Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/261

 Collectanea. 221

mother said some one among them would die within twelve weeks. That day twelve weeks the bride was buried. (S.T. H. B., July 19, 1892.)

Cures for whooping-cough, Eccleshall. i. Put some of the patient's hair between two slices of bread and butter and give it to a little dog. 2. Drown a trout in old ale, and give the patient the ale to drink. (Rev. W. Allen, Nov. 5, 1889.)

If a sore place needs rubbing, do not use the forefinger, for the sore will never heal under it. (From E. H., Hanbury, Oct., 1891.)

To fetch a lover from a distance, get a pennyworth of " dragon's blood " from the chemist — (you must say you want it for dyeing, for it is a poison). Cut a piece of red flannel into the shape of a heart, and stick three pins in it for Cupid's darts. The three points of the pins must point to the centre. Sprinkle the dragon's blood on the flannel. At midnight, burn it on a gleedy fire ^ just as the clock strikes twelve, and, as it is burning, repeat these words :

" 'Tis not this blood I wish to burn,

But 's heart I wish to turn.

May he neither rest nor sleep

Till he returns to me to me to speak."

It should be done on a Friday night ; on the first Friday in the month it is supposed to work the best. Friday is always the most witching night, and you must be alone. K. H., of Burton-on- Trent, who is now about twenty-seven, tried this, and fetched her present husband by train from a distance. They had had a quarrel, " Why, whatever has brought you ? " she said, when he arrived. " I couldn't rest," he said, " I felt as if I must come. I thought something must be wrong with you. Something told me I must come." K. H. tried to persuade another girl to try it only last summer. (A. O., 1902. A tiny packet of " Pulv. Sang. Draconis " lies before me at this moment. It is not really poisonous.)

" Mrs. M. is taking a child from Lichfield Workhouse to be boarded out, to-day instead of to-morrow as she intended, because the fostermother objects to receiving it on a Friday." (Lichfield, Thursday, July 17, 1890.)

C. N.'s mother was much annoyed at her going to meet a lady ''/.(?. a fire of hot, glowing embers.