with milk they will be beneficial to ulcers and will clear the voice. Worn in necklaces, these gems make their wearer chaste; as to their other properties, if they are crushed to a fine powder and mixed with milk, this drink will sweeten irritable temperaments; and crushed and mixed with sugar, they cure pestilential fevers.
Amber heals throat disease.
Cornelian which has been engraved with a man’s figure holding a scepter in his hand will stop hemorrhages.
Engrave on red coral a man bearing a sword; this will heal hemorrhages.
Rely upon agapis to cure sting and venomous bite, if it is dipped in water and rubbed over the wounds.
Agate stone is the very best healing for scorpion bite or serpent bites.
Here is a recipe for restoring lost youth, which should be used every seven years: On the first day of this performance, a plaster made of one ounce of saffron, two of sandalwood (which also is red), half an ounce of red roses, a measure of aloe wood, and a similar quantity of fine amber should be placed on the heart during sleep. These shall have been ground into a very fine powder and mixed with a half-pound of white purified wax, and then worked up with a sufficiency of oil of roses. This plaster must be taken off on wakening and then kept in a leaden box until used again. Now, the subject will live for some time on fowls, and these must be prepared in a certain way: for sanguine temperaments sixteen days is the prescribed time; for phlegmatics, twenty-five days are needed; and for melancholics, thirty days. He will obtain the number of fowls dictated by these times and by his appetite. These are to be kept in a large and airy yard with clear water but where there is no grass or any other kind of food for them, because they are to be given only the food which is here described: Make this of as many vipers as there are fowls. These are to be whipped in a tub until their heads and tails fall off. Then they will be skinned, and they must be soaked in vinegar and rubbed with coarse salt shaken onto a piece of rough material. Cut into small pieces, they are thrown into a large pot with half a pound of rosemary and the same of fennel, calamint, and spignel, and add half a pound of cumin. With pure water fill the pot two-thirds full and then bring gently to a boil and continue until the vipers are cooked. Add then a quantity of wheat finely sifted and of sufficient quantity to feed the fowls for the length of time which has been previously determined according to the subject’s temperament; this must be slowly poured in. This wheat is to be cooked until the essence of the reptiles has soaked in. The pot must be kept covered during this time lest the quality be affected, and it should be on a tripod so that it receives gentlest heat. The mixture will in time thicken, and if it is needed, a little water may be added to spare it burning. Finally, a preserve is added, which has been prepared ahead of citron, borage (a blue-flowered European herb), and rosemary, and a pound of fine sifted sugar. All of this is then poured in a new and air-tight jar. It must be taken every morning before breakfast and in the evenings before going to bed, half a spoonful. This will restore youth to even the oldest and most decrepit subject.
The iron that made the wound also will heal it.
If a patient suffers from a heart condition, he will cure it by eating a bull’s heart.
Balasius stone, if it is bruised and drunk with a quantity of water, will relieve infirmities in the eyes; it will also tend to help disorders of the liver.
The euphrasia, or eyebright, is good for the eyes, as can be seen because it contains a black spot.
Emerald on which is engraved the likeness of the starling will strengthen weak eyes.
A spider hung around the neck will protect against ague, or heal that condition.
Aetites or aquilaeus is a precious stone which has diverse properties. It is composed of oxide of iron with silex and alumina, and some say it is found in the neck or in the stomach of the eagle, depending upon whom one asks. It will heal falling sickness and prevent untimely birth. To prevent abortion it ought to be worn bound on the arm; if it is bound on the thigh it will aid parturition.
A cock buried under the bed will cure a patient of epilepsy in most cases.
Chips from a gallows or from any place of execution make an effective amulet against ague.
The eel has many marvelous virtues. Let him die out of the water and steep his body in strong vinegar and the blood of a vulture, and place the whole under a dunghill. The composition will raise from the dead whatever is brought to it and give life as before. Also, anyone who eats the still-warm heart of an eel will be seized with a spirit of prophecy and will be able to foretell future events.
A bloodstone can be employed for stopping the flow of blood from a wound.
Pink amethyst prevents drunkenness when it is attached to the navel. But it must be set in a silver plaque or medal, and must have a bear engraved on it. If it is dipped in water, that water will cure sterility.
Bake a spider and wear it around the neck as a charm. Spiders and their webs cure the ague.
A poultice of peeled onions which is laid on the stomach or even under the armpits will cure anyone who has taken poison internally.
This is a remedy for enchantment: Lick the child’s forehead in this manner, first upward, then across it, and then up again; then spit behind his back. This will be certain to work against a spell.
If you lick the forehead of a child with the tongue and you perceive a salt taste, this is certain proof that he has been fascinated, and the stronger the taste of salt, the more powerful the spell. If a death spell has been put, the tongue will be fairly burnt and only pure water will remove the briny taste.
To pull out a thorn easily, apply hare’s fat.
The root of gladen (iris) is a remedy for the disease known as Elf Cake, which causes a hardness of the side; take a root of gladen and make powder of it and give the patient a half a spoonful of this powder in white wine and let him eat the same quantity in his pottage at the same time and it will help him.
If afflicted by nightmares, it is best to hang a stone over the bed, which stone has a natural hole in it wherein a string may be put through and so be hanged over the sufferer.
Oak apples will not fail to tell if a child has been bewitched, even by a clever witch. Place a basin of clean water under the child’s cradle and drop into it three oak apples, keeping strict silence while doing so. If they sink, the child is surely fascinated, but if they do not, he is safe.
To cure a toothache, bore with a nail the tooth or the gum, after which drive the nail into an oak tree, the taller the better.
Amethyst expels poison when it is drunk in a potion.
To relieve asthma, take topaz in wine.
When drunk in a potion, amethyst will render the barren fruitful.
If a child has rupture, cure him by splitting an oak branch. Pass the child through the opening backward three times; if the splits afterward grow together the child will be cured, but if they do not the disease will continue.
This is an incantation to chase away nightmares:
St. George, St. George, our lady’s knight
He walked by day so did he by night:
Until such times as he her found,
He her beat and he her bound,
Until
