It is noteworthy that not only human beings, but cattle and swine were smoked with the fumes of herbs. In the _Lacnunga_, for sick cattle we find--"Take the wort, put it upon gledes and fennel and hassuck and 'cotton' and incense. Burn all together on the side on which the wind is. Make it reek upon the cattle. Make five crosses of hassuck grass, set them on four sides of the cattle and one in the middle. Sing about the cattle the Benedicite and some litanies and the Pater Noster. Sprinkle holy water upon them, burn about them incense and cotton and let someone set a value on the cattle, let the owner give the tenth penny in the Church for God, after that leave them to amend; do this thrice."--_Lacnunga_, 79. "To preserve swine from sudden death sing over them four masses, drive the swine to the fold, hang the worts upon the four sides and upon the door, also burn them, adding incense and make the reek stream over the swine."--_Lacnunga_, 82. * * * * * Herbs used as amulets have always played a conspicuous part in folk medicine, and our Saxon ancestors used them, as all ancient races have used them, not merely to cure definite diseases but also as protection against the unseen powers of evil,[27] to preserve the eyesight, to cure lunacy, against weariness when going on a journey, against being barked at by dogs, for safety from robbers, and in one prescription even to restore a woman stricken with speechlessness. The use of herbs as amulets to cure diseases has almost died out in this country, but the use of them as charms to ensure good luck survives to this day--notably in the case of white heather and four-leaved clover. There is occasionally the instruction to bind on the herb with red wool. For instance, a prescription against headache in the third book of the _Leech Book_ enjoins binding waybroad, which has been dug up without iron before sunrise, round the head "with a red fillet." Binding on with red wool is a very ancient and widespread custom.[28] Red was the colour sacred to Thor and it was also the colour abhorred not only by witches in particular but by all the powers of darkness and evil. An ancient Assyrian eye charm prescribes binding "pure strands of red wool which have been brought by the pure hand of ... on the right hand," and down to quite recent times even in these islands tying on with red wool was a common custom. Besides their use as amulets, we also find instructions for hanging herbs up over doors, etc., for the benefit not only of human beings but of cattle also. Of mugwort we read in the _Herbarium of Apuleius_, "And if a root of this wort be hung over the door of any house then may not any man damage the house."