NURSERY CHARMS.
To charm away the hiccup one must repeat these four lines thrice in one breath, and a cure will be certain—
"When a twister twisting twists him a twist,
For twisting a twist three twists he must twist;
But if one of the twists untwists from the twist,
The twist untwisting untwists all the twist."
AN ESSEX CHARM FOR A CHURN, 1650 A.D.
"Come, butter, come; come, butter, come,
Peter stands at the gate
Waiting for his buttered cake;
Come, butter, come."
The late Sir Humphry Davy is said to have learnt this cure for cramp when a boy—
"Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, ease us, I beg!
The devil has tied a knot in my leg;
Crosses three † † † we make to ease us,
Two for the robbers and one for Jesus."
A CHARM AGAINST GHOSTS.
"There are four corners at my bed,
There are four angels there.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
God bless the bed that I lay on."
The Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John rhymes were well known in Essex in Elizabeth's time. Ady, in his "Candle after dark," 1655, mentions an old woman he knew, who had lived from Queen Mary's time, and who had been taught by the priests in those days many Popish charms. The old woman, amongst other rhymes, repeated—
"Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
The bed be blest that I lay on."
This was to be repeated yearly, thrice on Twelfth Night, and it would act as a charm until the following year against evil spirits.
In 1601 a charm in general esteem against lightning was a laurel leaf.
"Reach the bays" (or laurel leaves), "and wear one."
"I'll tie a garland here about his head,
'Twill keep my boy from lightning."
Even Tiberius Cæsar wore a chaplet of laurel leaves about his neck. Pliny reported that "laurel leaves were never blasted by lightning."