[207.3] i. N. Ind. N. and Q., 40; Dalpatrám Dayá, 19, 20.
[209.1] Andree, i. Ethnog. Par., 46, 49, 55. Cf. with the Dyak custom that of the Esthonians on the island of Oesel. Ibid., 47. As to the Peruvian rite, i. Garcilasso, 131. Compare with it a Malabar custom of taking a shred from the clothes and presenting it to the new moon when first seen. i. N. Ind. N. and Q., 88.
[209.2] Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad. (1892), 819.
[209.3] Athenæum, 1st April 1893, 415.
[209.4] Casalis, 287. A parallel practice would seem to be that of putting mud in a niche above the well at the Chapel of the Seven Saints, Plédran, Côtes-du-Nord—not on the child—to cure the mumps. Dr. Aubry, in vii. Rev. Trad. Pop., 599.
[210.1] W. A. Craigie, in iv. Folklore, 223, quoting the Landnámabók. Cf. the custom in the Louisiade Islands cited antè, [p. 197], note, and several African customs also cited above.
[211.1] i. Bull. F.L., 250.
[212.1] vi. Mélusine, 155.
[213.1] It is fair to M. Monseur to say that he recognises expressly (loc. cit.) the priority of trees as objects of worship, in point of time, to fetishes of wood; and M. Gaidoz, of course, would admit the same. But I do not think this affects my criticism. Elsewhere the former refers to two cases, which by no means stand alone, as instances of maltreated divinities. The remedy prescribed for toothache at Warnaut and Bioulx, in the province of Namur, is to bite, as noted in the last chapter, one of the crosses placed on the wayside in memory of persons who have died violent deaths in the neighbourhood. And at Herve, a girl who desires to be married goes to pray at Saint Joseph’s Chapel. She must bite the iron trellis-work around the saint’s statue—of course, because she cannot get at the saint himself. ii. Bull. F.L., 7, 56. It seems to me, however, that the object is, in both cases, to bring the sufferer or suppliant into union with the deceased or with the saint. So, to cure the fever, we find among the French superstitions of the seventeenth century the prescription to bind the patient for a while with a cord, or fasten him with wood or straw to a certain tree; and it was the opinion of some that it must be done early in the morning, that the patient must be fasting and must bite the bark of the tree before being released. Liebrecht, in Gerv. Tilb., 238, quoting Thiers. In Transylvania, one who suffers from toothache bites the bell-rope while the church-bells are ringing, saying:—
“The free masses are sung,
The bells have rung,
The Gospel is read,
The worm in my teeth shall be dead.”