to you with my hands clasped, my God, per Christum natum, mortuum, resurrectum et vivum in aeternum, exi spina aut vermiculum.

The phrase in Latin means: By the Christ who was born, died, resurrected, and lives eternally, leave thorn or little worm.” What we find here is a spell that was widely used during the Middle Ages when illness or injuries were perceived as a worm.

  France, eighteenth century. Le Médecin des pauvres, 6ff.

STOMACHACHE

(SEE ALSO “COLIC” AND “STOMACH GROWLS”)

327  GREAT RECIPE AGAINST THE PAINS OF THE STOMACH

On a silver blade write: “Aritmatho carry off the pains of this stomach that that one but into the world,” then wrap the blade in the wool of a living sheep, hang it around the patient’s neck, and while doing this, say: “May Arimatho take away the pain of this stomach.”

Scholars have interpreted Aritmatho as the Gallic aruhmhath, “the good demon.”

  Latin, fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, XX, 66.

328  AGAINST STOMACHACHES

Burn nine hairs of a black dog into ash, then add it to mother’s milk and the excrement of a child. Make a paste from this that you will then place in the hold of a tree while saying:

Leave the belly,

Here is a green house for you!

Dwell there, live there

I command you.

  Gypsies of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksdichtungen, 146.

329  CHARM FOR BELLYACHES

One rubs the belly with the hand, smeared with oil, with this incantation:

Three sows fell from the sky, a shepherd found them, killed them without a knife, baked them without teeth: I have cooked them well, I have cooked them well, I have cooked them well.”

The part of the spell, “baked them without teeth,” is based on the merger of two different adynata: “baked them without fire” (coxit eas sine igni) and “ate them without teeth” (comedit eas sine dentibus), a merger that creates a nonsensical term. In a charm against erysipelas, Marcellus of Bordeaux (chap. 28) writes: “Stolpus fell from the sky, shepherds found this disease, gathered it up without hands, and ate it without teeth.” Stolpus personifies the disease, sometimes we also find Stupidus (Marcellus 10.35), and Stulta in a charm against bleeding (Heim, “Incantamenta magica,” 498).

  Latin, mid-fourth century. Pelagonius, Artis veterinariae quae extant, 58, no. 121.

  Addabo, “Stupidus in monte ibat: ub caso di interdizione verbale?” Civiltá classica e cristiana 12 (1991): 331–41.

330  SPELL AGAINST STOMACHACHE

Hor, son of Eset, scaled a mountain, wishing to sleep, he sang his songs, spread his nets, and captured a falcon, a bird of prey of the boulders. He cut it into pieces without a knife, he cooked it without a fire, and he ate it without salt. Then his stomach began to hurt around his navel, he started sobbing out loud and cried: “I wish to call home today my mother, Eset! I need a demon so that I may send it to the home of my mother, Eset!” The first demon that arrived, Agrippa, went in and asked him:

“Do you want me to go the home of your mother, Eset?”

He asked: “When will you get over there and when will you get back?”

The demon answered: “I will get over there in two hours and after two hours I will get back.”

Hor answered: “Be off with you, that is not suitable.”

Then the second demon Agrippa arrived and asked him: “Do you want me to go the home of your mother, Eset?”

He asked: “When will you get over there and when will you get back?”

The demon answered: “I will get over there in one hour and after one hour I will get back.”

Hor answered: “Be off with you, that is not suitable.”

Then the third demon Agrippa arrived and asked him: “Do you want me to go the home of your mother, Eset?”

He asked: “When will you get over there and when will you get back?”

The demon answered: “In one breath of your mouth I will get there, and in one breath of your mouth I will get back.

“Go, that suits me fine!”

He climbed up the mountain of On and found Hor’s mother, Eset, there wearing her iron helmet and making a fire in a copper saucepan.

She asked him: “Demon Agrippa, why have you come?”

He answered her: “Your son Hor climbed a mountain wishing to lie down, sang his songs, spread his nets, and captured a falcon, a bird of prey of the boulders. He cut it into pieces without a knife, he cooked it without a fire, and he ate it without salt. Then his stomach began to hurt around his navel and it caused him great pain.”

She told him: “If you do not find me and if you know not my true name that guides the Sun toward the west, that guides the Moon toward the east, and the six stars toward the propitiatory (i.e. star) on which Ra is seated, then conjure the three hundred veins surrounding the navel and say:

“May any illness, any suffering, and any evil that is in the body of [name], son of (the) [name], cease at once! I that am speaking is the Lord Jesus who heals!”

Hor is one of the names of the well-known god Horus, and Eset (Isis) is his mother. Readers cannot help but note the adynaton (combination of incompatible facts) here, such as “cut it up without a knife,” and so forth, which can also be found in an old High German charm.

  Lexa, La Magie dans l’Égypte antique, 100ff.

