Even today there are still living representatives of an ancient
rural healer in existence. Originally she occupied various
specialist positions within a community, such as wart-healer,
herbalist, tooth-puller, blood-charmer, bone-setter, and general
quack doctor. Apparently the bone-setter was brought in after
the tooth-puller had dislocated the patient's shoulder attempting to
remove an offending tooth. The quack-doctor was originally named the
quack-salver, the name derived from the words quacken,
meaning one who talked pretentiously about his or her expert
knowledge, and salve, meaning a kind of cure.
The range covered by these specialists extended not only
to general cures of the body but also psychological therapies,
emotional disorders, and beauty treatments derived from supernatural
sources such as washing the face with dew gathered on May Day
morning or the use of urine as a skin lotion!
Such healers, or old wives, also provided attendant incantations
to be spoken during the cures, for example for a painful burn or
scald from hot water the following lines, which have no traceable
source, would have been spoken:
"There came three angels out of the West,
One brought fire and the
other brought frost.
In the name of the Father, Son and of the Holy
Ghost,
Out fire.... in frost."
