#egg-boat

The Puffin Book of Magic Verse, Chosen by Charles Causley and Illustrated by Barbara Swiderska (1974)

✨Charm Against an Egg-Boat✨

According to an old superstition, when a boiled egg had been eaten, the spoon at once had to be put through the end of the shell that was not yet broken. This was believed to prevent witches from going to sea in unbroken shells and brewing up storms.

“You must break the shell to bits, for fear

The witches should make it a boat, my dear :

Far over the sea, away from home,

Far by night the witches roam.”

- Anonymous

✨ Charm for a Wart ✨

While washing the hands in the moon’s rays shining in a dry metal basin, recite the following:

“I wash my hands in this dry dish,

Oh man in the moon, do grant my wish,

And come and take away this.”

- Anonymous

✨The Egg-Shell✨

“The wind took off with the sunset —

The fog came up with the tide,

When the Witch of the North took an Egg-Shell

With a little Blue Devil inside.

‘Sink,’ she said, ‘or swim,’ she said,

‘It’s all you will get from me.

And that is the finish of him!’ she said,

And the Egg-shell went to sea.

The wind fell dead with the midnight —

The fog shut down like a sheet,

When the Witch of the North heard the Egg-shell

Feeling by hand for a fleet.

‘Get!’ she said, ‘or you’re gone,’ she said,

But the little Blue Devil said ‘No!’

‘The sights are just coming on, he said,

And he let the Whitehead go.

The wind got up with the morning —

The fog blew off with the rain,

When the Witch of the North saw the Egg-Shell

And the little Blue Devil again.

‘Did you swim?’ she said. ‘Did you sink?’ she said,

And the little Blue Devil replied:

‘For myself I swam, but I think,’ he said,

‘There’s somebody sinking outside.’”

- Rudyard Kipling