The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought: Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-DayChamberlain, Alexander Francis
Science
The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought: Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-Day
Chamberlain, Alexander Francis
Child rearing; Children -- Folklore; Folklore and children
In Spain, to kiss an unbaptized child before any one else has done so,
is a panacea against toothache (258. 100). In north-eastern Scotland, "a
seventh son, without a daughter, if worms were put into his hand before
baptism, had the power of healing the disease (ring-worm) simply by
rubbing the affected part with his hand. The common belief about such a
son was that he was a doctor by nature" (246. 47). In Ireland, the
healing powers are acquired "if his hand has, before it has touched
anything for himself, been touched with his future medium of cure. Thus,
if silver is to be the charm, a sixpence, or a three-penny piece, is put
into his hand, or meal, salt, or his father's hair, 'whatever substance
a seventh son rubs with must be worn by his parents as long as he
lives.'" In some portions of Europe, the seventh son, if born on Easter
Eve, was able to cure tertian or quartan fevers. In Germany, "if a woman
has had seven sons in succession, the seventh can heal all manner of
hurt,"--his touch is also said to cure wens at the throat (462. III.
1152). In France, the _marcou_, or seventh son, has had a great
reputation; his body is said to be marked with a _fleur-de-lis_,
and the cure is effected by his simply breathing upon the diseased part,
or by allowing the patient to touch a mark on his body. Bourke calls
attention to the fact that among the Cherokee Indians of the
southeastern United States is this same belief that the seventh son is
"a natural-born prophet with the gift of healing by touch" (406. 457).
In France similar powers have also been attributed to the fifth son. The
seventh son of a seventh son is still more famous, while to the
twenty-first son, born without the intervention of a daughter,
prodigious cures are ascribed.
Nor is the other sex entirely neglected. In France a "seventh daughter"
was believed to be able to cure chilblains on the heels (462. III.
1152), and in England, as recently as 1876, the seventh daughter of a
seventh daughter claimed great skill as an herb-doctor.
In northeastern Scotland, "a posthumous child was believed to possess
the gift of curing almost any disease by looking on the patient" (246.
37), and in Donegal, Ireland, the peasants "wear a lock of hair from a
posthumous child, to guard against whooping-cough," while in France,
such a child was believed to possess the power of curing wens, and a
child that has never known its father was credited with ability to cure
swellings and to drive away tumours (462. III. 1152).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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