FOLK LORE.
Cure for Hooping Cough.
—It is said by the inhabitants of the forest of Bere, East Hants, that new milk drank out of a cup made of the wood of the variegated holly is a cure for the hooping cough.
↗
Cure for the Toothache.
—In the village of Drumcondra, about a mile and half on the northern side of Dublin, there is an old churchyard, remarkable as the burying-place of Gandon the architect, Grose the antiquary, and Thomas Furlong the translator of Carolan's Remains. On the borders of this churchyard there is a well of beautiful water, which is resorted to by the folks of the village afflicted with toothache, who, on their way across the graves pick up an old skull, which they carry with them to drink from, the doing of which they assert to be an infallible cure. Others merely resort to the place for the purpose of pulling a tooth from a skull, which they place on or over the hole or stump of the grown tooth, and they affirm that by keeping it there for a certain time the pain ceases altogether. There is a young woman at this instant in the employment of my mother, who has practised these two remedies, and who tells me she knows several others who have done the same.
C. HOEY.
Near Drumcondra, County Dublin.
Medical Use of Pigeons.—
"Spirante columba
Suppositu pedibus, revocantur adima vapores."
"'They apply pigeons to draw the vapours from the head.'"—Dr. Donne's "Devotions upon Emergent Occasions," Works, vol. iii. p. 550. Lond. 1839.
Mr. Alford appends to the above-cited passage the following note:
"After a careful search in Pliny, Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, and Sir Thomas Browne's Vulgar Errors, I can find no mention of this strange remedy."
I am inclined to suspect that the application of pigeons was by no means an uncommon remedy in cases particularly of fever and delirium. To quote one passage from Evelyn:
"Neither the cupping nor the pidgeons, those last of remedyes, wrought any effect."—Life of Mr. Godolphin, p. 148. Lond. 1847.
Some of your correspondents may possibly be able to furnish additional information respecting this custom; for I am confident of having seen it alluded to, though at the moment I cannot remember by whom.
RT.
Warmington.
Obeism.
—In the Medical Times of 30th Sept. there is a case of a woman who fancied herself under its influence, in which the name (in a note) is derived from Obi, the town, district, or province in Africa where it was first practised; and there is appended to it the following description of one of the superstitions as given by a witness on a trial:
"Do you know the prisoner to be an Obeah man?—Ees, massa; shadow catcher true.
"What do you mean by shadow catcher?—Him hab coffin "What shadow do you mean?—When him set Obeah for somebody him catch dem shadow, and dem go dead." The derivation of the name from a place is very different from the supposition so cleverly argued in the Third Vol. connecting it with Ob; but I cannot find in any gazetteer to which I at present have had access, any place in Africa of the name, or a similar name. I do not remember in the various descriptions I have read of the charms practised, that one of catching the shadow mentioned. E. N. W. I resume the chain of evidence where I left off in my last communication. The account given by Pomerania's best and most trusty historian, Thomas Kanzow, Kantzow, Kamzow, Kansow, Kahnsow, Kantzouw, or Cantzow[7] (born 1505; died 25th September, 1542), of Stralsund, in his Pomerania (ed. Meden, p. 405., 1841, W. Dietze, Anclam.), of Wollin, only previously alluded to by your correspondents, is as follows: "Of Wollin.—Wollin was before, as it appears from heretofore written histories, a powerful city; and one yet finds far about the town foundations and tokens that the city was once very great; but it has since been destroyed, and numbers now scarcely 300 to 400 citizens.[8] It has a parish church and nunnery (jungfrauenkloster), and a ducal government. It lies on a piece of marshland, on the Dievenow, called the Werder. The citizens are customed like the other Pomeranians, but they are considered somewhat awkwarder (unhandlicher = unhandier). It is a curious custom of this land and city that generally more inhuman things take place there than anywhere else; and that I may relate something, I will tell of a dreadful occurrence that lately happened there.[9] Of Wollyn there is nothing more to be written, except that the revered Master Doctor Joannes Buggenhagen was born in this city, who is no insignificant ornament both of the holy New Testament and of his fatherland." [7] The publication of whose works in English I strongly recommend. [8] In later times, however, the population has become greater. [9] Not to be found. On Vineta he writes (High German Chronicle, ed. Meden, lib. ii. pp. 32-35.):— "Not long after this Schwenotto threw off Christianity, and set himself against his father Harald, king in Denmark, and drove him from the kingdom. So Harald fled to Wollyn, in Pomerania. There the Wends, notwithstanding that he was a Christian, and they still of the ancient faith, received him kindly, and, together with the other Wends and Pomeranians, fitted out ships and an armament, and brought him with force back into his kingdom, and fought the whole day with Schweno, so that it was uncertain who had or had not won there. Then the next day they arose and made a smiting,[10] and in the fray Harald was shot by a Dane, and perhaps by his son's command. Then brought the Wollyners him to their ships, and carried him away to their city that there they might doctor (artzten) him. But he died of the wound, and was buried there, after he had reigned about fifty years, about the thousandth year after the birth of Christ. So writeth Saxo. But Helmold writes, that he came to Vineta: these holp him into his kingdom again, and when he was shot in the skirmish, they brought him back to their town, where he died[11] and was buried. And that I myself believe; for though Wollyn was a mighty state at that time, still Vineta was much mightier; and it is therefore to be concluded that he fled to Vineta, rather than to Wollyn, and that Vineta was on that account afterwards destroyed: and as we are come to