Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/270

 prevent a return of the disease. Consumption is believed to be produced, in many cases, by drinking water which has been boiled too long; and it is frequently sought to be cured by digging a hole into the earth and causing the patient to lie down and breathe into it. This remedy is supposed to be effectual in cases of ordinary coughs, asthmas, whooping-cough, low spirits, and hysteria. Twin children are said to be sympathetic; when one is suffering the other is more or less affected. The same medicines cure both. When one dies the other is expected to increase in strength, and to enjoy more vigorous health. In the vegetable kingdom, the bane and the antidote always grow near each other. The common dock is the antidote to the nettle; and hence we are told from childhood that when we are stung by a nettle we must rub the leaf of the dock over the part, repeating the words—"Nettle come out, dock go in;" and the smarting will gradually cease.

MONEY. are several curious aphorisms current in the county respecting money. When we obtain possession of a piece of gold, we are sometimes advised to rub it over both eyelids, and we shall, in consequence, soon see more. When a rainbow appears we must mark the spot where it touches the earth, and we shall there find a pot of gold by digging. Bad luck soon follows the finding of a sixpence, unless it happens to be crooked. This notion has passed into a proverb, since—