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Hair of the Dog that Bit You (A)

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Similĭa similĭbus curantur. In Scotland it is a popular belief that a few hairs of the dog that bit you applied to the wound will prevent evil consequences. Applied to drinks, it means, if overnight you have indulged too freely, take a glass of the same wine next morning to soothe the nerves. “If this dog do you bite, soon as out of your bed, take a hair of the tail in the morning.”

“Take the hair, it’s well written,

Of the dog by which youʹre bitten;

Work off one wine by his brother,

And one labour with another. …

Cook with cook, and strife with strife;

Business with business, wife with wife.”

Athenœus (ascribed to Aristophanes).

“There was a man, and he was wise,

Who fell into a bramble-bush

And scratched out both his eyes;

And when his eyes were out, he then

Jumped into the bramble-bush

And scratched them in again.”

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.