WAR r-ClIAH.MIXG. 319 



the subject. I kiieAv this lady well for niaiiy years, and 

 she never suffered from warts again. In this case it is to 

 be observed that although the lady always firmly believed 

 that I had effected the cure, I myself had no faith 

 whatever in the virtue of the charm which I prescribed. 



The next case is different in several particulars. A 

 servant-maid employed in a family with whom I was lodging 

 at one time in Guernsey, had her hands covered with 

 these unsightly excrescences. One evening she informed me 

 that she had that day met on the road to St. Sampson's, 

 a Avell-dressed respectable man, a total stranger to her, 

 who noticing her hands, said : " You have a nice crop of 

 warts there : do you want to sell them ? If so, I will 

 give you a penny for them." The girl felt somewhat 

 alarmed, but at length consented to accept the penny, 

 upon which the man said : " Now the warts are mine : I 

 will fetch them in a few days." All the while the girl 

 was telling me this she seemed terribly frightened that 

 something was about to happen to her for having had any 

 communication Avith this mysterious stranger in black. But 

 not long after that — perhaps tAvo or three weeks — she 

 hurried one day into my room to tell me she had just 

 discovered that all her warts were gone : and, sure enough, 

 there was not a vestige of one left on her hands. It 

 seems to be a very curious fact that warts Avhich are 

 '' charmed aAvay " disappear completely, without leaving any 

 trace Avhatever ; Avhereas it is Avell knoAvn that Avhen they 

 are burnt off with caustic or acid, a scar ahvays remains 

 to mark the spot. 



The most remarkable case of all, however, did not 

 happen in Guernsey, but in my old hpme in Yorkshire ; 

 and I think it is worth relating now, as possibly something 

 of a similar kind may have occurred in Guernsey. 



A Avorking man, Avhom I kncAv very Avell, had a large 

 number of ugly warts on each of his hands, and a Avorkman 

 friend of his professed to be able to charm them away. 

 But the man ridiculed the idea ; it Avas all nonsense, he 

 said, and so he would not hear of it. " Well," said the 

 wart-charmer, " in order to convince you that I have the 

 power to cure them, you can, if you wish, select any 

 particular wart you Avoidd like to remain, and I Avill leave 

 that one behind. Only remember that in that case you 

 Avill carry it to the end of your days : nothing Avill get rid 

 of it." The man said " I don't for a moment believe you 

 can do it, but you may try. Take them all ravrv except 



