"_P._ Well, Dame Grey, I hear you have a charm to cure the
toothache. Come, just let me hear it; I should be so much
pleased to know it.
"_Dame_. Oh, your reverence, it's not worth telling."
(Here a long talk--Parson coaxing the Dame to tell him--old lady very
shy, partly suspecting he is quizzing her, partly that no charms are
proper things, partly willing to know what he thinks about it.) At last
it ends by her saying--
"Well, your reverence, you have been very kind to me, and I'll
tell you: it's just a verse from Scripture as I says over those
as have the toothache:--
"'And Jesus said unto Peter, What aileth thee? and Peter
answered, Lord, I have toothache. And the Lord healed him.'"
"_P._ Well, but Dame Grey, I think I know my Bible, and I don't
find any such verse in it."
"_Dame_. Yes, your reverence, that is just the charm. _It's in
the Bible_, but _you can't find it_!"
No. 2. To avert sickness from a family, hang up a sickle, or iron
implement, at the bed head.
No. 3. Should a death happen in a house at night, and there be a hive or
hives of bees in the garden, go out and wake them up at once, otherwise
the whole hive or swarm will die.
I hope your Folk Lore is not confined to the fading memorials of a past
age. The present superstitions are really much more interesting and
valuable to be gathered together; and I am sure your pages would be very
well employed in recording these for a future generation. I would {294}
suggest, in all humility, that it would be really useful, for the rulers
of our Church and State, to know how far such a superstition as the
following prevails among the peasantry:
That, if a dying person sees "glory," or a bright light, at or near the
time of their dissolution, such a vision is a sure sign of their
salvation, whatever may have been their former life, or their
repentance.