Allow me to offer a Note on that part of MR. COOPER'S communication
(Vol. iii., pp. 148, 149.) which relates to the alleged power of the
"seventh son" to cure the "king's evil". This superstition is still
extant in this part of Cornwall. I have recently been told of three
_seventh_ sons, and of one _ninth_ son, who has been in the habit of
touching (or, as it is here called, "_striking_," which seems to mean
nothing more than _stroking_) persons suffering from the disease above
referred to.
The _striker_ thrice gently stokes the part affected by the disorder,
and thrice blows on it, using some form of words. One of my informants,
who had been so "struck" when a child, has a charm, or rather an amulet,
which has just, for the first time, been opened at my instigation. It is
a small bag of black silk, and is found to contain an old worn shilling
of William III., bored and stitched through in a piece of canvas. This
was presented to the patient at the time of the operation, and was to be
kept carefully as a preservative against the malady.
In Bristol, about forty years ago, there lived a respectable tradesman
who was habitually known as _Dr._ Peter P----, with no better title to
his degree than that he was the seventh son of a seventh son.
Those who have read Mr. Carleton's tragic tale, _The Black Prophet_,
will remember that, in Ireland, the seventh son of the seventh son is
supposed to be--
"Endued
With gifts and knowledge, per'lous shrewd!"
And in Keightley's _Fairy Mythology_ (p. 411. _note_, ed. 1850) are
given some tradition of that gifted Welsh family, the "Jones' of
Muddfi," whose forefather had married the "Spirit of the Van Pool."
"She left her children behind her, who became famous as doctors.
Jones was their name, and they lived at a place called Muddfi. In
them was said to have originated the tradition of the seventh son,
or Septimus, being born for the healing art; as for many
generations seven sons were regularly born in each family, the
seventh of whom became the doctor, and wonderful in his
profession. It is said, even now, that the Jones' of Muddfi are,
or were until very recently, clever doctors."
I have heard this tradition of the Jones' of Muddfi corroborated by a
Welsh friend.