CHAPTER VIII
CHARMS
"With the charmes that she saide, A fire down fro" the sky alight."--GOWER.
"She drew a splinter from the wound, And with a charm she staunch"d the blood."--SCOTT.
"Thrice on my breast I spit to guard me safe From fascinating Charms."--THEOCRITUS.
"Mennes fortunes she can tell; She can by sayenge her Ave Marye, And by other Charmes of Sorcerye, Ease men of the Toth ake by and bye Yea, and fatche the Devyll from h.e.l.l."--BALE.
"I clawed her by the backe in way of a charme, To do me not the more good, but the less harme."--HEYWOOD.
Charms, as already noticed, are not unlike amulets in significance and similarity of power. The amulet must consist of some material substance so as to be suspended when employed, but the charm may be a word, gesture, look, or condition, as well as a material substance, and does not need to be attached to the body. The word "charm" is derived from the Latin word "carmen," signifying a verse in which the charms were sometimes written, examples of which will be given later.
The medical term "carminative," a comforting medicine, really means a charm medicine, and has the same derivation.
A charm has been defined as "a form of words or letters, repeated or written, whereby strange things are pretended to be done, beyond the ordinary power of nature." It can be seen, though, that this definition is not sufficiently comprehensive.
For ages, people have had great faith in odd numbers. They have often been used as charms and for medicine. Some one says: "Some philosophers are of opinion that all things are composed of number, prefer the odd before the other, and attribute to it a great efficacy and perfection, especially in matters of physic: wherefore it is that many doctors prescribed always an odd pill, an odd draught, or drop to be taken by their patients. For the perfection thereof they allege these following numbers: as 7 Planets, 7 wonders of the World, 9 Muses, 3 Graces, G.o.d is 3 in 1, &c." Ravenscroft, in his comedy of "Mammamouchi or the Citizen Turned Gentleman," makes Trickmore as a physician say: "Let the number of his bleedings and purgations be odd, _numero Deus impare gaudet_" [G.o.d delights in an odd number].
Nine is the number consecrated by Buddhism; three is sacred among Brahminical and Christian people. Pythagoras held that the unit or monad is the principle and end of all. One is a good principle. Two, or the dyad, is the origin of contrasts and separation, and is an evil principle. Three, or the triad, is the image of the attributes of G.o.d.
Four, or the tetrad, is the most perfect of numbers and the root of all things. It is holy by nature. Five, or the pentad, is everything; it stops the power of poisons, and is dreaded by evil spirits. Six is a fortunate number. Seven is powerful for good or evil, and is a sacred number. Eight is the first cube, so is man four-square or perfect. Nine, as the multiple of three, is sacred. Ten, or the decade, is the measure of all it contains, all the numerical relations and harmonies.[122]
Cornelius Agrippa wrote on the power of numbers, which he declares is a.s.serted by nature herself; thus the herb called cinquefoil, or five-leafed gra.s.s, resists poison, and bans devils by virtue of the number five; one leaf of it taken in wine twice a day cures the quotidian, three the tertian, four the quartan fever.[123]
The seventh son of a seventh son was supposed to be an infallible physician as the following quotations would indicate: "The seventh son of a seventh son is born a physician; having an intuitive knowledge of the art of curing all disorders, and sometimes the faculty of performing wonderful cures by touching only." "Plusieurs croyent qu"en France, les septiemes garcons, nez de legitimes mariages, sans que la suitte des sept ait este interrompue par la naissance d"aucune fille, peuvent aussi guerir des fievres tierces, des fievres quartes, at mesme des ecrouelles, apres avoir jene trois ou neuf jours avant que de toucher les malades. Mais ils font trop de fond sur le nombre septenaire, en attribuant au septieme garcon, preferablement a tous autres, une puissance qu"il y a autant de raison d"attribuer au sixieme ou au huitieme, sur le nombre de trois, et sur celuy de neuf, pour ne pas s"engager dans la superst.i.tion. Joint que de trois que je connois de ces septieme garcons il y en a deux qui ne guerissent de rien, et que le troisieme m"a avoue de bonne foy, qu"il avoit eu autrefois la reputation de guerir de quant.i.te des maux, quoique en effet il n"ait jamais guery d"aucun. C"est pourquoy Monsieur du Laurent a grande raison de rejetter ce pretendu pouvoir, et de la mettre au rang des fables, en ce qui concerne la guerison des ecrouelles."[124]
Charms were used to avert evil and counteract supposed malignant influences of all kinds, but it is in their connection with diseases of the body that we are chiefly interested. There is scarcely a disease for which a charm has not been given, but it will be seen that those which are most affected by charms are princ.i.p.ally derangements of the nervous system, or those periodical in character--diseases, in fact, which have proved to be most easily influenced by suggestion.
