PROTECTIVES AGAINST WITCHCRAFT.
Mrs. Mary Thomas, Bengal, near Fishguard, informed me that it was customary when she was young to counteract the machinations of witches by killing a mare and take out the heart and open and burn it, having first filled it up with pins and nails. This compelled the witch to undo her work. Mrs. Thomas also added that when the heart was burning on such occasions the smoke would go right in the direction of the witch’s house.
Another old woman near Fishguard, informed the Rev. J. W. Evans, a son of the Rector of Jordanston, that she remembered an old woman who was thought to be guilty of witching poor farmers’ cattle. At last she was forced to leave the district by the people who believed her to be a witch. But soon after she left a cow died, and even her calves were ill. People took out the cow’s heart and burnt it, which forced the hag to return to heal the calves.
A FISHGUARD WITCH DISCOMFITED.
Another way of protecting oneself from witchcraft was to keep a nail on the floor under the foot when a witch came to the door. Mr. David Rees, baker at Fishguard, told me a few years ago that there was once a particular witch in that town who was very troublesome, as she was always begging, and that people always gave to her, as they were afraid of offending her. She often came to beg from his mother, who at last, as advised by her friends, procured a big nail from a blacksmith’s shop. She put the nail under her foot on the floor, the next time the old witch came to the door begging. The old hag came again as usual to beg and to threaten; but my informant’s mother sent her away empty handed, saying, “Go away from my door old woman, I am not afraid of you now, for I have my foot on a nail.” She kept her foot on the nail till the witch went out of sight, and by doing so felt herself safe from the old hag’s spells.
Nails or a horseshoe or an old iron were considered preservatives against witchcraft.