CHAPTER 3

EVIL SPELLS

Malleus maleficarum, 1496.

None are safe from witches. . . . The other diseases that come are curses that should be considered to be supernatural as they are inflicted by the power of demons with the permission of God.

MALLEUS MALEFICARUM, 2, 1.

Evil spells were particularly feared, and it is surely no accident that one of their personifications was called Envy! The following countermeasures focus on curses, the evil eye, enchantments levied by means of the figurine known as the voult, which is mistreated, thereby inflicting a thousand misfortunes on its target from a distance. Martin Delrio (1611) notes: “There are sorcerers who help themselves with certain wax images that they roast or stick with pins, causing their enemies to languish, for as long as they continue to keep their images intact (Les Controverses et Recherches magiques, 396).

  Seligman, Der böse Blick und Verwandtes; Arnaud, “La baskania ou le mauvais œil chez les Grecs modernes”; Pócs, “Evil Eye in Hungary”; Camus, La Sorcellerie en France aujourd’ hui; HDA, vol. 7, 1537, “Malefizwachs”; Hole, “Some Instances of Image-Magic in Great Britain.”

Martinus de Arles, Tractatus de superstionibus (1559). The opening of his discussion on voults.

396 TO GET RID OF EVIL SPELLS

If a man falls under the power of the devil or an evil spell, take the heart of the cypress, bore a hole into it, draw water from a spring with a clay container, pour it into the hole and retrieve it with the same container while saying: “Water, I pour you through this hole. Flow with the strength given you by nature and with divine virtue, enter into this man and destroy in him all that attacks him. Restore him to the right path to which God in His true intelligence and His true science has assigned him.” Give this water to the possessed or cursed man for nine days in a row, while fasting. He will get better.

  Twelfth century. Hildegard von Bingen, Physica, 3.20, “On the Cypress.”

397 TO RID AN EVIL SPELL OF IMPOTENCE FROM A MAN

If an evil spell falls on a man and his wife so that he is unable to know her carnally, take a long plate or platter, in the center of which you will draw a cross and at whose four corners you will write these four names: Avis, Gravis, Seps, Sipa. In the center write the entire Gospel of Saint John. Next, take holy water, or wine, or another liquid if you have no holy water, and pour it into the platter. Dilute the letters with your finger, and have the husband and wife devotedly drink it in God’s name. This is proven.

In the same way, if you know how to write, write this name in the four corners: tethragramaton, as I said earlier. Say what this name means.^*17 It will be even more effective if written in Hebrew letters. Next, do as above. If the Gospel is written down by a virgin child, it is even better.

  Latin, thirteenth century. Arnaldus de Villa Nova, Opera, fol. 215v; Franz, Die kirchlichen Benediktionen, 2:481.

This is a case of unknotting the cord [the laces of the breeches], in other words, restoring to a man his sexual potency.

It was also believed that witches had the power of removing your sexual equipment, as illustrated by a fifteenth-century woodcut (next page).

The Petit Albert also provides recipes for lifting the curse that makes one impotent:

Our elders swore that the bird called the green woodpecker is a sovereign remedy against the evil spell of the knotted [breeches] laces; if one eats it roasted after fasting with blessed salt . . . if one inhales the smoke from the burning tooth of a recently dead man, one will likewise be freed of the charm. . . . The same effect occurs if one puts quicksilver in a drinking straw made from a blade of oats or wheat, and then places this drinking straw made from a blade of oats or wheat under the side of the bed in which the person stricken by this evil spell sleeps. . . . If the man and the woman are afflicted by this charm, it is necessary, to be healed, that the man pisses through the wedding ring that the woman will hold while he is pissing.

  HDA, vol. 6, 1014–16, “Nestelknüpfen”; Le Roy Ladurie, “L’aiguilette”; Petit Albert, 20–21.

398 TO LIFT AN EVIL SPELL FROM A HUSBAND OR WIFE

If a man or woman is cursed and unable to love his or her spouse, he should deposit his excrement (merda), or whatever he expels into his right shoe and then put it on. As soon as he smells the stench, the evil spell will be lifted. This is proven.

  Latin, thirteenth century. Arnaldus de Villa Nova, Opera, fol. 215v.

399 AGAINST EVIL SPELLS FROM THE DEVIL

Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, and the blessed Virgin Mary, miraculously fertilized by the operation of the Holy Ghost, Logos, God, and flesh, we implore your mercy so that we may be delivered from any snare and evil spell of the devil, and give us the ability to engender, conceive, and nurture children for eternal life. In the name of the father †, the Son †, and the Holy Ghost †. Amen.

  French, nineteenth century. Nisard, Histoire des livres populaires, 78.

400 TO CURE THE BEWITCHED

He who is bewitched should sleep completely wrapped in a blessed sack-cloth; on waking, he will be cured. She who is bewitched need only drink, on Sunday, the holy water in which the priests have dipped the aspersorium.

  France, thirteenth century. Cambrésis, Coulon, Curiosités de l’ histoire, 66, nos. 61–62.