STOMACH GROWLS

331  CHARM FOR RUMBLING OF THE BELLY

Write the following on a strip of tin and attach it around the neck: Ante cane corcu nec megito cantorem ut os ut os

Prepare a light wine you like and scatter some arête-boeuf (bull stopper) in the name of the God Jacob, in the name of the god Sabaoth.

Arrête-boeuf (Ononis spinosa)^*16 is a member of the family Fabaceae.

  Latin, fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, XXI, 3.

STYE

332  AN EFFECTIVE REMEDY FOR STYES

Take nine barley seeds and prick the stye with their tips, and each time, say this charm once: φευγε φευγε χρεων σε διχει.

The use of the imperative “flee” (φευγε, fuge) is extremely common in Greek and Latin charms.

  Latin and Greek, fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, VIII, 193.

333  A CURE FOR STYES

If a stye appears on your right eye, say: “The mule does not reproduce, the stone carries no wool. May this ailment not rear its head or grow, but let it perish.”

  Latin, fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, VIII, 191.

SWOLLEN GLANDS

334  A CURE FOR SWOLLEN GLANDS

The person who undertakes the cure should begin by making the sign of the cross over the affected part and repeat three times: “Saint John had a veuble which flowed at nine pertins. From nine they shrunk to eight; from eight they went to seven; from seven they went to six; from six they went to five; from five they went to four; from four they went to three; from three they went to two; from two they went to one, from one they went to nothing; and in this way Saint John lost his veuble.”

Veuble is a word for “swollen gland” in the local dialect, and the method used here to heal it is known as counting down.

  French (Isle of Guernsey), nineteenth century. Saintyves, Les Grimoires, 56.

SYPHILIS

335  A CURE FOR SYPHILIS

Tie the following letters over the vein of the man suffering from fever or the evil malady [syphilis]:

† F E T R A/† gra † ma † lum †

This form of treatment is still known today in Norway and is called årelating: the patient is bled and a piece of paper with magic words is placed on top of the vein being treated.

  Norway, 1790. Bang, Norske hexeformularer, no. 1036; Ohrt, Danmarks trylleformler, 2:128.

Treating patients who have syphilis.

THORN

336  ORISON FOR A THORN

Points on points. My God, heal this point like Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian healed the five wounds of O.L.J.C. in the Garden of Olives (and say the name of the person).

Natus est Christus, mortuus et resurrexit Christus

After you have said this orison, take a man’s linen and cut it as long and wide as the finger, then place it in a cross over the thorn, and next you will wrap it in that same linen. You will blow three times on the thorn, while saying the orison, and then you will wrap it as said; finally the blower will perform a novena while fasting, for the sufferings endured by Our Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary.

  France (Troyes), ca. 1840. Laissez dire et faites le bien: Le médecin des pauvres, 6; Laubach, Krankheit und Heilung in biblischer Sicht.

337  CURE FOR A THORN

If a thorn has entered your finger, say the following over the wound three times:

Para fara gara

Thorn, you shall leap forth

A my wound will be healed

By Saint John and Nicholas.

  France (Vosges), nineteenth century. De la Salle, Croyances et légendes du centre de la France, 334.

THROAT PROBLEMS

338  PROTECTION FROM SORE THROATS

Whoever wears acanthus hung from their neck will not suffer from sore throats.

  Latin, fourth century. Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarius, 69.

339  CHARM AGAINST SORE THROAT

This charm expels everything that could cause the throat to choke:

Heilen prosaggeri vome si polla nabuliet onodieni iden eliton.

Recite this three times, spitting each time.

  Latin, fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, XV, 105.

340  FOR THE MOUTH AND THROAT

For the mouth or anything that causes the throat to tighten, one must say this in his ear or write it on a parchment that will be tied around his neck in a cloth:

I feel myself turning white with fright at the thought that, from the depths of Hades, the noble Persephone could send us the head of Gorgo.

Nothing can resist this remedy.

This spell is, in fact, two verses from Homer’s Odyssey (11,634 ff.).

This example of reuse is not isolated, and other extracts from ancient texts can be found in the charms of late antiquity. The Gorgon’s head was a very widespread phylactery in antiquity.

  Latin and Greek, fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, XV, 108.

  Roscher, Ausfürliches Lexicon der griechischen und römischen Mythology, vol. 1, col. 1695ff.

341  FOR SORE THROATS

Say this with your hands turned up and wrapped in a hide:

VII anginas, VI anginas, V anginas, IV anginas, III anginas, II anginas, I angina, no angina.

  Latin, ninth century. St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Codex 751; Heim, “Incantamenta magica,” 557.

342  TO DISLODGE A BONE FROM THE THROAT

If a fish bone or something else remains lodged in your throat, touch your head nine times with your left hand and a thorn with the other, and say nine times: “Lafana [?] sinner get out and do what Jupiter commands you,” then spit.

  Latin, ninth century. St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Codex 751; Heim, “Incantamenta magica,” 557.

