Traditional cures: casting the lead and bloodletting.
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1974.197.B3
Original Tape ID
Summary
Traditional cures: casting the lead and bloodletting.
Casting the lead was a complex supernatural procedure for use when someone was ill. Alec Laurenson suggests that the lead might have been used somehow to stop bleeding after blood had been taken. A colonel in the RAMC [Royal Army Medical Corps] during the war told him that bloodletting had also been very common in Kent in the old days.
Blood was frequently taken from children who were very ill, using a blood horn. One old woman measured ounces with a tea cup that could hold two ounces of tea. She considered the fill of the cup with blood was also two ounces.
Recording Location
County - Shetland
Parish - Delting
Island - Shetland Mainland
Village/Place - Lunnasting, Laxo
Non Scottish Item Location
England, Kent
Item Location
County - Shetland
Parish - Nesting
Island - Shetland Mainland
Village/Place - Lunnasting
Non Scottish Item Location
Sasainn, Kent
Language
English, Scots
Genre
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Good