ne, the editor of _Saxon Leechdoms_, gives
us further remedies for colic which Alexander prescribed. "Thus for
colic, he guarantees by his own experience, and the approval of almost
all the best doctors, dung of a wolf, with bits of bone in it if
possible, shut up in a pipe, and worn during the paroxysm, on the
right arm, or thigh, or hip, taking care it touches neither the earth
or a bath."[107]

_Cramp._--The following amulets are mentioned as specifics against
cramp:

"--Wear bone Ring on thumb, or tye Strong Pack-thread below your
thigh."

The subject of cramp rings will be considered in another connection.

_Demoniacal Possession._--In the sixth century exorcists frequently
wrote the formula on parchment and suspended it from the neck of the
patient. This was as efficacious as the uttered words.

_Epilepsy._--The elder tree has been the foundation of many
superstitions, chief among which have been some connected with
epilepsy. Blochwick[108] tells us how to prepare an amulet from an
elder growing on a sallow. "In the month of October, a little before
the full moon, you pluck a twig of the elder, and cut the cane that is
betwixt two of its knees, or knots, in nine pieces, and these pieces
being bound in a piece of linen, be in a thread, so hung about the
neck, that they touch the spoon of the heart, or the sword-formed
cartilage; and that they may stay more firmly in that place, they are
to be bound thereon with a linen or silken roller wrapt about the
body, till the thread break of itself. The thread being broken and the
roller removed, the amulet is not at all to be touched with bare
hands, but it ought to be taken hold on by some instrument and buried
in a place that nobody may touch it." Some hung a cross, made of the
elder and the sallow entwined, about the children's neck.

Rings of various kinds have always been supposed to have some
superstitious power. Brand[109] tells us of some of their uses. A ring
made from a piece of silver collected at the communion is a cure for
convulsions and fits of every kind. If the silver is collected on
Easter Sunday its efficacy is greatly increased. This was the receipt
in Berkshire, but in Devonshire silver was not necessary. Here they
prefer a ring made from three nails or screws dug out of a
church-yard, which had been used to fasten a coffin. We are also
informed that another kind of ring will cure fits. It must be made
from five sixpences collected from five dif