Signbook
A signbook (signeringsbok), a hand-copied Swedish book of signs used by folk healers and 'kloka gummor', the wise women and men of the parish. The volumes collected prayers, magical signs, and formulae for 'signing' wounds, bleeding, disease, and fire. Several Swedish signbooks from the 17th to 19th centuries survive in archives, mixing Christian prayers with folk-magical practice. The practice of 'signing' — speaking or drawing a fixed formula over the ailing part — was the ordinary work of the kloka, who might be consulted when the parish priest could not help. Some books were copied from on