"Cou' it by the auld wa's,
Cou' it where the sun ne'er fa'
Stoo it when the day daws,
Cou' the nettle early."
The juice of fumitory is said to clear the sight, and the kennel-wort
was once a popular specific for the king's-evil. As disinfectants,
wormwood and rue were much in demand; and hence Tusser says:--
"What savour is better, if physicke be true,
For places infected, than wormwood and rue?"
For depression, thyme was recommended, and a Manx preservative
against all kinds of infectious diseases is ragwort. The illustrations we
have given above show in how many ways plants have been in demand
as popular curatives. And although an immense amount of superstition
has been interwoven with folk-medicine, there is a certain amount of
truth in the many remedies which for centuries have been, with more or
less success, employed by the peasantry, both at home and abroad.
____________________
Footnotes:
- See Tylor's "Primitive Culture," ii. 2. See Folkard's "Plant-lore Legends and
Lyrics," p. 164. 3. "Mystic Trees and Shrubs," p. 717. 4. Folkard's "Plant-lore," p. 379.
- Hunt's "Popular Romances of the West of England," 1871, p. 415 6. Folkard's
"Plant-lore Legends and Lyrics," p. 216. 7. See Black's "Folk-medicine," 1883, p.195. 8.
Quarterly Review, cxiv. 245. 9. "Sacred Trees and Flowers," Quarterly Review, cxiv.
- Folkard's "Plant Legends," 364. 11. Fraser's Magazine, 1870, p. 591. 12.
"Mystic Trees and Plants;" Fraser's Magazine, 1870, p. 708. 13. "Reliquiae Antiquse,"
Wright and Halliwell, i. 195; Quarterly Review, 1863, cxiv. 241. 14. Coles, "The Art
of Simpling," 1656. 15. Anne Pratt's "Flowering Plants of Great Britain," iv. 9. 16.
Black's "Folk-medicine," p. 201. 17. Folkard's "Plant-Lore Legends and Lyrics," p. 248.
- Fraser's Magazine, 1870, p. 591. 19. "Plant-Lore Legends and Lyrics," p. 349. 20.
Black's "Folk-medicine," p. 185. 21. See Hunt's "Popular Romances of the West of
England." 22. Black's "Folk-medicine," p. 193. 23. "Rabies or Hydrophobia," T. M.
Dolan, 1879, p. 238. 24. Black's "Folk-medicine," p. 193.