343  FOR AILMENTS OF THE THROAT AND NECK

Carve the figure of Taurus in the third face, the sun being over the earth.

  France, 1658. Belin, Traité des talismans, 110.

344  FOR SORE THROATS

To rid yourself of them, spit into an open grave and urinate on the wall of a synagogue while saying:

Absalon, my Absalon

Take away my sore throat.

  Saxons of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksglaube, 95.

345  FOR THE AILMENTS OF THE MOUTH AND THROAT

Go in the morning before sunrise to the river’s edge where the rushes grow. Take three of them without breaking them when pulling them up. Pass the root three times over the affliction and hang the rushes above the fireplace, tying them to the pothook with a coarse thread, then let them burn. Once the rushes have been consumed, the ailment will be healed, but it is necessary to say the following spell during this operation: “Mouth ailment, throat ailment, growing quinsy, you will heal as fast and as promptly as the dew melts beneath the rising sun on the hottest day of the month of August.”

  France, nineteenth century. Cabanès and Barraud, Remèdes de bonne femme, 215.

346  AGAINST THROAT AILMENTS

Say the following phrase:

Afflictions of the throat, grippe, group [?], scurvy, canker, I cut you, I overtrump you, I conjure you, I excommunicate you in the name of the good Lord and the holy Virgin, you will dry up, you will melt away in the mouth of [name] as quickly as the dew melts before the sun of the great Saint John.

  France, nineteenth century. Cabanès and Barraud, Remèdes de bonne femme, 281.

TONGUE BUMPS (TRANSIENT LINGUAL PAPILLITIS)

For Bernard de Gordon (circa 1270–1330) tongue bumps were a kind of tiny seed inside the tongue, and for Guy de Chauliac (1298–1368), they were pustules, apostemes.

347  ADMIRABLE CHARM FOR TONGUE BUMPS

While saying this three times, spit on the ground and pull on these bumps with your thumb and ring finger while saying this charm.

White tongue bump, do no evil, cause no harm, create no chaumes [?] but dissolve like salt in water.

Do this before sunrise and after sunset so they diminish during both day and night.

  Latin, fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, XV, 101.

TONSILLITIS

(SEE ALSO SORE THROAT, ANGINA)

348  CHARM FOR TONSILLITIS

With your hands turned over and your hair let down, say: “Queen of tonsillitis, daughter of Orcus, I abjure you by hell and heaven to quit this place!

  Latin, ninth century. Önnerfors, “Iatromagische Beschwörungen,” no. 15.

349  TO HEAL TOOTHACHE, PAIN OF THE UVULA, TONSILLITIS, AND SQUINANCY

When hung from the neck, the green woodpecker’s beak heals toothache, pain of the uvula, tonsillitis, and squinancy [peritonsillar abscess].

  Latin, twelfth century. Liber Kyranidorum, 155, 11ff. Greek, fourteenth century. KYPANIΣ III, Δ; Mély, Les lapidaires grecs, 87–88.

TOOTHACHE

350  TO CURE A TOOTHACHE

The Magi tell us that toothache can be cured by the ash of the burnt heads of dogs that have died of rabies. This head must be burned without any flesh and the ash must be injected with cypress oil in the ear on the side where the pain is felt. The same affliction can also be cured by scraping the gum of the ailing tooth with the left eye-tooth of a dog, or with the spine of the dragon or water snake, the serpent being a white male. When the top teeth are so afflicted, two teeth from the upper jaw are hung around the neck, and when the pain is below, two teeth from the lower jaw are used. When they go in hunt of the crocodile they rub its fat on themselves. They also scrape the gums with bones taken from a lizard’s forehead during a full moon, without allowing them to touch the ground.

  Latin, first century. Pliny, Historia naturalis, 30.21.

351  CHARM FOR TOOTHACHE

On a Tuesday or Thurday, during the waning moon, say these words seven times:

Argidam margidam sturgidam

You eliminate the pain when, wearing shoes, you stand under the heavens on the living earth and take the head of a frog, open its mouth, and spit inside. They you will ask him to carry away the pain of the teeth, and you will let him go with his life. Do this on the right day and at the right hour.

  Latin, fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, XII, 24.

352  TO GET RID OF TOOTH PAIN

Say this three times over the suffering teeth,

In the name of Jesus Christ, may these words heal Your servant [name]. May the Lord direct his action upon the pain of the teeth.

Recite three Pater Nosters, then hang aroung the sufferer’s neck these words written on a page and he will surely be healed.

† on † in † in † in † on † bon † bin † bin † bon.

  Latin and Middle French, ca. 1300. Oxford, Bodleian Library, Digby 69, fol. 138v.

353  FOR TOOTHACHE

† In the name of the Father † and the Son † and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

† loy † loye † nazir † oy † eloy † by the holy names and the incarnation of Our † Lord † Jesus † Christ and by the passion of Christ.

