556 Some Supet-stitions appertaining 



lowing editorial note : — "I judge our author something too 

 womanish in this ; that is, led more by vain opinion than by 

 any reason or experience, to confirme this his assertion ; 

 which frequent experience shews to be vaine and frivolous, 

 especially for the touching, striding over, or comming neere 

 to this herbe." (Johnson's Gerarde, p. 846.) 



Charms or Superstitious Ceremonies for the Cure of the Ague 

 were much employed of old ; and " abacadabra," or 

 similar gibberish, written in fantastic shapes, and with much 

 formality, constituted, with our ancestors, most potent reme- 

 dies.* Another infallible remedy was as follows : — A lock 

 of hair was to be cut from the nape of the patient's neck, 

 which he was himself to take to a particular aspen tree, 

 pointed out for the purpose. An incision was then made in 

 the bark, under which the severed lock of hair was to be left 

 deposited, and the bark closed up, and restored to its natural 

 position. All this (as I have said) was to be performed by 

 the patient himself; and it is not for me to say that the 

 exertion occasioned by the performance of this ceremony 

 might not induce perspiration, e. g., or other salutary effects, 

 having a natural tendency to mitigate the disorder ; or, what 

 is, perhaps, still more probable, the disorder abated of itself, 

 and not so much in consequence of the treatment as in spite of 

 it. The aspen tree (Populus tr^mula) was, of course, selected 

 on these occasions on account of the trembling propensity of 

 its leaves, between which and the quaking and shivering of 

 the patient it was obvious to trace a fanciful analogy. 



To cure the Hooping-Cough^ we are recommended to meet 

 with a man on a skewbald horse, and to enquire of him what 

 is good for the complaint f ; the remedy, whatever it may be, 

 which he recommends, will prove infallible. Within my 

 recollection, a near relative of my own, out of pure curiosity, 

 put the question to an honest countryman mounted on a 

 horse of the above description : the answer was returned off 

 hand, and without hesitation : — " Give them sugared bread 

 and butter. Sir." The readiness of the man's reply was 

 proof sufficient that the question had been often put to him, 

 as, indeed, he acknowledged it had been, and that he had 

 always given the same inoffensive answer. For the same 

 complaint in a child, it is recommended that the little suf- 



* See Brand, ii. 579. " In the Diary of Elias Ashmole, Esq., 

 April 11. 1681, is preserved the following curious incident: — * I took, 

 early in the morning, a good dose of elixir, and hung three spiders about 

 my neck, and they drove my ague away.' " — Ihid.y p. 590. 



-j- This superstition is mentioned by Brand as still remaining in Devon- 

 shire and Cornwall, (ii. 581.) 



