Page:Shetland Folk-Lore - Spence - 1899.pdf/163

 twenty-four mills, the breathing or lungs were supposed to be in a fairly good condition, but if the sufferer further complained of having “lost dir stamack” (appetite), they were supposed to be afflicted with the “heart wear.”

This disease assumed two forms, viz., the aaber and the feckless. In the former the heart was understood to be too big, and there was a voracious (aaber-greedy) appetite, without doing the body any good. In the latter—or feckless form—the heart was supposed to be wasting away under some trowie influence, and there was no desire for food. “Castin' or rinnin' da heart” and “tiggin' da nine women's maet” were the chief applications for these complaints.

The “castin' o' da heart” was performed as follows. A small quantity of lead was melted in a kollie, and the patient was set in the meat kettle before the fire. On the head was placed a blind sieve, in the centre of which a bowl of water was