CHAPTER XII.
Folk Medicine and Leech Craft.
“A certain shepherd lad, Of small regard to see to, yet well skill’d In every virtuous plant and healing herb, That spreads her verdant leaf to th’ morning ray.”
--_Comus._
In days gone by, before the invention of Morrison’s pills, Holloway’s ointment, and other infallible remedies, no farm was without its plot of medicinal herbs, skilful combinations of which--secrets handed down from one old wife or village doctor to another--were supposed to be capable of curing all the ills to which poor suffering humanity is heir, to say nothing of the various diseases affecting horses, oxen, swine, and other domestic animals.
Nine varieties of herbs was the number usually cultivated, a number which, like three and seven, is generally supposed to have some occult and mystic virtues. As to the herbs themselves it is not easy at the present day, when old traditions are rapidly passing away, to obtain a correct list of them, but the following is as correct as we can make it.
_La Poumillière_, or Helleborus viridis. Métivier, in his Dictionary, page 401, says of this plant that it was originally held in great veneration by the Greeks and Romans. He also says that it was used in cases of consumption in cattle by our local veterinary doctors. They pierced the dewlap or the ear of the affected animal, and inserted in the hole one of the small roots of this plant. This induced an abundant suppuration, which sometimes proved beneficial.
_La Cassidone_, or French lavender. Boiste, in his dictionary, says that its flowers and leaves promote salivation. There is a proverb to the effect that:
_“L’hyssope tout ma’ développe_ _La cassidoune tout ma’ détrone.”_
_Le Rosmarin_, or rosemary. It is considered unlucky not to have a plant of rosemary in one’s garden, but it is a plant that should never be _bought_, but grown for you, and presented by a friend and well-wisher.
_La Petite Sauche_, or small-leaved sage.
_Le Grànd Consoul_, or comfrey. Of this the root is the part used.
_La Rue._ Rue, which was supposed to have a potent effect on the eyes, and bestow second sight.
_L’Alliène_, or wormwood.
_La Marjolaine_, or marjoram, and
_La Campana_, or vervain, the “holy herb” of the Druids.
This list by no means exhausts the plants possessed of healing powers.
George Métivier, in his _Souvenirs Historiques_, chapter IV. and II., speaks of a sacred briar, called “pied-de-chat,” worn as a waist-belt as an infallible talisman against witchcraft. When a man was afflicted with boils, he had to pass, fasting and in silence, for nine consecutive mornings, under an arch of this same briar. The green sprigs of broom, however, are believed to be equally efficacious in averting the evil influence of spells.
In planting a bed of the smaller herbs, to render them thoroughly efficacious they should be planted under a volley of minor oaths, such as “goderabetin” or “godzamin.” It is not expedient that the oaths should be too blood curdling.
George Métivier alludes to this, and says he himself knew old gardeners who made a constant practice of this prehistoric method, and quotes Pliny, Vol. X., p. 77: “He was enjoined to sow (basil) with curses and oaths, and then, so that it should succeed, to beat the ground.”
EDITOR’S NOTE.--“MAL DE POULE.”--In St. Martin’s parish lived an old woman who had an infallible cure for sick headaches. The patient was put to bed, and a live chicken, with its beak stuffed with parsley, enveloped in a cloth, was tied on his head. She then muttered a prayer over it, and tied it again, still more firmly, round the patient’s forehead. As the chicken died the headache ceased.--_From Miss Thoume._
KING’S EVIL.
That the belief in touching for King’s Evil prevailed in the island is evident from the following extracts.
“Extraits des Comptes des Diacres de l’Eglise de la Ville, contenus dans un Livre en la possession du Procureur des Pauvres de cette paroisse, endossé ‘Aux Pauvres de la Ville.’”
“Le Vendredy, 24 Aout, 1677, l’on a trouvé dans le tronq la somme de deux cents vingt livres tournois en or, argent, sols marquez, et doubles. Item, vingt et quatre livres tournois, qui ont été données à la veuve de Nicolas Corbel pour son enfant, qui est incomodé des ecrouëlles, et qui s’en va à Londres pour estre touché de sa Ma^{té}.”
“Le 26 Aout, 1678, a été tiré hors du tronq la so͠e de trente livres tournois, qui ont été delivrés à Caterine de Garis, fem͠e de Jean Hairon, pour aller en Angleterre y faire toucher par Sa Majesté une fillette qui est affligée des ecrouëlles. La d_{te} so͠e luy ayant été alloüée par consentement des officiers de l’Eglise.”
“Le 26^{me} de Mars, 1688, par ordre de Messrs. les Collecteurs des Pauvres de la Ville, j’ay balay a Anne, fem͠e de Pierre De Lahee, 12 livres tournois pour luy aider à aller faire toucher son enfant du Mal du Roy, et est des deniers des Pauvres.”