ancient almost as the race of man
This use of violent words or deeds in the cure of disease is as
ancient almost as the race of man. The early Germans attempted
to relieve sprains by reciting confidently how Baldur"s horse
had been cured by Woden after all the other mighty inhabitants
of Valhalla had given up the task, and even earlier tribes of
Europe and Asia had used for illness such a formula as: 'The
great mill stone that is India"s is the bruiser of every worm.
With that I mash together the worms as grain with a mill
stone.' Long after Christianity had reached the Anglo- Saxons
of England, the sick often hung around their necks an image of
Thor"s hammer to frighten away the demon germs that sought to
destroy the body. This appeal to a superior being was common to
all Indo-European races, and the early Christian missionaries
wisely did not attempt to stamp out a belief of such antiquity,
but merely substituted the names of Christ, the Virgin Mary and
the saints for those of the heathen deities. And even into the
nineteenth century this ancient form of faith cure persisted;
for there are living yet in Cornwall people who heard, as
children, this charm for tooth-ache:
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