Another and more religious means was to quote John, ch. ix., concerning the curse of the blind man, and Exodus, ch. xii., where it is written that no bone of the Passover shall be broken; and then to touch your teeth during Mass, by which time it was more than probable that your pains should cease. Ague, another common complaint, had several remedies. You might either write Abracadabra triangularly and hang it round your neck, or visit at dead of night the nearest cross-road five different times, and there bury a new-laid egg (this has never been known to fail), or emulate Ashmole, the astrologer, who wrote in 1661:-- I took early in the morning a good dose of elixir and hung three spiders about my neck; they drove my ague away. Against mad-dog bite there were more complicated methods than mere Pasteurisation, and what is more, you had a large choice. A cure was effected by writing on a piece of bread the words:-- Irioni Khiriori effera Kuder fere. then swallowing it; or writing on a piece of paper or bread the words:-- Oh, King of Glory, Jesus Christ, come in peace in the name of the Father + max in the name of the Son + max in the name of the Holy Ghost, prax, Gaspar, Melchior, Balthasar + prax + max + God imax +. Some people were known to have been cured by a man who wrote Hax, pax, max, Deus adimax on an apple, which he gave the patient to eat; but this, says Wierus, was very impious. According to Cato, bones out of joint could be put back into place by the charm:-- Danata, daries, dardaries, astataries. Divers were but little distinguished from one another, and we find a number of cures for fevers included under one generic form. Several cures are given by Wierus:-- Wash your hands with the patient and say Psalm 144. "Exaltabo te, Deus meus Rex." Or:-- Take the invalid's hand and say "Acque facilis tibi febris haec fit, atque Mariae Virgini Christi partus." Or:-- Take three holy wafers, and write on the first, "So is the Father, so is Life"; on the second, "So is the Son, so is the Saint"; on the third, "So is the Holy Ghost, so is the remedy." Take these three wafers to the fever patient and tell him to eat them on three consecutive days, neither eating nor drinking anything else; also say fifteen times daily the Pater and the Ave. A similar prescription is found in the following:-- Cut an apple in three places and write on the first, "Increatus Pater"; on the second, "Immensus Pater"; and on the third, "Aeternus Pater"; then let the patient eat them fasting on three different days. The following savours little less of religion:-- For fever wryt thys words on a lorell lef + Ysmael + Ysmael + adjuro vos per angelum ut soporetur iste Homo. And ley thys lef under hys head that he mete not thereof and let hym ete Letuse oft and drynk Ip'e seed smal grounden in a mortar and temper yt with ale. A cure for epilepsy was contained in the following words:--