Charm For Clefyd Y Galon_ _or Heart Disease
:
STORIES OF SATAN, GHOSTS, ETC.
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Welsh Folk-lore
The Rev. J. Felix, vicar of Cilcen, near Mold, when a young man lodged in
Eglwysfach, near Glandovey. His landlady, noticing that he looked pale
and thin, suggested that he was suffering from Clefyd y galon, which may
be translated as above, or love sickness, a complaint common enough among
young people, and she suggested that he should call in David Jenkins, a
respectable farmer and a local preacher with the Wesleyans, to cure hi
.
Jenkins came, and asked the supposed sufferer whether he believed in
charms, and was answered in the negative. However, he proceeded with his
patient as if he had answered in the affirmative. Mr Felix was told to
take his coat off, he did so, and then he was bidden to tuck up his shirt
above his elbow. Mr. Jenkins then took a yarn thread and placing one
end on the elbow measured to the tip of Felix's middle finger, then he
told his patient to take hold of the yarn at one end, the other end
resting the while on the elbow, and he was to take fast hold of it, and
stretch it. This he did, and the yarn lengthened, and this was a sign
that he was actually sick of heart disease. Then the charmer tied this
yarn around the patient's left arm above the elbow, and there it was
left, and on the next visit measured again, and he was pronounced cured.
The above information I received from Mr. Felix, who is still alive and
well.
There were various ways of proceeding in this charm. Yarn was always
used and the measurement as above made, and sometimes the person was
named and his age, and the Trinity was invoked, then the thread was put
around the neck of the sick person, and left there for three nights, and
afterwards buried in the name of the Trinity under ashes. If the thread
shortened above the second joint of the middle finger there was little
hope of recovery; should it lengthen that was a sign of recovery.