graveyard[1] in Templemaley parish. The basin is half filled with round pebbles, but I could not discover whether they played any part in the cure. Other wart cures are effected by the milk of the "Seven Sisters" plant[2] applied seven times with prayers, or by rubbing a wedding ring or a stolen scrap of meat three times round each wart in the name of each Person of the Trinity. In the meat cure the piece was afterwards buried, and, as it decayed, the wart disappeared.
People at Fortanne near TuUa used to try to cure the whooping cough by bringing the child to running water, putting a frog held by its hind legs three times into the child's mouth, and then letting the creature swim away uninjured, taking the disease with it.[3] Near Corofin the favourite cures for this illness were to pass the child under an ass, or to give the sufferer any food or cure prescribed by a man on a white horse when met accidentally, or to give the patient the "leavings of a ferret," i.e. food left uneaten by that animal.[4]
A posthumous seventh son has marvellous gifts of healing; near Tulla he can cure a swelled or sore throat by blowing down it.[5] I was told also that he can aid a woman in childbirth by shaking her gently in his arms, but, as this was told in reply to a leading question (contrary to my custom), I give it with reserve.[6]
"Head-measuring" to "close the skull" and cure headache was found by Dr. MacNamara in use near Corofin. I never heard of it, but certainly much still remains to be discovered in the county.
Toothache was cured by holding to the face the once removable head of Christ carved on the then prostrate cross of Dysert O'Dea.[7] I was also told, but on uncertain authority, that a
- ↑ One at the site of a destroyed and forgotten church.
- ↑ The spurge, the small variety of which is called the "Five Sisters" in Co. Limerick, but not, I believe, in Co. Clare.
- ↑ So Mrs. Connors at Fortanne.
- ↑ So Dr. G. MacNamara.
- ↑ So Mrs. O'Callaghan and Margaret Molony.
- ↑ I mentioned the cure used in the old tale of "Rose Moan," and was told it prevailed in Clare, but have never had the statement confirmed.
- ↑ A fine high cross of probably late in the eleventh century. Three of its panels are shown in Plate XIV, vol. xxi., p. 340.
