FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132  
133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   >>   >|  
"The Root of Vervin hanged at the neck of such as have the King's Evil, it brings a marvellous and unhoped help." To this Brand adds: "Squire Morley of Essex used to say a Prayer which he hoped would do no harm when he hung a bit of vervain root from a scrophulous person's neck. My aunt Freeman had a very high opinion of a baked Toad in a silk Bag, hung round the neck."[119] _Toothache._--People in North Hampshire, England, sometimes wore a tooth taken from a corpse, kept in a bag and hung around the neck, as a remedy for toothache. _Whooping-Cough._--About the middle of the last century there appeared the following in the _London Athenaeum_: "The popular belief as to the origin of the mark across the back of the ass is mentioned by Sir Thomas Browne, in his 'Vulgar Errors,' and from whatever cause it may have arisen it is certain that the hairs taken from the part of the animal so marked are held in high estimation as a cure for the hooping-cough. In this metropolis, at least so lately as 1842, an elderly lady advised a friend who had a child dangerously ill with that complaint, to procure three such hairs, and hang them round the neck of the sufferer in a muslin bag. It was added that the animal from whom the hairs are taken for this purpose is never worth anything afterwards, and, consequently, great difficulty would be experienced in procuring them; and further, that it was essential to the success of the charm that the sex of the animal, from whom the hairs were to be procured, should be the contrary to that of the party to be cured by them." The _Worcester Journal_ (England), in one of its issues for 1845, had this astounding item: "A party from the city, being on a visit to a friend who lived at a village about four miles distant, had occasion to go into the cottage of a poor woman, who had a child afflicted with the hooping-cough. In reply to some inquiries as to her treatment of the child, the mother pointed to its neck, on which was a string fastened, having nine knots tied in it. The poor woman stated that it was the stay-lace of the child's godmother which, if applied exactly in that manner about the neck, would be sure to charm away the most troublesome cough! Thus it may be seen that, with all the educational efforts of the present day, the monster Superstition still lurks here and there in his caves and secret places."[120] We find that not only human beings but animals profited by amulets. An a
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132  
133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
animal
 

England

 

friend

 

hooping

 

difficulty

 
village
 
purpose
 

astounding

 
Worcester
 

procured


success

 

essential

 
procuring
 

contrary

 
issues
 

Journal

 
experienced
 
mother
 

Superstition

 

monster


present

 

educational

 

efforts

 

secret

 

places

 

animals

 

profited

 

amulets

 

beings

 

troublesome


inquiries

 
treatment
 

pointed

 

fastened

 

string

 
occasion
 

cottage

 
afflicted
 

applied

 
manner

godmother
 

stated

 
distant
 
metropolis
 

opinion

 

Freeman

 
scrophulous
 

person

 
corpse
 

remedy