764 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



this day practiced by the peasantry of various districts in England 

 and Scotland, I will quote a few which are considered certain reme- 

 dies. The Northumbrian cure for warts is to take a large black snail, 

 rub the wart well with it, and then impale the poor snail on a thorn- 

 hedge. As the poor creature wastes away, the warts will surely dis- 

 appear. 



In the west of England eel's blood serves the same purpose. For 

 goitre or wen a far more horrible charm must be tried. The hand of 

 a dead child must be rubbed nine times across the lump, or, still 

 better, the hand of a suicide. It is not many years since a poor 

 woman living in the neighborhood of Hartlepool, acting on the advice 

 of a " wise woman," went alone by night to an out-house where lay 

 the corpse of a suicide awaiting the coroner's inquest. She lay all 

 night with the hand of the corpse resting on her wen ; but the mental 

 shock of that night of horror was such that she shortly afterward died. 



In the neighborhood of Stamfordham, in Northumberland, whoop- 

 ing-cough is cured by putting the head of a live trout into the mouth 

 of the patient, and letting the trout breathe into the child's mouth. 

 Or else a hairy caterpillar is put in a small bag and tied round the 

 neck of the child, whose cough ceases as the insect dies. 



A peculiar class of remedy is that of making offerings of hair as 

 a cure for whooping-cough. In Sunderland, the crown of the head is 

 shaved, and the hair hung upon a bush or tree, in full faith that, as 

 the birds carry away the hair, so will the cough vanish. In Lincoln- 

 shire, a girl suffering from ague, cuts a lock of her hair, and binds it 

 round an aspen-tree, praying it to shake in her stead. In Ross-shire, 

 where living cocks are still occasionally buried as a sacrificial remedy 

 for epilepsy, some of the hair of the patient is generally added to the 

 offering. And at least one holy well in Ireland (that of Tubber Quan, 

 near Carrick-on-Suir) requires an offering of hair from all Christian 

 pilgrims who come here on the last three Sundays in June to worship 

 St. Quan ; part of the ceremonial required is that they should go 

 thrice round a neighboring tree on their bare knees, and then each 

 must cut off a lock of his hair, and tie it to a branch as a charm 

 against headache. The tree, thus fringed with human hair of all col- 

 ors, some newly cut, some sun-bleached, is a curious sight, and an ob- 

 ject of deep veneration. 



Travelers who remember the tufts of hair which figure so largely 

 among the votive offerings in Japanese temples, may trace some feel- 

 ing in common between the kindred superstitions of these Eastern 

 and Western isles. 



Hideous is the remedy for toothache practiced at Tavistock in 

 Devonshire, where a tooth must be bitten from a skull in the church- 

 yard, and kept always in the pocket. 



Spiders are largely concerned in the cure of ague. In Ireland the 

 sufferer is advised to swallow a living spider. In Somerset and 



