Oral magic, folklore and tradition / by B.R. Townend.

  • Townend, B. R.
Date:
1938
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Oral magic, folklore and tradition / by B.R. Townend. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    in the extreme. Here are a few quoted from Max Baldinger ( iVber- giaiibe und Volksmedizin in der Zahnheilkunde ” Schweizerische Archiv fiir Volkskunde, tom. 35)* ^ child will have painful and difficult teething if it sees itself in a mirror before it is a month old. If washing is hung on the garden hedge the same trouble will follow. To avoid painful teething the child should be allowed to look into the bread oven or eat pastry which a mouse has nibbled. Ihis latter is pure contagious magic : the mouse has good teeth and so anything it has touched will carry the virtue. ^ If the mother bites off the nails of the child during its'first year it will teethe easily, or if the father puts his hat on the child silently. It is a help if the child is put upon a sweating horse or if the tail of a cat or live fish is drawn through its mouth or if a dog is allowed to lick the infant. Among the natives of Africa, teething is looked upon with similar interest to that ^hown among the European nations. Among the Bahima, as an indication that the child has passed the earliest phase of its life when it cuts its first teeth, if a boy the father puts into its hands a tiny bow and arrows for a few moments; if a girl the mother does the same with a gourd which is used for churning. Among the Busoga the child is not allowed to sit up until the first teeth appear. A Kitara father gives the child a cow at this time and the milk from the animal is reserved for the child’s use. The custom of making a gift to a baby when the first tooth is cut is very widespread. We have seen an example of it in Africa and it is also common among Nordic races. In Nordic myth we hear that Freya, the god of rain and sunshine, was given Alfheim—a fairy palace—as a “ tooth-gift ” (Tannfe). In some cases a gift is made to the person who first finds the new tooth. It is said in Brunswick that “ the one who finds the new tooth gets a new dress,*” but as Kanner drily remarks, the dress is not always given. A teething gift of somewhat doubtful value is recorded by Grimm to the effect that if the one who first sees the tooth gives the child a rough blow, the remaining teeth will erupt without difficulty. Among the Semitic races the teething gift is familiar. The Maronites of the Lebanon arrange a feast at which a special kind of pudding is cooked and dis¬ tributed among relations and friends. If this is not done it is said that the teeth will grow irregularly. It can be said that the coming of the first tooth is looked upon throughout the world as an important event indicating the passing of the first phase of childhood heralding the change from the
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