funeral is going, an' say, "Corpse of clay, carry my warts away," an' do this three times, an' as the corpse decays in the grave, your warts will go away.—Mary Feeney, co. Donegal, old beggar.
Get ten knots of barley straw, count out nine and throw away the tenth; rub the wart with the nine of them, then roll them up in a bit of paper an' throw them before a funeral, an' then the wart will wear away.* [1]—Katie Mahon, Londonderry, beggar, and others.
If you were goin' along the road, an' happen on a wee drap o' water in the hollow of a stone, where you would not expect to find it, take an' wash the wart with it three times, an' the wart will wear away.*—Mary Dick, Londonderry, beggar, and many others.
If you happen to come on a big black snail, rub it across your wart an' stick it on a thorn, an' as the snail withers so will the wart.*—M. Farren, co. Derry, farmer's wife, and many others.
Take a wee bit of raw beef an' rub it across the wart, an' then bury it. Be sure an' let no one see it, an' as the beef rots so will the wart.†[2]—Nancy Sweeney, Londonderry, pedlar.
Cures for Whooping- Cough or Chin-Cough.—Take the child to a donkey, an' pass it under a jackass three times. Then give the donkey a bit of oaten bread, an' give what the donkey doesn't eat to the child, an' if the child is too young to eat it, soften it down an' give it to it, and this will cure the chin-cough.*—M. Farren, co. Derry, farmer's wife, and others.
Lots of people come to our Jane for a bit of bread, for she an' her husband are of the one name; for if you can get a bit of bread from a couple of the one name it will cure the whooping-cough.*—M. Farren, co. Derry, farmer's wife, and others.
Cure for Sty on the Eye.—Take ten gooseberry jags, throw the tenth away, an' point the nine at the sty, an' throw them away, an' this will cure it.*[3]—M. Farren, co. Derry, farmer's wife, and others.
- ↑ * = from Glenavy, co. Antrim.
- ↑ † = from Strangford, co. Down.
- ↑ Mr. Robert Patterson of Belfast, who asked Mr. Campbell to collect folk-lore, adds that "those cures which I mark with * or † I have been told by two of my servants in the same words, so they are known in Antrim and Down, as well as in Donegal and Derry."
