Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/182

154 say, beads or silk upon their heads or necks to keep off diseases, and talk folly about the Evil Eye, or who carry about a snake in their bosom, or pass the skins of snakes over their eyes or mouth, which they think will bring health quickly; or who make earrings for their children on Holy Thursday, or con the Psalms of David or names of the Martyrs, and hang them about their necks; or fasten on them a paper with a prayer against rheumatism, or call in a wise woman to prevent head-ache, or spleen, or illness and pains, using 'binding'-spells; or who plait cords, calling upon the good demons for help and healing; or who love spells that 'bind' beasts and married folk, or women that have the spirit of Pytho, that is to say, those who believe in second sight (?) and foretell the future, or who believe in beans or anything else to discover that which is lost, or who divine by what is called the Voice (Kledonas) in the month of May, or at the Ascension, or use charms for any other illness, or bespell sickness, or run after any such unlawful thing Many times priests have been degraded in a synod after giving the Holy Bread on Holy Thursday to persons to eat, for the purpose of finding out things stolen, because (the thieves) could not easily swallow this down; another priest, again, was degraded for causing a bundle of sticks to be carried round in a circle while the gospel was being read, for certain reasons, to the sound of David's psalms; and even the holy icons are beset by women, who say that from these icons they can foretell the future."

Most of these allusions explain themselves; we have heard before of amulets, soothsaying, the food-ordeal, snake-charms, and gospel charms. The "divination by barley "may be a food-ordeal, or a counting formula like the well-known "Loves me, loves me not." The virtue of "colours" is still believed in; and blue beads are hung about a child's neck, or worked into the trappings of a mule. The name "Pytho" is a curious survival, which we find even