WITCHCRAFT IN DORSET. 55 



FOR A COOL HAND IN BUTTER MAKING : 



If you want always to have a cool hand for making butter, have 

 a young puppy, cut it open, and put your hand and arm in whilst 

 the animal is still warm. 



To FIND A DROWNED CORPSE : 



The following account was sent to Notes and Queries (5th Series, 

 ix., Ill) by the Rev. C. H. Mayo : " On January 24th, 1872, a 

 boy named Harris fell into the stream at Sherborne, Dorsetshire, 

 near Darkhole Mill, and w r as drowned. The body not having been 

 found for some days, the following expedient was adopted to discover 

 its whereabouts. On January 30th a four-pound loaf of best flour 

 was procured and a small piece cut out of the side of it, forming a 

 cavity, into which a little quicksilver was poured. The piece was 

 then replaced and tied firmly in its original position. The loaf thus 

 prepared was then thrown into the river at the spot where the body 

 fell in, and was expected to float down the stream until it came to 

 the place where the body had lodged, when it would begin to eddy 

 round and round, thus indicating the sought-for spot. An eye- 

 witness of this experiment, from whom I received this account a 

 few days after it happened, told me that no satisfactory result 

 occurred on this occasion." 

 To TEST LOVE OR FRIENDSHIP : 



If two persons be desirous of testing their love or friendship for 

 one another a key is secured between the pages of a Bible, being 

 carefully placed at the passage in the 5th chapter of the Book of 

 Ruth commencing " Where thou goest," &c. The book is then 

 held up by the bow of the key on the fore finger of their right 

 hands, and the person whose love or friendship is the subject of 

 fyie test repeats the above verse. If the Bible turns (as it generally 

 does) it is considered a favourable augury for the continuation of 

 the affection or friendship. 



The charms, or means of divination, practised by rustic maidens 

 in Dorset, in order to test the sincerity of their sweethearts, such as 

 throwing apple-pips into the fire, scattering hemp seed, and placing 

 their shoes in the form of a T on Christmas Eve, are well known. 



