words
Our Anglo-Saxon forefathers had great faith in mysterious
words. The less they understood these the more they believed in
the curative power. Thus the name of foreign idols and gods
brought terror to the local demons that enter one"s body, and
when Christianity first entered England, and its meanings were
but dimly understood, the names of saints, apostles and even
the Latin and Greek forms of 'God' and 'Jesus' were enemies to
all germs. Then, too, what comfort a jumbling of many languages
brought to the patient, especially if the polyglot cure were
expressed in rhythmic lines. Here, for instance, in at least
five languages, is a twelfth century cure for gout:
clevelandohiopartybus
