26 THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS 



quern stone which has been in the fire on the hearth all day is 

 dragged out, the prepared herbs — wallwort and mugwort — are 

 scattered upon it and also underneath, then cold water is poured 

 on and the patient is reeked with the steam " as hot as he can 

 endure it." ^ Smoking sick folk, especially for demoniac 

 possession, is a world-wide practice and of very ancient origin. 

 There is no space here to attempt to touch on the comparative 

 folk lore of this subject. Moreover, fumigating the sick with 

 herbs is closely akin to the burning of incense. Even in ancient 

 Babylonian days fumigating with herbs was practised.^ It was 

 very common all through the Middle Ages in most parts of 

 Europe, and that it has not even yet died out is shown by the 

 extract from The Times given below.^ I have purposely put 

 in juxtaposition the translation of the ancient Babylonian 

 tablet and the extract from The Times. 



1 Lacnunga, 48. 



2 In an incantation against fever we find the instruction : — 



" The sick man . . . thou shalt place 



thou shalt cover his face 



Burn cypress and herbs 



That the great gods may remove the evil 

 That the evil spirit may stand aside 



May a kindly spirit a kindly genius be present." 



R. Campbell Thompson, Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, p. 29. See 

 also p. 43. Cf. also Tobit vi. 7. 



3 A Pomeranian Rite. — An attempt was made a few days ago to cast a 

 devil out of a woman living in a village of the Lauenberg district of Pomerania, 

 on the Polish frontier. She appears to have been of a sour and somewhat 

 hysterical temperament, and three of the village gossips came to the con- 

 clusion that she was a victim of diabolical possession and resolved to effect 

 a cure by means of enchantment. They first of all gathered the herbs needed 

 for the purpose in the forest at the proper conjunction of the stars. Then 

 a tripod was formed of three chairs, and to these the patient was bound. 

 Beneath her was fixed a pail of red-hot coal on which the herbs were scattered. 

 As the fumes of the burning weeds veiled the victim the three neighbours 

 crooned the prescribed exorcism. The louder the woman shrieked the louder 

 they sang, and after the process had been continued long enough to prove 

 effective, in their opinion, they ran away, believing that the devil would run 

 out of the woman after them. She, however, continued to shriek. Her 

 cries were heard by a man, who released her. — The Times, December 5, 1921, 



