on his back on the bank of a river
or brook, having a straight staff lying by his side between him and
the water, and must have the following words repeated over him:

"Boneshave right,
Boneshave straight.
As the water runs by the stave
Good for Boneshave."[156]

_Scrofula._--Scrofula, or "king's-evil," was best cured by the touch
of the sovereign, but, if this could not be accomplished, a naked
virgin could cure it, especially if she spit three times upon it.
Stroking the affected parts nine times with the hand of a dead man,
particularly of one who had suffered a violent death as a penalty of
his crime, especially if it be murder, was long practised, and was
said to be efficacious in curing scrofula.

_Sweating Sickness._--Aubrey[157] gives a selection of the favorite
prescriptions in use against the sweating sickness. Among them was the
following: "Another very true medicine.--For to say every day at seven
parts of your body, seven paternosters, and seven Ave Marias, with one
Credo at the last. Ye shall begyn at the ryght syde, under the right
ere, saying the '_paternoster qui es in coelis, sanctificetur nomen
tuum_,' with a cross made there with your thumb, and so say the
paternoster full complete, and one Ave Maria, and then under the left
ere, and then under the left armhole, and then under the left hole,
and then the last at the heart, with one paternoster, Ave Maria with
one Credo; and these thus said daily, with the grace of God is there
no manner drede hym."

_Thorns._--Three metrical charms have been used for troubles of this
kind. _Pepys' Diary_ records "A charme for a thorne":

"Jesus, that was of a Virgin Born,
Was pricked both with nail and thorn;
It neither wealed, nor belled, rankled nor boned;
In the name of Jesus no more shall this."

Another form of the same is this:

"Christ was of a Virgin born,
And he was pricked with a thorn;
It did neither bell, nor swell;
And I trust in Jesus this never will."

Brand gives another thus:

"Unto the Virgin Mary our Saviour was born,
And on his head he wore the crown of thorn;
If you believe this true and mind it well,
This hurt will never fester, nor yet swell."[158]

_Toothache._--King in his interesting article recites this cure:
"Seeth as many little green frogges sitting upon trees as thou canst
get, in water: take the fat flowynge from them, and when nede is,
anoynt the teth therwyth. The graye worms breathing un