Creeping through tolmen, or perforated stones, was a Druidic ceremony, and is practised in the East Indies. Borlase mentions a stone in the parish of Marden through which many persons have crept for pains in their backs and limbs, and many children have been drawn for the rickets; two brass pins being carefully laid across each other on the top edge of the stone, for oracular purposes. In the North, children are drawn through a hole cut in the groaning cheese on the day they are christened.

In the Catalogue of Stone Superstitions we must not omit to mention London Stone, and the stone in Westminster Abbey, brought from Scotland by King Edward I., which Monsieur Jorevin saw and thus describes in the Antiquarian Repertory: "Jacob's Stone, whereon he rested his head when he had the Vision of the Angels ascending and descending from heaven to earth on a long ladder. This Stone is like Marble, of a bluish colour; it may be about a foot and a half in breadth, and is inclosed in a Chair, on which the Kings of England are seated at their Coronation; wherefore to do honour to strangers who come to see it, they cause them to sit down on it."

"London Stone," says King in his Munimenta Antiqua, "preserved with such reverential care through so many ages, and now having its top incased within another stone, in Cannon Street, was plainly deemed a Record of the highest antiquity, of some still more important kind; though we are at present unacquainted with the original intent and purport for which it was placed. It is fixed, at present, close under the south Wall of St. Swithin's Church; but was formerly a little nearer the channel, facing the same place; which seems to prove its having had some more antient and peculiar designation than that of having been a Roman Milliary; even if it ever were used for that purpose afterwards. It was fixed deep in the ground, and is mentioned so early as the time of Ethelstan, King of the West Saxons, without any particular reference to its having been considered as a Roman Milliary Stone.'

From the depth and amplitude of its foundation Sir Christopher occurs in a letter from Robert Studley Vidal, Esq. of Cornborough near Biddeford (a gentleman to whom we are much indebted for incidental infor mation on the local customs of Devonshire), dated May 9th, 1806—

"An usage of the superstitious kind has just come under my notice, and which, as the pen is in my hand, I will shortly describe, though I rather think it is not peculiar to these parts. A neighbour of mine, on examining his Sheep the other day, found that one of them had entirely lost the use of its hinder parts. On seeing it I expressed an opinion that the Animal must have received a blow across the Back or some other sort of violence which had injured the spinal Marrow, and thus rendered it paralytic: but I was soon given to understand that my remarks only served to prove how little I knew of country affairs, for that the affection of the Sheep was nothing uncommon, and that the Cause of it was well known, namely, a Mouse having crept over its back. I could not but smile at the Idea; which my Instructor considering as a mark of Incredulity, he proceeded very gravely to inform me that I should be convinced of the truth of what he said by the means which he would use to restore the Animal; and which were never known to fail. He accordingly dispatched his people here and there in quest of a Field-Mouse; and having procured one, he told me that he should carry it to a particular Tree at some distance and, inclosing it within a hollow in the trunk, eave it there to perish. He further informed me that he should bring back some of the ranches of the Tree with him for the purpose of their being drawn now and then across the heep's back; and concluded by assuring me with a very scientific look that I should soon be onvinced of the efficacy of this process, for that as soon as the poor devoted mouse had ielded up his Life a prey to Famine, the Sheep would be restored to its former strength and up igour. can, however, state with certainty that the Sheep was not at all benefited by this ysterious Sacrifice of the Mouse. The Tree, I find, is of the sort called Witch Elm or Witch Hazel."

eate three small Pomegranate Flowers (they say) for an whole Yeare, he shall be safe from all maner of eyesore;" and that "it hath bene and yet is a thing which Superstition hath beleeved, that the Body anoynted with the Juyce of Cichory is very availeable to obtaine the favour of great persons." In Potter's Grecian Antiquities we read: "Homer relates how Autolycus's Sons staunched Ulysses's blood, flowing from a wound he received in hunting a wild Boar, by a Charm. The same is observed by Pliny, who adds farther that it was reported by Theophrastus that the Hip-Gout was cured in the same manner; by Cato, that a Charm would relieve any Member out of Joint; and by Marcus Varro, that it would cure the gout in the feet. Chiron in Pindar is said to use the same remedy in some Distempers, but not in all."

