The charmer spat first on the rash and rubbed it with his finger over the affected parts, and then breathed nine times on it.
Jane Davies, an aged woman, a native of Llanrhaiadr-yn-Mochnant, with whom I had many long conversations on several occasions, told the narrator that she had cut a cat’s ear to get blood, wherewith to rub the patient’s breast who was suffering from the shingles, to stop its progress, until the sufferer could be visited by the charmer, and she said that the cat’s blood always stopped it spreading.
There were several charms for many of the ailments to which man is subject, which were thought to possess equal curative virtues.
Toothache charms.
By repeating the following doggerel lines the worst case of toothache could be cured—
Peter sat on a marble stone,
Jesus came to him all alone.
What’s up, Peter? The toothache, my lord;
Rise up Peter, and be cured of this pain,
And all those who carry these few lines for my sake.
This charm appeared in the Wrexham Advertiser as one that was used in Coedpoeth and Bwlch Gwyn. But the words appear in “Y Gwyliedydd” for May, 1826, page 151. The Welsh heading to the charm informs us that it was obtained from an Irish priest in County Cork, Ireland. The words are:—
Fel yr oedd Pedr yn eistedd ar faen Mynor,
Crist a ddaeth atto, ac efe yn unig.
Pedr, beth a ddarfu i ti? Y Ddanodd, fy Arglwydd Dduw.
Cyfod, Pedr, a rhydd fyddi;
A bydd pob dyn a dynes iach oddiwrth y ddanodd
Y rhai a gredant i’r geiriau hyn,
Yr wyf fi yn gwneuthur yn enw Duw.
The first two lines of the English and Welsh are the same but the third and succeeding lines in Welsh are as follows:—
Peter, what is the matter?
The toothache, my Lord God.
Rise Peter, and thou shalt be cured;
And every man and woman who believes these words
Shall be cured of the toothache,
Which I perform in the name of God.