Herrings--Chimæra Monstrosa--Cure for Ringworm--Cold Tea Leaves
for inflamed and blood-shot Eyes--An old Incantation for the cure
of Sore Eyes--A curious Dirk Sheath--A Tannery of Human Skins.
However unproductive the herring fishing season may be quoad herrings,
and this has so far been the worst of a series of bad seasons
[September 1870], it rarely fails to provide more or less grist for our
mill in the shape of some rarity in marine life worth chronicling. A
very ugly and repulsive-looking fish, extremely rare too, was sent us
recently for identification. It was caught in Sallachan Bay, in our
neighbourhood, having become entangled in the corner of a drift net
which the fishermen were hauling into their boat in the grey morning,
after a long, wearisome, and profitless night's labours. We had seen
the fish before, though not often, and had therefore no hesitation
in recognising it as the Chimæra monstrosa--a scientific name, by
the way in which its lack of beauty is plainly enough indicated--a
cartilaginous fish, two feet in length, and of somewhat elongated and
hake-like form. The general colour is a dull leaden white, mottled
on the under parts with small spots of rusty brown. On examining
the contents of the stomach, they were found to consist of some very
small herring fry, along with partly digested fragments of the adult
fish, whence it may be concluded that the Chimæra's favourite prey,
when they can be had, is herring; a conclusion at which we might also
easily arrive from the fact that it is seldom or never met with on
our shores, except when herring are more or less plentiful. At one
time the Chimæra must have been a less rare fish than it is now, for
it has a Gaelic name, "Buachaille-an-Sgadain," the Herring Herd or
Herdsman. It was probably comparatively common in the good old times,
when even our more inland western lochs swarmed annually with herring
shoals, and so large was the capture, that the salt to cure them,
on which there was a considerable duty at the time, was frequently
retailed over a vessel's side at a shilling the lippy. The late
Colonel Maclean of Ardgour, who attained a great age, with intellect
clear and unimpaired, and who was most particular and exact in all
his statistics, has repeatedly assured us that, in his younger days,
say a hundred years ago, fifty thousand pounds worth of herring used
to be captured annually in Lochiel alone. We don't suppose that for
many years past herring to the value of a tenth of that sum have been
caught in all the lochs between the Mull of Cantyre and the Point
of Ardnamurchan.
The reader probably knows what ringworm is--a fungoid eruption on
the skin, not uncommon in the spring and early summer in children
and young people of plethoric habits. There is a very wide-spread
belief over the West Highlands and in the Hebrides that ringworm
can be readily cured by rubbing it over and around once or twice
with a gold-ring--a woman's marriage ring, if it can be had, being
always preferred. In our younger days we recollect seeing the cure
applied on more than one occasion, whether with the desired result,
or ineffectually, we do not know--we probably little thought in those
days of kilts, cammanachd, and barley bannocks, of inquiring. For
many years we had neither seen nor heard anything either of the
disease or of its popular cure, until, by the merest accident, it
came under our notice a few days ago. Riding home one evening last
week, we observed two little girls and a sturdy long-legged haflin
lad sitting patiently in front of a cottage, the door of which was
shut and locked. The youngsters, rather better dressed than usual,
had come from a considerable distance, and we wondered what they could
be doing there. On mentioning the matter next day, we had the story in
full as follows:--The three were suffering from ringworm. The owner of
the cottage has a marriage ring of wonderful efficacy in curing this
epidermic distemper. They had come from one of the inland glens to be
operated upon, but the possessor of the ring was away in Glasgow, and
only returned home by steamer late that evening. When she did arrive,
the young people were duly manipulated and ring-rubbed secundum artem;
and in four and twenty hours thereafter we were gravely assured
they were quite healed. Any gold ring is usually employed, but the
particular ring referred to in this case is much sought after on such
occasions, because, as our informant said, it is of "guinea gold,"
by which we suppose very pure gold, with the least possible alloy,
is meant; and because it is the property of a widow who was married
to one husband more than fifty years. A belief in the virtue of gold
rings in cures of ringworm is, as we have said, very wide-spread and
honestly held by many. Whether, in common phrase, there is "anything
in it," or the whole affair is sheer nonsense, we shall not take it
upon us to decide. We merely submit a common and curious article
of popular belief for the consideration of our grave and learned
dermatologists and the faculty at large. One thing is certain,--the
owner of the marvellous ring makes no vulgar profit by her frequent
use of it in such cases. She is in comfortable circumstances, and
the whole affair, as far as she is concerned, is a mere labour of love.
