For Becoming Invisible

Anonymous

17th Century

For becoming invisible: write the following on a deerskin parchment, wrap it in three layers of leathers, and wear it: Glospats Tsamarkhad, Kilkel, YHWH. Take a rooster in the month of March and put it in a place where it cannot see another chicken or rooster. And after it [the rooster] is alone for a single year or nine days, slaughter it and you shall find in its head a single stone. Make a new ring and set the stone in it, wear it like a ruby on your finger, and you shall see and not be seen. Another method: take the head of a dead dog, put in its mouth a single black fava bean and bury it in the ground. And do this on a spring night [tekufat Nisan] or in autumn [tekufat Tishri] at the hour of the equinox, and conceal the head in a house so that it will not be seen by anyone until the end of the season [tekufah], and afterwards remove it from there. And take with you a prepubescent youth, and have him sit or stand to your right, and put the fava bean in your mouth and ask him if he sees you. And if he says no—know that you were successful. And if he does see you, try this again a second or third time. This is tried and tested.

Translated by
Levana
Chajes
.

Credits

Unknown, For Becoming Invisible, Ms. The Hamburg State and University Library Carl von Ossietzky (Hamburg, Germany), Cod. hebr. 166, 16r, 17th Century, Ashkenazic script.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

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