It is believed that as long as it hangs
there, it will prevent the disease from approaching the place. It is
therefore carefully preserved; and in case of the family removing,
transported to the new farm, as one of their valuable effects. It is
handed down from one generation to another" (J. Jamieson, _Etymological
Dictionary of the Scottish Language_, revised by J. Longmuir and D.
Donaldson, iii. 575, _s.v._ "Quarter-ill"). See further Rev. W. Gregor,
_op. cit._ pp. 186 _sq._: "The forelegs of one of the animals that had
died were cut off a little above the knee, and hung over the fire-place
in the kitchen. It was thought sufficient by some if they were placed
over the door of the byre, in the 'crap o' the wa'.' Sometimes the heart
and part of the liver and lungs were cut out, and hung over the
fireplace instead of the fore-feet. Boiling them was at times
substituted for hanging them over the hearth." Compare W. Henderson,
_Notes on the Folk-lore of the Northern Counties of England and the
Borders_ (London, 1879), p. 167: "A curious aid to the rearing of cattle
came lately to the knowledge of Mr. George Walker, a gentleman of the
city of Durham. During an excursion of a few miles into the country, he
observed a sort of rigging attached to the chimney of a farmhouse well
known to him, and asked what it meant. The good wife told him that they
had experienced great difficulty that year in rearing their calves; the
poor little creatures all died off, so they had taken the leg and thigh
of one of the dead calves, and hung it in a chimney by a rope, since
which they had not lost another calf.
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