Page:Cornish feasts and folk-lore.djvu/160

 148 Charms, etc. 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 formulse 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 vpill." 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."