610 
INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 
some ailment of his cattle was the consequence of their having 
been bewitched, has recently adopted as a remedy the plan of 
killing a chicken, and roasting its heart after sticking it 
over with pins ” This experiment has been so recently adopted 
by him, the account goes on to state, that the enlightened 
agriculturist is still waiting the result. In the mean time he 
is in doubt as to the proper side, right or left, on which, for 
his own immunity, and the health of his cattle, he ought to 
pass when he meets the supposed witch. 
In Ireland, where I fear there is more superstition than in 
England, if the cow is going to calve, a piece of red worsted 
must be tied round the tail to prevent the fairies taking the 
milk away ; and if the animal gets sick, the owner must go to 
the nearest fairy lake to offer a piece of rope that has been 
used with the cow, and some pats of butter ; which last are 
thrown on the water for those little elfins. To lead diseased 
horses, and other domesticated animals, to holy wells is very 
commonly practised. Farcy, they say, is cured by a seventh 
son hugging the affected limb every morning ; and glanders by 
putting certain herbs into the animal’s ears. 
Acommon remedy for red- water in cattle, with them, is to give 
a live frog, but they very wisely follow it up with a dose of salts 
Vicious horses, they aver, may be rendered perfectly quiet by 
w hispering something to them ; but what they say they 
keep a most profound secret. 
Camden, speaking of the Irish, says : — In no case must 
you praise a horse, or any other beast, until you say f God 
bless him,’ or first spit upon him. Should you fail in this, and 
any harm befal the animal within three days after, you are 
sought for so that you may mumble a prayer in his right ear. 
They think there be some that bewitch their horses w ith look- 
ing on them, and then they use the help of some old hags, w ho, 
saying a few T prayers with a loud voice, make them well again/’ 
And now for a climax to these absurdities, at which one 
almost shudders, only it is to be hoped that in the statement 
there is some mistake : — 
In Bombay, in September, 1852, a man was arraigned at 
the Supreme Court for having robbed a so-called witch of 
some property, and also of a quantity of famous ointment that 
she kept and used for the cure of all kinds of diseases, both in 
man and beast. In the course of the inquiry she stated, that 
the ointment w T as made as follows : — “ Bring up a boy, feed 
him well, give him purgatives, write Arabic characters on his 
body, and then take him and plunge him into a panful of 
boiling-hot oil. The bones are then to be taken out, and the 
ointment is made.” 
