Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/209

 Folk- Lore of the Wye Valley. 173

they're lying folded up in the left-hand corner o' your top drawer ' ; an' she did go away, saying she'd pay her out for her lies. An' that girl was taken with the most awful toothache, she couldn't sit nor stand nor rest day nor night, nor eat a bite. So her mistress, she sent for my mother's brother, and he came an' found the poor girl going about with a face as long as a wet week. An' when he came to hear he was in a tearing rage, and said Jie'd see about it, he wasn't going to stand no such. So he went to that old witch's house, and there she was a-sitting by the fire wash- ing her pot. An' he says, ' You take that ill-wish off my daughter,' an' threatens what he'll do if she didn't. An' she asked, "' What can / do about it t ' He says, ' You wish it away.' She says she will, an' mutters to herself, but what she says is, ' Wish it may stay! So my mother's brother he goes back, and finds the poor girl worse than ever. An' he was in a taking, and back he goes, and he takes the old witch an' he shakes her, an' he says, ' You wish it away, or I'll set you on the fire.' She mutters again, 'Wish it may stay,' but this hears her, an' takes her up an' bundles her on to her own fire, an' there he holds her until she shrieks out, ' Lemme up ! I wish it may goV And the pain it did go that very minute; and he got back, and found the girl eating her dinner as smart as ever."

We have also the story of the man with a witch-wife. He was thin but she was fat, and he complained of this. So his wife promised that he should become as well-liking as herself One night she and her witch-friends took him to a neighbouring country-house, and the witches all turned themselves into straws and went in under the doors, which they then opened and let in the man, afterwards securing them again. He was told on no account to speak a word ; the witches then brought up wine and food from the cellar and the larder, and all began to feast, when suddenly the man whispered, " Haven't you any salt ? " on which the