afflicted with dizziness, he
is recommended to run after sunset, naked, three times through a field
of flax; after doing so, the flax will at once "take the dizziness to
itself." A Sussex cure for ague is to eat sage leaves, fasting, nine
mornings in succession; while Flemish folk-lore enjoins any one who has
the ague to go early in the morning to an old willow, make three knots
in one of its branches, and say "Good morrow, old one; I give thee the
cold; good morrow, old one." A very common cure for warts is to tie as
many knots on a hair as there are warts, and to throw the hair away;
while an Irish charm is to give the patient nine leaves of dandelion,
three leaves being eaten on three successive mornings. Indeed, the
efficacy of numbers is not confined to any one locality; and Mr. Folkard
[19] mentions an instance in Cuba where, "thirteen cloves of garlic at
the end of a cord, worn round the neck for thirteen days, are considered
a safeguard against jaundice." It is necessary, however, that the
wearer, in the middle of the night of the thirteenth day, should proceed
to the corner of two streets, take off his garlic necklet, and, flinging
it behind him, run home without turning round to see what has become of
it. Similarly, six knots of elderwood are employed "in a Yorkshire
incantation to ascertain if beasts are dying from witchcraft." [20] In
Thuringia, on the extraction of a tooth, the person must eat three
daisies to be henceforth free from toothache. In Cornwall [21] bramble
leaves are made use of in cases of scalds and inflammatory diseases.
Nine leaves are moistened with spring-water, and "these are applied to
the burned or diseased parts." While this is being done, for every
bramble leaf the following charm is repeated three times:--

"There came three angels out of the east,
One brought fire and two brought frost;
Out fire and in frost,
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."

Of the thousand and one plants used in popular folk-medicine we can but
give a few illustrations, so numerous are these old cures for the ills
to which flesh is heir. Thus, for deafness, the juice of onion has been
long recommended, and for chilblains, a Derbyshire cure is to thrash
them with holly, while in some places the juice of the leek mixed with
cream is held in repute. To exterminate warts a host of plants have been
recommended; the juice of the dandelion being in favour in the Midland
counties, whereas in th