The following charm against insects is in vogue in Lesbos: In the evening a black-handled knife is stuck in some spot where the insects congregate, and certain Greek verses are repeated, of which the following is a translation:—
I got three naughty bairns together,
One a wasp, one caterpillar,
And a swarming ant the other.
Whate’er ye eat, whate’er ye drink,
Hence, hence avaunt,
To the hills and mountains flee,
And unto each fruitless tree.
The knife is to remain in the same spot until the next morning, and is then to be removed. This completes the charm, and the insects are expected to depart at once.[499]
In Great Britain there formerly prevailed a belief that rats could be rhymed to death by anathematizing them in metrical verse, a practice mentioned by Shakespeare and contemporary poets, and which is even to-day not wholly obsolete.[500]