eir invention was attributed to the fabulous
Dactyls of Phrygia, and they appear to have been held in equally great
esteem, whether pronounced orally as incantations, or inscribed upon
strips of parchment and worn as amulets.

In ancient Hibernia, the former western limit of the known world, the
Druids, in their medical treatment, relied much upon magic rites and
incantations.[129:1] And the early Irish physicians, who belonged to the
Druid priesthood, were devoted to mystical medicine, although they also
prescribed various herbs with whose therapeutic use they were
familiar.[129:2] In Ireland according to Lady Wilde,[129:3] invocations
were formerly in the names of the Phenician god Baal, and of the Syrian
goddess Ashtoreth, representing the sun and moon respectively. . . .
After the establishment of Christianity, formulas of invocation were
usually in the names of Christ or the Holy Trinity, and those of Mary,
Peter, and numerous saints were also used. In Brand's "Popular
Antiquities,"[129:4] we find a long list of the names of saints who were
invoked for the cure of particular ailments; and the same authority
quotes from a work entitled "The Irish Hubbub," by Barnaby Rich, 1619,
these lines: "There is no disease, no sicknesse, no greefe, either
amongst men or beasts, that hath not his physician among the saints."

The devotion of the Teutonic tribes to magical medicine is not
surprising to any one versed in the mythological lore of Scandinavia,
which is replete with sorcery. And throughout the Middle Ages, although
medical practice was largely in the hands of Christian priests and
monks, yet sorcerers and charlatans continued to employ old pagan usages
and magical remedies. The German physicians of the Carlovingian era
pretended to cure ailments by whispering in the patient's ear, as well
as by the use of enchanted herbs. They inherited ceremonial formulas
from the practitioners of an earlier age, for the treatment of
ophthalmic diseases; and in addition to such spells, they made use of
various gestures, and were wont to thrice touch the affected
eyes.[130:1]

In Grimm's "Teutonic Mythology"[130:2] is to be found an old German
spell against gout, as follows: "God, the Lord went over the land; there
met him 70 sorts of gouts and goutesses. Then spake the Lord: 'Ye 70
gouts and goutesses, whither would ye?' Then spake the 70 gouts and
goutesses: 'We go over the land and take from men their health and
limbs.' Then sp