56 More Folklore from the Hebrides.
The girls too have their special game, which has probably some interesting historical origin, if one did but know it. They call it Mathair M'hor, " the big mother." All but one sit in a row inside the house, one at the end acting The Big Mother. The remaining child hops in on one foot, and the Mother asks what she has come for. The reply is : "Dloj'a, Dioj'a, Diasgan" (nonsense words, pronounced Cheeka, Cheeka, Chelusgan), " Macleod sent me to ask for a piece of pork." The game is to see how many times this can be said on one leg. It should be remembered that the true Highlander scorns pork, and even when (which is still not often, and was formerly yet more rare) he keeps pigs, it is usually for sale, not for his own use.
V. — Leechcraft,
A man who has three times licked the liver of a freshly killed otter when it is still warm, has the power of curing burns and scalds by applying his tongue to the injured part before a blister has had time to rise. Father Allan says that on February 26th, 1896, he saw a man who had burned a finger go to have it licked by two men who had gone through the otter ceremony. The men declared the belief to be very old, and were surprised that he had not seen it done before.
There is a cure for erysipelas almost as nasty. Anyone who has crushed between his hands a young rat before it has any hair, and rubbed the raw flesh all over his ow^n hands, can cure erysipelas and rose-rash for the rest of his life. A man who lately died in Eriskay was in great request to relieve both man and beast in this manner. ■ .- An effectual remedy for inflammation in the udder of a cow is to hold a burning peat underneath, and to milk upon it until the peat is extinguished.
A cure for epilepsy is to kill a black cock, and to bury it where the patient first had a fit.^
' [See Folklore, xi., p. 446.]
