[23] Leech Book, I. 60.
[24] Lacnunga, 48.
[25] In an incantation against fever we find the instruction:—
“The sick man ... thou shalt place
... thou shalt cover his face
Burn cypress and herbs ...
That the great gods may remove the evil
That the evil spirit may stand aside
. . . . . . .
May a kindly spirit a kindly genius be present.”
R. Campbell Thompson, Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, p. 29. See also p. 43. Cf. also Tobit vi. 7.
[26] A Pomeranian Rite.—An attempt was made a few days ago to cast a devil out of a woman living in a village of the Lauenberg district of Pomerania, on the Polish frontier. She appears to have been of a sour and somewhat hysterical temperament, and three of the village gossips came to the conclusion that she was a victim of diabolical possession and resolved to effect a cure by means of enchantment. They first of all gathered the herbs needed for the purpose in the forest at the proper conjunction of the stars. Then a tripod was formed of three chairs, and to these the patient was bound. Beneath her was fixed a pail of red-hot coal on which the herbs were scattered. As the fumes of the burning weeds veiled the victim the three neighbours crooned the prescribed exorcism. The louder the woman shrieked the louder they sang, and after the process had been continued long enough to prove effective, in their opinion, they ran away, believing that the devil would run out of the woman after them. She, however, continued to shriek. Her cries were heard by a man, who released her.—The Times, December 5, 1921.
[27] It is interesting to find the same beliefs amongst the ancient Babylonians.
“Fleabane on the lintel of the door I have hung
S. John’s wort, caper and wheatears
With a halter as a roving ass
Thy body I restrain.
O evil spirit get thee hence
Depart O evil Demon.
. . . . . . .
In the precincts of the house stand not nor circle round
‘In the house will I stand,’ say thou not,
‘In the neighbourhood will I stand,’ say thou not.
O evil spirit get thee forth to distant places
O evil Demon hie thee unto the ruins
Where thou standest is forbidden ground
A ruined desolate house is thy home
Be thou removed from before me, By Heaven be thou exorcised
By Earth be thou exorcised.”
Trans. of Utukke Limnûte Tablet “B.” R. C. Thompson, Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia.
[28] Sonny (Arch. f. Rel., 1906, p. 525), in his article “Rote Farbe im Totenkulte,” considers the use of red to be in imitation of blood. The instruction to bind on with red is found even in the Grete Herball of 1526. “Apium is good for lunatyke Folke yf it be bounde to the pacyentes heed with a lynen clothe dyed reed,” etc.
[29] See W. G. Black, Folk Medicine.