Part 14
I will give some of their charms culled from various sources, and remedies for diseases still used in Cornwall:--Take three burning sticks from the hearth of the "overlooker," make the patient cross over them three times and then extinguish with water. Place nine bramble-leaves in a basin of "Holy Well's water, pass each leaf over and from the diseased part, repeating three times to each leaf. Three virgins came from the east, one brought fire, the others brought frost. Out fire! In frost! In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." Or take a stick of burning furze from the hearth, pass over and above the diseased part, repeating the above nine times. If you can succeed by any means in drawing blood from the "ill-wisher" you are certain to break and remove the spell. Stick pins into an apple or potatoe, carry it in your pocket, and as it shrivels the "ill-wisher" will feel an ache from every pin, but this I fancy does not do the person "overlooked" any good. Another authority says, "Stick pins into a bullock's heart, when the 'ill-wisher' will feel a stab for every one put in, and in self-defence take off the curse."
A friend writes, "An old man called Uncle Will Jelbart, who had been with the Duke of Kent in America, and also a very long time in the Peninsular, about forty years ago lived in West Cornwall; he had a small pension, and in addition made a good income by charming warts, wildfire (erysipelas), cataracts, etc. He used to spit three times and breathe three times on the part affected, muttering, 'In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost I bid thee begone.' For cataract he pricked the small white 'dew-snail' (slug), found about four a.m., with a hawthorn spine, and let a drop fall into the eye; and in the case of skin diseases occasionally supplemented the charm with an ointment made of the juice extracted from house-leeks and 'raw-cream;' he sometimes changed the words and repeated those which with slight variations are known all over Cornwall--'Three virgins,' etc.
"The crowfoot locally known as the 'kenning herb' is in some districts used in incantations for curing 'kennings' or 'kennels' (ulcers in the eye).
'Three ladies (or virgins) come from the east: One with fire and two with frost; Out with thee, fire, and in with thee, frost: In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.'
"This is often said nine times over a scald. In prose it begins thus: 'As I passed over the river Jordan, I met with Christ. He said, What aileth thee? Oh Lord, my flesh doth burn. The Lord said unto me, Two angels,'" etc.
A lady once told me that about forty years ago she was taken to a "charmer," who stood in a Cornish market-place on fixed days, to have her warts cured. The remedies for this childish complaint are very numerous. I once had my forehead rubbed with a piece of stolen beef, which was then buried in a garden, to send them away, the idea being that as the beef decayed the warts would fall off or dwindle gradually. There are two or three other ways of getting rid of them of a similar kind. Touch each wart with a new pin, enclose them in a bottle, either bury them in a newly-made grave of the opposite sex, or at four cross-roads; as the pins rust, the warts will disappear. Or, touch them with a knot made in a piece of string (there should be as many knots as there are warts), bury it; when the rope decays so will the warts. The two next are selfish remedies. Touch each wart with a pebble, put the stones in a bag, throw them away, and the finder will get them and they will leave you. Or, in coming out of church, wish them on some part of another person's body (or on a tree); they will go from you and appear on him, or on the spot named. One method employed by professional "charmers" is to take two pieces of charred stick from a fire, form them into a cross and place them on the warts, and repeat one of the formulæ above quoted. Yet another is to wash the hands in the moon's rays focussed in a dry metal basin, saying,
"I wash my hands in this thy dish, Oh man in the moon, do grant my wish, And come and take away this."
The moon too is invoked for the curing of corns. "Corns down here! No corns up there!" is repeated nine times. The fore-finger pointing first to the ground and then to the sky.
When pricked by a thorn, use one of the following charms:--
"Christ was of a virgin born: And he was pricked by a thorn, And it did never 'bell' (fester), And I trust in Jesus this never will."
Or,
"Christ was crowned with thorns, The thorns did bleed but did not rot, No more shall thy--(mentioning the part affected): In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."
In prose: "When Christ was upon the middle earth the Jews pricked him, his blood sprung up into heaven, his flesh never rotted nor 'fustered,' no more I hope will not thine. In the name," etc.--From Mr. T. Q. Couch, who gives two others very similar.
