held in great fear by great many good and peaceful folk. It be not for me
to here put an argument in the favour of what do now be doubted and
scorned by some. I will but say that I have seen and know that which hath
been wrought by these hags o' the broom and of their power which they held
at their beck and wink the which is not to be set on one side at the flip
and flout of our young masters and misses, fresh from some teaching drove
into their brain pans by some idiotick and skeptick French teacher. I
therefore say no more on this matter."

Nancy Skaife of Spaunton Moor had a wonderful receipt for making a magic
cube, and as she was a famous witch of her time and was reputed to possess
most remarkable powers of foretelling events to come, it will be
interesting to learn the ingredients of her magic cubes.

[Illustration: Two ways of marking Magic Cubes. (_From Calvert's MS. Book
of Folklore_.)]

"Get you of the skull the bone part of a gibbetted man so much as one
ounce which you will dry and grind to a powder until when searced it be as
fine as wheatenmeal, this you will put away securely sealed in a glass
vial for seven years. You will then about the coming of the end of that
time (for your cube must be made on the eve of the day come seven years of
his gibbetting) get you together these several matters, all well dried and
powdered and finely searced so much as three barley corns weight of each

Bullock blood.
Moudy [mole] blood.
Great Flitter mouse blood.
Wild Dove blood.
Hag-worm head.
Toade heart.
Crab eyes.
Graveyard moss and worms.

These being all gotten together on the eve of that day make a stiff dough
of wheaten meal to the which you will add all the other powders working
them to a stiff mass and into cubes of one inch square, to be pressed to a
hollow, then they are to be set away to dry in a warm place for seven
months to the day when with a sharp screever you shall deeply screeve the
like of these upon each side, but be you mindful to screeve in the order
as here ordered always turning the cube over and towards the left hand,
the fifth side by turning the cube towards you, the sixth from you and
thus you make your magic cube."

"The proper way to draw the virtue from and read a forecast with such
cubes," says Calvert, "as yet I know not, but I learn that one Jane
Craggs, a mantu maker of Helmsley, not only owns a cube but does at times
play the craft for the entertainment of her lady visitors w