The Orléannais is the district where the belief in the powers of the marcou is the strongest. “If a man is the seventh son of his father, no female intervening, he is a marcou; he has on some part of his body the mark of a fleur-de-lis, and, like the King of France, he has the power of curing the king’s-evil. All that is necessary to effect a cure is that the marcou should breathe upon the part affected, or that the sufferer should touch the mark of the fleur-de-lis. Of all the marcoux of the Orléannais, he of Ormes is the best known and most celebrated. Every year, from twenty, thirty, forty leagues around, crowds of patients come to visit him . . . . The marcou of Ormes is a cooper in easy circumstance, being the possessor of a horse and carriage. His name is Foulon, and in this country he is known by the appellation of ‘Le beau marcou.’ He has the fleur-de-lis on his left side.”[1]
On the Borders the sign of the seven stars marks the seventh son to be a channel of healing. If seventh sons thus marked are brought up as doctors they are in great requisition; in any case, people resort to them to be touched for the king’s-evil. The belief in their powers holds its ground firmly in the Western Highlands. There the seventh son lays his hand on the party affected, commonly, but not always, uttering an invocation to the Trinity. In the island of Lewis he gives the patient a sixpenny-piece with a hole in it, through which a string is passed to wear round the neck. Should this be taken off a return of the malady may be looked for. Dr. Mitchell adds, that when seven sons are born in succession the parents consider themselves bound, if possible, to bring up the seventh for a doctor. Seventh sons are also seers, having the privilege, if such it be, of secondsight. Their healing powers are, on the Borders, shared with twins and children born with cauls; but in all these cases the virtue is held to be so much subtracted from their own vital energy, and if much drawn upon they pine away and die of exhaustion. The Portuguese belief is widely different. A seventh son is declared in Portugal to be changed every Saturday night into an ass, and to be chased by dogs till morning light.[2]
