DASG Blog

Eòlas an Dèididh

There are a great many charms and remedies to be found in the wisdom of the Gael and you can be certain to find some sort of remedy for your ailment, no matter what that may be. Toothache is as common today as it’s ever been. Nowadays we have dentists and remedies that give us quick relief, and as such we would be likely to forget that people in the past had different, more obscure practices for common ailments.

It was a practice that someone from the ailing patient’s village would write words connected to the ill-feeling source of the toothache on a piece of paper. The patient was not permitted to look at this. Meanwhile, others would place it under a rock. The toothache would recede and relieve the patient as the paper rotted under the rock after a short while exposed to the elements.

Another remedy was recorded in Harris. It was a common practice there to place tobacco in the cavity of the tooth. The tobacco was left to drip into the saliva of the mouth and thereby bring relief that way.

Iain MacLennan was named in Leabhar nan Gleann for a remedy, which he allegedly acquired from an old woman in Loch Monar, Glen Srathfarrar, in Rosshire. He had a verse which one would recite while collecting the needles that, according to MacLennan, were so useful for the remedy:

“If the beast is in the bone” he replied “I will heal you.”

(George Henderson, Leabhar nan Gleann (1898), p. 171.)

Other verses are to be found in Carmina Gadelica, vol. II, as well as other treatments for toothache. These verses will give you an idea about the many ways people used such charms in the hope of retaining their teeth:

THE incantation put by lovely Bride
Before the thumb of the Mother of God,
On lint, on wort, on hemp,
For worm, for venom, for teeth.

The worm that tortured me,
In the teeth of my head,
Hell hard by my teeth,
The teeth of hell distressing me.

The teeth of hell close to me;
As long as I myself shall last
May my teeth last in my head.

(Alexander Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica (1900), vol. II, p. 11.)

Did it ever occur to you to chew the bone of an otter’s penis?! If there are no otters available (they are not so common everywhere), then whisky and hot water, or a toddy as it is better known, will do the job fine, as well as fish oil.

What remedy would you prescribe for toothache? Do get in touch on Facebook and Twitter.