THE ERD SHREW, OR SHREW-MOUSE. 
349 
other, yet the bite of a Shrew is so insignificant as to make hardly any impress even on the 
delicate skin of the human hand. 
Popular prejudice, however, here steps in, and attributes to the bite of the Shrew such 
venomous properties that in many parts of the world the viper is less feared than the little 
harmless Shrew. The very touch of the Shrew’s foot is considered as a certain herald of evil, 
and animals or men which had been “ Shrew-struck” were supposed to labor under a malady 
which was incurable except by a rather singular remedy, which partakes somewhat of the 
homoeopathic principle, that “ similia similibus curantur.” 
The curative power which alone could heal the Shrew- stroke lay in the branches of a 
Shrew ash, or an ash-tree which had been imbued with the shrewish nature by a very simple 
process. A living Shrew was captured and carried to the ash-tree which was intended to 
receive the healing virtues. An auger-hole was made into the trunk, the poor Shrew was 
introduced into the cavity, and the auger-hole closed by a wooden plug. Fortunately for the 
wretched little prisoner, the entire want of air would almost immediately cause its death. 
But were its little life to linger for ever so long a time in the ash-trunk, its incarceration would 
still have taken place, for where superstition raises its cruel head, humanity is banished. 
The popular ideas respecting the Shrew’s bite, which once reigned even over the scien- 
tific world, and are still in full force throughout many portions of the rural districts, may 
be gathered from the following extract from a curious old zoological author named Topsel, 
in his “History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents,” published in London in the year 
A.D. 1658, p. 406 : — 
“ It is a ravening beast, feigning itself gentle and tame, but being touched, it biteth 
deep, and poysoneth deadly. It beareth a cruel minde, desiring to hurt anything, neither is 
there any creature that it loveth, or it loveth him, because it is feared of all. The cats, as 
we have said, do hunt it, and kill it, but they eat not them, for if they do, they consume 
away and die. They annoy vines, and are seldom taken, except in cold ; they frequent 
ox-dung, and in the winter time repair to houses, gardens, and stables, where they are taken 
and killed. 
“ If they fall into a cart-road, they die, and cannot get forth again, as MarceTlus , Nicander , 
and Pliny affirm. And the reason is given by Philes , for being in the same, it is so amazed, 
and trembleth, as if it were in bands. And for this cause some of the ancients have prescribed 
the earth of a cart-road to be laid to the biting of this mouse as a remedy thereof. They go 
very slow]y ; they are fraudulent, and take their prey by deceit. Many times they gnaw the 
oxes hoofs in the stable. 
“They love the rotten flesh of ravens ; and therefore in France , when they have killed 
a raven, they keep it till it stinketh, and then cast it in the places where the Shrew-mice 
haunt, whereunto they gather in so great a number, that you may kill them with shovels. 
The Egyptians, upon the former opinion of holiness, do bury them when they die. And thus 
much for the description of this beast. The succeeding discourse toucheth the medecines 
arising out of this beast ; also the cure of her venomous bitings. 
“ The Shrew, which by falling by chance into a cart-rode or track, doth die upon the same, 
being burned, and afterwards beaten, or dissolved into dust, and mingled with goose-grease, 
being rubbed or anointed upon those which are troubled with the swelling coming by the 
cause of some inflammation, doth bring into them a wonderful and most admirable cure and 
remedy. The Shrew being slain or killed, hanging so that neither then nor afterwards the 
may touch the ground, doth help those which are grieved and pained in their bodies, with 
sores called fellons or biles, which doth pain them with a great inflammation, so that it be 
three times environed or compassed about the party so troubled. 
“The Shrew which dyeth in the furrow of a cart-wheel, being found and rowled in potter’s 
clay or a linnen cloth, or in crimson, or in scarlet woollen cloth, and three times marked about 
the impostrumes, which will suddenly swell in any man’s body, will very speedily and effect- 
ually help and cure the same. 
“The tail of a Shrew being cut off and burned, and afterwards beaten into dust, and 
