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Page 7
Images of the black Virgin are not uncommon in Roman Catholic churches.
Has the colour an Egyptian origin, or whence is it?
A. HOLT WHITE.
Gladwins, Harlow.
_Snake Charming_.--Two or three summers ago, I was told a curious story
of snake charming by a lady of undoubted veracity, in whose
neighbourhood (about a dozen miles from Totnes) the occurrence had taken
place. Two coast-guard men in crossing a field fell in with a snake: one
of them, an _Irishman_, threw his jacket over the animal, and
immediately uttered or muttered a charm over it. On taking up the
garment, after a few seconds had passed, the _snake was dead_.
When I heard this story, and understood that the operator was an
Irishman, I bethought me of how Rosalind says, "I was never so be-rhymed
since Pythagoras' time, that I was an Irish rat," and accounted
satisfactorily for the fact that, "as touching snakes, there are no
snakes in _Ireland_:" for, as the song voucheth, "the snakes committed
suicide to save themselves from slaughter," _i.e._ they _were charmed to
death by St. Patrick_.
I fear it would now be impossible to recover the charm made use of by
the coast-guard man; but I will have inquiry made, and if I can obtain
any further particulars, I will forward them to you.
J.M.B.
_Mice as a Medicine_ (Vol. ii., pp. 397. 435.).--The remedy of the roast
mouse recommended in _The Pathway to Health_ (which I find is in the
British Museum), is also prescribed in _Most Excellent and Approved
Remedies_, 1652:--"Make it in powder," says the author, "and drink it
off at one draught, and it will presently help you, especially if you
use it three mornings together." The following is "an excellent remedy
to stanch bleeding:"--
"Take a toad and dry him very well in the sun, then put him in a
linen bag, and hang him with a string about the neck of the party
that bleedeth, and let it hang so low that it may touch the breast
on the left side near unto the heart; and this will certainly stay
all manner of bleeding at the mouth, nose," &c.
Sage leaves, yarrow, and ale, are recommended for a "gnawing at the
heart;" which I think should be "made a note of" for the benefit of poor
poets and disappointed authors.
WEDSECNARF.
_Mice as a Medicine_ (Vol. ii., pp. 397. 435.).--I was stopping about
three years ago in the house of a gentleman whose cook had been in the
service of a quondam Canon of Ch. Ch., who averred that she roasted mice
to cure her master's children of the hooping cough. She said it had the
effect of so doing.
CHAS. PASLAM.
"Many Nits, [nuts]
Many Pits."
A common saying hereabouts, meaning that if hazel-nuts, haws, hips, &c.,
are plentiful, many deaths will occur. But whether the deaths are to be
occasioned by nut-devouring or by seasonal influence, I cannot
ascertain. In many places, an abundant crop of hips and haws is supposed
to betoken a severe winter.
CHAS. PASLAM.
_Swans hatched during Thunder._--The fable of the singing of swans at
death is well known; but I recently heard a bit of "folk lore" as to the
birth of swans quite as poetical, and probably equally true. It is this:
that swans are always hatched during a thunderstorm. I was told this by
an old man in Hampshire, who had been connected with the care of swans
all his life. He, however, knew nothing about their singing at death.
Is this opinion as to the birth of swans common? If so, probably some of
your numerous correspondents will detail the form in which such belief
is expressed.
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