“Spell for the Toothache.
“Saint Peter sat on a stone and wept. Christ came to him and said, ‘Peter, why weepest thou?’ Peter answered, ‘Lord, my teeth pain me.’ The Lord thereupon ordered the worm in Peter’s tooth to come out of it and never more go in again. Scarcely had the worm come out when the pain ceased. Then spoke Peter, ‘I pray you, O Lord, that when these words be written out and a man carries them he shall have no toothache.’ And the Lord answered, ‘’Tis well, Peter; so may it be!’ ”
It will hardly be urged that this Slavonian charm of Eastern origin could have been originated independently in England. The following, which is there found in the north, is, as Gaster remarks, “in the same wording”:—
“Peter was sitting on a marble stone,
And Jesus passed by.
Peter said, ‘My Lord, my God,
How my tooth doth ache!’
Jesus said, ‘Peter art whole!
And whosoever keeps these words for My sake
Shall never have the toothache.’ ”
The next specimen is a—