I mentioned before that I’m reading a book called The Discoverie of Witchcraft, and it’s taking me, like, forever! Why? Let me show you this “recipe” for a love potion:
The toies, which are said to procure love, and are exhibited in their poison looving cups, are these: the haire growing in the nethermost part of a woolves taile, a woolves yard, a little fish called Remora, the braine of a cat, of a newt, or of a lizzard: the bone of a greene frog, the flesh thereof being consumed with pismers or ants; the left bone whereof ingendereth (as they saie) love; the bone on the right side, hate.
Or: To make a love charm, you need: hair from the tip of a wolf’s tail, a wolf’s penis, a tiny fish called a Remora, the brains of a cat, newt, or lizard. The bones of a green frog after its flesh had been eaten away by ants. They say that the frog’s left bone will inspire love, while the right one will cause hatred.
Superficially, this doesn’t seem like it would trip me up, but it generally comes down to one word. Answer me this, dear reader: What do you think a “woolves yard” is? Look at this screenshot for the word yard from the OED. Notice that the definition I need “penis” is like, number 11? And there are four entries for yard: two nouns, two verbs. This is the second noun entry. And if I just looked at the first few definitions “a stick, a wand, a straight rod…” I would have never gotten to “a penis”. I mean, I could have said, “Oh, a wolf’s wand, or a wolf’s rod…” and made the inference. But my mind doesn’t always make that kind of connection. Ha!
Honestly though, who would have ever thought that the word yard meant penis in any sense of the word? Not me, that’s who. I had a similar problem with the word stick a few days ago. There are eight definitions for that word — five nouns three verbs. If I remember correctly, it means to hesitate or something like that. I looked it up again, it means to be reluctant or unwilling, and/or hesitant. And that’s definition III.19a. of the first verb. It took me minutes to find it. Not only that, but it was spelled sticke. Which in this case actually made it a little easier to find because there are fewer entries for that spelling. But that’s generally not true. Usually there are no entries for the old spellings. Ha!
And that, dear reader, is why it’s taking me so long to read this book. I’m only 19% through it and I’ve been reading it for ages. Normally, I’m a fast reader. Like, it took me two days to read Dracula, and that’s over 400 pages long. But when I have to stop and look up words every five minutes, that slows things down. Also, there’s Latin dotting the text, which is common in books of this age, and I have to look that up too because he doesn’t always translate it. Thank goodness for modern technology!
At this rate, I might be finished with it by the end of the year. Ha! Anyway, thought I’d share. Thanks for reading. Take care of yourself, and I’ll talk at you later.
