CHARMS AND MAGIC PROGNOSTICATIONS.
Herewith I give a few mysterious magic formulas and prognostications, for the most part hitherto known only to wise old men and women, some of which I have had confided to me by learned astrologers, and a few were revealed to me by Madame Le Normand, a celebrated fortune-teller, in whose predictions the Emperor Napoleon put great confidence.
TO PREPARE A LOVE POTION.
The following substances must be gathered in silence when the full moon is in the heavens: Three white rose leaves, three red rose leaves, three forget-me-nots, and five blossoms of Veronica.
All these things you must place in a vessel, then pour upon them five hundred and ninety-five drops of clear Easter water, and place the vessel over the fire, or what is better still, over a spirit-lamp. This mixture must be allowed to boil for exactly the sixteenth part of an hour.
When it has boiled for the requisite length of time, remove it from the fire, and pour it into a flask. Cork it tightly, and seal it, and it will keep for years without losing its virtue.
That this potion is certain in its effect I myself will guarantee, for I have gained more than thirty hearts by its help. Three drops swallowed by the person whose love you desire, will suffice.
ANOTHER MEANS TO COMPEL LOVE.
Take a healthy, well-grown frog. Place it in a box which has been pierced all over with holes with a stout darning needle or gimlet. Then carry it in the evening twilight to a large ant-heap, place it in the midst of the heap, taking care to observe perfect silence.
After the lapse of a week, repair to the ant-heap, take out the box, and open it, when in place of the frog you will find nothing but a skeleton. Take this apart very carefully, and you will soon find among the delicate bones a scale shaped like that of a fish and a hook. You will need them both. The hook you must contrive to fasten in some way or other into the clothes of the person whose affections you wish to obtain, and if he or she has worn it, if it is only for a quarter of a minute, he will be constrained to love you, and will continue to do so until you give him or her a fillip with the scale.