pPant "bore, "heQer^f, anel Isijric/', 259 



little wine, and adds that the leaves "heale the eies that hang 



out." In Cornwall, Bramble-leaves, wetted with spring water, 



are employed as a charm for a scald or burn. The moistened 

 leaves are applied to the burn whilst the patient repeats the fol- 

 lowing formula: — 



" There came three angels out of the East, 

 One lirought fire, and two brought frost ; 

 Out fire and in frost ; 



In the name of the P'ather, Son, and Holy Ghost. 



Amen." 



A similar incantation to the above is used as a charm for inflam- 

 matory disease. The formula is repeated three times to each one 

 of nine Bramble-leaves immersed in spring water, passes being 

 meanwhile made with the leaves frotn the diseased part. A cure 

 for rheumatism is to crawl under a Bramble, which has formed a 

 second root in the ground ; and to charm away boils, the sufferer 

 should pass nine times, against the Sun, under a Bramble-bush 

 growing at both ends. In Devonshire, a curious charm for the 

 cure of blackhead or pinsoles consisted in creeping under an 

 arched Bramble. The person affecled by this troublesome malady 

 has to creep on hands and knees under or through a Bramble 

 three times, with the Sun — that is, from east to west. The Bramble 

 must be of peculiar growth, forming an arch rooting at both ends, 

 and if possible reaching into two proprietors' lands; so that a 

 Bramble is by preference selecT;ed, of which the original root is in 

 the hedge of one owner, and the end of the branch forming the 



arch is rooted in the meadow of another. The Bramble has 



funereal associations, and its young shoots have long been used to 

 bind down the sods on newly-made graves in village churchyards. 

 Jeremy Taylor, when commenting on mortality, says, referring 

 to this custom: "The Summer gives green turf and Brambles to 



bind upon our graves." The Moat of Moybolgue, in the Coimty 



of Cavan, is a sacred place in Ireland, where St. Patrick ministered. 

 According to a legend. Honor Garrigan, one Sunday during the 

 saint's lifetime, rode up the hill to church; but espying a bunch of 

 ripe Blackberries, she dismounted in order to gather them. Her 

 servant lad remonstrated upon the wickedness of her breaking 

 her fast before receiving the Holy Communion, but in vain; his 

 mistress ate the Blackberries, and then her hunger increased to 

 famine pitch, and she ate the boy and then the horse. St. Patrick, 

 alarmed by the cries of his congregation, who were afraid the 

 wicked woman would devour them also, shot her with his bow and 

 arrow — her body separating into four sections, which were buried in 

 a field outside the churchyard ; St. Patrick prophesying to the 

 terrified crowd that she would lie quiet till nine times nine of the 

 name of Garrigan should cross the stream which separated the 

 roads from the churchyard. \\'hen that took place, she would rise 

 again, and devour all before her; and that would be the way she 



s — 2 



