Toothache and Cuckoo Spit 157 



Herbals is recommended as a cure for wounds, and of 

 which Drayton sang : 



" The yarrow wherewithal he stops the wound-made gore," 



is here called Milddail^ or tVilffrai^ and is held in some 

 esteem as a cure for toothache, the manner of application 

 being to chew the root, or to press a bit of it into the 

 aching tooth. My informant, who suffered very much 

 from his teeth (a very prevalent complaint in the village), 

 said he had tried it without effect, but had been told by the 

 old lady who recommended it to him that he " must not 

 have done it in the right way," and was advised to 

 " persevere and have faith." I believe the doctor eventually 

 extracted the tooth instead ! Another middle-aged man, 

 whom I met one morning with a bandaged face, said he had 

 not had toothache for years, not since a gipsy woman, long 

 ago, counselled him always to put the stocking on his left 

 foot first when he got up in the morning, a practice he had 

 faithfully carried out until that morning, when, being in a 

 hurry, he had neglected the precaution. 



Some of the school children, I found, were in the habit of 

 sucking the " Cuckoo spittle " (more abundant here than in 

 most places), saying they " liked its sweetish taste." They 

 regarded it, and the little insect which it contained, as 

 " meat provided for the cuckoo," or Suran-y-gdg, but had no 

 idea of how it came upon the plants, and scarcely one of 

 their teachers was able to enlighten them. It may therefore 

 not be out of place to add that the inhabitant, and author 

 of the spittle, is the young of the " Frog-hopper " (Pytelus 

 spumarius), which lives upon the juices of the plant and 

 secretes the froth as a protection to itself from birds, as well, 

 probably, as from the heat of the sun. It is quite easily 

 reared to the perfect, or winged state, by those who are 

 curious about it ; and the injury it does to the blooms of the 

 plants attacked is too obvious in any garden, or almost on 

 any wayside, to require comment. A useful property of the 

 " spit " is that in very dry seasons it probably supplies both 

 food and moisture to the young of ground birds, such as 

 Grouse, Pheasants, or Partridges, when dew has not fallen 



