The Seventh Son

A seventh son, and still more the seventh son of a seventh son, was believed to have the gift of healing. Cornish miners and country people held that he could cure the king’s evil by stroking the sore three times, blowing on it three times, saying a form of words and giving a holed coin to wear. The Joneses of Muddfi in Wales were said to have seven sons in every generation, the seventh always becoming a doctor, and in Ireland the seventh son of a seventh son was thought to prophesy as well as heal.