f genuine Norfolk, _Winneral_.
Those versions also want the explanation, that at this time there will
be either snow, rain, or wind; which latter is intended by the "old
house thack," or thatch.

_Medical Charms used in Ireland--Charm for Toothache_.--It is a
singular fact, that the charm for toothache stated (No. 19. p. 293.)
to be prevalent in the south-eastern counties of England, is also used
by the lower orders in the county of Kilkenny, and perhaps other parts
of Ireland. I have often heard the charm: it commences, "Peter sat
upon a stone; Jesus said, 'What aileth thee, Peter?'" and so on, as
in the English form.

_To cure Warts_, the following charm is used:--A wedding-ring is
procured, and the wart touched or pricked with a gooseberry thorn
through the ring.

_To cure Epilepsy_, take three drops of sow's milk.

_To cure Blisters_ in a cow's mouth, cut the blisters; then slit the
upper part of the tail, insert a clove of garlic, and tie a piece of
_red cloth_ round the wound.

_To cure the Murrain in Cows_.--This disease is supposed to be
caused by the cow having been stung about the mouth while feeding, in
consequence of contact with some of the larger larvae of the moth (as
of the Death's-head Sphynx, &c.), which have a soft fleshy horn on
their tails, erroneously believed to be a sting. If a farmer is so
lucky as to procure one of these rare larvae, he is to bore a hole in
an _ash tree_, and plug up the unlucky caterpillar alive in it. The
leaves of that ash tree will, from thenceforth, be a specific against
the disease.

The universal prevalence of the superstition concerning the ash is
extremely curious.

J.G.

Kilkenny. {350}

_Death-bed Superstition_.--See _Guy Mannering_, ch. xxvii. and note
upon it:--

"The popular idea that the protracted struggle between life
and death is painfully prolonged by keeping the door of the
apartment shut, was received as certain by the superstitious
eld of Scotland."

In my country (West Gloucestershire) they throw open the windows at
the moment of death.

The notion of the escape of the soul through an opening is probably
only in part the origin of this superstition. It will not account for
opening _all_ the locks in the house. There is, I conceive, a notion
of analogy and association.

"Nexosque et solveret artus," says Virgil, at the death of Dido. They
thought the soul, or the life, was tied up, and that the unloosing
of any knot m