Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/284

276 for headaches, etc.; (8) those who make ropes, invoking the beneficent spirits, and put them round themselves or beasts; (9) those who procure impotency by charms (this occurs in the other books); (10) those who have the spirit of a python, that is, those who believe in  (==hazard); (11) those who try to find lost things by means of beans or by other magical uses; (12) those who practise the  on the 1st of May or at the Ascension. There follow certain generalities, and a story of a priest who was punished for giving bread on Good Friday to some people suspected of sacrilege, with the hope that they would not be able to swallow it if they were guilty, and a story of another priest who used a stick bent to a circle for some similar purpose.

The next chapter enacts that the same penance shall be imposed on those who burn "vampires". In a subsequent chapter of the book there is a long discussion about these nasty creatures. It is there asked, "What is to be done when we find a corpse which we believe to be accursed?" ( is the word used; in popular phraseology it means "in hell", but here, probably, that the soul is still bound to the body). Before following this discussion, I will cite from one of the other books the criteria of such a corpse. They stand there under the heading "excommunication", and are stated to be derived from a book in the church of St. Sophia at Salonica. (1), the front parts of his body are preserved. (2) is yellow, and his fingers are shrivelled, (3) Whoever has been excommunicated by a bishop is black. (4) Whoever has been excommunicated by the laws of God is white. (5) If a corpse is found in a tomb in good preservation, but hairless, it may or may not be excommunicated. To discover the truth, it must be dug up and put in a maiden tomb . If after some time it falls to pieces it is all right. If not, it is excommunicate. As to the vampires, the former writer says (again most