Metrical Charm 6: For Delayed Birth

Let the woman who cannot bring forth her child go to the grave of a wise man, and step three times over the grave, and then say these words three times:—

"This be my cure for the loathsome late-birth,
This be my cure for the grievous swart-birth,
This be my cure for the loathsome lame-birth."

And when the woman is with child and she goes to bed to her husband, then let her say,—

"Up I go, over you I step,
With a live child not with a dying one,
With a full-born child, not with a dead one."

And when the mother feels that the child is quick, let her then go to church, and when she comes before the altar, let her then say:—

"By Christ, I said, this [miracle] has been manifested."

Let the woman who cannot bring forth her child, herself take some [earth] from the grave of one of her own children, wrap it up afterwards in black wool, sell it to merchants, and then say:—

"I sell it or have sold it,
This evil wool and the grains of this woe."

Let the woman who cannot bring forth her child take, in her palm, the milk of a cow of one color and sop it up with her mouth, and then go to running water and spit the milk therein; and with the same hand let her scoop up a mouthful of the water and swallow it. Let her then say these words:—

"Always have I carried with me this great strong hero,
Through this famous food, a hero.
Then I wish to have it and go home."

When she goes to the brook, then let her not look around, nor yet when she goes thence; and let her thereafter go into a house other than the one from which she set out, and there let her take food.