The touch of a piebald horse. Even a piebald horse pawing before the door helps the cure.
The child to be passed seven times under and over an ass while a red string is tied on the throat of the patient.
Nine hairs from the tail of a black cat, chopped up and soaked in water, which is then swallowed, and the cough will be relieved.
“One day when out snipe shooting,” a gentleman writes, “I saw a horrid-looking insect staring up at me. I called to a man close by, and asked him the name of it. He told me it was called the Thordall, and was reckoned a great cure for the chin-cough; for if any one got it safe in a bottle and kept it prisoner till it died, the disease would go away from the patient. It was just the time to try the cure, for my child was laid up with the epidemic. So I bottled my friend and daily examined the state of his health. It lasted for a fortnight, and at the end of that time the child had quite recovered, and the horrible-looking insect creature lay dead.”
FOR RHEUMATISM.
The operator makes passes, like the mesmerist, over the member affected by the rheumatic pain, never touching the part, but moving his hand slowly over it at some distance, while he mutters a form of words in a low voice.
FOR A STYE ON THE EYELID.
Point a gooseberry thorn at it nine times, saying, “Away, away, away!” and the stye will vanish presently and disappear.