Now, it was about this period that the small-pox made its appearance in the village.  Indescribable was the dismay of Phelim’s parents, lest he among others might become a victim to it.  Vaccination, had not then surmounted the prejudices with which every discovery beneficial to mankind is at first met; and the people were left principally to the imposture of quacks, or the cunning of certain persons called “fairy men” or “sonsie women.”  Nothing remained now but that this formidable disease should be met by all the power and resources of superstition.  The first thing the mother did was to get a gospel consecrated by the priest, for the purpose of guarding Phelim against evil.  What is termed a Gospel, and worn as a kind of charm about the person, is simply a slip of paper, on which are written by the priest the few first verses of the Gospel of St. John.  This, however, being worn for no specific purpose, was incapable of satisfying the honest woman.  Superstition had its own peculiar remedy for the small-pox, and Sheelah was resolved to apply it.  Accordingly she borrowed a neighbor’s ass, drove it home with Phelim, however, on its back, took the interesting youth by the nape of the neck, and, in the name of the Trinity, shoved him three times under it, and three times over it.  She then put a bit of bread into its mouth, until the ass had mumbled it a little, after which she gave the savory morsel to Phelim, as a bonne bouche.  This was one preventive against the small-pox; but another was to be tried.

She next clipped off the extremities of Phelim’s elf locks, tied them in linen that was never bleached, and hung them beside the Gospel about his neck.  This was her second cure; but there was still a third to be applied.  She got the largest onion possible, which, having cut into nine parts, she hung from the roof tree of the cabin, having first put the separated parts together.  It is supposed that this has the power of drawing infection of any kind to itself.  It is permitted to remain untouched, until the disease has passed from the neighborhood, when it is buried as far down in the earth as a single man can dig.  This was a third cure; but there was still a fourth.  She borrowed ten asses’ halters from her neighbors, who, on hearing that they were for Phelim’s use, felt particular pleasure in obliging her.  Having procured these, she pointed them one by one at Phelim’s neck, until the number nine was completed.  The tenth, she put on him, and with the end of it in her hand, led him like an ass, nine mornings, before sunrise, to a south-running stream, which he was obliged to cross.  On doing this, two conditions were to be fulfilled on the part of Phelim; he was bound, in the first place, to keep his mouth filled, during the ceremony, with a certain fluid which must be nameless:  in the next, to be silent from the moment he left home until his return.