COLLECTANEA.
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Folklore Notes from Cornwall.
The following are some superstitions which I have personally met with in the course of twenty years' practice as a medical man in this neighbourhood.
The poor people are in my experience very superstitious, but are very unwilling to talk, or disclose their beliefs to a stranger for fear of ridicule. It is therefore useless to ask any questions, and one has to wait until it pleases them to tell what they think fit.
(1) Some years ago at Polperro, while examining a child who was suffering from whooping cough, I found hanging suspended round its neck on a piece of string a bit of raw meat, which from its look and smell must have been there many days. I presume this must be a slight variation of a charm given in Jonathan Couch's History of Polperro as follows : A small muslin bag is filled with live earthworms and hung around the child's neck. As the worms die and dry up so will the cough disappear.
(2) I was talking to a lady about charms, and she said laughingly that she would show me one in her possession. This was considered to be so valuable by her aunt that it was mentioned in her will.
She went upstairs and came down with an orange-coloured cornelian bead, evidently one of a necklace. This bead has a considerable reputation in the neighbourhood for the cure of eye diseases, and has since it has been in its present owner's possession been borrowed on two or three occasions and duly returned to her.
