Night-mare.—The following charm is taken from Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, p. 87:
S. George, S. George, our ladies knight,
He walkt by daie, so did he by night.
Untill such time as he her found,
He hir beat and he hir bound,
Untill hir troth she to him plight,
She would not come to hir that night.
Sore eyes.—From the same work, p. 246:
The diuell pull out both thine eies,
And etish in the holes likewise.
For rest.—From the same work, p. 260:
In nomine Patris, up and downe,
Et Filii et Spiritus Sancti upon my crowne,
Crux Christi upon my brest;
Sweete ladie, send me eternall rest.
Stopping of Blood.—From the same work, p. 273:
In the bloud of Adam death was taken +
In the bloud of Christ it was all to-shaken +
And by the same bloud I doo thee charge
That thou doo runne no longer at large.
This charm continued in use long after the publication of Scot's work. A version of it, slightly altered, is given in the Athenian Oracle, 1728, i. 158, as having been used by a country empyryc.
Evil Spirits.—"When I was a boy," says Aubrey, MS. Lansd. 231, "a charme was used for (I thinke) keeping away evill spirits, which was to say thrice in a breath—