Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/108

96 enmity of a witch who lived but a short distance away, when the latter, it is supposed, took her revenge in the following manner: Whenever visitors came to the Weiler residence, the girls, without any premonition whatever, would suddenly be changed into snakes, and after crawling back and forth along the top ridge of the wainscoting for several minutes they were restored to their natural form. This curious transformation occurred quite frequently, and the circumstance soon attained widespread notoriety. About the end of the third month the spell was broken and everything went on as before.

Another popular fallacy is the existence of the hoop snake. This creature is usually reported as capable of grasping the tip of its tail with its mouth, and like a hoop running swiftly along in pursuit of an unwelcome intruder. This snake is believed, furthermore, to have upon its tail a short, poisonous horn, like a cock's spur, and that if it should strike any living creature death would result. The stories concerning this marvelous snake usually end with the statement that the person pursued barely escapes, and that the snake strikes a tree instead, causing it to wither and die.

The rattlesnake, because of its venomous bite, is universally dreaded, and numerous curious beliefs are current respecting this reptile, also the use to which various parts may be put, and the treatment of its bite.

The rattle, if tied to a string and suspended from the neck of an infant, will serve to prevent convulsions; if carried by an adult, it will guard against rheumatism. The oil is employed as a remedy for deafness; and the venom, diluted, mixed with bread, and made into pills, has been administered internally to cure rheumatism. Another curious superstition, held by young men, is that if one places a snake's tongue upon the palm of his hand beneath the glove—it will cause any girl, regardless of her previous indifference, to ardently return his passion if he be enabled but once to take her hand within his own. This resembles to a certain extent the former use, in Germany, of a dove's tongue, which was similarly employed; and furthermore, if one became aware that the choice of his heart failed to respond to his affection, he had only to place a dove's tongue within his mouth and snatch a kiss, when the girl's objection or indifference to him would instantly vanish.

There are numerous popular methods of treating snake bites, from the internal use of alcoholic liquors to the external application of warm, raw flesh obtained by cutting a live chicken in two.

I ascertained a short time since the secret of alleged success claimed by various mountain powwows both in Pennsylvania and in Maryland. The remedy is termed the Meisterwurzel, or "master