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Polish folk remedy for styes?

posts: 7

♂

Mar 1, 10, 22:28 #1

To get rid of a stye on the eye, my grandmother used to wave a butcher knife in front of us and chant something - I seem to remember that it was three words. Has anyone out there ever heard of this, and if so, what the chant was?

...Also: Grandma had a funny saying she used when she bought something that was more trouble than it was worth. The English translation was, "The old woman never had any trouble until she bought herself a pig." I always thought it sounded better in Polish, but I can't remember it!

Many thanks...

wildroverThreads: 180 Posts: 8,188 Joined: Jun 7, 07 ♂	Mar 2, 10, 00:49 #2
idgie57: used to wave a butcher knife in front of us You could have somebodies eye out doing that...!

IronsideThreads: 59 Posts: 6,787 Joined: Feb 26, 09 ♂	Edited by: Ironside Mar 2, 10, 01:00 #3
idgie57: To get sorry but you talking villages and such .... I have no clue about chants my family were nobles ....I know only about lighting a candle from the church - its suppose to offer protection against lightning during a tempest ....

jonniThreads: 26 Posts: 4,181 Joined: Nov 27, 07 ♂	Mar 2, 10, 01:12 #4
Don't know any Polish remedies for styes, but in England they rub a cat's tail in the eye. Maybe it works.

idgie57Threads: 1 Posts: 1 Joined: Mar 1, 10 ♂	Edited by: idgie57 Mar 3, 10, 20:16 #5
Wildrover, she was pretty good at it. At most, some of us have a slightly different nose now.

♂

Edited by: 1jola Mar 3, 10, 20:37 #6

idgie57:

"The old woman never had any trouble until she bought herself a pig." I always thought it sounded better in Polish, but I can't remember it!

It goes "Nie miała baba kłopotu, kupiła sobie prosię." Here you have lots of other Polish sayings: http://pl.wikiquote.org/wiki/Przys%C5%82owia_polskie

A old Polish remedy for styes is to rub the infected sore with gold, usually a wedding band.

Hill	Jul 22, 11, 17:12 #7
I've been looking for the origin of this saying, and this is the only thing that comes up when I google it. My grandma used to say "Old woman had no troubles so she bought herself a pig." She was German, but her family lived in Poland and she was a fluent speaker of Polish.

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