Charms might be of the most varied composition. The material was selected from the animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdom, and might consist of anything to which any magical property was considered to belong. Rags, old clothes, pins, and needles were frequently employed in this way. Sir Walter Scott had in his possession a pretended charm taken from an old woman who was said to charm and injure her neighbor"s cattle. It consisted of feathers, parings of nails, hair, and similar material, wrapped in a lump of clay.
The theory of _similia similibus curantur_ seems to have entered into mediaeval medicine, and especially into the manufacture of charms. The following prescriptions are examples: "The skin of a Raven"s heel is good against gout, but the right heel skin must be laid upon the right foot if that be gouty, and the left upon the left.... If you would have man become bold or impudent let him carry about with him the skin or eyes of a Lion or c.o.c.k, and he will be fearless of his enemies, nay, he will be very terrible unto them. If you would have him talkative, give him tongues, and seek out those of water frogs and ducks and such creatures notorious for their continuall noise making."[125]
King also tells us that "Hartes fete, Does Fete, Bulles fete, or any ruder beastes fete should ofte be eaten; the same confort the sinewes.
The elder these beastes be, the more they strengthen." It is noticeable that not age but youth is now honored, and to-day only calves" feet are accorded medicinal value.
Fort[126] gives the following account of the origin of cabbalism: "Towards the close of the fourth century an unknown scholiast collected the exegetical elucidations, explanations and interpretations produced by the Gemara, and united them to the Mishna, as a commentary out of which arose the Talmud. The word "cabbala,"
whose original significance was used in the sense of reception, or transmission, obtained at a later period the meaning of secret lore, because the metaphysical and theosophic idealities which had been developed in the Rabbinical schools, were communicated only to a few, and consequently remained the undisputed property of a limited and close organization." From this there developed a varied and complicated system of words and numbers which showed their power in all forms of magical marvels. Not the least common or puissant of these was the healing of the sick.
Knots were sometimes used as charms, and c.o.c.kayne gives us an example in the preface of _Saxon Leechdoms_: "As soon as a man gets pain in his eyes, tie in unwrought flax as many knots as there are letters in his name, p.r.o.nouncing them as you go, and tie it round his neck."
Long before and long after New Testament days when Jesus used spittle on the blind, and the time when Vespasian healed the blind by the same means, spittle was considered a most efficacious remedy for various diseases. Levinus Lemnius tells us: "Divers experiments shew what power and quality there is in Man"s fasting Spittle, when he hath neither eat nor drunk before the use of it: for it cures all tetters, itch, scabs, pushes, and creeping sores: and if venomous little beasts have fastened on any part of the body, as hornets, beetles, toads, spiders, and such like, that by their venome cause tumours and great pains and inflammations, do but rub the place with fasting Spittle, and all those effects will be gone and dispersed. Since the qualities and effects of Spittle come from the humours, (for out of them is it drawn by the faculty of Nature, as Fire draws distilled Water from hearbs) the reason may be easily understood why Spittle should do such strange things, and destroy some creatures."[127]
In _Saxon Leechdoms_ a cure for gout runs thus: "Before getting out of bed in the morning, spit on your hand, rub all your sinuews, and say, "Flee, gout, flee," etc." Sir Thomas Browne, however, is not quite sure that fasting spittle really is poisonous to snakes and vipers.
