Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 14, 1903.djvu/413

Rh found which suited the requirements; the stone floor in the room where the child was first seized was opened up at the exact spot where the seizure took place. The unfortunate animal was sealed down and buried alive, after which an incantation was muttered over it by a "wise woman."

Whether the fates were propitiated, and the recovery of the child was due to this rite, or to the Uisge Or in which it was bathed, I am, of course, unable to state with any certainty. And Uisge Or, or water into which a piece of gold has been thrown, is a universal panacea for all the ills that flesh is heir to, almost outrivalling another universal remedy, also an uisge, whose precise name it is, perhaps, superfluous to mention. Sometimes it is known as Long John. I have seen Uisge Or given internally as a medicine, used as a lotion; given to cattle, dogs, and even sick chickens. And, of course, everybody knows that a new-born baby should be bathed for the first time in Uisge Or as a protection against the fairies. As to the gold thrown into the water (here an incantation, varying according to the complaint to be treated, is also necessary), any-