Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 22, 1911.djvu/138

 1 1 2 Reviews.

and including such well-known names as those of Bullinger and Abraham a Santa Clara. In a footnote to p. 133 Dr. Weinberg refers to Johann Weyer's explanation (1583) of the formula Hax, Pax, Max, Deus adimax. This formula was written, so the book tells us, by an acquaintance of Weyer upon a slice of an apple, and then eaten. Weyer thought that the formula was a cor- ruption of the Latin hoc + ^0 + mo -H Dens adiuvet -\- {i.e. may God help with this apple). Those ignorant of Latin mistook the crosses for the letter x. A somewhat expanded formula was written, according to the same mediaeval authority, upon bread or paper, which was then eaten : O rex gloriae Jesii Christe, vent cum pace in nomine Patris -f max in nomine Filii -f max in nomine Spiritus Sancti -V prax Caspar Melchior Balthasar + prax + max -f- Deus ymax -t- . The formula written upon hosts is Pax 4- max + fax +. Professor Noldeke, of Strassburg, pointed out in the publications of the Berliner Akademie, 1891, that the formula konx onx pax is found in the Arabic tale of the Doctor and the Cook. In connection with this Dr. Weinberg refers to a remedy for healing toothache as employed in Der Allgdu. The sufferer must poke with a clean horseshoe nail in the hollow of the tooth. After that he must go, unseen by any one, to where two roads cross, and scratch with the nail the following words in the ground :

Rex, mex. Hex

Der Zahn soil nimmer hohlen ! When reaching home again, the sufferer must drive the nail into a beam of the house which is never exposed either to the light of the sun or of the moon. On pp. 136 et seq. the same writer has some very interesting notes, taken from mediccval sources, on Waffensegen, i.e. Blessings (amulets) which make people invulner- able ; and on pp. 139 et seq. some notes on Feuersegen, i.e. Bless- ings (amulets) which protect the house against fire. The same amulets protect also pregnant women and people who have " die bbse KrankheitT

This number contains also an interesting collection by Heinrich Weber of Volkslieder, from a single village, Storndorf in Hesse. They are for the most part not of great age ; some, however, date from the early seventeenth century. There are songs referring to the battles of Leipzig and Waterloo, Weissenburg and Sedan.