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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Apeil 1, 1367. 



RURAL NATURAL HISTORY. 



TV/TY friend "B." will, I hope, pardon me for 

 -'-'-"- " cribbing " the title of his interesting paper 

 in the April number of the Science Gossip ; but I 

 do so, because I am going to write upon the same 

 subject, and because if some of our correspondents 

 in different parts of the country were to collect the 

 curious and superstitious remedies that are in vogue 

 in their neighbourhood, and the strange ideas about 

 plants and animals that prevail amongst the people, 

 and were to record them under the same head, what 

 a book full of amusing — perhaps, now and then, of 

 instructive — matter we should have ! It would be 

 interesting to find that the same things were be- 

 lieved in remote places ; more interesting still to 

 trace them to their origin, and find the one grain of 

 truth that very often really exists, and has served 

 as the foundation upon which a fantastic structure 

 of ignorance and error has been built. Since I 

 wrote about "Strange Remedies," in one of the 

 early numbers, I have met with many more that are 

 curious, and many I had already collected, but 

 whether peculiar to Cheshire or not, I cannot tell. 



We have three infallible cures for whooping- 

 cough, or, as it is called, "Chink" cough. (The 

 drawing in of the breath in laughing is also called, 

 "Chinking.") 



Receipt No. 1. — A lock of hair is to be cut from 

 the back of the head of the child that is suffering 

 from the ailment. A hole must be bored in the 

 stem of a wicken tree (mountain ash), the lock of 

 hair stuffed into it, and the hole be plugged up 

 again. The patient will sometimes recover in two or 

 three days. That the charm may work well, how- 

 ever, it must be done secretly, or, as we should say 

 in Cheshire, " unbeknown," and the charmer must 

 not be the father of the child ; any one else can per- 

 form it. 



Receipt No. 2. — A woman whose married name 

 is the same as her maiden name has the gift of 

 curing whooping-cough. She has simply to give 

 the child something to eat or drink (it is generally 

 a " sugar butty ") and it will get well. I have a 

 neighbour who married her cousin, and did not 

 chauge her name, who, I believe, thus practises. 



Receipt No. 3. — A portion of hair from the cross 

 on a donkey's shoulders is in great demand, and is 

 thought to be very efficacious ; and very lately a 

 man came to our house, and begged some from a 

 donkey that our children ride, in order to cure his 

 child. The hair is wrapped up in flannel, and the 

 flannel sewed round the child's neck, and it is sure 

 to get well. 



In the article upon " Rural Natural History," 

 above referred to, "B." speaks of the dock being 

 used in Buckinghamshire as an antidote to the 

 sting of the nettle. It is also used here, and is, I 



think, really efficacious ; but here children make use 

 of a sort of charm when applying it, saying — 



"Dock go in, nettle come out." 



Is it possible that a grain of truth may even be 

 found in the following superstition ? If a lock of 

 human hair should be thrown out of doors, and a 

 toad should happen to get it entangled round its 

 leg, the person from whose head it came will have 

 perpetual headache for the rest of his life. What a 

 dreadful contingency ! 



It is considered very unlucky to cut a child's nails 

 during its first year; and Cheshire mothers are very 

 careful not to do so, lest it should cause the child 

 to be " light-fingered." We should think it would 

 be a good deal lighter fingered after a twelvemonth's 

 growth of nail was cut off. 



Ointment should never be spread with the first 

 finger, which is supposed to be venomous. 



Ereckles on the skin are called " fawn-freckles," 

 and are supposed to come at the same time as, ana 

 be in some way consequent on the building of birds' 

 nests. Is this because so many eggs are spotted 

 with brown ? or are the spots on the skin and those 

 on eggs supposed to be caused by the same influ- 

 ence, whatever it may be ? 



A child during its first month is supposed to see 

 all that is to happen to it through life. If it laughs 

 much, it is a sign that its life will be happy. Every 

 one must have the "frog" (thrush) once in his life. 

 If not in infancy, then certainly before death. I 

 may remark that in books this disease is called 

 thrush or " throg," and that "frog " appears to be 

 a corruption of the word " throg." It may be, how- 

 ever, not unlikely that "frog" is the older word, 

 and "throg" the corrupted pronunciation. In the 

 same way many of our country people call thistles, 

 'fistles" as if derived from the Latin "fistula." If 

 this be the true derivation, it shows that the name 

 " fistle," in common use still, is as old as the time of 

 the Romans in England ; and I am inclined to think 

 that it also shows us that the Romans had local 

 names for plants, " fistula " being a local Roman 

 name for " carduus," the classical word for thistle. 



It is thought to be very unlucky to have money 

 bidden for anything, especially a live animal, that you 

 do not wish to sell. It is sure to go wrougin some 

 way or other. This, however, is a general belief, 

 and not, I think, confined to Cheshire. 



Bees should never be bought, or if bought, should 

 be paid for in gold, otherwise they will do no good. 

 They should be either begged, or borrowed, or 

 stolen. It is the custom in Cheshire, when any one 

 wishes to begin bee-keeping, for some neighbour 

 who already keeps bees, to give him a swarm, with 

 the understanding that it is to be paid back if re- 

 quired. I have, however, seen bees bought, and for 

 a good deal less than gold, and I recollect an amus- 

 ing episode happening at a sale, where an old woman 



