If a man bind the combings of his hair to the mane of a strange horse it will be wild and shy till the hairs are removed.
For easy childbirth red hair is sewed in a small bag and carried on the belly next the skin during pregnancy. Red hair indicates good luck, and is called bálá kámeskro, or sun-hairs, which indicates its Indian origin.
If any one dreams much of the dead, let him sew some of his hair into an old shoe, and give it to any beggar. Thereby he will prevent evil spirits from annoying him.
If a child suffers from sleeplessness, some of its mother’s hair should be sewed into its wrappings, and others pulverized, mixed with a decoction of elderberries, be given it to drink. In German Folk-lore, as I shall show more fully anon, the elder often occurs as a plant specially identified with sorcery. In gypsy it is called yakori bengeskro, or the devil’s eye, from its berries.
Nails cut on Friday should be burned, and the ashes mingled with the fodder of cattle, who are thus ensured against being stolen or attacked by wild beasts. If children are dwarfish, the same ashes in their food will make them grow. If a child suffers from pains in the stomach, a bit of nail must be clipped from its every finger; this is mixed with the dried dung of a foal, and the patient exposed to the smoke while it is burned.
A child’s first tooth must, when it falls out, be thrown into a hollow tree. Those which come out in the seventh year are carefully kept, and whenever the child suffers from toothache, one is thrown into a stream.
Teeth which have been buried for many years, serve to make a singular fetish. They are mingled with the bones of a tree-frog, and the whole then sewed up in a little bag. If a man has anything for sale, and will draw or rub this bag over it, he will have many offers or customers for the articles thus enchanted. The bones are prepared by putting the frog into a glass or earthen receptacle full of small holes. This is buried in an ant-hill. The ants enter the holes and eat away all the flesh, leaving the bones which after a few weeks are removed.[1]
To bear healthy and strong children women wear a string of bears’ claws and children’s teeth. Dr. von Wlislocki cites, apropos of this, a passage from Jacobus Rueff, “Von Empfengnussen”: “Etlich schwanger wyber pflägend einen bären klauen von einem bären tapen yngefaszet am hals zuo tragen” (Some women when with child are accustomed to wear mounted bears’ claws on their necks). In like manner boars’ teeth, which much resemble them, are still very commonly worn in Austria and Italy and almost over all Europe and the East. It is but a few days since I here, in Florence, met with a young English lady who had bought a very large one mounted in silver as a brooch, but who was utterly unaware that there was any meaning attached to it.[2] I have a very ancient bear’s tooth and whistle in silver, meant for a teething child. It came from Munich.
Pain in the eyes is cured with a wash made of spring or well water and saffron. During the application the following is recited:—
“Oh dukh ándrál yákhá