May-dew

Every one has heard of the virtues of "May-dew," but perhaps the complex superstition following may be less generally known. A respectable tradesman's wife in this town (Launceston) tells me that the poor people here say that a swelling in the neck may be cured by the patient's going *before sunrise*, on the 1st of May, to the grave of the last young man who has been buried in the church-yard, and applying the dew, gathered by passing the hand *three times* from the head to the foot of the grave, to the part affected by the ailment.[2] This was told me yesterday in reply to a question, whether…