They swordes enchaunt, and horses strong,

and flesh of men they make

So harde and tough, that they ne care what blowes or cuttes they take;

And, using Necromancie thus, themselves they safely keepe,

From bowes or guns, and from the wolves their cattel, (1) lambes, and sheepe: No journey also they doe take, but Charmes they with them beare;

Besides, in glistering glasses fayre, or else in christall cleare,

They Sprightes enclose; and as to Prophets true, so to the same

They go, if any thing be stolne, or any taken lame,

And when theyr kine doe give no milke, or hurt, or bitten sore,

Or any other harme that to these wretches happens more."

In Bale's "Interlude concerning Nature, Moses, and Christ," 4to. 1562, signat. C 1 b, Idolatry is described with the following qua lities:

"Mennes fortunes she can tell;
She can by sayenge her Ave Marye,
And by other Charmes of Sorcerye,
Ease men of the Toth ake by and bye;
Yea, and fatche the Devyll from Hell."

And ibid. C 2, the same personage says:
"With holy Oyle and Water
I can so cloyne and clatter,
That I can at the latter

Many sutelties contryve:

I can worke wyles in battell,
If I but ones do spattle

I can make corne and cattle
That they shall never thryve."

66

Theyr wells I can up drye,
Cause trees and herbes to dye,
And slee all pulterye,

Whereas men doth me move :

I can make stoles to daunce
And earthen pottes to praunce,
That none shall them enhaunce,
And do but cast my glove.

I have Charmes for the ploughe,
And also for the Cowghe;
She shall gyve mylke ynowghe
So long as I am pleased.
Apace the myll shall go,
So shall the credle do,
And the musterde querne also,

No man therwyth dyseased."

Dr. Henry, in his "History of Great Britain," vol. i. p. 286, says, "When the minds of men are haunted with Dreams of Charms and Enchantments, they are apt to fancy that the most common occurrences in Nature are the effects of magical arts." (2)

Camden, in his "Ancient and Modern Manners of the Irish," tells us, "They think women have Charms divided and distributed among them; and to them persons apply according to their several disorders, and they constantly begin and end the Charm with Pater Noster and Ave Maria." See Gough's edition of the "Britannia," 1789, vol. iii. p. 668.

Mason, in the "Anatomie of Sorcerie," 4to. Lond. 1612, p. 62, says, "The word CHARME is derived of the Latin word Carmen, the letter h being put in." (3)

Avicen, to prove that there are Charms, affirms that all material substances are subject to the human soul, properly disposed and exalted above matter. Dict. Cur. p. 144.

(1) In the "Statistical Account of Scotland," vol. xvi. 8vo. Edinb. 1795, p. 122, parish of Killearn, county of Stirling, we read, "A certain quantity of cow-dung is forced into the mouth of a Calf immediately after it is calved, or at least before it receives any meat; owing to this, the vulgar believe that Witches and Fairies can have no power ever after to injure the calf. But these and suchlike superstitious customs are every day more and more losing their influence."

(2) Sir Thomas Browne tells us, that to sit cross-legged, or with our fingers pectinated or shut together, is accounted bad, and friends will persuade us from it. The same conceit religiously possessed the ancients, as is observable from Pliny, "Poplites alternis genibus imponere nefas olim ;" and also from Athenæus that it was an old venificious practice; and Juno is made in this posture to hinder the delivery of Alcmana. See Bourne and Brand's "Popular Antiquities," p. 95. Mr. Park, in his copy of that work, has inserted the following Note: "To sit crosslegged I have always understood was intended to produce good or fortunate consequences. Hence it was employed as a Charm at school by one boy who wished well for another, in order to deprecate some punishment which both might tremble to have incurred the expectation of. At a Card-table I have also caught some superstitious players sitting cross-legged with a view of bringing good luck."

" vol. ii.

(3) In the "Athenian Oracle,' p. 424, a Charm is defined to be "a form of words or letters, repeated or written, whereby strange things are pretended to be done, beyond the ordinary power of Nature.”

Andrews, in his continuation of Dr. Henry's "History of Great Britain," p. 383, quoting Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft," says: "The stories which our facetious author relates of ridiculous Charms, which by help of credulity operated wonders, are extremely laughable. In one of them a poor woman is commemorated who cured all diseases by muttering a certain form of words over the party afflicted; for which service she always received one penny and a loaf of bread. length, terrified by menaces of flames both in this world and the next, she owned that her whole conjuration consisted in these potent lines, which she always repeated in a low voice near the head of her patient:

"Thy loaf in my hand,

And thy penny in my purse,
Thou art never the better-

And I-am never the worse.'

At

In "The Works of John Heiwood, newlie imprinted," &c. 4to. Lond. 1598, signat. c 2, I find the following Charm :

"I claw'd her by the backe in way of a Charme,

To do me not the more good, but the lesse harme."

