64 FOLK-LORE REMINISCENCES. 



fully two thousand years until the present generation, but 

 these traditions have during the last hundred years been 

 becoming fainter and fainter until they have now almost 

 disappeared. 



The following I obtained from Pulham in 1905 : To cure 

 loo or looer in cows, a disease that breaks out just above the 

 hoof. Find the cow where she is resting early on a dewy 

 morning. Turn her up and mark carefully the spot where 

 she places the diseased foot at the third step. Then cut out 

 the sod and place it uside down in a white thorn bush, and as 

 the sod dries up and dies so the looer will dry up and heal. 



Old Mrs. L., of Bishop's Down, who died at the great age 

 of 93 in 1910, had a great reputation for curing the redwater 

 and other diseases in cows. I asked her son to try and find 

 out before she died the nature of her charm. He told me 

 afterwards that he had asked her, and her reply was " Lah ! 

 bless 'ee, I does nothin', only prays the Lord to cure 'em." 

 I don't think that the old lady took any fee for her charm. 



My friend W. T. is a great pig breeder, and at times some of 

 his pigs got crippled with rheumatism. He told me that the 

 way to cure this was to cut off the tip of their tails. He said 

 that " it made a tar'ble mess as they bled zo." I suggested 

 cauterising the tips to stop bleeding, but he replied " Bless 

 'ee 'tis the bleedin' that does the good, as it draas the blood 

 away from their heads." He also told me that when the pig 

 had anything the matter with its lungs the best way to cure 

 it was to open its mouth and make four gashes in its throat. 

 " A pig al'as zwallers everything and never allows it to come 

 out of its mouth ag'in, zo that the blood gets down into its 

 lungs and cures 'em." He could not tell me why four gashes 

 were necessary, but was very firm that it must be four. 



At Buckland Newton one day I chanced to remark on some 

 very talkative individuals. The old farmer who was walking 

 by my side soliloquised thus : 



" Ah ! a quiet zow eats up the loud zow's meat ; 

 While the loud zow is a'squeakin' the quiet zow 

 fills her belly." 



