SHEEP
To meet a flock of sheep on a journey is an omen of good luck. An old Manx
belief states that sheep cannot be counted accurately unless the person counting
them has washed his or her eyes under running water first. Peaceful sheep, lying
in the field, are said to herald fine weather, but rain is foretold if they are
restless and baa for no apparent reason.
The knuckle-bone from a piece of mutton was once thought to be a preventative
charm against rheumatism if carried about in the pocket; similarly, a certain T-
shaped bone from the sheep's head was believed to protect its carrier from bad
luck and evil. A strip of sheepskin on a horse's collar was once used as a
prevention against the evil eye, and a rather gruesome method of breaking a
curse was to stick a sheep's heart full of pins and roast it at midnight in a
room where all doors, windows and openings had been firmly closed.
Parts of sheep were often used in folk cures; a sheep's lung was once applied to
the feet of a pneumonia sufferer, and was thought to draw the disease downward
into itself. People could be wrapped in the skin of a freshly killed sheep in an
attempt to cure an adder bite; children with whooping-cough were thought to be
cured by letting a sheep breathe on them. Sufferers from consumption were once
advised to walk around a sheepfold many times a day, beiginning early in the
morning.
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