NATURAL HISTORY of N RWAY. 131 



the head is reftored to its natural pofition. The relief for a ram 

 or a cow is to perforate its horns, from whence a purulent 

 matter iffues. 



Another kind of noxious plant is known under the name of 

 Tourgrafs, which is probably derived from its effect, the word 

 Signifying the magic, or bewitching grafs ; it coniifts of long thin 

 ftalks, extending themfelves upon the ground, . with little roundifh 

 leaves about the bignefs of a Danim-ihilling, in other refpects 

 like moufe-ear. This plant affects horfes and cows with an un- 

 ufual torpor, or a kind of lethargy, fo that the moft mettlefom 

 horfe immediately hangs his head, and becomes {o dull and trac- 

 table, as to be managed at will. It is a known practice among 

 jockeys, when riding together to a fair, to watch an opportunity 

 of conveying fome Tourgrafs into the mouth of another's- horfe 

 if he chances to be fo much preferable as to prejudice the fale of 

 the latter. The refource of the peafants againft this diftemper, 

 and others incident to horfes and cattle, is either caftoreum, or a 

 piece of an adder, put into dough, and thruft down the throat 

 of the beaft. If it be not the adder's head, but fome other part, 

 then the adder mult be killed before midfummer, and be fet apart 

 for this ufe. 



In fome places, particularly in Hardanger, the mountains pro-Mate «x. %. 

 fc duce a plant not unlike rue, but with fewer leaves, called Torboe * 

 likewife Hefte-fpring (the horfe-plant) from its particular fatality 

 to horfes, and it is only in extreme hunger that they will touch 

 it. Upon the flrft fymptoms of having eat any of it, a ftrong 

 purge of ye aft, or any other cathartic, generally relieves them, ■ or 

 likewife violent exercife, to breath them ; without this relief, they 

 are immediately feized with a prodigious fwelling in their belly 

 and a kind of lethargy. This herb, which is flatulent in the 

 higheft degree, is no wife detrimental to cows, fheep, or other ru 

 urinative cattle, as in chewing their fodder they draw in the air 

 There is in Vaas a plant called Turte, and from the little differ- 

 ence of the name, and the fimilar torpid effects, for which the 

 poor creatures are often mifufed by the inconfidemte peafants, I 

 was inclined to think it the fame as the former ; but being very 

 well acquainted with the Torboe, having an exact draught of it, 

 I hnd no manner of refemblance betwixt it and the Turte, which 

 PARTL M - has 