Douce's MS. Notes advert to the practice at Exeter of those who are affected with agues visiting at dead of night the nearest cross road five different times, and there burying a new-laid egg. "The visit is paid about an hour before the cold fit is expected; and they are persuaded that with the Egg they shall bury the Ague. If the experiment fail (and the agitation it occasions may often render it successful) they attribute it to some unlucky accident that may have befallen them on the way. In the execution of this matter they observe the strictest silence, taking care not to speak to any one whom they may happen to meet." Another remedy against the ague consisted in breaking a salted cake of bran* and giving it to a dog when the fit comes on; by which means they suppose the malady to be transferred from the patient to the animal.t

King James in his Dæmonology enumerates "such kinde of Charmes as, commonly, daft wives use for healing forspoken Goods [by Goods he means here Cattle] for preserving them from evill Eyes, by knitting Roun Trees, or sundriest kind of herbes, to the haire or tailes of the Goodes, by curing the worme, by stemming of blood; by healing of Horse Crookes; by turning of the Riddle; or doing of such like innumerable Things by words, without applying any thing meete to the part offended, as Mediciners doe: or else by staying married Folkes to have naturally adoe with other, by knitting so many knots upon a Point at the time of their Marriage."

We find the following charms in the History of Monsieur Oufle—

"Dew Cakes with honey were given to those who entered Trophonius Cave, to free them from any mischiefs from the Phantoms which shook appear. Bulbianus says that, where Purslain is laid in the Bed, those in it will not be disturbed by any Vision that night. A Diamond fastened to the

* In Whitforde's A Werke for Housholders (1537) mention is made of a charm then in use as follows: "The Charmer taketh a pece of whyt Brede, and sayth over that Breade the Pater Noster, and maketh a Crosse upon the Breade, then doth he ley that pece of Breade unto the Toth that_aketh, or unto any sore; tournynge the Crosse unto the Sore or Dysease, and so is the persone healed.' Whitforde inveighs against this as "evill and damnable."

In Pope's Memoirs of P. P. Clerk of the Parish is the following: The next Chapter relates how he discovered a Thief with a Bible and Key, and experimented Verses of the Psalms that had cured Agues."

left arm, so as to touch the skin, prevents all nocturnal Fears. To expel Phantoms and rid people of Folly, take the precious Stone Chrysolite, set it in Gold, and let them wear it about em. According to Pliny, the Antients believed that a Nail drawn out of a Sepulchre, and placed on the Threshold of the Bed-chamber door, would drive away Phantoms and Visions which terrified people in the Night; and Ostanes the Magician prescribed the dipping of our feet, in the morning, in human Urine, as a preservative against Charms."

In Berkshire there is a popular superstition that a ring made from a piece of silver collected at the Communion is a cure for convulsions and fits of every kind; and apparently that collected on Easter Sunday is peculiarly efficacious. Another superstition holds that fits may be cured by a silver ring, which is made of five sixpences collected from five different bachelors, to be conveyed by the hand of a bachelor to a smith that is a bachelor; none of those giving the sixpences knowing for what purpose, or to whom, they gave them. One may trace the same crafty motive for this superstition, as in the money given upon touching for the King's Evil. The Gentleman's Magazine for 1794 records the prevalence in Devonshire of a similar custom. The materials of the charm, however, are different. The ring must be made of three nails or screws which have been used to fasten a coffin, and must be dug out of the churchyard. Lupton quotes Mizaldus in behalf of the statement that "three Nails made in the Vigil of the Nativity of St. John Baptist (called Midsommer Eve), and driven in so deep that they cannot be seen, in the place where the party doth fall that hath the falling Sicknesse, and naming the said partie's name while it is doing, doth drive away the disease quite." "The Root of Vervin hanged at the neck of such as have the King's Evil," he adds, "brings a marvellous and unhoped help."

We learn from an annotator on Antiquities that one 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 scrofulous person's neck; while a certain lady had a very high opinion of the virtue of a baked toad hung in a silk bag round the neck. Pennant's Zoology mentions the use of live toads in the same way.

Boorde in his Introduction to Knowledge (1542) writes: "The Kynges of Englande doth halowe every yere Crampe Rynges, ye which Rynges worne on one's Fynger doth helpe them whych hath the Crampe;" and the Breviary of Health, by the same author, among the remedies of the King's Evil has the following

"For this matter, let every man make Frendes to the Kynges Majestie, for it doth perteyne to a Kynge to helpe this Infirmitie by the grace of God, the which is geven to a Kynge anoynted. But for as much as some Men doth judge divers tymes a Fystle or a Frenche Pocke to be the Kynges Evyll, in such matters it behoveth not a Kynge to medle withall."

"Rings made from Coffin-hinges are supposed to prevent the Cramp," writes Douce, who refers the reader to Waldron's Literary Museum for an account of the ceremonies attending the blessing of cramp rings on Good Friday.

To the Minute Book of the Society of Antiquaries of London, Nov.

naturall vertue in them, either from God or the Divell (although perhaps the Divell may have a collaterall intent or worke therein, namely, to drawe us unto Superstition], but by reason of the confident perswasion which melancholike and passionate people may have in them; according to the saying of Avicen, that the confidence of the Patient in the meanes used is oftentimes more available to cure Diseases then all other Remedies whatsoever.”

