Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales Part 33

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Hold the horse that I leap on!

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Take a stick and lay upon!

_Burn._-The following charm, repeated three times, was used by an old woman in Suss.e.x, within the last forty years:

Two angels from the North, One brought fire, the other brought frost: Out fire!

In frost!

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Pepys has recorded this, with a slight variation, in his Diary, vol. ii.

p. 416.

_Thorn._-This rural charm for a thorn was obtained from Yorkshire:

Unto the Virgin Mary our Saviour was born, And on his head he wore a crown of thorn; If you believe this true and mind it well, This hurt will never fester nor swell!

The following one is given by Lord Northampton in his Defensative against the Poyson of supposed Prophecies, 1583, as having been used by Mother Joane of Stowe:

Our Lord was the fyrst man That ever thorne p.r.i.c.kt upon; It never blysted, nor it never belted, And I pray G.o.d nor this not may.

And Pepys, ii. 415, gives another:

Christ was of a virgin born, And he was p.r.i.c.ked with a thorn; And it did neither bell nor swell, And I trust in Jesus this never will.

_Toothache._-A very common one in the North of England, but I do not remember to have seen it in print.

Peter was sitting on a marble-stone, And Jesus pa.s.sed by; Peter said, "my Lord, my G.o.d, How my tooth doth ache!"

Jesus said, "Peter art whole!

And whoever keeps these words for my sake Shall never have the tooth-ache!"[46]

[Footnote 46: It is a fact that within the last few years the following ignorant copy of this charm was used by a native of Craven, recorded by Carr, ii. 264, and I have been informed on credible authority that the trade of selling efficacies of this kind is far from obsolete in the remote rural districts:

"a.s.s Sant Petter Sat at the Geats of Jerusalem our blesed Lord and Sevour Jesus Crist Pased by and Sead, What Eleth thee hee Sead Lord My Teeth Ecketh he Sead arise and folow Mee and Thy Teeth shall Never Eake Eney Moor. fiat + fiat + fiat +."]

Aubrey gives another charm for this complaint, copied out of one of Ashmole's ma.n.u.scripts:

Mars, hurs, abursa, aburse; Jesu Christ, for Mary's sake, Take away this tooth-ache!

_Against an evil tongue._ From Aubrey, 1696, p. 111.-"Take _unguentum populeum_ and vervain, and hypericon, and put a red-hot iron into it.

You must anoint the backbone, or wear it on your breast. This is printed in Mr. W. Lilly's Astrology. Mr. H. C. hath try'd this receipt with good success.

"Vervain and dill Hinders witches from their will."

_Cramp._-From Pepys' Diary, ii. 415:

Cramp, be thou faintless, As our Lady was sinless, When she bare Jesus.

_Sciatica._-The patient must lie on his back on the bank of a river or brook of water, with a straight staff by his side between him and the water, and must have the following words repeated over him-

Bone-shave right, Bone-shave straight; As the water runs by the stave, Good for bone-shave.

The _bone-shave_ is a Devonshire term for the sciatica. See the Exmoor Scolding, ed. 1839, p. 2.

_Night-mare._-The following charm is taken from Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, p. 87:

S. George, S. George, our ladies knight, He walkt by daie, so did he by night.

Untill such time as he her found, He hir beat and he hir bound, Untill hir troth she to him plight, She would not come to hir that night.

_Sore eyes._-From the same work, p. 246:

The diuell pull out both thine eies, And etish in the holes likewise.

_For rest._-From the same work, p. 260:

In nomine Patris, up and downe, Et Filii et Spiritus Sancti upon my crowne, Crux Christi upon my brest; Sweete ladie, send me eternall rest.

_Stopping of Blood._-From the same work, p. 273:

In the bloud of Adam death was taken + In the bloud of Christ it was all to-shaken + And by the same bloud I doo thee charge That thou doo runne no longer at large.

This charm continued in use long after the publication of Scot's work. A version of it, slightly altered, is given in the Athenian Oracle, 1728, i. 158, as having been used by a country empyryc.

_Evil Spirits._-"When I was a boy," says Aubrey, MS. Lansd. 231, "a charme was used for (I thinke) keeping away evill spirits, which was to say thrice in a breath-

"Three blew beanes in a blew bladder, Rattle, bladder, rattle."

These lines are quoted by Zantippa in Peele's Old Wives Tale, 1595.

BUCKEE BENE.

Buckee, Buckee, biddy Bene, Is the way now fair and clean?

Is the goose ygone to nest, And the fox ygone to rest?

Shall I come away?

These curious lines are said by Devonshire children when they go through any pa.s.sages in the dark, and are said to be addressed to Puck or Robin Goodfellow as a method of asking permission to trace them. Biddy bene, A.-S. _biddan_, to ask or pray, _ben_, a supplication or entreaty.

Buckee, possibly a corruption of Puck.

THE OX.

In Herefordshire, on the eve of Twelfth-day, the best ox, white or spotted, has a cake placed on his left horn; the men and girls of the farm-house being present, drink out of a silver tankard to him, repeating this verse-

We drink to thee and thy white horn, Pray G.o.d send master a good crop of corn, Wheat, rye, and barley, and all sorts of grain: If alive at the next time, I'll hail thee again!

The animal is then sprinkled with the libation. This makes him toss his head up and down, and if, in so doing, the cake be thrown forwards, it is a good omen; if backwards, the contrary. Sir S. Meyrick, Trans.

Brit. Arch. a.s.soc. Glouc. 1848, p. 128, appears to consider this custom a relic of the ancient Pagan religion.