Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/147

 Charm against the Child-stealing Witch. 137

If a charm is to be complete we have thus to expect, first the epical narrative, secondly the symbolical or sympathetic incident, and thirdly the mystical names. Wherever one of these elements is missing we have at once the proof that the charm is not complete, and that it is merely a late re- duced form of the primitive more ample conjuration. That these three elements are interchangeable has already been remarked ; we may find two belonging to one cycle, such as the narrative and the symbolism, whilst the Names belong to a totally different charm. The various conjurations are intimately connected one with the other in that way, for one which is efficacious against one set of illness will, as already stated, be applied to another, merely by modifying the name of the illness. These are the quicksands which we must avoid in our investigation. On the other hand, we must beware of being led astray by the tributaries which mingle their waters with the main stream, viz. the various elements borrowed from different sources and amalgamated in one conjuration or in one charm. We must follow the main stream if we are to retrace the history of the modern charm and to follow up the process of a slow change through a long period of transmission, the stream flowing through the centuries. Just as the proverb is often only the ethical conclusion, the moral of a fable or tale, so do I consider the charm to be the religious resume, the practical moral of a mythical, legendary tale.

I revert now to the Roumanian charms. The last one mentioned by me contains all the three elements, though the first, the historical, is very much curtailed. The sym- bolical is clear, as the Evil Spirit says she is going to steal or to hurt the new-born babe of the Virgin Mary, and as she was protected, so is this young mother to be protected and saved. Her mystical names are also given. In the charm Number II. the names have dropped out, but the fight and the symbolical element has remained, but instead of steal- ing or hurting children, a special form of illness is repre- sented by the Evil Spirit ; whilst the description of the