X.

CHARM IF BITTEN BY A WEASEL.

Weasel, beautiful girl,

There are nine boils.

Nine boils have gone down;

Eight boils have grown,

Eight boils have gone down;

Seven boils have grown,

Seven boils have gone down;

And so on until one boil has grown,

And one has gone down.

And the cow N. N. shall now remain clean and sweet (strong), as she was made by God.

This charm is said three times over a pail with “virgin water”; a cross is made over with the skin of a weasel, or with the twig of hazel-nut, or with a found knife.

The cow is washed with the water, and the rest is poured into running water.

The charm must be repeated three times daily, and for three consecutive days, if the bite is a bad one and the swelling does not go down.

1 The cows are often called by the names of the days on which they were born. Of these Monday and Thursday seem to be the lucky ones.