Chap. 12.] EEVEBIES AND DEVICES OF THE MAGICIANS. 293 



that the part affected is touched with the back of the left 

 hand. 91 To bite off a piece from wood that has been struck 

 by lightning, the hands being held behind the back, and then 

 to apply it to the tooth, is a sure remedy, they say, for tooth- 

 ache. Some persons recommend the tooth to be fumigated 

 with the smoke of a burnt tooth, which has belonged to another 

 person of the same sex ; or else to attach to the person a dog- 

 tooth, as it is called, which has been extracted from a body 

 before burial. Earth, they say, taken from out of a human 

 skull, acts as a depilatory to the eyelashes ; it is asserted, also, 

 that any plant which may happen to have grown there, it' 

 chewed, will cause the teeth to come out ; and that if a circle- 

 is traced round an ulcer with a human bone, it will be effec- 

 tually prevented from spreading. 



Some persons, again, mix water in equal proportions from 

 three different wells, and, after making a libation with part of 

 it in a new earthen vessel, administer the rest to patients suf- 

 fering from tertian fever, when the paroxysms come on. So, 

 too, in- cases of quartan fever, they take a fragment of a nail 

 from a cross, or else a piece of a halter 92 that has been used 

 for crucifixion, and, after wrapping it in wool, attach it to the 

 patient's neck; taking care, the moment he has recovered, to 

 conceal it in some hole to which the light of the sun cannot 

 penetrate. 



CHAP. 12. VARIOUS REVERIES AND DEVICES OF THE MAGICIANS. 



The following are some of the reveries of magic. 93 A whet- 

 stone upon which iron tools have been frequently sharpened, 

 if put, without his being aware of it, beneath the pillow of a 

 person sinking under the effects of poison, will make him give 

 evidence and declare what poison has been administered, and 

 at what time and place, though at the same time he will not 

 disclose the author of the crime. When a person has been 

 struck by lightning, if the body is turned upon the side which 

 has sustained the injury, he will instantly recover the power 



91 This superstition still exists among the lower classes of this country, 

 with reference to the beneficial effects of stroking neck diseases with tie 

 hand of a man who has been hanged. 



93 Made of " spartum." See B. xix. cc. 6, 7. 



s3 Of which the Persian Magi were the most noted professors. 