Whoever carries these words on his person will no longer suffer from toothache. And if he has a worm, it will die immediately.

† in the name of the Father † and the Son † and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

The belief that toothache is caused by a worm is one whose origin is lost in the depths of time. It can be found among the Babylonians,¹² then in Homer’s Hymn to Demeter (fifth century BCE).

  Latin, sixteenth century. Ghent, Universiteitsbibliotheek, MS 1021 A, fol. 10r–v.

354  FOR TOOTHACHE

Write on a piece of lead that is the width of your hand:

† Job Zarobabatos † Job Thanobratos † In nomine Patris et Filii

And recite five Our Fathers and Hail Marys in honor of God and Saint Apollonia.

The mention of Job indicates that the affliction is allegedly the work of a worm, and that of Apollonia refers to the martyrdom of the saint under the reign of Emperor Decius.

  Norway, ca. 1480, Vinjeboka: Den eldste svartebok fra norsk middelalter, no. 40; Pinon, “Une très vielle prière à sainte Apollinia,” Enquête du musée de la vie wallone 169–72 (1960): 1–47.

355  TO CURE A TOOTHACHE

Nail a nail into a wall to be cured of a toothache.

Scrape the gums with one of the teeth from a dead person who died aviolent death, to heal a toothache.

  France, seventeenth century. Thiers, Traité des superstitions (1679), 322, 332.

356  AGAINST A TOOTHACHE

Job was clinging to his rock

And could only weep in desolation.

Then Jesus happened by:

“What have you got to weep about this way, Job?”

“I cannot help but lament,

I cannot help but weep

From having larva in my teeth

And larva in my lands.”

“Look at the sun,” said Our Lord,

“And spit upon the sacred land,

You shall be healed at that very instant!”

        † † †

This charm that is widespread throughout all Europe is known as “Job’s Charm.” It follows the meeting pattern. The larva are worms. In her study of folk medicine, Natalia Mazalova notes: “Teeth and bones can be attacked by zoomorphic illnesses. This is why cavities are due to little worms that get inside the teeth.”

  Sweden (Småland), 1763. Klintberg, Svenska trollformler, 69, no. 15, “tandvärk.”

  Mazalova, “La médecine populaire,” 669.

357  FOR TOOTHACHE

Write the following spell:

Horiandus +

Horiandu +

Horiand +

Horian +

Horia +

Hori +

Hor +

Ho +

H +

This is one of countless reducing spells used to cause misfortune to retreat.

  Norway, circa 1850. Bang, Norske hexeformularer, no. 1050, “For Tandpine.” For more on this type of spell, cf. Lecouteux, Dictionary of Ancient Magic Words and Spells, 279–80.

358  CHARM FOR SAINT APOLLONIA

Write the following verse.

Saint Apollonia

The divine,

Sitting at the foot of a tree,

On a marble stone,

Jesus our Savior,

By happy chance passed by,

And asked her: “Apollonia,What is grieving you?”

“I am here, divine teacher,

For pain and not for grief;

I am here for my head, for my blood,

And for my toothache.”

“Apollonia, you have faith,

By my grace, turn around,

If it is a drop of blood, it will rise,

If it is a worm, it will die.”

In thirteenth-century Belgium, this charm would be written on a page that the patient had to hold between his or her teeth. In the nineteenth century, in the Ouche region of Normandy, one added: “Five Pater and five Ave in the honor and to the intention of the five wounds of Our Savior Jesus Christ. The sign of the cross on the jaw next to where the pain is felt, and in a very short time, you will be cured.” In Spain, the Oracion de Santa Apolonia replaces Jesus with the Virgin Mary.

  Nisard, Histoire des livres populaires, 2nd ed., vol. 2, 76; Le Pesant, “Prières superstitieuses du pays d’Ouche,” 328.

359  FOR VIOLENT TOOTHACHES

Take a new needle and scratch the teeth with it until it is spattered with blood, then, before sunrise, stick the needle in a place in a corner of the cellar where neither the sun nor the moon shine. At the first blow, name the name of the patient you wish to help, at the second, say: “Toothache, disappear!” and at the third: “Toothache, off with you!” †††

  Denmark, nineteenth century. Peuckert, “Die Egyptischen Geheimnisse,” 88.

360  AGAINST TOOTHACHES

The toothache sufferer should wrap a stone with a blade of barley straw and toss is into running water while saying:

Pain, o pain in my tooth,

Do not attack me so!

Remove yourself, leave me,

My dog is not home!

Do not visit me,

Since I curse you constantly!

Follow this straw in the torrent,

Follow it peacefully.”

  Gypsies of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksdichtungen, 137.

361  TO AVOID TOOTHACHES

To never again suffer from toothaches, one must never cut one’s nails on a day of the week starting with an R.

  France (Ardennes), nineteenth century. Meyrac, Traditions, 172, no. 40.

