Formulæ are used also in these cases; as, for instance, when they strew millet in front of a barn they say, "May my cow's milk be taken away when this millet is gathered up again." The passage of goblins can be stopped by besmearing the doors, windows, and keyholes with a mixture of garlic, incense, and pig's excrements. To guard against the influence of the fiend, garlic has to be constantly carried about in the pocket.[1] The first food given to young chickens has to be passed through a wolf's throat; and bees, when they leave their hives for the first time in the spring, have also to pass through a wolf's throat, in order that they may gain strength and gather much honey. On the morning of New Year's day the cattle must be watered from off a silver coin, so that they may be guarded against any mishap. When sowing hemp the stockings or breeches are to be fastened high, so that the plants may grow high. By walking backwards three times round a wheat-field at night-time naked the wheat will be protected against a plague of birds.
There are innumerable charms to be found for every condition in life. They begin with the children's play, as, for instance, in the case of a game similar to the one known in England as "egg in the hole": the child guards itself against its playmate's luck by making a cross in front of his hole, and saying, "Fie! roll into my hole." It is my impression that in the case of all cures by charms the outer formalities, as they are used now-a-days, are simply the remnants of a more complicated procedure; in days gone by they constituted the outer cover, the purpose of which was to distract the attention from the real cure. I am confirmed in this view by the fact that some sorcerers apply quick-lime besides the blackberry-twig for the destruction of maggots in animals. Others, while curing intermittent fever by the aid of the five paper scraps recommend as an "auxiliary " measure that the patient should keep a strict diet during the eight days which are occupied by the cure.
Thornton Lodge, Goxhill, Hull.
- ↑ Horse-chestnuts are carried about in the pocket as a preventive against dizziness in some parts of Austria.
