Cape Breton's Magazine

out. And it wasn't healing. There was a fellow by the name of John MacGregor, came and told my father there was a fellow in Big Baddeck by the name of Hardigan, and he was the Seventh Son of the Seventh Son, I was suffering so darn much then, instead of taking me to him tFis John MacGregor went. And this Hardigan sent me a box of ointment. I don't know what it was made of. And I started rubbing that on my hip • and in iwo months it healed up just the way you see it now. And I never lost my leg. & Mrs. William Deveau Donald Garrett MacDonald said that for heavy fever you split salt herring and put a piece to the sole of each foot, Mr. and Mrs. xMacDonald used this cure on their son when he was 12 or 13, and with success. "And when it's there so long, it's cooked the same as if it was cooked on a stove." For nosebleed, people would tie a piece of scarlet yarn around their neck and leave it there. This was to prevent nosebleed. Duncan Morrison said a good way to stop one was to put a copper under your tongue. The MacDonalds said to cure diarrhea boil milk with a hot iron in it down almost to a powder, then eat it, Donald Garrett said: "You know there was a cure for the Evil Eye. Say that there was a cow out there and if you had the Evil Bye and you'd speak about that pretty cow, if I'd tell you to put your eye in your arse. There was an old lady in here, she had a cow and a heifer • she always kept them in good shape • and if anybody would speak about how nice they were, that's the first thing she'd say." Mrs, William D, DeveaUj Cheticamp: "For a cold, mama would boil some molasses and put a little bit of white liniment or rainard's liniment into it, and a little bit of pepper • and she made it like candy. She used to put it on a little dish, let it cool off • but not hard enough to break. It was thick, thick. Then we used to get it with a spoon." Mrs. Deveau told us if you were hoarse, you would make a drink of about half a cup milk with raisins mixed in, heated next to boiling; then add one or two teaspoons sugar and drink it hot as you could. "When we would take a cold we would get some spruce, wild cherry, balsam • bark of these. You go and get a little tree or the limb of a tree. And we used to strip the bark • cutting down. They say if you cut it up the tree, maybe it would upset your stomach. If you cut down, it goes the o- ther way. You can cut them in small portions. And then you had a kettle of boiling water and you Ipoured the water on these barks. Then you put it on the back of the stove. It simmers. And then it comes a nice color, like whiskey. You'd leave that bark at the bottom and as you used the water you put more on. I remember my uncle, every time he had a fever, it was I'herbe a dindon (turkey grass, yarrow). He'd make an infusion and steep it and keep it on the back of the stove • and once in a while go and take some," Headache: "I've seen people putting white liniment on blue paper • blue paper • and then they used to put the paper right around their forehead. Then put maybe a kerchief over that. If someone couldn't pass their water, we used to boil • at least, we used to steep them • bean shells. When you shell beans, dried beans • not boiling them but simmering them • and then drink the juice." Diarrhea: "Some used to take some pepper and cold water. And some used to dissolve a little bit of flour in water. And they used to drink that. And some used to drink nutmeg, when th'/ had it whole • they used to scrape it and boil it in milk. That was very good, xhey even used to give that to calves, when they were small, if they had the diarrhea." Constipation: "Ah, then it was castor oil and salts and senna leaves. They used to buy those. Nobody was constipated in ray time. No sir." Cape Breton's Magazine/22