, I take thee from
the ground."

The leech next applied the lotion to Waverley's ankle, at the same time
murmuring an incantation; and to this latter procedure, rather than to
the medicinal virtue of the herbs, the subsequent alleviation of pain
and swelling was attributed by all who were present.

In the rugged, mountainous districts of western Ireland, a region
inhabited mostly by shepherds and fishermen, medical practice still
devolves largely upon "fairy-women" and "witch-doctors," who rely upon
herbs, prayers, and incantations in their treatment of the sick. In
Ireland, too, are individuals reputed to be masters of the art of
"setting" charms for controlling hemorrhage; their method being the
repetition of certain words arbitrarily selected, whose weirdness tends
to impress the patient with a sense of the mysterious.[109:1]

Spells for checking the flow of blood are plentiful in the early
literature of Germany, and are still employed to some extent. In Dr. G.
Lammert's "Volksmedizin in Bayern" (Wuerzburg, 1869), many hemostatic
formulas are given, which are popular among the peasantry in various
portions of the empire. They are usually adjurations or commands
addressed to the blood, considered as a personality. Thus a spell in
vogue in the mountainous region of Odenwald in Hesse, is as follows:
"Blood, stand still, as Christ stood still in the river Jordan."

In "Folk-Lore," March, 1908, reference is made to a styptic spell in use
at the present time in northern Devonshire, among wise women who are
skilled in the art of controlling hemorrhage by psychic methods. The
spell consists in repeating the verse, Ezekiel, XVI, 6. In the locality
above mentioned it is customary to seek the aid of one of these
professional "stenters," instead of a surgeon or veterinarian, and the
people have implicit faith in this mode of treatment. The presence of
the wise woman is not essential. She merely pronounces the spell
wherever she may happen to be, with the assurance that it will be found
effectual, on the return of the messenger to the patient.

The prevalence of similar beliefs is shown in the following verse from a
popular poem of the seventeenth century:

Tom Pots was but a serving-man;
But yet he was a Doctor good;
He bound his kerchief on the wound,
And with some kind words stanch'd the blood.

FOOTNOTES:

[106:1] _Archaeologia_, vol. xxx, p. 401; 1844.

[107:1] J. F. Payne, M.D., _English Me