362  TO CURE TOOTHACHES

To cure yourself of a toothache, you must take a brand new nail and stick it into the cavity until the tip of the nail is red with blood. Then race to bury the nail with a single hammer blow in the trunk of a very young tree and you will be cured.

This is another example of healing based on a transference of the affliction. In the Lower Poitou region, it is recommended to bury the nail in a wall (Cabanès and Barraud, Remèdes de bonne femme, 151). Elsewhere, a small piece of willow bark is pulled off, then a small piece of sapwood is removed, which is stuck inside the ailing gum. Next the now bloodstained piece of sapwood is put back where it came from and covered by the piece of bark.

  France (Ardennes), nineteenth century. Meyrac, Traditions, 174, no. 54.

363  TO HEAL A TOOTHACHE

Take a nail from a horseshoe, commonly known as a spike, and bury it in the trunk of a tree with three blows from a hammer. At the first blow say: enbornus! At the second: et dognus. And at the third: et diminuet! And the toothache will vanish.

This means of transference, the imprisonment of the affliction in a tree is common throughout Europe. Ronald Grambo has shown that people caused the tooth to bleed with a splinter of wood that was subsequently put back into the tree, as close as possible to the roots, where it was covered by bark and then the trunk was wrapped in bandages to ensure that “the illness crossed into the tree.” This was believed in Germany, Sweden, and Norway. The Norwegian bishop, Anton Christian Bang, collected this recipe that dates from 1897:

One carves three needles from a young spruce tree in the forest and pricks the gums with them until it bleeds. Then, stick these needles into the spruce, and one should never have to return there. (Bang, Norske hexeformularer, no. 990)

A tree like this was taboo and chosen as standing apart from others.

  France, twentieth century. Le Pesant, “Prières superstitieuses du pays d’Ouche,” 322.

  Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart, 328–30; Grambo, Norske tannbønner, Småskrifter fra Norsk etnologisk gransking 9, 11.

TUBERCULOSIS

364  TO HEAL CONSUMPTIVES

Wear the stones from the sea bream’s head around the neck to heal consumptives.

  Greek, fourteenth century. KYPANΣ IV, C; Mély, Les lapidaires grecs, 123.

TUBERCULOSIS OF THE BONE

365  AGAINST BONE TUBERCULOSIS

Say the following verse:

Go into a maple tree

Take a leaf from the maple

Carry it to the mountain,

There where no bell sounds,

No pew is to be found,

No barrel stands,

No fire cooks,

No mouth is eating.

You are there; this is not your place!

I beg you [to disappear]

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

  Slovenes of Carinthia, nineteenth century. Kropej, “Charm in the Context of Magic Practice,” 69.

TUMOR

366  TO HEAL A HEART TUMOR

If a man is suffering from tumors in his heart region, a virgin should go the spring that is flowing dead east, and draw a cup from it in the direction of the current and sing over it the Credo and Our Father. She should then pour it into another container while she again sings the Credo and Our Father. Do this in a way to have three of them and proceed this way for three days. He will soon get better.

  Old English, tenth century. Lacnunga in Cockayne, Leechdoms, vol. 3, 74.

ULCER

367  TO HEAL ULCERS AND SWOLLEN EAR GLANDS

When hung around the neck, verbena root is very beneficial for ulcers and swollen ear glands (parotids).

  Latin, fourth century. Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarius, 3§1.

368  CHARM FOR ULCER, BOIL, OR WOUND

Take a piece of lead, and have it pounded until it is as thin as a leaf and you are able to bend it here and there, then, with a knife, draw five crosses as follows:

When making the five crosses, recite five Our Fathers in honor of the five wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ. When you make the three holes, two on the right and one on the left, say three Our Fathers in honor of the holy Trinity and the three nails with which Our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. Then, recite the Our Father in honor of the passion and speak this charm: “In the name of the five wounds that Our Lord Jesus Christ suffered, in the name of the holy Trinity and the three nails with which Our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, in the name of the holy passion, I conjure you to heal [name] of ulcers, boils, or wounds, without injuring him and without any risk of injury.”

Next, place the lead on the afflicted area with the cross-side in, and make sure that the lead is washed each day and put back in place, and that once it has been charmed, it never touches the ground. And, each time you speak this charm, bless the lead.

  Middle French, fourteenth century. London, British Library, Harley, 273, fol. 85v.

369  TO DISSOLVE TUMORS

Rub the wens (tumors) with the robe of an executioner shortly after he has performed an execution, in order to dissolve them.

  France, seventeenth century. Thiers, Traité des superstitions (1679), 325; Traité des superstitions (1777), 4:331.

UVEITIS

370  TO CURE UVEITIS

Cull the root of navelwort before sunrise with the thumb and ring finger of your left hand in the name of the person suffering from uveitis, and hang it around his neck in a cloth.

  Latin, fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, XIV, 65.

