Charms--Filings of St. Peter's
Keys--Lustral Water--Curing Sick Children by weighing
them--Uses of Snow--Transferring Diseases from one
Body to another--Keys of a Consecrated
Building--Effect of standing on one Foot--Virtue of
Consecrated Bread--Virtue rewarded--Pricking the Image
of a King--Various Methods of securing Love--Indian
Charms--Cure for Corns--Simple Plan for getting rid of
a Troublesome Person--Curing the Hooping-cough.

There are people in existence, of opinion that the ear-rings which
Jacob buried under the oak of Sechem were charms, and that Solomon had
recourse to spells after his strange wives led him away from the true
faith.

Reginald Scot gives a recipe for a charm to preserve cattle from
witchcraft. Here it is: "At Easter you must take certain drops that
lie uppermost of the holy paschal candle; and upon some Sunday
morning, light and hold it so as it may drop upon and between the
horns and ears of the beast, and burn the beast a little between the
horns on the ears with the same wax, and that which is left thereof
stick it cross-wise about the stable or stall, or upon the threshold,
or over the door, where the cattle go in and out; and for all that
year your cattle shall never be touched."

Mr. Pennant says: "The farmers of Scotland preserve their cattle
against witchcraft by placing boughs of mountain-ash and honey-suckle
in their cow-houses on the 2nd May. They hope to preserve the milk of
their cows and of their wives by tying red threads about them." The
ancients had several superstitious customs touching the chameleon,--as
that its tongue, torn out when the animal was alive, would assist the
possessor to gain his law-suits; burning its head and neck with
oak-wood, or roasting its liver on a red tile, would bring thunder and
rain; that its right eye, torn out before the animal was slain, and
steeped in goat's milk, removed disease of the eye; that its tongue,
worn as a charm by a married woman, eased her pains; that its right
jaw dispelled fear; and that its tail prevented streams overflowing
their banks. A famous sorcerer, when under sentence of death, gave
directions how to prepare a potent charm. It consisted of a new
earthen pot--not bought nor bargained for--with sheep's blood, wool,
hair of several beasts, and certain herbs therein. The pot and its
contents were to be placed in a secret part in the neighbourhood where
its effects wer