572 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 
“The girdle was an essential article of dress, and early ages ascribe 
toit othermagicinfluences: e. g., Thor’s divine strength lay in his girdle.”? 
In speaking of the belief in lycantrophy he says: “The common belief 
among us is that the transformation is effected by tying a strap round 
the body; this girth is only three fingers broad, and is cut out of 
human skin.”2 Scrofulous tumors were cured by tying them with a 
linen thread which had choked a viper to death. “Filum rubrum se- 
raceum [silk] cum quo strangulata fuit vipera si cireumdatur collo an- 
gina laborantes, eundem curare dicitur propter idem strangulationis et 
suftocationis.” * 
“ Quidam commendant tanquam specificum, ad Anginam filum pur- 
pureum cum quo strangulata fuit vipera, si collo circamdetur.”° 
“‘ MEDIDAS,” ‘MEASURING CORDS,” ‘“WRESTING THREADS,” ETC. 
Black says:® “On the banks of the Ale and the Teviot the women 
have still a custom of wearing round their necks blue woollen threads or 
cords till they wean their children, doing this for the purpose of avert- 
ing ephemeral fevers. These cords are handed down from mother to 
daughter, and esteemed in proportion to their antiquity. Probably 
these cords had originally received some blessing.” 
Black’s surmise is well founded. These cords were, no doubt, the same 
as the ‘medidas ” or measurements of the holy images of Spain and other 
parts of Continental Europe. “The ribands or serpent symbols [of 
Our Lady of Montserrat] are of silk, and exactly the span of the Vir- 
gin’s head, and on them is printed ‘medida de la cabeza de Nuestra 
Senora Maria Santisima de Montserrat, i. e., exact head measurement 
of Our Lady of Montserrat.”7 
These same “ medidas” may be found in full vogue in the outlying 
districts of Mexico to-day. Twenty years ago I saw them at the 
“funcion” of San Francisco, in the little town of Magdalena, in So- 
nora. I watched carefully to see exactly what the women did and ob- 
served that the statue of St. Francis (which, for greater convenience, 
was exposed outside of the church, where the devout could reach it 
without disturbing the congregation within) was measured from head 
to foot with pieces of ribbon, which were then wrapped up and packed 
away. In reply to my queries, I learned that the “medida” of the 
head was a specific for headache, that of the waist for all troubles in 
the abdominal region, those of the legs, arms, and other parts for the 
ailments peculiar to each of them respectively. This was in a commu- 
nity almost, if not absolutely, Roman Catholic; but in the thoroughly 
Protestant neighborhood of Carlisle, Pa., the same superstition exists 
1 Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, vol. 3, p. 1094, footnote. 
2 Tbid., p. 1096. 
3 Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. 30, cap. 12. 
4 Etmiiller, Opera Omnia, Lyons, 1690, vol. 2, pp. 282, 283, Schroderii Dilucidati Zoologia. 
6 Thid., p. 278a. 
6 Black, Folk-Medicine, London, 1883, p. 113. 
7 Forlong, Rivers of Life, London, 1883, vol. 2, p. 313. 
