“Now,” said Margery, “with God’s blessing, I shall be cured; my blessed bit of silver must be made into a ring,” (this was addressed to the clerk, half aside;) “and within three weeks after it is on my finger I shall get the use of my limbs again.”
This charm is common throughout the three western counties for the cure of rheumatism,—the Devonshire halt,—or for any contraction of the limbs.
Crawl under a bramble which has formed a second root in the ground. Or get a woman who has been delivered of a child, feet foremost, to tread the patient.
The vicar of a large parish church informs me that a woman came to him some time since for water from the font after a christening; she required it to undo some spell. The vicar states, that all the fonts in the country were formerly locked, to prevent people from stealing the “holy water,” as they called it.
To stand on one’s head for a quarter of an hour.
“There came three angels out of the East, One brought fire and two brought frost; Out fire and in frost, In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen!”
Bramble-leaves, or sometimes the leaves of the common dock, wetted with spring water, are employed in this charm, as also in the following one.
A similar incantation to that practised for a burn is used. Three angels are invoked to come from the East, and this form of words is repeated three times to each one of nine bramble-leaves immersed in spring water, making passes with the leaves _from_ the diseased part.
“Christ was of a virgin born, And He was prick’d by a thorn, And it did never bell[59] nor swell, As I trust in Jesus this never will.”
“Christ was crown’d with thorns The thorns did bleed, but did not rot, No more shall thy finger. In the name,”[60] &c.
“Sanguis mane in te, Sicut Christus fuit in se; Sanguis mane in tuâ venâ, Sicut Christus in suâ penâ; Sanguis mane fixus, Sicut Christus quando crucifixus.”
As this is repeated by ignorant old men or women, it becomes a confused jargon of unmeaning words, but it impresses the still more ignorant sufferer with awe, approaching to fear. The following is more common:—
“Christ was born in Bethlehem, Baptized in the river Jordan; There He digg’d a well, And turn’d the water against the hill, So shall thy blood stand still. In the name,” &c.