Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/142

 132 Char tn against the Child-stealing Witch.

lightning, with which he was cutting, digging, the Evil Hour seeking, but however much he sought it was nowhere to be found but in the body of N. He found him there, he cut him up, he dug him out, and N. screamed violently, cried plaintively, but no one saw her, no one heard her, save the pure Mother, the very pure Mother. She saw her, she heard her, she came to meet her, and thus she spake to her : " Why do you scream and why do you lament ? " " Oh, pure Mother, Mother very pure. Why should she not cry, why should she not lament, for when she got early ready, left her house, left her table, strong and beautiful, well and cheerful, when she was in the middle of the road, in the middle of the pathway, there came to meet her, there stopped the road for her, the Archangel Michael on a black charger with nine bears, with nine dogs, all of them born, grown up, formed on the day of St. George ; he held a weapon of thunder and a sword of lightning, with which he was cutting, digging, the Evil Hour seeking, but however much he sought, it was nowhere to be found but in the body of N. He found him, he cut him, he dug him, and then ... he cast him into the fiery furnace. He raked him out with an iron rake, he pounded him with an iron pestle, he took him out from the iron mortar, he threw him into an iron sieve, he sifted him in that sieve, he winnowed him in that iron sieve, so that nothing should remain of that Evil Hour, just as nothing remains of the dust in the road. . . N. shall remain clear, clear and shining as when her mother gave birth to her, as when God had made her ; Amen, Amen, and as the bright sun. From me the charm, from God the cure."

In this charm the Holy Virgin is playing a subordinate role altogether, prominence is given to to the Archangel Michael, who, according to this rather incomplete description, had been pursuing the Evil Spirit with a weapon of thunder and with a sword of lightning. Lastly, we have a third charm, which has also been recently collected fron the mouth of the peasants in Roumania. The charm runs thus :

" The Archangel Michael descending on the Mount of