Steal a piece of meat from a butcher's stall or his basket, and, after having well rubbed the parts affected with the stolen morsel, bury it under a gateway at four lane ends, or, in case of emergency, in any secluded place. All this must be done so secretly as to escape detection; and as the portion of meat decays, the warts will disappear. This practice is very prevalent in Lancashire, and two of my female acquaintances having tried the remedy, stoutly maintain its efficacy.[58] The following superstition prevails in the neighbourhood of Manchester: Take a piece of twine, making upon it as many knots as there are warts to be removed; touch each wart with the corresponding knot; then bury the twine in a moist place, saying at the same time, "There is none to redeem it besides thee." As the process of decay goes on [in the twine] the warts gradually disappear.[59] A snail hung upon a thorn is another favourite spell against warts; as the snail wastes away, so do the warts. Again, take a bag of stones, equal in number with the warts to be destroyed, and throw them over the left shoulder; the warts soon quit the thrower. But whoever chances to pick up one or more of these stones, takes with them as many of the warts, which are thus transferred from the loser to the finder of the stones. CURE FOR HYDROCEPHALUS IN CATTLE. Dr. Whitaker mentions what he designates as "one practical superstition" in the district about Pendle, and peculiar to that neighbourhood. "The hydrocephalus (he says) is a disease incident to adolescent animals, and is supposed by the shepherds and herdsmen to be contagious; but in order to arrest the progress of the disease, whenever a young beast had died of this complaint, it was usual, and it has, I believe, been practised by farmers yet alive, to cut off the head and convey it for interment into the nearest part of the adjoining county. Stiperden, a desert plain upon the border of Yorkshire, was the place of skulls." Whitaker thinks the practice may have originated in some confused and fanciful analogy to the case of Azazel (Numbers xvi. 22), an analogy between the removal of sin and disease--that as the transgressions of the people were laid upon the head of the scape-goat, the diseases of the herd should be laid upon the head of the deceased animal.[60] CATTLE DISORDERS.--THE SHREW TREE IN CARNFORTH. On an elevation in the township of Carnforth, in the parish of Warton, called Moothaw [? Moot Hall], the ancient Saxon courts were held. Near this place stood the "Shrew Tree" mentioned by Lucas, which, according to rustic superstition, received so much virtue from plugging up a number of living shrews, or field-mice, in a cavity prepared for their reception in the tree, that a twig cut from it, when freely applied to the backs of disordered cattle, would cure them of their maladies.[61] CHARMS FOR AGUE.