Page:Cornish feasts and folk-lore.djvu/157

 Charms, etc. 145 within reach, but examples are not common ; their virtues are familiar to the people, and instances are to be met with among the country folk, whose recovery from a ' kinning ' in the eye ( ' kennel,' West Cornwall) is attributed solely to the use of these charms." — Notes on the Neighbourhood of Brown Willy (North Corn- wall), Rev. A. H. Malan, M.A. In every small Cornish village in olden times (and the race is not yet extinct) lived a charmer or " white witch." Their powers were not quite as great as those of a pellar, but they were thoroughly believed in, and consulted on every occasion for every complaint. They were not only able to cure diseases, but they could, when offended, "overlook" and ill-wish the offender, bringing ill-luck on him, and also on his family and farm-stock. The seventh son of the seventh son, or seventh daughter of the seventh daughter, were born with this gift of charming, and made the most noted pellars ; but anyone might become a witch who touched a Logan rock nine times at midnight. These Logan rocks are mentioned elsewhere as being in Cornwall their favourite resorts, and to them they went, it is said, riding on ragwort stems, instead of the traditional broomsticks. Or, he might, says another authority, use the following charm : " Go to the chancel of a church to sacrament, hide away the bread from the hands of the priest, at midnight carry it around the church from south to north, crossing east three times. The third time a big toad, open-mouthed, will be met, put the bread in it ; as soon as swallowed he will breathe three times upon the man, and from that time he will become a witch. Known by five black spots diagonally placed under the tongue." There is also a strange glare in the eye of a person who can " overlook," and the eyelids are always red. Witches could in this country change themselves into toads, as well as hares. Mr. Robert Hunt relates the story of one who met her death in that form, and Mr. T. Q. Couch tells the tale of a sailor who was a " witch," who received several injuries whilst in the shape of that animal. When a very small child, having a " kennel" (an ulcer) on my eye, I was unknown to my parents taken