Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales

by Jonathan Ceredig Davies

THE PENTACLE.

Cadrawd, in the “Welsh Tit-Bits” column of the “Cardiff Times,” speaking of South Pembrokeshire, says:—

The pentacle, or pentalpha—a figure consisting of five straight lines so joined and intersected as to form a five-pointed star—is still regarded in Fleming-land as a physical charm and the repository of Talismanic power. This credulity is identical with the traditions of the Greek Christians, who used the figure as a mystic sign in astrology and necromancy. The figure was held in veneration by mediævalists, and was known as the “Pentacle of Solomon.” Sir William Jones, the great Oriental scholar, in his work on “Folklore,” observes that “it is worthy of remark that at the present time the magical pentalpha in the western window of the southern aisle of Westminster Abbey is one of the emblems which still exist and speaks to the initiate that the black monks who once chanted in the choir were deeply read in occult science.”

Some years ago, when on a tour in quest of lore, a Pembrokeshire gentleman tells us that he remembers being puzzled by the appearance of a number of pentacles being cut into the bark of several oak trees near the solitary dwelling of a charmer. He addressed the Solon a few questions on the meaning of these strange figures, but was cut short with the reply, “They be signs.” On Cresswell Hill, near Lady’s Well, there grows a row of tall beeches, on one of which may be seen the figure of a pentacle. It stands about 15 feet from the ground, and the wound was evidently made well nigh a century ago, judging by its appearance. There is a tale that many years ago the “White Ladies” were charmed away or banished from the vicinity of the Lady’s Well, of Cottage Dingle, by means of several pentacles being cut into the bark of trees growing near by.

CHARMS FOR CATTLE AND PIGS.

An old man named Evan Morris, Goginan, near Aberystwyth, informed me that he had several times consulted a conjurer in cases of bewitched cows and pigs. The conjurer, said my informant, took a sheet of paper on which he drew a circular figure very much “like the face of a clock.” Sometimes he made more than one figure, which he filled in with writing. In fact, the paper was covered all over with writings and figures and symbols; and it took the wise man about half-an-hour to do this. This paper or charm, the conjurer gave to my informant, and charged him to rub the bewitched animal’s back with it, “all over the back right from the ears to the tail,” and at the same time repeating the words, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.” Morris added that this charm never failed. His sister-in-law once had a sow which refused to take any food for nine days; a farrier was sent for, but when he came, he could do nothing. At last, my informant went to a conjurer and obtained a charm, with which his sister-in-law, after some hesitation, rubbed the sow, repeating “In the name, etc.” and to their great surprise the sow fully recovered and began to eat immediately, and soon ate up all the food intended for two fat pigs. When I asked my informant to show me one of the papers he obtained from the conjurer, he stated that he never kept such paper longer than twelve months. I next asked him if he had read one of the papers, and what were the words written on it? He replied that he could not decipher the conjurer’s writing.

Mr. Hamer, in “The Montgomeryshire Collections,” vol X., page 249, states that a paper or charm in his possession opens thus:—

“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen ... and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ my redeemer, that I will give relief to —— creatures his cows, and his calves, and his horses, and his sheep, and his pigs, and all creatures that alive be in his possession, from all witchcraft and from all other assaults of Satan. Amen.”

Mr. Hamer also states that “at the bottom of the sheet, on the left, is the magical word, “Abracadabra,” written in the usual triangular form; in the centre, a number of planetary symbols, and on the right, a circular figure filled in with lines and symbols, and underneath them the words, ‘By Jah, Joh, Jah?’ It was customary to rub these charms over the cattle, etc., a number of times, while some incantation was being mumbled. The paper was then carefully folded up, and put in some safe place where the animals were housed, as a guard against future visitations.”