'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,'" &c.
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 days, to have her warts cured. The remedies for this childish complaint are very numerous. I once had my forehead rubbed with a piece of stolen beef, which was then buried in a garden, to send them away, the idea being that as the beef decayed the warts would fall off or dwindle gradually. There are two or three other ways of getting rid of them of a similar kind. Touch each wart with a new pin, enclose them in a bottle, either bury them in a newly-made grave of the opposite sex, or at four cross-roads; as the pins rust, the warts will disappear. Or, touch them with a knot made in a piece of string, there should be as many knots as there are warts, bury it, when the rope decays so will the warts. The two next are selfish remedies. Touch each wart with a pebble, put the stones in a bag, throw them away, and the finder will get them and they will leave you. Or, in coming out of church, wish them on some part of another person's body (or on a tree); they will go from you and appear on him, or on the spot named. One method employed by professional "charmers" is to take two pieces of charred stick from a fire, form them into a cross and place them on the warts and repeat one of the formulae above quoted. Yet another is to wash the hands in the moon's rays focussed in a dry metal basin, saying,
I wash my hands in this thy dish,
Oh man in the moon, do grant my wish,
And come and take away this."
When pricked by a thorn, use one of the following charms:—
"Christ was of a virgin born: And he was pricked by a thorn. And it did never 'bell' (fester), And I trust in Jesus this never will."
