Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/159

Rh mother of all the evil spirits, "Shiddim," in the world. In the book called The Mystery of the Lord and borrowed thence on "broadsides," which are till now used as an amulet in the room where the child is born, hanging round the walls, we find the following conjuration:—

"The prophet Elijah travelled once on his way and he met Lilith and her host, so he said to her, 'O thou wicked Lilith, where art thou going with thine unclean host?' And she replied, 'My Lord Elijah, I am going to that woman who has given birth to a child, to give her the sleep of death, to take her new-born child, to drink its blood, to suck the marrow of its bones, but to leave its flesh untouched.' Elijah replied and said, 'I conjure thee with a great excommunication that thou be changed into a dumb stone by the will of God.' And Lilith said, 'My Lord, for God's sake remove the excommunication, that I may be able to flee, and I swear by the name of God that I will avoid the roads leading to a woman with a new-born child, and whenever I hear or see my names I will at once depart. And I will tell thee my names, for whenever thou utterest them, neither I nor my host have any power to enter the house of a lying-in woman to harm her. I swear to reveal to thee my names, so that thou shalt be able to write them down and to hang them up in the room where a new-born child is. And these are my names, Satrina, Lilith, Abito, Amizo, Izorpo, Kokos, Odam, Ita, Podo, Eilo, Patrota, Abeko, Kea, Kali, Batna, Talto, and Partasah. Whoever knows these my names and writes them down causes me to run away from the new-born child. Hang, therefore, this amulet up in the room of a lying-in woman.

This amulet is absolutely identical with the Roumanian and Russian versions of the Avestitza type; only Elijah the prophet has taken the place of the saint or saints, and of the angel Michael. The deterrent element which frightens the Evil Spirit away are the mysterious names of the Evil Spirit, which stand revealed. On the other hand, we miss here