Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/555

 Rh a yewberry, lupin, wormwood. . . . Sing this charm over him twice—

Sing also this many times: 'May earth bear on thee with all her might and main.'"

For horses and cattle suffering from "elf -shot," see Leech Book L cap. 65 and 88.

Flying venom. Closely allied to the belief in "elf-shot" is the belief in flying venom. It is, of course, possible to regard the phrase "flying venoms" as the graphic Anglo-Saxon way of describing infectious diseases, but the various synonymous phrases "the on flying things," "the loathed things that rove through the land," suggest something of more malignant activity. The idea of the wind blowing these venoms which produced diseases in the bodies on which they lighted is frequently found in Teutonic folk-lore.

In the alliterative lay in the Lacnunga the wind is described as blowing these venoms from Woden"s magic twigs, and the evil effects are blown away by the magician's song and the health-giving effects of salt and water and herbs. In the Leech Book I. 72, we find that these flying venoms were particularly malignant "fifteen nights ere Lammas and