SPITTLE, among the ancients, was esteemed a Charm against all kinds of fascination: so Theocritus,

Τοιάδε μυθιζοίσα, τρὶς εἰς ἐὸν ἔπλυσε κόλπον

"Thrice on my breast I spit to guard me safe

From fascinating Charms." (1)

And thus Persius upon the custom of Nurses spitting upon Children: (2)

"Ecce avia, aut metuens Divûm matertera, cunis

Exemit puerum, frontemque atque uda labella

Infami digito, & lustralibus ante salivis
Expiat, urentes oculos inhibere perita."
Sat. ii. 1. 31.

See how old beldams expiations make:
To atone the Gods the Bantling up they
take;

His lips are wet with lustral spittle; thus
They think to make the Gods propitious.

Spitting, according to Pliny, was superstitiously observed in averting Witchcraft and in giving a shrewder blow to an enemy. Hence seems to be derived the custom our Bruisers have of spitting in their hands before they begin their barbarous diversion, unless it was originally done for luck's sake. Several other vestiges of this superstition, relative to fasting Spittle, (3) mentioned also by Pliny, may yet be placed among our vulgar customs.

The boys in the North of England have a custom amongst themselves of spitting their faith (or, as they call it in the northern dialect, their Saul," i. e. Soul), when required to make asseverations in matters which they think of consequence.

In combinations of the Colliers, &c., about Newcastle-upon-Tyne, for the purpose of raising their wages, they are said to spit upon a stone together, by way of cementing their confederacy. Hence the popular saying, when persons are of the same party, or agree in sentiments, that "they spit upon the same stone." (*)

In "The Life of a Satirical Puppy called Nim," &c., 8vo. Lond. 1657, p. 35, I find the following passage: "One of his guardians (being fortified with an old Charm) marches

cross-legged, spitting three times, east, south, west; and afterwards prefers his vallor to a catechising office. In the name of God, quoth he, what art thou? whence dost thou come? &c., seeing something that he supposed to be a Ghost.

Fishwomen generally spit upon their handsel, i. e. the first money they take, (5) for good luck. Grose mentions this as a common practice among the lower class of hucksters, pedlers, and dealers in fruit or fish, on receiving the price of the first goods they sell. ()

I gather from a collection of the ancient religious customs in North Wales, drawn up by a clergyman deceased, and which has frequently been referred to in the former part of this work as Mr. Pennant's Manuscript, that there," in the Church, they usually spit at the name of the Devil, and smite their breasts at the name of Judas. In their ordinary conversation the first name gives them no salivation, but is too familiar in their mouths." (7)

The following is in Scot's "Discovery of Witchcraft," p. 137: "To heal the King or Queen's Evil, or any other soreness in the throat, first touch the place with the haud of one that died an untimely death: otherwise let a virgin fasting lay her hand on the sore, and say-Apollo denyeth that the heat of the plague can increase where a naked virgin quencheth it; and spet three times upon it." (8)

(1) So Potter, in his "Greek Antiquities," vol. i. p. 346, tells us that among the Greeks "it was customary to spit three times into their bosoms at the sight of a Madman, or one troubled with an Epilepsy." He refers to this passage of Theocritus, Idyll. xx. v. 11, for illustration. This, he adds, they did in defiance, as it were, of the Omen; for spitting was a sign of the greatest contempt and aversion whence, lv, i. e. to spit, is put for καταφρονεῖν, ἐν οὐδενὶ λογίζειν, i. e. to contemn, as the Scholiast of Sophocles observes upon these words, in "Antigone," v. 666.

:

formity between Popery and Paganism," p. 54, "was one of the ceremonies used on the Dies Nominalis, the day the child was named; so that there can be no doubt of the Papists deriving this custom from the Heathen nurses and grandmothers. They have indeed christened it, as it were, by flinging in some scriptural expressions; but then they have carried it to a more filthy extravagance by daubing it on the nostrils of adults as well as of children."

Plutarch and Macrobius make the days of lustration of infants thus: "The 8th day for girls, and the 9th for boys. Gregory Nazianzen calls this festival Ovouasngia, because upon one of those days the child was named. The old Grandmother or Aunt moved round in a circle, and rubbed the child's forehead with spittle, and that with her middle finger, to preserve it from Witchcraft. It is to this foolish custom St. Athanasius alludes, when he calls the heresy of Montanus and Priscilla year #lvoμaτа." Sheridan's Persius, 2d edit. p. 34, Note.

It is related by the Arabians that when Hassan, the grandson of Mahomet, was born, he spit in his mouth. See Ockley's History of the Saracens, vol. ii. p. 84.

Park, in his "Travels into the Interior of Africa," speaking of the Mandingoes, says: "A Child is named when it is seven or eight

days old. The ceremony commences by shaving the infant's head. The priest, after a prayer in which he solicits the blessing of God upon the child and all the company, whispers a few sentences in the child's ear, and spits three times in his face, after which, pronouncing his name aloud, he returns the child to his mother."

(3) "Fascinationes Saliva jejuna repelli, veteri superstitione creditum est." Alex. ab Alexandro.

