Page:Cornish feasts and folk-lore.djvu/162

 150 Charms, etc. 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 pubHshed 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 :