hen the sun is set where thou
knowest that helenium stands, then sing the Benedicite and
Pater Noster and a litany and stick thy knife into the wort,
make it stick fast and go away; go again when day and night
just divide; at the same period go first to church and cross
thyself and commend thyself to God; then go in silence and,
though anything soever of an awful sort or man meet thee,
say not thou to him any word ere thou come to the wort which
on the evening before thou markedst; then sing the
Benedicite and the Pater Noster and a litany, delve up the
wort, let the knife stick in it; go again as quickly as thou
art able to church and let it lie under the altar with the
knife; let it lie till the sun be up, wash it afterwards,
and make into a drink with bishopwort and lichen off a
crucifix; boil in milk thrice, thrice pour holy water upon
it and sing over it the Pater Noster, the Credo and the
Gloria in Excelsis Deo, and sing upon it a litany and score
with a sword round about it on three sides a cross, and then
after that let the man drink the wort; Soon it will be well
with him."--_Leech Book_, III. 62.

The instructions for a horse or cattle that are elf-shot runs thus:--

"If a horse or other neat be elf-shot take sorrel-seed or
Scotch wax, let a man sing twelve Masses over it and put
holy water on the horse or on whatsoever neat it be; have
the worts always with thee. For the same take the eye of a
broken needle, give the horse a prick with it, no harm shall
come."--_Leech Book of Bald_, I. 88.

Another prescription for an elf-shot horse runs thus:--

"If a horse be elf-shot, then take the knife of which the
haft is the horn of a fallow ox and on which are three brass
nails, then write upon the horse's forehead Christ's mark
and on each of the limbs which thou mayst feel at: then take
the left ear, prick a hole in it in silence, this thou shalt
do; then strike the horse on the back, then will it be
whole.--And write upon the handle of the knife these words--

"Benedicite omnia opera Domini dominum.

"Be the elf what it may, this is mighty for him to
amend."--_Leech Book of Bald_, I. 65.[15]

Closely allied to the doctrine of the elf-shot is that of "flying
venom." It is, of course, possible to regard the phrase as the graphic
Anglo-Saxon way of describing infectious