The following charms are taken from a MS. of the year 1475:—
A Charme to Staunch Blood.
“Jesus, that was in Bethlehem born, and baptyzed was in the flumen Jordane, as stente the water at hys comyng, so stente the blood of thys man N, thy serwaunt, throw the virtu of thy holy name + Jesu + and of thy Cosyn swete Sent Jon. And sey thys Charme fyve tymes with fyve Pater nostirs, in the worshep of the fyve woundys.”
For Fever.
“Wryt thys wordys on a lorell lef + Ysmael + Ysmael + adjuro vos per angelum ut soporetetur iste Homo N. and ley thys lef under hys head that he wote not thereof, and let hym ete Letuse oft and drynk Ip’e seed small grounden in a morter, and temper yt with ale.”
It is said that the inhabitants of Colonsay had an ancient custom of fanning the face of the sick with the leaves of the Bible.
Many and varied are the charms for curing warts. “For warts,” says Sir Thomas Brown, “we rub our hands before the moon and commit any maculated part to the touch of the dead.” Grose tells us to “steal a piece of beef from a butcher’s shop and rub your warts with it; then throw it down the ‘necessary house,’ or bury it; and as the beef rots your warts will decay”.
The leaf of the castor-oil plant worn round the neck was believed to ward away devils, because the leaf is like an open hand.
In Bale’s Interlude the following charms are given:—
“For the coughe take Judas Eare
With the parynge of a Peare,
And drynke them without feare
If ye will have remedy:
Thre syppes are for the hyckocke,
And six more for the chyckocke;
Thus my pretty pyckocke
Recover by and by.
If ye cannot slepe but slumber,
Geve Otes unto Saynt Uncumber,
And Beanes in a certen number
Unto Saynt Blase and Saynt Blythe.
Give Onyons to Saynt Cutlake
And Garlycke to Saynt Cyoyake,
If ye wyll spurne the heade ake.
Ye shall have them at Quene hyth.”