In Osborne's Advice to a Son (1656) we read: "Be not therefore hasty to register all you understand not in the black Calendar of Hell, as some have done the Weapon Salve, passing by the Cure of the King's Evill altogether, as improbable to Sense: lest you resemble the Pope, who anathematized the Bishop of Saltzburge for maintaining Antipodes, or the Consistory for decreeing against the probable opinion of the Earth's motion."

Werenfels writes: "If the superstitious person be wounded by any chance, he applies the Salve, not to the Wound but, what is more effectual, to the Weapon by which he received it. By a new kind of art, he will transplant his Disease, like a Scion, and graft it into what Tree he pleases. The Fever he will not drive away by Medicines; but, what is a more certain remedy, having pared his Nails, and tied them to a Cray-fish, he will turn his back, and, as Deucalion did the Stones from which a new progeny of Men arose, throw them behind him into the next River."

Of the old register in Christ Church in Hampshire, Warner affirms that it affords several curious receipts or modes of cure, evidently dated from the beginning of the seventeenth century, and couched in the uncouth phraseology of the period, for some singular cases of indis. position; which, however, he declined to embody in his Topographical Remarks from motives of delicacy.

LOVE CHARMS,

Some years ago, writes the Connoisseur, there was publicly advertised among the other extraordinary medicines whose wonderful qualities are daily related in the last page of a newspaper, a most efficacious love powder; by which a despairing lover might create affection in the bosom of the most cruel mistress. Lovers indeed have always been fond of enchantment. Shakespeare has represented Othello as accused of winning his Desdemona "by Conjuration and mighty Magic;" and both Theocritus and Virgil have introduced women into their Pastorals, using charms and incantations to recover the affections of their sweethearts. Thus also in Gay's Shepherd's Week

"Strait to the 'Pothecary's Shop I went,
And in Love Powder all my Money spent;
Behap what will, next Sunday after prayers,
When to the Ale-house Lubberkin repairs,
These golden flies into his Mug I'll throw,

And soon the Swain with fervent Love shall glow."

In Newton's Tryall of a Man's owne selfe (1602), under the head of Breaches of the Seventh Commandment, inquiry is made "whether,

by any secret sleight, or cunning, as Drinkes, Drugges, Medicines, charmed Potions, Amatorious Philters, Figures, Characters, or any such like paltering Instruments, Devises, or Practises, thou hast gone about to procure others to doate for love of thee;" and Ferrand's Love Melancholy (1640) represents: "We have sometimes among our silly Wenches some that, out of a foolish Curiosity they have, must needs be putting in practice some of those feats that they have received by Tradition from their Mother, perhaps, or Nurse; and so, not thinking forsooth to doe any harme, as they hope, they paganize it to their own damnation. For it is most certain that Botanomancy, which is done by the noise or crackling that Kneeholme, Box, or Bay-leaves make when they are crushed betwixt one's hands, or cast into the Fire, was of old in use among the Pagans, who were wont to bruise Poppy Flowres betwixt their hands, by this meanes thinking to know their Loves and for this cause Theocritus cals this hearb Tŋλipiλov, quasi Anλipiλor, as if we should say Tel-Love."

Speaking of the ancient love charms, characters, amulets, or suchlike periapses, Ferrand protests that they are "such as no Christian Physitian ought to use: notwithstanding that the common people doe to this day too superstitiously believe and put in practice many of these paganish devices."

In The Character of a Quack Astrologer (1673) we are told: "He trappans a young Heiress to run away with a Footman, by perswading a young Girl 'tis her destiny: and sells the old and ugly Philtres and Love-powder to procure them Sweethearts;" and Werenfels has it that "whenever the superstitious person is in love, he will complain that Tempting Powder has been given him."

The unfortunate Miss Blandy, who was executed many years ago for poisoning her father, persisted to the last in affirming that she thought the powder which her villainous lover, Cranston, sent her to administer to him was a love-powder, which was to conciliate her father's affection to the captain. She met her death with this asseveration, and those who have considered the wonderful power of superstition, added to the fascination of love, will be half persuaded to believe that she did not go out of the world with a lie in her mouth. Further, her dying request to be buried close to her father appears to us a corroborating proof that, though she was certainly the cause of his premature death and underwent the judgment of the law for the same, yet she was not in the blackest sense of the word his wilful murderess.

The Gentleman's Magazine for January 1731 narrates an event that occurred in December of the previous year. A man at a village near Mortagne in France had been long ill of a distemper which puzzled the physicians. His wife, believing him to be bewitched, consulted a conjuror, who showed her the wizard (her husband's uncle) in a glass of water, and told her that, to oblige him to withdraw the charm, they must beat him and burn the soles of his feet. On her return she sent for the uncle, whom with the assistance of her relations she beat unmercifully, besides burning the soles of his feet and the crown of his head in such a manner that he died within two days. When the woman and her accomplices were seized, she owned the fact, and said if it was to do again,