Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/167

 Reviews. 1 5 i

The possession of such a collection meant often carrying their life in their hands, for, if such a hook were to be discovered, it would have meant evident and irrefutable proof of a man's heresy, and would bring upon him condign punishment.

Such collections are therefore scarce in Europe, and they arc no less scarce in the Kast. Happily some have survived, and Prof. Gollancz is certainly to be congratulated on having come into the possession of no less than two collections of Syriac charms and conjurations. A Ms. similar to one of those possessed by Prof. Gollancz has found its way to the library of Cambridge, and another is treasured in the British Museum. Out of the four Prof. Gollancz has made one collection. He has published them in the original Syriac, and he has added an English translation with a short introduction. It was not an easy task to translate such charms into readable and intelligible English. Charms are not often written so as to be easily understood. On the contrary, the less they are understood the more powerful and efficacious they are, and, if one can add a large number of names and collect a long string of diseases and make them face one another, and tight together, then the charm's virtue is unimpeachable. Neither demons nor spirits dare stand up against the crushing power of sucli an amulet. No less than ninety-five are contained in this valuable book. Some are mere short adjurations, others are longer formulas of prayers and conjurations akin to the exorcisms found in some ancient Greek Prayer Books ; but no doubt most of them are of great antiquity. Charms have their own history, no less charming than that of fairy tales ; they also travel from coun- try to country and from faith to faith. They will easily submit to slight changes.

It makes very little real difference whether a church saint is substituted for a pagan god, or a Moslem saint takes the place of some gnostic archon. So long as the essence remains the same, the faith of the i)eople supplies the rest. What a goddess has done in the time of paganism, a Christian saint can equally well do, and perhaps better, when Christianity is the ruling power.

In my study, " Two Thousand Years of a Charm against a Ciiild Stealing ^\'itch," ^ I was able to trace the evolution of such

^ folk- Lore, vol. xi., pp. 129-62.