Sores or other evil diseases caused by witchcraft could be speedily cured if attended to when the moon was on the wane. I do not know in what form the application was used, but here are the ingredients as given to me by an old fellow who, though he had never used it, had heard ’’at nowt cud cum up tiv it.’
Tak’ tweea ’at’s red an’ yan ’at’s blake (yellow)
O’ poison berries three,
Three fresh-cull’d blooms o’ Devil’s glut,
An’ a sprig o’ rosemary;
Tak’ henbane, bullace, bumm’lkite,
An’ t’ fluff frev a deead bulrush;
Nahn berries shak’ fra t’ rowan-tree,
An’ nahn fra botterey bush.
To this day there are fisher lasses who wear their chemises wrong side out when their sailor lads are away at sea, and stormy weather threatens.