Current Superstitions Part 32

863. You will not cry in peeling onions if you let the faucet be open so the water will run.

_Cambridge, Ma.s.s._

864. To bring up the palate when it drops and tickles the root of the tongue, take a wisp of hair on the crown of the head and tie it up very tight.

_Chestertown, Md._

865. Rubbing a sty with a gold ring will cure it.

_Prince Edward Island._

866. Cure a sty by rubbing it with a wedding ring.

_General._

867. A sty in the eye is cured by rubbing a gold ring on the eye three mornings with a sign of the cross.

_Labrador._

868. A pebble in the mouth will ease thirst.

_Brookline, Ma.s.s._

869. A sore throat may be cured by binding about the neck on going to bed one of the stockings which the patient has been wearing (no other one will do).

_Somewhat general in the United States._

870. To cure the sore throat, take three handfuls of ashes with your left hand, put into your left stocking, and bind it around your throat.

_Mattawamkeag, Me._

871. To burn the "little nerve" in the ear will cure the toothache forever.

_Northern Ohio._

CHAPTER XIII.

WARTS.

CAUSES.

872. Blood from the warts on a cow's bag coming in contact with a person's hands will cause warts to appear on them.

_New Hamps.h.i.+re._

873. Blood from a wart, especially if applied to the tongue, will cause warts to appear.

_New Jersey._

874. To count another person's warts will cause them to appear on you.

_General in the United States._

875. If one counts stars while lying on his back, he will have as many warts as he has counted stars.

_New York and Trenton, N.J._

876. To drink the water in which eggs have been boiled will cause internal warts.

_Miramichi, N.B._

877. Was.h.i.+ng the hands in water in which eggs have been boiled causes warts to grow.

_Cape Breton and Eastern Ma.s.sachusetts._

878. Warts are caused by touching the white of an egg.

_Salem, Ma.s.s._

879. To touch the jelly-fish will cause warts.

_Halifax, N.S., and parts of Eastern New England._

880. Touching the excrescences that sometimes appear on trees will cause warts on the hand of the person who touches them.

_New England._

881. The handling of large species of toadstool, sometimes popularly called "wart-toadstool," will cause warts to grow on the part of the hand coming in contact with it.

_New Hamps.h.i.+re._

882. The handling of a toad will cause warts to appear.

_General in the United States._

CURES.

883. To cure a wart, grease it with stolen bacon, and hide the latter.

884. Split a bean and put one half on the wart, one half in the ground, and at the end of the week dig up the latter; place on the wart with the other half; bury again, and this will cure the wart.

_Greenfield, Ma.s.s._

885. Beans rubbed on a wart and thrown in the well will cure a wart.

_Maine._

886. Rub a white bean on the warts, wrap it in paper, and throw it on the road; whoever picks it up will get the warts.

_Connecticut._

887. If you find an old bone in the field, rub the wart with it, then lay it down exactly as you found it. The wart will be cured.

_Maine._

888. If a person has warts, he should rub them with a bone, and after replacing the bone they are said to leave.

_Alabama._

889. Rub a wart with the yellow milky juice of celandine (_Chelidonium majus_).

_Ma.s.sachusetts._

890. The juice of "wild celandine" (_Impatiens fulva_) is used as a wart cure.

_Franconia, N.H._

891. Dandelion juice will cure warts.

_Revere Beach, Ma.s.s._

892. The milky juice of the _Euphorbia hypericifolia_ (and other small prostrate Euphorbias) is thought to be a sure cure for warts.