MISCELLANEOUS. 311 



the Spider crawl to the head of the bed, it denotes trouble- 

 some visitors and quarrels to the residents."^ 



Thevenot, in his Travels into the Levant, relates the fol- 

 lowing: " But I cannot tell what to say of a Moorish Wo- 

 man who lives in a corner close by the quarter of France, 

 and pulls worms out of Children's Ears. When a Child does 

 nothing but cry, and that they know it is ill, they carry it 

 to that Woman, who, laying the Child on its side upon her 

 knee, scratches the ear of it, and then Worms, like those 

 which breed in musty weevily Flower, seem to fall out of 

 the Child's Ear ; then, turning it on the other side, she 

 scratches the other Ear, out of which the like Worms drop 

 also; and in all there may come out ten or twelve, which 

 she raps up in a Linen-Rag, and gives them to those that 

 brought the Child to her, who keep them in that Rag at 

 home in their House ; and when she has done so she gives 

 them back the Child, which in reality cries no more. She 

 once told me that she performed this by means of some 

 words that she spake. There was a French Physician and 

 a Naturalist there, who attentively beheld this, and told me 

 that he could not conceive how it could be done; but that 

 he knew very well that if a child had any of these Worms 

 in its head it would quickly die. In so much that the 

 Moors and other inhabitants of Caire look upon this as a 

 great Yertue, and give her every time a great many maidins 

 (pieces of money). They say that it is a secret which hath 

 been long in the Family. There are children every day car- 

 ried to her, roaring and crying, and as many would see the 

 thing done, need only to follow them, provided they be not 

 Musulman AVomen who carry them, for then it would cost 

 an Avanie; but when they are Christian or Jewish Women, 

 one may easily enter and give a few maidins to that Worm- 

 drawer."^ 



This is most probably but a sleight-of-hand performance, 

 since "worms, like those which breed in musty weevily 

 flower," could easily be obtained and concealed in her hand 

 or sleeve; imagination would then effect the cure, as prob- 

 ably it had done the disease. 



Dr. Livingstone and his party, in traveling in South Af- 



1 Voy. round the World, ii. 35-7. 



2 Thevenot's Travels, Pt. I. p. 219. 



