ormulas for the various diseases, and the belief is current
that if a healer should reveal the formula to her own sex, she would
lose her power, and if she told more than one of the opposite sex,
the power would be taken from her. The following is the method of
operating for burns:

"Take a piece of red woolen yarn and wrap it into the
shape of a ball. Pass it slowly around the burn and
while doing so, repeat three times, 'The fire burneth,
water quencheth, the pain ceaseth.' After which reverse
the movement and repeat the words again three times.
Then take the yarn upstairs, pull out the chimney-stop,
put the yarn in the chimney, and as soon as it
disappears the burn is healed."

There have been a number of cases of local healers and I give two
examples: "At the time of the prevalence of cholera in Canada, a man
named Ayers, who came out of the States, and was said to be a graduate
of the University of New Jersey, was given out to be St. Roche, the
principal patron saint of the Canadians, and renowned for his power in
averting pestilential diseases. He was reported to have descended from
heaven to cure his suffering people of the cholera, and many were the
cases in which he appeared to afford relief. Many were thus
dispossessed of their fright in anticipation of the disease, who
might, probably, but for his inspiriting influence, have fallen
victims to their apprehensions. The remedy he employed was an
admixture of maple sugar, charcoal, and lard."[202]

"The _Month_ for June, 1892, published an account, by the late Earl of
Denbigh, of a cure worked by a member of a family named Cancelli of
Lady Denbigh in 1850. She was suffering severely from rheumatism, and
the Pope (Pius IX) mentioned to the Earl that near Foligno there was a
family of peasants who were credited with a miraculous power of curing
rheumatic disorders. Lord Denbigh succeeded in getting one of the
family, an old man, to come, and learned from him the legend of the
cure. The belief was that in the reign of Nero, the Apostles Peter and
Paul took refuge in the hut of an old couple named Cancelli, near
Foligno, and, as a proof of gratitude, gave to the male descendants of
the family living near the spot the power of curing rheumatic
disorders to the end of time. Lord Denbigh described how the old man
made a solemn invocation, using the sign of the cross, and, in fact,
Lady Denbigh did recover at once. In a few days the pains returned,
b