Page:Popular medicine, customs and superstitions of the Rio Grande, John G. Bourke, 1894.pdf/19

Rh "Voudoos warn against throwing hairs about." "Roman Etruscan Remains," Charles G. Leland, New York, Scribners, 1891, page 298, quoting Miss Mary A. Owen.

Don't cut the nails on Tuesdays or Fridays. (Read what has been said under the paragraph on the lodestone.) On the other hand, Federico Rodriguez says cut your nails on Friday.

If your sight fails, cut your nails at the full of the next moon, and you will speedily be cured.

Young girls must cut their hair on Saint John's Day, if they wish to have their hair grow long.

On Saint John's Day you must cut your hair and nails, bathe from head to foot, and put on new garments. (M. A.)

New Water.—No myth was more interesting to me than the fact upon which I stumbled at "Agua Nueva" (New Water), that a perfectly rational explanation could be had of the miracle by which Moses made water flow by striking the rock.

At "Agua Nueva" there is a rock surface, underneath which is a large lake or series of springs of cool, pure water; wherever the thin stratum of rock is pierced, water is found for the villagers and their herds. Is it not reasonable to suppose that Moses, guided by his Midianite brother-in-law, found in the desert just such a stratum of rock superimposed upon just such a supply of water? Oriental imagery would make a miracle out of a very commonplace business.

New Year.—The first day of the year is also a good time for putting on new coats, new hats, new shoes, etc., according to Federico Rodriguez, but my observation convinces me that it does not compare in importance to Saint John's Day.

Nose-bleed.—To stop nose-bleed, put a string of coral beads around the neck.

Nouer t Aiguilette.—All that the English, French, and Germans formerly believed on this subject is still believed by the Rio Grande Mexicans.

The men keep a lock of their sweetheart's hair, not so much as a pledge of affection, as a preventive of aberration.

Juan Martinez showed me at Fort Ringgold, in July, 1891, a lock of the hair, tied with a ribbon, of his sweetheart, Silvestra Rodriguez, received in exchange for a lock of his own. "So long as I hold on to this," he said, "she can't love anybody else, and even were she to be married to another man, the marriage would be in vain, if I did not consent, provided I tied three knots in this tress." He added—"I know that this is true."

"By locking a padlock when a couple are married one can stop all intimacy between them." "Roman Etruscan Remains," Leland, page 365. VOL. VII. — NO. 25. 10