receptacle full of small holes, and this they place in an ant-hill. The ants cat
the frog and leave the skeleton. This s ground to powder, mixed with the
blood of a bat and dried bath-flies and shaped into small buns, which are, as
the chance occurs, put secretly into the food of the person to be charmed.
There is yet another charm connected with this which I leave in the
original Latin in which it is modestly given by Dr. Wlislocki: "Qualibet
supradictarum noctium occiduntur duo canes nigri, mas et femina, quorum
genitalia exstirpata ad condensationem coquntur. Hujus materiæ particula
consumpta quemvis invincibili amore facit exardescare in eam eamve, qui
hoc medio prodigioso usus est."
It may be remarked that these abominable charms are also not only
known to the Tuscan witches of the present day, but are found in Voodoo
sorcery, and are indeed all over the world. To use revolting means in black
sorcery may be, or perhaps certainly is, spontaneous--sporadic, but when
we find the peculiar details of the processes identical, we are so much nearer
to transmission or history that the burden of disproving must fall on the
doubter.
"To the less revolting philtres belongs one in which the girl puts the
ashes of a burnt piece of her dress which had been wet with perspiration
and has, perhaps, hair adhering to it, into a man's food or drink (also
Tuscan).
"To bury the foot of a badger (also Voodoo), or the eye of a crow, under
one's sleeping-place is believed to excite or awaken love.
"According to gypsy belief one can spread love by transplanting blood,
perspiration, or hair into the body of a person.
"By burning the hair, blood, or saliva of any one, his or her love can be
extinguished.
"The following is a charm used to punish a faithless lover. The deceived
maid lights a candle at midnight and pricks it several times with a needle,
saying:--
"'Pchâgerâv momely
Pchâgera tre vodyi!'"'Thrice the candle's broke by me
Thrice thy heart shall broken be!'"If the faithless lover marries another. the girl mixes the broken shell of a
crab in his food or drink, or hides one of her hairs in a bird's nest. This will
make the marriage unhappy, and the husband will continually pine for his
neglected sweetheart."
This last charm is allied to another current among the Slavonians, and
elsewhere mentioned, by which it is believed that if a bird gets any of a