401 TO LIFT CURSES

If one has coral in the house, all curses shall be lifted. Similarly, the blood of a black dog on the walls of the dwelling in which it is found carries away all evil spells. Mercury sealed in a reed or a walnut and placed on the bewitched one’s head, or beneath the threshold of the door by which he enter, removes the curse. Placed in a hollow platter placed above or beneath the threshold, mugwort prevents any evil spell from harming this house [or its inhabitants].

  Latin, thirteenth century. Arnaldus de Villa Nova, Opera, folio 215v; Macer Floridus, De viribus herbarum, vv. 1–30.

402 TO BREAK AN ENCHANTMENT

When someone is enchanted, write this on a new cup and have him drink water from it: Χιστι

  Italian in Greek letters, sixteenth century. Schneegans, “Sizilianische Gebete, Beschwörungen und Rezepte in griechischer Umschrift,” Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 32 (1908): 574; Pradel, Griechische und süditalienische Gebete, Beschwörungen und Rezepte des Mittelalters.

403 AGAINST THE EVIL SPELL

Sweep the house three times while thinking: “I am not sweeping the house clean of straws, rubbish, but I am sweeping away evil spells, curses, yawns, shouts, all the ugly things, and all the illnesses.” And once you have piled the trash at the door, place three burning coals in the rubbish, and place them in a sack whose bottom is worn out, and carry them to the river, and say: “Who gives it to me with one hand, I give it to him with two.” And say this until nine hands, and when you say: “Who gives it to me with nine hands, I give it to him with both of mine and who gives it to me coldly, I give it to him quite ardently, and gives it to me with the mouth, I give it to him by his back, so that it^*18 travels from one house to the next house, from one village to the next village, from one wave into another wave until it falls upon the head of the one who cast it upon me.”

  Romania, eighteenth–nineteenth century. Bucharest, Biblioteca Academiei Române, MS Romanian BAR 4917, fol. 2r, “De fapt”; Timotin, Descântecele manuscrise româneşti, 343. For more on beliefs connected with sweepings, see HDA, vol. 4, 1211ff., “Kehrricht.”

404 AGAINST THE CURSE CAST ON CHILDREN

Fill a pot with water drawn from a river following the direction of the current, in it drop seven coals, seven handfuls of flour, and seven heads of garlic, and place it all over the fire. When the water boils, stir it with a piece of wood that resembles a fork with three tines saying:

May perish here
The evil eyes that watch you!
May seven crows
Have quickly eaten you!
May perish here
The evil eyes that watch you!
May a great deal of dust
Blind them quickly!
May perish here
The evil eyes that watch you!
May they burn, burn forever
And may lightning carbonize them!

  Gypsies of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksdichtungen, 142.

405 A CHARM AGAINST DEMONS AND ENVY

Our Lord Jesus and Saint Peter stepped on to the large bridge where they met the demons and Envy, the infamous one. “Where are you going?” asked Our Lord Jesus Christ. “I am going to see the farmer’s wife and take the best of her breasts and the best of her smooth churns, and from there go to the farm of a peasant where I want eggs, and there, I wish to be shorn.” “No!” said Our Lord Jesus who struck him with His sacred hand. “I command you to go back to the envious man that sent you out of wickedness and with anger!” And listen to my words as if they counted for the Name of Our Lord Jesus. In the name [of the] Father, [the] Son, and [the] Holy Ghost. So may it be!

  Norway (Hallingdal), 1843. Svartebok in Ål, 15, Norwegian Folklore Archives (NFS), University of Oslo (Blindern), “For Auguns Taaver.”

Envy (Ovundshugen, Avindsh^*19) is the personification of the person who sends the evil eye (Danish avund), one of the anthropomorphic figures of evil that attack Christians. For auguns taaver is the title of countless charms against the evil eye.

In The Hammer of Witches (1496), the inquisitors Jacob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer note that witches “can sometimes bewitch men and animals with a simple glance, without touching them, and thereby cause their death” (2, 2, fol. 48v).

406 AGAINST THE EVIL EYES

Repeat the following:

Two evil eyes look at you, three kings oppose it: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. May they protect the eyes and flesh of this child, in the name of the Father, and so on.

  Transylvanian Saxons, nineteenth century. Schuster, Siebenbürgisch-sächsische Volkslieder, 293.

407 AGAINST THE EVIL EYE

Mary was standing before the door of the church when her dear son approached. “O my very precious son, why are you so sad?”

“O mother, my very dear mother, how could I not be sad? Two gray eyes have stared at me.”

“O, my very dear son, the two gray eyes have stared at you and broken your heart,”

In nomine, and so on.

  Transylvanian Saxons, nineteenth century. Schuster, Siebenbürgisch-sächsische Volkslieder, 293.

408 TO KNOW IF A CHILD HAS BEEN CURSED BY THE EVIL EYE

Go to the immediate proximity of some running water and say this charm. If the noise of the water swells while you are saying it, it is because the child has been bewitched.

