Charming away the milk

Martin found it a received opinion in the Western Isles and the neighbouring mainland that a woman could, by a charm, draw the increase of her neighbour’s cow’s milk to herself. Milk so charmed gave little butter and tough, light cheese, and the stolen butter could be told by its paler colour. To find the thief they put a little rennet from each suspected woman into an eggshell full of milk, and the charmer’s rennet alone would curdle it. Some women put groundsel root among the cream as an amulet against such charms.