CHARMS FOR WARTS.

There were and there are still, many charms in use for the purpose of removing warts; and the writer can prove from experience that there are cases of complete cures through the instrumentality of charms.

I remember once when I was a boy I had the misfortune of having two big warts right under my foot, which caused me a great deal of discomfort in walking. As I was complaining about this to my mother, she advised me to go and see a lady friend of hers, who was the wife of a very prominent gentleman in the neighbourhood. I went to the woman and told her [282]everything about the warts. She told me to go home and take a small bit of flesh meat and rub the warts with it. Then I was to go out though the back door, the meat in one hand, and a spade in the other, and after proceeding to the middle of a field, dig a hole in the ground, and bury the meat in it. Perfect silence was to be observed during the ceremony, and everything to be done in secret, for if detected in the act of burying the meat, the charm lost its efficacy. I did everything as I was directed by the woman, and strange to say within two or three days the warts had disappeared.

Major Price Lewes, Tyglyn-Aeron, informed me that when he was a boy at Llanllear, an old woman in the neighbourhood charmed away warts from his hands.

A woman in the neighbourhood of Ystrad Meurig informed me that she got rid of her warts by washing her hands in the water in which the blacksmith cools iron.

Another way of charming away warts is to pick up small white stones from a brook,—one stone for each wait—and rub the warts with them. Then the stones are to be tied up in paper, and the person who has the warts is to go to the nearest cross roads, and throw the stones over his shoulders, and whoever picks up the parcel gets the warts. A young woman in the parish of Llanarth, in Cardiganshire, did this, and got rid of her warts. Soon after this an old woman who lives in the neighbourhood, passed by, and picked up the parcel of stones, thinking it contained some biscuits or sweets which one of the school children had lost on the way home from school. But to her great surprise, when she opened the paper, she only found small white stones! After this the old woman found her hands covered with warts; but she in her turn charmed them away by washing them with spittle from the mouth. My informant was the old woman herself.

Another charm for warts is to cut a slip of an elder tree, and make a notch in it for every wart. Rub the elder against each wart, and burn or bury it, and the warts will disappear.

In former times Holy Wells were much resorted to by those who desired to get rid of their warts, when a pin was dropped into the well, and a rag with which the warts had been rubbed, hanged on the nearest tree.
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ROSEMARY CHARM FOR TOOTHACHE.

Many people still believe that toothache is caused by a worm in the tooth, and it was once thought that to burn a Rosemary bough until it becomes black and place it in a strong linen cloth, and anoint the teeth with it would kill this worm. [283]

According to the old Welsh Magazine, “Y Brython,” vol. 3, page 339, there were many charms performed with Rosemary.

Rosemary dried in the sun and made into powder, tied in a cloth around the right arm, will make the sick well.

The smoke of Rosemary bark, sniffed, will, even if you are in gaol, release you.

The leaves made into salve, placed on a wound, where the flesh is dead, will cure the wound.

A spoon made out of its wood will make whatever you eat therewith nutritious.

Place it under the door post and no snake nor adder can ever enter thy house.

The leaves placed in beer or wine will keep these liquids from becoming sour and give such a flavour that you will dispose of them quickly.

Place a branch of rosemary on the barrel and it will keep thee from fever, even though thou drink of it for a whole day.
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“SLIME” OF TROUT AS MEDICINE.

In West Wales once a freshly caught trout was placed in a pan of milk in which it would swim, and after it was supposed that the fish had passed the milk through its gills and left some of its slime in the milk, the milk was supposed to have been given the necessary medicinal powers for the cure of whooping cough and other illness.
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CHARMS FOR FITS AND FOR QUINSY.

There is a belief in some parts of West Wales that fits may be cured by wearing round the neck a band made of the hair from the crop of an ass’s shoulder. Hair cut at midnight from the shoulder of an ass and applied to the throat was also thought to be efficacious in curing the quinsy.

Charm for Rheumatism.—Carry a potato in your pocket.

A charm for the Ague.— Ague was charmed away by tying on the breast a piece of cheese; and after keeping it there for a time, throw it away back over the head.

Charms for Whooping Cough.—Drink the milk of a female ass; or buy a penny roll, drape it in calico, bury it in the garden take it up next day, then eat the roll until it is consumed.
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ABRACADABRA.

One of the most famous and popular charms in the central parts of Wales—especially Cardigan and Carmarthenshire—was the magic and mysterious word Abracadabra, which was obtained [284]from wizards by paying a certain sum of money for it. The word was inscribed on a paper or parchment, line under line, repeating the same, but with one letter less in each line till it ended in A, as follows:—

A B R A C A D A B R A
A B R A C A D A B R
A B R A C A D A B
A B R A C A D A
A B R A C A D
A B R A C A
A B R A C
A B R A
A B R
A B
A

There are many people even at the present day in West and Mid-Wales who keep this mystic cabala in their houses as a most valuable treasure. It is called “papur y Dewin” (the wizard’s paper). It was considered a protection against witches and the “evil eye,” as well as all other evil influences; and an antidote against fevers. It was effective to protect both persons and animals, houses, etc. Sometimes it was worn round the neck, or on the breast, at other times carried in the pocket, and kept in the house. It was also the custom to rub the charm over cattle or to tie it round their horns, especially when witchcraft was suspected.

