_A Charme to Staunch Blood._ “Jesus, that was in Bethlehem born, and baptyzed was in the flumen Jordane, as stente the water at hys comyng, so stente the blood of thys man N, thy serwaunt, throw the virtu of thy holy name + Jesu + and of thy Cosyn swete Sent Jon. And sey thys Charme fyve tymes with fyve Pater nostirs, in the worshep of the fyve woundys.” _For Fever._ “Wryt thys wordys on a lorell lef + Ysmael + Ysmael + adjuro vos per angelum ut soporetetur iste Homo N. and ley thys lef under hys head that he wote not thereof, and let hym ete Letuse oft and drynk Ip’e seed small grounden in a morter, and temper yt with ale.” It is said that the inhabitants of Colonsay had an ancient custom of fanning the face of the sick with the leaves of the Bible. Many and varied are the charms for curing warts. “For warts,” says Sir Thomas Brown, “we rub our hands before the moon and commit any maculated part to the touch of the dead.” Grose tells us to “steal a piece of beef from a butcher’s shop and rub your warts with it; then throw it down the ‘necessary house,’ or bury it; and as the beef rots your warts will decay”. The leaf of the castor-oil plant worn round the neck was believed to ward away devils, because the leaf is like an open hand. In Bale’s _Interlude_ the following charms are given:— “For the coughe take Judas Eare With the parynge of a Peare, And drynke them without feare If ye will have remedy: Thre syppes are for the hyckocke, And six more for the chyckocke; Thus my pretty pyckocke Recover by and by. If ye cannot slepe but slumber, Geve Otes unto Saynt Uncumber, And Beanes in a certen number Unto Saynt Blase and Saynt Blythe. Give Onyons to Saynt Cutlake And Garlycke to Saynt Cyoyake, If ye wyll spurne the heade ake. Ye shall have them at Quene hyth.” Amulet rings were made from various metals, and worn to ward off disease and misfortune. In Berkshire there is a popular superstition that a ring made from a piece of silver collected at the communion is a cure for convulsions and fits. Rings were also made from coffin-nails dug out of a grave, and coffin-hinges, and used to cure cramp. Boorde, in his _Introduction to Knowledge_ (1542), says: “The kynges of Englande doth halowe every yere Crampe Rynges, ye which Rynges worne on one’s Fynger doth helpe them whych hath the crampe”. One of the favourite charms of the early Britons was the _anguineum_, or snake’s egg, which was supposed to be produced from the saliva of serpents, and besides its healing properties it got the credit of being able to float against the current. Many of the ancient writers believed that all charms were impotent without the repetition of certain words. Thus the following words are recommended by Barrett to be repeated as a charm against flux of blood:—