FOR WATER ON THE BRAIN
Cover the head well with wool, then place oil-skin over, and the water
will be drawn up out of the head. When the wool is quite saturated the
brain will be free and the child cured.
FOR HIP DISEASE
Take three green stones, gathered from a running brook, between
midnight and morning, while no word is said. In silence it must be done.
Then uncover the limb and rub each stone several times closely downwards
from the hip to the toe, saying in Irish--
"Wear away, wear away,
There you shall not stay,
Cruel pain--away, away."FOR THE MUMPS
Wrap the child in a blanket, take it to the pigsty, rub the child's head to
the back of a pig and the mumps will leave it and pass from the child to the
animal.
Another.Take nine black stones gathered before sunrise, and bring the patient
with a rope round his neck to a holy well--not speaking all the while. Then
cast in three stones in the name of God, three in the name of Christ, and
three in the name of Mary. Repeat this process for three mornings and the
disease will be cured.
FOR EPILEPSY
Take nine pieces of young elder twig; run a thread of silk of three strands
through the pieces, each piece being an inch long. Tie this round the
patient's neck next the skin. Should the thread break and the amulet fall, it
must be buried deep in the earth and another amulet made like the first, for
if once it touches the ground the charm is lost.
Another.