CHAPTER XI.
Charms, Spells, and Incantations.
“This, gathered in the planetary hour,
With noxious weeds, and spell’d with words of power,
Dire stepdames in the magic bowl infuse.”
—Dryden.
“Begin, begin; the mystic spell prepare.”
—Milton.
As long as the popular belief in witchcraft exists—and with all the boasted light and civilisation of the nineteenth century it still holds its ground—there will be found those who imagine that the evil influence of the sorcerer may be averted by a counteracting spell, or by certain practices, such as carrying an amulet about one’s person, nailing a horse-shoe to the door of a house or the mast of a ship, etc.