"My dear aunt, I wish very much to be a witch. I would like to enchant
people and to know secret things. You can teach me all that."
"Oh, my darling! if you come to be a witch, and the Gentiles know it, you
will have much trouble. All the children will cry aloud, and make a
noise and throw stones at you when they see you, and perhaps the grown-up
people will kill you. But it is nice to know secret things; pleasant for
a poor old humble woman whom all the world spits upon to know how to do
them evil and pay them for their cruelty. And I _will_ teach you
something of witchcraft. Listen! When thou wilt tell a fortune, put all
thy heart into finding out what kind of a man or woman thou hast to deal
with. Look [keenly], fix thy glance sharply, especially if it be a girl.
When she is half-frightened, she will tell you much without knowing it.
When thou shalt have often done this thou wilt be able to twist many a
silly girl like twine around thy fingers. Soon thy eyes will look like a
snake's, and when thou art angry thou wilt look like the old devil. Half
the business, my dear, is to know how to please and flatter and allure
people. When a girl has anything unusual in her face, you must tell her
that it signifies extraordinary luck. If she have red or yellow hair,
tell her that is a true sign that she will have much gold. When her
eyebrows meet, that shows she will be united to many rich gentlemen.
Tell her always, when you see a mole on her cheek or her forehead or
anything, that is a sign she will become a great lady. Never mind where
it is, on her body,--tell her always that a mole or fleck is a sign of
greatness. _Praise her up_. And if you see that she has small hands or
feet, tell her about a gentleman who is wild about pretty feet, and how a
pretty hand brings more luck than a pretty face. Praising and petting
and alluring and crying-up are half of fortune-telling. There is no girl
and no man in all the Lord's earth who is not proud and vain about
something, and if you can find it out you can get their money. If you
can, pick up all the gossip about people."
"But, my aunt, that is all humbug. I wish much to learn real witchcraft.
Tell me if there are no real witches, and how they look."
"A real witch, my child, has eyes like a bird, the corner turned up like
the point of a curved pointed knife. Many Jews and un-Christians have
such eyes. And witches' hairs are drawn out from the beginning [roots]
and straight, and then curled [at the ends]. When Gentile witches have
green eyes they are the most [to be] dreaded.
"I will tell you something magical. When you find a pen or an iron nail,
and then a piece of paper, you should write on it with the pen all thou
wishest, and eat it, and thou wilt get thy wish. But thou must write all
in thy own blood. If thou findest by the sea a great shell or an old
pitcher [cup, etc.], put it to your ear: you will hear a noise. If you
can, when the full moon shines sit quite naked in her light and listen to
it; every night the noise will become more distinct, and then thou wilt
hear the fairies talking plainly enough. When you make a hole with a
stone in a tomb go there night after night, and erelong thou wilt hear
what the dead are saying. Often they tell where money is buried. You
must take a stone and turn it around in the tomb till a hole is there.
"I will tell you something more witchly. Observe [take care] of
everything that swims on water, on rivers or the sea. For so the
water-spirits who live in the water speak to the earth's witches. If a
man sees cloth on the water and gets it, that shows he will get a
sweetheart; the cleaner and nicer the cloth, the better the maid. If you
find a staff [stick or rod] on the water, that shows you will beat your
enemy. A shoe or cup floating on the water means that you will soon be
loved by your sweetheart. And yellow flowers [floating] on the water
foretell gold, and white, silver, and red, love.
"When you find a key, that is much luck. When you pick [lift it] up,
utter a male or female name, and the person will become your own. Very
lucky is a red string or ribbon. Keep it. It foretells happy love. Do
not let this run away from thy soul, my child."
"No, aunt, never."