FOR TETTERS.
"Tetter, tetter, thou hast nine sisters, God bless thee, flesh, and preserve thee, bone; Perish thou, tetter, and be thou gone: In the name," etc.
"Tetter, tetter, thou hast eight sisters," etc.
This charm is thus continued until it comes to the last, which is,--
"Tetter, tetter, thou hast no sister," etc.--Bottrell.
TOOTHACHE.
In prose and verse slightly varied, common in all parts of the county,--
"Christ passed by his brother's door, Saw Peter his brother lying on the floor; What aileth thee, brother?-- Pain in thy teeth? Thy teeth shall pain thee no more: In the name of," etc.
This is to be worn in a bag around the neck. Mr. T. Q. Couch gives this charm in prose. It begins thus: "Peter sat at the gate of the Temple, and Christ said unto him, What aileth thee?" etc. Another remedy against toothache is, always in the morning to begin dressing by putting the stocking on the left foot.--Through Rev. S. Rundle.
A knuckle-bone is often carried in the pocket as a cure and preventive of cramp. I once saw an old woman turn out her pocket; amongst its contents, as well as the knuckle-bone, was the tip of an ox-tongue kept for good luck.
Slippers on going to bed are, when taken off, for the same complaint often placed under the bed with the soles upwards, or on their heels against the post of the bed with their toes up. The following is from Mr. T. Q. Couch: "The cramp is keenless, Mary was sinless when she bore Jesus: let the cramp go away in the name of Jesus." All the charms published by the above-named author in his History of Polperro were taken from a manuscript book, which belonged to a white witch.
When a foot has "gone to sleep" I have often seen people wet their forefingers in their mouths, stoop and draw the form of a cross on it. This is said to be an infallible remedy. Mr. Robert Hunt has a rather similar cure for hiccough: "Wet the forefinger of the right hand with spittle, and cross the front of the left shoe (or boot) three times, repeating the Lord's Prayer backwards." The most popular cure with children is a heaping spoonful of moist sugar. A sovereign remedy for hiccough and almost every complaint is a small piece of a stale Good Friday bun grated into a glass of cold water. This bun is hung up in the kitchen from one year to the other. Bread baked on this day never gets mouldy.
FOR A STRAIN.
"Christ rode over the bridge, Christ rode under the bridge; Vein to vein, strain to strain, I hope God will take it back again."
FOR AGUE.
When our Saviour saw the cross, whereon he was to be crucified, his body did shake. The Jews said, "Hast thou an ague?" Our Saviour said, "He that keepeth this in mind, thought, or writing, shall neither be troubled with ague or fever."
FOR WILDFIRE (Erysipelas).
"Christ, he walketh over the land, Carried the wildfire in his hand, He rebuked the fire, and bid it stand; Stand, wildfire, stand (three times repeated): In the name of," etc.--T. Q. Couch.
Mr. Robert Hunt gives in his book on Old Cornwall a Latin charm for the staunching of blood. I find, however, on making inquiries that it is not the one generally used, which is as follows:
"Christ was born in Bethlehem, Baptised in the river Jordan; There he digged a well, And turned the water against the hill, So shall thy blood stand still: In the name," etc.
There are other versions all much alike. A prose one runs thus: "Baptised in the river Jordan when the water was wild, the water was good, the water stood, so shall thy blood. In the name," etc.--T. Q. C.
The Rev. S. Rundle says a charmer once told him the charm for staunching blood consisted in saying a verse from the Psalms; but she could not read, and he was inclined to believe the form was, "Jesus came to the river Jordan, and said, 'Stand,' and it stood; and so I bid thee, blood, stand. In the name," etc. For bleeding at the nose, a door-key is often placed against the back. Cuts are plugged with cobwebs, flue from a man's hat, tobacco leaves, and occasionally filled with salt.
