The Pennsylvania Dutch are fond of putting gaily painted symbols on their barns to frighten away the Devil and to protect their animals from the evil eye. The symbols usually contain a good deal of red, a color that frightens witches. The word hex does not come from a hexagon, although hex symbols are frequently six-sided.

Hexes are spells, the stuff of which witchcraft is made. A witch, or more often a warlock, will place a hex on a person or thing to cause trouble. Even today there are professional hex doctors, who make a hex to order. There are spells for all the evils that can befall people. (It can be a very lucrative business.) The spells come mostly from medieval times and are contained in two very important handbooks Seventh Book of Moses and The Long Hidden Friend.

Hiccuping

Sneezing will stop a hiccup.

(Hippocrates, 400 B.C.)

Aristophanes suggested holding your breath or gargling with water as a cure for it. Later, more sophisticated people suggested remedies like spitting on the forefinger of the right hand, crossing the front of the left shoe three times, and repeating the Lord's Prayer backward.

Hiccups were said to have been caused by the evil eye. When they happened in Church, it was an indication that a person was possessed by the Devil.

If you can say the Lord's Prayer backward on one breath and then repeat three times:

Lick up, hiccup

Stick up, hiccup

Trick up, hiccup

Begone, hiccup

--you will be cured.

Scaring someone out of their hiccups works, generally, because it breaks the tension that may have caused them in the first place. (You might also believe that scaring the person often scares the evil spirits away.)

To stop hiccuping, you can:

hold your nose, tilt your head back, and take a sip of water for each year of your age

drink a glass of water from the far edge of the glass or through a napkin.

bring your little fingers as close together as you can without having them touch

hold your breath and say hiccup nine time.

If none of these work, start over again from the top.

Dr. A.O. Goldsmith of Kennett is a retired director of the School of Journalism, Louisiana State University.