In Lasinsky's voyage around the world, there is an account of a religious sect in the Sandwich Islands, who abrogate to themselves the power of praying people to death. Whoever incurs their displeasure receives a notice that the homicidal litany is about to begin; and such is the effect of the imagination that the very notice is frequently sufficient, with these people, to produce the effect. (Yawger, 1936, p. 876, quoting Reid)
Folklore superstition attests that Psalm 93 "A Warning to Israel's Oppressors" can be used to pray someone to death (Schönbach, 1900, p. 55):
God of vengeance, Lord, God of vengeance, show yourself!
Rise up, judge of the earth!
Render their deserts to the proud!
How long, O Lord, shall the wicked,
how long shall the wicked glory,
mouthing insolent speeches,
boasting, all the evildoers?
Your people, O Lord, they trample down,
your inheritance they afflict.
Widow and stranger they slay,
the fatherless they murder.
And they say, "The Lord sees not;
the God of Jacob perceives not."
Understand, you senseless ones among the people;
and, you fools, when will you be wise?
Shall he who shaped the ear not hear?
Or he who formed the eye not see?
Shall he who instructs nations not chastise,
he who teaches men knowledge?
The Lord knows the thoughts of men,
and that they are vain.
Happy the man whom you instruct, O Lord,
whom by your law you teach,
giving him rest from evil days,
till the pit be dug for the wicked.
For the Lord will not cast off his people,
nor abandon his inheritance.
But judgement shall again be with justice,
and all the upright of heart shall follow it.
Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
Who will stand by me against the evildoers?
Were not the Lord my help,
I would soon dwell in the silent grave.
When I say, "My foot is slipping,"
your kindness, O Lord, sustains me.
When cares abound within me,
your comfort gladdens my soul.
How could the tribunal of wickedness be leagued with you,
which creates burdens in the guise of law?
Though they attack the life of the just
and condemn innocent blood.
Yet the Lord is my stronghold,
and my God the Rock of my refuge.
And he will requite them for their evildoing,
and for their wickedness he will destroy them.
The Lord, our God, will destroy them!
Psalm 108 "Prayer against a Slanderous Enemy", also sometimes referred to with the title "Pray for Help against Merciless Enemies" or "Deus laudem", had been used by the monks of Schönau (near Heidelberg, Germany) to pray the old Elector ("Kurfürst") Pfalzgraf Friderich, Count ("Graf") Ludwig von Lewenstain's father, to death (Schönbach, 1900, p. 55). Indeed, in 1926 there was even a court case in Basel, Switzerland because someone tried to pray someone else to death using Psalm 108 (Bächtold-Stäubli & Hoffmann-Krayer, 1987, Vol. 8, p. 971):
O God, whom I praise, be not silent!
For they have opened wicked and treacherous mouths against me.
They have spoken to me with lying tongues,
and with words of hatred they have encompassed me
and attacked me without cause.
In return for my love they slandered me, but I prayed.
They repaid me evil for good
and hatred for my love.
Raise up a devil against him,
and let Satan stand at his right hand.
When he is judged, let him go forth condemned,
and may his plea be in vain.
May his days be few,
and may another take his office.
May his children be fatherless,
and his wife a widow.
May his children be roaming vagrants and beggars,
and may they be cast out of the ruins of their homes.
May the usurer ensnare all his belongings,
and strangers plunder the fruit of his labors.
May there be no one to do him a kindness,
nor anyone to pity his orphans.
May his posterity meet with destruction;
in the next generation may their name be blotted out.
May the guilt of his fathers be remembered by the Lord;
let not his mother's sin be blotted out.
May their guilt be continually before the Lord,
till he banish the memory of these parents from the earth.
For he remembered not to show kindness,
but persecuted the wretched and poor and brokenhearted,
to do them to death.
He loved cursing; may it come upon him;
he took no delight in blessiing; may it be far from him.
And may he be clothed with cursing as with a robe;
may it penetrate into his entrails like water
and like oil into his bones.
May it be for him like a garment which covers him,
like a girdle which is always about him.
May this be the recompense from the Lord upon my accusers
and upon those who speak evil against me.
But do you, O God, my Lord,
deal kindly with me for your name's sake;
in your generous kindness rescue me!
For I am wretched and poor,
and my heart is pierced within me.
Like a lengthening shadow I pass away;
I am swept away like the locust.
My knees totter from my fasting,
and my flesh is wasted of its substance.
And I am become a mockery to them;
when they see me, they shake their heads.
Help me, O Lord, my God;
save me, in your kindness!
And let them know that this is your hand;
that you, O Lord, have done this.
Let them curse, but do you bless;
may my adverseries be put to shame,
but let your servant rejoice.
Let my accusers be clothed with disgrace
and let them wear their shame like a mantle.
I will speak my thanks earnestly to the Lord,
and in the midst of the throng I will praise him.
For he stood at the right hand of the poor man,
to save him from those who would condemn him.
According to superstitious belief in Kanton Zürich at the end of the 19th Century, if a person prays Psalm 119 "A Complaint against Treacherous Tongues" mornings and evenings with someone in mind, this person can evoke the death of the latter (Hirzel, 1898, Item 166, p. 270):
In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.
O Lord, deliver me from lying lip,
from treacherous tongue!
What will he inflict on you,
with more besides,
O treacherous tongue?
Sharp arrows of a warrior
with fiery coals of brushwood!
Woe is me that I sojourn in Mosoch,
that I dwell amid the tents of Cedar!
All too long have I dwelt with those who hate peace.
When I speak of peace, they are ready for war.
A common formula of a curse in Hebrew was (cf. 1 Kings 3,17; 14, 44; 25,22):
May the Lord do such and such evils to you (the evils being specified),
and add still more to them!
Other useful biblical curses are, for example, Psalm 9B "Prayer for Help against Oppressors" and Psalm 11 "Prayer against Evil Tongues".
The Dominicans had supposedly prayed Pope Innocent IV. to death in 1254, probably using the one or the other of these curses (Schönbach, 1900, p. 55).
Bächtold-Stäubli, H., & Hoffmann-Krayer, E. (Eds.). (1987). Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens . Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter.
Hirzel, P. (1898). Aberglauben in Kanton Zürich. Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde, 2, 269-272.
Schönbach, A. E. (1900). Studien zur Geschichte der altdeutschen Predigt. Zweites Stück: Zeugnisse Bertholds von Regensburg zur Volkskunde. , Sitzungsberichte der Philosophisch-Historischen Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Vol. 142, pp. VII. Abhandlung (S. 1-156)). Wien: Carl Gerold's Sohn.
Yawger, N. S. (1936). Emotions as the cause of rapid and sudden death. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, 36, 875-879.
(Last revision: 08. August 2000)