To Cure And Protect

2006-04-02T14:50:00.000Z

Cornwall is a county in the south-west of England (though many claim it to be a country in it's own right) that is filled with superstition, spells, charms and magic stretching back to ancient times. The following are merely a fraction of some of the traditional Cornish Charms. Do they work? That's for you to decide.

TO CURE …

Adder Bite - Count from thirteen to one three times for three days. The Lord’s prayer must be said each time following the numbers. Also drink water in which a blue stone ring has been standing.

Asthma - swallow a ball of spiders’ web.

Bleeding - Recite the following:
“Christ was born in Bethlehem;
Baptised in the river Jordan.
The river stood,
So shall thy blood
(say name of patient)
In the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost.”

Boils - Creep nine times against the sun through the holed ancient stone called Tolvaen, which is near Gweek.

Bronchitis - Wear a blue bead necklace.

Colic - Stand on your head for fifteen minutes.

Corns - Remove your stockings and shoes and show your bare feet to the moor. Repeat nine times, “Corns down here: narry a wan up there.”

Cramp In The Legs - Place your shoes at the foot of the bed with their toes turned upwards.

Fits - Pass the afflicted person over glowing coals taken from the fire of a well-wisher.

Measles - Fill a wineglass with spring water. Add to this three drops of blood squeezed from the amputated left ear of a cat. Drink the liquid.

Rickets - Pass the child through the Tolvean stone (near Gweek) nine times against the sun, the last time bringing him/her to the grassy hillock nearby. Here put him/her to sleep with a sixpence coin under his/her head.
Or
Pass the sufferer nine times against the sun thorugh the holde stone known as Men-an Tol, which is on the Land’s End moors.

Ringworm - Encircle the sore three times against the sun.

Rheumatism - Carry a cork in the pocket
Or
Lie down and be trodden by the feet of a woman who has recently had a child.

Sore Throat - Pass or carry the person across a stream three times.

Sprained Wrist - Tie a piece of wool around the wrist.

Toothache - Put on the right stocking last each morning.
Or
Draw a tooth from a skull with your own teeth and keep it in your pocket.

Thrush - Thread six lengths of cotton, one after another, through the mouth of a cat and then afterwards through the patient’s mouth. Cast the cotton into a river and they will drift away, taking the disease with them.

Typhoid - Bind the entrails of a sheep just killed to the patient’s feet. This will lessen the fever.
Warts - Collect as many pebbles as you have warts. Place them in a bag and drop this on your way to Church. The warts will then disappear, only to be transferred to the unlucky finder of the bag.
Or
Steal a piece of meat, touch the warts with this and bury it. The warts will diminish in size with the rotting meat.

Whooping Cough - Collect nine pebbles of quartz from a running stream. Take a quart of water from the stream by dipping in a vessel with it’s moth downstream. Heat the quartz stones and drop them into the water, which must be given to the patient, a wineglass full each morning for the next nine days.
Or
Catch a spider and place it in an empty nutshell. Fasten this with wool and hang this around the patient’s neck. The cough will go when the spider dies.

AND FOR PROTECTION

Against …

Drowning at Sea - Enclose within a child’s caul two strips of parchment: one with Mezuzah and the other inscribed ‘Ps. Cvii 29 In Te Domine Speravi.’ Sew up all of this in a bag and carry it with you.

Hare Lip on an unborn child - Should a witch-hare cross the path of the mother to be, she must tear her gown from neck to hem.

House Fire - Keep a ginger cat

Evil Spirits - At Harvest time in the fields throw bread over the shoulder and spill a little beer.

Evil Spirits out of your home - Nail a horseshoe to the lintel.
Or
Cut a five pointed star (a pentagram) on the door

Cornish Charms To Cure Ills

To Cure And Protect