Page:Cornish feasts and folk-lore.djvu/167

 Charms, etc. 155 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 suflBciently 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 oiT, 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