Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 70.djvu/177

Rh blade upward to cut the 'after-pains' of childbirth. To render teething easy and painless the infant's gums are rubbed with a 'cooter' bone, the ear or bone of a rabbit, or the warm brains of the same animal just killed. It is thought that nine live wood-lice tied in a bag and suspended from the neck of a child having thrush will soon give relief. The touch of a posthumous son is recommended for the same complaint. As a preventive of croup a black silk thread or a string of 'electric' (amber) beads is placed around the neck.

In the little city of Newberry a few years ago an infant was supposed to have been cured of a disease known as 'stretches' by passing it through a horse-collar warm from use. Some authorities say that shoe-sole tea should first be administered, to be followed by the horse-collar treatment. In the same county an infant who had a case of umbilical hernia was passed by his father through a cleft in a living young white-oak tree. The theory was that the child would recover if the tree lived; if it died the hernia would remain. The tree and the patient, both of them living and whole, are still here to convince unbelievers of the virtues of magical medicine.

The passing of children through rings of various kinds is comparatively common. One of the 'using' formulas already given in this article is for the cure of 'liver-grown,' an ailment known also as 'growed-on' and 'grow-fast,' in which the liver is supposed to adhere abnormally to some other organ. This is also treated by passing the patient through a horse-collar or between the rungs of a ladder. In still another method the afflicted infant is passed between the legs of a table, after which it is held by the feet and tossed upwards towards each of the four corners of the room, care being taken, however, to prevent it from falling or from striking the walls. In Newberry County, several years ago, a negro mother, misunderstanding the directions given her by an old woman for this treatment, killed her child by throwing it forcibly against the four corners of her log house.

It is not always easy to explain the philosophy of superstition, but in these cases the thought underlying the treatment is sufficiently evident. The idea seems to be that disease is caused by an evil spirit which may be misled and puzzled by mazes of rings and tortuous passages. Thus, interlaced cords are still sold in Italy as charms, and Persian carpets are woven in intricate patterns to bewilder the evil eye. Analogies to the Carolina practises cited are abundant and they lead us back to very remote times. Mr. Edward Clodd, the English author of several works on custom, myth and religion, is authority for the statement that the practise of drawing infants through the cleft trunks of trees (usually ash) still prevails in remote rural districts of England. Scotch witches in effecting magical cures used to pass their patients nine times through rings or garlands of woodbine; and from