"The Root of Vervin hanged at the neck of
such as have the King's Evil, it brings a marvellous and unhoped
help." To this Brand adds: "Squire Morley of Essex used to say a
Prayer which he hoped would do no harm when he hung a bit of vervain
root from a scrophulous person's neck. My aunt Freeman had a very high
opinion of a baked Toad in a silk Bag, hung round the neck."[119]

_Toothache._--People in North Hampshire, England, sometimes wore a
tooth taken from a corpse, kept in a bag and hung around the neck, as
a remedy for toothache.

_Whooping-Cough._--About the middle of the last century there appeared
the following in the _London Athenaeum_: "The popular belief as to the
origin of the mark across the back of the ass is mentioned by Sir
Thomas Browne, in his 'Vulgar Errors,' and from whatever cause it may
have arisen it is certain that the hairs taken from the part of the
animal so marked are held in high estimation as a cure for the
hooping-cough. In this metropolis, at least so lately as 1842, an
elderly lady advised a friend who had a child dangerously ill with
that complaint, to procure three such hairs, and hang them round the
neck of the sufferer in a muslin bag. It was added that the animal
from whom the hairs are taken for this purpose is never worth anything
afterwards, and, consequently, great difficulty would be experienced
in procuring them; and further, that it was essential to the success
of the charm that the sex of the animal, from whom the hairs were to
be procured, should be the contrary to that of the party to be cured
by them."

The _Worcester Journal_ (England), in one of its issues for 1845, had
this astounding item: "A party from the city, being on a visit to a
friend who lived at a village about four miles distant, had occasion
to go into the cottage of a poor woman, who had a child afflicted with
the hooping-cough. In reply to some inquiries as to her treatment of
the child, the mother pointed to its neck, on which was a string
fastened, having nine knots tied in it. The poor woman stated that it
was the stay-lace of the child's godmother which, if applied exactly
in that manner about the neck, would be sure to charm away the most
troublesome cough! Thus it may be seen that, with all the educational
efforts of the present day, the monster Superstition still lurks here
and there in his caves and secret places."[120]

We find that not only human beings but animals profited by amulets. An
a