Vineta, we will say what Helmold writes thereof, which is this:— "Vineta has been a powerful city, with a good harbour for the surrounding nations; and after so much has been told of the city which is totally (schyr = sheerly) incredible, I will relate this much. It is said to have been as great a city as any which Europe contained at that time, and it was promiscuously inhabited by Greeks, Slavonians, Wends, and other nations. The Saxons, also, upon condition of not openly practising Christianity, were permitted to inhabit with them; for all the citizens were idolaters down to the final destruction and fall of the city. Yet in customs, manners, and hospitality there is not a more worthy nation, or so worthy a one, to be found. The city was full of all sorts of merchandise (kaufwahr) from all countries, and had everything which was curious, luxurious (lustig = lustful), and necessary; and a king of Denmark destroyed them a great fleet of war. The ruins and recollection of the town remain even to this day, and the island on which it lay is flowed round by three streams, of which one is of a green colour, the other greyish, and the third dashes and rushes by reason of storm and wind. And so far Helmold, who wrote about 400 years ago. "And it is true that the remains exist at the present day: for when one desires to go from Wolgast over the Pene, in the country of Usedom, and comes by a village called Damerow, which is by [about] two miles[12] from Wolgast, so sees one about a long quarter way into the sea (for the ocean has encroached upon the land so much since then), great stones and foundations. So have I with others rowed thither, and have carefully looked at it. But no brickwork is there now; for it is so many hundred years since the destruction of the city, that it is impossible that it can have remained so long in the stormy sea. Yet the great foundation-stones are there still, and lie in a row, as they are usually disposed under a house, one by the other; and in some places others upon them. Among these stones are some so great, in three or four places, that they reach ell high above the water; so that it is conjectured that their churches or assembly-houses stood there. But the other stones, as they still lie in the order in which they lay under the buildings (geben), show also manifestly how the streets went through the length and breadth (in die lenge und übers quer) of the city. And the fishermen of the place told us that still whole paving-stones of the streets lay there, and were covered with moss[13] (übermoset), so that they could not be seen; yet if one pricked therein with a sharp-pointed pole or lance, they were easily to be felt. And the stones lay somehow after that manner: and as we rowed backward and forward over the foundations, and remarked the fashion of the streets, saw we that the town was built lengthways from east to west. But the sea deepens the farther we go, so that we could not perceive the greatness of the city fully; but what we could see, made us think that it was very probably of about the size of Lübeck: for it was about a short quarter[14] long, and the breadth broader than the city Lübeck. By this one may guess what was the size of the part we could not see. And according to my way of thinking, when this town was destroyed, Wisbu in Gottland was restored." [10] I have in the translation adopted the phrase of Holy Writ, "made a smiting." [11] This shows that the MSS. of Helmold were corrupted at a very early period. I have seen one uncorrupted. A list of them would be a thing desirable. [12] German, answering to about eight English. [13] I have translated übermoset as above, though nothing at the bottom could be covered with moss. I suspect the true lection to be übermodert, as moder exists in the present German, answering to our word "mother." [14] This expression, as well as a previous one, alludes to the distance. "Of a mile" is, in both cases, to be understood. Wisby, en passant, may be described as a merchant town of great importance in the mediæval period, and whence we have derived our navigation laws. It has now about 4000 inhabitants, and has many ruined buildings and sculptured marble about it. So far Kantzow in the High German Chronicle: in the Low German Chronicle (ed. Böhmer, Greifswald, 1832), I find nothing bearing on the subject. Indistinct and wavering is Kantzow in his account, but thus much is to be gathered from it. 1. That the soi-disant Vineta lay east and west; Julin or Wollin lies north and south. 2. That the destruction of Wollin ensued on its aiding an enemy against Denmark. 3. That in the mind of Kantzow the two towns were not confounded, and that he had heard both legends, but had not sufficient critical sagacity to disentangle the mess. The oldest MSS. of Helmold have not this error. I have myself, as previously stated, seen one uncorrupted. The closing words of Kantzow seem to make it necessary to search for the date of the rebuilding of Wisby, which I have not at present the means of doing, though I will take an early opportunity of settling this, oddly enough, contested point. Von Raumer emphatically brands the legend of Vineta as a fable; as also my friend M. de Kaiserling. And I myself am forcibly reminded of an old Irish legend I read long ago somewhere or other, of the disappearance of a city in the Lake of Killarney, of which, my authority stated, the towers were occasionally to be perceived. Another legend, of which the scene was laid in Mexico, I recollect, was to the same effect; and in this I am confirmed by a friend, who has traveled much in that country. I must myself totally deny the existence of Vineta, except as the capital city of the Veneti, when I would place it in Rügen. I may as well add that M. de Kaiserling dug up his coins in the north-western corner of Wollin, near the Rathhaus. The Salmarks are in the neighbourhood of the town, the Greater one to the north, the Lesser to the south. I will now close the paper, already too long, and hope for elucidations and remarks from abler pens. KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE. September 25, 1851.NOTES ON JULIN, NO. II.
(Vol. ii., pp. 230. 282. 379. 443.; Vol. iv., p. 171.)