Red Tape a Protection against the Plague.
Taylor, in his "Account of the Rebellion in Wexford," relates a curious story of the amuletive properties of red tape as a protection against the plague: "Before the rebellion broke out in Wexford, all the red tape in the country was bought up, and more ordered from Dublin. It was generally bought in half-yards, and all the Roman Catholic children, boys and girls, wore it round their necks. This was so general and so remarkable as to occasion some inquiry, and the reason given was this: A priest had dreamed there would be a great plague among all the children of their church under fifteen years of age; that their brains would boil out at the back of their heads. He dreamed also that there was a charm to prevent it, which was to get some red tape, have it blessed and sprinkled with holy water, and tie it round the children's necks till the month of May, when the season of danger would be past. The Protestants suspected that it was intended as a mark to distinguish their own children, like the blood of the Paschal Lamb, when the Egyptian first-born were to be cut off."