Beat upon me the sun's flame!
Bruised my bones, and shook my brains,
Tore me two and seventy veins
In my head: no antidote,
Nought incensed or dipt in holy water.
Nor overstept with holy things.'[1]
'Cut three basil twigs, and say—
To the rocks and hills away!
That it may uprooted be,
And from N. or M. God's servant it may flee.'"
The last four lines are to be thrice repeated. The charm is worked thus: Water is placed in a bottle, with three sprigs of basil atop, and is then held upside down over the patient, being moved through the air in the form of the cross over his forehead and the two ears. As the water flows, say the charm thrice. A plate[2] is held to catch the water, and the sick man drinks thrice of it; the residue is thrown in some place where no one goes, for it is holy.
In my MS. I find the following charm against erysipelas.[3] "Write the same characters as were written for the tertian
- ↑ This is done when the priest bears the holy elements through the church, and sick folk and children are laid down for him to walk over.
- ↑ A plate with an Arabic charm written upon it is preserved in the Pitt-Rivers Museum at Oxford.
- ↑ (
Greek characters) [sic] (Greek characters) [sic] (Greek characters)
