Sir Thomas Browne is not quite sure that fasting saliva really is poisonous to snakes and vipers.[590]
In Saxon Leechdoms a cure for the gout runs thus: “Before getting out of bed in the morning, spit on your hand, rub all your sinews, and say, ‘Flee, gout, flee, etc.’”[591]
Spittle was anciently a charm against all kinds of fascination. Pliny says it averted witchcraft. Theocritus says,—
“Thrice on my breast I spit, to guard me safe
From fascinating charms.”
Fishermen and costermongers often spit on the first money they take, for good luck.[592]
Talismans.
Talismans, says Fosbrooke,[593] are of five classes, 1. The Astronomical, with celestial signs and intelligible characters. 2. The Magical, with extraordinary figures, superstitious words, and names of unknown angels. 3. The Mixed, of celestial signs and barbarous words, but not superstitions, or with names of angels. 4. The Sigilla Planetarum, composed of Hebrew numeral letters, used by astrologers and fortune tellers. 5. Hebrew Names and Characters. These were formed according to the cabalistic art. Pettigrew gives a Hebrew talisman,[594] which runs thus: “It overflowed—he did cast darts—Shaddai is all sufficient—his hand is strong, and is the preserver of my life in all its variations.”
Scripts.
Sir John Lubbock says that “The use of writing as a medicine prevails largely in Africa, where the priests or wizards write a prayer on a piece of board, wash it off, and make the patient drink it. Caillie met with a man who had a great reputation for sanctity, and who made his living by writing prayers on a board, washing them off, and then selling the water, which was sprinkled over various objects and supposed to protect them.”[595]