The ancient Saxons, before their arrival in Britain, were wont to go forth into battle, having engraven upon their spears certain runic characters, which were valued as protective charms, and served to inspire confidence on the part of the warriors. These magic inscriptions were believed to have been either invented or improved by Wodan, who taught the art of putting them into rhyme, and engraving them upon tables of stone.[136:4] In William Camden's "Britannia,"[136:5] are described divers medicinal inscriptions, found in Cumberland. These were used as spells among the borderers even as late as the close of the eighteenth century. A book of such charms, of that era, taken from the pocket of a moss-trooper or bog-trotter, contained among other things a recipe for the cure of intermittent fever by certain barbarous characts. In Paul B. du Chaillu's work, "The Viking Age" (London, 1889), mention is made of the ancient northern custom of employing runes as medical charms. One Egil went on a journey to Vermaland, and on the way he came to the house of a farmer named Thorfinn, whose daughter, Helga, had long been ill of a wasting sickness. "Has anything been tried for her illness?" asked Egil. "Runes have been traced by the son of a farmer in the neighborhood," said Thorfinn. Then Egil examined the bed, and found a piece of whalebone with runes on it. He read them, cut them off, and scraped the chips into the fire. He also burned the whalebone, and had Helga's clothes carried into the open air. Then Egil sang: As man shall not trace runes, except he can read them well, it is thus with many a man, that the dark letters bewilder him. I saw on the cut whalebone ten hidden letters carved, that have caused the woman a very long sorrow. Egil traced runes and placed them under Helga's pillow. It seemed to her as if she awoke from a sleep, and she said that she was then healed.[138:1] The ancient northern peoples wore protective and defensive amulets, which were fastened around the arm, waist, or neck. These amulets were styled _ligamenta_, _ligaturæ_, or _phylacteria_, by the writers of the early Middle Ages. They were usually fashioned as gold, silver, or glass pendants. Cipher-writing and runes were commonly inscribed upon them, often for healing, but contrariwise, to bewitch and injure.[138:2]