_Sacramental Wine._--In a remote hamlet of Surrey I recently heard the
following superstition. In a very sickly family, of which the children were
troubled with bad fits, and the poor mother herself is almost half-witted,
an infant newly born seemed to be in a very weakly and unnatural state. One
of the gossips from the neighbouring cottages coming in, with a mysterious
look said, "Sure, the babby wanted _something_,--a drop of the sacrament
wine would do it good." On surprise being expressed at such a notion, she
added "Oh! they often gives it." I do not find any allusion in Brand's
_Antiquities_ to such popular credence. He mentions the superstition in
Berkshire, that a ring made from a piece of silver collected at the
communion (especially that on Easter Sunday) is a cure for convulsions and
fits.