This mysterious word, Abracadabra, to which the superstitious attributed such magical power was, according to some, invented by one Basilides, and that he intended the name of God by it. Others say that it was the name of an ancient heathen deity worshipped in Syria, or in Assyria. Dr. Ralph Bathurst is of the opinion that the word is a corrupt Hebrew: dabar is verbu, and abraca is benedixit; that is verbum benedixit.

As the charm appears very much like a pyramid (though upside down), perhaps that has something to do with the superstition concerning its magical power: anything in the shape of a pyramid is considered very lucky, quite as much as—if not more so—than a horse-shoe.
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THE PENTACLE.

Cadrawd, in the “Welsh Tit-Bits” column of the “Cardiff Times,” speaking of South Pembrokeshire, says:—

The pentacle, or pentalpha—a figure consisting of five straight lines so joined and intersected as to form a five-pointed star—is still regarded in Fleming-land as a physical charm and the repository [285]of Talismanic power. This credulity is identical with the traditions of the Greek Christians, who used the figure as a mystic sign in astrology and necromancy. The figure was held in veneration by medi?valists, and was known as the “Pentacle of Solomon.” Sir William Jones, the great Oriental scholar, in his work on “Folklore,” observes that “it is worthy of remark that at the present time the magical pentalpha in the western window of the southern aisle of Westminster Abbey is one of the emblems which still exist and speaks to the initiate that the black monks who once chanted in the choir were deeply read in occult science.”

Some years ago, when on a tour in quest of lore, a Pembrokeshire gentleman tells us that he remembers being puzzled by the appearance of a number of pentacles being cut into the bark of several oak trees near the solitary dwelling of a charmer. He addressed the Solon a few questions on the meaning of these strange figures, but was cut short with the reply, “They be signs.” On Cresswell Hill, near Lady’s Well, there grows a row of tall beeches, on one of which may be seen the figure of a pentacle. It stands about 15 feet from the ground, and the wound was evidently made well nigh a century ago, judging by its appearance. There is a tale that many years ago the “White Ladies” were charmed away or banished from the vicinity of the Lady’s Well, of Cottage Dingle, by means of several pentacles being cut into the bark of trees growing near by.
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CHARMS FOR CATTLE AND PIGS.

An old man named Evan Morris, Goginan, near Aberystwyth, informed me that he had several times consulted a conjurer in cases of bewitched cows and pigs. The conjurer, said my informant, took a sheet of paper on which he drew a circular figure very much “like the face of a clock.” Sometimes he made more than one figure, which he filled in with writing. In fact, the paper was covered all over with writings and figures and symbols; and it took the wise man about half-an-hour to do this. This paper or charm, the conjurer gave to my informant, and charged him to rub the bewitched animal’s back with it, “all over the back right from the ears to the tail,” and at the same time repeating the words, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.” Morris added that this charm never failed. His sister-in-law once had a sow which refused to take any food for nine days; a farrier was sent for, but when he came, he could do nothing. At last, my informant went to a conjurer and obtained a charm, with which his sister-in-law, after some hesitation, [286]rubbed the sow, repeating “In the name, etc.” and to their great surprise the sow fully recovered and began to eat immediately, and soon ate up all the food intended for two fat pigs. When I asked my informant to show me one of the papers he obtained from the conjurer, he stated that he never kept such paper longer than twelve months. I next asked him if he had read one of the papers, and what were the words written on it? He replied that he could not decipher the conjurer’s writing.

Mr. Hamer, in “The Montgomeryshire Collections,” vol X., page 249, states that a paper or charm in his possession opens thus:—

“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen ... and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ my redeemer, that I will give relief to —— creatures his cows, and his calves, and his horses, and his sheep, and his pigs, and all creatures that alive be in his possession, from all witchcraft and from all other assaults of Satan. Amen.”

Mr. Hamer also states that “at the bottom of the sheet, on the left, is the magical word, “Abracadabra,” written in the usual triangular form; in the centre, a number of planetary symbols, and on the right, a circular figure filled in with lines and symbols, and underneath them the words, ‘By Jah, Joh, Jah?’ It was customary to rub these charms over the cattle, etc., a number of times, while some incantation was being mumbled. The paper was then carefully folded up, and put in some safe place where the animals were housed, as a guard against future visitations.”

In West Wales, there was once a kind of charm performed upon a cow after calving, when some fern was set on fire to produce smoke, over which a sheaf was held until it was well-smoked. Then it was given to the cow, to be consumed by the animal.
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THE CURE OF RICKETS.

