Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/54

46 its knees, made it fall sideways to the ground. From it ointments are obtained, charmed remedies are taken with which sores are besprinkled and injuries are healed.

(h.)

Jesus thither, Jesus hither; may Jesus come into every dwelling, may lovely Jesus be the watcher and the best of healers. The guiltless blood of Jesus and the sweet milk of Mary mingled together as a liniment for sores is the most precious charmed remedy, is the most efficient ointment, one that is of value under all circumstances, and is pleasant in food.

XLIX.—

(a.)

Sharp Frost! of evil race and an evil-mannered son, shall I now mention thy family, shall I announce thy character? I know thy family origin, I know thy bringing up. Sharp Frost was born among willow-trees. Hard Weather in a birch clump of an ever-devastating sire, of a useless mother at the side of a cold heap of stones, in the recess of a lump of ice.

Who suckled Sharp Frost, who nourished Hard Weather, as his mother had no milk? A snake suckled Sharp Frost, Hard Weather nourished him, a snake fed him, a viper suckled him, a worm treated him to milk from a dry breast; the North Wind rocked him to-and-fro. Chill Weather put him to sleep near evil brooks lined with willows, upon unthawed morasses. Hence he grew hard and rough, grew exceeding proud; the boy became evil-mannered and of a destructive disposition.

Up to this the lubberly boy had no name. Afterwards they christened the child, carried him to baptism to a bubbling spring, to the centre of a golden rock. A name