Shimon ben Yochai bids us "kill the best
of Gentiles" (modern editions qualify this by adding, in time of war),
"and smash the head of the best of serpents." "The best among women," he
says, "is a witch." Blessed is he who does the will of God!

_Sophrim_, chap. 15, hal. 10.

On the Sabbath one may carry a grasshopper's egg as a charm against
earache, the tooth of a living fox to promote sleep, the tooth of a dead
fox to prevent sleep, and the nail of one crucified (as a remedy) for
inflammation or swelling. For cutaneous disorders he is to repeat Baz
Baziah, Mass Massiah, Cass Cassiah, Sharlaii, and Amarlaii (names of
angels), etc.... As the mules do not increase and multiply, so may the
skin disease not increase and spread upon the body of N., the son of the
woman N., etc.

_Shabbath_, fol. 67, col. 1.

"For night-blindness, let a man take a hair-rope and bind one end of it
to his own leg and the other to a dog's, then let children clatter a
potsherd after him, and call out, 'Old man! dog! fool! cock!' Let him
now collect seven pieces of meat from seven (different) houses; let him
set them on the cross-bar of the threshold, then let him eat them on the
town middens; and after that let him undo the hair-rope, then let him
say thus: 'Blindness of So-and-so, son of Mrs. So-and-so, leave
So-and-so, son of Mrs. So-and-so, and be brushed into the pupil of the
eye of the dog.'" (Quoted from "The Fragment," by Rev. W.H. Lowe of
Cambridge.)

_Gittin_, fol. 69, col. 1.

According to the Rabbis, a man should not drink water by night, for thus
he exposes himself to the power of Shavriri, the demon of blindness.
What then should he do if he is thirsty? If there be another man with
him, let him rouse him up and say, "I am thirsty;" but if he be alone,
let him tap upon the lid of the jug (to make the demon fancy there's
some one with him), and addressing himself by his own name and the name
of his mother, let him say, "Thy mother has bid thee beware of Shavriri,
vriri, riri, iri, ri," in a white cup. Rashi says by this incantation
the demon gradually contracts and vanishes as the sounds of the word
Shavriri decrease.

_Avodah Zarah_, fol. 12, col. 2.

A python is a familiar spirit who speaks from his armpits; a wizard is
one who speaks with the mouth. As the Rabbis have taught, a familiar
spirit is one who speaks from his joints and his wrists; a wizard is one
who, putting a certain bone into his mouth, causes it to speak.