Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/39

 Rh and debauchery of a past age, this being the most melancholy feature in connection with the proverbial philosophy of Scotland. In these days of greater self-control and wiser social intercourse, the lecturer said it was with feelings of amazement that he looked back on days gone by upon customs that disgraced society. Those excesses had left sad havoc on our national proverbs. The lecturer also referred to proverbs on marriage, and concluded with a beautiful and appropriate peroration on the exclusively Scotch proverb—"The e'ening brings a' hame," and said that if the Scotch proverbs taught no more than that implied they would have taught much that was worth learning and a great deal that was worth remembering.

At a recent meeting of the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society the Rev. G. Rundle read a paper called "Some Facts connected with old Cornish History." He began with a few words on charms. For a child who has thrush, say in the morning thrice the second verse of the eighth psalm. For tooth-ache.—Begin every morning the act of dressing by putting the stocking on the left foot. For a bad eye.—Pierce the shell of a living snail, and let the exuding liquid fall on the eye. For warts.—Cut a stalk of corn at one of the knots, cross it seven times over the wart, then bury it. Take a piece of meat, cross it seven times over the warts, then hang it on a thorn-tree to rot. The power of the seventh son of a seventh son is very interesting to us, as being quoted by Cornelius a Lapide as existing in Flanders in his day, some two hundred years ago. Mundic as a charm.—Mundic being applied to a wound immediately cures it, which the workmen are so sure of that they use no other remedy than washing in the water that runs from the mundic-ore. Old customs.—1st of May.—On that day it was the custom in Landrake to give the person who plucked a fern as much cream as would cover it. On Shrove Tuesday.—It is the custom to unhang gates, as well as to eat pork-chops and eggs, besides customary pan-cake. On May-day, in Landrake, it was customary to chastise with stinging-nettles any one found in bed after six a.m. For epilepsy, to walk round the church altar thrice. On St. Stephen's Day.—Every youth and boy who can beg, borrow, or steal a gun on that day goes out to shoot birds. On New Year's Eve.— It is the custom to place a piece of silver on the