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 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.
A girl who was bewitched by the gypsies, near carmarthen
About fifty years ago there
was a young woman very ill in the parish of Llanllawddog, Carmarthenshire, but
no one could tell what was the matter with her, and the doctor had failed to
cure her.
At last, her mother went to
consult the local wizard...
After seeing the girl he
entered into a private room alone for a few minutes, and wrote something on a
sheet of paper which he folded up and tied it with a thread.
This he gave to the woman
and directed her to put the thread round her daughter’s neck, with the folded
paper suspending on her breast.
He also told the mother to
remember to be at the girl’s bedside at twelve o’clock that night.
The young woman was put in
bed, and the wizard’s folded paper on her breast.
The mother sat down by the
fireside till midnight; and when the clock struck twelve she heard her daughter
groaning.
She ran at once to the poor
girl’s bedside, and found her almost dying with pain; but very soon she
suddenly recovered and felt as well in health as ever.
The conjurer had told the
girl’s mother that she had been bewitched by the Gypsies, which caused her
illness, and warned the young woman to keep away from such vagrants in the
future.
The Conjurer’s paper, which
had charmed away her illness was put away safely in a cupboard amongst other
papers and books; and many years after this when a cousin of the mother was
searching for some will or some other important document, he accidentally
opened the wizard’s paper and to his surprise found on it written:
“Abracadabra,
Sickness depart from me.”
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, 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.
Jonathan Ceredig Davies, Folk-Loreof West and Mid-Wales, Aberystwyth, 1911.
Photo: Pixabay/TheDigitalArtist
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