In mediæval times Personal Beauty was such a rare thing, and created such havoc among men, that the unhappy possessors of it were frequently accused of using forbidden Love-charms, and burnt at the stake as witches.
To-day, thanks to our superior sanitary and educational arrangements, Beauty is such a common affair that it has lost all its effect on the masculine heart; hence girls should carefully note a few of the ways by which a man may be irresistibly fascinated.
Italian girls practise the following method: A lizard is caught, drowned in wine, dried in the sun and reduced to powder, some of which is thrown on the obdurate man, who thenceforth is theirs for evermore.
A favourite Slavonic device is to cut the finger, let a few drops of her blood run into a glass of beer, and make the adored man drink it unknowingly. The same method is current in Hesse and Oldenburg, according to Dr. Ploss. In Bohemia, the girl who is afraid to wound her finger may substitute a few drops of bat’s blood.
Cases are known where invocations to the moon were followed by the bestowal of true Love. And if a girl will address the new moon as follows—
“All hail to thee, moon! All hail to thee!
Prithee, good moon, reveal to me,
This night who my husband shall be,”
she will dream of him that very night.
A four-leaved clover secretly placed in a man’s shoes will make him the devoted lover of the woman who puts it in.