Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/198

182. A piece of potato put into each ear and a necklace made of square pieces of the same is said to cure earache. Toothache is cured by cutting the finger- and toe-nails of the sufferer off short. These parings are put into a bottle with a lock of his hair and some water. The bottle is then corked and buried and the toothache disappears. A black fowl opened and applied hot and bleeding to the chest is a cure for inflammation of the lungs. These are only samples of treatment culled from the experiences of the medical officers in the Bloemfontein camp;" (p. 7).

Parallels.—Some years ago I knew a woman who told me the best cure for inflammation of the lungs was to take a full-grown fowl (cock or hen), chop off its head and cut open the body, then place it at once on the patient's chest and keep it there for two hours, or as long as there is heat in the body of the fowl. She explained that the feathers on the bird kept the heat in a way nothing else could do, and the thicker the feathers and healthier the bird, the better would be the cure.

Many members of the Society will remember that at the time, about thirty years ago. when the King (then Prince of Wales) was suffering from typhoid fever, it was asserted that the only cure would be to wrap him in a sheep's skin immediately after it had been taken from the animal while still quite hot, all the wool of course being left on. It was believed by many people at the time that this remedy was actually used and was the means of saving the Prince's life. Only a short time since, during the illness of the Queen of Holland, I heard it referred to as a matter beyond doubt. I had a note of this remedy of the sheepskin being used for the cure of "the shivers" (i.e. the ague), but have unfortunately mislaid it and cannot remember when and where the case occurred.

The remedies used by the Boers for jaundice, toothache, and earache are practically the same as those in use some years ago in many parts of England, and recorded in various collections of folklore. The cat plays an important part in folk-medicine, but I do not remember an instance of its hair being cut off and applied in the manner described.

In the earlier years of the last century my father knew a Mrs. Wells who lived not far from Gainsborough. She was the