Another popular cure, which for the first time came under our
notice recently, and which in many cases is really efficacious, as
we have heard averred by those who have been benefited by its use,
is the application of a poultice of cold tea leaves to an inflamed
or blood-shot eye. A handful of the leaves is taken from the pot, and
placed between two folds of thin cotton or muslin, and applied to the
eye at bed-time, kept in its place, of course, by a handkerchief or
other band tied round the head. In cases of weak or inflamed eyes from
any cause, this is reckoned, in this and the surrounding districts,
"the sovereignest thing on earth." And one can quite understand how
tea leaves, at once cooling and astringent, employed in this way,
may benefit a hot and inflamed eye. It is a simple application at
all events, and always at hand; and when more pretentious remedies
are not readily attainable, one would be unwisely prejudiced, if not
actually foolish, to suffer long without giving it a fair trial.
A less simple and less readily available cure for sore eyes is the
following in old Gaelic verse:--
Leigheas Sul.
Luidh Challum-Chille agus spèir,
Meannt agus tri-bhilead corr,
Bainne atharla nach do rug laodh;
Bruich iad a's càirich air brèid,
S'cuir sid rid' shùil aig tra-nèin,
Air an Athair, am Mac agus Spiorad nan gràs,
'S air Ostal na seirce; bi'dh do shùilean slàn
Mu'n eirich a gheallach 's mu'n till an làn.
In English, literally--
(Take of) St. Columba's wort and dandelion,
(Of) mint and a perfect plant of marsh trefoil,
(Take of) milk from the udder of a quey
(That is heavy with calf, but that has not actually calved),
Boil, and spread the mixture on a cloth;
Put it to your eyes at noon-tide,
In the name of Father, Son, and the Spirit of Grace,
And in the name of (John) the Apostle of Love, and your eyes
shall be well
Before the next rising of the moon, before the turning of next
flood-tide.
We were recently shown a great curiosity--a dirk sheath said to be
made of human skin. Its history, as related to us by the owner, is as
follows:--In the summer of 1746, about two months after the battle of
Culloden, a detachment of Saighdearan Dearge, red (coated) soldiers,
or Government troops, was passing through Lochaber and Appin on its
way to Inveraray, the men amusing themselves, and enlivening the tedium
of the march, by burning and plundering as they had opportunity. When
passing through the Strath of Appin, a young woman was observed in
a field, busily engaged in the evening milking her cow. A sergeant
or corporal of the band leaped over the wall into the field, and
putting his musket to his shoulder, shot the cow dead upon the spot;
after which gallant exploit he began the most brutal ill-treatment
of the woman. She, however, defended herself with great courage, and
as she retreated towards the shore, she picked up a stone, which she
hurled at her persecutor with such good aim that it struck him full
on the forehead, stretching him for the moment senseless upon the
grass. She then fled towards a boat that was afloat on the beach, and
leaping in, rapidly rowed towards Eilean-bhaile-na-gobhar, an island
at a considerable distance from the mainland, where she was safe
from further annoyance. The tradition is so minute and precise that
the heroine's name is given as Silas-Nic-Cholla, or Julia MacColl;
and our informant declared himself to be her great-grandson. The
sergeant, stunned and bleeding, was picked up by his comrades,
and carried to the place of halt for the night, near Tigh-an Ribbi,
where, before morning, he died of his wound. His body was buried in
the old churchyard of Airds, but was not allowed to rest there. On
the disappearance of the soldiers from the district, the body was
exhumed by the people, and cast into the sea; not, however, before a
brother of Silas-Nic-Cholla flayed the right arm from the shoulder
to the elbow, and of the skin thus flayed was made a dirk sheath,
and this sheath we saw and handled with no little curiosity a week or
two ago. The sheath is of a dark brown colour, limp and soft, with no
ornament except a small virle of brass at the point, and a thin edging
of the same metal round the orifice, on which is inscribed the date
"1747," and the initials "D. M. C." There is no reason, we suppose,
to doubt the genuineness of the article, though we hardly expected
to find human skin--if it be human skin--of such thickness. It may,
however, be partly the result of the tanning process which it probably
underwent, and of time. In connection with this strange relic of a
past age may be stated the extraordinary fact--incredible, indeed,
if it were not thoroughly authenticated--that during the horrors of
the French Revolution there was a tannery of human skins for many
months in operation at Meudon. The raw material, so to speak, of
this strange manufacture, was the skins of the scores and hundreds
that were daily guillotined. It is asserted that "it made excellent
wash-leather." Montgaillard, a prominent character of the period, who
had the curiosity to visit the works, and saw the tanning process in
full operation, makes the following curious observation:--"The skin
of the men was superior in toughness and quality to shamoy; that of
the women good for almost nothing, so soft in texture, and easily
torn, like rotten linen!" We have had some rebellious revolutions,
civil wars, and all the rest of it in Great Britain and Ireland,
with their attendant iniquities, bad enough in all conscience, but
the French may fairly boast of having beat us; a tannery of human
skins is a venture and enterprise that no one has been pushing and
patriotic enough yet to undertake amongst us, even when axe and
gallows wrought their hardest in days happily long since passed away.