Alexander of Tralles tells us that even Galen did homage to incantations, and quotes him as saying: "Some think that incantations are like old wives" tales; as I did for a long while. But at last I was convinced that there is virtue in them by plain proofs before my eyes. For I had trial of their beneficial operations in the case of those scorpion-stung, nor less in the case of bones stuck fast in the throat, immediately, by an incantation thrown up. And many of them are excellent, severally, and they reach their mark."
Even before our day, however, there were some sceptics. Andrews, quoting Reginald Scot, says: "The Stories which our facetious author relates of ridiculous Charms which, by the help of credulity, operated Wonders, are extremely laughable. In one of them a poor Woman is commemorated who cured all diseases by muttering a certain form of Words over the party afflicted; for which service she always received one penny and a loaf of bread. At length, terrified by menaces of flames both in this world and the next, she owned that her whole conjuration consisted in these potent lines, which she always repeated in a low voice near the head of her patient:
"Thy loaf in my hand, And thy penny in my purse, Thou art never the better-- And I am never the worse.""
Lord Northampton quite fittingly inquires: "What G.o.dly reason can any Man alyve alledge why Mother Joane of Stowe, speaking these wordes, and neyther more nor lesse,
"Our Lord was the fyrst Man, That ever Thorne p.r.i.c.k"d upon: It never blysted nor it never belted, And I pray G.o.d, nor this not may,"
should cure either Beasts, or Men and Women from Diseases?"[128]
Perhaps it would be well for us to treat the subject of charms as we have that of amulets, and present the different charms under the heading of the diseases which they were supposed to cure.
_Ague._--Many charms were given for this disease, some of which seem to us to-day most ridiculous. Brand gives a quotation from the _Life of Nicholas Mooney_ who was a notorious highwayman, executed with others at Bristol, in 1752. It is as follows: "After the cart drew away, the hangman very deservedly had his head broke for attempting to pull off Mooney"s shoes; and a fellow had like to have been killed in mounting the gallows to take away the ropes that were left after the malefactors were cut down. A young woman came fifteen miles for the sake of the rope from Mooney"s neck, which was given to her, it being by many apprehended that the halter of an executed person will charm away the ague and perform many other cures."
Pettigrew relates that "In Skippon"s account of a "Journey through the Low Countries," he makes mention of the lectures of Ferrarius and his narrative of the cure of the ague of a Spanish lieutenant, by writing the words FEBRA FUGE, and cutting off a letter from the paper every day, and he observed the distemper to abate accordingly; when he cut the letter F last of all the ague left him. In the same year, he says, fifty more were reported to be cured in the same manner."
Another charm for ague was only effective when said up the chimney on St. Agnes Eve, by the eldest female of the family. It was as follows:
"Tremble and go!
First day shiver and burn.
Tremble and quake!
Second day shiver and learn: Tremble and die!
Third day never return."[129]
Pliny said: "Any plant gathered from the bank of a brook or river before sunrise, provided that no one sees the person who gathers it, is considered as a remedy for tertian ague." Lodge, in glancing at the superst.i.tious creed with respect to charms, says: "Bring him but a Table of Lead, with Crosses (and "Adonai," or "Elohim," written in it), and he thinks it will heal his ague."
Mr. Marsden, while among the Sumatrans, accidentally met with the following charm for the ague: "(Sign of the cross.) When Christ saw the cross he trembled and shaked and they said unto him, hast thou ague? and he said unto them, I have neither ague nor fever; and whosoever bears these words, either in writing or in mind, shall never be troubled with ague or fever. So help thy servants, O Lord, who put their trust in thee!"
