WITCHCRAFT IN DORSET. 53 



been told that pounded crockery which had been taken unawares 

 from a minister was a sure cure for fits. 



HEADACHE : 



It is believed by some people that a snake skin worn in the hat 

 or bonnet is a remedy for headache. 



BRONCHITIS OR WHOOPING COUGH : 



(i.) Take nine hairs from the " cross " or back of a white she- 

 ass ; sew them in a silken case or bag, and wear them round the 

 neck. A correspondent tells me that this remedy was tried some 

 20 years ago in a Dorset town, when a journey of more than a 

 dozen miles'had to be taken to find the desired kind of animal. 



(ii.) When the patient was a child the following alternative was 

 sometimes used. Pass the sufferer under the body of the donkey, 

 and then over its back, three times. In order to avoid taking cold 

 these rites were generally performed indoors, the animal having 

 been brought into the house for the purpose. 



TROUBLESOME INFANTS : 



A correspondent of Notes and Queries * says that in the centre 

 of Dorsetshire it appears to be commonly believed that a dose of 

 hare's brains is an excellent sopoiific for troublesome infants. And 

 he gives an instance of this in which a \voman, having recently 

 had the misfortune to become the mother of twins, had consulted 

 his wife as to the desirability of a dose of hare's brains. On the 

 lady's husband mentioning this circumstance to his keeper in the 

 hope of eliciting some information as to the prevalence of the 

 belief, he was informed that shortly before the wife of the keeper 

 on the adjoining manor, who had been recently confined, had called 

 at his house and had told his wife that she had been down to the 

 squire's house to beg a hare's head from the cook, in order to give 

 the brains to her baby as a sedative. 



From another correspondent in the same periodical f it would 

 appear that sometimes a dose of rabbits' brains was used for the 



* 6th Series, iv., 406, and see p. 547. 

 t Notes and Queries, 6th series, xi., 306. 