The complaint which is called in West Wales “llechau” means rickets, a complaint to which children are subject. It was thought that it could be cured by cutting a slit in the lobe of one of the child’s ears. The practice was once common in Pembrokeshire and Cardiganshire and other parts; and Mr. H. W. Williams, of Solva, mentions in “Cambrian Notes and Queries,” for January 11th., 1902, of a man in the Rhondda Valley who had recently cut the rickets. He was a Cardiganshire man. [287]
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HOW TO CURE A DOG THAT HAS BEEN BITTEN BY A MAD DOG.

Write down on a bit of paper the words “Arare, cnarare, phragnare,” in three lines as follows:

Arare Charare Phragnare.

Phragnare Cnarare arare

Arare cnarare phragnare.

Also write down in addition the name of the dog.

Having done this, put the paper in a piece of bread and give to the dog to eat. About the middle of the last century, when mad dogs were common, this “prescription” was considered “a sure and certain cure”; or at least, so says my informant, an old farmer in the neighbourhood of Ystrad Meurig, who also added that the mountain farmers obtained this charm from Dr. Harries, the wizard of Cwrtycadno.
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HEALING STONES.

There is at the present day preserved at Gilfachwen, Llandyssul, by D. J. Lloyd, Esq., a small white stone, not quite the size of an egg. The stone is comparatively soft, and was supposed to possess healing power to cure people bitten by mad dogs. A little substance of the stone was scraped off, and mixed with milk and given as a dose to the patients. In years gone by—though not now—people believed so much in this stone that some travelled long distances to Gilfachwen; but how many of them were cured I have not been able to discover. The stone is called Llaethfaen, and when I visited Gilfachwen about five years ago, Mr. Lloyd showed me the interesting relic, and a few weeks afterwards I received from the same gentleman, the following communication by post, with an enclosed copy of his late brother’s MS. concerning the stone:—

Gilfachwen,
Llandyssul,
Cardiganshire,
Feb. 20th, 1905.

Sir,—

I send you, as promised, a copy of all my late brother knew about the Llaethfaen. He died in 1889, but the paper was written many years before his death. There is no record of where the stone was found, or how it came to the Rev. D. Bowen’s hands.

I remain,
Yours truly,
D. J. LLOYD.

[288]

The following is a copy of the paper written by the late Mr. John Lloyd:—
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LLAETHFAEN.

I know very little about this stone or what curative power it has or was supposed to have. I only know that it was very much in request many years ago. It came to my father’s possession on the death of his uncle, Rev. David Bowen, of Waunifor about the year 1847. In those days and for many years afterwards, mad dogs were very “fashionable,” a summer never passing without one hearing of a great many people having been bitten, and, consequently, a great many people called at Gilfachwen for a dose of the Llaethfaen, and whether it had curative or preventive powers or not, none of the patients were ever known to be attacked with hydrophobia. People who had been bitten would travel immense distances in order to get the stone. I remember a whole family, father, mother, and four or five children, who had been bitten by the same dog, arriving at Gilfachwen early one summer morning, before anyone was up, having travelled all night in order to be treated with the stone cure; they went away very happy and relieved in mind, after each had received a dose. It has not been used now for many years. The last instance I recollect was this: two men employed in a Brewery at Llanon, on the Cardigan coast, had been bitten by the same dog, supposed to be mad, arrived here on a Sunday afternoon; poor fellows, they looked utterly miserable and wretched; they had spent nearly a week enquiring for the stone, and meanwhile, had been advised by some old woman who was supposed to be learned in some ailments, not to eat any food; this advice they very foolishly followed, and when they arrived here, they were truly in a terrible plight. After giving each of them a dose of the Llaethfaen and a good meal they went away happy and never heard of them since.

JOHN LLOYD, Gilfachwen.

It is rather interesting that Iolo Morganwg saw a stone of this kind in the year 1802, in the neighbourhood of Bridell, North Pembrokeshire. The following extracts from Iolo’s Diary appeared in “Young Wales,” June, 1901:—“Leave Cardigan, take the road to Llanfernach. Bridell Church.... Meet a man who carries a stone about the country, which he calls Llysfaen. Scrapes it into powder with a knife, and sells it at about five shillings an ounce as an infallible remedy for the canine madness. He says that this stone is only to be found on the mountains after a thunderstorm, that every eye cannot see it. He showed me the stone, and [289]when I assured him and a little crowd that had gathered about him, that the stone was only a piece of the Glamorgan alabaster, the poor fellow was confounded and seemed very angry; but I was surprised to hear many positively assert that they had actually seen the Hydrophobia cured in dogs and man with this powder given in milk, and used as the only liquid to be taken nine days, and the only food also.... The name by which this fellow named his stone is obviously a corruption of Cleisfaen, from its blushy white colour, veined or spotted with a livid or blackish blue colour like that of a bruise (clais).”

The excellent old Welsh Magazine “Y Gwyliedydd” for the year 1824, page 343, gives an acco............