More incantations and the virtues of a vulture.
Another manuscript of the twelfth century[2905] contains many similar charms, incantations, prayers, and characters for healing purposes. One formula employed is, “Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands.” In cases of miscarriage a drink of verbena is recommended and repetition of the following incantation with three Paternosters, “Saisa, laisa, relaisa, because so Saint Mary did when she bore the Son of God.” Presently a paragraph opens with the assertion that the human race does not know how great virtue the vulture[2906] possesses and how much it improves health. But certain ceremonial directions must be observed in making use of it. The bird should be killed in the very hour in which it is caught and with a sharp reed rather than a sword. Before beheading it, one should utter an incantation containing such names as Adonai and Abraam. Various healing virtues appertain to the different parts of its carcass, although here again there are instructions to be observed. The bones of its head should be bound in hyena skin; its eyes should be suspended from the neck in wolf’s skin. Binding its wings on the left foot of a woman struggling in child-birth produces a quick delivery. One who wears its tongue will receive the adoration of all his enemies; if one has its heart bound in the skin of a lion or wolf, all demons will avoid one and robbers will only worship one. Its gall taken in quite a mixture cures epileptics and lunatics; its lung in another compound cures fevers; and so on.
Lots of the saints.
There follow Sortes sanctorum, introduced by a page and a half of prayers of this tenor, “In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we ask Father and Son and Holy Ghost, Three and One; we ask Saint Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ; we ask the nine orders of angels; we ask the whole chorus of patriarchs; we ask the whole chorus of apostles, martyrs, confessors, and virgins, and the whole chorus of God’s faithful that they deign to reveal to us these lots which we seek, and that no seduction of the devil may deceive us.” The treatise closes, “These are the lots of the saints which never fail; so ask God and obtain what you desire.”
Superstitious veterinary and medical practice.
The next items in the manuscript are some cases of superstitious veterinary practice, with such pious incantations as “May God who saved the thief on the cross save this beast!”[2907] and with instructions concerning the religious invocations and written characters to be employed in blessing the food and salt to be given to domestic animals in order to keep them in good health. Characters are also mentioned which will prevent the blood of a pig from flowing when it is slaughtered, provided they are bound upon the breast or are written on the knife with which the pig is to be stuck.[2908] Holy water and bread that has been blessed are used for medical purposes and instructions are given on what days medicinal herbs should be gathered. The prayers employed are usually put in Christian form, but one for the cure of toothache has slipped by at least partially uncensored. It opens with the words “O lady Moon, free me....”[2909]
Two Paris manuscripts.
If we turn from medical manuscripts of the eleventh and twelfth centuries in the British Museum to those of the Bibliothèque Nationale, we find the same occurrence of superstitious passages. In an eleventh century codex which contains parts of the medical work of Celsus and the De dinamidis of Galen are also found prayers to God for the medicinal aid of the angel Raphael against the treacherous attacks of the demons, a work on the virtues of stones which has much to say of their marvelous properties, and figures and text concerning the twelve signs of the zodiac and twelve winds.[2910] Much more superstitious, however, is an anonymous treatise occupying the first ten leaves of a twelfth century manuscript[2911] which is apparently of German origin from the number of German words and phrases introduced near its close. This treatise is followed in the manuscript by the works of Notker, Hermann the Lame, and others on computus and the astrolabe.
Blood-letting.
After discussing the effect of food upon health, listing potions of herbs to be drunk in each month of the year,[2912] treating of the veins and of the four winds, four seasons, and four humors, and the relations existing between the two last-named, the author enumerates the many advantages of blood-letting in a long passage which is worth quoting in part. “It contains the beginning of health, it makes the mind sincere, it aids the memory, it purges the brain, it reforms the bladder, it warms the marrow, it opens the hearing, it checks tears, it removes nausea, it benefits the stomach, it invites digestion, it evokes the voice, it builds up the sense, it moves the bowels, it enriches sleep, it removes anxiety, it nourishes good health ...”: and so on. The operation of bleeding should not be performed on the tenth, fifteenth, twenty-fifth, or thirtieth day of the moon, nor should a potion be taken then. The Egyptian days and dog-days are to be similarly observed. The hours of the day when each humor predominates are then given.