Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/146

 136 Charm against the Child-stealing Witch.

mysteries find their explanation, according to the recent investigations of Foucart, in the assumption that the very last and most potent secret revealed to the initiated in these and in the Orphic mysteries consisted in the communica- tion of such Names, guaranteeing them unimpeded access to the bliss of the other world. The power assigned to such names, and that is all that I wish to say in connection Vi^ith these names, is, that the name of the thing represents the invisible permanent sum-total of the whole being. It is the vital force not limited to any special part of the body, it is on the contrary the very essence of that being. To know it, means, to be in direct communication with the whole un- broken vital force, enabling the man who possesses that knowledge to assume that name for himself, to identify himself with that being, and to utilise it for his own pur- poses. The simple name is sometimes replaced by the recital of an act, a story, or a narrative of an evil occurrence similar to that which is happening again ; for the repetition of that ancient incident, and of the efficacy of the ancient experiment, is considered sufficient to produce now the same effects.

It must also be stated that the formulas used in such con- jurations are of a stationary character; they change very little, the only change which takes place is merely in the applica- tion which is made of the conjuration. One divinity or the evil cause of one illness is substituted for another ; a charm against blindness will be applied against sores, simply by substituting the names of these sores for those of the spirits that are believed to be the cause of blindness. One other transformation takes place, namely, an invocation is changed into a conjuration. An invocation is a prayer addressed for protection and assistance to a friendly supernatural being; a conjuration is no longer a prayer, but a threat to the evil spirits which haunt man, either to prevent them from doing harm or to remove them from the place where they are actually harmful. In the latter case the symbolical and sympathetic element prevails.