VARICOSE VEINS

371  TO HEAL VARICOSE VEINS WITHOUT A BLADE, AND THE LESIONS THAT FORM ULCERS IN THE LEG AND BODY

For the varicose veins of man and the pregnant woman, mash ox manure with vinegar and stick a cloth inside this warm bath; do this during the waning moon while saying these words: “Just as the horns of the ox are dry and tight, may it proceed the same, illi Gaio Seio, that the varicose veins dry and close up.” Duck fat blended with wax placed on varicose veins will heal you.

illi Gaio Seio replaces the name of the person afflicted by the ailment. In the Middle Ages, and later, we simply find N. (name) or N. N. (full name).

  Latin, fourth century. Pseudo-Theodore, Theodori Prisciani Euporiston, 292, 19ff.

372  TO HEAL VARICOSE VEINS IN THE FEET

The thighbone of the white-tailed eagle tied to the hip is healthful for varicose veins of the feet.

  Latin, twelfth century. Liber Kyranidorum, III, Φ.

VEIN SPASM

In the countryside a sprain or twisted limb that can be healed with prayer is called a jumping vein.

373  TO HEAL A JUMPING VEIN

Repeat the following:

Jumping vein, twisted vein, dislocated vein, may God restore you to the place you have left, in the name of the Father †, the Son †, and the Holy Ghost †. So may it be.

At each cross, you must make a cross on the patient with your thumb dipped in holy water.

  France, nineteenth century. Cabanès and Barraud, Remèdes de bonne femme, 279.

VERTIGO

374  TO DISSIPATE DIZZINESS

You can dissipate the pains of the head that cause dizziness by tying a branch from elm around your head and if you sleep thus crowned for three days. This is verified.

  Latin, fourth century. Marcellus, De medicamentis liber, III, 2.

375  TO CURE HEADACHES AND VERTIGO

Tied around the neck with red thread, the bones of the vulture’s head will cure headaches and vertigo.

  Latin, twelfth century. Liber Kyranidorum, 152, 16–17.

WARTS¹³

376  TO GET RID OF WARTS

To get rid of warts, some lie in a footpath on their back when the moon is at least twenty days old, looking at this astral body while extending their arms above their head and rubbing themselves with anything within their reach.

  Latin, first century. Pliny, Historia naturalis, XXX, 86.

377  TO MAKE WARTS FALL OFF

Rub the warts with broom (Cytisus scoparius) and tie it on as low as you can in order to make them fall off.

  France, seventeenth century. Thiers, Traité des superstitions (1679), 321; Traité des superstitions (1777), 4:326.

378  TO MAKE WARTS DISAPPEAR

Take the lard of a freshly slaughtered pig that has not yet been smoked or salted, and rub the warts when the moon is waning; then bury the lard in the ground. As it rots, the warts will disappear.

  Germany, 1750, Staricius, Grimoire ou la Magie naturelle, 345.

379  TO MAKE WARTS GO AWAY

To make warts go away, you must run water over your hands during the full moon and say: “Meuntien, Meuntien.”

  Netherlands, nineteenth century. Van Haver, Nederlanse Incantatieliteratuur, no. 541.

380  TO DRIVE WARTS AWAY

At the hour the new moon first appears, touch each wart with a certain pea, next tie the peas into a rag and toss them behind you, in this way they will vanish. Or else you can smear them under the waning moon with the fresh lard of a pig that has just been slaughtered, then bury it in the ground. The warts will vanish as the meat putrefies.

  Sweden, nineteenth century. Peuckert, “Die Egyptischen Geheimnisse,” 90.

Laurent Joubert, La Première et seconde partiedes Erreurs populaires touchant la medicine at le régime de santé, 1601.

381  TO REMOVE WARTS

Say this verse at the time of a full moon:

		Salud, loar gan	Hail, full moon
		Kas sar re-man	Take these [the warts] away
		Gan-ez ai han	Far, far way!

  France, nineteenth century. Sauvé, Lavarou Koz / Proverbes et dictons de la Basse-Bretagne, 140.

382  TO HEAL YOURSELF FROM WARTS

To heal yourself of wens or warts, you must rub them with a rind of pork lard, and next, take pains to put this rind beneath a large stone so it can rot. It is also sufficient to hide the peas under a stone or bury them: when the peas have rotted, the wens and warts have disappeared.

Another recipe commands the casting of the peas or lard into a well, or even tying a slug to a thorn bush: as the slug disappears, so do the warts.

  France (Ardennes), nineteenth century. Meyrac, Traditions, 179, no. 90.

383  TO MAKE WARTS DISAPPEAR OVERNIGHT

When you see the new moon, if you have warts and wish to heal them do this: kneel down, rub the wart thrice then say “Angels of God” three times. It has happened that people using this magic have observed the next morning that their warts had disappeared.

