"A fouth o' auld knick-knackets, Rusty airn caps and jinglin' jackets, Wad haud the Lothians three, in tackets, A towmond guid; An' parritch pats, and auld saut backets, Afore the flood."--BURNS. "For to that holy wood is consecrate A virtuous well, about whose flowery banks The nimble-footed fairies dance their rounds By the pale moonshine, dipping oftentimes Their stolen children, so to make them free From dying flesh and dull mortality."--FLETCHER. "Ne was ther such another pardoner, For in his male he hadde a pilwebeer, Which that he saide was oure lady veyl; He seide, he hadde a gobet of the seyl That seynt Peter hadde, whan that he wente Uppon the see, til Jhesu Crist him pente. He hadde a cros of latoun ful of stones, And in a glas he hadde pigges bones. But with these reliques, whanne that he fond A poure persoun dwelling uppon lond, Upon a day he gat him more moneye Than that the persoun gat in monthes tweye. And thus with feyned flaterie and japes, He made the persoun and the people his apes."--CHAUCER. A wide-spread movement developed in the early church as a result of which innumerable miracles of healing were credited to the power of saints, indirectly through the medium of streams and pools of water which were reputed to have some connection with a particular saint, or through the efficacy still clinging to the relics of holy persons. On account of the growth of the belief in demonism in the Christian church, and the need of supernatural means to counteract diabolic diseases, saintly relics came into common use for this purpose, and afterward when demonism was not so thoroughly credited as the cause of diseases, relics were still considered to hold their power over physical infirmities. In addition to this, the missionary efforts and successes of the church had some influence in establishing and continuing cures by relics and similar means. The missionaries found that their converts had formerly employed various amulets and charms for the healing of diseases, and that they continued to have great faith in them for that purpose. To wean them from their heathen customs, Christian amulets and charms had to be substituted, or, as was sometimes the case, the heathen fetich was continued, but with a Christian significance.