Levinus Lemnius tells us: "Divers experiments show what power and quality there is in man's fasting Spittle, when he hath neither eat nor drunk before the use of it: for it cures all tetters, itch, scabs, pushes, and creeping sores; and if venemous little beasts have fastened on any part of the body, as hornets, beetles, toads, spiders, and such like, that by their venome cause tumours and great pains and inflammations, do but rub the places

with fasting Spittle, and all those effects will be gone and discussed. Since the qualities and effects of Spittle come from the humours, (for out of them is it drawn by the faculty of nature, as fire draws distilled water from hearbs,) the reason may be easily understood why Spittle should do such strange things, and destroy some creatures." Secret Miracles of Nature, English Transl. fol. Lond. 1658, p. 164.

Sir Thomas Browne, in his "Vulgar Errors," p. 152, leaves it undecided whether the fasting Spittle of man be poison unto snakes and vipers, as experience hath made us doubt.

In Browne's "Map of the Microcosme," &c. 12mo. Lond. 1642, signat. B 8 b, speaking of lust, the author says: "Fewell also must bee withdrawne from this fire, fasting Spittle must kill this serpent."

(4) The following is in "Plaine Percevall the Peace Maker of England," 4to. b. l. no date, but on the well-known subject of Martin Mar-Prelate, signat. D 2: "Nay, no further, Martin, thou maist spit in that hole, for I'll come no more there."

Park, in his "Travels in the Interior of Africa," has the following passage: "They had not travelled far before the attendants insisted upon stopping, to prepare a Saphie or Charm, to ensure a good journey: this was done by muttering a few sentences, and spitting upon a stone which was laid upon the ground. The same ceremony was repeated three times, after which the negroes proceeded with the greatest confidence."

(5) "It is still customary in the West of England, when the conditions of a bargain are agreed upon, for the parties to ratify it by joining their hands, and at the same time for the purchaser to give an earnest." Supplem. to Johnson and Steevens's Shaksp. 1780, vol. ii. p. 684.

(6) Of the Handsel, Misson, in his "Travels in England," p. 192, observes as follows: "Une espece de Pourvoyeuse me disoit l'autre jour, que les Boucheres de Londres, les Femmes qui apportent de la volaille au marché, du beurre, des œufs, &c. et toutes sortes des gens, font un cas particulier de l'argent qu'ils reçoivent de la primiere vente qu'ils font. Ils le baisent en le recevant, crachent dessus, et le mettent dans une poche

apart:" thus translated by Ozell, p. 130: "A woman that goes much to market wold me t'other day that the Butcher-women of London, those that sell fowls, butter, eggs, &c., and in general most tradespeople, have a particular esteem for what they call a Handsel; that is to say, the first money they receive in a morning; they kiss it, spit upon it, and put it in a pocket by itself."

Lemon explains "Handsel," in his Dictionary, "The first Money received at market, which many superstitious people will spit on, either to render it tenacious that it may remain with them, and not vanish away like a fairy gift, or else to render it propitious and lucky, that it may draw more money to it."

(7) In Browne's "Britannia's Pastorals," b. i. p. 129, there is an account of the difficulty a blacksmith has to shoe "a stubborne nagge of Galloway :"

"Or unback'd jennet, or a Flaunders mare, That at the forge stand snuffing of the ayre; The swarty smith spits in his buckhorne fist, And bids his man bring out the five-fold twist," &c.

(8) Scot, ut supra, p. 152, prescribes the subsequent Charm against Witchcraft: "To unbewitch the bewitched, you must spit in the pot where you have made water. Otherwise spit into the shoe of your right foot be

fore you put it on; and that Vairus saith is good and wholesome to do before you go into any dangerous place." Spitting in the right shoe is in "Monsr. Oufle," p. 282, Notes.

Delrio, in his " Disquisitiones Magicæ,” lib. vi. c. 2, sect. 1, quæst. 1, mentious the following, which with great propriety he calls "Excogitata nugasissimæ Superstitiones-de iis qui crines pectinando evulsos non nisi ter consputos abjiciunt." i. e. That upon those hairs which come out of the head in combing they spit thrice before they throw them away. This is mentioned also in the "History of Mons. Oufle," p. 282, Notes.

Grose tells us of a singular superstition in the army, where we shall hope it is not without its use. 66 CAGG, to cagg, says he, is a military term used by the private soldiers, signifying a solemn vow or resolution not to get drunk for a certain time, or, as the term is, till their cagg is out; which vow is commonly observed with the strictest exactness. Ex. I have cagged myself for six months.' Excuse me this time, and I will cagg myself for a year. This term is also used in the same sense among the common people in Scotland, where it is performed with divers ceremonies."

Vallancey, in his "Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis," No. x. p. 490, tells us that "Cag is an old English word for fasting, or abstaining from meat or drink."

sidered as extremely ominous, it being held that, when thirteen persons meet in a room, one of them will die within a year. (2)

The seventh son of a seventh son is accounted an infallible doctor. (3)

In a Manuscript on Witchcraft, by John Bell, a Scottish minister, 1705, which has been already quoted more than once, I find the following passage, p. 48: "Are there not some who cure by observing number? after the example of Balaam, who used magiam geometricam, Numb. xxiii. 4, 'Build me here seven altars, and prepare me seven oxen and seven rams,' &c. There are some witches who en