184 APPARENTLY SUCCESSFUL. [PART II. 
cabalistic words over the patient, counting the 
warts, when warts are treated for, and placing 
straws across the part affected, the straws being 
subsequently deposited in a secret place known 
only to the charmer. In cases where an arm is 
affected, a string is also occasionally tied round 
the wrist. 
Whether the effects ascribed to the virtues of 
the charms are in fact attributable to the indirect 
influence of the imagination, or otherwise, we need 
not here inquire ; but the fact that the art, if it 
may be so called, is still practised, is probably a 
sufficient proof that the results derived from it 
are occasionally, at any rate, considered satis- 
factory. 
I myself know of one instance, in which the 
cure was so rapid and perfect, that any doctor 
might have pointed to it with pride as a con- 
vincing proof of the efficacy of his treatment. It 
was a case of warts; the patient being a little 
girl of about seven or eight years old, the daughter 
of a servant in our family. She came up one day 
to the house for some work, when the lady, who 
was giving it to her, having remarked that her 
hands were covered with bad warts, and noticed 
the fact to her, she said, “Yes, ma’am, but I’m 
