where Edward was deposited on a couch
of heather. The surgeon, or he who assumed the office, appeared to unite the
characters of a leech and a conjuror. He was an old smoke-dried Highlander,
wearing a venerable grey beard, and having for his sole garment a tartan frock,
the skirts of which descended to the knee; and, being undivided in front, made
the vestment serve at once for doublet and breeches.54 He observed great
ceremony in approaching Edward; and though our hero was writhing with pain,
would not proceed to any operation which might assuage it until he had
perambulated his couch three times, moving from east to west, according to the
course of the sun. This, which was called making the deasil,55 both the leech
and the assistants seemed to consider as a matter of the last importance to the
accomplishment of a cure; and Waverley, whom pain rendered incapable of
expostulation, and who indeed saw no chance of its being attended to, submitted
in silence.
    After this ceremony was duly performed, the old Esculapius let his patient
blood with a cupping-glass with great dexterity, and proceeded, muttering all
the while to himself in Gaelic, to boil on the fire certain herbs, with which he
compounded an embrocation. He then fomented the parts which had sustained
injury, never failing to murmur prayers or spells, which of the two Waverley
could not distinguish, as his ear only caught the words
Gasper-Melchior-Balthazar-max-prax-fax, and similar gibberish. The fomentation
had a speedy effect in alleviating the pain and swelling, which our hero imputed
to the virtue of the herbs, or the effect of the chaffing, but which was by the
bystanders unanimously ascribed to the spells with which the operation had been
accompanied. Edward was given to understand, that not one of the ingredients had
been gathered except during the full moon, and that the herbalist had, while
collecting them, uniformly recited a charm, which in English ran thus: -
 
Hail to thee, thou holy herb,
That sprung on holy ground!
All in the Mount Olivet
First wert thou found:
Thou art boot for many a bruise,
And healest many a wound;
In our Lady's blessed name,
I take thee from the ground.56
 
Edward observed, with some surprise, that even Fergus notwithstanding his
knowledge and education, seemed to fall in with the superstitious ideas of his
countrymen, either because he deemed it impolitic to affect scepticism on a
matter of general belief, or more probably because, like most men who do not
think deeply or accurately