If these mummeries and this hocus-pocus were collected into a volume, and set out with elegant extracts from the Bible, there would be a nineteenth century Atharva Veda.

What are the necessary equipment of a Long Island witch?
First, "a good hot fire," and then formulae such as this:[10] "If a man is attacked by wicked people and how to banish them: "Bedgoblin and all ye evil spirits, I, N.N., forbid you my bedstead, my couch; I, N.N., forbid you in the name of God my house and home; I forbid you in the name of the Holy Trinity my blood and flesh, my body and soul; I forbid you all the nail-holes in my house and home, till you have travelled over every hill, waded through every water, have counted all the leaves of every tree, and counted all the stars in the sky, until the day arrives when the mother of God shall bare her second son." If this formula be repeated three times, with the baptismal name of the person, it will succeed! "To make one's self invisible: "Obtain the ear of a black cat, boil it in the milk of a black cow, wear it on the thumb, and no one will see you." This is the Atharvan, or fire-and witch-craft of to-day--not differing much from the ancient.

It is the unchanging foundation of the many lofty buildings of faith that are erected, removed, and rebuilt upon it--the belief in the supernatural at its lowest, a belief which, in its higher stages, is always level with the general intellect of those that abide in it.
The latest book of the Atharvan is especially for the warrior-caste, but the mass of it is for the folk at large.

It was long before it was recognized as a legitimate Veda.

It never stands, in the older period of Brahmanism, on a par with the S[=a]man and Rik.