  Lithuania, twentieth century. Vaitkevičienė, Lietuvių užkalbėjimai, no. 1483.

WHITLOW (FINGER OR TOENAIL ABSCESS)

384  TO CURE WHITLOW

You must take a promissory note and write on it with chalk: “† vir † clarus † demens † probune † augens † ego † letus † alpha † et o †.” Then plunge the promissory note into water and give it to the patient to drink. He will be healed.

  Middle Dutch and Latin, fifteenth century. Ghent, Universiteitsbibliotheek, MS 697, fol. 20r.

WORMS

All the illnesses eating away a part of the body were attributed to worms, which people tried to banish far away or kill with magical recipes.

385  AGAINST TOOTH WORMS

Repeat the following:

† bon † pen † na † ason

On the top of Mount Celion stayed seven sleeping brothers † Marcius † Marcellinus † Serapion † Alexander † Vitalis † Phillipus † Dyonisius † by these seven brothers I conjure you, worm, to withdraw and not harm this man.

According to legend, the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus took refuge in a cave on Mount Celion to escape persecution. They are also invoked against insomnia, demons, and quartan fever.

  Latin, twelfth century. Codex Engelbergensis 45, fol. 157; Heim, “Incantamenta magica,” 555.

  Acta Sanctorum Julii, 6.375–97; Bonser, “The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus in Anglo-Saxon and Later Recipes,” Folklore 56 (1945): 254–56; Lecouteux, The Book of Grimoires, no. 30; Storms, Anglo-Saxon Magic, no. 37ff.

386  TO GET RID OF STOMACH WORMS

Take milfoil and cumin, vinegar and verjuice. Cook this blend and apply it to a cloth while still quite hot and which you will bind over the navel; this will heal the affliction.

  France, thirteenth century, Cambrésis. Coulon, Curiosités de l’histoire, 58, no. 26.

387  A CHARM AGAINST WORMS

Here is the charm that the angel Gabriel brought to Saint Susanne on behalf of Our Lord to deliver Christians of worms, fistulas, gout, tumors, cankers, and all kinds of gout.

First, have a mass of the Holy Ghost sung in the morning in the patient’s presence, then you will have him sing: “In nomine Patris et Filii et Spritus Sancti. Amen. As true as God exists, as true as when He did things, He did them well, as true as He took flesh from the holy maiden, as true as He was crucified, as true as He suffered from five wounds to save all sinners, as true as He was hung on the cross, and as true as it was between two thieves, as true as He was wounded on the right side by a spear, as true as His head was crowned with thorns, as true that the nails were hammered into His hand and His feet, as true that His body rested in the holy tomb, as true as He resurrected three days after his death, as true as he descended into Hell, as true as He broke the gates of Hell, as true as He bound the devil there, as true as He brought the saints there, as true as he sits at the right of His father, as true that the day of Judgment will come, as true as each man aged thirty years will rise again in flesh and blood, as true as Our Lord will judge as he deems fit, as true as this is true, as true as God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that I will see the simple, gentle, debonair, humble, pitiful, merciful kings for all the anguish You suffered on the holy cross—heal [name] of this illness.” Urge the patient to abstain from eating any meat and recite this charm secretly at mass.

  Latin and French, ca. 1300. London, British Library, Additional 15236, fol. 29r.

388  A CHARM FOR WORMS

Repeat the following prayer:

Lord, by Your death I beg You to make die these worms by reason of Your martyrdom. When, Lord, you hung on the holy cross; these wounds caused Your death. By Your distress, I beg you to cause the death of these worms in these bones, amen.

Recite five Our Fathers and five Hail Marys in honor and glory of the five wounds of Our Lord and five for the worthy poor.

alivia † zorobamur † tronus † tron † sonus † abrota † an †.

  Alemannic (Alsace), fifteenth century. Birlinger, “Aus einem elsässichen Arzbeibuch,” 219–32.

The word zorobamur in this unintelligible spell, sometimes garbled into zorobantur or zorobantiz, can be found in several Dutch charms against worms.

389  TO DRY UP WORMS

Repeat the following prayer:

Worm, I conjure you to dry up like the grass dried under the feet of Judas when he betrayed Our Lord Jesus Christ! In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

  Dutch, 1597. Gelinden, Parochiaal Archief, no. a, fol. 85r.

390  AGAINST WORMS

Repeat the following prayer:

I adjure you worm, to not eat the flesh of this man, [name], nor drink his blood.

I adjure you, by the living God to not have the power to eat and drink!

I adjure you, by Jesus Christ † who was born in Bethlehem and was baptized in the Jordan, to no longer drink his blood and no longer eat his flesh!

  Latin, circa 1400. Erfurt, Wissenschaftliche Allgemeinbibliothek, MS Ampl. D 17, fol. 40r.

391  AGAINST WORMS

On the first day, draw a cross on your forehead and say: “Easter Day, Christ was taken †, on Friday, he was hung on the holy cross †, on Saturday, he was resurrected.” All the worms will fall to the ground when you draw this cross on your stomach.

