BOCKKE.] MEDICAL USK OF COKDS. 573 



iu full vigor, as 1 know personally. Three years ago my second 

 child was suffering from the troubles incident to retarded dentition and 

 had to be taken to the mountains at Holly Springs, within sight of 

 Carlisle. I was begged and implored by the women living in the place 

 to have the child taken to&quot; a wise woman&quot; to be &quot;measured,&quot; and was 

 assured that some of the most intelligent people in that part of the 

 country were linn believers in the superstition. When I declined to 

 lend countenance to such nonsense I was looked upon as a brutal and 

 unnatural parent, caring little for the welfare of his offspring. 



u In John Bale s Comedye concernynge thre Lawes, 1538 . . . 

 Hypocrysy is introduced, mentioning the following charms against bar 

 renness: 



And as for Lyons, there is the length of our Lorde 

 In a great pyller. She that will with a coorde 

 ^ Be fast bound to it, and take soche cluiuiife as fall 



Shall sure have chylde, for within it is hollowe all.&quot; 



When a person in Shetland has received a sprain &quot; it is customary to 

 apply to an individual practiced in casting the wrested thread. 

 This is a thread spun from black wool, on which are cast nine knots, 

 and tied round a sprained leg or arm.&quot; It is applied by the medicine 

 man with the usual amount of gibberish and incantation. 2 These 

 &quot; wresting or wrested threads &quot; are also to be found among Germans, 

 Norwegians, Swedes, and Flemings. 3 



Grimm quotes from Chainbers s Fireside Stories, Edinburgh, 1842, 

 p. 37: &quot; During the time the operator is putting the thread round the 

 afflicted limb he says, but in such a tone of voice as not to be heard by 

 the bystanders, nor even by the person operated upon : &quot;The Lord rade, 

 and the foal slade; he lighted, and he righted, set joint to joint, bone to 

 bone, and sinew to sinew. Hgal in the Holy Ghost s name ! &quot; 4 



&quot; Eily McGarvey, a Donegal wise woman, employs a green thread in 

 her work. She measures her patient three times round the waist with 

 a ribbon, to the outer edge of which is fastened a green thread. . . . 

 She next hands the patient nine leaves of heart fever grass. or dande 

 lion, gathered by herself, directing him to eat three leaves on successive 

 mornings.&quot; 5 



Miss Edna Dean Proctor, the poet, told me, June 9, 1887, that some 

 years ago, while visiting relations in Illinois, she met a woman who, 

 having been ill for a long time, had despaired of recovery, and in hope 

 of amelioration had consulted a man pretending to occult powers, who 

 prescribed that she wear next the skin a certain knotted red cord which 

 he gave her. 



On a previous page the views of Forloug have been presented, show 

 ing that there were reasons for believing that the sacred cords of the 



