the belief that "the traveller or wayfaring man that hath mugwort tied about him feeleth no wearisomeness at all and he who hath it about him can be hurt by no poysonous medecines, nor by any wilde beaste, neither yet by the Sun itselfe." Of _Agnus castus_ he writes: "It is reported that if such as journey or travell do carry with them a branch or rod of agnus castus in their hand, it will keep them from weariness." The herbs most in repute as amulets against misfortune generally were angelica (of sovereign virtue against witchcraft and enchantments) and figwort, which was "hanged about the necke" to keep the wearer in health. At times one feels that Gerard rather doubted the efficacy of these "physick charms," and he gives us a naïve description of his friends' efforts to cure him of an ague by their means. "Having a most grievous ague," he writes, "and of long continuance, notwithstanding Physick charmes, the little wormes found in the heads of Teazle hanged about my necke, spiders put in a walnut shell, and divers such foolish toies, that I was constrained to take by fantasticke peoples procurement, notwithstanding I say my helpe came from God himselfe, for these medicines and all other such things did me no good at all." Under "gourd" Gerard gives a use of this herb which, though popular, is not to be found in any other English herbal. "A long gourd," he says, "or else a cucumber being laid in the cradle or bed by the young infant while it is asleep and sicke of an ague, it shall very quickly be made whole." The cure was presumably effected by the cooling properties of the fruit. In another place he recommends the use of branches of willow for a similar purpose. "The greene boughes of willows with the leaves may very well be brought into chambers and set about the beds of those that be sick of fevers, for they do mightily coole the heate of the aire, which thing is wonderfull refreshing to the sicke Patient."