THE ANGLO-SAXON HERBALS 17 



" If a horse or other neat be elf-shot take sorrel-seed or 

 Scotch wax, let a man sing twelve Masses over it and put holy 

 water on the horse or on whatsoever neat it be ; have the worts 

 always with thee. For the same take the eye of a broken 

 needle, give the horse a prick with it, no harm shall come." — 

 Leech Book of Bald, I. 88. 



Another prescription for an elf-shot horse runs thus : — 



" If a horse be elf-shot, then take the knife of which the 

 haft is the horn of a fallow ox and on which are three brass 

 nails, then write upon the horse's forehead Christ's mark and 

 on each of the limbs which thou mayst feel at : then take the 

 left ear, prick a hole in it in silence, this thou shalt do; then 

 strike the horse on the back, then will it be whole. — And write 

 upon the handle of the knife these words — 



" Benedicite omnia opera Domini dominum. 



" Be the elf what it may, this is mighty for him to 

 amend." — Leech Book of Bald, I. 65.1 



Closely allied to the doctrine of the elf-shot is that of " flying 

 venom." It is, of course, possible to regard the phrase as the 

 graphic Anglo-Saxon way of describing infectious diseases ; but 

 the various synonymous phrases, " the on-flying things," " the 

 loathed things that rove through the land," suggest something 

 of more malignant activity. As a recent leading article in The 

 Times shows, we are as a matter of fact not much wiser than 

 our Saxon ancestors as to the origin of an epidemic such as 

 influenza. 2 Indeed, to talk of " catching " a cold or any infec- 



1 For " elf-shot " herbal remedies see also Leech Book, III. i, 61, 64. 



2 " The visitation raises again questions which were so anxiously pro- 

 pounded three years ago. In what manner does an epidemic of this kind 

 arise? How is it propagated? We are still to a great extent in the dark 

 in regard to both these points. Indeed, it has recently been suggested that 

 we do not ' catch ' influenza at all, but that certain climatic or other con- 

 ditions favour the multiplication on an important scale of micro-organisms 

 normally present in the human air passages. It would be foohsh to pretend 



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