s business was so
decent, that it was to me indeed ten times more delightfull than if it had
been twenty times more merry and joviall. Whereas I feared I must have
sat up all night, we did here all get good beds, and I lay in the same I
did before with Mr. Brisband, who is a good scholler and sober man; and we
lay in bed, getting him to give me an account of home, which is the most
delightfull talke a man can have of any traveller: and so to sleep. My
eyes much troubled already with the change of my drink. Thus I ended this
month with the greatest joy that ever I did any in my life, because I have
spent the greatest part of it with abundance of joy, and honour, and
pleasant journeys, and brave entertainments, and without cost of money;
and at last live to see the business ended with great content on all
sides. This evening with Mr. Brisband, speaking of enchantments and
spells; I telling him some of my charms; he told me this of his owne
knowledge, at Bourdeaux, in France. The words these:

Voyci un Corps mort,
Royde come un Baston,
Froid comme Marbre,
Leger come un esprit,
Levons to au nom de Jesus Christ.

He saw four little girles, very young ones, all kneeling, each of them,
upon one knee; and one begun the first line, whispering in the eare of the
next, and the second to the third, and the third to the fourth, and she to
the first. Then the first begun the second line, and so round quite
through, and, putting each one finger only to a boy that lay flat upon his
back on the ground, as if he was dead; at the end of the words, they did
with their four fingers raise this boy as high as they could reach, and he
[Mr. Brisband] being there, and wondering at it, as also being afeard to
see it, for they would have had him to have bore a part in saying the
words, in the roome of one of the little girles that was so young that
they could hardly make her learn to repeat the words, did, for feare there
might be some sleight used in it by the boy, or that the boy might be
light, call the cook of the house, a very lusty fellow, as Sir G.
Carteret's cook, who is very big, and they did raise him in just the same
manner. This is one of the strangest things I ever heard, but he tells it
me of his owne knowledge, and I do heartily believe it to be true. I
enquired of him whether they were Protestant or C