Club-moss is considered good for eye diseases. On the third day of the moon, when the thin crescent is seen for the first time, show it the knife with which the moss for the charm is to be cut, and repeat,
"As Christ healed the issue of blood, So I bid thee begone: In the name of," etc.
Mr. Robert Hunt says,
"Do thou cut what thou cuttest for good!"
"At sun-down, having carefully washed the hands, the club-moss is to be cut kneeling. It is to be carefully wrapped in a white cloth, and subsequently boiled in water taken from the spring nearest its place of growth. This may be used as a fomentation. Or the club-moss made into an ointment with butter made from the milk of a new cow."
A "stye" on the eye is often stroked nine times with a cat's tail; with a wedding ring taken from a dead woman's, or a silver one from a drowned man's, hand. The belief in the efficacy of a dead hand in curing diseases in Cornwall is marvellous. I, in a short paper read at an Antiquarian meeting, gave this instance, related to me by a medical man about ten years ago (now dead). A day or two after, a number of other cases in proof of my statement appeared, to my surprise, in our local papers, which, as well as my own, I will transcribe. "Once I attended a poor woman's child for an obstinate case of sore eyes. One day when leaving the house the mother said to me, 'Is there nothing more, doctor, I can do for my little girl?' I jokingly answered, 'Nothing, unless you care to stroke them with a dead man's hand.' About a week after I met the woman in the streets, who stopped me, and said, 'My child's eyes are getting better at last, doctor.' I expressed myself pleased that the ointment I had given her was doing good. To my astonishment, she replied, 'Oh, it is not that, we never used it; we took your advice about the dead man's hand.' Until she recalled it to my memory, I had quite forgotten my foolish speech." "I am one of those who can bear testimony to the fact of a cure having been effected by the means above-named. I was born with a disfigurement on my upper lip. My mother felt a great anxiety about this, so my nurse proposed that a dead man's hand should be passed seven times over my lip. I was taken to the house of one Robin Gendall, Causewayhead, Penzance, who at that time was lying dead, and his hand was passed over my lip in the manner named. By slow degrees my friends had the satisfaction of seeing that the charm had taken effect."--Octogenarian.
"I may add my testimony to Miss Courtney's remarks as to the belief in Cornwall in the virtue of the touch of a diseased part by a dead man's hand. A case came under my knowledge at Penzance of a child who had from birth a peculiar tuberous formation at the junction of the nose with the forehead, which the medical men would not cut for fear of severing veins. The child was taken by her mother to a friend's house, in which were lying the remains of a young man who had just died from consumption. The deceased's hand was passed over the malformation seven times, and it soon began to grow smaller and smaller." "I have myself seen the child since Miss Courtney read her paper (November, 1881), and, though the mark is still apparent, I am assured it is surely, if slowly, disappearing. A relation of mine also tells me that, like Miss Courtney, she was taken to the Penzance witch for the purpose of having a 'stye' removed from one of her eyes by charming."--Tramp.
I was told of many other cases--one by another surgeon; but it would be useless to repeat them. I will end with one I have taken from Notes and Queries, December, 1859:--
"A lady, who was staying lately at Penzance, attended a funeral, and noticed that whilst the clergyman was reading the burial service a woman forced her way through the pall-bearers to the edge of the grave. When he came to the passage, 'Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust,' she dropped a white cloth upon the coffin, closed her eyes, and apparently said a prayer. On making inquiries as to the cause of this proceeding, this lady found that a superstition exists amongst the peasantry in that part, that if a person with a sore be taken secretly to a corpse, the dead hand passed over the sore place, and the bandage afterwards be dropped upon the coffin during the reading of the burial service, a perfect cure will be the result. This woman had a child with a bad leg, and she had followed this superstition with a firm belief in its efficacy. The peasants, also, to the present day wear charms, believing they will protect them from sickness and other evils. The wife of the clergyman of the parish was very charitable in attending the sick and dispensing medicines, and one day a woman brought her a child having sore eyes to have them charmed, having more faith in that remedy than in medicines. She was greatly surprised to find that medicines only were given to her."--E. R.
