June 15. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



37 



female she asks a man), without either giving money, 

 saying what it is wanted for, or returning thanks 

 when received. The lace so obtained must be 

 worn round the neck for the space of nine days ; 

 at the expiration of which, it is said, the patient 

 will experience no return of the disorder. 



Cramp. — We still retain such a high sense of 

 the efficacy of the form of the cross, that in case of 

 spasms, or that painful state of the feet in which 

 they are said to " sleep," it is commonly used, 

 under the impression that it mitigates, if not en- 

 tirely allays, the pain. Warts are also charmed 

 away by crossing them with elder sticks : and a 

 very common charm for the cramp consists in the 

 sufferer's always taking care, when he pulls off liis 

 shoes and stockings, to place them in such a posi- 

 tion as to form a resemblance to the " holy sign." 



Another and very common charm resorted to for 

 the cure of this painful disorder, consists in the 

 wearing about the person the patella of a sheep or 

 lamb, here known as the " cramp-bone." Tliis is 

 worn as near the skin as possible, and at night is 

 laid under the pillow. One instance of a human 

 patella being thus used has come under my notice, 

 but I believe this to be by no means common. 



Toothache. — Few ailments have more charms 

 for its cure than this. In point of efficacy none 

 are reckoned better than a tooth taken from the 

 mouth of a corpse, which is often enveloped in a 

 little bag, and hung round tlie neck. A double 

 nut is also sometimes worn in the pocket for the 

 same purpose. 



Hooping-cough. — A small quantity of hair is 

 taken from the nape of the child's neck, roUed up 

 in a piece of meat, and given to a dog, in the firm 

 belief that the disease thereby becomes transferred 

 to the animal. A friend informs me that the same 

 charm is well known in Gloucestershire. 



Rheumatism. — The right forefoot of a hare, worn 

 constantly in the pocket, is considered a fine amulet 

 against the " rheumatiz." 



West. — In order to be rid of the painful tumour 

 on the eyelid, provincially known as ihQ west ov 

 sty, it is customary for the sufferer, on the first 

 night of the new moon, to procure the tail of a 

 black cat, and after pulling from it one hair, rub 

 the tip nine times over the pustule. As this has a 

 very cabalistic look, and is moreover frequently 

 attended with sundry severe scratches, a gold ring 

 is found to be a much more harmless substitute; 

 and as it is said to be equally beneficial witli the 

 former, it is now more commonly used. This 

 superstition is alluded to by Eeaumont and 

 Fletcher, Mad Lovers, v. 4. : — 



" I have a sty licre, Chilax. 



Chi. I have no gold to curt- it, not a penny." 



Thorn. — Tlic following word chnrm is used to 

 prevent a thorn from festering : — 



" Our Saviour was of a virgin born, 



His head was crowned with a crown of thorn ; 



It never canker'd nor fester'd at all, 



And 1 hope in Christ Jesus this never shaull [shall]." 



This will remind the reader of the one given by 

 Pepys, vol. ii. p. 415. T. S. 



BEASICHELLEN AND SERPILITIS — EXPUKGATORT 

 INDEX. 



I have a note, and should be glad to put a 

 query, on the subject of a small octavo volume, 

 of which the title is, " Indicis Librorum Ex- 

 purgandorum, in studiosorum gratiam confecti, 

 tomus primus ; in quo quinquaginta auctorum 

 libri pr£e cseteris desiderati emendantur. Per Fr. 

 lo. Mariam Brasichellensem, sacri Palatii Apostolici 

 Magistrum, in unum corpus redactus, et publicaB 

 commoditati editus. Superiorum permissu, Komae, 

 1607." Speaking of this index, Mendham says : — 



" We now advance to perhaps the most extraordinary 

 and scarcest of all this class of publications. It is the 

 first, and last, and incomplete Expurgatory Index, which 

 Riime herself has ventured to present to the world, and 

 which, soon after the deed was done, she condemned 



and withdrew After a selection of some of the 



rules in the last edition of the Expurgatory Index, the 

 editor in his address informs the reader, that, under- 

 standing the expurgation of books to be not the least 

 important part of his office, and wishing to make books 

 more accessible to students than they were without ex- 

 purgation, he had availed himself of the labours of his 

 predecessors, and, adding his own, issued the pre- 

 sent volume, intending that a secoi.d, which was in 

 great readiness, should quickly follow ; (but, alas ! it 

 was not allowed so to do). Dated Rome, from the 



Apostolic Palace, 1607 Nothing more remains 



on the subject of this Index, than to report what is 

 contained in the inaccessible work of Zobelius, l^otitia 

 Indicis, Sec, but repeated from by Struvius or Ingler, his 

 editor, in tire liibliotheca Hist. Lit. — that Brasichellen 

 or Guanzellus, was assisted in the work by Thomas 

 Malvenda, a Dominican ; that another edition was 

 printed at Bergomi in 1608; that when a fresh one 

 was in preparation at Antwerp in 1612, it was sup- 

 pressed ; and that, finally, the author, like Montanus, 

 found his place in a future index." 



The second volume promised never appeared. 

 The work, however, became exceedingly scarce ; 

 which induced Serpilius, a priest of Katisbon, in 

 172.3, to print an edition so closely resembling the 

 original, as to admit of its being represented as the 

 same. The imposition, however, being detected, 

 another edition was prepared by llesselius, a 

 printer of Altorf, in 1745; and then the remaining 

 copies of the former threw off their mask, and 

 ajipeared with a new title-page as a sec^ind edition. 

 The original and counterfeit editions of tliis pecu- 

 liar work pre sufficiently alike to deceive any 

 person, who should not examine them in literal 

 juxtaposition; but upon such examination, thede- 



