Charms, Spells, and Curses. V. J. Banis

is added, which has been prepared ahead of citron, borage (a blue-flowered European herb), and rosemary, and a pound of fine sifted sugar. All of this is then poured in a new and air-tight jar. It must be taken every morning before breakfast and in the evenings before going to bed, half a spoonful. This will restore youth to even the oldest and most decrepit subject.

      The iron that made the wound also will heal it.

      If a patient suffers from a heart condition, he will cure it by eating a bull’s heart.

      Balasius stone, if it is bruised and drunk with a quantity of water, will relieve infirmities in the eyes; it will also tend to help disorders of the liver.

      The euphrasia, or eyebright, is good for the eyes, as can be seen because it contains a black spot.

      Emerald on which is engraved the likeness of the starling will strengthen weak eyes.

      A spider hung around the neck will protect against ague, or heal that condition.

      Aetites or aquilaeus is a precious stone which has diverse properties. It is composed of oxide of iron with silex and alumina, and some say it is found in the neck or in the stomach of the eagle, depending upon whom one asks. It will heal falling sickness and prevent untimely birth. To prevent abortion it ought to be worn bound on the arm; if it is bound on the thigh it will aid parturition.

      A cock buried under the bed will cure a patient of epilepsy in most cases.

      Chips from a gallows or from any place of execution make an effective amulet against ague.

      The eel has many marvelous virtues. Let him die out of the water and steep his body in strong vinegar and the blood of a vulture, and place the whole under a dunghill. The composition will raise from the dead whatever is brought to it and give life as before. Also, anyone who eats the still-warm heart of an eel will be seized with a spirit of prophecy and will be able to foretell future events.

      A bloodstone can be employed for stopping the flow of blood from a wound.

      Pink amethyst prevents drunkenness when it is attached to the navel. But it must be set in a silver plaque or medal, and must have a bear engraved on it. If it is dipped in water, that water will cure sterility.

      Bake a spider and wear it around the neck as a charm. Spiders and their webs cure the ague.

      A poultice of peeled onions which is laid on the stomach or even under the armpits will cure anyone who has taken poison internally.

      This is a remedy for enchantment: Lick the child’s forehead in this manner, first upward, then across it, and then up again; then spit behind his back. This will be certain to work against a spell.

      If you lick the forehead of a child with the tongue and you perceive a salt taste, this is certain proof that he has been fascinated, and the stronger the taste of salt, the more powerful the spell. If a death spell has been put, the tongue will be fairly burnt and only pure water will remove the briny taste.

      To pull out a thorn easily, apply hare’s fat.

      The root of gladen (iris) is a remedy for the disease known as Elf Cake, which causes a hardness of the side; take a root of gladen and make powder of it and give the patient a half a spoonful of this powder in white wine and let him eat the same quantity in his pottage at the same time and it will help him.

      If afflicted by nightmares, it is best to hang a stone over the bed, which stone has a natural hole in it wherein a string may be put through and so be hanged over the sufferer.

      Oak apples will not fail to tell if a child has been bewitched, even by a clever witch. Place a basin of clean water under the child’s cradle and drop into it three oak apples, keeping strict silence while doing so. If they sink, the child is surely fascinated, but if they do not, he is safe.

      To cure a toothache, bore with a nail the tooth or the gum, after which drive the nail into an oak tree, the taller the better.

      Amethyst expels poison when it is drunk in a potion.

      To relieve asthma, take topaz in wine.

      When drunk in a potion, amethyst will render the barren fruitful.

      If a child has rupture, cure him by splitting an oak branch. Pass the child through the opening backward three times; if the splits afterward grow together the child will be cured, but if they do not the disease will continue.

      This is an incantation to chase away nightmares:

      St. George, St. George, our lady’s knight

      He walked by day so did he by night:

      Until such times as he her found,

      He her beat and he her bound,

      Until her troth to him plight,

      He would not come to her that night.

      Take Roman vitriol six or eight ounces, beat it very small in a mortar, sift it through a fine sieve when the sun enters Leo; keep it in the heat of the sun by day and dry by night; if a person be wounded, apply it not to the wound but to the weapon by which he received it and the wound shall heal.

      In West Country England it is known as a fact that warts can be easily cured by this method: steal a piece of meat and bury it. Just so long as the theft remains unconfessed and the meat rots, the warts will continue to disappear.

      For the cure of warts, first burn a stick at one end in an open fireplace; take it out, but do not touch the charred end, and let the burnt portion cool. The black soot must be cooled, and it will be most effective if it is chilled by being put in snow, but this is not essential. Lay the burnt end then on the warts; only the other end of the stick can be held by the hand, the charred tip must touch only the warts that it is to cure. Then throw the entire stick in the fire, still taking care not to touch the charred end which now contains the essence of the warts. If it is touched, it will merely plant new warts.

      This is the way to cure warts most effectively, and other cures are best forgotten. Split a bean. Cut the wart. Some say that blood should appear, but it will work either way in most cases. Half of the bean must be placed on the wart. If blood has come, some of it must be absorbed by the bean. Burn the other half of the bean to nothingness, but retain the half that has covered the wart, and wait for a moonless night. Then, on such a night, take the half of the bean to a crossroads, arriving there exactly at midnight. Here bury the bean, all the while chanting, “Down bean, off wart, come no more to bother me.” This will remove the warts and they will not return.

      You can stop an epileptic fit by reciting in a low voice over the stricken person this prayer: “Praeceptis salutaribus moniti, et divina institutione formati, audemus dicere. Pater noster... etc.” Before you have finished the Lord’s Prayer, the fit will have ended. Take care though to step over the man if he rolls on the ground, for if you touch him otherwise the illness will enter your own body as it leaves his. Another way to cure such a fit is to whisper the following into his right ear: “Gaspar fert mirrham, thus Melchior, Balthassar, aurum,” and he will recover. If the man can point out the spot where first he fell to the ground, you can make his cure complete by driving three iron nails into the ground at that spot, each time pronouncing his name.

      Arthritis is cured by taking hog’s dung and charnell and putting them together and holding them in the left hand; and take a knife in the other hand and prick the medicine three times. And cast the medicine into the fire; and take the knife and make three pricks under a table, and let the knife stick there. And take three leaves of sage and as much of herb John or herb Grace and put them in ale and drink it last at night and first at morning; and this will ease the lameness infallibly.

      To dispel worms in children, peach tree leaves should be preserved in vinegar with mint and alum and applied to the navel.

      In times of plague chew burnet, any plant of the genus Sanguisorba, which will preserve you from contagion. Greater burnet is also useful for stopping hemorrhages.

      Pound the flower of the marshmallow with turpentine and pork fat. Applied to the stomach, this cures inflammations of the womb. The root of the