MISCELL AN EA. 
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out the whole of the farmer’s establishment : every one thought 
that his turn would come first ; and they supplicated our wizard 
to employ all his art to prevent these calamities from coming’ 
upon them. He promised every thing they wished, and only 
asked that they would give him until the following day, in 
order to prepare himself for the great undertaking. The neigh- 
bouring inhabitants, and all their relations and friends, were not 
slow in being informed of all that was passing at the farm ; and 
they all determined to witness the marvels that were to be exhi- 
bited on the morrow. 
At length the great day arrived. At eight o’clock in the 
morning, the enchanter arrived, dressed in his Sunday clothes, 
and his countenance illumed as if he had already swallowed not 
a few glasses of eau de vie . Breakfast immediately commenced 
— an indispensable preparation for all these matters — when they 
all betook themselves to the neighbourhood of the sheep-house. 
Everybody about the farm was immediately put in requisition, 
— prongs, and pitchforks, and various other instruments, and even 
spits, were in active use. Every person was employed in turning 
over heaps of litter and dung, and spreading them almost fibre 
by fibre before the sorcerer. Nothing satisfactory was found. 
Then they entered the sheep-house, and the same process com- 
menced ; — they searched every part and corner of it ; the inter- 
stices in the walls, the mangers, and- under the threshold of 
the door. Nothing was found. The curiosity of the by- 
standers was perfectly disappointed, and some murmurs of im- 
patience began to be heard. The sorcerer now exclaimed, “ I 
know where it is — the spirit has this moment revealed it to me.’" 
He then took the bed and the palliasse of the shepherd, and 
dragged them out of doors ; and while he was doing this, a 
little oblong body appeared in the middle of the straw. It was 
no sooner visible, than the sorcerer threw himself on his belly 
upon it, before his astonished assistants, and exclaimed, “ I have 
got the charm, my friends, and I’ll keep it fast;” and he eagerly 
grasped it, and buried it in his bosom. He then ordered a large 
boiler to be filled with pure water, and placed over a tremendous 
fire, and he placed the charm in it, and threw a vast number of 
stones upon it, until it was no longer seen ; and he kept the 
vessel boiling a full hour. During the whole of this time, he 
abused the supposed author of the evil with the most horrible 
language and grimaces, striking at him, and at times seeming to 
seize him with his teeth. 
This farce being concluded, he had the impudence to offer to 
shew them the author of all this evil. They had already been 
sufficiently frightened, and refused ; doubtless to the great satis- 
