Witchcraft Charms
The charms by which witches worked were short rhymes at the different stages. In the fifteenth century an old dame was tried for using witchcraft in curing diseases, when the judges promised to liberate her if she would divulge her charm. This she readily did, and informed the court that the charm consisted in repeating the following words, after the stipulated pay, which was a loaf of bread and a penny—
“My loaf in my lap,
My penny in my purse,
Thou art never the better,
And I am never the worse.”
That was ludicrous indeed. Here is a “Charme for a Thorne”—
“Christ was of a Virgin born,
And he was pricked with a thorn;
And it did neither bell nor swell,
And I trust in Jesus this never will.”
For “A Burning”:—
“There came three angels out of the East;
The one brought fire, the other brought frost—
Out fire—in frost,
In the name of the Father, and Son
And Holy Ghost. Amen.”