176 The Book of Cats. 



mumbling in the streets — one that hath forgotten 

 her pater-noster, and yet hath a shrewd tongue to 

 call a drab a drab ! — if she hath learned of an 

 old wife in a chimney end, pax, max, fax, for a 

 spell, or can say Sir John Grantham's curse for 

 a nuller's eels — ' All ye that have stolen the miller's 

 eels, Laudate Dominum de Coelis, and they that 

 have consented thereto, Benedicamus Domino,' why 

 then, beware, look about you, my neighbours. If 

 any of you have a sheep sick of the giddies, or a 

 hog of the mumps, or a horse of the staggers, or 

 a knavish boy of the school, or an idle girl of the 

 wheel, or a young drab of the suUens, and hath not 

 fat enough for her porridge, or butter enough for 

 her bread, and she hath a little help of the epilepsy 

 or cramp to teach her to roll her eyes, wry her 

 mouth, gnash her teeth, startle with her body, hold 

 her arms and hands stiff, etc. And then, when an 

 old Mother Nobs hath by chance called her ' idle 

 young housewife,' or bid the devil scratch her, then 

 no doubt but Mother Nobs is the witch, and the 

 young girl is owl-blasted, etc. They that have 

 their brains baited, and their fancies distempered, 

 with the imaginations and apprehensions of witches, 

 conjurors, and fairies, and all that lymphatical 

 chimera, I find to be marshalled in one of these 



