The folk lore of London / a paper read before the London Society, on Nov. 14th, 1919, by Edward Lovett.

  • Lovett, Edward.
Date:
[1919]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: The folk lore of London / a paper read before the London Society, on Nov. 14th, 1919, by Edward Lovett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    touching the knife each time upon the respective warts. This stick also should be thrown away. Another idea which comes under the ‘‘doctrine of transfer is to take a little stone for each wart to be cured and touch the warts with the stones, as before ; screw the stones up in a bit of paper and leave them in the public way to be picked up by some one, to whom, it is thought, the warts will be transferred. One of my East-end friends said to me one day : “ I suppose you cannot cure my babv of whooping cough ? He is very ill, and I fear the doctor thinks he cannot live.5 ’ Sol said : ‘ ‘ Surely you know the old-fashioned remedy, don’t you ? ’ ’ “No,” she said, “but I will do it.” I replied : “Well, I will tell you; but you had better not do it unless you first ask your husband, as it is not supposed to be right. ’ ’ As she seemed very anxious, I told her that this was what to do. She must cut a little piece of hair from the back of the baby’s neck; put it between two pieces of bread and butter, then the next morning open the front door and give it to the first dog that she saw. If the dog swallowed the bread and butter and hair, then it got the cough, and the child would get better. That was the old legend ! I went away and the matter passed altogether out of my mind, but somewhat later in the year I met the woman again, and she said: “I’ve been wanting to see you to thank you for curing my baby. ’ ’ I remonstrated with her, and said it was absurd to talk like that ; but she was very insistent. She told me she had done exactly as I directed, and that when she opened the front door there was actually a dog passing to which she gave the bread and butter and the hair. Before night, she said, the baby’s cough was so much better that when the doctor called he said : “What have you been doing to this child ? ” She replied : “Nothing,” as she did not like to say what had happened. The doctor said : “ I cannot under¬ stand it. The child is rapidly getting better. ” In a day or two said the mother, the cough was quite gone ; and as she spoke to me the child came running in looking as fit as ever. But more is to follow : As I left her house a man came up and asked me to give him something just “for luck,” as, he added, “I am very hard up.” I answered, ‘ ‘ I don’t know you ; and I don’t know what you mean. ’ ’ He replied, * ‘Oh, we all know you cured Mrs.-’s baby ! ” ‘ 'Nonsense, ’ ’ I said, ‘' I did nothing of the sort ! However, as you seem to believe in charms, I don’t mind giving you a little one, and I hope it may bring you good luck.” So, giving him a charm from my pocket (I always carry a few) I left him. Some days later, I met him again in one of the busy London markets, and he said, ‘ ‘ I want to thank you very much for bringing me the best bit of luck I’ve had in my life. ” This is rather a curious coincidence, but it has happened to me on four or five different occasions. One day I was in the neighbourhood of Camberwell, and saw some ‘ ‘ Golliwogs ’ ’ in the window of a small furniture shop. I went in and asked the old man in charge if they were very lucky. He said : “ I don’t believe in luck. ‘ What is to be will be, I have only got those things there for sale, to oblige a friend. ’ ’ At that time one of my collections of mascots was being exhibited in London, and there had been a notice of it in the press, so I said to this old gentleman : ‘ * Did you see that notice about the collection of mascots ? Did you ever hear such nonsense in all your life?’’ His reply was: “Oh, that isn’t nonsense at all.” I said: “What! hanging an old horse shoe, wrapped in red cloth, over your bedhead to keep away nightmare, not nonsense ? ’ ’ His reply was : “ No. I do that myself. ” “ Perhaps you do. ”1 replied,” But you never heard of anybody else doing it.” He said :
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