Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/197

Rh the sunlight scatters upon the hills, so may the bane scatter away and flee, whatsoever it be." Next comes an appeal to St. Stephen and St. George, with this: "as the sun and the moon depart, so may this depart from the servant of God, N. or M., let it scatter and flee away from his eyes, may it go forth from his mouth, may it go forth from his nose, from his ears, from his cheeks, from his joints, from his knuckles, his veins, feet and hands, from every part of him may it scatter and go, as the sunlight scatters upon the hills."

No vade mecum of folk medicine would be complete without its love-philtres; and mine has two or three. These have been much used ; the pages are turned down and well worn with ancient thumbs. For example: if you would win the love of a girl or woman, take a red apple on the Sabbath Day (Saturday), and write upon it a number of mysterious signs with blood from your left thumb; then give it her to eat, and she will love you. May we not believe that the ancients, when they threw an apple in their lady's lap, had worked some such charm over it first? Or you must get an egg laid on a Thursday by a black fowl; write upon it certain cabalistic words and signs; recite them and say: "As this egg is burnt and boiled, so may her heart be burned, and her entrails (giving the lady's name),