When These Are
Come The Sick Man Tells What Ails Him, And Then The Conjurors
Incontinently Begin Playing On Their Instruments And Singing And Dancing;
And The Conjurors Dance To Such A Pitch That At Last One Of Them Shall
Fall To The Ground Lifeless, Like A Dead Man.
And then the devil entereth
into his body.
And when his comrades see him in this plight they begin to
put questions to him about the sick man's ailment. And he will reply:
"Such or such a spirit hath been meddling with the man,[NOTE 9] for that
he hath angered the spirit and done it some despite." Then they say: "We
pray thee to pardon him, and to take of his blood or of his goods what
thou wilt in consideration of thus restoring him to health." And when they
have so prayed, the malignant spirit that is in the body of the prostrate
man will (mayhap) answer: "The sick man hath also done great despite unto
such another spirit, and that one is so ill-disposed that it will not
pardon him on any account;" - this at least is the answer they get, an the
patient be like to die. But if he is to get better the answer will be that
they are to bring two sheep, or may be three; and to brew ten or twelve
jars of drink, very costly and abundantly spiced.[NOTE 10] Moreover it
shall be announced that the sheep must be all black-faced, or of some
other particular colour as it may hap; and then all those things are to be
offered in sacrifice to such and such a spirit whose name is given.
[NOTE 11] And they are to bring so many conjurors, and so many ladies, and
the business is to be done with a great singing of lauds, and with many
lights, and store of good perfumes. That is the sort of answer they get if
the patient is to get well. And then the kinsfolk of the sick man go and
procure all that has been commanded, and do as has been bidden, and the
conjuror who had uttered all that gets on his legs again.
So they fetch the sheep of the colour prescribed, and slaughter them, and
sprinkle the blood over such places as have been enjoined, in honour and
propitiation of the spirit. And the conjurors come, and the ladies, in the
number that was ordered, and when all are assembled and everything is
ready, they begin to dance and play and sing in honour of the spirit. And
they take flesh-broth and drink and lign-aloes, and a great number of
lights, and go about hither and thither, scattering the broth and the
drink and the meat also. And when they have done this for a while, again
shall one of the conjurors fall flat and wallow there foaming at the
mouth, and then the others will ask if he have yet pardoned the sick man?
And sometimes he shall answer yea!
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