There is no virtue in the dead hand of a near relation. A curious old troth plight was formerly practised in Cornwall: The couple broke a wedding ring taken from the finger of a corpse, and each kept one half. The editor of a local paper (Cornishman) once obtained a piece of rope, with which a man was hanged, for a poor woman who had walked fourteen miles to Bodmin in the hopes of getting it, that she might effect the cure of her sore eyes.
The Rev. S. Rundle writes that "a Cornish surgeon recommended a charmer as being more efficacious than himself in curing shingles. According to the same authority, a liquid composed of bramble and butter-dock leaves is poured on the place, whilst a light stick is waved over the decoction by the charmer, who repeats an incantation." It is popularly supposed in Cornwall that should shingles meet around your waist, you would die. The cures and charms against epilepsy are also very numerous, and very generally used here. Thirty pence are collected at the church door by the person afflicted, from one of the opposite sex, changed for sacrament money (silver), and made into a ring to be worn day and night. Very lately, at St. Just-in-Penwith, a young woman begged from young men pennies to buy a silver ring, a remedy which she believed would cure her fits. Another charm, which it requires a person of strong nerves to perform, is to walk thrice round a church at midnight, then enter and stand before the altar. In connection with this rite the Rev. S. Rundle relates the following:--"At Crowan (a village in West Cornwall), an epileptic subject entered the church at midnight. As he was groping his way through the pitchy dark, his heart suddenly leaped, and almost stood still. He uttered shriek upon shriek, for his hand had grasped a man's head. He thought it was the head of the famous Sir John St. Aubyn. He was removed in a fainting state, and it was then discovered that he had seized the head of the sexton, who had come in to see that nothing was done to frighten the man. The unfortunate fellow never recovered from the shock, but died in a lunatic asylum." "A middle-aged Camborne man was subject to violent fits until two years ago, when some one told him to kill a toad, put one of its legs in a bag, and wear it suspended by a string around his neck. He did so, and has never had a fit since."--Cornishman, December, 1881.
"In Cornwall a black cock is buried on the spot where the person is first attacked by epilepsy" (to avert a similar attack).--Comparative Folk-Lore, Cornhill, 1876.
For other charms see Addenda, A Bundle of Charms, by the Rev. A. H. Malan, M.A.
Toads are also worn as charms for other diseases in this county:--"On the 27th July, 1875, I was lodging with a very intelligent grazier and horse-dealer, at Tintagel, Cornwall, when he was knocked down by a very serious attack of quinsey, to which he had been subject for many years. He pulled through the crisis; and on being sufficiently recovered he betook himself to a 'wise woman' at Camelford. She prescribed for him as follows:--'Get a live toad, fasten a string around its throat, and hang it up till the body drops from the head; then tie the string around your own neck, and never take it off, night or day, till your fiftieth birthday. You'll never have quinsey again.' When I left Tintagel, I understood that my landlord, greatly relieved in mind, had already commenced the operation."--Augustus Jessop, D.D.
When a kettle won't boil, instead of the old adage, "A watched pot never boils," Cornish people say, "There is a toad or a frog in it." It is here considered lucky for a toad to come into the house.
This charm for yellow jaundice I culled from the Western Antiquary. "I was walking in a village churchyard near the town of St. Austell (I think in the autumn of 1839), when I saw a woman approach an open grave. She stood by the side of it and appeared to be muttering some words. She then drew out from under her cloak a good-size baked meal-cake, threw it into the grave and then left the place. Upon inquiry I found the cake was composed of oatmeal mixed with dog's urine, baked, and thrown into the grave as a charm for the yellow jaundice. This cure was at that time commonly believed in by the peasantry of the neighbourhood."--Joseph Cartwright, March, 1883.
