Current Superstitions - Part 33
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Part 33

_Northern Ohio._

893. The milky juice of the common cypress spurge (_Euphorbia Cyparissias_) will cure warts.

894. The juice of the common large milk-weeds (Asclepias) will cure warts.

_Ma.s.sachusetts._

895. The juice of the "milk-thistles" (Sonchus) will cure warts.

_Prince Edward Island._

896. The milky juice of the Osage orange is used as a wart-cure.

_Southern Ohio._

897. The first time a person has seen your wart, if it is rubbed with fresh cream by that person, the wart will surely go away.

_Bruynswick, N.Y._

898[TN-7] Rub a wart with a stolen dish-cloth, and then hide or bury the latter. As it decays, the wart will disappear.

_General in the United States._

899. Rub the wart with a stolen dish-cloth, and secrete the dish-cloth until it becomes mouldy and decays, then the wart is cured.

_Bucks Co., Pa._

900. To cure a wart: Draw a blade across it, and then draw the knife across a sweet apple-tree.

_Lawrence, Ma.s.s._

901. Warts are cured by stealing pork from the family barrel of salted pork, rubbing the warts with it, and throwing it into the road. The person who picks it up gets the warts.

_Bruynswick, N.Y._

902. Sell your warts for money, throw the money away anywhere, but on your own land. Whoever picks up the money gets also the warts.

_Springfield, Ma.s.s._

903. To cure warts: Cut your finger-nails and put them in the knothole of a tree; then stop up the hole, wishing the warts on to some one else.

_Connecticut._

904. Make a wart bleed, and put the blood on a penny, throw the latter away, and the finder will get the wart.

905. Cut up an onion, rub the wart with each slice, and bury all the slices.

_Bucks Co., Pa._

906. Split a pea and rub the wart with both pieces, make a wish that some person shall get the wart, throw one piece over one shoulder and the other over the other (into the river), and the wart will go to the person wished.

_Miramichi, N.B._

907. If you rub your warts with a pebble, wrap the pebble in paper, and throw it away; the person who picks it up will have them come to him. Or, should you label the paper with some one's name and throw it away, the warts will go to the person whose name you have written.

_New England._

908. Take a green, mossy pebble, wrap it up, tie it, and throw it away.

The finder will catch the wart which you had.

_Rhode Island._

909. Take as many pebbles as there are warts. Rub them on the warts. Roll them in paper and throw them away. The finder takes the warts.

_Boxford, Ma.s.s._

910. Go out of doors, count three, stop and pick up the stone nearest to your toe. Wrap it up in a paper, and throw it away. The one that picks it up will get the warts.

_Providence, R.I._

911. Count out secretly as many stones as you have warts, tie in a rag, and throw them where they can't be seen.

_Ma.s.sachusetts._

912. If you have warts, walk nine steps backward with your eyes shut, having just picked up a pebble with which rub the wart, and throw it away.

_Fort Worth, Tex._

913. To cure warts, wash the hands in warm pig's blood.

_Nova Scotia._

914. Steal as many pins as you have warts, wrap them in paper, and throw them in the road: the warts will attack whoever picks up the paper, and leave you.

_Bruynswick, N.Y._

915. Run a pin through the wart, and put the pin in the road; the finder gets the wart.

_Missouri._

916. Rub warts with the head of a pin; hide the latter and do not look for it, or tie a knot in a string, lay it away, and do not look for it, and the warts will disappear.

_Western New York._

917. Take a potato and rub it over the wart, then wrap the potato in a piece of paper and throw it away. The one who finds it will have the wart.

_Maine._

918. Rub the wart with a cotton rag, spit on the rag and hide it under a water-board (a wooden gutter used as a duct for rain-water off the roof of a house), where the water will drip on it. The whole operation must be kept secret.

_Kansas._

919. Rub the wart with rock-salt till it bleeds, and throw a lump of salt in the fire; if it crackles and snaps out of the fire, the wart will get well; if not, not.

_Central Maine._

920. Binding a slug (_Limax_) on a wart will cure it.

_Cazenovia, N.Y._

921. Rub the warts with the sole of your shoe; as the leather wears away, the warts depart.

_Springfield, Ma.s.s._

922. When a person wishes to remove warts from his hand, cut as many notches on a stick as you have warts, and standing on a bridge, throw the stick over your left shoulder, and turn your head; they will go off before you leave the bridge.

_Alabama._

923. Cut notches in a stick to the number of warts you have, and then bury the stick.

_Ma.s.sachusetts._

924. Some pretend to remove warts by "touching with the sharp point of a stick and rubbing them in the notch of another stick; then if the patient tells of it, they will come back.[TN-8]

_Alabama._

925. Take as many joints of oat or wheat straw as a person has warts, and burn them under a stone. As the joints rot, the warts disappear. This is to be done by another for you.

_Cape Breton._