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Polish folk remedy for styes?


idgie57 1 | 1
1 Mar 2010 #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...
wildrover 98 | 4,441
2 Mar 2010 #2
used to wave a butcher knife in front of us

You could have somebodies eye out doing that...!
Ironside 53 | 12,363
2 Mar 2010 #3
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 ....
jonni 16 | 2,482
2 Mar 2010 #4
Don't know any Polish remedies for styes, but in England they rub a cat's tail in the eye. Maybe it works.
OP idgie57 1 | 1
3 Mar 2010 #5
Wildrover, she was pretty good at it. At most, some of us have a slightly different nose now.
1jola 14 | 1,879
3 Mar 2010 #6
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: 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
22 Jul 2011 #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.
poundland
23 Mar 2019 #8
Merged:

Stye removal



Can anybody recommend an English-speaking place? Anyone had this procedure done? price?
jon357 74 | 21,767
23 Mar 2019 #9
Where?

I know a good eye doctor in Warsaw. She speaks some English. At Lecznica Izis on Marszalkowska.
Miloslaw 19 | 4,642
24 Mar 2019 #10
The Polish obsession with health,illness and medication just does my head in......Poles are hyperchondriacs.....
Dougpol1 31 | 2,640
24 Mar 2019 #11
I have been to see my doctor twice in 10 days, She's Ukranian. With blue eyes. I haven't been able to eat since I first saw her. And the Wisla looks blue - like the Danube does in Vienna.......... Of course it might be because she misread the symptoms and is in fact poisoning me.

And maybe Poles take a fancy to their doctors too? They sure do keep going back:)
Leona
25 Jun 2021 #12
My grandmother had the same ritual. It went something like BOJA TAMA BOJA and then the person with the stye had to say YENCHMAN.


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