against whose machinations definite remedies must be applied. Not only the stars of heaven, but springs of water and the simple wayside herbs were to them directly associated with unseen beings.
I propose to take first folk-lore connected with the origin of disease, then folk-lore connected with the curing of disease, ceremonies to be performed in the picking and administering of herbs, mystic power of earth, etc. I regret that it is impossible in a short paper to touch on the comparative folk-lore of this subject. The great bulk of the folk-lore connected with the origin of disease is probably of native Teutonic origin. It would be more correct to say of Indo-Germanic origin, for these doctrines are to be found among all Indo-Germanic peoples and even in the Vedas, notably the Atharva Veda.
Beliefs in connection with the origin of disease.
The doctrine of the elf-shot. The ancient Teutonic races believed that disease was due to supernatural beings whose shafts produced illness in their victims. All the Teutonic tribes believed that waste places,[1] and marshes in particular, were the resort of these mischievous beings. These elves were of many different kinds—mountain elves, wood elves, sea elves, water elves, etc. It is possible that the water elves were the personification of the unwholesome effects of marshy lands. These elves not only attacked people but also cattle, and references to elf-shot cattle are numerous.
It is interesting to find in the Leech Book of Bald a charm implying an effort to bury the elf in the earth. This is to be found at the end of the charm for a man "in the water-elf disease." "If a man is in the water-elf disease then are the nails of his hand livid and the eyes tearful and he will look downwards. Give him this for leechdom
- ↑ Also a Babylonian belief. See Campbell Thompson, Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia.
