Jaspistos

Cantrip

In Competition No. 2395 you were invited to write a rhymed witch’s spell to bring someone or something either good or ill.

William Dalrymple in his excellent book From the Holy Mountain lists some quaint old Nestorian spells: ‘the anathema of the Angel Gabriel against the Evil Eye’, ‘a charm for binding the guns and engines of war’, ‘the charm for a cow which is excited towards her mistress’…. Although I invited benedictions as well as curses, curmudgeons that you are you didn’t offer a single one. Commendations to Basil Ransome-Davies and Noel Petty. The prizewinners, printed below, get £25 each, and Ralph Rochester, whose cantrip struck me as especially potent, is rewarded with £30.

To Lead Travellers Astray
The honey-bee has missed her hive.
The fox has lost his earth.
The blind-mole clambers up above.
The squirrel digs beneath.
The wild-goose circles widdershins.
The swallow does not come.
The homing-pigeon flaps her wings
But does not find her home.
The headless chickens lead the way.
The lemmings follow on.
The sightless kittens go astray.
The light of hope is gone.
The wanderers vanish in the gloom.
A wildfire guides their feet.Their anxious kinsfolk pace the room.
The pretty infants bleat.
Ralph Rochester















Turn the cantrip, three by three,
On my rival interviewee.
May he first have a massive wait
For a crowded train that’s very late,
Which puts him in a dreadful state,
That hot and flustered he will get
And have to sit in pools of sweat;
And just before his turn comes, let
Him spill hot coffee down his tie;
Next, splash the rest upon his thigh,
Making his voice go squeaky-high,
And draining all his confidence,
So all his answers make no sense;
Smite him with noisy flatulence,
Then let a sudden flash of sun
Illuminate his flies undone.
Brian Murdoch















Vanishing Cream
(a spell to make a teacher disappear)
Hocus pocus, stalk of crocus,
Eye of moke that’s out of focus,
Tongue of lizard, hair of wizard
Minced up with a turkey’s gizzard —
Stir the brew and let it stew.
Cook






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