Note 26 — Chapter IV · A STRING OF QUAINT BEADS FROM MANY LANDS.

In most of these magical cures, the person bearing the healing draught to the sick was forbidden to speak to any one by the way—or if the sick man came to drink himself, he was bidden to walk straight away, and not look back. In the sacred record of one of Elisha’s miracles, a curious coincidence suggests itself. When the child of the Shunamite lies dead, and Elisha bids Gehazi take his staff, and lay it on the face of the child, he expressly commands, “If thou meet any man, salute him not, and if any salute thee, answer him not again.” Another coincidence in the same story is the use of the mystic numbers, common to East and West; Elisha stretches himself three times on the body of the child, who then awakes, and sneezes seven times.