Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-09-20
NOTIONS ABOUT TEETH.


many thousands
NOTIONS ABOUT TEETH.
Remarkable Ideas Of Ancient Origin
Methods Of Curing Toothachs.
The teeth. and the aches to which
they give rise have been the subjects
Of many strange ideas among unedu-
Gated people. Teeth have been wor-
SHIPPED, and in fact are venerated As
relics in some religious shrines. Bud
dha's tooth is preserved in a temple in
India, and Cingslese worshiped tho
tooth Of monkey, while an elephants
tooth and q shark 9 tooth served SIM
liar purpose among the Malabar ISL
anders and the Tonga Islanders re-
spectively. The Siamese valued .
monkeys tooth SO highly that they
are reported to have offered the Portu-
guese. into whose hands it had fallen
by the fortune Of war, seven hundred
thousand crowns for it. There was .
tradition that from the time of Chos-
roes. the Persian, carried OF . piece
Of the true cross from Constantinople,
the number of teeth in the mouths of
men we're reduced from thirty-two to
twenty-tnree. 1t is needless to say.
however, that mankind is usually pro-
vided with full complement Of thirty
two. Teeth have often been, and to
this day sometimes are, worn as anu
lets. Sharks teeth serve this purpose
in Samoa. 1t was formerly thought
that VOLTS tooth, worn in bag
around the neck, would chase fear
away from the fortunate possessor.
The back tooth Of horse. found by
chance, will, say the Irish, keep you
well supplied with money.
The period of teething being an anx-
ious one in childhood, it is extremely
important to have it over with. In
the West Of England a necklace Of
beads made from peony root was
placed on the child's neck to assist tho
operation, and one of amber beads
was also thought to be powerful, either
being considered a help, according to
the complexion of the child, 50 were
the different colored beads used. It was
also said that first teeth must not be
thrown away when they fall out, for if
any animal got such q trophy the next
tooth would be like that of the animal
finding the old one. In Lower Canada
and the Eastern States children are
told that the new tooth will be a gold
one if the tongue is kept out OF the
cavity.
Folklore is as full of odd notions
about the toothache as an egg is full Of
meat, and many queer remedies are
prescribed for it. 1t was once thought
to be caused by worm. Ono of the
most potent remedies was thought to
be charm OF some kind or another.
In England this charm is a rhyme or
a prayer written on a piece Of paper.
Verses for this purpose are current in
Germany to this day.
BY an old yarn" the patient was
to inhale the smoke from vessel in
which dried herbs were mixed with
live Goals. He must then breathe over
cup holding water, mixed with wax
and serum, when it was said that q
worm, the cause of the trouble, would
appear in the cup. Whether the worm
appeared or not, is a different thing,
but it altogether depended upon the
faith of the person trying the cure,
which was no doubt as bad as the dis
ease
Another strange remedy was: With
an iron nail raise and cut the gum
from about the teeth until it bleed,
and then spill soree Of the blood upon
the nail. Then drive it into wooden
bsam up to the head. After this is
done you never shall have the tooth
ache in all your life. An old English
writer named Aubrey gives popular
of his time. A splinter of
wood from a gibbet upon which some
wretch had been hanged
was thought eficacious in the north of
England, while in Devonshire it was
thought best to bite tooth from a
skull in a graveyard and carry it in
the pocket as charm. In another
part of England an equally CHASTITY am
ulet was a tooth drawn from the
mouth of a corpse and carried in the
upper right-hand vest pocket. The
paw of live mole Or a double nut
were also prescribed as preventive
charms. To dress the left foot and
leg before the right is also effective.
Some of the Irish cures for tooth
aches were fully as ghastly as those
already described. One Of these en-
pirical recipes bids you go to
grave, kneel upon it, say three Paters
and three AYES for the soul of the
dead. then chew handful of grass
taken from the grave, and spit it out.
The toothache will never after trouble
you. Another remedy is to VOW never
70 comb your hair on Friday, invok-
ing the Creator. the Virgin and the
new moon. The two iawbones of a