  Germany, sixteenth century. Vienna, Nationalbibliothek, Codex 2999, fol. 204r.

392  TO RID AN ANIMAL OF WORMS

Before sunrise, collect in a bowl the sap of the plant called “wolf ’s milk” (a kind of euphorbia), then add salt, garlic, and water to it, and boil it. Rub the animal with one part of the liquid and throw the rest along with the bowl into running water, while saying:

Worm, go into the wolf ’s milk,

From the wolf ’s milk into the garlic,

From the garlic into the water,

With the water, go home to your father,

Go to Nivaši’s home

He will tie you with a bond

Of ninety-nine rods!

The water spirit is sent back by tracing out the path he should follow. All the ingredients used have a history; garlic, for example, has always been used to repel spirits because of its strong odor . . .

  Gypsies of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksdichtungen, 153.

  Gubernatis, La Mythologie des plantes.

393  TO RID A PIG OF WORMS

Before dawn, stand in front of a nettle that you water with the urine of a sick animal, while saying:

Good day, good day!

I have many cares:

My pig has worms,

I am complaining of it to you!

They are white, black, or red

May they die from this tomorrow!

  Gypsies of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksdichtungen, 153. For more on the nettle, see Gubernatis, La Mythologie des plantes, 2:271–74; Grabner, “Der ‘Wurm’ als Krankheitsvorstellung,” Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie 81 (1962): 224–40; Höfler, Deutsches Krankheitsnamenbuch, 822–35.

WOUNDS

394  FOR A WOUND

Repeat the following verse:

Christ was wounded on earth,

Heaven learned of it.

He did not bleed,

Nor suffer at all;

It was a blessed wound.

Wound, be healed!

In the name of Christ, may this be your cure! Say three Our Fathers and add three times, “I conjure you by the five wounds. Heal, wound! May it be so! May it be so! In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.”

  Old High German, late twelfth century. Ebermann, Blut- und Wundsegen, 43.

395  A GOOD BENEDICTION FOR WOUNDS

Three good brothers were walking quite swiftly along their path. Our Lord Jesus Christ came forth to meet them and said: “Where are the three of you going?” “Lord and Father Jesus Christ, we are hunting for an herb that is good for wounds, whether they are caused by a thrusting or cutting blow, by stones, by arrows, or by speech; what means were used to inflict it, this herb should provide a remedy.” Christ responded: “Kneel down and swear to me, by the blood of Our Lord and the milk of Our Lady, that you will chant this charm before this person and no other, without accepting any payment. Go to the Mount of Olives, take the oil of the tree and the wool of sheep, and pass it over the wounds and they will be entirely healed. Say that what befalls these wounds shall be like unto what befell the one that Longinus, the blind Jew, gave to the right side of Our Lord Jesus Christ: it did not enflame, fester, or go septic. The same will happen to these wounds as I have said. In the name of God. Amen.”

A plate from Surgery (Wundarznei) by Hans von Gersdorff (d. 1529) gives us a brief overview of the wounds caused by sharp and blunt instruments.

 

  Middle High German, fifteenth century. Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum 38 (1875), 80; Ohrt, “Über Alter und Unsprung der Begegungssegen,” Hessische Blätter für Volkskunde 35 (1936): 49–58.

The charm of the three brothers has been shown to have first appeared in Germany during the twelfth century and can be found in a number of other European countries, such as Denmark, for example (Ohrt, Danmarks trylleformler, no. 1125). The bothers are sometimes named Ylinius, Cosmas, and Damianus, these last two (Cosmas and Damian) being brothers and doctors who healed for free. Jacob Grimm (Deutsche Mythologie, 3:501) provides a later version of this extremely widespread charm in which it is specified that it must be worn for twenty-fours under the right arm:

A charm to be worn beneath the right arm for twenty-four hours: Three blessed brothers who were walking met Jesus Christ. Our sweet Lord Jesus Christ asked: “Where are you going? “We are going behind the hedge,” they answered, “we are seeking the herb that is good for all wounds, whether they be caused by thrust or cut.” Our Lord Jesus Christ answered: “Go to the Mount of the Messiah, take the wool of sheep, the moss of stones, and the oil of [olive] trees, press them on and in the wound, whether they are from stabbing, cutting, or breaking, or due to something else; it will not become inflamed or fester.” Just as Luke has spoken on Mount Severin when the Jews surrounded and struck Our Lord Jesus God. May God the Father reign, and so on.

  Olsan, “The Three Good Brothers Charms: Some Historical Points,” Incantatio 1 (2011): 48–78; Artelt, Kosmas und Damian, die Schutzpatrone des Ärzte und Apotheker: Eine Bildfolge. On wounds in general, cf. Whipple, The Story of Wound Healing and Wound Repair.