ensure them against want of money.—Weekly Scotsman, Nov. 10, 1883.
Seventh-Son Cure.—In the steamer which took me from Barra, there sailed a man from South Uist, in charge of his grandson, a little boy about eight years old, whom I had examined in a school a few days before. The child was afflicted with "king's evil," the marks of which appear on brow and neck, covered by flannel. It seems that in Minglay there lived a native, who was the last of seven sons in direct male descent without any intervening daughter. According to popular notions, this endows him with a power of curing the malady, like the once potent "royal touch" which gave name to the disease. The supernatural physician enjoyed great local fame for many cures believed to have been effected by him. He had already seen the boy twice in Uist and Barra, and this was the third and last visit which was necessary for completing the cure. The child landed with his guardian in the boat by which I left the steamer, and they proceeded at once to the house of the famous man. It appears that he operated on the patient with no human eye to see, and using no simples of any kind, but merely recited, in the old orthodox fashion, a "rhyme" or charm over the sore. He charged no fee, though, as in all such transactions, a piece of silver, however small, must be presented as essential to good luck. The grandfather was intelligent and conversible, and we talked freely on the subject; and he had hopes of cure, based, he said, on previous success.—Good Words, November, 1883.
Folk-lore in America.—Daimonology or Pneumatology.—Under this heading are some interesting notes in the Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for 1881 (Washington, 1883),—Section, Anthropology, by Otis T. Mason. The definition given is "The study of human beliefs, of social organization, activities, instrumentalities, with reference to the supra-sensitive, the so-called spirit world" (p. 507). In the annexed bibliography I note the following:—
Bassett (F. S.) Superstitions and Legends of the Sea. United Service Mag., May, June, July, November.
Beauchamp (W. M.) Indian Missions of the Colonial Period. New York. Church Eclectic, July.
