156 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
naked ; three times through at one and the same visit appears to 
have been the common practice, but two sufficed in the instances 
mentioned by Evelyn, whilst the Cornish children required nine 
times, and those of Sussex were not curable with fewer than 
eighty-one transits ; one visit was commonly enough, but at Bold- 
venture three consecutive mornings were devoted to the work, and 
on each the child was passed through three times, and the Sussex 
ritual required nine successive mornings and nine times through the 
tree on each of them ; nothing beyond the " passing through " 
seems to have been needed elsewhere, but at Shaugh the child had 
also to be washed, on three successive mornings, in the dew from 
the leaves of the charmed ash ; the split in the tree was usually not 
made longer than was necessary to allow the child to pass, but at 
Boldventure it was split from the top to a convenient height above 
the ground, and in Cornwall, where a forked tree was selected, it was 
rent from the fork throughout its entire length ; at Kingswear three 
persons, including the mother, did the work, at Boldventure the 
parents, instead of being present themselves, entrusted the child to 
two operators, at Shaugh the operation was performed by the 
mother alone, whilst in Sussex nine operators had to attend, and 
each had to pass the patient once ; in most cases the hour seems to 
have been unimportant, at Boldventure, however, it was deemed so 
necessary to work the charm before sunrise that the party reached 
the ground at three in the morning — the season being, no doubt, 
summer — whilst in Sussex sunrise seems to have been the orthodox 
hour; "with the sun" was the stipulated direction, except in 
Cornwall — where it is distinctly stated to be " against the sun " — 
and in Sussex — where it is vaguely said to be " through the cleft 
from west to east," which is equally consistent with " with the 
sun," or " against the sun;" the operators appear to have been 
commonly left to their own devices about how to split the tree, but 
in Cornwall "the tree was taken by the two forks . . . and by force 
rended longitudinally," and in Sussex "the cleft must be made 
with an axe." 
The differences of ritual, however, seem to have had little or no 
effect in retarding the cure ; a fact which must be comforting to the 
nonconforming mind, and to sticklers for the right of private 
judgment. 
If ordinary human testimony is to be accepted, there can be no 
