THE FATAL LOVE-CHARM
A POTENT love-charm used by women is a piece of skin taken from the
arm of a corpse and tied on the person while sleeping whose love is sought.
The skin is then removed after some time, and carefully put away before the
sleeper awakes or has any consciousness of the transaction. And as long as it
remains in the woman s possession the love of her lover will be unchanged.
Or the strip of skin is placed under the head to dream on, in the name of the
Evil One, when the future husband will appear in the dream.
A young girl who was servant in the large and handsome house of a rich
family tried this charm for fun, thinking she would dream of one of her
fellow-servants, and next morning her mistress asked the result.
"Throth, ma'am," she answered, "there never was such a foolish trick, for
it was of the master himself I was dreaming all night, and of no one else."
Soon after the lady died, and the girl, remembering her dream, watched
her opportunity to tie a piece of skin taken from a corpse recently buried
round the arm of her master while he slept. After this he became violently in
love with the girl, though she was exceedingly ugly, and within the year he
married her, his love all the while remaining fervent and unchanged.
But exactly one year and a day after her marriage her bedroom took fire
by accident, and the strip of skin, which she had kept carefully hidden in
her wardrobe, was burnt, along with all her grand wedding-clothes.
Immediately the magic charm was broken, and the hatred of the gentleman
for his low-born wife became as strong as the love he had once felt for her.
In her rage and grief at finding nothing but coldness and insult, she
confessed the whole story; and, in consequence, the horror she inspired
amongst the people was so great that no one would serve her with food or
drink, or sit near her, or hold any intercourse with her; and she died
miserably and half mad before the second year was out--a warning and a
terror to all who work spells in the name of the Evil One.
EVIL SPELLS
Cathal the King
IT is said by wise women and fairy doctors that the roots of the elder
tree, and the roots of an apple tree that bears red apples, if boiled together
and drunk fasting, will expel any evil living thing or evil spirit that may
have taken up its abode in the body of a man.