474 Collectanea.
gie me a whean o' tay an' sugar, dear miss, and tobacco." On another day I said to him, — " I'm told you have cured Bill M'Loughlan, Paddy. I hope he gave you something?" " He did not, miss ; whiles they'll gie, an' whiles they'll forget."
Indigestion charm. — When Bell Bradley came into a cottagewhere I was visiting she exclaimed, — " Miss, dear, you're very ill like, the day. What is it ails you ? " "I am not very well. Bell." "That's heart fever. If you let me, dear, I'll measure you round the waist wi' a green thread in the name o' the Trinity ; an' I'd allow you to eat three dandelion leaves on a piece o' bread an' butter. Eat them fasting, the first thing for three mornings, an' get better o' the fever."-
Mumps cure. — I was surprised to see a little boy with a swollen face leading a girl with a straw rope fastened round her head, until they came to the banks of a little stream. I then saw the girl kneel down and dip her face three times in the water. She got up and, taking off the rope, put it upon her brother. There- upon the ceremony was repeated, with the girl this time leading. After the boy had dipped his face three times, I produced two apples, and asked for an explanation. A woman who came up to us said, — " It's a cure for the mumps, ma'am. A boy puts the branks on a girl an' takes her to the water to drink, an' the girl puts the branks on him, an' it's a cure." "The branks?" "Sure that's the harness that goes on over the horse's head. An' it's allowed to be a gran' cure for the mumps "^ (March, 19 12).
Wart charms. — A Donegal man told me the following : — " Get ten straws. Tie a knot on ilka ane o' them, an' throw the tenth away after you ha' rubbed the warts wi' nine o' the straws. Then you'll put them in a clean white paper an' throw it on the road, an' the one that lifts the paper to see what's in it '11 get your warts."
"A neighbour o' mine. Miss M'Clintock, has a better cure. He'll gie ye a folded paper, an' he'll allow ye to bury it ; an' when that paper decays yer warts '11 be gane."
- Dandelion leaves are called heart fever grass in Donegal. Cf. Black, op. cit., p. 199-200.
'^ Cf. ^ similar account from Letterkenny, in Black, op. cit., pp, 105-6.
