Chap. 12.] EEYEEIES AND DEYICE8 OE THE MAGICIAIfS. 293 
that tlie part affected is touched with the back of the left 
hand.^^ To bite off a piece from wood that has been struck 
by lightning, the hands being held behind the back, and then 
to apply it to the tooth, is a sure remedy, they say, for tooth- 
ache. Some persons recommend the tooth to be fumigated 
with the smoke of a burnt tooth, which has belonged to another 
person of the same sex ; or else to attach to the person a dog- 
tooth, as it is called, which has been extracted from a body 
before burial. Earth, they say, taken from out of a human 
skull, acts as a depilatory to the eyelashes ; it is asserted, also, 
that any plant which may happen to have grown there, if 
chewed, will cause the teeth to come out ; and that if a circle 
is traced round an ulcer with a human bone, it will be effec- 
tually prevented from spreading. 
Some persons, again, mix water in equal proportions from 
three different wells, and, after making a libation with part of 
it in a new earthen vessel, administer the rest to patients suf- 
fering from tertian fever, when the paroxysms come on. So, 
too, in cases of quartan fever, they take a fragment of a nail 
from a cross, or else a piece of a halter that has been used 
for crucifixion, and, after wrapping it in wool, attach it to the 
patient's neck; taking care, the moment he has recovered, to 
conceal it in some hole to which the light of the sun cannot 
penetrate, 
CHAP. 12. VARIOUS EEVEKIES AND DEVICES OF THE MAGICIANS. 
The following are some of the reveries of magic. A whet- 
stone upon which iron tools have been frequently sharpened, 
if put, without his being aware of it, beneath the pillow of a 
person sinking under the effects of poison, will make him give 
evidence and declare what poison has been administered, and 
at what time and place, though at the same time he will not 
disclose the author of the crime. When a person has been 
struck by lightning, if the body is turned upon the side which 
has sustained the injury, he will instantly recover the power 
This superstition still exists among the lower classes of this country, 
with reference to the beneficial effects of stroking neck diseases with the 
hand of a man who has been hanged. 
92 Made of " spartum." See B. xix. cc. 6, 7. 
^2 Of which the Persian Magi were the most noted professors. 