Snakes avoid and dread ash-trees; a branch will keep them away. Our peasantry believe however much you may try to kill quickly an adder or snake, it will never die before sunset. Mr. Robert Hunt says, "When an adder is seen, a circle is to be rapidly drawn around it and the sign of the cross made within it, whilst the first two verses of the 68th Psalm are repeated." This is to destroy it; there are also charms to be said for curing their bites, when they are apostrophised "under the ashen leaf." The following old charm is to make them destroy themselves, by twisting themselves up to nothing:--
"Underneath this 'hazelen mot' [27] There's a 'braggaty' [28] worm, with a speckled throat, Now! nine 'double' [29] hath he. Now from nine double, to eight double, From eight double, to seven double, From seven double, to six double, From six double, to five double, From five double, to four double, From four double, to three double, From three double, to two double, From two double, to one double, Now! no double hath he."
The words of charms must be muttered (they lose their efficacy if recited aloud), and the charmer must never communicate them to one of the same sex, for that transfers the power of charming to the other person. Of superstitious rites practised for the cure of whooping-cough, etc., I will speak a little further on. Cornishmen in the last century from their cradles to their graves might have been guided in their actions by old women's "widdles" (superstitions), some as already shown are still foolishly followed; but I hope that few people are silly enough at the present day to leave their babies' heads a twelvemonth unwashed, under the mistaken notion that it would be unlucky to do it.
I have often and very recently seen the creases in the palms of children's hands filled with dirt; to clean them before they were a year old would take away riches--they would live and die poor. Their nails, too, for the same period should be bitten, not cut, for that would make them thieves. Hair at no age must be cut at the waning of the moon, that would prevent its growing luxuriantly; locks shorn off must be always burnt, it is unlucky to throw them away; then birds might use them in their nests and weave them in so firmly that there would be a difficulty in your rising at the last day. Children's first teeth are burnt to prevent dog's or "snaggles" irregular teeth coming in their stead. Coral necklaces are worn to ensure easy teething; the beads are said to change their colour when the wearer is ill. "All locks are unlocked to favour easy birth (or death)."--A. H. Bickford, M.D., Camborne, 1883. Cornishmen in the West are said to be born with tails; they drop off when the Tamar is crossed.
"A popular notion amongst old folks is, that when a boy is born on the waning moon the next birth will be a girl, and vice versâ. They also say that when a birth takes place on the growing of the moon, the next child will be of the same sex." A child born in the interval between the old and new moons is fated to die young, and babies with blue veins across their noses do not live to see twenty-one. A cake called a groaning cake is made in some houses in Cornwall after the birth of a child, of which every caller is expected to partake. The mother often carries "a groaning cake" when she is going to be "upraised" (churched); this she gives to the first person she meets on her way.
"Kimbly" is the name of an offering, generally a piece of bread or cake, still given in some rural districts of this county to the first person met when going to a wedding or a christening. It is sometimes presented to anyone who brings the news of a a birth to an interested party. Two young men, I knew about thirty years ago, were taking a walk in West Cornwall; crossing over a bridge they met a procession carrying a baby to the parish church, where the child was to be baptised. Unaware of this curious custom, they were very much surprised at having a piece of cake put into their hands. A magistrate wrote to the Western Morning News, in January, 1884, saying, that on his way to his petty sessions he had had one of these christening cakes thrust into his hand, but unluckily he did not state in what parish this happened. This called forth several letters on the subject, parts of which I will quote.
"About thirty years ago at the christening of a brother (in the Meneage district, Helston), and when the family party were ready for the walk to the afternoon service in Cury church, I well recollect seeing the old nurse wrap in a pure white sheet of paper what she called the 'cheeld's fuggan.' [30] This was a cake with plenty of currants and saffron, about the size of a modern tea-plate. It was to be given to the first person met on returning, after the child was christened. It happened that, as most of the parishioners were at the service, no one was met until near home, almost a mile from the church, when a tipsy village carpenter rambled around a corner, right against our party, and received the cake. Regrets were expressed that the 'cheeld's fuggan' should have fallen to the lot of this notoriously evil liver, and my idea was that it was a bad omen. However as my brother has always been a veritable Rechabite, enjoys good health, a contented mind, and enough of this world's goods to satisfy every moderate want, no evil can thus far be traced to the mischance."--J. C., Western Morning News.