The Long Lost Friend, or, Faithful & Christian Instructions Containing Wonderous and Well-tried Arts & Remedies, For Man as well as Animals. With Many Proofs of their Virtue and Efficacy in Healing Diseases, &c.
Harrisburg: 1850.
4.25 x 6.25 inches, 72 pp, in original cloth-backed marbled boards. Boards heavily worn, with some loss of the outer paper; triangular stain extending from lower gutter throughout (ca. 1.5 inches high, not affecting legibility); a good, sound copy, with early ownership signature of a Levi Wismer.
Early English-language edition of this classic work of Pennsylvania Dutch folk magic and medicine, first published in German (as Der lange verborgene Freund) in 1820, with a short appendix of "valuable recipes not in the original work of Hohman, added by the publishers". Hohman was a German-American printer, bookseller, and compiler of local herbal remedies, rituals, and healing spells and charms. This work includes recipes for medicinal folk cures for people and livestock, as well as instructions for making talismans and performing spells that invoke divine assistance (usually from Jesus Christ or from the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost). There are methods for preventing poaching, compelling a thief to return stolen goods, protecting onseself from weapons, extinguishing fire without water, protecting cattle against witchcraft, making a judge favor your case in court, and other useful skills. The book went through at least 18 editions and is still in print today. We locate 6 copies of this edition in OCLC.
Item #19650
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