From what hoary antiquity the charms and incantations which we find in these manuscripts have come down to us we cannot say. Their atmosphere is that of palæolithic cave-drawings, for they are redolent of the craft of sorcerers and they suggest those strange cave markings which no one can decipher. Who can say what lost languages are embedded in these unintelligible words and single letters, or what is their meaning? To what ancient ceremonies do they pertain, and who were the initiated who alone understood them? At present it is all mysterious, though perhaps one day we shall discover both their sources and their meaning. They show no definite traces of the Scandinavian rune-lays concerning herbs, though one of the charms is in runic characters. It is noteworthy that in the third book, which is evidently much older than the first two parts of the _Leech Book_, the proportion of heathen charms is exceptionally large. In one prescription we find the names of two heathen idols, Tiecon and Leleloth, combined with a later Christian interpolation of the names of the four gospellers. The charm is in runic characters and is to be followed by a prayer. Many of the mystic sentences are wholly incomprehensible, in others we find heathen names such as Lilumenne, in others a string of words which may be a corrupt form of some very ancient language. Thus a lay to be sung in case a man or beast drinks an insect runs thus:--"Gonomil, orgomil, marbumil, marbsai, tofeth," etc.[32] If some of the charms have a malignant sound, others were probably as soothing in those days as those gems are still which have survived in our inimitable nursery rhymes. For instance, the following has for us no meaning, but even in the translation it has something of the curious effect of the words in the original. A woman who cannot rear her child is instructed to say--"Everywhere I carried for me the famous kindred doughty one with this famous meat doughty one, so I will have it for me and go home." In the _Lacnunga_ there is a counting-out charm which is a mixture of an ancient heathen charm combined with a Christian rite at the end. "Nine were Noddes sisters, then the nine came to be eight, and the eight seven, and the seven six, and the six five, and the five four, and the four three, and the three two, and the two one, and the one none. This may be medicine for thee from scrofula and from worm and from every mischief. Sing also the Benedicite nine times."--_Lacnunga_, 95.[33] One of the most remarkable narrative charms is that for warts copied below from the _Lacnunga_. It is to be sung first into the left ear, then into the right ear, then above the man's poll, then "let one who is a maiden go to him and hang it upon his neck, do so for three days, it will soon be well with him."