FOLK-LORE AND SUPERSTITIONS IN DORSET. 87 



again. She examined his leg as he sat in the cart, and then 

 went into her cabin and made up some herb lotion which she 

 rubbed in well, and told him that by the time he got to the 

 next village he would be well enough to get out and have 

 some refreshment at the publichouse. A tempting suggestion 

 of which he was able to avail himself, and by the time he got 

 home he was nearly well ; a few more applications of the 

 lotion completely cured him. 



Yet another time my friend suffered terribly from eczema 

 in the arms, especially during the Spring and Autumn. So 

 bad was he that he could not feed himself. Again he resorted 

 to the Wise Woman, and said to her, " Look'e here, missus ; 

 if you can heal this yer ex'ma, I'll gee yer vive pounds." 

 She gave him some herb ointment, and he told me that 

 three pots completely cured him. Before fulfilling his pledge 

 he waited until the Spring to see if it would break out again, 

 but " zure enough it didn't ; zo I puts the old 'oss into the 

 trap and droved over to C. and said, ' Look'e yer, missus ; 

 I be corned to pay yer the vive pounds I promised 'e if yer 

 cured my ex'ma,' " and he tendered the five pounds, but 

 the old lady would only take a pound. 



Farmer Jones also informed me that the Wise Woman 

 always picked her herbs at midnight on a full moon, as they 

 were more potent then. 



Last Autumn my son passed the old lady's cabin, and in 

 the road was a patient sitting in a cart, evidently too bad to 

 get out, and the Wise Woman was standing in front of the 

 trap with her back to him, making great flourishes in the air 

 with a willow wand, probably exorcising some demon. But 

 after all it will be seen that the real cures come from the herb 

 remedies, and that suggestions about an evil eye and flourish- 

 ing the willow wand are only adjuncts to play on the ignorance 

 of her patients. 



Such are some of the superstitions and arts that still linger 

 as quaint and interesting remnants of the past, but of which 

 the next generation will probably be ignorant, unless some 

 record of them is made. 



