Cures for Whooping Cough

CURES FOR WHOOPING COUGH

I.       GATHER nine spar stones from a running stream, taking care not to interrupt the free passage of the water in doing so Then dip a quart of water from the stream, which must be taken in the direction in which the stream runs ;-- by no means must the vessel be dipped against the stream. Then make the nine stones red hot, and throw them into the quart of water. Bottle the prepared water, and give the afflicted child a wine-glass of this water for nine mornings following. If this will not cure the whooping-cough, nothing else can, says the believer.

II. A female donkey of three years old was taken, and, the child was drawn naked nine times over its back and under its belly. Then three spoonfuls of milk were drawn from the teats of the animal, and three hairs cut from the back and three hairs cut from the belly were placed in it, this was to stand for three hours to acquire the proper virtue, and then the child drank it in three doses.

This ceremony was repeated three mornings running, and my informant said the child was always cured. I knew of several children who were treated in this manner in one of the small villages between Penzance and Madron Church town, some twenty or thirty years since. There were some doggerel lines connected with the ceremony, which have escaped my memory, and I have endeavoured, in vain, to find any one remembering them. They were to the effect that, as Christ placed the cross on the ass's back when he rode into Jerusalem, and so rendered the animal holy, if the child 'touched where Jesus sat, it should cough no more.