dicine in the Anglo-Saxon Times_.

[107:2] Lady Wilde, _Ancient Cures, Charms, and Usages of Ireland_.

[108:1] This is the earliest mention of a medical charm in classic
literature, and hence originated the phrase "Homeric Cure," as applied
to healing by magical verses.

[108:2] Canto III, section xxiii.

[109:1] James Mooney, _The Medical Mythology of Ireland_.

CHAPTER X

HEALING-SPELLS IN ANCIENT TIMES

Neither doth fansy only cause, but also as easily cure
diseases; as I may justly refer all magical cures thereunto,
performed, as is thought, by saints, images, relicts, holy
waters, shrines, avemarys, crucifixes, benedictions, charms,
characters, sigils of the planets, inverted words, etc. And
therefore all such cures are rather to be ascribed to the
force of the imagination, than to any virtue in themselves.
RAMESEY, _Elminthologia_: 1668.

His night-spell is his guard, and charms his physicians.
BISHOP HALL, _Characters of Vertues and Vices_.

Certain Chaldean and Persian words were formerly believed to have a
particular efficacy against the demons of sickness. The languages of
men, it was averred, were not of human origin, but were gifts from the
gods; and inasmuch as magic had its source in Chaldea and other Eastern
countries, it was reasoned that certain words of the languages spoken in
those places were possessed of an inherent magical value.[111:1] Hence
these words were used in invocations addressed to spirits. In the
popular belief of the ancient Babylonians, illnesses were caused by the
entrance into the body of divers aerial spirits, and incantations were
the chief means employed for their expulsion.

In Accadian medical magic, on the same principle, bedridden patients
were treated by fastening about their heads "sentences from a good
book."[112:1] Naturally, among nations where such views prevailed,
physicians were but little esteemed, and the cure of disease devolved
upon exorcists and sorcerers. Medicine was merely a branch of Magic, and
not a rational science, as in more enlightened countries. Incantations
against the spirits of disease were usually recited by the priests, who
were supposed, by reason of their education and training, to be
specially expert in the choice of the most efficient formulas.

The Chaldean medical amulets were of various kinds. Frequently they
consisted of prec