#leechbook

Bald's Leechbook, an Old English medical text written in the ninth century, includes magical henbane ointment recipes....such as one ointment that protects against "the elfin race, nocturnal goblin visitors, and for the women with whom the devil hath carnal commerce." The salve should be placed under an altar and the physician should sing nine Masses over it. If a person were struck by elves, the ointment would be rubbed on the forehead and in the eyes. The patient is then to be fumigated with incense as the leech makes signs of the cross over her or him."

An anonymous leechbook dated to the 15th century, lists numerous concoctions for folk ointments, which contain psychoactive, soporific, and hallucinogenic plants: henbane, opium poppy, hemlock, and deadly nightshade (belladonna). Medical pastes like the Emplastrum bonum strutorium contain several known psychoactives: cannabis, nightshade, and henbane. One ointment in particular is referred to simply as “Henbane Oil”; henbane is the only ingredient, and the preparation involves burying the leaves in various holed pots for a year.  Setting it apart from others in the book, the recipe does not mention what the oil was used for.  Wormwood should be mixed with ergot into a plaster to help with “the ache of the stomach that cometh with wind.” Ergot can also be mixed with honey and vinegar, and rubbed onto teeth “that worms be in.”  One particularly popular... remedy for toothache involves inhaling the fumes of burning henbane seeds, leed-seed, and incense. A plaster for “boils on women’s teats” consists of nothing more than bean-meal, the oil of an egg, and deadly nightshade. Another plaster used “to cease weeping” is made of henbane, egg whites, incense, vinegar, and women’s breast milk. The author knew which plants had powerful soporific effects; he mentions an ointment made of henbane, smallage, and mint that should be rubbed on the forehead and temples “[f]or him that may not sleep.” Another used to “put a man to sleep” involves hemlock-root.  A drink “to make a man sleep all day” consists of the hallucinogenic and soporific mixture of deadly nightshade, opium, and ale.

When Reseaching Leechbook III