‘Is it the Wart Stone of Kilnasaggart ye’re after?’ he asked me, for I was hoking in the field beside that ancient pagan/Christian monument. It was.
‘An’ shure I know it well. It’s an aul stone wid a hole in it that wud be good for warts. But shure Thomas Mallon used till be able to cure them as well. He jist came down an’ said, ‘Kate – for that’s me name – Kate, here’s a penny’ and I niver had a wart since, thank God for it’s they’s the quare articles! He cud do it with childer and big people both. He wud give ye a penny and say ‘I’ll buy yer wart’. He was paddy’s father that’s now in bed.’
‘A wee black snail will cure them too. Cut it open ye must an’ rub it on the wart an’ then ye stick it on a thorn, an’ as it withers away, away goes yer wart. Ye must meet it on the way an’ pick it up. It’s no good whatever till look for it. I tried it meself once an’ it’s a sure cure.
But doctors don’t like them cures. They’d like that people shouldn’t know about them.’
In my youth, we sliced open a potato and rubbed it on the warts. You had to say a prayer at the same time. And then bury the two halves of potato. Why is it that people seldom suffer from warts nowadays? Perhaps all the prayers and the cures banished them like the snakes!