286 PRIMITIVE LEECHCRAFT 



The Saxon leeches had very hazy ideas about the pro- 

 perties of herbs: it was certain, anyhow, that they had 

 some properties, and the popular notion was that herbs 

 were essential to any cure, so they complied with it, and 

 added a lot of fantastic observances partly ex tempore 

 and partly derived from the world- wide and world-old 

 doctrines of the Magi. Doubtless these complicated in- 

 structions contributed to convalescence. It requires little 

 knowledge of human nature to perceive that a Saxon 

 thane, suffering from prolonged over-feeding, would think 

 very cheaply of the leech who ordered him to go bumping 

 about on an underbred hack, or jolting for miles in a 

 farm-cart : it was necessary to invent decoctions the more 

 nauseous the better to beguile the patient's imagination. 

 In short, leeches were expected to administer herb-potions, 

 for such was the tradition of leechcraft from wiser times : 

 it was sheer bad luck that the properties of the various 

 herbs had been forgotten during ages of anarchy, and 

 had to be slowly recovered by watching their effect upon 

 patients. 



Leeches did not hesitate to go beyond the vegetable 

 kingdom in order to influence powerfully the minds of 

 their patients. There is nothing that affects the imagina- 

 tion more violently than cruelty, and cruel some of these 

 recipes undoubtedly are. Cataract, about the nature of 

 which the leeches can have known absolutely nothing, 

 was to be treated in this way. Catch a fox alive, cut out 

 his tongue, and let him go ; dry the tongue, sew it in a 

 red cloth, and hang it round the patient's neck. As a 

 precaution against pestilence, take a live badger and beat 

 out his teeth, put them in a linen bag, and wear them 

 next the body. For jaundice the sovereign remedy is 



