iquity of the conjuration; and I also venture to declare that
any Italian scholar who is familiar with these formulas of sorcery will
admit that, making all due allowance for transmission among peasants, the
language, or words, or turns of expression in this incantation denote
great antiquity.

The next paper or tradition on the subject of Cain, which, as every
phrase in it indicates, was taken down from an old dame who at first
slowly recalled forgotten sentences, will be to many more interesting,
and to all much more amusing than the first. It once happened that an
old gypsy in England began to tell me the story of the ghostly baker of
Stonehenge and the seven loaves, but, suddenly pausing, he said: "What's
the use of telling that to _you_ who have _read_ it all in the Bible?"
There is, however, this trifling difference, that I am not sure that my
Italian witch friends knew that Cain and Abel are in the Bible at all.
The Red Indian doctor, whose knowledge of the Old Testament was limited
to its being good to cure neuralgia, was far beyond the _contadini_ as
regards familiarity with "the efficacy of the Scripture."

This is the witch-tale as written word by word:

ABELE E CHAINO.

"They were two brothers. Abel greatly loved Cain, but Cain did not love
so much the brother Abel.

"Cain had no great will to work.

"Abel, however, on the contrary, was greatly disposed (_si ingegnava_) to
labour, because he had found it profitable. He was industrious in all,
and at last became a grazier (_mercante di manzi_).

"And Cain also, being moved by jealousy (_per astia_), wished to become a
grazier, but the wheel did not turn for him as it did for Abel.

"And Cain also was a good man, and set himself contentedly to work,
believing that he could become as rich as his brother, but he did not
succeed in this, for which reason he became so envious of Abel that it
resulted in tremendous hate, and he swore to be revenged.

"Cain often visited his brother, and once said to him, 'Abel, thou art
rich and I am poor; give me the half of thy wealth, since thou wishest me
so well!'

"Then Abel replied: 'If I give thee a sum which thou thyself couldst gain
by industry, thou shouldst still labour as I do, and I will give thee
nothing, since, if thou wilt work as I do, thou wilt become as rich.'

"One day there were together Cain, Abel, and a merchant, whose name I
forget. And one told that he had seen