Come unto me
When no water is here.”
Dr. Wlislocki translates this last line, “When there is no more water in the river,” which is certainly what is meant. “While water runs or grass grows,” &c. is a formula common to all countries. Another cure for fever is this: the patient must take a kreutzer, an egg, and a handful of salt, and before sunrise go with them to a cross-road, throw them away backwards, and repeat:—
“Káná ádálá kiyá mánge áven
Āvā tu kiyā mánge shilályi.”
“When these things again I see,
Fever then return to me.”
Or literally, “When these things to me come.” For the next three days the invalid must not touch money, eggs, or salt. There is an old MS. collection of English charms and ceremonies, professedly of “black witchcraft,” in which we are told that if a girl will walk stark-naked by the light of the full moon round a field or a house, and cast behind her at every step a handful of salt, she will get the lover whom she desires. Salt, says Moresinus, was sacred to the infernal deities, and it was a symbol of the soul, or of life, because it preserved the body while in it (Pitiscus, “Leg. Ant. Rom.” ii. p. 675). The devil never eats salt. Once there was in Germany a peasant who had a witch for a wife, and the devil invited them to supper. But all the dishes were without any seasoning, and the peasant, despite all nudges and hints to hold his tongue kept crying for salt. And when it was brought and he said, “Thank God, here is salt at last!” the whole Spuck, or ghastly scene, vanished (Horst, “Dæmonomagie,” Frankfurt, 1818, vol. ii. p. 213). For a great deal of further information and symbolism on and of salt, including all the views of the ancient Rabbis and modern rationalists on the subject of Lot’s wife, the reader may consult “Symbolik und Mythologie der Natur,” by J. B. Friedrich, Würzburg, 1859: “Salt is put into love-philtres and charms to ensure the duration of an attachment; in some Eastern countries it is carried in a little bag as an amulet to preserve health.”
Another cure for fever. The patient must drink, from a new jug, water from three brooks, and after every drink throw into the running stream a handful of salt. Then he must make water into the first and say:—
“Káthe hin t’ro sherro!”