The knowledge of this rhyme is very widespread. It is ascribed by some to Duncan Ban M’Intyre, the greatest of the Gaelic lyrical poets, and is printed in some editions of his poems as his composition, but others with more probability ascribe it to Blind Allan, the Glengarry bard. Allan eked out a livelihood by the practice of charms of the kind. “That is not a love-charm Which is a charm of wisps and straws, But one to draw with warmth The love of the man you like. Rise early on Wednesday And go to a broad level flag-stone,[19] Take with you the people’s blessing, And the priest’s cowl, Lift then upon your shoulders A wooden shovel, Get nine stalks of fern, Cut with an axe, And three bones of an old man Taken from a grave; Burn that in a fire of brushwood Till you reduce it all to ashes, And shake it in your lover’s fair bosom Against a north-wind, And I will go twice security That man will not leave you.” “You have a hold of him now.” CHARM TO KEEP AWAY HARM IN A LAWSUIT. When a person is pulled up at law for abusive language, let him when entering the court-house spit in his fist, grasp his staff firmly, and say the following words. There is then no danger of being found guilty. The charm was originally got from Big Allan of Woodend (_Ailein Mòr cheannacoille_), in Kingairloch, who had been a soldier at the time of the Irish Rebellion, and had himself learned it in his youth. The names of the saints show the charm to be very ancient. “I will close my fist, Faithful to me is the wood; It is to protect my abusive words I enter in. The three sons of Clooney will save me And Manaman MacLeth, And St. Columba, gentle cleric, And Alexander in heaven.” The name “Manaman MacLeth” is probably a corruption of “Manannan MacLeirr,” the Manx magician, who is said to have covered that island with a mist, which was dispelled by St. Patrick. _Ni-Mhanainnein_ (_i.e._ the daughter of Manannain) is mentioned in a Gaelic tale as having remarkably beautiful music in her house, and “the Dairy-maid, the daughter of Manannan” (_Bhanachag ni Mhannainein_) is mentioned in another tale as a midwife, whose residence was somewhere near the moon. In addition to magic cures by means of rhymes, many were effected, and much security was obtained, by means of beads, stones, and plants. A collection of these formed a considerable part of the armoury of witches, black and white. SERPENT STONE. Of all the means of which superstition laid hold for the cure of disease in man or beast, the foremost place is to be assigned to the Serpent Stone (_Clach Nathrach_), also called the Serpent Bead or Glass (_Glaine Nathair_). It is an undoubted relique of Druidism, and as such worthy of particular attention.