Prophecies Charms and Incantations
Prophecies
Never tell your dreams fasting, and always tell them first to a woman called Mary.
Take a piece of bride-cake and pass it three times through a wedding ring, then sleep on it, and you will see in a dream the face of your future spouse.
In whatever quarter you are looking when you first hear the cuckoo in the season, you will be traveling in that direction before the year is over.
If a cock comes on the threshold and crows, you may expect visitors.
The young girls visit neighboring gardens at night, blindfolded, to tear up the cabbages by the root. If the one first seized is a closed, white cabbage, an old man is the destined husband; but if an open, green head, then a young lover may be hoped for.
They also make a cake of flour, mixed with soot and a spoonful of salt, bake it, and eat it. It will cause thirst, and if a man offers a drink at the time, the girl will assuredly be married before the year is out.
The young girls sometimes rake out the ashes of the fire overnight, making a perfectly flat surface on the hearth. In the morning, the print of a foot will be found distinctly marked in the ashes. If the imprint is perfectly flat, it indicates marraige and a ong life; but if the toes are bent down into the ashes, death will inevitably follow.
To the know the name of the person you are destined to marry, put a snail on a paste of flour - cover it over and leave it all night; in the morning, the initial letter of the name will be found traced on the flour by the snail. Should the snail be quite within his house when you take him up, your lover will be rich; but should the snail almost be out of his shell, then your future husband will be poor, and probably will have no house or home to take you to when you wed him.
Charms, Spells and Incantations
A Blessing
O aged woman of the grey locks,
may eight hundred blessings twelve times over be on thee!
Mayest thou be free from desolation,
O woman of the aged frame!
And may many tears fall upon thy grave!
To Attract Bees
Gather foxglove, raspberry leaves, wild marjoram, mint, camomile, and valerian; mix them with butter made on May Day, and let the herbs also be gathered on May Day. Boil them all together with honey; then rub the vessel into which the bees should gather, both inside and out, with the mixture; place it in the middle of a tree, and the bees will soon come.
To Guard Against Ill-Luck
The most powerful charm against ill-luck is a horseshoe made red-hot, then tied up at the entrance door, and never after touched or taken down.
Ethics in Charging for Spells
If a potion is made up of herbs it must be paid for in silver; but charms and incantations are never paid for, or they would lose their power. A present, however, may be accepted as an offering of gratitude.
Love Dreams
The girl who wishes to see her future husband must go out and gather certain herbs in the light of the full moon of the new year, repeating this charm:
Moon, moon, tell unto me
When my true love I shall see?
What find clothes am I to wear?
How many children shall I bear?
For if my love comes not to me
Dark and dismal my life will be.
Then the girl, cutting three piece of clay from the sod with a black-hafted knife, carries them home, ties them up in the left stocking with the right garter, places the parcel under her pillow, and dreams a true dream of the man she is to marry and of all her future fate.
An Elixer of Potency
Two ounces of cochineal, one ounce of gentian root, two drachms of saffron, two drachms of snakeroot, two drachms of salt of wormwood, and the rind of ten oranges. The whole to be steeped in a quart of brandy, and kept for use.