Page:Cornish feasts and folk-lore.djvu/159

Charms, etc. 147 nine times. If you can succeed by any means in drawing blood from the "ill-wisher" you are certain to break and remove the spell. Stick pins into an apple or potatoe, carry it in your pocket, and as it shrivels the "ill-wisher" will feel an ache from every pin, but this I fancy does not do the person " overlooked " any good. Another authority says, " Stick pins into a bullock's heart, when the 'ill-wisher' will feel a stab for every one put in, and in self-defence take off the curse." A friend writes, "An old man called Uncle Will Jelbart, who had been with the Duke of Kent in America, and also a very long time in the Peninsular, about forty years ago lived in West Cornwall ; he had a small pension, and in addition made a good income by charming warts, wildfire (erysipelas), cataracts, etc. He used to spit three times and breathe three times on the part affected, muttering, ' In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost I bid thee begone.' For cataract he pricked the small white ' dew-snail ' (slug), found about four a.m., with a hawthorn spine, and let a drop fall into the eye ; and in the case of skin diseases occasionally supplemented the charm with an ointment made of the juice ex- tracted from house-leeks and ' raw-cream ; ' he sometimes changed the words and repeated those which with slight variations are known all over Cornwall — ' Three virgins,' etc. "The crowfoot locally known as the 'kenning herb' is in some districts used in incantations for curing ' kennings ' or ' kennels ' (ulcers in the eye). ' Three ladies (or virgins) come from the east : One with fire and two with frost ; Out with thee, fire, and in with thee, frost : In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.' This is often said nine times over a scald. In prose it begins thus : 'As I passed over the river Jordan, I met with Christ. He said, What aileth thee } Oh Lord, my flesh doth burn. The Lord said unto me. Two angels,' " etc. A lady once told me that about forty years ago she was taken to a "charmer," who stood in a Cornish market-place on fixed