Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1886-05-26
CHARMS AND SPELLS.
English Farmers i'm this Country who
Believe i'm Them.

Believe i'm Them.
ears ago number of emIgrantS
nom Devonshire, Lancaster, Cornwall,
orkshlre, and other counties of Eng
land settled in northern PENNSYLVANIA,
near the New York line They have
some of the finest farms in the state.
and are the best of citizens; but many
OF them cling with singular tenacity to
a strange belief in the efficiency of GER
tain charms that have been used for
centuries among the class to which they
belonged in England.
The charmed ring cure for epilepsy is
one of these. Only few days ago a
Jeweler IN one of the villages was called
upon by resident of the settlement,
who had with him his daughter, sick
ly girl of 10. The girl produced nine
English twopenny pieces, from which
the Jeweler was requested to make a
ring to fit the girls middle finger. 1t
was necessary, the farmer said, that a
| portion of each coin should be used, and
the rest of the pieces saved and return
ed to his daughter. The coins were
given her by nine boys, as near her own
age as they could be found, which would
give to the ring a charm, which when
she put it on, would cure her of epilep-
Sy, from which she was suffering This,
he maintained, was a cure that never
failed. If the victim of epilepsy was a
male, the coins must be presented by
nine females.
Some of these farmers keep the skins
of adderS in or on their houses and
buildings, believing them to be cer-
tain charm against fire. To cure ague
the patient is taken to a spot where two
roads cross, and an oak is found as near
the spot as possible. A lock of his hair is
lifted up and driven into the tree with
an ash peg. The patient must then
tear himself loose, leaving the hair stick
ing i'll the tree, and walk away with
| out looking behind. Sufferers with
erysipelas, by wearing in a silken bag
| around their necks a toad from which
the right hind leg and the left fore leg
has been cut, until The mutilated reptile
dies, viii get well of The disease. The
tongue cut from living fox, these
charm believers say, carried about the
person, will ward off diseases of all
kinds: but as the person carrying one of
1 NAAt-t lO[A VIII IL III
should happen to meet a fox at any
cross roads, the charm is seldom inyok-
ed
One old resident of the settlement
carries in his pocket constantly an inn
mense tooth from 4 human jaw. The
| tooth, he says, was taken from the
mouth of man after he was dead, who
was hanged III Hertfordshire more than
100 Years ago, and was carried by the
| present owners father, grandfather,
| and great-grandfather. 1t is carried as
a preventive of toothache, the tooth
from dead PERSONS mouth beirga q cer-
| tain charm against that malac !. The
| owner of the tooth says he never had
the toothache in his life. A double
hazelnut carried in the pocket or about
the person is also a remedy Of saiis pain
| ful ailment.
The charms for the DISPERSION of
warts believed in by many of these hon
est farmers are numerous and most sim
gular. For instance, if person. with
warts on his or her hands will write
down the number of them on tie band
of a tramp's hat without the tramp
knowing it, he will carry the warts
away with him-that is, that they will
gradually disappear from the persons
hands and appear on those of the tramp.
Another way to get rid of warts is for
the person to see funeral pass unex-
pectedly, wherever he may be, and as it
passes rub his warts quickly and repeat
the words, warts and corpse, pass away
and never more return" Green peas
may also be used TO advantage in taking
of warts. Let the afflicted person take
as many peas as he has warts and touch
each wart with different pea. He
must then wrap each pea in a separate
piece of paper, and bury them secretly
in the shade of an ash tree or under
hazel bush. If peas are not in season
and the person with warts does not
care TO try the efficacy of any of the
abOve-named charms, let him select as
many pebbles as he has warts. Sewing
them up in a small bag, he must take
them to where four roads cross and
throw the bag over his left shoulder.
This charm will never be resorted to,
however, by persons who have no mali
ciouSness in their hearts, for if by chance
any other person should find the bag
and open it the warts will appear on his
hand.
\ wen is usually a troublesome and
unsightly thing to be afflicted with, but
the victims of wenS need not suffer long
if they believe in the English charm.
Take common snake, hold it by the
head and tail, and draw 1t backward
and forwards nine times over the wen;
then cork the snake in a bottle and bury
it. If that fails, the patient must not
repine, but simply wait until next May
Day. Rise early in the morning of that
day before the sun has disturbed the
dew. Go to a graveyard, and by pass
ing the hand three times from head TO |
foot over the grave, collect the dew that |
lies on the grave of the last young per-
son who was buried in the yard. If the |
victim of the wen is woman the |
grave must be that Of man, and vice |
versa. Apply the dew Immediately to |
the wen, and cure is guaranteed.
The charm for curing nosebleed is a |
curious one. If person is subject to |
nosebleed he may effect cure by going |
to a person of the opposite sex and re-
questing him or her to purchase a piece
of lace, such as may be specified, for the
person making the request. When the
lace is brought the person must take it
and neither pay for it nor return thanks
for it. He must make a necktie out OF
the lace and wear it for nine days, and
he will never have the nosebleed again.
If the person is too modest or gallant to
get the lace in that way, let him catch
a toad. kill it, and wear it around his
neck in bag until the stencil sickens
him. His nose will never bleed again.
If a person has cramps in the legs or
feet at night, he has but to place his
stockings in the shape of cross on the
floor in front of his bed when he retires,
or lay his slippers under the bed, soles
upward. Placing the shoes under the
coyerlid at the foot of the bed so that
a.. -. ,,r,fr,,dn is also a sl1rp nraYen-