The Rev. Hugh Taylor has kindly communicated to me the following story in illustration of this belief: “A cousin of mine, when a boy, ran a pitchfork into his foot. As he was in much pain, in the absence of a surgeon, an old bone-setter named Harry Stephenson was sent for. Old Harry applied some lotion, consisting, as he said, of ‘three consarns,’ and sent for the pitchfork. He cut a little hair exactly from the back of his patient’s head, and very carefully wiped the pitchfork with it; then, instructing him to place the hair under his pillow, he took the fork home and hung it up behind the door. Whether the treatment of the wound or the pitchfork deserve the credit, the patient was certainly quite well in the morning.” Again, my Sussex informant writes: “Several instances of this old superstitious remedy have come under my observation, but the most remarkable one occurred in the house of an acquaintance, one of whose men had fallen down upon a sword-stick, and inflicted an injury on his back which confined him to his bed for several days. During the whole of this time the sword-stick was hung up at his bed’s head, and polished night and day at stated intervals by a female hand. It was also anxiously examined lest a single spot of rust should be found on it, since that would have foretold the death of the wounded man.”
The following communication from Mr. G. M. Tweddell tells of the same belief in Yorkshire: “Some years ago, a relation of mine was crossing the moors from Whitby to his home at Stokesley, when he heard a woman’s voice calling out loudly, ‘Canny man, canny man, d’ye come frae Stousley?’ On his replying that he did, she begged him to take a harrow-tooth to the wise man of that place, as her husband had been injured by it, and she wished the wise man to polish and charm it. He took the harrow-tooth and placed it in his pocket, but, truth to tell, as soon as she was out of sight, he flung it away among the heather. However, when, some time after, he passed that way again, the poor woman recognised him and thanked him heartily for doing her errand, saying that her husband had mended from the day the wise man got the bit of iron.”
It is curious to compare with these narrations the mode of
