gly besmear him with the holy oil of her Church. We are
assured that, before Protestantism weakened the hands of priests and
rent the Church asunder, consecrated oil was regarded as an infallible
charm and love-philter.

It was the custom at one time for the Popes to send a golden key to
faithful priests, wherein was enclosed a small quantity of the filings
of St. Peter's keys, kept sacred at Rome. These charms were worn in
the bosom, to protect the happy possessor from disease, misfortune,
and evil spirits.

The ancients had their lustral water for sprinkling and purifying the
people. From them the Romanists borrowed the holy water used in their
churches. The ancients called _Dies Lustricus_, or Lustral Day, that
whereon the lustrations were performed for a child, and its name
given, which was the ninth day from the birth of a boy, and the eighth
from that of a girl. Lustral water possessed something like magical
virtue. On the great day of ceremony the nurses and domestics handed
the child backwards and forwards around a fire on the altars of the
gods; after this the infant was sprinkled with the precious water,
mixed with saliva and dust. There were public lustrations for
purifying cities, fields, and people defiled by crime or impurity. A
custom prevailed in the East, of curing sick children by weighing them
at the tomb of a saint. The counterpoising or balancing medium
consisted of money to be given to the Church.

It was generally supposed that the first snow which fell in the year
had particular virtues. Bartholin wrote a treatise on the uses of
snow, wherein he endeavoured to show that early gathered snow
preserved from the plague, cured fevers, toothache, and sore eyes. In
Denmark the people kept snow water, obtained in March, as a medicine.

Transplantation in natural magic was a method resorted to for curing
diseases by transferring them from one body to another. The
transplantation was effected either by the use of a medium or by
simple contact. If a gouty person desire to get rid of his troubles,
he is recommended to bore a hole in an oak, and deposit the parings of
his nails therein; and if one has whitlow in his finger, the pain
might be transferred to the domestic cat by rubbing the sore finger
with the ears of the animal.

The keys of a consecrated building, shaken over the heads of dogs,
horses, and cattle, when they are ill, effect a cure; and a faithful
worshipper finds relief from acute suffer