person without faith, for the operator should not have uttered the mystery
in the hearing of one who would mock, or treat the matter lightly; therefore
he is punished.
Some years ago an old man lived in Mayo who had great knowledge of
charms, and of certain love philtres that no woman could resist. But before
his death he enclosed the written charms in a strong iron box, with
directions that no one was to dare to open it except the eldest son of an
eldest son in a direct line from himself.
Some people pretend that they have read the charms; and one of them
has the strange power to make every one in the house begin to dance, and
they can never cease dancing till another spell has been said over them.
But the guardian of the iron box is the only one who knows the magic
secret of the spell, and he exacts a good price before he utters it, and so
reveals or destroys the witchcraft of the dance.
The juice of deadly night-shade distilled, and given in a drink, will make
the person who drinks believe whatever you will to tell him, and choose
him to-believe.
A bunch of mint tied round the waist is a sure remedy for disorders of
the stomach.
A. sick person's bed must be placed north and south, not cross ways.
Nettles gathered in a churchyard and boiled down for a drink have the
power to cure dropsy.
The touch from the hand of a seventh son cures the bite of a mad dog.
This is also an Italian superstition.
The hand of a dead man was a powerful incantation, But it was chiefly
used by women. The most eminent fairy women always collected the mystic
herbs for charms and cures by the light of a candle held by a dead man's
hand at midnight or by the full moon.
When a woman first takes ill in her confinement, unlock instantly every
press and drawer in the house, but when the child is born, lock them all up
again at once, for if care is not taken the fairies will get in and hide in the
drawers and presses, to be ready to steal away the little mortal baby when
they get the opportunity, and place some ugly, wizened changeling in the
cradle beside the poor mother. Therefore every key should be turned, every
lock made fast.; and if the fairies are hidden inside, let them stay there until
all danger is over for the baby by the proper precautions being taken, such
as a red coal set. under the cradle, and a branch of mountain ash tied over it,
or of the alder-tree, according to the sex of the child, for both trees have
mystic virtues, probably because of the ancient superstition that the first
man was created from an alder-tree, and the first woman from the mountain
ash.
The fairies, however, are sometimes successful in carrying off a baby,
and the mother finds in the morning a poor weakly little sprite in the cradle
in place of her own splendid child. But should time mortal infant happen to
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