O locusts, O cockchafers, parents kind,
Orphaned you have left us all behind.
And this proceeding is thought to be destructive to the whole swarm of insects.[492]
The following charm against foxes was formerly used in France, and was to be repeated thrice a week:—
Foxes, both male and female, I conjure you in the name of the Holy Trinity, that ye neither touch nor carry off any of my fowls, whether roosters, hens or chickens; nor eat their nests, nor suck their blood, nor break their eggs, nor do them any harm whatever.[493]
The Roman Catholic Church formerly sanctioned the use of certain sentences as charms against vipers, and the following may serve as a specimen:—
I conjure thee, O serpent, in this hour, by the five holy wounds of Our Lord, that thou remove not out of this place, as certainly as God was born of a pure Virgine. Otherwise, I conjure thee, serpent, by Our Lady St. Mary, that thou obey me, as wax obeyeth the fire, and as fire obeyeth water, that thou neither hurt me nor any other Christian, as certainly as God was born of an immaculate Virgine, in which respect I take thee up. In Nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.… Otherwise, O vermine, thou must come as God came unto the Jews.[494]
When a Turk chances to encounter a serpent, he is wont to invoke the aid of Chah-Miran, the serpent-king, and in the name of this deity he bids the reptile depart. Now Chah-Miran has long been dead, but the astute Turk reasons that serpents are not aware of this fact, for, if they were, the human race would be helpless against their attacks.[495]
As preservatives from the stings of insects, and to prevent the croaking of frogs, the Moslems use scraps of paper containing magical formulæ, or sentences from the Koran engraved on stones or pieces of metal;[496] and a method formerly in vogue in France, to protect pigeons from the incursions of scorpions, consisted in writing the word “Adam” on each of the four walls of the pigeon-house.[497]
The natives of Mirzapur, in cases of scorpion-bite, recite a charm meaning as follows: “Black scorpion of the limestone, green thy tail and black thy mouth, God orders thee to go home. Come out, scorpion, at the spell. Come out, come out!”[498]