Brooklet, little brooklet, flow!
Child, look up high, look down low!
So much water is flowing,
May as much flow into the eyes
Of the one who gazed at you!
May he die this very day!

  Gypsies of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksdichtungen, 142ff.

409 AGAINST CURSES

Cut a branch from three different trees; put them in a pot of stream water that has been collected beneath a bridge and in the direction of the current. Add three handfuls of flour and cook a puree; next, in one of the branches stick an upside-down sewing needle wrapped in the hair from a horse’s mane in another trough into which the pot is turned. The child presumed to be bewitched is then held above it, and the following charm is said nine times before throwing into the river the water of the trough, the pot, and its contents.

Stay here never again!
May the one who bewitched this child
Resemble this leaf
In this pot, in this pot
That we are offering to Nivashi!

The Nivashi (Nivaši) are water spirits. The males have puffed-up bodies, horse hooves, red hair and beards, and are sometimes hairy. When a man crosses over a bridge, they drag him into the water and drown him, then imprison his soul in a pot and regale in its wailing; they will not allow it to leave until the corpse has decomposed.

The Nivaši women are very beautiful, their eyes shine like stars, and they have thick hair that serves them for clothing. They can also be found wearing clothes that are as white as snow and red shoes. The live in splendid palaces to which they bring the mortals with whom they fall in love.

  Gypsies of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksdichtungen, 143.

410 TO CURE A BEWITCHED CHILD

The mother of the bewitched child takes salted water and drips it on the child’s limbs while saying:

False eyes that have gazed upon you
Should disappear like water!
Evil illness should move on,
Leave from your head,
From your chest,
From your stomach,
From your leg,
From your arm!
May it flee far away
And enter the false eyes!

  Gypsies of Transylvania, nineteenth century. Wlislocki, Volksdichtungen, 144.

411 INCANTATION AGAINST CAST CURSES

Repeat the following spell

Bless me, lord, Christ of Truth! In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, amen! In the same way as the spell-caster, the sorcerer, the spell-caster, the witch, cannot swallow the white foam of the sea or measure its depth, may they be unable to harm or enchant me: neither in my bold head, nor in my fierce heart, nor in my lungs, nor in my liver, nor in my white chest, nor in my kidneys. I seal myself against the spell-caster, the sorcerer, the spell-caster, the witch, and every kind of enchanter with a solid lock, an iron key, and I have let fall, I [name], servant of God, this key into the ocean sea. Even when the spell-caster, the sorcerer, the spell-caster, the witch will have swallowed the foam, measured the depths of the sea, and the heights of the heavens they will still not be able to enchant me [name], servant of God, in the centuries upon centuries.

By assigning impossible tasks to spell casters, one protects oneself against their evil spells. The reader will note the list of what the most important parts of the body were in the eyes of the people who used this incantation.

  Russia, nineteenth century. Gruel-Apert, La Tradition orale russe, 106.

412 LIFTING A CURSE

If a stranger [to the village] must lift a curse, she should take three coals and toss them one after another into a glass of water, make a sign of the cross over it, and say each time: You, curse, you who are causing the suffering, leave the brain, from the head into the face. If you come from the ground, may the grass dry! If you come from the sun, may its rays die!

  Romania, nineteenth century. Schullerus, Rumänische Volksmärchen, 41ff.

413 A CHARM FOR LIFTING A CURSE

Repeat the following words:

I conjure and curse all the spirits issuing from wicked men and their houses. By the prayers of the saints, and they are legion, we drive off and push far away all wickedness and maleficence, and envy, and jealousy, knotted curse, evil spells, bewitchment, evil eye, backbiting, slander, diabolical words, and the oaths and conjurations that are harmful to the body and damaging to the soul, and the illnesses, and the mortal wounds, and all the misfortunes of life tending to impoverish and reduce life through all sorcery by enchanters. May the evil depart from the slave of God, [name]!

  Russia, nineteenth century. Rybakov, Le paganisme des anciens Slaves, 154.

414 AGAINST CURSES SO THAT GOD MAY AID YOU

Make the sign of the cross and say: “I cast a spell for curses so that you may receive the help of God. The first norokas and the second prorokas.” Then recite the Ave Maria. You should say this three times.

  Lithuania, nineteenth century. Vaitkevičienė, Lietuvių užkalbėjimai, no. 1422.

Norokos is most likely derived from the Polish or Byelorussian uroki, “evil eye”; prorok in Polish, Russian, and Byelorussian means “the prophet,” sometimes designated as a saint by the charms.

Medals against the evil eye.

415 FOR NO MAGIC TO HARM YOU

Write the following spell on paper and carry it on your person:

X osa x osa asa x so x ea x aa x
sax, nn, Patres x exx Filyxax
Spiritus x sanctinomen

We can recognize in this spell fragments of Eax Filiax Artifex; “x exx” seems to refer to Christus rex.

  Poland, nineteenth century. Vaitkevičienė, Lietuvių užkalbėjimai, no. 1534.