rest by night or day. I have observed that in all the Tuscan charms intended
to torment a foe, the objects employed are like this of a disgusting nature.
If a wife will hold her husband to her in love, she must take of her own
hair and bind it to his. This must be done three times by full moonlight.
Or if a maid will win the love of a young man, she must take of her own
hair, mix it with earth from his footsteps--"und mischt diese mit dem
Speichel einer läufigen Hundinn auf"--burn the whole to powder, and so
manage that the victim shall eat it--which, it is needless to say, it is not likely
that he will do, knowing what it is. Earth from the footsteps of any one is
regarded as a very powerful means of bewitching him in Italian and ancient
sorcery.
If a man bind the combings of his hair to the mane of a strange horse it
will be wild and shy till the hairs are removed.
For easy childbirth red hair is sewed in a small bag and carried on the
belly next the skin during pregnancy. Red hair indicates good luck, and is
called bálá kámeskro, or sun-hairs, which indicates its Indian origin.
If any one dreams much of the dead, let him sew some of his hair into an
old shoe, and give it to any beggar. Thereby he will prevent evil spirits from
annoying him.
If a child suffers from sleeplessness, some of its mother's hair should be
sewed into its wrappings, and others pulverized, mixed with a decoction Of
elderberries, be given it to drink. In German Folk-lore, as I shall show more
fully anon, the elder often occurs as a plant specially identified with sorcery.
In gypsy it is called yakori bengeskro, or the devil's eye, from its berries.
NAILS AND TEETH
Nails cut on Friday should be burned, and the ashes mingled with the
fodder of cattle, who are thus ensured against being stolen or attacked by
wild beasts. If children are dwarfish, the same ashes in their food will make
them grow. If a child suffers from pains in the stomach, a bit of nail must be
clipped from its every finger; this is mixed with the dried dung of a foal,
and the patient exposed to the smoke while it is burned.
A child's first tooth must, when it falls out, be thrown into a hollow tree.
Those which come out in the seventh year are carefully kept, and whenever
the child suffers from toothache, one is thrown into a stream.
Teeth which have been buried for many years, serve to make a singular
fetish. They are mingled with the bones of a tree-frog, and the whole then
sewed up in a little bag. If a man has anything for sale, and will draw or rub
this bag over it, he will have many offers or customers for the articles thus
enchanted. The bones are prepared by putting the frog into a glass or
earthen receptacle full of small holes. This is buried in an ant-hill. The ants