For the cure of scrofula, grass was selected. From one, two, or three stems, as many as nine joints must be removed, which must then be wrapped in black wool, with the grease in it. The person who gathers them must do so fasting, and must then go, in the same state, to the patient's house while he is from home. When the patient comes in, the other must say to him three times, "I come fasting to bring a remedy to a fasting man," and must then attach the amulet to his person, repeating the same ceremony three consecutive days.[700] Forlong says: "On the 2d [of May], fearing evil spirits and witches, Scotch farmers used to tie red thread upon their wives as well as their cows, saying these prevented miscarriages and preserved the milk."[701] In Scotland "they hope to preserve the milk of their cows, and their wives from miscarriage, by tying threads about them."[702] Brand gives a remedy for epilepsy: "If, in the month of October, a little before the full moon, you pluck a twig of the elder, and cut the cane that is betwixt two of its knees, or knots, in nine pieces, and these pieces, being bound in a piece of linnen, be in a thread so hung about the neck that they touch the spoon of the heart, or the sword-formed cartilage."[703] Black says:[704] "To cure warts a common remedy is to tie as many knots on a hair as there are warts and throw the hair away. Six knots of elderwood are used in a Yorkshire incantation to ascertain if beasts are dying from witchcraft. Marcellus commended for sore eyes that a man should tie as many knots in unwrought flax as there are letters in his name, pronouncing each letter as he worked; this he was to tie round his neck. In the Orkneys, the blue thread was used for an evil purpose because such a colour savored of Popery and priests; in the northern counties it was used because a remembrance of its once preeminent value still survived in the minds of those who wore it, unconsciously, though still actively, influencing their thoughts. In perhaps the same way we respect the virtue of red threads, because, as Conway puts it, 'red is sacred in one direction as symbolising the blood of Christ.'"[705] "To cure ague [Hampshire, England] string nine or eleven snails on a thread, the patient saying, as each is threaded, 'Here I leave my ague.' When all are threaded they should be frizzled over a fire, and as the snails disappear so will the ague."[706] Dr. Joseph Lanzoni scoffed at the idea that a red-silk thread could avail in erysipelas; "Neque filum sericum chermisinum parti affectæ circumligatum erysipelata fugat." The word "chermesinum" is not given in Ainsworth's Latin-English Dictionary, but it so closely resembles the Spanish "carmesi" that I have made bold to render it as "red" or "scarlet."[707]