Domestic folk-loreThiselton-Dyer, T. F. (Thomas Firminger)
History
Domestic folk-lore
Thiselton-Dyer, T. F. (Thomas Firminger)
Folklore; Superstition
_Thrush._--There is a popular notion that a person must have this
complaint once in his life, either at his birth or death. Norfolk
nurses prefer to see it in babies, on the plea that it is healthy,
and makes them feed more freely; but if it appears in a sick adult
person he is generally given over as past recovery. Some of the
remedies for this disease are curious, as, for instance, a Cornish
one, which recommends the child to be taken fasting on three
consecutive mornings, "to have its mouth blown into" by a posthumous
child. In Devonshire the parent is advised to take three rushes from
any running stream, and to pass them separately through the mouth of
the infant. Afterwards the rushes should be thrown into the stream
again, and as the current bears them away, so will the thrush, it
is said, depart from the child. Should this prove ineffectual, the
parent is recommended to capture the nearest duck that can be found,
and to place its beak, wide open, within the mouth of the sufferer.
As the child inhales the cold breath of the duck, the disease, we are
told, will gradually disappear. A further charm consists in reading
the eighth Psalm over the child's head three times every day on three
days in the week for three successive weeks.
_Toothache._--This common ailment, which produces so much discomfort,
unfortunately rarely meets with a degree of sympathy proportionate
to the agony it occasions, but has nevertheless been honoured with
an extensive folk-lore; and the quaint remedies that superstitious
fancy has suggested for its cure would occupy a small volume if
treated with anything like fulness. Selecting some of the best known,
we may mention one which, in point of efficacy, is considered by many
as unsurpassed, namely, a tooth taken from the mouth of a corpse,
and worn round the neck as an amulet. Occasionally a double-nut is
carried in the pocket for the same purpose. There is a belief, too,
that the possession of a Bible or a Prayer Book, with the following
legend written in it, is an effectual charm:--"All glory, all glory,
all glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was walking in the Garden
of Gethsemane, He saw Peter weeping. He called him unto Him, and
said, 'Peter, why weepest thou?' Peter answered and said, 'Lord,
I am grievously tormented with pain--the pain of my tooth.' Our
Lord answered and said, 'If thou wilt believe in Me, and My words
abide with thee, thou shalt never feel any more pain in thy tooth.'
Peter said, 'Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.' In the
name, &c., God grant M. N. ease from the pain in his tooth." These
charm formulas, which constitute an important element in folk-lore
literature, are still extensively used in this country to arrest or
cure some bodily disease; and they are interesting as being in most
cases modified forms of those used by our Anglo-Saxon ancestors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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