Witchcraft by Means of Hair, Nail Parings, etc.
The idea is common in folk-lore that a witch can acquire power over her victim by getting possession of a lock of hair, the parings of his nails, or some other part of his body. In the “Comedy of Errors,” Dromio of Syracuse says,—
“Some devils ask but the parings of one’s nail,
A rush, a hair, a drop of blood, a pin,
A nut, a cherry stone.”
In Ireland, nail-parings are an ingredient in many charms, and hair-cuttings should not be placed where birds can find them, for they take them to build their nests, and then you will have headaches all the year after.[54] The same is the case with the leavings of food, which should be thrown to the crows lest some ill-disposed person get possession of them. On the same principle English mothers hide away the first tooth of a child.[55] There are numerous instances of these and similar beliefs all through the whole range of folk-lore. Hence natives of India are very careful about the disposal of hair-cuttings and nail-parings; and it is only at shrines and sacred places of pilgrimage where shaving is a religious duty that such things are left lying about on the ground. In the Grihyasûtras it is provided that the hair cut from a child’s head at the end of the first, third, fifth, or seventh year shall be buried in the earth at a place covered with grass or in the neighbourhood of water. The carelessness shown at places of pilgrimage in this respect rests on the belief that the sanctity of the place is in itself a protective against sorcery. But some people do not depend on this, and fling the hair into running water. At Hardwâr the barber at the sacred pool takes the hair which he keeps collected in a bag and flings it into the air on the top of the neighbouring hill, at least he assures his patrons that he does so.