When the witch-brew of coals, garlic, and meal is made, and boiled down to a dry residuum, it is put into a small three-cornered bag, and hung about the child’s neck, on which occasion the appropriate rhyme is repeated nine times. “And it is of special importance that the bag shall be made of a piece of linen, which must be stolen, found, or begged.”
To learn whether a child has been overlooked, or evil-eyed, or enchanted, the “wise woman” takes it in her arms, and goes to the next running stream. There she holds the face of the babe as nearly as she can to the water, and repeats:—
“Páñi, páñi sikova,
Dikh the upré, dikh télé!
Buti páñi sikovel
Buti pál yákh the dikhel
Te ákáná mudárel.”
“Water, water, hasten!
Look up, look down!