From Douce"s notes, Mr. Brand informs us that it was usual with many persons about Exeter who had ague "to visit at dead of night the nearest cross road five different times, and there bury a new-laid egg. The visit is paid about an hour before the cold fit is expected; and they are persuaded that with the Egg they shall bury the Ague. If the experiment fail, (and the agitation it occasions may often render it successful) they attribute it to some unlucky accident that may have befallen them on the way. In the execution of this matter they observe the strictest silence, taking care not to speak to anyone, whom they may happen to meet. I shall here note another Remedy against the Ague mentioned as above, viz., by breaking a salted Cake of Bran and giving it to a Dog, when the fit comes on, by which means they suppose the malady to be transferred from them to the Animal."[130]
This and similar methods were designated transplantation.
_Bites of Venomous Animals._--It is an old medical superst.i.tion that every animal whose bite is poisonous carries the cure within itself, but external charms were also used. It was thought that the poison of the Spanish fly existed in the body, while the head and wings contained the antidote. "A hair of the dog that bites you" is the cure for hydrophobia, the fat of the viper was the remedy for its bite, and "three scruples of the ashes of the witch, when she had been well and carefully burnt at a stake, is a sure catholicon against all the evil effects of witchcraft."[131]
Serpents" bites, which were always considered very dangerous, were said to be healed by people called sauveurs, who had a mark of St.
Catharine"s wheel upon their palates. Snake stones, originally brought from Java, were supposed to absorb the poison by being simply placed over the bite. Russel mentions a charm against mosquitoes, used in Aleppo. It consisted of certain unintelligible characters inscribed on a little slip of paper, which was pasted over the windows or upon the lintel of the door. One family has obtained, through heredity, the power of making these charms, and they distribute them on a certain day of the year without remuneration.
Navarette was told that the best remedy against scorpions was to make a commemoration of St. George when going to bed. This, he says, never failed, but he also rubbed the bed with garlic. The following is given as a cure for the sting of the scorpion: "The patient is to sit on an a.s.s, with his face to the tail of the animal, by which the pain will be transmitted from the man to the beast." Or again, a person who was bitten by either a tarantulla or a mad dog must go nine times round the town on the Sabbath, calling upon and imploring the a.s.sistance of the saint. On the third night--the prayers being heard and granted, and the health restored--the madness was removed. The prayer was as follows:
"Thou who presidest over the Apulian sh.o.r.es, Thou who curest the bites of mad dogs, Thou, O Sacred One, ward off this cruel plague, This dismal gnawing of dogs.
Get thee far hence, O madness, O fury."[132]
_Burns._--The following is "A Charme for a burning":
"There came three angels out of the east; The one brought fire, the two brought frost-- Out fire; in frost; In the name of the Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost.
--Amen."[133]
_Childbirth._--Many superst.i.tious practices have grown up around this condition. In 1554, Bonner, Bishop of London, forbade "a mydwife of his diocese to exercise any witchecrafte, charmes, sorcerye, invocations, or praiers, other than such as be allowable and may stand with the lawes and ordinances of the Catholike Church." In 1559, the first year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, an inquiry was inst.i.tuted "whether you knowe any that doe use charmes, sorcery, enchauntementes, invocations, circles, witchecraftes, southsayinge, or any lyke craftes or imaginacions invented by the devyl, and specially in the tyme of woman"s travaylle." Two years before this, the midwives took an oath among themselves, so Strype tells us, not to "suffer any other bodies"
child to be set, brought, or laid before any woman delivered of child in the place of her natural child, so far forth as I can know and understand. Also I will not use any kind of sorcerye or incantation in the time of the travail of any woman."
The eagle stone and iris were supposed to promote an easy delivery, and the sardonyx was laid _inter mammas_ to procure an easy birth; a sardonyx formerly belonged to the monastery of St. Albans to be used for this purpose. In some countries, during childbirth, the men lie in, keep their beds, and are attended as if really sick, sometimes as long as six weeks.[134]